First Wiki conference in Armenia slated for September 8-9

YEREVAN, September 5. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Wiki community and ArmenTel telecom,  together with Wikimedia Foundation will hold the first in Armenia Wiki conference on September 8-9, Susana Mkrtchian, Wikimedia coordinator in Armenia, told a news conference today.

She said some 250 representatives of Armenian Internet community have confirmed their participation. Among them are scientists, teachers of Armenian and foreign universities, bloggers and people interested in using new Internet technologies in education. The event will bring together representatives of the Wikimedia Foundation and also representatives of Wikimedia Foundation from Hungary, Georgia and Russia.

She said the conference will discuss a long string of relating questions, development of Armenian language content of  Wikipedia. In particular, the conference will discuss spread of free information, free software, copyright compliance and involvement of the Armenian youth in developing and increasing knowledge-based Armenian electronic encyclopedia.

Ting Chen, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, said the main purpose of this project is free flow of knowledge and information.
"I am very pleased to see that Armenia has a wiki community, and our goal is to support it  in every way," he said.

Anush Begloyan, ArmenTel’s public affairs officer, said the company is pleased to sponsor the first Armenian Wikimedia conference.
"Today it is difficult to overestimate the importance of Wikipedia in making information available, and this tool can and should be used to present Armenia to the rest of the world, its culture, traditions and rich national component", Ms. Begloyan said.  -0-