A Year of Impact: Wikimedia Morocco User Group’s 2022 Accomplishments and Plans for 2023

The year 2022 was a year of great accomplishments and growth for Wikimedia Morocco User Group, since its founding in 2015. As a team, we have worked hard to make an impact in our local community and within the wider Wikimedia Movement. Some of the highlights of this year include the successful implementation of the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program, a project on Moroccan painters, international collaborations, media coverage, and the publication of an academic research paper.

Education Program

The Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom program was a major success, with 200 teachers participating and 80 of them graduating. Through this program, our goal was to showcase Wikipedia as a valuable source of knowledge and education. To document our experiences and share our learnings, we created a series of blog articles and also interviewed the teachers to get their insights. We are proud that this work has made a difference in the lives of so many educators and their students.

Moroccan Painters Project

In addition, we launched a project on Moroccan painters. Together with art experts and professors, we researched and wrote articles on various Moroccan painters in Arabic, French, and Moroccan Darija, who were not well represented in the encyclopaedia earlier. We also presented our project to the teachers and students of the Fine Arts School in Casablanca.

Rachidourkia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Global Events and Discussions

Our user group members also had the opportunity to participate in several global events this year, including the Wikimedia Summit 2022 in Berlin, Wikimania event in Cape Town, WikiArabia 2022 in Dubai and WikiIndaba 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda. We shared the importance of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee for the Arabic community and discussed the advancement of the MCDC work with African colleagues at WikiIndaba. A presentation about managing and maintaining a small Wikipedia in Moroccan Arabic was also held at the Wiki Convention Francophone in Paris.

Collaborations and Partnerships

We also secured two strategic partnerships throughout the year. The Reading Network in Morocco and the Regional Delegation of Education in El Hajeb Region both partnered with us, allowing us to reach more people and further our mission of creating, curating, and sharing free and open knowledge in Morocco.

Rachidourkia,Farajiibrahim(CC BY-SA 4.0)

Media Coverage

Our team also made significant efforts to promote our activities and make them known to the Moroccan community and the Wikimedia movement. Through social media ads and press releases, we managed to raise awareness and appreciation of our activities, particularly the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom 2022 program.

Publication of Research Paper

In an effort to better understand the concept of democracy, particularly in the context of digital online communities, two members of our user group recently published a research paper entitled “Are Democratic User Groups More Inclusive?“. The pair presented their findings at the Wiki Workshop 2022, which was held on the sidelines of the Web Conference.

Looking Ahead

Looking ahead to 2023, we plan to expand and diversify our activities, as well as strengthen our partnerships and collaborations both in Morocco and internationally. With the support of our Annual Grant, we’re confident that we can make a lasting impact on the Wikimedia movement. We plan to continue our Education Program, launch a Documentation Project, host a Wiki-Camp/Conference, engage in Communication activities, and organize Writing and Photography Contests as well as Edit-a-thons. 

At Wikimedia Morocco, we are excited for a successful 2023 and look forward to making a positive, lasting impact on the Wikimedia Movement. We believe that by working together, we can make a real difference in the world and create a future where everyone has access to free and open knowledge.

If you would like to learn more about our accomplishments, please visit our final report, linked here. Additionally, if you have any questions or would like to get in touch with us, please feel free to contact us at this link.