Grants:PEG/User:Kipala/Swahili wikipedia longtime editors' meeting and workshop
Goal edit
Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful (2–3 sentences).
a) Coordination in ongoing content creation between longtime editors
b) feedback from teachers what topics are important for own preparation and /or classwork,
c) feedback about quality and usability of some existing content
d) get new editors from workshop participants
Plan edit
Kiswahili is the major language of communication in East Africa, having the status as national or official language in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and the DR Congo, and more countries have speakers. Tanzania is the country where its position is strongest in mass media and as medium of instruction up to Primary St 7. Swahili wikipedia is arguably after Afrikaans the second best developed wikipedia in an African language and the same is true for pageviews amongst these. (for an overview of African language wikipedias see here, for the development of Swahili wikipedia see here).
Most of the content has been developed by a small team of 5 editors who have been on the job since 2005/2007 continuously (cf http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaSW.htm > “40 recently active wikipedians, excl. Bots”) and all of them serve as admins or bureaucrats. There are few other editors who have contributed repeatedly and presently none of them is active. Our 5 active permanent editors are based in Tanzania (MuddyB and Riccardo), Kenya (Baba Tabita), Morocco (ChriKo) and Iran (Kipala). As the last named 2 had plans to visit Kenya in March anyway the idea was born to have a first time ever meeting in Tanzania (while not having to talk about travel cost into East Africa from Morocco/Iran). The best place for this is Morogoro where Riccardo is in charge of Alfagems Secondary School. This allows to combine the meeting with a workshop for teachers and students.
The first purpose of the meeting is to exchange ideas about how to develop the sw wikipedia. For the last years this development depended on our ability to get along with each other online. All of us are professionals with very different schedules (including travels and periods of being off wikipedia) so it has at times been difficult to coordinate. Seeing each other directly will be a boost to personal motivation and coordination. Content development so far grew along individual interests of editors and we have to see if we can get beyond that for building more content relevant to readers. A pressing problem is how to gain new editors as the present number is very small and obviously volatile. Previous attempts with a Wikimedia chapter Kenya have overall been a failure and brought hardly any usable input for Swahili wikipedia. So we use the chance to combine our meeting with a workshop for teachers and students.
Activities edit
1. Arrival on Friday late afternoon, editors' meeting into the evening.
a) Get to know each other in person after 6-8 years of close online cooperation
b) Introducing our motivations, interest in editing, available and foreseeable personal inputs, fields-topics of work
c) To consult on work and development plans for sw Wikipedia
d) necessary coordination for next day's workshops,
2. Saturday either separate or consecutive workshops for teachers and students of Workshop at Alfagems Secondary School, Morogoro .
(to be decided according to interest and registration by staff and students; editors can split for parallel workshops )
a) Introducing Wikipedia
b) Basic exercise in editing, starting articles,
c) Consultation: what kind of articles in Swahili can be helpful for teachers and students: topics, language level, article size
d) testing on health, geographical, science and history articles.
e) introducing offline version if ready by then (we have been asking for it since summer - Asaf Bartov answered once it should be possible fast but we have no definite answer yet).
f) Formation of a students Swahili wikipedia club
3. Sunday: evaluation meeting, departure
Impact edit
Target readership edit
The impact will be on Swahili wikipedia.
Fit with strategy edit
We aim firstly to improve the quality of Swahili Wikipedia by coordinating existing editors and evaluate the usefulness of our present content for users involved in education in Tanzania. Secondly we aim to get new editors from the targeted school. In this case we see a fair chance of some success as Riccardo continues to be present and accessible at the school. Starting a students club for sw-wikipedia looks promising.
Measures of success edit
- Agreement between longtime editors about direction of content creation - Feedback on style, topics and language by teachers and students - New registered users who will edit and are still active 3 months after the workshop.
Resources and risks edit
Resources edit
Team consists of
• Mohammed George aka Muddy Blast Producer (=MuddyB), Tanzanian, lives in Daressalaam, Tanzania , edits since 2007
• Riccardo Riccioni aka Riccardo Riccioni , Italian, lives in Morogoro, Tanzania, edits since 2007
• Oliver Stegen, aka Baba Tabita, German, lives in Nairobi, Kenya , edits since 2006
• Christiaan Kooyman, aka ChriKo, Dutch, lives in Morocco, edits since 2006
• Ingo Koll aka Kipala, German lives in Tehran, Iran, edits since 2005
The fact that Riccardo as school manager is available permanently for all interested in editing who are going to participate in the workshop is a great asset.
Risks edit
- trying to push editors to create content along agreed lines instead of fields of personal interest might diminish motivation – better not push too much
- in Tanzanian technical environment power cuts, local internet outages can always occur and impact running of workshop – that is why we have budgeted for backup option to be able to switch to different location
- obviously there is the permanent risk that motivation generated by events (workshop, conferences) does not stay. We minimize this by a) not giving substantial material incentives for participation and b) making the best of the circumstance that one team member is also in future connected to the school and available for everybody who takes steps to edit, c) starting a students sw-Wikipedia club with some small incentives for good editors.
Budget edit
The budget is based on information from internet (air fares) and info from Riccardo via Email. Food cost can be somewhat lower. Items 7-10 are contingencies (or not yet confirmed in case of t-shirts) and will only be spent if need occurs. Remaining funds will be returned. Team agreed that Ingo Kolls private account is used for transfer of funds; as Oliver, ChriKo and Riccardo also have accounts in Europe/EU onward transfers are easy.
Project budget table edit
| Number | Category | Item description | Unit | Number of units | Cost per unit | Total cost | Currency | Notes |
| 1 | Travel expenses | flight cost Nairobi-Daressalaam | 1 person return flight as per google search on 26.01.2015 | 3 | 435 | 1305 | USD | Oliver and ChriKo want to fly in from NBO, Kipala requests amount as share for his travel expense from Iran as his private travel plan is no more valid and he now comes only because of this meeting |
| 2 | Travel expenses | Taxi cost inside Daressalaam Airport – bus station (1 participant from home to bus station) | 1 trip 10 USD, same on return = 20 USD | 4 | 20 | 80 | USD | 3 pax from Nairobi via Daressalaam, 1 pax from Dar itself |
| 3 | Travel expenses | Bus fare Dar - Morogoro | 10 $ o/w, return 20 $ | 4 | 20 | 80 | USD | |
| 4 | Travel expenses | Tanzania Visa fee | Visa for non residents | 2 | 50 | 100 | Oliver has a Tanzanian workpermit| | |
| 5 | Accomodation | Hotel in Morogoro | single room/ night | 8 | 30 | 240 | USD | 4 pax / 2 nights = 8 |
| 6 | Food | meals on Fr, Sat,Sun | 1 meal - 5pax | 3 | 50 | 150 | USD | meals at 8-10 USD |
| 7 | Food | meal at workshop | 1 lunch on Sat, Tea, cookies, sodas | 1 | 250 | 250 | USD | cost depending on actual number of participants - allow for 25 + team |
| 8 | Contingencies | Photocopies | 50 | USD | for handouts | |||
| 9 | Contingencies | rent of internet cafe | 150 | USD | in case school network/electricity is down | |||
| 10 | Contingencies | eventualities | 250 | USD | buffer line | |||
| 11 | Prizes and awards | Wikipedia t-shirts | 1 shirt | 15 | 10 | 150 | USD | price not yet verified, from Nairobi websites |
| 12 | Totals | 2800 | USD | |||||
Total cost of project edit
2800 USD
Total amount requested edit
2800 USD, we will refund whatever is not needed.
Additional sources of revenue edit
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Non-financial requirements edit
We wait for a reply on availability of a sw-wikipedia DVD or Stick version
Discussion edit
Community notification edit
The discussion about the project and intermediate report has been done on https://sw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majadiliano_ya_Wikipedia:Wakabidhi
Endorsements edit
Do you think this project should be selected for a Project and Event Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal. (see under community notification)
- I wrote it - but am not sure if it is published already Kipala (talk) 08:38, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
- I wrote it - but am not sure if it is published already Kipala (talk) 08:38, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
- Yes. I wholeheartedly agree with this project. It's the best. Wikipedian (Activist) 13:10, 27 January 2015 (UTC)
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