The Israel Wikipedia association celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Hebrew language Wikipedia site recently at a special event with a community of 150 writers who write entries.
Representatives from the World Wikimedia Foundation attended the event at SOK Tel Aviv, along with the chair of Wikimedia Israel Itzik Adri and CEO Michal Wander Schwartz.
Schwartz said that in the coming year, Wikimedia will invest heavily in projects of excellence in education and will also expand its activities in the program for students writing in the Arabic Wikipedia by 50%.
In a special interview with Maariv, Daria Kantor, an information scientist, editor at Wikipedia and a member of the board of directors said that it’s an amazing achievement for the Hebrew Wikipedia to celebrate 20 years.
Other websites with a similar scope of use are large companies that trade in millions, whereas the Hebrew Wikipedia is written by a devoted community of volunteers.
Kantor added that Wikipedia largely reflects what’s happening in the world, and our world is going through many processes and challenges. And, these challenges also accompany the writing of the Hebrew Wikipedia. Despite this, the editors manage to continue writing a free encyclopedia that’s available for everyone. Mazal tov to Wikipedia.
Kantor commented on the burning issue of using technological tools of artificial intelligence, saying that AI is a great tool that can be used to write. But the subject of computer-generated entries isn’t new to Wikipedia. Over the years, there have been numerous proposals for writing entries en-masse by various programs.
The issues facing Wikipedia’s editorial community
The thought behind the desire is that it’s better to write a simple entry of dubious quality than to have no entry at all. This is an issue facing every community of editors in various languages.
But Hebrew Wikipedia editors decided that it’s better to have fewer entries that are well-written. So, every entry that appears on Wikipedia is checked by the community.
At the event, the guests enjoyed discussion circles, a quiz on the site and lectures. They also voted on a new logo; the winning entry was chosen out of seven proposals offered voluntarily.
