Wikidata Istanbul Conference was Held

Turkey's first international wikidata conference was held in Ayhan Songar conference hall with the contributions of Üsküdar University Health, Culture and Sports Department. Volunteers speaking Turkish languages from 10 countries and autonomous regions of the world came together at the Wikidata Istanbul 2022 Wikidata Conference held at Üsküdar University on October 21-23, 2022. Wikidata, created with the collaboration of volunteers, is a very large database that supports more than 300 Wikipedia language versions. The conference aims to collaborate for more effective use of Wikidata. Delivering the opening speech of the conference, Üsküdar University Founding Rector and Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan emphasized that there must be free thinking environments for new discoveries. "Where there is no freedom, there is no entrepreneurship, science and discovery," Tarhan said, adding, "Only others discover and we become the users. Others produce and we become the market. As Turkic-speaking and developing communities, if we want to be the subject of science, we need to encourage scientific freedom."


Turkish Wikipedists from Turkic-speaking communities cut a cake to celebrate the 10th anniversary.

The organization, which is the first wikidata conference held at the international level, also created different cultural images.

Participants from Turkic-speaking countries came together.

Organized by the Digital Knowledge Association and the Turkic Languages Wikimedia Community, the conference brings together participants from Azerbaijan, Bashkortostan, Georgia, Iranian Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Sakha, Tatarstan and Turkey. The participants, who are knowledge volunteers who contribute to Wikipedia and its sister projects (such as Wikidata, Wiktionary, Wiktionary, WikiSoz, Wiktionary, Wikisource) in their own countries through writing, translating, coding, etc., aim to develop new collaborations at the conference. Participants from Italy, Israel and India also attended the conference.

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: "Wikidata makes things easier"

In his opening speech, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Founding Rector of Üsküdar University, started his speech by wishing the Wikidata event to be productive. Stating that universities have 4 main functions, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said, "The first one is to provide vocational training, the second one is to conduct R&D, the third one is to inform the society and the fourth one is to ensure that knowledge is transformed into a product, that is, commercialization. We are holding a meeting of an institution that makes our work very easy while informing the society. We are glad that Wikipedia exists because it shares references in order to reach the information closest to the truth and makes scientific knowledge available to the society."

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: "Where there is no freedom, there is no science and discovery"

Reminding that Wikipedia also has the slogan of free media, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan concluded his words as follows: "Where there is no freedom, there is no entrepreneurship, science and discovery. Only others discover and we become users. Others produce and we become the market. If we want to be the subject of science as Turkish-speaking and developing communities, we need to encourage scientific freedom. In such cases, the talents within us will also develop. Where there is no questioning, there is no school. There is a system where there is no thinking and no objection. They call it direct democracy. It used to be called militant democracy. That is, someone will give orders and the others will follow. This approach is outdated. It is very important for us to defend and maintain a free environment. I appreciate what Wikipedia is doing globally."
After the opening speeches, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Üsküdar University, was presented with a plaque for hosting the event.

You can access detailed images of the conference via this link .