WikiPodcast Morocco is an audio podcast produced by Wikimedia Morocco User Group. It aims to advocate and raise awareness about the Wikimedia movement in general, with specific deep dives on subjects of interest. Its main audience is Wikimedians from the MENA region, with episodes recorded in different languages including: Arabic, Moroccan Darija and Tachelhit.
The podcast is hosted by Loubna Ait Oumasste, the communications responsible at Wikimedia Morocco UG. For every episode, she is inviting different guests for an online discussion on their area of expertise.
In this first episode, two user group co-founders, Anass Sedrati and Reda Benkhadra, together with Rachid Ourkia, the group coordinator introduce the UG background, goals and activities.
The second episode of the Podcast features two experienced editors, one from Algeria (Mohamed Bachounda), and another from Morocco (Mounir Afifi). They present to the listener the diversity of Wikimedia projects, that go beyond Wikipedia, such as Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
The third episode of Wikipodcast Morocco hosts Mohamed Mokhtari, an experienced editor in the Arabic Wikipedia. Mokhtari relates several aspects of his works, as well as the different challenges and opportunities that he saw during his Wiki time. One of the interesting subjects that he notes, is the complexity of writing about mathematics in Arabic, especially with the different words that Arabic speaking countries decided to use, and the process of coordination and agreement about used symbols and alphabets.
In the fourth episode of the WikiPodcast, Loubna hosts Omar Belghiti Alaoui and Hayat Ahlamine, two members of the user group. Omar and Hayat share their experience as active participants in the Moroccan plastic arts project on Wikipedia. The team's work begins first by searching for reliable sources in specialized books and museums, before writing them to an encyclopedic format and sharing roles to create and develop articles about Moroccan artists in multiple languages.
In the fifth episode of the WikiPodcast, Loubna Ait Oumasste hosts University Professor Rachida Roky, member of the Wikimedia Morocco user group, and executive director of the Reading Network in Morocco. Through this discussion, Ms. Roky shares with the audience several parts of her work in literature, and the interdependence of the latter with Wikimedia projects, which motivated her and the reading network to establish a close partnership with the Moroccan User Group, and to collaborate and organize several joint projects, such as the project "Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom", and “I Volunteer and introduce my country”, which aims to encourage university students to write and edit more about Morocco in various languages.
In the sixth episode of the Wikimedia Morocco podcast, Loubna Ait Oumasste hosts Mounir Afifi, an administrator in the Moroccan Darija Wikipedia project. Through answering various questions, Mounir talks about the history of the Darija and its structure, in addition to challenges that linguists and Wikimedians are working on, about the different ways of writing the language, and the available options. After that, Mounir takes a deep dive in the Darija Wikipedia project, the ways the team is working in it, as well as the challenges related to it as a small Wikipedia, especially in the Moroccan context, which is characterized by multilingualism and the different use of languages according to the situation.
During the seventh episode of the Wikimedia Morocco podcast, Loubna Ait Oumasste hosts Mr. Lhoussine Bentayfaste and Mr. Brahim Essaidi, members of the Wikimedia Morocco Users Group, to talk about Wikipedia projects in Berber (Amazigh) languages. Through the discussion, the listener learns about the methodology, ways of working, the choice of alphabet used for writing, as well as the grounds on which the volunteers base their selection of words in light of the linguistic diversity witnessed by the Amazigh language in Morocco.
In the eighth episode of the WikiPodcast, Loubna Ait Oumasste hosts both Mr. Mounir Neddi, one of the certified trainers of Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom in Morocco, and professor Hayat Ahlamine, a teacher who benefited from this program. During the episode, Mounir explains the objectives of the project and the methodology of working in it, while Hayat shares with us her experience and knowledge gained a year after completing the training.
During the ninth episode of the WikiPodcast, Loubna Ait Oumasste hosts Ms. Fatima Zahra, who is an administrator on the Arabic Wikipedia. Fatima Zahra is the only Moroccan female administrator on the Arabic Wikipedia. In this episode, she narrates to the listener her journey from being a passive reader of the encyclopedia to an administrator, detailing the several stages from which she went. Fatima Zahra explains also the policies and guidelines of the Arabic Wikipedia, and the most important points that contributors must pay attention to in order to develop the encyclopedia in a proper manner.
In the tenth episode of the WikiPodcast, Loubna Ait Oumasste hosts Mr.Adel Nehaoua, an administrator of the Arabic Wikipedia, to talk about his experience as an admin, and the way of working in Wikipedia. Mr. Nehaoua also spoke about the Wiktionary project, as one of Wikipedia's sister projects, in order to highlight the importance of participating in all Wikimedia projects, and to explain how highlighting words and definitions relates to the encyclopedia in general.
In the eleventh episode of the WikiPodcast, Loubna Ait Oumasste hosts Ms. Walaa Abdel Menaem, an administrator of the Arabic Wikipedia, and a member of the Egypt Wikimedians User Group. During the episode, the guest touched on the Wikipedia program at the university and the projects related to it in Egypt, which the group has been organizing for many years. Dr. Walaa also encouraged all Arabic speakers to participate in Wikimedia projects in their language, in order to enrich and develop it, so that it becomes one of the best versions and highlights the value, size, and radiance of the Arabic language at the global level.
In the twelfth episode of the WikiPodcast,Loubna Ait Oumasste hosts Mr. Youssef Ben Haj Yahia (Wiki Indaba Steering Committee - WISCOM), Mr. Rachid Baya (General Secretary, Reading Network in Morocco) and Ms. Zeineb Takouti (Wikimedia Tunisia - Wiki Indaba Communications Officer). The episode highlighted the experiences of organizers/participants in the annual African Wiki Indaba 2023 conference, which was organized this year by the Wikimedia Morocco User Group, at the Dunes d'Or Hotel in Agadir, between 3 and 5 November 2023.
Youssef Ben Haj Yahia
Zeineb Takouti
Rachid Baya
Contact
We are constantly looking for feedback and suggestions, for improvement, topics, and guests. If you have any ideas or comments, do not hesitate to write us at contact@wikimorocco.org. We will make sure to answer you at the earliest convenience.
Loubna Ait Oumasste, the podcast host
Anass Sedrati
Rachid Ourkia
Reda Benkhadra
Mohamed Bachounda
Mounir Afifi
Mohamed Mokhtari
Hayat Ahlamine
Omar Belghiti Alaoui
Rachida Roky
Lhoussine Bentayfaste
Brahim Essaidi
Mounir Neddi
Wikipedia Administrator Icon
Adel Nehaoua
Walaa Abdel Menaem
Youssef Ben Haj Yahia
Zeineb Takouti
Rachid Baya
