Projects and programs contributing to increase the quality and quantity of African content on Wikipedia and its sister projects, and to foster access and participation to the Wikimedia projects in Africa. For the full list of initiatives please refer to the timeline.
Wikiprojects coordinate the development of content related to Africa on different Wikipedia linguistic editions. There are general projects related to Africa and more specific projects related to regions and nations. Of course also other thematic projects develop content related to Africa (es. geography, cinema, art, literature...).
Research projects releasing content in cc by-sa and contributing to the Wikimedia projectsEdit
In 2009-2010 WikiAfrica has set a milestone of 30'000 African contributions to the Wikimedia projects by 2012. The milestone was reached by uploading the the Wikimedia projects texts and in particular images in collaboration with 100 institutions and many people.
African languages is a project which focuses on African languages in Wikimedia projects, in order to increase the number of writers on the continent itself. In particular the project presents on African languages with many speakers, but not many writers, so excluding French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and Afrikaans.
Conferences, presentations and events. Conferences in Africa about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, and conferences anywhere about Africa on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects.
Education and Training. Initiatives to involve schools and universities in contributing to the Wikimedia projects and training to support the capacity of individuals to contribute to the Wikimedia projects. Wikipedia Academy.
Wiki Indaba was a 3 day conference held in Johannesburg (South Africa) from the 20th - 22nd June 2014. It was a gathering of African Wikimedians and other open knowledge volunteers who are aligned to our mission.
The goals of the conference were to:
Establish a sustainable dialogue with collaborators in Wikimedia Chapters, the Wikimedia Foundation and the international communities to frame the issue of community activation and corporate governance in the context of Africa.
Build a shared understanding of what it means to be a volunteer in Africa and why it is important.
Connect, multiply and create successful initiatives for increasing community activation and support within regions.
Wiki Loves Monuments. An international photo contest which invites everybody to document monuments and post them on Wikimedia Commons. In 2012 the contest is also organised in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
Information on active chapters, affiliates, institutions and people active in contributing to projects and initiatives related to Africa and in Africa are listened in the Africa community page.
Wikimedia Movement. Wikimedia chapters and affiliations with existing institutions in Africa. Wikimedia South Africa and Wikimedia Kenya.
Collaboration with GLAMs. Collaboration with galleries, libraries, archives and museums in Africa or with content related to Africa to facilitate uploads of existing documentation and their involvement in the Wikimedia projects (through events, meetings, training, presentations). GLAM Newsletter.
Afriphone Wikipedias - a mailing list and yahoo group focussing on working on Wikipedias in African languages, which has been active since it was started at Wikimania in 2006.
Mailing List - a mailing list for wikimedians who are interested in sharing project work and ideas across the continent of Africa. Started after the WikiIndaba conference in June 2014.
Iberocoop (Regional Cooperation Initiative for Ibero-America) links together the local chapters and working groups, thus fostering collaboration and experience sharing. Ibero-America supposes a strategic area where the organization of the Wikimedia movement is still a big challenge. In 2012 the network does not include Lusophone African groups (do any exist?).
WikiFrancA - French speaking community. In 2012 there have been a meeting during Wikimania 2012 and there have been the establishment of a specific mailing list.
Arabic Language Initiative supports the Arabic Wikipedia community in order to develop the overall status of Arabic Wikipedia and reduce the gap between the over 400 million speakers and the below 200K articles. It is one of the Wikimedia Foundation's global development projects directed towards Global South.
Wikidata. A free, collaborative, multilingual, secondary database, collecting structured data to provide support for Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, the other Wikimedia projects, and well beyond that.
Research and resources (incuding communication tools)Edit
Research. Articles, publications, studies and information design about Africa on Wikipedia, African languages and the involvement of African users on the Wikimedia projects.
Bookshelf project. Materials and communication tools to present Wikipedia and its sister projects.
Videos video Share Your Knowledge why and video Share Your Knowledge how. The videos address GLAMs and they have been produced in collaboration with the Africa Centre; the voices have been recorded in South Africa (including the voice of Francis Awinda Wikipedian in residence at the Africa Centre, from Kenya).
↑OLPC XO-1. (2012, November 3). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:21, January 14, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OLPC_XO-1&oldid=521222674. On August 4, 2006, the Wikimedia Foundation announced that static copies of selected Wikipedia articles would be included on the laptops. Jimmy Wales, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, said that "OLPC's mission goes hand in hand with our goal of distributing encyclopedic knowledge, free of charge, to every person in the world. Not everybody in the world has access to a broadband connection."[64] Negroponte had earlier suggested he would like to see Wikipedia on the laptop. Wales feels that Wikipedia is one of the "killer apps" for this device.
