Internship experience report-Tshepiso Ngaleka

Internship experience Report

Background: The internship was aimed at providing 2 members of the South African youth an opportunity to gain experience within the Communications field as communications Interns within WikimediaZA. We were to gain this experience by completing relevant tasks aimed at assisting in personal growth. Duration:11th April to 11th October Place: The internship was completely remote. Hours: The internship as stated during the induction allowed for each intern to work 5 hours a day. At their convenience. Equipment: We were given a laptop and router.

KPI: First cohort

No	Activity	Goal
1.	Two TV Interviews	No
2.	Double WMZA Social media following	Yes
3.	4 Radio Interviews	yes
4.	4 Print Media articles	Yes
5.	Assisted admin n setting up and packing up event	Yes
6	Creating and monitoring of dashboard	Yes

Although we did not get interviews an arrangement was made with our colleagues that YouTube videos would replace the interviews. A lack of response by organisations who we sent media advisories/press releases

Trainings Received

• Only a handful of trainings were completed and although beneficial they did not fully assist me in understanding the communications field in depth. The following trainings were offered
• Induction and training of the wiki back end.
• Social media management.
• Training on familiarizing ourselves to the terms used in the Queer community. Date: Unknown
• Asana Training
• How to use the organizations emails.
• How to use Inkscape.
• How to use Mail Chimp and how to write a press release

Creation of Wikimedia letterhead

Upon starting the internship sought to improve the organisations letterhead by creating a new one which is currently being used. This was both exciting and a learning moment on how to design.

Meetings attended

These meetings were all attended at the request of our colleagues as an opportunity for us interns to gain experience. However, they did not yield results due to the organisations going silent on us or miscommunication.

• Pride of Africa: To add content on pride and pride events
• AC2: Recruit members of the LGBTQI+ to edit on Wikipedia
• University of Mpumalanga language program.
• University of Swaziland.

Social Media Impact

We updated our social media pages weekly. In total we managed to gain 200 page follows across our social media pages. These numbers grow daily. Training on how to use social media was delivered and assisted a lot in understanding some aspects of social media management. Press Releases: We wrote press releases and sent them to media houses. The press releases did not yield the desired result. Due to a lack of training. The training occurred earlier in September after the events. Total: 4

Events Organized

We were requested to do several tasks for the Wikimania that included looking for venues, entertainment, and catering. However, due to miscommunication confusion occurred for guests attending which was rectified a day before the event. This served as a learning experience as it highlights areas that may affect an events success. Total: 1

Concept Notes

For most projects or meetings we were told to prepare concept notes. The training for this was not done, however we were provided an old draft to copy from. This assisted greatly with what was required. Total: 6

Dashboards

Dashboards were created for all the events that occurred and did not occur. These dashboards were created by me and my fellow intern. Here are the links: Digify Africa: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Digify_Africa/Digify_Africa_Edit-a thon AC2: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Access_Chapter_2/Access_Chapter _2_Edit-a-thon Pride of Africa: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/WikimediaZA_and_Pride_Africa/Prid e_Africa_edit-a-thon Kimberley Edit-a-thon: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Kimberley_Library_Book_Club/Kimb erley_library_edit-a-thon

Articles

We wrote articles for the events that occurred during our internship. These ranged from physical and online Newsletter: We received assistance in terms of the newsletter. It will be completed before the end of our contract. It is being done via Canva and word. It will cover some of the stories during our cohort and before our cohort. All documents listed and findings have been attached and provided.

Issues encountered

• Lack of sufficient training.
• Laptop microphone shutting down
• Communication breakdown
• Tasks that did not address or assist in the fulfilment of our KPIs 5. Stagnant responses to tasks that needed urgent replies e.g. YouTube videos that needed to be approved. Approval is still pending.
• Lack of adequate and user-friendly programs e.g. canva pro, video editing programs, etc. These would have assisted making the completion of work easier and polished.
• Work being requested outside of office ours and the stipulated time given. Resulting in overtime
• Emails not working after wikimania making it difficult to communicate and missing meetings

Overall experience

Although there was a bit of adjusting the program itself was enjoyable and taught me a lot about Wikimedia. We got to experience different personalities and meet interesting characters that made the tasks slightly easier. My co-workers assisted in my general growth outside of the internship and the opportunity is greatly appreciated.

Recommendations

For the program to succeed and sustain an individual that works within the communications sector should lead the program. Sufficient training would be of benefit to future interns. Exposure to all individuals within the organisation should be considered to avoid conflict and confusion. Providing of equipment such as cameras and microphones for interviews. In house finance officer to allow for payments to be done on time.