Wikimedia Tunisie/Report 2021

This is the Wikimedia TN User Group report of the year 2021

Houcemeddine Turki represented Wikimedia Tunisia in the event where he presented a joint work with Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit on how to integrate Wikipedia categories with Wikidata statements to drive knowledge-based semantic applications. This work is an update on a previous work of Mohamed Ali Hadj Taieb and Mohamed Ben Aouicha on how to use Wikipedia Categories to develop semantic similarity measures.

This is the second time Wikimedia Tunisia participated to Wikimedia Hackathon after 2020. This time, the participation was characterized by the creation of the first Tunisian Wikipedia tool ever, marking the debut of Tunisia in Wikimedia Tool Development.

This edition of Wikimania featured three members of Wikimedia Tunisia as speakers. Houcemeddine Turki has marked the debut of Tunisia in the Wikimania Workshop where he presented a joint work with Dennis Priskorn on developing OpenCitations Bot, the second Wikimedia bot created by Tunisia. Following the conference, the bot has been approved by the Community. As well, Houcemeddine Turki has contributed to the organization of a panel about Wikimedia and GLAM in the Global South as a part of the Wikimedia and Libraries User Group Steering Committee. Furthermore, Houcemeddine Turki has spoken at the WikiAfrica Hour: The Xperience Session where he has talked about the initiatives of Wikimedia Tunisia to develop live office hours on YouTube as launched by Afek Ben Chahed.

Beyond this, Yamen Bousrih has spoken about Makumbusho as a tool for mobilizing local communities and facilitate partnerships between Wikimedia users and Museums. He has also been a member of the Programme Committee for this edition of Wikimania Conference. Emna Mizouni has been the moderation of the The Wikimedia Foundation in conversation with community members panel.

This conference marked the debut of Tunisia with the participation of Houcemeddine Turki and Yamen Bousrih. Houcemeddine Turki was the speaker of a session about Creative Commons and Computer Programming where he discussed the challenges in the licensing of open source codes. This can be slightly linked to the discussion about Wikifunctions licenses. As well, Houcemeddine Turki and Yamen Bousrih presented several project proposals for the Hack4OpenGLAM Hackathon related to the development of software tools and to the governance of the GLAM partnerships. One of the proposals of Yamen Bousrih, Sawtpedia, has currently become a tool that generates a QR Code that redirects to the audio transcription or to the text-to-speech output of a Wikipedia article about an entity in the user language. The source code has been jointly developed by Houcemeddine Turki and Yamen Bousrih with the special contribution of Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit, University of Sfax.

In the latest edition of WikiArabia held online by Wikimedia Algeria, Wikimedia Tunisia was represented by Houcemeddine Turki, Yamen Bousrih and Habib M'henni. Houcemeddine Turki presented the research works of Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit and other research teams on COVID-19 information in Wikidata jointly with Mus'ab Banat and introduced the Arabic Community to Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia. Yamen Bousrih presented the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos Campaign to the Arabic Community and Habib M'henni explained the efforts of the Wikimedia Growth Team to develop features to encourage newcomers to make edits.

Houcemeddine Turki, Mohamed Ali Hadj Taieb and Mohamed Ben Aouicha have succeeded to develop the debut of Tunisia in a Wikimedia-related research event. They presented the work of Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit on coupling Wikipedia Categories with Wikidata Statements to drive knowledge-driven semantic applications.

Houcemeddine Turki and Yamen Bousrih have represented Wikimedia Tunisia in WikidataCon 2021 with a record of eight sessions. Houcemeddine Turki has been featured as a panelist at the Wikidata & Education: A Global Panel panel and the Languages discussion panel where he discussed the educational applications of Wikidata as well as Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia from a user perspective. He has also oen of the speakers of the Scientific Greetings where he introduced Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit as well as the Topic Modelling with Wikidata Project he is working on. As well, he has successfully presented the Systematic Reviews driven by Wikidata Project developed with the special contribution of Sisonkebiotik Africa and the Wikifunctions and Abstract Wikipedia Project with reference to the discussion held during WikiArabia 2021 Conference. Yamen Bousrih has presented three of his Wikidata-driven GLAM-related projects to introduce them to the Wikidata Community and raise awareness about the efficiency of using Wikidata in GLAM: From QRPedia to AudioQRPedia : how to improve QRPedia using Wikidata, Wikidata a starting point to generate mobile applications for Museums, and The GLAM Underground (jointly with Richard Knipel).

Beyond presentations, Houcemeddine Turki has been involved in the Decolonizing Wikidata and Reimagining Wikidata from the margins discussions aiming to fairly represent the cultural distinctive features of the Global South countries in Wikidata. He has pointed out that this cannot be done without thinking of a way to let Wikidata data modelling and tools unbiased. Yamen Bousrih has also been included in the Maryana Listening Tour where he has spoken on the local challenges for contributing to Wikidata.

Houcemeddine Turki and Yamen Bousrih have been featured as speakers at WikiIndaba Conference 2021. As well, Houcemeddine Turki was a Programme Committee Member for this Conference for the third time in a row. Houcemeddine Turki has introduced WISCom as an advisory board for the African Wikimedia Community in the Opening Ceremony of the Conference and has opened the call for the next organizers of the conference as well as for the organization of elections for the Community Seats of WISCom. As well, Houcemeddine Turki was one of the four panelists of the "Let’s talk about growing and supporting the Wikimedia research communities in Africa" session that aims to introduce Wikimedia Research to the African Community. As for Yamen Bousrih, he was among the panelists of the "Wiki Heritage in Africa" session that aims to explain GLAM-related Wikimedia Projects to the audience of the Conference and he was a part of the WikiAfrica Hour aiming to provide an overview of Community Resources.

A facebook live session held on the 21st january 2021 at 08ː30 pm to update the lists of Tunisia National Monuments.
Organizersː Yamen Bousrih, Mourad Ben Abdallah, Houcemeddine Turki

The WikiChallenge is a writing contest for children in french speaking primary schools in Africa. The Wikimedia Tunisia participates for the 4th year by training the teachers of the primary schools participating in this competition.
Coordinatorː Afek Ben Chahed

• WikiChallenge workshop in Jendouba
  WikiChallenge workshop in Jendouba
• WikiChallenge workshop in Kef
  WikiChallenge workshop in Kef

WikiGap Challenge Tunisia 2021 is a public writing competition to create and improve articles to strengthen Wikipedia's coverage of women and related topics into as many languages as possible, including the languages for Wikipedias in the Wikimedia incubator. The competition is organized in partnership with the Swedish Embassy in Tunisia and Vermeg
Coordinatorsː Afek and Yamen

• WikiGap Challenge Tunisia 2021
  WikiGap Challenge Tunisia 2021

Wiki Weekend is a bi-monthly webinar organized by Wikimedia Tunisia User Group, during which, each time we discuss the relation between Wikipedia and different topics.

• WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique
• Human Rights and healthy environment in Wikimedia projects
• Universal Code of Conduct with Mervat Salman

This September, Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit has been created as a part of the Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, University of Sfax with the contribution of Wikimedia Tunisia. It is the first research structure specialized in Wikimedia Research in the Middle East and North Africa Region as well as in Africa. During its first months of work, it was behind the first Wikimedia user script, the first Wikimedia bot and the first Wikimedia Tool created by the Tunisian Wikimedia Community. It was also featured in highly-referred research journals and conferences thanks to its Wikidata-related research output about WikiProject COVID-19 and WikiProject Categories.

Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit has appointed Houcemeddine Turki and Sami Mlouhi as Wikimedia liaisons for two years to keep collaboration between the created research structure and the local Wikimedia community.

As an international event, WikiConvention Francophone aims to bring together contributors to Wikimedia projects from all over the French-speaking countries, for a weekend, in order to promote cooperation between the various actors of the movement. This is the fifth edition of this Conference and the first one held online. It has been organized by Wikimedia Tunisia through the collaboration with Wikimedia France and WikiFranca. This year, more emphasis has been given to featuring the efforts of the French-speaking Wikimedia community for improving the coverage of the heritage, science and culture of the French-speaking world and for developing useful applications of Wikimedia projects within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.

This edition has hosted the formal creation of WikiFranca as a regional hub for French-speaking communities through a general assembly and board elections. The Post-Conference has been a session of the Maryana Listening Tour where French-speaking users had the floor to speak with the CEO of Wikimedia Foundation and present various Wikimedia projects and efforts beyond Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

Wikimedia Tunisia has been represented in the Conference Organizing Committee by Habib M'henni (Coordinator), Youssef Ben Haj Yahya (Communications Chair), Houcemeddine Turki (Programme Committee Chair), and Yamen Bousrih (Programme Committee Advisor).

Wikimedia Tunisia has also been represented in the Final Program by four conference speakers:

• Habib M'henni: Fonctionnalités de Croissance : une opportunité pour votre wiki (jointly with Benoît Evellin)
• Yamen Bousrih: Wiki Loves Museums ː des initiatives pour la promotion et la documentation des musées and Wiki Cemeteries UGː pour la documentation des cimetières dans le monde
• Houcemeddine Turki: Dissémination de Wikidata dans la communauté scientifique francophone : Situation et leçons retenues
• Mourad Ben Abdallah: Mentorat (jointly with Adélaïde, Donatien, Tsaag Valren, and Adoscam)

Wikimedia TN User Group, has 200 members, 15 of whom have paid their dues and 5 who have requested exemption for lack of source of income.

Until December 31, 2021, 200 people have registered via the membership form.

Next year, Board Elections will be held to bring new blood to the governance of our user group. The new board will be in charge of sustaining the group and enhancing its existence and interesting Wikimedia initiatives. It will also responsible of continuing the efforts of the previous board to:

• Converting Wikimedia Tunisia into an association in Tunisia
• Developing Standardized Trainings, Certifications and Programs for Wikimedia Education

• Wikimedia Tunisie reports