Queerpedia Project
Queerpedia Project
The Queerpedia project is an initiative aimed at empowering LGBTQ+ persons in Nigeria to contribute to the Wikimedia projects and creating a community of LGBTQ+ contributors in Nigeria. Our goal is to create and populate content about LGBT+ Nigerians, their history, struggles, and achievements, in order to promote visibility, acceptance, and understanding of the LGBTQ+ community in Nigeria.
| Queerpedia June 2023 to April 2024 | |
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 Queerpedia project logo |
| Follow us to keep updated! | |
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| Queerpedia | |
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| YouTube | TBA |
| Hashtag | #QP23 |
We are embarking on a mission to bridge the gap in content about the Nigeria LGBTQ+ community.
Our project aims to empower young queer individuals in Nigeria to become active and diligent editors on the Wikimedia projects. By creating a community of Wiki queer editors, we hope to curate, edit, and develop new/existing content on wiki sites, enhancing knowledge and accessibility while changing the narratives about the LGBTQ+ community. Our project seeks to bridge the content gender gap, age, geography, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, cultural background, ethnicity, religion, and language. We aim to build the data collection and editing capacities of each participant to become active and diligent editors on the Wikimedia projects.
Through our fellowship programs, we provide aspiring LGBTQ+ contributors with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively contribute to Wikimedia projects and also train others by organizing sessions. We have conducted two in-person residential training sessions, as well as virtual programs and mentoring. Our trainees learn how to navigate controversy and safety measures while contributing to Wikimedia projects as queer persons.
We are committed to creating a safe and inclusive space for our trainees to learn, share their experiences, and connect with other LGBTQ+ contributors in Nigeria. We envision a future where there is a thriving community of LGBTQ+ contributors in Nigeria, creating and populating content about themselves and their experiences.
Join us in our mission to promote visibility, acceptance, and understanding of the LGBTQ+ community in Nigeria. Sign up for our Queerpedia Program today and become a part of the movement towards a more inclusive Nigeria.
Background
editQueerpedia Program is a project that seeks to empower LGBTQ+ persons in Nigeria to create and populate content about themselves and their experiences on Wikimedia projects. We recognize the importance of representation and visibility of LGBTQ+ persons in Nigeria, and believe that creating and populating content about them is crucial in achieving this.
Due to the non-interest of Nigerians in contributing, there is inadequate and outdated information about the Nigeria LGBTQ+ community on Wikipedia. This has led to a gap in information relating to LGBTQ content online or in print media, with information about LGBTQ+ content on the internet poorly written or curated in a way that spreads misinformation and stokes fear and homophobia in mainstream popular culture. Our project aims to address this gap in content by empowering young queer individuals in Nigeria to become active and diligent editors on the Wikimedia projects.
Objectives
editThe overarching aim of this collaborative project is to increase the number of Nigeria LGBTQ+ topics on the Wikimedia projects and also create a community of Wikimedia LGBTQ+ contributors in Nigeria.
The objectives therefore are:
- Train approximately 100 queer Nigerians to understand and contribute to the Wikimedia Projects.
- Populate LGBTQ+ topics about Nigerians on the Wikimedia projects.
- Create a community of Wiki Nigeria LGBTQ+ contributors in Nigeria.
Our objective is to create a community of LGBTQ+ contributors in Nigeria who are empowered to contribute to Wikimedia projects and create content about themselves and their experiences. We aim to promote visibility, acceptance, and understanding of the LGBTQ+ community in Nigeria through our training programs, mentoring, and community-building initiatives. Our goal is to create a safe and inclusive space for LGBTQ+ persons to learn, share their experiences, and connect with other contributors in Nigeria.
Methods
edit- Our project aims to empower minority queer groups in Nigeria by bridging the gap in content about the Nigeria LGBTQ+ community.
- We plan to train and recruit a diverse group of participants represented from all the 6 geographical zones of Nigeria.
- Participants will undergo a 3-day in-person training on Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia commons, and leading/organizing community.
- After the in-person training, participants will be mentored virtually and supported for two months and will curate, edit, or develop new/existing content on wiki sites.
- Six official fellows (one from each zone) will be retained for a period of six months as our ambassadors for each zone where they will be responsible for organizing meetups in their states.
- Our project will conduct different meetups, programs, contests, and campaigns for contributors around Nigeria to participate and share their success stories in the wiki movement.
- We aim to involve participants from underrepresented communities in gender identity, sexual orientation, geographic, ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, socioeconomic status, linguistic/language, digital access.
- By partnering with the Wikimedia Movement, we aim to create a community of Wiki queer editors to achieve our objective.