Igbo Wikimedians User Group - Annual Report 2022/2023

This report outlines the accomplishments and activities of the group between May 6 2022 and May 5. 2023.

Activities

One of our main goals for the year 2022 and 2023 was to increase the number of contents in Igbo Language across various Wikimedia platforms. To achieve this goal, between May 2022- May 5th 2023, we organized edit a thons, contests, monthly webinars and other activities. The simple Annual Grant was a great push to achieving these goals. We were able to support our community members with micro grants to enable us achieve the goals together.

Below, is a detailed report of our activities:

May 2022 to May 2023 programs

The year 2022 started out on a very good note for the Igbo Wikimedians User Group. The first half the year went well with a lot of accomplishments. This was as a result of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group Simple Annual Grant 2022 which we appreciate the Foundation for. We've been able to explore and go all out without setbacks. This year, we were able to develop two unforeseen collaborations with: Black Lunch Table to host the Black History month. This led to the production of over 5000 articles which can be seen on the dashboard here. Another wonderful [Software Collaboration for Wikidata is with the Wikimedia Deutschland for our Wiki Mentor Africa program which involves a two year funding collaboration to develop the skills of young African developers. In the first to third edition, we've seen interests from an average of 55 developers from Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda etc. We have also been able to improve the User Interface of the Igbo Wikipedia and brought the Igbo Wikipedia to 8,299 articles. Our baby projects in the incubator namely: Igbo Wikiquote has gone from 30 quotes to 2,384 and Igbo Wiktionary from 1,500 to 2,180 with approval to leave the incubator. We have also been to improve the skillsets of our community members through learning webinars etc. This is a documentation of the programs carried out by the Igbo Wikimedians User Group and across its hubs and fan clubs in 2022.

1Lib1Ref: Fix reference errors on the Igbo Wikipedia- 11/05/2022

1Lib1Ref: fixing reference errors is an edit-a-thon event for participants and members of the Ig Wiki Librarians Hub. The aim of this event is to ensure clean articles on the Igbo Wikipedia by fixing existing reference errors that were generated during the process of translating and publishing articles. 15 editors were expected but at the end of the event, 14 editors registered on the dashboard, 11 participants for in-person and 3 participants for online. A total of 215 articles were edited (as at 11th May, 2022, 20:00 WAT) and reference errors were fixed. For more information see the event dashboard

Igbo Wikimedians User Group 1Lib1Ref cite-a-thon – 15/05/2022 to 29/05/2022

This is a maiden event for Ig Wiki Librarians Hub and the aim was to join the 1Lib1Ref global campaign. However, at the end of the event (29th May), a total of 21 editors registered on the dashboard, 1.44k references were added, 678 articles were edited, and a total edit of 1.43K as at 30th May 2022 8:09am (WAT). See event dashboard here for more details.

Wiki Club FGGC Bwari-18th May 2022

The Wiki Club of Federal Government Girls College Bwari-Abuja worked on adding content about Nigerian Women in Politics, Media, and Education on Wikidata. 42 Students participated in the project. We created 5 new pages, edited 50 items, and added 169 references and 13 pictures. In summary, we had a total of 397 edits During the Wikidata training, we had some challenges: some students' accounts were blocked and some forgot their password, However the students learnt about about the contributions of the Nigerian Women they worked it and it really gave them encouragement to take their studies seriously. Event dashboard

Wikidata edit-a-thons/training on Mapping and increasing Nigeria hospitals. 19/05/2022 – 24/05/2022

A Wikidata series of Edit-A-Thon/training carried out in IG Wikidata FPI Fan Club, Federal Polytechnic Idah kogi state; to train the participants on how they can contribute to wikidata creating their items on mapping and increasing Nigeria hospitals on [1]

The event took place on Saturday, the 19th May, 2022 at the school (FPI) premises kogi State.

The event focused on recruiting new members, introducing and teaching both old and new participants the basics of creating articles on Wikimedia spaces and most important here on [2]

It also focused on rejuvenating the interest of the members to participate at the various levels of the Foundation's Activities, by first getting themselves familiar with in the various projects going on at both the Club Level and Community Level.

At the end of the event, a total of 27 Editors were present at the event, a brief training was also organized for 2 Editors that was interested, 19 Editors successfully registered while other members including those that had username before were Globally Blocked while trying to Sign-up.

100 Items was the targeted task to be carried out but, 115 Items was shortlisted on the meta page [3]

Meanwhile, the participants had successfully created and completed all the 115 items on the meta page in 24hours and more were added from the research made by the Editors.

As at the time/end of this project being 24th May, 2022 177 Items were Created; 187 Items Edited with a total of 1.68k Edits were recorded within 72hours. Comprehensive information can be found on the event dashboard. [4]

Women around the world on Igbo Wikiquote – 25/05/2022

This event which was held on 25th May 2022 in Awka, Anambra State, focused on creating and translating English Wikiquote articles of women to Igbo Wikiquote. Expected number of participants was 20. We had a turn out of over 20 Participants at the training. 23 of them were able to login the dashboard while others were blocked. Target number of Wikiquote articles to be created was 100. After the program we created 152 Igbo Wikiquote articles. The event was a success despite the challenge of having some of our Participants blocked during the training. Other information can be found on the event dashboard.

Edit-a-thon on African Women in media. 27/05/2022

This event carried out on 27th May,2022 at Okpuno,Awka focused on the impact of sourcing new members to join the movement, training the new and old members on the basics of translating Wikipedia and how to translate from a source language to target language, creating new articles on African Women in media which is part of the impact the project promise to render.29 participants attended the program which 16 out of them were new participants. At the end of the event,21 participants where able to login and 9 out of them were blocked which the event produced 152 articles but After the end date, we have 187 articles created,197 articles edited and 206 total edits. The program was a successful on only with the challenge of several participants being blocked, discouraging more who would have joined.Other information can be found on the board

Wiktionary Edit-a-thon.28/05/2022

During the event 11 editors registered for the edit a thon, At the end of the project 283 pages were created, 396 words were edited and about 40 pictures uploaded on commons and added to the Wiktionary pages. Attached is the dashboard for the event. Find attached detailed information on the Link Below. Event dashboard

A Wikipedia Edit-a-thon/Translate-a-thon on African Entrepreneurs – 28/05/2022

A Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon/translate-a-thon carried out in Igbo Wiki Fan Club, Alvan; to train the participants on how they can contribute to the page page by translating and creating their articles on notable African Entrepreneurs on the ig.wikipedia.org page.

The event took place on Saturday, the 28th May, 2022 at ETF UPSTAIRS, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, Imo State.

The event focused on recruiting new members, introducing and teaching both old and new participants the basics of creating articles on English Wikipedia and translating/ publishing on Igbo Wikipedia page.

It also focused on rejuvenating the interest of the members to participate at the various levels of the Foundation's Activities, by first getting themselves familiar with in the various projects going on at both the Club Level and Community Level.

At the end of the event, a total of 14 Editors successfully registered while 2 new members were Globally Blocked while trying to Sign-up.

As at the time of this report being 30th May, 2022 157 Articles were Created; 158 Edits with a total of 196 Edits were recorded, 10:21 (WAT). Comprehensive information can be found on the event dashboard.

Meanwhile, as at the time of this report, the participants had successfully created and completed all the articles on the ig.wikipedia.org page.

Introduction to the Igbo Wiktionary - 31/05/2022

Introduction to the Igbo Wikitionary was an event to teach and show participants how to create new words, edit existing words and also add Igbo words pronunciation on the Igbo Wiktionary. The event was held in Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria on 31st May, 2022. A total of 21 editors registered for the edit-a-thon, 6 of them being new editors. At the end of the project, 202 new articles were created, 409 articles were edited, and there was a total edit of 940 articles as at 25th June 2022. More information about the project can be found on the event dashboard here

Fixing reference error on the Igbo Wikipedia 2.0 - 29/06/2022

This edition of fixing reference errors was to teach new members, retrain and engage old members of the Ig Wiki Librarians Hub on fixing reference errors. After the previous edition, it was necessary to show more editors how they can successfully correct reference errors. The 2nd edition was held on Wednesday, 29th June, 2022 at Nigerian Book Foundation, Awka, Anambra State. At the end of the event, a total of 15 editors logged into the tracking dashboard with a total of 207 edited articles and 407 total edits as at 30th June, 2022, 10:10 (WAT). see event dashboard for more details.

Learning Webinar 2.0 – FIXING REFERENCE ERRORS ON WIKIPEDIA

On the 2nd of July, we hosted a second edition of our learning webinar to train our community members on how to fix the broken reference errors on Wikipedia. This is in line with one of our objectives for 2022 which includes building the Skillsets of our community members. There were 37 community members in attendance.

Wikipedia Pages Wanting Pictures Training

This is a virtual meet up to train community members on how to improve Wikipedia Pages with Pictures with special focus on the Igbo Wikipedia. It would take place on the 8th of July. Register below if you're attending.

WPWP training Participants

Register for the training below by adding your name under all others. Add #~~~~ to sign your name

Wikidata edit-a-thon/training on Mapping and increasing Nigerian guesthouses. 13/07/2022 – 20/07/2022

A Wikidata series of Edit-A-Thon/training carried out to train the participants on how they can contribute to wikidata, Mapping and increasing Nigerian guesthouses on wikidata [1]

The event took place on from Wednesday, 13th july. on zoom. The first session held on 13th july was an introduction to the wiki-community and how to create an account. The second session held on 17th july was on how to create new items (guesthouses) on wikidata. The last session held on 18th july focused on adding properties and references to the items (guesthouses)

The event focused on recruiting new members, introducing and teaching both old and new participants the basics of creating articles on Wikimedia spaces most importantly on wikidata [1] It also focused on rejuvenating the interest of the members to participate at the various levels of the Foundation's Activities, by first getting themselves familiar with in the various projects going on at both the Club Level and Community Level.

At the end of the event, a total of 29 Editors registered for the event on the dashboard, training was also organized on how to create and setup a wikidata account. Over 15 new Editors successfully registered while some had their IP addresses blocked while trying to Sign-up. 200 Items was the targeted task to be carried out. Meanwhile, the participants had successfully created and completed all the 200 items on the red-list and more were added from the research made by the Editors.

As at the time/end of this project being 20th july, 2022. 315 Items were Created; 362 Items Edited with a total of 1.92k Edits were recorded. Comprehensive information can be found on the event dashboard. [3]

Translate Wikidata properties to Igbo language, 04/08/2022 - 05/08/2022

The online and in-person event was successful. Participants contributed immensely and were willing to uphold the skills and lessons. Some participants continued contributing even after the event ended. At the end of the sessions, there was a total number of 1,830 revisions; 576 labels were added, 615 descriptions were added, 300 aliases were added as at 7th August 2022, 20:08 (WAT). See event dashboard for more details.

There were a few challenges which we overcame during the event. During the event, it was discovered that some participants were not able to translate Wikidata properties to Igbo language because there was no edit button on their interfaces, probably because they are new users or are not autoconfirmed on Wikidata. Despite the challenge and due to their willingness to contribute, the list of places and continents was generated for new participant to translate but the issue of not being able to edit re-occurred. Finally, the new participants, were able to edit the list of Nigerian states and local government areas (items). Furthermore, the event dashboard was not recording the characters added by participants that edited properties. We relied on using the activity log on the dashboard and user contributions of participants to track edits.

Igbo Wikipedia editathon, 20/08/2022 - 27/08/2022

Igbo Wikipedia editathon was an online contest aimed at improving articles on the Igbo Wikipedia. This improvements will enable more information about the article or subject through data boxes. Data box works like the infobox that is seen on the right corner of an article on English Wikipedia or other language Wikipedias. After a week's contest of improving articles on the Igbo Wikipedia, participants were able to edit 7,540 articles and a total of 7,930 edits were made. Prizes was awarded to top participants and other participants were also given consolation prizes. The contest was an interesting one because the list of the total number of articles on the mainspace of the Igbo Wikipedia were edited and improved by adding data boxes. The contributions of participants were tracked using xtool and the events dashboard. For comprehensive information see score sheet and event dashboard

Wikidata+languages: An introduction to Wikidata lexemes, 30/09/2022

This event was organized to introduce Wikidata Lexemes to members of the Ig Wikidata hub. Participants were shown how Igbo lexemes are created on Wikidata. A total of 60 Igbo nouns, verbs, and adjectives were generated for participants to create. After the event, there was a total of 857 Wikidata revision and 136 items were edited and 106 were created as at 05/10/2022. See tracking dashboard for more details.

Peace Activist and Pacifist

A virtual training was organized in the University of Nigeria Wiki Fan Club on translation of English Wikipedia articles to Igbo after which followed an Edit-a-thon. It ran for the span of two weeks which started in the 15th - 29th of October, 2022.

A total of 16 editors were successfully registered on the dashboard but 11 participants attended the training. There were 6 new editors that got trained added to the old editors.

At the end of the Edit-a-thon, 435 Articles Created, 440 Articles Edited and 465 Total. Edits.

Participants were happy to learn new things about Wikimedia Foundation and showed interest to participate more in future events. see event dashboard for more details

Fixing reference errors on Igbo Wikipedia, 11/10/2022

Articles with reference errors increased from 500 to 1000+ articles and it was necessary to show more editors how they can successfully correct reference errors so as to reduce the number of articles with reference errors . Contest was also organised for the new participants and three lucky winners got their gift vouchers. It was held on Tuesday, 11th October, 2022 at Nigerian Book Foundation, Awka, Anambra State. At the end of the event, a total of 26 editors logged into the tracking dashboard with a total of 289 edited articles and 685 total edits as at 12th October, 2022, 23:59 (WAT). see event dashboard for more detailsy:Education in Nigeria]]

African Female Politicians:A Translate-a-thon – 15/10/2022

A Wikipedia translate-a-thon carried out at Igbo Wiki Fan Club, Alvan; on African Female Politicians to increase their visibility and breach the content gap on the ig.wikipedia.org page.

The event focused on rejuvenating, re-engaging and recruiting Wikimedians and teaching newbies on translating/publishing on Igbo Wikipedia. It also focuses on encouraging and indulging the involvement of these newbies in the Translate-A-Thon activities and they were eager and happy to translate/publish articles during the event.

At the end of the event, a total of 18 Editors successfully registered; while quite a number were blocked. As at the time of this report being 26th October, 2022 12:56 (WAT) 937 Articles were Created; 939 Articles were Edited and a total of 1.07K Edits were recorded.

Comprehensive information can be found on the event dashboard.

Wikdata Lexemes Edit-a-Thon – 26/10/2022

The event was organized to train and introduce wikidata Lexemes to members of the Ig Wikidata hub. participants were introduced to wikidata data lexemes and equally trained on how to add lexemes to wikidata, various lexicological data were added to igbo lexemes , the lexemes added were in phrase format, noun, verb and adjectives. At the end of the event, there was a total of 1086 Wikidata revision and 254 items were edited. See tracking dashboard for more details.

Wikidata Edit-a-Thon on Lexemes – 12/10/2022

The event was organized so as to enrich Wikidata with Igbo Lexemes so as to improve the forms of Igbo words and also to educate the participants on the importance of Lexemes to the Wikidata function. Participants were introduced to wikidata data lexemes and were also trained on how to add lexemes to wikidata, different variants of lexical categories totalling to 100 were added as igbo lexemes , the lexemes added were in single word format in as well as phrase format, noun, verb and adjectives and conjunctions.It was held on Tuesday, 12th October, 2022 at Nigerian Book Foundation, Awka.Contest was also organised for the new participants and three lucky winners got their gift vouchers. At the end of the event, there was a total of 761 Wikidata revision with 141 items which was edited and 99 were created as at 12/10/2022. See event dashboard for more details.

MAPPING NYSC ORIENTATION CAMP ON WIKIDATA – 14/10/2022 & 15/10/2022

An edit-a-thon project to create and improve content around National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) orientation camps and their addresses on wikidata. With a focus on recruiting, training and grooming new participants to become active contributors to the wikimovement. Project event was held on the 14th and 15th October of which it was an interesting and refreshing time with the new recruited participants as project goals and outcome were achieved with a total number of 30 participants and 500 items created and improved...for more info about the project, find below the project page and edit tracker made by participants during the event.
Project Page
Edit Tracker

Translating the Software that powers our Local Wikipedia - 21/10/2022

The project sought to teach participants how to translate the interface of our local Wikimedia projects using the Translate Wiki platform. The event was held in Awka, Anambra State on the 21st of October, 2022. A total of 26 editors registered for the training/edit-a-thon. Out of these 26 persons, 4 of them were new editors. At the end of the project, 308 MediaWiki messages were translated. Participants' contributions during the project can be found here

LEXEMES FORM WITH IMAGR FEATURES-15/10/2022 To 30/10/2022

The event was organized virtually for the FPI wikidata Hub participants so as to enrich Wikidata with Igbo Lexemes in other to improve the forms of Igbo words with images and also to educate the participants on the importance of Lexemes to the Wikidata functions. Participants were also introduced to wikidata data lexemes. The project was launch on the 15/10/2022 to 30/10/2022 and Lexical categories of 899 total total edits of images were added to igbo lexemes. Total number of 50 participants was targeted but, the sum of 35 participants was in attendance due to network glitches. See event dashboard for more details. [[5]

Community Development

LEARNING WEBINAR 5.0 (ABC OF WIKIMEDIA) - 9 - 11 December

From the 9th to 11th of December,we hosted a learning webinar titled ABC of Wikimedia specially targeted at new community members to introduce them to the Wikimedia Movement, projects and how to get involved.

Say it Right Project

This was a project developed by a community member to encourage inclusion and diversity in African names. It involved the pronunciation of African names on Wikipedia and Wikidata.

Wiki Mentor Africa

WMA flyer

A program developed by our Wikidata Coordinator udehb aimed at helping new and inexperienced developers/programmers in Africa on not just how to edit WIkidata but also on mentoring them in building and maintaining Wikidata tools by pairing them with creators and contributors. The maiden edition of the Wiki Mentor Africa program titled Linking Biodiversity Data through Wikidata using Webapps and Jupyter Notebook took place from 22nd to 25th of April. With Andra Waagmeester as our first Mentor and udehb as host attracted 113 applications and 33 participating in the program. The program ended its first year with 12 editions and over 300 participants in total. A Diff article about the outcome of its first year can be found here: Year in Review

Outcomes and Learnings

• The annual grant helped us achieve a lot and we wouldn't have done so much without it.
• We've come to learn that we can achieve more as a community than as one individual organizing events.
• There was an increase in content creation while also sharing knowledge in Igbo Language through more projects. Igbo Wikipedia now has over 10,000 articles, while the Igbo Wiktionary and Igbo Wikiquote left the Incubator .
• The micro grants given to our community members helped us organize more outreaches in places we wouldn't be able to.
• Having more Fan Clubs and Hubs was a new way to reach out to unreached Communities.

Challenges

• One major challenge we faced was blocking of participants and community members. It made people lose enthusiasm.