OpenSpeaks/podcasts/21 May 2017

Full transcript • Subtitles

This podcast features Cristian Consonni of Wikimedia Italy who is a Wikipedia editor and a PhD scholar. Cristian has built a tool called WikiMirror that allows anyone to access Wikipedia in Turkey where the authorities blocked access to Wikipedia in the context of purges during 2016-17 following 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt . On April 29 this year, Wikipedia got banned by the Turkish authorities, which affected not just the Turkish Wikipedia but all the 296 language Wikipedias in the entire country. A report on TurkeyBlocks.org says that the Info and Comms Technology Authority has taken this decision their technical analysis and legal consideration. Another report from the New York Times says “The Turkish Government expanded its crackdown on dissent and free expression”. Cristian's has set up a website https://tr.vikiansiklopedi.org, and has made its source code available under an open license on GitHub. Anyone from Turkey can open and access Wikipedia from this URL. In this podcast, Cristian shares how he came up with WikiMirror, and takes through what developers can do in such situations to provide access to knowledge to all.

Full transcript (TBD)

Publications

• Geybullayeva, Arzu. "Mirror Websites Are Helping Turkish Users Reconnect to Wikipedia". Advox. Global Voices (13 June 2017). Translations in Malagasy, عربي (Arabic), বাংলা (Bengali), Italiano (Italian), Français (French), and русский (Russian)