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| Dr Ahmed Elmagarmid (left) and Barry Newstead giving details of the Qatar Computing Research Institute and Wikimedia Foundation collaboration yesterday |
Announcing the partnership yesterday at a press conference on the sidelines of the first ever Arabic Wikipedia Conference, a two-day event organised by QCRI, Dr Ahmed Elmagarmid, QCRI executive director, said: “We are proud to be behind the renaissance of Arabic-language on the ubiquitous Internet.”
“There is broad agreement in many circles within the Arabic speaking world that the quantity and quality of Arabic content available on the Internet is not meeting the needs of the close to 350mn Arabic speakers worldwide,” he said. “We have taken note of this gap, notably in Wikipedia, and with the support of HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, have committed resources to addressing the issue and working on solutions.”
“We need to make it easier for Arab contributors to contribute to Arabic Wikipedia, and improve the experience for users of the content. We see an opportunity to be a leader in Arabic language technologies, not only in researching technologies and developing computing solutions, but making what we do relevant to the average person,” Dr Elmagarmid said.
Based on the partnership, Qatar Foundation and Wikimedia have identified four ‘promising initiatives’ for accelerating the growth and improving the quality of Arabic Wikipedia content.
These include the development of incentives and authoring tools for Arabic Wikipedia editors, incorporating Wikipedia article editing into the classroom curriculum, creation of article translation tools developed by QCRI, and general public communications and outreach to recruit content contributors and editors, and to help them learn how to edit effectively.
QCRI will facilitate and support collaboration opportunities between Wikimedia and institutions through the Arabic-speaking world by creating a joint team of consultants and academic advisers based in the Middle East and North Africa region.
As of July 2011, the Arabic Wikipedia comprised 150,000 articles, created and managed by some 552 active editors. By comparison, Portuguese, a language spoken by 290mn, has 693,000 articles and 1,694 active editors.
In the first year of collaboration, the goal is to add 50,000 articles to Arabic Wikipedia – comprised of both translation of existing contributions and original articles, and 1,000 editors. Within three years, the goal is to grow Arabic Wikipedia to 500,000 articles.
The Arabic Wikipedia Conference brought together Arabic language Wikipedians (editors and contributors), computing experts from QCRI, Qatar-based universities and businesses, as well as dozens of leading Arabic language experts from around the Middle East to discuss and identify ways to stimulate the growth of Arabic content on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is an open encyclopaedia referenced and used by everyone – from school children to businessmen.
Barry Newstead, chief global development officer, Wikimedia Foundation said, “During the Wikimedia strategic planning process in 2010, Arabic Wikipedia was identified as a priority for special efforts to help catalyse the growth of the project.
“Qatar Foundation’s Computing Research Institute is an enthusiastic and incredibly capable partner for us in the region. We are looking forward to the future possibilities for new programs and initiatives to support the Arabic Wikimedia community” said Newstead.
During the two-day conference leading up to the announcement of the partnership, top Arabic language Wikipedia editors from the region and computing experts from Qatar discussed the growth of Arabic content on the Internet. Sessions included an overview of the history of Arabic Wikipedia, goals for the Arabic initiative and major programmatic initiatives including expanding the editorial pool to include university students, leveraging machine translation and engaging in public outreach to build interest in contributing to Arabic Wikipedia.
Qatar Computing Research Institute will present its progress in Arabic language technology research as well as social computing, data analytics and cloud computing at Qatar Foundation’s Second Annual Research Forum, which will be held from November 20 to 22 at the Qatar National Convention Centre.
More information about the forum, exhibition and sponsorship opportunities can be had from www.qf-arf.org.