The Arabic Wikipedia had reached few days ago, which is a pretty significant event as Arabic wikipedia now joins another 35 wikipedias in different languages that are over 10,000 article in size. Now the Arabic Wikipedia had gone a long way since it started less than 2 years ago, and still have a much longer way to go. The current active contributors in the Arabic wikipedia are the ones behind it’s success. Namely Chaos, Oxydo, Uwe a , Jak, Tarawneh, and Al-Tayeb. They, as well 10s others had been the real heroes in this success.
Now, Although the arabic wikipedia could be considered rich and accurate in some fields, I think it is still far from being considered a resource. The effort needed in enriching and increasing the quality of the articles will be taking most of next year as well.
Now Arabic holds the ranking of 35 between all wikipedias when it comes to article count. I predict that by the end of 2006, it will have the rank of 25, with around 25k articles. Don’t ask me were did I get that feeling from, but this is where I see Arabic Wikipedia heading.
Internet & Technology, Wikimedia
OK, I got the Visa to Tunis this morning, got the brochure printouts for Wikimedia yesterday, packing my bags now, leaving in 4 hours to the airport. I really look forward for the event, and Tunis, I had been following some very interesting discussion about the event in the Global Voices mailing list. I will arrive around 1am to Tunis, won’t settle until 3-4 AM probably, yet I am looking forward to it. Beside the event, and Tunis, I am looking forward to meet the Tunisian bloggers, I really hope that it will be possible.
I will try to take as much pictures as I can, and see if I can continue posting from there. Until then, bon voyage to myself :)
About Me, WSIS, Wikimedia
I’ve been trying hard for the last 2-3 weeks to hold Hotel reservations in Tunis for the WSIS 2005. It seems that either the event is taking all hotel rooms in Tunis, or we have very lame travel agents in Amman. I hope that now that Ramadan is over, and companies are back to “Normal” working hours, they will actually be able to get some work done, and make the needed arrangements and reservations.
I’ll be part of the Wikimedia team that will attend the summit, I really look forward to it, as well looking forward having the chance to meet Tunisian Bloggers. It will be my first time in Tunisia, but I really feel that I had been there :) My father used to travel there a couple of times each year, for few years. So our house is filled up with things from Tunis :)
I hope that the agents will be at office tomorrow (although it is the 3rd day of Eid), I really want to get over this and move on to preparing other things for the event.
WSIS, Wikimedia
Well, Wikimania is over.. It was all just perfect, everything was great about it in a way that I didn’t expect. In an hour I will be starting a tour in Germany with my new friend Isaac Mao to the southern part of Germany. First we are heading to Baden-Baden where we plan to enjoy the Black Forest which I wanted to see for a long time. Then we are going to Fussen rest a little, and visit the great castle of Neuschwanstein. It will definitly be a looong day. And tomorrow I am leaving early morning to to Berlin, where I will be spending 2 nights.
The great thing about all this is that all this was planned on the spot, and was never part of my plans when I came here.. but for sure I will not miss it.
Another thing.. I used my Flickr account for the first time yesterday :) You can check some of the pictures I had taken at my page in flickr.
About Me, Internet & Technology, Wikimedia
In 20 minutes I will be giving a presentation in the Wikimania about reasons of the slow development of Arabic Wikipedia. Now although this is not the first time I give a presentation, this time I am a little nervous. The hall we are giving the presentations in is large, and the number of people coming is not small at all. I hope it will go all well..
The last 2 days it had been more than great. I was taking a look in the Wikimania Tag in flickr and it seems that there a lot more people that I could meet in 4 days. There are some really nice pictures there. Give it a look, and wish me luck.
About Me, Internet & Technology, Wikimedia
Well.. Thanks to the people from the OSI, I made it to the Wikimania. One major thing about being here is meeting the people behind the nicknames that I knew for the last 2 years in Wikipedia. Meeting Elien, Jimbo, Danny, Anthere, SJ and others were part of the reason I am here, and I can say that I am really having a time of my life.. add to that meeting people that I am talking to for the first time, but yet having those really great talks and discussions.. and if there is one thing that I enjoy more than internet surfing, then it is definitly talking and writing :).
Today was day 1 for the events, and because I managed to have some sleep yesterday, I was able to function and participate today. The topics covered are really interesting.. it is hard to select which session to go to as we have 4 or 5 sessions at a time. My session is supposed to be in Sunday, so I better finalize the slides tomorrow.
Frankfurt turned out to be a smaller city that I expected, but definitly a really beautiful one. I guess having a river in the city adds that special thing. Sometime I wish Amman had a river.. or even a lake.. or a swamp (natural ones).. anthing :)
I am talking non-sense, so I better get some sleep. Good night all
About Me, Internet & Technology, Wikimedia