On the occasion of World Arabic Language day falling on December 18, Google teamed up with Emirates Literature Foundation (ELF) to maximize the presence of Arab authors online. The initiative is called ‘Kateb Maktub’ and aims to boost the number of Arab author pages on Wikipedia, the world’s most visited online encyclopedia with more than 1 billion visitors per month.
'Kateb Maktub' fills the gap of lack of exposure Arab authors and content suffer from on search engines and websites. Arab authors have fewer than 1,500 pages on Wikipedia - lower than author pages in German, English, or French - decreasing their chances of being discovered by the world.
There are currently fewer than 1,500 pages on Wikipedia, putting writers from the region at a disadvantage but we are aiming to increase the number of author pages ten-fold with the help of an army of volunteers and data editors. pic.twitter.com/j38HuHDQ7G
— ELFDubai (@ELFDubai) December 15, 2020
“We are extremely proud to launch this hugely important initiative for Arab literature,” said Ahlam Bolooki, festival director for Emirates Airline Festival of Literature to Saudi Gazette. “The Middle East is the cradle of storytelling, yet today it’s hard to find information about our authors and books online. This project will put Arab authors and literature in the spotlight, positioning them on an equal platform with other major literary powers of the world.”
Ahlam continued, “The Kateb Maktub project was established to contribute to the development of a healthy digital publishing ecosystem in the Arab world, which currently struggles with issues such as lack of accessible information online, book piracy and lack of mainstream marketing of books and authors. We hope to tackle all of these touch points throughout the course of this project and bring real change to the world of Arab literature.”
The goal is to fill the gap of quality Arabic content available on the internet. Kudos to the hard-working women!https://t.co/YRf1G51WRg
— About Her (@AboutHerOFCL) December 13, 2020
“Organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible continues to be at the core of everything we do. We’re excited to be working with the Emirates Literature Foundation and the UAE’s Wikipedia User Groups to enrich the web with information about the women and men who drive the region’s literary heritage. Our work together will make it easier for anyone in the world to discover Arab writers and to find better information about them and their work in the near future,” said Basel Hijazi, project lead and Google product marketing manager to Saudi Gazette.
Their next ambitious goal is to publish 15,000 Wikipedia pages dedicated to Arab authors, in English and Arabic by December 2022. ELF is looking for 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.
