Do You Use Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia?

Who hasn't used Wikipedia during their student life? What about watching a TV series, searching the internet about the actor he/she likes and not finding himself/herself on Wikipedia? Watching a news story, is there anyone who has not wondered about the historical background of the topic and started browsing through Wikipedia articles? Probably not.

Are you a Wikipedia Reader or a Wikipedia Author?

Who hasn't used Wikipedia in their student life? What about when you watch a TV series and search the internet about the actor you like and find yourself on Wikipedia? Watching a news story, who hasn't wondered about the historical background of the topic and started browsing through Wikipedia articles? Probably not.

Wikipedia has been a part of our lives for 21 years and has long been one of the most widely read websites in the world. A site that started 21 years ago in English is now available in more than 300 languages! So who produces all that content in so many languages? Each language version is produced by anonymous internet users who speak that language, mostly university students!

Wikipedia on the Covid 19 pandemic

Wikipedia's working model, based on digital volunteerism, has stood the test of time during the Covid-19 pandemic. While many social media sites served to spread misinformation, Wikipedia contributors around the world worked hard to fight misinformation. Wikipedia provided more reliable information than other online media and reached its highest daily readership during this period. The hard-working volunteers felt great satisfaction in seeing that their content was so widely read and trusted.

Promoting Yourself to the World with Encyclopedia Articles

On Wikipedia, digital knowledge volunteers have the chance to share not only health information but also information on everything from pop singers to mythological beings. The "change" button on Wikipedia offers an opportunity to introduce the environment we live in to the world in our own words, with photos from our own lenses, and present it from our own point of view. Actively using this button means taking responsibility for creating content about our village, our city, our cultural heritage, our life, both in Turkish Wikipedia and in other language versions. Young people around the world are taking on this task by organizing wiki-marathon sessions in libraries and museums; by organizing photo-walks and sharing their photos on wiki-projects with open licenses.

Wikipedia Volunteer University Students

Wikipedia is a crowdsourced website. Every internet user can contribute to its content. Although the contributors are anonymous, we know that in many parts of the world, university students are the predominant group producing Wikipedia content. University students create the encyclopedia content by compiling and referencing information on topics they have learned in their classes or are interested in as a hobby; thus, they share their knowledge with those who do not have the same educational opportunities, language skills and access to a university library.

Wikipedia and Üsküdar University in Turkey

Turkish Wikipedia is an underdeveloped language version of Wikipedia in terms of the ratio of the number of people speaking a language to the number of Wikipedia articles in that language: Wikimedia Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey (WMTR).

Wikimedia: The Wikimedia Foundation is an organization that hosts various free content projects, such as the encyclopedia Wikipedia. Wikimedia is a non-profit foundation governed by the laws of the state of Florida, USA. The foundation was first established on June 20, 2003.

WMTR, consisting of experienced Wikipedia volunteers, is ready to give presentations explaining the functioning of Wikipedia and its sister projects (Wikidata, WikiSpeech, WikiSource, etc.) and ways to contribute, to conduct workshops, and to be a partner in organizing events. Üsküdar University has hosted various events of the community in the past. If you want to take a look at the Wikidata event held at our university, you can view it via this link

You have the chance to work with experienced wikipedists in Wikipedia events organized as part of student club activities. You can also volunteer as a writer on Wikipedia and contribute with your content. As Üsküdar University students, please click here to apply.