CEE/Newsletter/Newsroom/The First Central Asian Wikiconference through the eyes of a Wikimedian from Ukraine
- By: Mariana Senkiv
What motivated me the most to take part in this conference was the fact that there is a significant Crimean Tatar diaspora in Uzbekistan. I prepared a presentation on the development of the Crimean Tatar Wikipedia and the efforts of Wikimedia Ukraine in this direction and gave a lightning talk. I was also pleased to share best practices of Wikimedia Ukraine during some sessions, in particular, for attracting the scientific community in Ukraine to Wiki projects (I got the impression that the participants found it interesting).
Based on the sessions from representatives of Central Asian Wikicommunities, I came to conclusions about some common challenges that we and they face within Wikimedia, such as the lack of active patrollers and administrators in Wikipedia and other Wiki projects, the fight against vandalism, and the development of communities in small language chapters.
I would highlight a few sessions that were very useful for me:
- Armen Mirzoyan (Wikimedian from Armenia) - "Beyond Wikimedia grants: unlocking new funding sources for your Wiki ideas"
- Asaf Bartov (Wikimedia Foundation) - "Five common mistakes already made by others, so you don't have to!."
- Amir E. Aharoni (Wikimedia Foundation) - "Lightning presentation of useful obscure Wiki features", during which the speaker noted the Special pages tab in Wikipedia, which is very functional, but rarely paid attention to.
I wrote notes from some of the sessions on this page, and also translated main ideas from some freely available slides into Ukrainian.
During the conference, I came up with certain ideas for cooperation, as well as initiatives that I would like to implement in Ukraine. I liked the idea of involving young people in editing Wikipedia through the development of Wikiclubs (this is particularly common in Uzbekistan, where the Wikimedia community is quite young), as well as the idea of organizing seminars on digital literacy and using technology to digitize traditions. By the way, the school where the conference was held also has its own Wikiclub.
User Batyrbek Alimzhanov from Kazakhstan kindly offered me cooperation in organizing the Wiki Loves Ramadan contest next year. And during the Wiki Women lunch, we decided to create a chat for Wiki Women of Central Asia and I joined it too. I also told about the new initiative group Wiki Women* Task Force. Later, I invited user Panpanchik from Uzbekistan to a meeting with Ukrainian Wiki Women — we met and discussed many interesting issues related to the Wiki movement in our communities. I also invited user Colibri Last to hold a webinar for the Ukrainian Wiki community on digital security and I hope this will happen soon.
I discussed interesting ideas with some of the participants. For example, with the representative of Wikimedia Israel and Wikimedia Venezuela Maor Malul, who studies the language chapters of Wikipedia of indigenous peoples and national minorities, for example, the Wayuu community. We discussed the challenges and prospects for the Crimean Tatar Wikipedia.
I also met Amir E. Aharoni and we discussed the problems of automatic translation into the Crimean Tatar language in Wikipedia.
It was wonderful to meet in person user Nurtenge from Kazakhstan, who often joins Ukrainian Wiki campaigns.
In general, my impressions of the conference were very positive. Organizationally, everything was at a fairly high level. I communicated exclusively in English and most of the participants understood me. This conference became a space for intercultural dialogue for me. I noticed how representatives of Central Asian Wiki communities preserve their cultural heritage (I especially liked the Uzbek dances and songs), and this inspired me to similar initiatives in Ukraine. The city of Tashkent amazed me with its cultural diversity and friendliness of its people. Very valuable for me was a visit to the monument to Taras Shevchenko, famous Ukrainian poet and the Roman Catholic church, where the service was conducted in Ukrainian, in my free time from the conference. I also discussed possible cooperation with the first secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Uzbekistan, Yusuf Kurkchi, who also shared with me information about the Crimean Tatar community in Tashkent.
So, from the Central Asian WikiCon, I brought not only souvenirs and notes, but also a feeling that the Wikimedia movement really unites and the Wiki communities of Central Asia are really much closer to us than I previously thought.