Wikipedia Education Program MENA

The Wikimedia MENA Global Education Program is a project designed to increase and improve Arabic Wikipedia content by engaging universities, students, and community groups in the Wikipedia project. Ultimately, the Global Education Program will develop a model on how to systematically improve articles of a specific topic area by encouraging and enabling subject-matter experts who speak and write in Arabic to contribute to Wikipedia.

Cairo, Egypt Wikimedia Meetup

State of Arabic.Source-Hattery Labs

Students at Cairo University

The initiative will be divided in two phases: The initial phase ("Planning Phase") is designed to reach out to institutions with a focus on the Global Education Program, to build face-to-face relationships with these institutions and to enter into a two-way dialogue about how to improve the quality of Wikipedia articles on growing the Arabic Wikipedia. The objective of the second ("Pilot Phase") will be to execute a pilot of the Global Education Program-MENA by engaging with 2-5 classrooms in participating in the editing of Arabic Wikipedia.

Strategic Overview

The Wikimedia Global Education Program Middle East and North Africa initiative aims to increase the breadth and depth of articles on the Arabic Wikipedia. By connecting with local experts, universities and student groups in the region, the Wikimedia team hopes to bring new forms of contributions to Arabic Wikipedia.

• Opportunities in MENA
• Themes in MENA research
• FAQ's

Planning Phase

MENA Trip Report

This overview is the first report regarding planning and research for the MENA work, with the project culminating at the end of November 2011 with a more detailed set of recommendations.

Wikimedia Foundation Report for Middle East and North Africa Trip

Agenda

MENA Education Program Kick-off Trip Agenda

Main Outreach Resources

• MENA Region Contact List
• WMF Templates for Letters to Contact Professors, Campus Ambassadors, etc.)
• Interview Template for Notes
• WMF Interview Questions for Stakeholders

Steps

1. Get an overview of the university landscape of Egypt, Qatar and Jordan by meeting with professors, students and local partners
2. Understand and listen: meet with local Wikipedians and contributors through the Arabic Convening and document the outcome (which questions were asked, which topics discussed, were the subject matter experts interested in improving article quality)
3. Draft email/letters to select institutions, connect with local counterparts and WMF communications department
4. Identify appropriate recipients at select institutions and send letter
5. Evaluate the outcome and plan the travel
6. Meet with institutions
7. Evaluate and document the outcome

Project Resources

• Project Team
• Communications Corner-Newsletters, Press Releases, Blogs, News Articles about MENA Program for Wikimedia
• Helpful Statistics for the MENA Region
• Events, Conferences and Regional Opportunities
• Toolkit to Host a Global Education Program Workshop in Your Area
• Organizations with Overlapping Missions in the MENA Region
• Bookshelf Materials

Phase I: Research

• Rough Notes (Internal/Office)

Phase II: Target Groups, M&A

• Target groups
• Measuring success

Meeting Notes: Aug-Sept. 2011

• Meeting Notes for Global Education Program in Egypt, Qatar, Jordan

Agendas

• Agenda for Trip in October 2011 (October 2011)

MENA Notes and Additional Regional Research

• Notes About Mobile Use in MENA