“Wikipedia Arabic Day” a Workshop at the BA
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Alexandria—
The BA is organizing a workshop entitled “Wikipedia Arabic Day” on Saturday 30 August 2008. The workshop aims at introducing to Internet users how to contribute to open electronic encyclopedia, to urge the large number of Internet users to participate in writing and editing according to the policies followed in Arabic Wikipedia.
The Arabic Wikipedia is way behind in comparison to its counterparts in other languages, given the large number of Arabic speakers worldwide. The problem lies not only in the limited number of articles written in the Arabic Wikipedia, but also in the limited number of participants in editing, which in turn affects the quality of articles available and the overall effectiveness of the website. Arabic Wikipedia comprises of about 65,000 articles, in comparison to the English Wikipedia which contains about 2.5 million articles, and the Polish Wikipedia of 500,000 articles.
It is worth mentioning that the Fourth Annual Wikimania Conference that was held by Wikipedia at the BA last month, included many discussions among Arabs and Foreigners on how to activate and expand editing in Arabic Wikipedia.