WikiAfrica Hour/Results and best practices 2024
Introduction
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WikiAfrica Hour is a monthly vodcast to support the activities of the WikiAfrica movement and wikimedians across Africa. It is published by Wiki in Africa.
WikiAfrica Hour intends to:
- Share current updates, and highlights of Africa Wikimedians activities
- Interact with guest(s) (if any), and take questions from community members
- Promote synergy within the Wiki community by discussing topics, projects, constraints, collaborations, and opportunities.
Project goals
editThe main goals of the programme are to increase the cohesion of the Wikimedia Movement across by :
- Increasing the understanding of and sharing opportunities within the global Wikimedia Movement
- Showcasing the global movement through an African lens by offering alternative perspectives, applications and solutions
- Providing a platform where African solutions, contributors and leaders are showcased to the regional and global movements
2024 SMART Goals for WikiAfrica Hour
editS: Specific
What needs to be accomplished?
- At least one new live StreamYard broadcast episode of WikiAfrica Hour to air each month.
Who’s responsible for it?
- WikiAfrica Hour is a program proposed and run by Wiki In Africa, and as such Wiki In Africa owns the editorial and curatorial responsibility. The WikiAfrica Hour live broadcast episode is handled by the WikiAfrica Hour team and hosted by different host each episode according to the topic.
M: Measurable
- The activity output is fully measurable by the number of episodes released since inception. From 23rd April 2021 till date, we have successfully hosted 41 episodes.
A: Achievable
- Through the collective effort of the Wiki In Africa team, WikiAfrica Hour has been able to achieve at least one episode every month till date. (In the first 3 months of 2024, there were not be episodes as the team was hiring a new facilitator to the project)
R: Relevant
- The WikiAfrica Hour vodcast is a Live event, a design which enables the community members and audience to ask the guests questions and get responses in real time.
- Each episode is divided into three sections. The first section is the news announcement (which is recorded). The second section is the main bulk which is a conversation among the host and guests which is divided into 3 main conversation topics. There is a space to answer the audience questions during the conversation at the end of each topic. The last section is the In Focus section in which we can zoom into more detail on a person, an event or a project that has impacted the Wikimedia movement in Africa. This In Focus section might be inspiring open interview, echoes from a wiki conference, or something else!
- The African community needed an initiative like WikiAfrica Hour, which:
- Shares current updates, and highlights of Africa Wikimedians activities
- Interacts with guest(s) (if any), and take questions from community members
- Promotes synergy within the Wiki community by discussing topics, projects, constraints, collaborations, and opportunities.
- And most importantly, the episode topic for each month is ensured to be relevant to events happening at that time across the movement!
T- Time-bound
- A WikiAfrica Hour episode usually takes an average of 3 weeks to plan. There is one regular episode done the last Friday of each month at 16 UTC.
How is it implemented
editUser:Donia (WIA) and the entire team brainstorm to come up with a particular topic or title for each month. The team also deliberates on subject matter experts who are knowledgeable about the topic, to be invited as guest speakers during the episode. In this year, we use a new format, to have a new guest host in each episode so that they are engaged and experienced more in the topic of the episode. User:Donia (WIA) researches to get the email addresses of the prospective special guests.
An invitation letter is sent by User:Donia (WIA), to the prospective guests and guest host, detailing the proposed date and time for the episode. The guests either confirm their availability and willingness, or in very rare cases, their unavailability, which results in us finding a substitute.
Upon confirmation of guests, User:Donia (WIA) proceeds to develop the episode script, as already programmed on the episode script template created by Isla Flood-Haddow (User:Islahaddow).
Among the items on the episode script, are tentative questions developed by User:Donia (WIA) for the guests and reviewed by Isla Flood-Haddow (User:Islahaddow) and Florence Devouard (User:Anthere). These questions are shared with the guest host for his/her suggestions. Donia, Isla and Nonny prepared for 2 meetings with the guest host to discuss the episode topic, questions, and format and to explain some technical points of the streamyard.
Donia sends a preparation email to each guest, alongside a link to enable the guest join the StreamYard broadcast studio, which is already branded and styled accordingly by Isla Flood-Haddow (User:Islahaddow) and Nonny (User:Actveso) before each episode goes Live.
There is also a section of the script that contains news updates from within the Wikimedia movement, and outside news that relates to the movement. These news updates are collated from various Wikimedia communication channels by Nonny User:Actveso, and announced by Nonny User:Actveso and Donia. The news updates for every month and the links for action points are as usual available on the “Newsroom” column of the WikiAfrica Hour meta page for interested community members to access them.
In the new format, we have added a new section called the "In Focus Section" in which we can zoom into more detail on a person, an event or a project that has impacted the Wikimedia movement in Africa. This In Focus section might be inspiring open interview, echoes from a wiki conference, or something else!
- timeline of an episode
A WikiAfrica Hour episode usually takes an average of 3 weeks to plan.
Week 1 tasks are as follows:
- Decide focus/topic of session
- Decide the In Focus sectiom.
- Identify guests & guest Host
- Invite guests & guest Host
- Confirm guests and time slot
- Create Canva artwork
- Upload image to Commons
- Add info to Meta
- Add Episode page post to Wiki In Africa website
Week 2 and 3 tasks are as follows:
- Record news updates
- Create an event page on meta for the episode (using the event tool) and share the ink with the announcement to drive the interested people to participate.
- Email confirmed guests. Request:
- Links to any online profiles or bios
- Twitter or other social media handles
- their organization’s social media handles (if relevant)
- share any links they might raise during the session
- Focus topic published on Social media
- Share on Social Media and Wiki spaces to drive attendance of WAH session
- Communication
- Wikimedia Mailing Lists:
- African Wikimedians
- Wikimedia L
- variant mailing lists according to the topic of each episode.
- Facebook
- WikiAfrica pages
- LinkedIn (Wiki In Africa)
- Twitter:
- WikiAfrica account
- Telegram:
- Wikimedia General Chat
- Wikimedia announcement channel
- African Wikimedians
- WikiFranca
- other variant telegram groups according to the topic of each episode.
- Metrics and stats
- end of the year survey
- views on youtube
- social media metrics
Objectives and Impact in 2024
edit| 2024 Objective | 2024 impact | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Host a minimum of 10 WikiAfrica Hour episodes in 2024 | 9 episodes hosted | Due to the hiring of a new facilitator of the project, we missed to have 3 episodes in the beginning of the year. Moreover, due to a grief loss of our colleague Wilson, the team postponed one episode to have power to continue. |
| Have a minimum of 24 guests discussing their experiences | 26 guests hosted (Till Episode 38) | NIL |
| Increase in viewership to 40% of 2023 levels | increase | 7,631 views in 2023 VS |
| Engage with and increase WikiAfrica audience by 30% | increase in YouTube subscribers | 2023 = subscribers, 2024 = subscribers |
Episodes aired in 2024
editBelow is a table showing the episodes hosted in 2024:
| Episode | Topic | Guests | Guest Host | Date | Watch the episode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 38 | Wikimania as a collaboration on the Open
This episode discusses the largest meeting point of wikimedians – Wikimania. Wikimania 2024 was recently held in Katowice, Poland, and will in 2025 be held in Nairobi, Kenya, and in 2026 in Paris, France. The panel and guests are exploring its current and future vision related to the partnerships and collaboration with other organizations. |
|
Andrew Lih - Member of the Wikimania Steering Committee | 30/08/2024 | Watch this episode |  |
| Episode 37 | Bringing people together: Africa Baraza & Wiki Causerie
How can Africa Baraza & Wiki Causerie bring people together? What are the similarities and differences between them? What were the goals that resulted in their creation? And How do the communities receive them? |
|
Tochi Precious | 26/07/2024 | Watch this episode |  |
| Episode 36 | Does the Wikimedia movement contribute to the SDGs?
The UN has 17 goals for sustainable development. The Wikimedia movement hosts some campaigns and initiatives to achieve some of the goals, but what are these and are they enough? In this episode, we will discuss what roles the Wikimedia movement plays towards sustainable development, what are the already existing community-driven projects related to the SDGs and what else can be done concerning those goals. |
|
Ruby D-Brown | 28/06/2024 | Watch this episode |  |
| Episode 35 | The Movement Beyond the Summit!
Is the Wikimedia Summit at an end? How will affiliates move the Wikimedia Movement forward? What is the status of the Movement Charter? In this episode of WikiAfrica Hour, guest host Erina Mukuta will ensure that our guests answer some of these questions. After an action-packed last Wikimedia Summit in Berlin, the future of affiliate gatherings hangs in the balance. They will chat about the future of these events for Wikimedians and discuss the current status of the long-awaited Movement Charter. |
|
Erina Mukuta | 24/05/2024 | Watch this episode |  |
| Episode 34 | Celebrate WikiWomen!
In celebration of International Women's Day, this special WikiAfrica Hour is a three-part salute to the gender-gap busting work within the Wikimedia movement. |
|
Tochi Precious | 8/3/2024 | Watch This Episode | 
|
Lessons learnt
editWhat worked well
- With the new format, we managed to keep the main conversation besides the recorded news and the In Focus section so that the episode has much interesting topics and sections.
- Moreover, as the guest host differs in each episode, he/she is experienced in the topic and can handle the conversation smoothly as a discussion.
- In the In Focus section, we have an allocated space for inspiring open or echoes from conference which may be used separately in our social media pages as well as they have their own audience.
- We prepared a form for communities to share their news so that we guarantee more engagement.
What didn't work well
- The Live broadcast is yet to peak in terms of number of Live audience. The viewership after the live session is always more than the live session.