Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda/2018-2019 Annual Report
Introduction edit
This was the first year for Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda as recognized user group. This year saw us defining roles as a community and partnering with other communities in East Africa. We participated in several competitions aimed at increasing content about Uganda online.
Some key user group activities edit
Activities in 2019
| Event | Date | Theme | Organiser | Venue | Dashboard | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1Lib1Ref Campaign | 1 June 2019 | Wiki Loves Women Citations | Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda | Goethe Zentrum - Kampala | Uganda 2019 | This was a one day event which involved adding citations to articles written about women in uganda |
| WLW meets Kawempe Youth Centre | 23 March 2019 | Wiki Loves Women | Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda | Kawempe Youth Centre ,Kawempe | This included training of secondary students and trainers at the kawempe youth centre | |
| WLW meets Girl-Up Initiative | 16 March 2019 | Wiki Loves Women | Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda | Goethe Zentrum - Kampala | Girl-Up Initiative | |
| AUGA-DAAD Scientific Writing and Publishing Workshop | 16 March 2019 | Presentation/Tools | Makerere University | Entebbe/Uganda | See Presentation | |
| WikiGap 2019 Kampala | 8 March 2019 | WikiGap | WUGU | Makerere University Main Campus Library | WikiGap 2019 | |
| Wikigap - pre event | 02 March 2019 | WikiGap | WUGU | Makerere University Main Campus Library | ||
| WOUGNET | 13 February 2019 | Wiki Loves Women | WOUGNET offices | WLW meets WOUGNET | ||
| Meet the Journalist | 8 February 2019 | Wiki Loves women | WUGU | Goethe Zentrum - Kampala | WLW meets Journalists | |
| Wiki-Translate | 8 February 2019 | Wiki loves Women | WUGU | Goethe Zentrum - Kampala |
Activities in 2018 edit
| Event | Date | Theme | Organiser | Venue | Dashboard | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WLW Meets Ugandan Bloggers | 15 December 2018 | Wiki Loves Women | Alice Kibombo | Goethe Zentrum - Kampala | Bloggers event | |
| Wikidata in Mbarara | 27 October 2018 | Wiki Loves Women | Geoffrey Kateregga ,Steven Bukulu , Alice Kibombo | Hive Colab ,Mbarara | Wikidata in Mbarara | |
| Wiki Loves Monuments Uganda | 1st September- 30th September | Kateregga Geoffrey | ||||
| WLW meets Women In Technology | 8 September 2019 | Women in Technology ,Wiki Loves Women | Geoffrey Kateregga , Alice Kibombo | WITU Offices | WITU Edit-a-thon | |
| Wikipedia workshop with Femrite (WLW) | 26th July | Editing Wikipedia for writers | Erina Mukuta | |||
| Wikimania | 20/07/2018-22/07/2018 | Ubuntu | wikimedia | Southern Sun Cape Sun capetown | ||
| WikimeetsACCT | August | Three day conference | Fabian Von Bubnoff | Kabale | ||
| Wikiday with femrite | 26/07/2018 | Wiki loves women | Erina Mukuta | Uganda Museum | ||
| Monthly Meet up | 30/06/2018 | User group meeting with Femrite | Douglas Sebagala | Femrite | ||
| Monthly meet up | 28/04/2018 | WikiData | Geoffrey Katerrega | Goethe | ||
| Art+ Feminisim | Art+Feminism | Douglas Sebagala | Goethe | |||
| Wiki Loves Women | Steve bukulu | |||||
| Wiki Loves Monuments | Erina Mukuta | |||||
| Wiki Loves Africa | Alice Kibombo |
- Wiki loves Women 2018 (see for full description)
- Wiki Loves Monuments 2018
- Wiki loves Africa 2019
- WikiGap 2019
- 1Lib 1Ref
Others edit
East Africa meetup organised by the Tanzanian team and community team at WMF . This week constituted of trainings about Wikipedia and wiki data. We were from four countries namely kenya, tanzania , uganda and mozambique. We concluded with resolutions to form and east african community that goes on beyond one weekend.
Partnerships edit
Most of these partnered in various ways such as participation in events while others contributed in terms of space and social media mileage. These include but are not limited ro :
- Embassy of Sweden in Kampala
- FEMRITE
- Girl-Up Initiative Uganda
- Goethe Zentrum - Kampala
- High Sound Uganda
- Hive Colab
- Internet Society - Uganda Chapter
- Kawempe Youth Centre (KYC)
- Luganda Department, Makerere University
- School of Women and Gender Studies - Makerere University,
- Uganda Blogging Community
- Women In Technology Uganda (WITU)
- Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)
Community Good edit
The members of the Wikimedia Community Usergroup in Uganda have continued to volunteer their time and expressing commitment in carrying out training sessions, workshops, and other activities that benefit different communities and also promote free knowledge sharing and collaboration for the good of the Movement.
- Some of these activities can be accessed on our events and projects page.
- Project activities have benefited the intended communities in Uganda, for example Women, during the Wiki Loves Women Project, which has enabled the Usergroup build a database of volunteers, potential partners, content on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects that can be considered as stakeholders for future collaboration.
- The rapid grants program has enabled volunteer members increase content through activities like Wiki Loves Monuments which saw 590 photos uploaded during the campaign, Wiki Loves Africa, as well as an outreach to technical institutions outside Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.
- The Usergroup has carried out a Movement Strategy salon for the Community members to provide input to the Movement Strategy Process for Wikimedia 2030, which has been instrumental in having the community understand what the future of the movement holds for them, how they can provide input and how they can be part of the Strategic Direction.
The members are drafting documents and by-laws for the process of legal status, as a company limited by guarantee [1], in the country.
Challenges edit
Despite having a successful year where we were able to get the User Group officially affiliated to the Wikimedia Foundation, and also run several projects, and events, we still faced some challenges as outlined below:
- Thefty at events: Because our events are open to the public, sometimes this attracts bad characters. On two different events, one of the participants lost money from her wallet and on the other someone lost a phone. We have so far taken precautions to make sure this doesn't happen again, by registering people with their identity cards on arrival and also finding out how they got to know about the event and which organisations they are working with.
- Receiving funds late to run projects. The other challenge we have faced is receiving microgrants late into projects, for example, we received a rapid grant in the last week of a one-month competition, which made utilization of the funds according to the initial plan very difficult. To avoid this in the future, we are making an annual plan way ahead of time so we can plan accordingly.
- Lack of citations for articles. When working on the Wiki Loves Women project where we wrote articles on notable women in Uganda, there were very few sources we could use to cite the articles, as a result, most of the articles written were always rejected. This greatly discouraged new editors, who quickly threw in the towel once their articles were rejected. To solve this challenge, we are encouraging new editors to start by improving existing articles instead of starting off with new articles. This helps build their confidence and improves their editing skills before they get to submit new articles.
Looking Forward edit
- The usergroup is working towards an organisation status to aide in some processes and hence improve management
- Be part of two international competitions
- Build the east african community
- Start a one year resident project to improve on the luganda wikipedia