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Wikimarathon, the joint online event of UNDP Turkey and imece, brought together young volunteers from Turkey to edit the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) page in the Turkish version of Wikipedia on November 15th. Hitherto, the page regarding the 17 SDGs in Turkish Wikipedia did not have sufficient and up-to-date information. The event aimed to fill this gap through the help of 30 participants selected by imece, including students with education levels of high school, university and post-graduate programs.
The event started with the presentations of the organizers. They set the framework of the study and explained the purpose of the event. Then, mentors from imece briefed the participants with the possible tools and databases to make research online. They explained the efficient ways to look up for topics on search engines through filters, and demonstrated how to look for specific documents on these search engines in formats such as pdf and ppt.
Following the brief of the organizers, representatives from Wikimedia Turkey briefly explained the vision of Wikipedia in Turkey. Başak Tosun, one of the members of Wikimedia Turkey, explained how Wikipedia worked, and drew attention to the significance of online volunteerism to share reliable information with people.
Then, Sukhrob Khojimatov, the Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP Turkey shared his vision on the connection between the aims of UNDP, SDGs and Wikipedia. He explained the participants that every individual on Earth needed to be informed about Sustainable Development Goals through reliable sources. Accordingly, he conveyed that Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia that everyone can access anytime. The mission of the United Nations, which is to leave no one behind, is a key element in the organization’s mechanism. Hence, free and all-inclusive information sources such as Wikipedia is vital for this overview. After the speech of Khojimatov, the participants were called on to complete the task they signed up for.
The participants were divided into six groups to work on several SDGs and their targets with a time limit of 75 minutes. Six mentors from imece and UNDP Turkey accompanied the participants to keep them on track for the task.
The framework of the specific pages was fourfold,
- Definition of the specific SDGs and information about their targets,
- The social impact of these specific SDGs,
- Research & reports,
- Exemplary studies about SDGs.
The participants were asked to find reliable resources in Turkish and international languages for the information they will provide. Accordingly, participants were required to put their inputs with relevant references through links. During 75 minutes, they worked diligently with the aim to gather the most essential information on SDGs from the most reliable resources to make them available for everyone through Wikipedia.
With meticulous efforts, the participants gathered information for the 17 SDGs within the time limits and conveyed them to the representatives of imece. At the end of the event, mentors and members of each group expressed their feelings and suggestions to improve the experience the next Wikimarathon can yield. The participants expressed that the event was exciting and enriching for them and many of them mentioned they would like to participate in similar events in the near future. For most of them, it was the first time that they joined a Wikimarathon and collectively produced content for an online platform.
After being reviewed by imece, UNDP Turkey and Wikipedia teams, the content put together for the SDGs page of Wikipedia will finally be online and available for all soon!
In his final remarks, Mustafa Özer, Director of imece mentioned that in this event 42 people came together and did as much work as one person would be able to do in 38 hours. This sentence alone is sufficient to demonstrate the power of working together, joining forces, and respecting other’s contributions as well as our own. The same is also needed to achieve the SDGs for a better future and what we need to do is to carry and spread this spirit. Wikimarathon surely is a positive step towards this goal.
Finally, imece team introduced their weekly workshop imeceLAB Slack that people can sign up for. This workshop gathers the volunteers to discuss one SDG each week. Anyone interested in learning about the SDGs and their vision are welcome to fill out this form to participate in these weekly events.
