Grants:TPS/عباد ديرانية/Wikimania/2017/Report

Welcome back from Wikimania 2017!

Participant

Arabic Wikipedia

Outcome

Option 1: Shared Experience: What is one way you shared something from your experience with your community (either locally or globally), after the event?

As in Previous Wikimanias I have been to, one of the best things about the experience to me is sharing it with others. I do so in several ways. I did publish two blog posts (part one and part two) detailing my experience at the conference, which received over 200 views. I did also write a small report on my home-wiki (a habit that I have started four years ago) about Wikimania 2017, focusing on activities and/or accomplishments within the conference that concerned the Arabic-speaking community. On a more practical level, I used my time at the conference to make connections and plan for collaborations based on my position as a representative and Chief Coordinator of a user group, Wikimedia Levant. For example, I got in touch with people interested in donating pictures from our region, resulting in bringing Wiki Loves Monuments 2017 to three countries in the Levant, as well as planning a collaborative project with Wikimedia communities in Latin America, which is now planned to launch in October as the MENA Latin contest.

Connections

Connections are, to me, the most awesome part of being at Wikimania. Unlike previous years, I was fairly successful in making both short and long term connections with lots of fellow Wikimedians from all over the world. I was able to engage much more with people, being a volunteer at the registration/help desk for the first few days, as well as an active attendant of the five days of the conference. The learning days were particularly helpful to me to engage in extensive and very helpful conversations with people who have much deeper experience than me in organizational work (which I am now responsible for with my own user group). I also got to know so many awesome people at other events, especially during the Editathon for Bassel. Some of the strongest bonds I have made were with Smauel (a fellow Strategy Coordinator from Ivory Coast), Farkhad (my new Russian best friend), and Kevin (a pretty nice roommate).

Anything else

For me, representing my newly founded user group, Wikimedia Levant, was one of the most important parts about Wikimania 2017's experience, especially that I have been freshly elected Chief Coordinator of the group. Below are some photos of our space at the Community Village, including a high-quality poster about our activities that I have had spent the last hours before my flight to exhaustively complete (with the aid of my Animation student brother) and print on my own account.