Visibility Project 2023/Reports

Visibility Project 2023
for Kenya and Nigeria
February 01–28, 2023

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List of participants

This session includes details of activities that were implemented as part of the Visibility Project 2023. This includes information about the number of participants, the training and mentorship implemented, and the number of articles created. Other information includes our learning, such as what worked well, what did not work well, and what we would do differently in the next editions.

Overview of project scope and implementation

Project objectives	Resources	Strategy	Targets	Achieved outcomes
Build capacity for female journalists on Wikipedia editing	Experienced trainers Internet Zooms Project manager	organized series of trainings led by experienced Wikipedia editors	4 training sessions	4 training sessions
Mentor trainees at the end of the training.	Experienced mentors Internet Zooms Project manager	Participants would be grouped into two groups with mentors assigned to each group. Mentorship are conducted for two weeks	1 mentor per group and 1 week of mentorship	Mentorship was conducted as planned
Assign tasks for participants.	Experienced trainers Internet Zooms Project manager	Assign at least 1 article to each participants	assign articles to 100 participants	articles were assigned to 35 participants
Create new articles at the end of the training.	Experienced mentors Internet Zooms Project manager	Guide particioants to create new contents	Create 20 articles	30 articles were created and 23 articles improved

Overview of training and mentorship program

The training plan was implemented, and it ran from February 6 through February 10, 2023. Four training sessions led by experienced editors were implemented. A total of 85 journalists participated in the training. At the end of the training, the participants were grouped into two groups, and experienced mentors were assigned to each of the two groups. Mentoring sessions commenced on Monday, February 13, 2023, and tasks were assigned to participants after the mentorship program was completed.

Mentorees were onboarded onto the outreach dashboard; of the 85 participants who joined the training, only 41 participants created Wikipedia accounts and were onboarded onto the outreach dashboard. The onboarded participants were instructed to complete six training modules, but only 30 participants actively participated.

The participants who failed to participate were asked what the challenges were; they cited a busy schedule and the scarcity of naira in Nigeria, among other reasons. A total of 26 participants created a total of 30 articles via their sandboxes and improved 23 existing articles.

List of articles created

List of articles improved dusing the program

Program evaluation and assessment

We evaluated the impact of the training and mentorship on the participants. Prior to the training and mentorship, the participants had little or no experience with how Wikipedia works, including its pillars such as the Neutral Point of View (NPOV) policy. But at the end of the training and mentorship, 26 participants had successfully created 30 Wikimedia articles and improved at least 23 existing Wikipedia articles.

During the program, short how-to videos were sent to the WhatsApp group to help mentees with different problems they thought they were having. The participants now have a basic understanding of how Wikipedia works, including encyclopedic writing, the Wikipedia manual of style, a neutral point of view, a conflict of interest, citations, linking to other Wikipedia articles, segmentation, categorization, moving an article from the sandbox to draft and mainspace, and submitting articles for review.

What worked well for the program?

The best tool for mentoring was the short videos that were made as problems came up throughout the program. A link to the previous video on creating Wikipedia articles was sent to the WhatsApp group. As individual challenges sprung up, short videos were created to guide mentees on the steps to take.
The personal chats and quick answers to all questions were also helpful during the mentorship period.

What didn't work well for the program?

The number of mentees assigned to mentors was the program's main challenge. A lot of participants were assigned to each mentor, which made reaching out to them on an individual basis quite difficult. As some are progressing fast, the challenges of others always draw us back, making it difficult to make quality progress. This led to many of the participants not being very active during the time frame.
Another challenge is the scope of the event. Nigerian women have been sufficiently covered on Wikipedia. This makes it difficult for participants to search for potential articles. To make it more challenging, the focus of this year was on women in politics, (which is already sufficiently covered on Wikipedia as it relates to Nigeria).

Ways to address the highlighted challenges in the future

One way to make upcoming events more efficient is to reduce the number of participants assigned to a mentor (say, 10–15 participants per mentor). This would make it easier for mentors to effectively communicate with their mentees.

In future events, if the scope is to be limited to a particular field, mentees should be given article suggestions to guide them. We should also begin to look into other African countries and explore their women if we are to get positive engagement and metrics.