Wikimedians of the Levant/Reports/2015/2016 Report

Activities of Wikimedians of the Levant User Group between 5/20/2015 and 5/19/2016

WikiArabia 2016

The highlight of the year was that WM-LEV organized the second annual WikiArabia Conference in Amman, Jordan between March 24 and 26, 2016. (event page) (grant report). The conference was attended by around 70 Wikimedians or enthusiasts in various capacities, about 30 of which were from Jordan, including students at local universities, and the rest from around the Arab World and beyond, in addition to WMF staff. The conference covered various topics, from the technical, such as the bot workshop, to the operational, such as grant requests, as well as showcasing stories of different initiatives.

WikiArabia 2016 Tech Workshop

As a followup to the conference, a 4 hour technical workshop was held in Ramallah on March 30, 2016. This workshop was attended by about 30 Palestinian tech enthusiasts, where they got a chance to learn about Wikimedia tech, and interact with the people behind it. Eight WMF staff/contributors were there to present their work and answer questions.

Education Program in Palestine

Fall 2015

Cell Biology class at Birzeit University (course page):

1 section / 1 professor
19 students
11 articles (6 Arabic, 5 English) created or expanded
over 190k bytes added

Spring 2016

Microbiology class at Birzeit University (course page):
4 sections / 2 professors
70 students
13 articles (10 Arabic, 3 English)
over 322k bytes added

Education Program in Jordan

Spring 2016

led by Mossab Banat (Wikipedia education program team leader at the hashemite university):

Advanced Cell Biology (course page) and Pharmacology (course page) at Hashemite University
2 professors
31 students
21 articles
over 69k bytes added

Wikipedia Editing Workshops and Presentations

On October 3, 2015, a one day Wikipedia editing workshop was held at Birzeit University, in cooperation with 7amleh. 30-40 participated.

On February 16, 2016, a two-hour event was held at An Najah University to introduce Wikiepdia to the students. On May 12, 2016, a two-hour event was held at Kadoorie institute to introduce Wikiepdia to the students.