Egypt students make wiki dictionary for their revolution
As people from different parts of the world became interested to learn more about Egypt’s struggle for freedom following the January 25 Revolution, there was a new demand for detailed information on the important political and social players in the uprising. Students at the American University in Cairo (AUC) moved swiftly to provide this information by creating the Biographical Dictionary of the Egyptian Revolution.
Modeled on the Wikipedia format, the biographical dictionary is an original, comprehensive resource that profiles key players in the events preceding and following the fall of deposed president Hosni Mubarak. It is primarily intended as a guide to help those interested in studying current events in Egypt. The dictionary, which began as a class project, is comprised of names of male and female individuals from among the Mubarak regime, transitional governments, the media, political parties and revolutionary activists who may not be widely known in the Western press. These include Alaa Abdel Fattah, Bothaina Kamel, Hamdeen Sabahi, Ibrahim Issa, Nawwara Nigm and Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, among others.
Nareman Amin, a recent graduate of the history department and one of the original contributors to the dictionary, has been working full time on the project since June 2011. She edits entries for quality and consistency, as well as cites and cross-references all information posted. Further, she has added new entries for personalities who have gained prominence in the intervening months and has expanded the original entries with up-to-date information as recent as March 2012.
“The knowledge I have gained out of the project is tremendous,” said Amin. “The ability to understand these important personalities on a deeper level is very rewarding. The project has also allowed me to work firsthand with contemporary history, which is in many ways, more difficult than working with modern or pre-modern history. My editorial skills were also greatly sharpened.”
While editing and updating the biographical dictionary, Amin faced a number of challenges, first of which was a general lack of resources. “Many of the people who were instrumental in the revolution were previously not well-known, so I had to rely on blogs sometimes,” Amin said, adding that some of her classmates had to conduct interviews with prominent revolutionary figures when in-depth information was not available online.
Another major difficulty in putting the dictionary together was the avoidance of bias. “I actually had to try to avoid bias on two levels: the bias of the writers whose articles I cite and my own personal biases,” said Amin, saying that she was careful to choose trustworthy sources and avoid citing ones with clear pro-government inclination.
Other challenges included relevance, quality of sources and issues of transliteration. Relevance, in particular, posed a challenge, as the initial entries focused on every detail during the first 18 days of the revolution, but new developments with time made some of the information appear insignificant. “2011 was an extremely turbulent year, full of many, many events,” explained Amin. “While I was editing and updating the initial entries, I realized that some of the information seemed a bit extraneous because so much time had passed and so many more things had taken place. Sometimes I would add a headline about one of the revolutionaries because it seemed relevant at the time, but then two months later, I would find that it was an unnecessary addition and delete it.”
A work-in-progress, the dictionary will have new entries added as more events unfold. “I would like to thank Dr. Michael Reimer, whose support was absolutely instrumental to the process of expanding and editing these entries,” said Amin. “It is due to his unwavering efforts and dedication that this project looks the way it does today.”
For Amin, the value of the biographical dictionary extends far beyond academics. “This project would be particularly useful for anyone studying political science or contemporary history, but I really hope that this dictionary gives a sense of hope as well,” she said. “It documents the lives of people who rose up to the occasion and continue to fight for the demands of the revolution. It also sheds light on the lives of corrupt and unjust individuals, many of whom are now behind bars. It should be a tool to help us understand our present better and stay hopeful for a better future, since, ultimately, change is inevitable.”