Iraqis leading efforts to enrich Arabic Wikipedia
Young Iraqis, along with regional partners, lead the efforts to promote knowledge and enlightenment in the Arab World.
Searching the internet for scientific topics in Arabic can be disappointing. Senan Harba, a 25-year-old dentist from Hillah, Iraq, knows this problem firsthand.
"Wikipedia is my first place to search for any particular topic; unfortunately, lots of topics are not available in Arabic," said Harba, adding, "Since English is not our first language, science students and the general public suffer to get accurate and neutral information."
To compensate for this, Harba follows Facebook pages that spread scientific knowledge on evolution, cutting-edge technologies, social sciences and political schools. This brought him to a newly launched project named Bayt al-Hikma 2.0.
"One evening, I read an advertisement in I Believe in Science — an Arabic-language website that creates scientific content, mostly translations, in Arabic — looking for translators to partner with [the nongovernmental organization] Bayt al-Hikma," said Harba. "An inner voice told me, 'Why not?' I quickly filled out the application form and got accepted," he added.
