Decolonise the Internet (Nigeria)
Decolonise the Internet
Background edit
The Goethe-Institut’s new programme “Decolonise the Internet” focuses on bridging the unequal representation of voices from the Global South on the internet and aims to increase awareness on how AI and algorithms might perpetuate racisms. The projects take place in ten different countries in sub-Saharan Africa and have different formats, such as edit-a-thons, podcasts and texts. In Nigeria, the Goethe-Institut has partnered with the Wikimedia UG Nigeria
The Goethe-Institut edit
The Goethe-Institut is the Federal Republic of Germany’s cultural institute, active worldwide. Its mandate is to promote the study of German abroad and to encourage international cultural exchange. Today it is represented in 98 countries and has some 3,300 employees. It contributes widely to the promotion of artists, ideas and works. Supporting the local cultural scenes and strengthening pan- African dialogue through the arts are part of its mission on the African continent, where it operates 19 institutes in Abidjan, Accra, Addis Ababa, Alexandria, Cairo, Casablanca, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Kigali, Lagos, Lomé, Luanda, Nairobi, Rabat, Tunis, Windhoek and Yaoundé, as well as liaison offices in Algiers, Kinshasa and Ouagadougou and cultural associations in Antananarivo, Bamako, Cape Town, Harare, Kampala and Maputo.
Wikimedia User Group Nigeria edit
Wikimedia User Group Nigeria is one of over 165 international affiliates of Wikimedia Foundation Inc, headquartered in San Francisco, United States of America. It was registered as Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation Inc. as a non-profit organization in Nigeria with the aims of promoting open license initiatives in Nigeria through the promotion of Wikipedia and its sister projects.
The Project edit
In Nigeria, the project has been designed to address the existing gender gap and systemic bias against Nigerian women by focusing on improving their visibility on the internet. To achieve these objectives we have been planning to initiate a number of initiatives, including (1) a social media campaign aimed at advocating the achievements of exceptional women in Nigeria as role models for the upcoming generation (@wikimediang on Facebook and Twitter, and officialwikimediang on instagram ), (2) a capacity development program called Basic Wikipedia Training as a means of equipping interested participants with writing skill in content creation, and (3) a writing contest aimed at improving support the improvement of Wikipedia content on existing Nigerian women that are not well written and creating new articles to tell new stories of Nigerian women from the African perspective.
Project Timeline /Work Plan edit
| S/n | Activities | Time Line | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Call for Applications | 7th- 20th September | |
| 2 | Researcher/ Collection of data | 7th- 20th September | |
| 3 | Sorting, Selection and announcement of Successful applicants for the training | 21st -25th September | |
| 4 | Social Media Campaign | Mid September- mid November | |
| 5 | Training (3sets of Training) | 1st Set: 28th Sept- 2 Oct 2nd Set: 5th-9th Oct 3rd Set: 12th-17th Oct |
|
| 6 | Writing Competition | 2nd-15th November | |
| 7 | Review of articles | 16th- 30th November | |
| 8 | Announcement of Result | 2nd December |
Basic Wikipedia Modular Training edit
To kick-off, we organized three Basic Wikipedia Modular Trainings to open up the world of Wikipedia to African Women! Studies have shown that most of the articles on Wikipedia are written from Europe and the US – and articles written from Africa are mainly written by men.
Therefore, the aim was to particularly encourage African Women to learn about Wikipedia and to take up the important task of adding knowledge to Wikipedia.
The Basic Wikipedia Modular Training took place ONLINE in October and consisted of 5 sessions that lasted 2 hours each from Monday to Friday.
Schedule of Basic Wikipedia Training edit
| Date | Activities | Facilitators | Links to Training Video | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28th Sept 5th & 12th Oct |
Cheat Sheet of Wikipedia editing | Sam Oyeyele | ||
| 29th Sept 6th & 13th Oct |
Basic Wikipedia editing and how to cite a reference | Uzoma Ozurumba | ||
| 30th Sept 7th $ 14th Oct. |
Flow of Creating Wikipedia Page | Ayokanmi Oyeyemi | ||
| 1th,8th & 15th Oct | Copyright & Free licenses (Wikimedia Commons) | Olatunde Isaac | ||
| 2nd,9th & 16th Oct | Translation of articles into other language versions of Wikipedia: How to use the content translation tool | Samuel Okepefi |
Writing & Translating Competition: Nigerian Heroines edit
The Writing & Translating Competition is a national contest designed to celebrate and improve the visibility of Nigerian women. This means that the articles can be about any Nigerian woman who has made an impact – in the past or present. You could either translate an already existing English article into one of the Nigerian languages present on Wikipedia or create a completely new article in any of the languages.
The contest will be organised in all the four Wikimedia communities in Nigeria:
- Hausa Wikipedia
- Igbo Wikipedia
- Yoruba Wikipedia
- English Wikipedia
The contest runs from November 2nd until November 22nd, 2020.
Winners will be announced on the 2nd of December 2020.
What prizes are offered? edit
The competition will award a laptop to the winner and a smartphone for runner up for each Writing Competition ( En, ha,ig, and yo).
Judging ( Rules) edit
A jury consisting of (1) community liaison officers and (2) experienced Wikimedians from each community will decide on the criteria for the writing competition.
| Element | Exemplary 3 |
Proficient 2 |
Partially Proficient 1 |
Unsatisfactory 0 |
Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content | Is it reasonably well written? It provides a fresh and balanced perspective on the topic. | Provides original ideas with a minimum of personal bias. | Provides one or two original ideas which include some personal bias. | Does not provide any original ideas and personal bias is obvious. | ____/3 |
| Content | The content is very neutral with fair representation without bias | The content is moderately neutral with fair representation without bias | The content is fairly neutral with fair representation without bias | The content is not neutral | ____/3 |
| Content | The prose is excellently clear and concise, without copyvios, or spelling and grammar errors | The prose is moderately clear and concise, without copyvios, or spelling and grammar errors. | Provides only minimal understanding, or reflective thought about the topic with some copyvios, or spelling and grammar errors. | Provides no understanding or reflective thought about the topic and contains too many copyvios, spelling and Grammar errors | ____/3 |
| Content | Excellent Manual ofStyle (MOS) compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists | Good Manual ofStyle (MOS) compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists | Fair Manual ofStyle (MOS) compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists | Poor Manual ofStyle (MOS) compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists | ____/3 |
| Content | It is factually accurate and verifiable. | It is moderately accurate and verifiable | It is fairly accurate and verifiable. | It is poorly accurate and verifiable | ____/3 |
| Wiki-Links | Excellent Wiki-link to existing articles to enhance the information presented. | Good Wiki-link to existing articles to enhance the information presented | Fair Wiki-link to existing articles to enhance the information presented | Does not include any Wiki-links | ____/3 |
| Media files | The article contains a high-quality image(s) with an appropriate caption | The article contains a quality image(s) with an appropriate caption | The article contains a fair quality image(s) with an appropriate caption | The article does not contain any image(s) with an appropriate caption | ____/3 |
| Media files | Images are excellently tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content | Images are moderately tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content | Images are fairly tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content | Images do not contain any copyright information. | ____/3 |
| Citation | Consistently uses the standard bibliographic format to cite sources | Uses standard bibliographic format to cite sources most of the time. | Does not use standard bibliographic format to cite sources, and citations are incomplete | Does not cite any sources | ____/3 |
| Citation | Accurately cites all sources of information to support the credibility and authority of the | Most sources are cited accurately and support the credibility of the information presented. | Few sources are cited accurately and support the credibility of the information presented | Does not provide any accurate information about the sources | ____/3 |
| Translation | Translation is done without a machine (Google Translation for example) in the language of the local Wikipedia with an excellent diacritical mark | Translation is done without a machine (Google Translation for example) in the language of the local Wikipedia with a moderate diacritical mark | Translation is done without a machine (Google Translation for example) in the language of the local Wikipedia with a no diacritical marks | Translation is done with a machine(Google Translation for example) with no diacritical marks | ____/3 |
| Category | The article is placed in the appropriate categories. It is placed in at least 3 categories | The article is placed in the appropriate categories. It is placed in at least 2 categories | The article is placed in the appropriate categories. It is placed in at least 1 categories | The article does not contain any category | ____/3 |
| Number of bytes of words | The article contains at least 3000 bytes of words | The article contains at least 2000 bytes of words | The article contains at least 2000 bytes of words | The article contains at least 1000 bytes of words | ____/3 |