Education/News/November 2024/Engaging students with Wikipedia and Wikidata at Hasanuddin University’s Wikimedia Week
Engaging students with Wikipedia and Wikidata at Hasanuddin University’s Wikimedia Week
The Education and Wikidata team of Wikimedia Indonesia (WMID) in collaboration with the Hasanuddin University held Pekan Wikimedia or Wikimedia Week, featuring a series of activities introducing Wikimedia projects through public lectures and workshops for the students. This event occurred over three days, from October 3 to 5, 2024, at Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia.
The main goal of Wikimedia Week is to introduce Wikimedia projects while clarifying common misconceptions about Wikipedia among academics. Additionally, Wikimedia Week serves as a space for students and faculty to make their first edits to Wikipedia and Wikidata through WikiLatih.
The first day's activities began with a public lecture titled “Wikimedia Projects in Education: Wikipedia & Wikidata,” attended by over 200 students in the Prof. Mattulada Auditorium at Hasanuddin University. During this session, participants were provided with knowledge about Wikipedia and the organization behind it, the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as common criticisms and misconceptions surrounding Wikipedia. This lecture also aimed to answer the frequently asked question among students: “Can I cite Wikipedia for my assignments?” In addition to Wikipedia, participants were introduced to another Wikimedia project, Wikidata, including the concept of linked open data.
On the second and third days, participants were also invited to complete data entries about libraries in Wikidata and to start encyclopedia articles on the intangible cultural heritage of South Sulawesi and West Sulawesi in the Indonesian Wikipedia through the workshop (WikiLatih).
One participant of WikiLatih, Reza Aditya Sajidna from the Arabic Literature Study Program, stated that through this activity he understood that Wikimedia projects as universal information platform can also act as a “time machine” for human civilization. Any contribution, no matter how small it is, can be a legacy for future generations.
By organizing this initiative, we hope that students at Hasanuddin University could join as volunteers to advance knowledge, especially concerning local culture in Makassar. The existence of local culture will be more widely known if it is documented online, which is highly feasible if students contribute to Wikimedia projects.