UAE leads new initiative to increase Arab authors’ visibility online

  • Date: 15-Dec-2020
  • Source: Arab Weekly
  • Sector:Technology
  • Country:UAE
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UAE leads new initiative to increase Arab authors’ visibility online

DUBAI – The Emirates Literature Foundation, together with Google, has launched a new initiative intended to increase the presence and visibility of Arab authors online, ahead of World Arabic Language Day.

Called “Kateb Maktub,” the initiative hopes to boost the number of Arab author pages on Wikipedia, one of the world's most visited websites with more than 1 billion visitors per month.

Arab authors currently have fewer than 1,500 pages on Wikipedia, lagging far behind author pages in languages such as English, German or French. This puts writers from the region at a disadvantage, since they are not as easily discovered as their international peers.

The new initiative, according to Emirates Literature Foundation, aims to increase the number of Arab author pages ten-fold.

In a media statement, the Emirates Literature Foundation announced that it is now looking to recruit volunteers to “join the movement and become Wikipedia data editors, gathering and sharing content about Arab authors and books so they can be known worldwide.”

The Foundation added that it has been working closely with the UAE User Group of Wikipedia to gather information and train volunteers.

“We are extremely proud to launch this hugely important initiative for Arab literature,” said Ahlam Bolooki, festival director for Emirates Airline Festival of