News

Author: Samir Elsharbaty

Community digest: Writing about Islam in Hebrew; GLAM activity kicks off in Indonesia; news in brief

Writing about Islam in Hebrew: Dar AsSalam Editors Last January, Wikimedia communities around the world celebrated Wikipedia’s seventeenth birthday—and Wikimedia Israel joined in. Held at the IBM office in Tel Aviv, nearly 60 Wikimedians attended, including a group of Palestinian editors from the Dar AsSalam Islamic Center (meaning House of Peace) in Kafr Qara, Haifa….

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Farhad Fatkullin named Wikimedian of the Year for 2018

In the closing ceremony of this year’s Wikimania, held in Cape Town, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced Farhad Fatkullin as the Wikimedian of the year for 2018. Fatkullin was selected for his efforts in support of the minority language communities in Russia. “Farhad is energetically community organizing among Russia’s minority language communities,” said Wales, “going far and wide beyond his….

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Community digest: Virtual exhibitions help make Estonian artworks accessible to everyone; news in brief

While Estonian museums hold nearly nine million items, only 3.5% of them are displayed in exhibitions. The case isn’t significantly different in other countries: museums have a limited display space and can only open up a fraction of their collections to the public at some occasions. Much of the preserved items may even never leave….

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The more you contribute to Wikipedia, the more knowledge you gain: Ted Yoo

It takes years of effort to find yourself on the list of Wikipedia’s most prolific contributors. We talked to Ted Yoo, who has made 300,000 edits on the Korean Wikipedia, to learn about the motivation that has kept him actively editing for so long.

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The stories behind this year’s award-winning photographs from Wiki Loves Africa

Late last year, photographers from around the world were invited to share their photos of people at work on the African continent. Over 18,000 were submitted. Here are the winners.

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Community digest: On Wikipedia, bridges across cultures are connecting Latin America with North Africa and the Middle East; news in brief

Bridges across Cultures is a recent and new writing competition on Wikipedia that gathered Wikipedians from Latin America with the Middle East and North Africa regions. In addition, this week's news in brief includes updates about the Foundation's community engagement insights, Wikimania, Wikimedia conference, and more.

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Community digest: Conversations with Wikimedia women; Arabic Wikinews and Global Voices collaboration; news in brief

The Wikimedia Foundation’s Community Engagement department is hosting a series of conversations about women in the Wikimedia movement, a collaboration between the Arabic Wikinews community and Global Voices Lingua to support Arabic digital content, in addition to other updates in brief from around the globe.

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In Egypt, Her Story uses women’s voices and Wikipedia to educate about gender violence

For as long as the pyramids have been standing, the contributions of women to history have been undervalued and underrepresented. But today, there is a movement afoot in the land of the pharaohs—one that aims to bring those stories to the world's largest encyclopedia.

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Bringing Myanmar to the world: Kyi Phyo Htet

Kyi Phyo Htet had some free time and passion for the Myanmar Unicode system. He's invested them in making tens of thousands of Wikipedia edits and writing over a thousand articles.

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Community digest: Mexico, sports, and gender diversity; Odisha adopts free licenses; Wikiquote in the hospital; news in brief

Mexican Wikipedians help increase gender diversity in Wikipedia’s sports content, Odisha adopts Creative Commons licenses to promote the values of transparency and accessibility, Wikiquote at the hospital, and more stories from around the world in brief.

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