Wikimedia MA User Group/2023

Ahidous video dance, documented by the team in 2023, and used to document the corresponding Wikipedia article.

Reda benkhadra presenting at the "Citizenry and Moroccan cultural heritage" conference at Mohamed VI Museum, Rabat. Topic: digitization of content on collaborative platforms

This page outlines the various projects and activities undertaken by the Wikimedia Morocco User Group in 2023, the group engaged in a range of online and offline initiatives, including editing and writing projects, technical development, conferences, and extensive documentation through photos, audio, and video.

Coordinator: Rachid

General Goals:

Strategic Partnerships

Achievements: Formed 3 new partnerships (1337, British Council, Regional Delegation of Education - Moulay Yacoub), surpassing the target of 2.
Role: Crucial support in Wiki Indaba 2023 and "Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom" program.
Ongoing Collaborations: Continued support from The Reading Network in Morocco and Regional Delegation of Education - El Hajeb Region.

Edits-a-thon Participation

Results: 65 participants across 4 edits-a-thons, exceeding the target of 50.

Contest Participation

Performance: 307 editors in 4 editing contests and 2 photography contests, significantly beyond the target of 100.

Contributions to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons

Total Contributors: 244 (176 from edits-a-thons and editing contests, 68 from photography contests), against a target of 175.
Impact: Enhanced content diversity and community engagement.

Organizers and Leadership

Active Organizers: 19 members leading events, well above the target of 10.

Reading Wikipedia in the classroom (3rd edition)

Scope: Educational institutions in Morocco

Members

Mounir Neddi :Contact person, local coordinator, and trainer.
Abdelilah Jalal: Technical support and program implementation.

Goals

Concrete goal achievement

Trained Teachers
- Total: 413 / Target: 300
  - In-person: 83 / Target: 80
  - Online: 330 / Target: 220
Certified Teachers
- Total: 118
  - Online: 65 / Target: 100
  - In-person: 53 / Target: 50
New Certified Trainers: 0 / Target: 2 (The target of training new certified trainers wasn't met because the Wikimedia Foundation's education team, responsible for this training, suspended the program. We acknowledge this challenge and plan to address it in future editions.)
Teachers Using Wikimedia Projects in Course Plan: 100 / Target: 70
Number of New Volunteers Remaining Active After In-Person Events: 20 / Target: 10 (Active defined as at least 10 edits per month or becoming offline organizers)

Activities and tasks

Video summary of the third edition of RWC Morocco (in Arabic).

Finished

In-person Training Sessions: Successfully conducted four in-person training sessions, along with a final event in Marrakech. These sessions provided intensive training, focusing on improving skills in Wikipedia editing and understanding of information literacy.

Online Training Program: Implemented a comprehensive online training course on the Wiki Learn platform, engaging a significantly higher number of participants than anticipated (participation with 330 teachers engaged in the online course on the Wiki Learning platform, surpassing the expected number of 220).

Development of Training Materials: Transformed and translated existing guides into an interactive and accessible format suitable for online learning.

Participant Engagement and Evaluation: Monitored and evaluated participant engagement, ensuring high-quality learning outcomes and adherence to program standards.

Adoption of New Training Platforms: Transitioned from Facebook to the specialized Wiki Learn platform, enhancing the learning experience and facilitating better quality control and participant engagement.

Graduation and Certification: Awarded digital certificates and badges to successful graduates, providing them with recognized credentials for their professional growth.

Media Coverage: Successfully garnered media attention, with articles published in over 10 media outlets, enhancing the visibility and impact of the program.

Additional Insights and Impact:

Global Reach and Diversity: Expanded participation to non-Arabic speaking countries, illustrating the program's growing international appeal.
Quality Focus: Emphasized content improvement and adaptation, ensuring relevancy in the Arabic and Moroccan context.
Professional Development: Enhanced the professional capabilities of educators, contributing to the overall improvement of media and information literacy in Morocco.
Collaborative Efforts: Fostered partnerships with key educational and governmental institutions, demonstrating the program's collaborative and inclusive approach.

Learnings and Challenges:

Learnings:

1. Effective Digital Transition:

- The transition to the Wiki Learn platform was a significant achievement, providing a more engaging and structured learning environment. This change proved essential in enhancing participant interaction and learning outcomes.

2. Increased Program Reach and Impact:

- The program's success in exceeding its participant targets demonstrated its growing influence and relevance in Morocco's educational sector. This underscores the importance of ongoing promotion and outreach.

3. Certification and Recognition:

- Issuing digital certificates and badges played a key role in recognizing educators' efforts. While the direct impact on professional development is yet to be fully evaluated, these acknowledgments symbolize accomplishment and could enhance the participants' professional profiles.

4. Integration of Wikimedia in Education:

- The notable increase in educators incorporating Wikimedia projects into their courses is a clear indication of the training's effectiveness in promoting the practical application of open-source educational resources.

Challenges:

1. Staffing Instability:

- The unexpected departure of a key project member during a critical period presented significant challenges. This incident highlighted the need for robust contingency planning and the development of a more resilient team structure to mitigate the impact of such unforeseen events.

2. Scheduling and Participant Convenience:

- Aligning the training schedule with participants' availability, especially during busy periods like exams and holidays, was challenging. Future editions may benefit from more flexible scheduling.

3. Training for Trainers Program Suspension:

- The suspension of the trainer training program by the Wikimedia Foundation's education team was a setback. Identifying alternative training strategies or advocating for the program's resumption is critical.

4. Participant Engagement and Retention:

- Despite high registration numbers, maintaining consistent engagement and course completion remains a challenge. Developing strategies to sustain participant interest is crucial for the program's impact.

5. Quality Control and Monitoring:

- Ensuring high-quality training standards and effectively monitoring outcomes was challenging, especially with the increase in participant numbers. Continuous improvement in evaluation methods is vital for training effectiveness.

Technical Challenges:

6. Technical Difficulties with the Wiki Learn Platform:

- Technical issues on the Wiki Learn platform, mainly handled by the Wikimedia technical team, posed significant challenges. Effective collaboration and communication with the technical team were crucial for resolving these issues and ensuring a seamless learning experience for participants.

Conclusion:

The third edition of "Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom" provided significant insights and highlighted various challenges, which are instrumental for the future development of the program. Addressing these challenges and leveraging the learned experiences will be essential for enhancing the program's effectiveness and impact in the educational community. Our commitment to continuous improvement and adaptability is key to sustaining the program's success and relevance.

Technical project

Overview

The Wikimedia Morocco User Group's "WikiTechma" project in 2023 aimed to enhance the group's technical capabilities and ensure the transfer and maintenance of technical knowledge through continuous learning and collaboration. The focus was primarily on developing bots and automating repetitive tasks to improve efficiency and content quality on Wikimedia projects.

Scope and Members

Scope: Covers Wikipedia (arywiki, shiwiki), Wikidata, ary Wiktionary Incubator.

Members :

Mounir Afifi (Contact person)
Zakaria
Hachem
Abdelilah Jalal
Lhoussine AIT TAYFST

Goals

To enhance the quality and quantity of Morocco-related content on arywiki, shiwiki, and Wikidata.
To improve technical aspects for better reader experience.
To support Wikipedia editors by automating routine tasks and enhancing code efficiency.

Contributions and Impact

Increased Editorial Efficiency: Automation led to reduced manual work, allowing editors to focus on more significant contributions.
Enhanced Content Accessibility: Bots developed for Darija and Tachelhit improved content diversity and accessibility.
Training and Skill Development: Emphasis on developing technical skills within the community.

Key Achievements

New Bots: Launched 4 new bots (2 each on arywiki and shiwiki/zghwiki), surpassing the target of 2.
Automated Tasks: Successfully implemented 24+3 (still in development) new automated tasks, exceeding the target of 16.
Content Creation: Added 2555 automated articles on arywiki and 7823 items on Wikidata, significantly surpassing the target figures.
Quality Articles in arywiki: Maintained a 30% quality article rate in arywiki, meeting the set target.

New Bot Operators: Successfully trained 3 new bot operators, surpassing the set target of 2.
New developers of automated tasks: The project trained 4 new developers of automated tasks (including the 3 bot operators), again exceeding the goal of training 2.

Specific Bot Contributions

AmgharBot (Operator: Ideophagous)
- Function: Primarily an admin bot for arywiki.
- Key Tasks: Handles administrative duties including tagging pages for speedy deletion and executing bulk deletions.
- Registration and Activation: Registered in late 2022, it became active in 2023, making it instrumental in efficient content management on arywiki.
Amazigh Bot (Operator: Lhoussine AIT TAYFST)
- Focus: Specializes in maintaining article quality on shiwiki and zghwiki.
- Main Activities: Primarily involved in spelling checks and improving the body of articles, ensuring content accuracy and consistency.
Sa7bot (Operator: bisel91)
- Platform: A Python-based bot designed for arywiki.
- Primary Role: Concentrates on correcting human-related properties and performing thorough fact-checking. This includes adjustments in data such as dates of birth/death and citizenship details.
BotFunast (Operator: AyourAchtouk)
- Operation: Active on shiwiki and zghwiki.
- Contributions: Engaged in article and template creation. Additionally, it plays a vital role in welcoming new editors, fostering a supportive community environment for newcomers.
DarijaBot and PGVBot
- Status: These are older bots, still under active development.
- Functionality: DarijaBot operates on arywiki and Wikidata, while PGVBot is active on arywiki and (until July 2023) on arwiki, contributing to a variety of tasks to enhance the user experience and content quality.

Independent Automated Tasks

Extracting Entries from English Wiktionary: Aimed to compile a list of Moroccan Darija entries from the English Wiktionary for the ary Wiktionary Incubator.
Adding 1000 Automated Items to Wikidata: Focused on uploading data about Moroccan public schools to Wikidata using OpenRefine and QuickStatement.
Statistics: Several statistics tasks were developed to collect data that can be used by the group for tracking, learnings and insights
Search result export: A special task was created to export search results from Wikipedia into an Excel sheet. This can be useful to analyze content manually, such as for linguistic purposes (see research paper below)
Collecting word usage and spelling variations: This special task was created for the research project, to learn how editors candidly choose and spell Moroccan Darija words, which would help understand spelling and word choice tendencies in the community, and standardize spelling

Future Directions:

Extend the automation to additional tasks and languages, broadening the impact across more Wikimedia projects.
Continue refining and developing new bots to further enhance content quality and editorial efficiency.
Foster a growing community of technically skilled contributors, enhancing the overall technical capabilities of the Wikimedia Morocco User Group.
Support communities of small wikis, especially in Africa, by making our bot tasks language and project-agnostic, cloud-based and exportable to different projects and environments

This project represents a significant step towards enhancing the technical capabilities of the Wikimedia Morocco User Group, paving the way for more efficient and diverse contributions to the Wikimedia projects.