Wikimedia Japan-Malaysia Friendship ASEAN-Japan 50 Editathon

On 17 December 2023, Wikimedians from Japan and Malaysia held an editathon together for their Wikimedia Japan-Malaysia Friendship project. This editathon was also recognized as one of the events for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation and a staff member of the Japanese Embassy in Malaysia participated in the event.

Before the editathon

Taufik Rosman from Malaysia and Eugene Ormandy from Japan launched the Wikimedia Japan-Malaysia Friendship project in August 2023. Though it has been a few months since the launch, the participants of this project have done a lot of works, such as co-writing blog posts, holding events and creating fabulous logos.

After the second editathon, Taufik and Eugene decided to hold the another one on 17 December 2023 and started to coordinate the event.

First, Eugene negotiated with Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) and was successful in getting them to cooperate with the event. Actually, TUFS have held the Malaysia themed editathon in 2022.

Malaysia themed editathon at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Then, Taufik wanted to continue the editathon for the 2nd edition in 2023 to maintain the relationship with the Japanese Wikimedians and also the Embassy of Japan in Malaysia. He saw in the embassy’s website that this year Japan is commemorating its 50th anniversary with ASEAN, a multistate union of Southeast Asian countries. Similar to last year’s event, an application was needed to get the credentials to use the Japan-ASEAN 50 logo. With that, we organised it in International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) for this year with the help from Ahmad Ali Karim, a fellow Wikimedian. We also informed the Embassy of Japan in Malaysia to give a speech for the event.

Wonderful Editathon!

We started the events separately and sometimes gathered by Zoom.

In Japan

Japanese Wikimedians gathered at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. From 13:00 (JST), Eugene Ormandy gave a lecture for the beginners. Some rules of Wikipedia, such as five pillars and policies were explained and Eugene showed them how to create sandbox or edit hyperlink. Then, the participants focused on editing the articles.

Sometimes they talked about the Wikimedia Movement in Malaysia and Bali. Eugene shared the Diff posts, which introduce the activities of Taufik Rosman from Malaysia and Carma Citrawati from Bali.

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In Malaysia

Malaysian participants gathered in IIUM around 13:00 UTC+8 with local Wikimedians and IIUM students. From there, Taufik gave a brief introduction to the participants about the Wikimedia movement and Wikipedia before we connect with our counterparts in Japan via Zoom.

Gathering online

At 14:45 (JST), Wikimedians from both sides gathered by Zoom.

First, Eugene Ormandy introduced the Wikimedia Japan-Malaysia Friendship project and the Wikimedia Movement in Japan. Eugene pointed out that there were a lot of Wikipedia editathons in Japan, but few events focused on the Wikimedia projects other than Wikipedia. Then, Taufik Rosman presented the Wikimedia Movement in Malaysia. Taufik introduced various events, such as WikiGap, WikiSelera and WikiSihat.

Finally, Kaoru Nakajima from the Japanese Embassy in Malaysia gave a speech for the participants. Nakajima-san introduced the bilateral relations between Japan and Malaysia and welcomed that this collaborative Wikipedia event strengthen the friendship between the two countries.

In Japan

After the online gathering, Japanese Wikimedians started editing articles again. Besides the editing, they sometimes discussed how to use Wikimedia projects in the classroom of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS). We hope the collaboration between TUFS and Wikimedians to be strengthened.

In Malaysia

After the online gathering. Ali taught the participants on the basic of editing Wikipedia and how to use the translation tool in Malay Wikipedia. We decided to translate Japanese-related articles from English Wikipedia to Malay Wikipedia.

Gathering online again

At 16:15 (JST), Wikimedians from the two countries gathered again and introduced the articles they edited. They also shared their interests or problems they faced. The participants listened with great interest to the stories of Wikimedians from other countries. At the meeting, Junko Nakayama, a staff member of Wikimedia Foundation supported Japanese Wikimedians as a translator.

In Japan

After the second online gathering, the event in Japan was finished. All the participants enjoyed the event and hoped to collaborate more. Then, some of the them had a dinner together and exchanged their opinions about Wikimedia events. The conversation was so exciting that every Wikimedian forgot to take a picture of their dinner!

In Malaysia

After the second online gathering, we continued for a while to complete the event. Afterwards, we took a group picture to commemorate the successful event.

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to all the participants and institutions, such as ASEAN, the Japanese Embassy in Malaysia, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), TUFS Field Science Commons (TUFiSCo), International Islamic University Malaysia and Wikimedia Foundation.