This document discusses the founding and growth of Wikilogia, which started as a belief that dreams of access, community development, and contributing to humanity were closer than ever due to emerging trends in collaboration and open source. Wikilogia wrote the first Arabic collaborative encyclopedia on these topics and helped diverse interest groups and communities emerge. After two years of operating a weekly hackerspace, Wikilogia has built a promising model for local community development, but faces challenges in continuing growth and sustainability.

2. We all had dreams...
We all had dreams...

3. http://www.transmediale.de/files/imagecache/tm_large/OKF_0.jpg
… dreams of access

4. http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/pages/documents/document-340-8.png
… of developing our communities

5. http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmzwykNq171qbiqb1.jpg
and contributing to humanity!

6. Wikilogia started because we
believed those dreams are closer
than any other time

7. Guess Why?

8. Tada!

9. We were able to explore the emerging trend
as it was actually happening and as it was
explored

10. We wrote the first collaborative
encyclopedia about the subject in
Arabic

11. We spread awareness!

12. Diverse interest groups and
communities emerged

13. Wikisghar: Collaborative Wiki for
Kids

14. Wikitechie: Web 2.0 and Social
Platforms

15. Fablogia: Open Hardware and
Digital Fabrication

16. WikilogiaMED: Open Knowledge
and Medicine 2.0

17. Damascus Girl Geeks: Women
Empowerment with Technology

18. LEN: Peer Learning English, the
gateway to the open source world

19. We continued to grow...

20. ...and grow!

21. ...and diversely grow!

22. We made a big shift from
'What?' and 'Why?'
[is collaboration, sharing and open source]
to 'How?'
[can we really start to make it happen here!]

23. So we thought it was a
good idea to start a
hackerspace the ideal
place to start DOING it!

24. And we actually did!

25. We started as one-day-a-week
hackerspace

26. People showed up weekly!

27. Learned together...

28. ...and did things together!

29. After two years of hard work, we think we
built a promising model for local community
development

30. Our challenge is to keep it
growing and make it
sustainable...

31. There are lot of people who are
following us and excited about our
experience!

32. We think we are closer
to our ambition of
replicating Wikilogia,
e.g.
WikilogiaXYourArea!

33. But wait, there are other
challenges awaiting
Open and Collaborative
culture as well...

34. What we did was starting to
empower communities

35. Empowering the coming generation
and fixing education is a key for
open source and collaboration
future

36. Startups are the means for applying
our new ideas into society and
managing the accommodating risks

37. Open Source and Collaboration is
not just about community and
individuals, it is also about
corporations and institutions

38. We started out in a
hard time of Syria's
history. We hope our
efforts are one of
many to build a
promising future.
Wissam Al Jazairy

39. Please help us by being
awesome and joining us!