2024:Meetups/Wikidata Community in the Middle East and Africa

This meetup delves into how Wikidata drives empowerment and innovation in diverse communities across Africa and the Middle East. Experts present successful case studies, strategies, and initiatives showcasing Wikidata's transformative power in preserving cultural heritage, promoting linguistic diversity, and fostering sustainable development. Emphasizing collaboration, inclusivity, and partnerships, the session aims to inspire greater engagement from stakeholders, paving the way for collaborative efforts to leverage open knowledge for all. This meetup is co-organized by Wikidata Arabic Community and Wiki Wake Up Afrique.

Description

This meetup explores how Wikidata, an open and collaborative knowledge base, catalyzes driving empowerment and innovation in communities across Africa and the Middle East. By centralizing information and fostering collaboration, Wikidata facilitates the preservation of cultural heritage, promotion of linguistic diversity, and advancement of sustainable development within these regions. The discussion encompasses various facets including strategies for broadening Wikidata's reach, empowering local communities through documentation of cultural heritage and marginalized narratives, catalyzing innovation in research and education, community engagement and capacity building, linguistic diversity and representation, impact on education and research, promoting open data and collaboration, as well as addressing challenges and opportunities. Featuring presentations by experts and engaging discussions, this session aims to illuminate how Wikidata can bridge the digital gap and empower diverse communities in Africa and the Middle East. The meetup aims to achieve several objectives: raising awareness and participation in Wikidata among communities in Africa and the Middle East, facilitating knowledge sharing on best practices for utilizing Wikidata in documenting cultural heritage and promoting innovation, building capacity and expertise within local communities, promoting collaboration and partnerships between stakeholders, addressing challenges and barriers hindering Wikidata's utilization, and inspiring innovation and creativity in addressing local challenges. The structure of the meetup includes an introduction by the moderator, panelist presentations, and a moderated discussion with the community.

Program

Houcemeddine Turki: Introduction to Wikidata in the Global South (10 minutes)
Mohammed Kamal-Deen Fuseini: Wikidata in Education Project (10 minutes)
Lane Rasberry: Wikidata Research and Development (10 minutes)
Q&A (5 minutes)
State of the Project: Mus’ab Banat (Jordan, 1 minute), Ali Khalil (Iraq, 1 minute), Yamen Bousrih (Tunisia, 1 minute), Nassima Chahboun (Morocco, 1 minute), Nanour Garabedian (Syria and other countries from MENA, 2 minutes), Ruby D-Brown (Ghana, 1 minute), Anyone from the audience (1 minute per participant).