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June 9, 2026 · 999 words

Two Years of Success: The Story of WikiMed in Egypt

Within the broader efforts aimed at bridging the gap in Arabic medical content on the internet, the WikiMed Workshop (part of the global Wiki Project
Med) emerged as one of the leading educational initiatives organized by the Wikipedian
Editor Project as part of the activities of the Egypt
Wikimedians User Group. The workshop presented a practical model that combined academic training with volunteer knowledge contribution, targeting students in medical disciplines and empowering them to produce reliable encyclopedic content on
Arabic Wikipedia. The workshop was not merely technical training in editing; rather, it sought to build a new generation of editors capable of simplifying medical sciences and presenting them in precise and accessible language for the Arabic reader. Over the course of two consecutive years, 2025 and 2026, this initiative outlined the features of an ambitious knowledge project extending beyond classrooms into the broader sphere of free knowledge.

Final ceremony of 1st WikiMed workshop, Alexandria, 24 April 2025

The Idea and Planning

Ahmed Naji and Donia El-Domiaty at Qena workshop

The idea of the workshop emerged in response to the evident shortage of Arabic medical content compared to its counterparts in other languages. It was the result of a collaboration between Donia
El-Domiaty, a physician, Arabic Wikipedia editor, and founder of the Wikipedian Editor Project, and
Ahmed Naji, a physiotherapist and administrator on the encyclopedia, following
a training workshop organized by the Wikimedia Egypt Group in Qena on February 1, 2025.

The workshop targeted students of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, and other medical specialties from both inside and outside Egypt, giving it a distinctly regional character. The training program was built around regular virtual sessions held via Google Meet, which included explanations of Wikipedia’s policies and editing mechanisms, alongside continuous follow-up with participants through dedicated communication groups to ensure guidance throughout the writing and editing process.

The First Workshop

The
first workshop began with two interactive meetings on February 10 and 12, 2025, carrying from its very first moments the signs of a promising project. The organizers were keen to establish a flexible schedule that accommodated students’ academic commitments, particularly those of Alexandria Faculty of Medicine and Benha Faculty of Physiotherapy students, who formed the workshop’s first core group of participants.

The registration numbers reflected the level of interest, as more than one hundred students applied, including participants from outside Egypt, serving as an early indication of the initiative’s expanding reach. Thirty-five participants attended the first session, including the administrator Alaa, who is actively involved in documenting medical content.

As the sessions progressed, the workshop evolved beyond simple training into a genuine learning space, where participants practiced transforming complex medical knowledge into solid encyclopedic content. By April 22, 2025, the results were remarkable: 105 high-quality articles had been created, and 17 others improved, with a total exceeding two million bytes of added content.

The successes were not limited to numbers alone. Five participants obtained the “Autochecked” right, while the first-place winner obtained the “Editor” right, reflecting the quality of the workshop’s outputs. The workshop concluded with an award ceremony in Alexandria on April 24, at which participants were honored, and their achievements were showcased. The event then transformed into a cultural experience through a visit to the
Alexandria National Museum as part of the GLAM activities sponsored by the Egypt Wikimedians User Group.

The Second Workshop

The
second workshop came as a natural continuation of the first workshop’s success, but with clearer signs of maturity and a more focused vision. It began with an introductory meeting on November 20, 2025, and continued into the following year, in a longer cycle that allowed for deeper training.

Although the number of registered participants exceeded only fifty, the results were even stronger and more impactful. Participants succeeded in creating 151 high-quality articles and improving 15 others, with total content exceeding 2.9 million bytes, surpassing the previous edition in both quantity and quality. Three participants also obtained the “Editor” right, providing further confirmation of the high standard of training delivered by the workshop.

This edition reflected a qualitative transformation: participants were no longer merely trainees, but active contributors to the construction of Arabic medical content, capable of independent production and collaborative work within the Wikipedia environment.

The workshop concluded with an in-person session in Alexandria on April 25, 2026, which included a variety of activities, among them the “Wikimedia Commons Basics” workshop presented by Donia El-Domiaty to introduce participants to the mechanisms of uploading and documenting images. The field tour then gave the experience a different dimension, as participants visited the Citadel of
Qaitbay, the
Maritime Museum, and the
Alexandria Aquarium as part of GLAM activities, documenting their visit with photographs that were later uploaded to Wikimedia
Commons alongside the creation and improvement of related Wikipedia articles, forming a practical extension of the idea of free knowledge.

2nd workshop final ceremony

Honuring participants

At Alexandria Aquarium

Toward a Replicable Model

EWUG souvenir

The WikiMed experience reveals significant potential for development into a sustainable annual program, and even into a model that could be applied in other Arab countries. The initiative also opens the door to integrating medical students into volunteer knowledge work, contributing to the long-term improvement of Arabic medical content.

Between 2025 and 2026, WikiMed was not merely a training workshop, but an integrated educational experience that demonstrated how medical knowledge can be built collectively and presented to the Arab world in accurate and accessible language. It represents a confident step along a long path toward richer Arabic content, led by a new generation of physician-editors.

Media

Links on Meta and Wikipedia about the workshop, as well as an article about the first workshop on Diff in Arabic:

📎 diff.wikimedia.org Wiki Project MedWikipedian Editor Projec…Egypt Wikimedians User G…Arabic WikipediaDonia El-Domiaty ⟨/⟩ View Source ← Back to feed