ESINO LARIO – Behind each Wikipedia there are their. Li read every day without knowing their names or their stories. They put the signature, nor face, yet exist. They have different colored faces, opinions and different cultures, they come from other countries, have other lives. And the same, perhaps at first glance bizarre passion. “What unites us? Can I give two answers to this question,” says Dimitar Dimitrov , which by day works for the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia, in Brussels and in the evening you fun adding new products or improving existing entries, instead of going out with friends for a beer. “One is serious, the other is playful: the first is that we are all a bit ‘anti-social, because we spend our free time at the computer; the second is that we prove emotions for an unusual reason: to write an encyclopedia “of course free. Curious, passionate, sometimes daffodils, more often idealists, however, a pragmatic idealism. They dreamed of changing the world and they are doing it “spreading knowledge”: here they are Wikipedians who meet between the steep streets of Esino Lario, a small mountain village where there is the twelfth edition of Wikimania , the world gathering of volunteers of Wikipedia. Over seventy nationalities represented; the Germans the most numerous foreigners and more than a thousand registered participants. “Yes, I am an idealist and I think many people in the movement they are,” he confesses Vassia Atanassova , Bulgarian, a researcher in computer science, that for some time, continuing the challenge: he chose to write a new article of the encyclopedia a day; infecting with their initiative more than a hundred victims. “But we do concrete things. It’s a small way to attend to the welfare of society and give back, in small part, what we are given.” An epidemic enthusiasm. In the room where you be handling arrivals meets Romaine , which is giving a hand to the organization team: “I wanted to improve the Earth and now I think, wow, I’m helping: is basically simple. ” To him goes much of the credit of a small success that concerns the so-called Panorama freedom , ie the ability to take pictures to monuments without the need to ask for special permission the reference institutions. Thanks to her commitment will be implemented in Belgium, one of the EU countries where this exception to copyright was missing: “I live between Belgium and Holland, where instead that possibility exists, and I decided d ‘ intervene because i noticed a big difference between the two countries: in the second, were created many more items on the monuments than the first. a great loss, because it means not being fairly represented. ” In Italy the situation is even worse: it is forbidden to capture well the works not subject to copyright, subject to clearance from the authorities, because the code of cultural heritage and landscape. Absurdity. “We will try to help you,” assures Romaine.
Moreover, it is in the spirit of the community. As he explains Ivay Martinez , president of Wikimedia Mexico: “Each of us shares the sense of responsibility in defending the Wikimedia mission in every corner of the planet, because there seems to be part of something big, which is having a real impact. Wikimania? is our Christmas is the time when you meet the family. ” But there are no toys, but more than one hundred working sessions. Some depart from the ground up: from quell’edit button, the edit key, that made Wikipedia the giant it is today; allowing anyone to add or edit entries. More concerned with the movement political, some are forward-looking. Others address the problems of the encyclopedia, one of all the gender gap that sees women penalized, here is Sandra Becker (nickname: medea7), German, despite three jobs and a son from maintain finds time to contribute. “In Berlin we founded a group called Woman edit and once a month we meet to work together on Wikipedia.” A nice idea.
In the late afternoon the atmosphere changes: become a party, dancing folk music wearing cowboy hats, you go around to open cellars. The first day someone is lost: he could no longer remember where was the house where he was staying, one of many provided by the inhabitants of Esino to welcome people arriving. It seems that in the end he slept by the deputy mayor mother, Fabio Viglienghi. Small memorable incidents of edition out of the norm . Under the slogan: “we are all Wikipedians”. And who knows what tomorrow in Esino someone does not become a new editor. Because you can start for any reason.
There is Bekhruzbek Ochilov , 17 Uzbekistan, arrived here with his mother who admits: “I done in order to have a page on myself, then it was canceled, but the process has impressed me so much that I continued. ” There Mahoumud, Baghdad pharmacist, who started because of a missing entry and is now working to convince people of the Middle East to write articles about them. The important thing is to do it. “We do not need a special computer knowledge, you just have to follow the rules,” says Rosie Stephenson-GoodKnight , which received the title of Wikipedian year for its commitment to reducing the gender gap between volunteers and encyclopedia entries. “But if we are successful, I who am an ordinary person, anyone can do it.” rositarijtano @
- Topics:
- Wikipedians
- Wikimania 2016
- wikipedia
- wikimedia
- Starring:
- Dimitar Dimitrov
- Vassia Atanassova
- Sandra Becker
- Ivay Martinez
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