When Benoit Rochon organized his first event for Wikipedia, he didn’t anticipate the arrival of one unwelcome guest. Rochon had organized a Wikimedia Commons photo event on August 28th of 2011 in order to illustrate Wikipedia articles about Montreal. However, it was on this same day that Hurricane Irene hit Montreal.

“Irene,” Rochon laughed, “I’ll remember that name all my life.” Despite the onset of the hurricane, 110 tenacious participants of the anticipated 300 arrived. “People were running in the rain, in the hurricane by car, some by walk, and just to pick up pictures.” Rochon said. “People are courageous, honestly, they were crazy. [M]ost of them never edited [Wikipedia before] and they just show up and a hurricane was there.”

The event resulted in 5700 uploads to the French Wikipedia. And, while Hurricane Irene may have threatened to destroy his event, it did not quash his enthusiasm. In many ways, the event was a success for Rochon, who hopes to expose Wikipedia to more Quebecers.

Rochon explained that he wants “to make French-Canadians shine on the French Wikipedia, because French Wikipedia is for France, or Switzerland, Belgium, and French-Canadians are a little bit forgotten in there. I want French-Canadians [to be] more known.”

“[French Canadians] speak traditional French,” he said. “And we represent 23 percent of the population in Canada.” But, despite representing nearly a quarter of Canada’s population, Rochon said, “[we] are forgotten, a little bit.”

And yet for Rochon, the beauty of Wikipedia is its unique ability to transcend the barriers presented by language.“I feel like I’m doing something great on Wikipedia,” he said. “It’s free to read, it’s free to write, and it’s the world’s knowledge in one website in 250 languages. I mean, tell me another website who is like Wikipedia and this is what people should care about?”

Profile by Zoe Bernard, Communications Intern
Interview by Victor Grigas, Visual Storyteller

Throughout the Arab Spring in 2011, Wikipedia served as a reliable source of information for up to date information about the protests occurring in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt. Protesters uploaded pictures of the events onto Wikimedia Commons, while many users outside of the affected countries updated the related articles on Wikipedia to manage the influx of information coming out everyday.

For Tunisian Wikipedian Salah Almhamdi, the Arab Spring made him more aware of Wikipedia’s online presence and its ability to provide a cooperative, open-source experience.

Almhamdi first learned about Wikipedia as a student in 2003, when he would use the online encyclopedia for research. A few years later, he began editing articles. It wasn’t until the Arab Spring, however, that he took a more active role as an editor.

“After the Arab Spring, and during it, I started the article of Wael Ghonim,” said Almhamdi. “He’s the Googler, the Egyptian visionary and activist.”

Almhamdi credits Wikipedia for being one of the few safe havens online, where users could engage in political discourse without the threat of government interference in pre-revolution Tunisia. “The government doesn’t track the first one who edited the website, and so sometimes it’s semi-hidden,” explained Almhamdi.

He offered his reasoning as to why the Arab Spring sparked his interest in writing more articles on Wikipedia. He explained the difficulty in discussing political issues openly prior to the Revolution in Tunisia. “We used to follow the news of the Middle East and the other regions and to give our opinions on it,” said Almhamdi, “But we didn’t follow our domestic issues, related to politics, because it was risky at the time.” He added, “I’m more politicized now, actually. It’s a general trend in the region.”

In addition to serving as a source for information, Almhamdi described how Wikipedia’s open-source platform can be used as a model for creating a more transparent government in post-revolution Tunisia. “In making the societies more open, people will have more open mentalities and will have more information and that will have an effect on society and on government also,” said Almhamdi.

“There is a collaborative wiki website about the constitution because now we are writing the constitution,” he added. “so anyone can for example, a citizen can have a voice and say what does he want to see in the constitution.”

Profile by Jawad Qadir, Communications intern
Interview by Victor Grigas, Visual Storyteller

“Volunteering has always been important to me,” said 22-year old Wikipedian Q Miceli. “I believe volunteering generates good karma because it benefits more than just myself.”

Miceli, who hails from Byram, New Jersey, began her journey on Wikipedia when she researched a “tree of life” project for her 9th grade biology class. As time went on, she found herself becoming an active contributor and editor, most notably during her years at Princeton University, where she studied religion and was a Wikipedia campus ambassador, organizing and hosting the school’s first Wikipedia edit-a-thon.

“The purpose of an edit-a-thon is to educate new users about how to navigate Wikipedia and how to write a good article,” she explained. “It’s also to increase the amount of articles on Wikipedia or to make them better, fix links, and do various other types of clean up.”

Two years ago, Miceli decided to become vegan in order to put into practice the mantra of “do less harm.” As she started down the path, she quickly found that Wikipedia was an indispensable ally.

“Using Wikipedia has often helped me figure out the source of foods that I’m eating,” she explains. “For example, I learned about quinoa on Wikipedia. Since I’m gluten intolerant, I found quinoa to be a godsend because it’s a gluten free grain—actually it’s from the goosefoot plant so it’s a grass—I learned that on Wikipedia.”

As an avid baker, Miceli dreams of one day opening her own vegan, gluten-free bakery. She also contributes to many Wikipedia articles on baking, which she hopes will be useful to other interested in the craft.

“Writing about baking affects the greater good because everyone needs to eat and bread is the staff of life,” she explains. “I have found Wikipedia articles explaining the science behind baking better than many cookbooks! I’m also able to learn about the cultural aspect of what I’m eating with Wikipedia. Ultimately, I get to write about what I’m passionate about and I get to educate other people about it. Hopefully someone can use some of that knowledge to do good things where they are.”

Profile by Darrin Fox, Communications intern
Interview by Victor Grigas, Visual Storyteller

For Wikimedian David Shankbone, contributing to a Wikipedia article isn’t just about the words, it’s about the complete picture. Although he does edit text, his primary contribution is his photos, which illustrate over five thousand articles on Wikipedia.

“People are supposed to be able to have access to knowledge and that’s not just written text,” he said. “So you should be able to go to an article and not only be able to read about something, you should also be able to see it, you should also be able to hear it and you should also be able to watch it. That should be the end goal of any article on Wikipedia.”

Shankbone’s first contributions to Wikipedia were during law school. He couldn’t afford textbooks and noticed fellow students were relying on Wikipedia for summaries of legal cases. At that point he took his education outside of the classroom, and as he noted, “I started editing the caseloads on Wikipedia, and I began photographing and meeting very famous lawyers for Wikipedia.”

After law school he first started to contribute his photos to Wikipedia, but it wasn’t until the implementation of the Creative Commons license that he began to take his photographic contributions more seriously.

Shankbone explains that Wikipedians started enforcing the Creative Commons license, which meant copyright images were being removed, returning some articles back to their image-free state.

So Shankbone went out with his 2.3 megapixel point and shoot and started to capture images that he could contribute to Wikipedia under the Creative Commons license. At first he wasn’t focused on the technical aspects of the photos he took, “When I started to shoot it was more about the experience of showing up and taking the photographs than it was about the actual product.” But over the years, he concentrated on learning from the professionals he was shooting next to, and Warhol photographer Billy Name became a mentor. “I have some bad stuff from the early days, but I feel like over the years I really improved, and I’m proud of the work that I put out.”

In addition to contributing to Wikipedia, he is also an accredited reporter for English Wikinews, a free-content news source wiki. “I felt compelled to contribute to it cause I was already meeting people that were notable and taking their photographs, and I also sort of wanted to start just asking them questions,” he said. Shankbone has contributed forty articles to Wikinews on a variety of topics and he has interviewed some notable figures including a president of Israel, three Republican presidential candidates and Al Sharpton.

According to Shankbone, his contributions are about leaving a legacy. “I do have the desire to do something that outlives myself and something that somehow betters the world, at least more than I found it,” he explained.

Shankbone credits Wikipedia with providing him the platform to pass on his knowledge. “People should care about Wikipedia because it is the only way for you to contribute your knowledge and to actually examine reality. It used to be that people, unless they were a reporter, were just passive consumers of information, whereas Wikipedia teaches you to critically think about things.”

Profile by Alice Roberts, Communications Intern
Interview by Victor Grigas, Visual Storyteller

Ganesh Paudel, a journalist from Nepal, began contributing to English Wikipedia in 2004 as a way to disseminate accurate information about the politics in his country. After discovering that Wikipedia was available in his own language, he realized the immense potential that the online encyclopedia has for developing content for languages that are underrepresented online.

Beginning with an entry on his village, Paudel aimed at increasing the amount of content available in Nepalese Wikipedia, which had 2,500 articles at the time he started. “When I joined, I thought many things, many topics are lacking there, so I didn’t know from where they start,” said Paudel. “So I just started from making introduction about many places and villages of my country.”

In a country as diverse as Nepal, Paudel had the challenge of creating and overseeing content in multiple languages. He explained that such material online would otherwise be sorely missed without Wikipedia. “There are more than 120 living languages,” he said, “So if a very small user base for a language can find their content in any online or Internet site, then they are very happy and that helps to develop their culture and their many things and it helps them to introduce themselves to the rest of the world.”

Paudel credits the open and collaborative nature at the heart of Wikipedia for being the source of increased content in Nepalese. “The most beautiful thing of Wikipedia is it is open source and anybody can use and reuse the content,” he said. “I found many Wikipedians are interested in writing about their own stories and their surroundings and the things of their interest.”

Given his background as a journalist, Paudel originally struggled with the thought of collaborating with other users, instead opting to write complete articles on his own. “I just focused to write full articles,” he explained. “But, afterwards, I learned that one person can’t write a full article. The editing is always open in Wikipedia, so after that I just started with an intro, and many people began to contribute on it.”

Paudel hopes that the growth of the Nepalese Wikipedia can be recreated with other minority languages of Nepal. Already, Paudel has overseen the creation of Wikipedia for three additional languages spoken in the country.

“There are also nearly eight languages on pipeline that are in incubation and the communities are interested to bring out those languages from incubation, so long live Wikipedia!” he exclaimed.

Profile by Darrin Fox, Communications Intern, Wikimedia Foundation
Interview by Victor Grigas, Visual Storyteller, Wikimedia Foundation 

Contributing to Wikipedia is more than just editing for Srikeit Tadepalli and Noopur Raval, it’s about giving back by spreading the word about the movement. Although, Tadepalli and Raval are active editors, they primarily focus their efforts on community outreach within India.

Tadepalli began editing Wikipedia in 2005 while still in high school. His first entry was deleted as a copyright violation, but he was not deterred and he applied himself to understand Wikipedia’s guidelines and principles. Within the year, he became an administrator and quickly took to behind-the-scenes work, resolving disputes and fighting vandals.

He credits Wikipedia with helping him get into university. “I was given admission on a special merit, based on my Wikipedia contributions,” he said. He also noted that he was able to complete his MBA, which he said he “could have never dreamed of doing, considering my academic record before, so Wikipedia has saved my career.”

Already friends with Tadepalli before becoming a Wikipedian, Raval joined the movement as a “result of one of [Tadepalli's] outreach programs,” she explained. Raval is a PhD student in cinema studies. She attended a Wikipedia meet-up with Tadepalli in 2007, but didn’t start contributing until 2011. “GLAM was [my] entry back into Wikipedia, but then I started editing a lot as well,” she said. As part of GLAM, or Galleries Libraries Archives Museums, Raval has “a partnership with the National Crafts Museum in New Delhi,” where she works alongside museum staff editing articles about art objects and folk art of India in both Hindi and English.

Srikeit and Noopur at Wikimania 2012

In addition to GLAM, her most treasured contribution to Wikipedia is an article on the Kanchipuram Sari, which turned out to be a “personal journey,” explained Raval. “I started discovering which villages make it, how do they make [it], from which I jumped to the problems that the Kanchipuram Sari industry is facing.” Both Raval and Tadepalli credit Wikipedia with helping them learn more about their country and culture.

For the two Wikimedians, outreach comes in many different forms. From wearing a Wikipedia T-shirt to organizing a campus-wide meet-up, they have managed to get a lot of young Indians involved and contributing. Although each outreach session doesn’t provide a 100 percent retention rate, every new editor makes a difference. “A lot of them may not be receptive, but there is always the success rate. If you have a talk [with] 50 people and maybe 10 people will remember what you said, and 4 people might just come back. So it’s for those 4 people that we do stuff,” said Tadepalli.

Closing the gender gap and the knowledge gap related to Indian culture are the primary goals of their outreach. “This is the perfect time when people are going to be using Wikipedia to find out more about everything relating to India and the world. It’s about covering those tiny loopholes and gaps which have not been touched yet,” explained Raval, “If you aren’t representing something or writing about something, it probably means that it’s not noteworthy enough, which is not true.”

“Indians by themselves are represented as a minority in the Wikipedia community. Women are also a small, even smaller representative section. So I think it is very important for women to come in and have their voices heard as well. Because we need a balance on Wikipedia,” said Tadepalli.

Pointing to the famous Wikipedia globe logo of interlocking puzzle pieces, Tadepalli siad, “Each of us holds one puzzle piece from our part of information, we put it together and it grows, but we can never have all the puzzle pieces together, because all the information in the world continues to be generated and you can never have all of it together.” He said it is their social obligation to add their piece of the puzzle to Wikipedia.

For Tadepalli and Raval, “Wikipedia’s mission is to ensure the sum of all human knowledge is accessible freely to every single person on the planet. And this mission, although it seems large and unrealistic, Wikipedia is probably the closest anyone has ever gotten to realizing it.”

Profile by Alice Roberts, Communications Intern
Interviews by Aaron Muszalski and Dan McSwain

Global Journal recently announced its list of top 100 global NGOs, ranking the Wikimedia Foundation #2 overall (#1 for Education and Innovation). Global Journal is a Geneva-based publication focusing on issues facing global businesses, NGOs, and public sector workers.

The Journal wrote that the Foundation, “represents a path-breaking example of what an NGO can achieve in the Internet era. Working with relatively meagre resources and committed to a funding model based on mass private donations as opposed to large institutional grants, the organization continues, through an innovative application of new technologies, to have a deep and abiding impact on the lives of millions around the world.”

The Journal also noted that Wikipedia is localized in 285 languages and it praised the commitment we’ve made to expanding access to those Wikipedias, particularly in developing countries.

Global Journal had ranked us at the top of the list last year, but that honor went to BRAC, the Bangladeshi development organization and the largest NGO in the world, with over 100,000 employees, 70 percent of whom are women.

Our hearty congratulations to BRAC and our thanks to Global Journal for recognizing the Wikimedia Foundation. This recognition underscores the hard work of our global volunteer community of 100,000 active contributors, whose dedication makes Wikipedia and its sister sites successful.

Lisa Gruwell, Deputy Chief Revenue Officer

David Corral Gadea’s photo of the Roman Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain, Wikimedia Commons POTD for 22 January 2012.

As an active contributor to Wikimedia Commons, Spaniard David Corral Gadea understands the advantages of taking part in a community of fellow photo enthusiasts. For him, the project serves as a tool for sharing the wonders of his own culture and history with the rest of the world.

Although he is not a photographer by trade, Gadea has been able to utilize his skills in his work as a graphic designer and a web designer. He explained that his parents introduced him to the world of photography, as they took an interest in the process of capturing and collecting images as amateurs. However, he attributes his growing interest in photography to the encouragement of his partner, who gave him the confidence to share his photos with the world. “It was my partner who has been encouraging me to introduce my photos to competitions and enhance that facet of my creativity,” said Gadea. “I think she made a good point because it hasn’t been going badly.”

Since publicly displaying his images on Commons, Gadea has had personal success within the larger community. Not only has his image of the Roman Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain, been chosen as the Commons Photo of the Day, but it has also been awarded second prize in the worldwide Wiki Loves Monuments photo competition. To capture the image, Gadea took advantage of a family vacation. “I have been fortunate to be in interesting places, while always having my camera with me,” he said.

“The day I took this photograph there was a spectacular blue sky. It was a beautiful day of summer with good weather and we had a fantastic night wandering around the old town, taking pictures and enjoying the friendliness of the people of Segovia,” he said.

Gadea also explained how he has always been drawn to images with an epic quality about them, which has greatly influenced his own work. In his Aqueduct photo, Gadea utilized a low angle to create a larger-than-life quality, while still focusing on the beauty of the natural world around him. “I have always been struck by the pictures that are out of the norm, spectacular photographs that take you to cry, WOW!” he explained.

Gadea expressed his surprise upon learning of his placing in the Wiki Loves Monuments competition. He added that he hopes similar competitions will inspire more amateur photographers to contribute to Commons and Wikipedia.

“It was a pleasant surprise to discover that my picture had been awarded,” he said. “I am very proud that my contribution has helped bring attention once again to an emblematic monument as the Aqueduct of Segovia. I warmly thank the effort and work of each and every one of the people who have made and will enable these projects and many others that will do so in the future.”

Jawad Qadir, Communications Intern

(This is a guest post by User:Mono.)

Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2011

Round 1 of the seventh annual Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year contest began on January 16, 2013. Wikimedians are invited to help select the most compelling image from the freely-licensed database from 2012. All 988 images that reached Featured Picture status in 2012 are in the running.

As a volunteer-led contest, Picture of the Year is run by an organizing committee of Wikimedians. Since its inception in 2006, thousands of photos from all over the world have been selected as Featured Pictures, and all of them are free for anyone in the world to reuse, remix and share. Volunteers like Rillke prepared the voting script and interface, while others like Beria Lima and Miya worked to compile the contest galleries and translate contest materials.

The first round of votes will conclude January 30, 2013 at 11:59PM UTC, and the top photo in each category in addition to the top ten photos across the board will advance to Round 2 of the competition. We encourage Wikimedians from all backgrounds and parts of the world to join our appreciation of some of the finest images on Wikimedia Commons. If you created an account before January 1, 2013 and have made at least 75 edits to any Wikimedia project, then you’re eligible to vote for your favorite pictures.

The Picture of the Year Contest is just as much about celebrating talented photographers and beautiful images as it is about celebrating those who have contributed to the cultural commons and have inspired more people to do the same. If you missed the deadline this year, please consider contributing your work today so you can participate next year.

Mono, Wikimedia Commons contributor

Wikimedia Commons Picture of the Year 2009

This post is available in 2 languages:

English  • Italiano

English

“When I was a child I was already very passionate about encyclopedias: the idea of discovering new things every day was very appealing to me. My neighbours had an encyclopedia, which was way bigger and newer than mine, and I went often to their house to read it.” Elitre, a long time Wikipedian and an administrator on Italian Wikipedia, told me this and elaborated on her story recently in front of a cup of hot cappuccino.

How did you begin to edit Wikipedia?

Italian Wikipedia editor Elitre

It was in late 2004. One day I read a page with the wrong information and I left a comment on the talk page, and someone told me that I could correct it by myself. When you understand that it works on a volunteer basis, you’re in.

And then what happened?

The real beginning was in 2006; I worked mostly on fixing copyright violations. After a couple of months I joined the OTRS team, the volunteer system used to handle information requests, complaints and comments about Wikipedia and related websites. These OTRS concerns are sent to the official e-mail addresses of the Wikimedia Foundation. I then became an administrator on Italian Wikipedia. After my administrator election I worked on several help and policy pages, making them easier to understand and keeping an eye on them. To me, an encyclopedia is a starting point, not an end point–it’s a very important tool– and this is why I like working to provide an easy understanding of the rules for the newcomers.

Lately I have been working on the rewriting of the pages about OTRS to better direct the destination of the requests. Since we’ve done it, life is much easier!

What led you to this kind of work?

I thought that we had some communication problems. I don’t like the idea that the person who blocked a user is the same person who will reply to his or her e-mail with requests for an explanation or an unblock. Furthermore, the OTRS system was always jammed…

And I know that you are also involved in outreach activities…

For a long time I had a blog where I tried to share what was going on in Wikipedia, but now I’m not able to follow it anymore, and I mostly use Twitter and Facebook. I try to work in this part of Wikipedia because it’s something necessary, and there are very few people doing it! I dream about an internet where Wikipedia is always the aim of our actions, and never the means: if you edit Wikipedia you have to do it for the good of Wikipedia, not for personal benefit.

Interview by Ginevra Sanvitale, Wikimedia Italia
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