Wikimedia Community User Group Côte d'Ivoire/Reports/Côte d'Ivoire at Wikimania 2017

Participation

For its first participation at Wikimania, the User Group of Côte d'Ivoire, represented by its vice-chair Samuel Guebo, took part in 34 activities out of more than 180, roughly 18%. These 34 activities were split over the learning days (pre-conference) and the other three days of the Wikimania conference itself.

Interactions

WikiEducation lunch at Wikimania 2017

Education

• Met Tighe Flanagan (WMF), Nicole Saad from WikiEducation program
• Attended the WikiEducation lunch
• Made a presentation about the pilot phase of Wikipedia Education in Côte d'Ivoire (around 20 participants).

GLAM

• Presented about the constraints and opportunities of GLAM-WIKI in a West African context (around 20 participants)
• Discussed with Alex Stinson (WMF)
• Cross experience sharing with Wikimedia Italy members regarding GLAM: Lucia Marciano and Felippo

GLAM in West Africa lightning talk at Wikimania

Languages

• Met Daniel Bogre from WikiTongues
• Discussed with Hugo Lopez from LinguaLibre
• Learned about Wikipedia Akitamekw

Affiliates connections

• Made a joint presentation with Brazil and Macedonia about "How to grow a User Group" (around 25 participants)
• Interacted with Wikimedians from Brazil, Macedonia, Tunisia, Algeria, USA, France, South Africa, Columbia, Chile, India, AfroCrowd
• Wikimedia Canada: While attending their general elective assembly, we seized the occasion to send our User Group board's regards, congratulate them for hosting Wikimania 17, and expressed our wish for further collaboration.

Wikimedia 2030 strategy

Participated in Movement strategy questions and answers on August 13th as a panelist (around 45 attendees). This panel gathered representatives from all tracks of the strategy process (A, B, C and D). As a Strategy coordinator I celebrated with the strategy team the 6 months of an intense yet wonderful Wikimedia 2030 process.

Movement strategy panel on 13th August

The Strategy team dressed in Jersey

Côte d'Ivoire's picture illustrating Cycle 1 in the Strategy space

Others

Participated in the #wikibassel edit-a-thon about Bassel Khartabil Discussed with Sati houston, Quiddity, Marti Johnson, Winifred, Asaf, et al. from WMF

Logic modeling illustrated by Marti Johnson using the case of WikiEducation in Côte d'Ivoire

MacBook Pro from the WMF's Hardware Donation Programme, and a book offered by Asaf

Selfie with Barry Thew and Jon Phillips, organizers of the #wikibassel edit-a-thon

Lessons learned

• You can't attend all activities. This was already learned at WikiIndaba 2017 in Accra but was more palpable at Wikimania where over 180 sessions happened in 5 days. It's crucial to target sessions in advance and check the programme for any change. Be also flexible, discuss with people can sometimes make you choose a great session which you hadn't planned to attend originally.

• Visa can be a strong barrier restraining the global South from attending such pivotal moments. 6 wikimedians from Africa who were granted a scholarship to Wikimania could not make it to Montreal due to visa issues. Something has to be done about it, either hosting Wikimania in countries where getting a visa might be less daunting
• There is much more about Wikimania than just sessions. Wikimania 2017 with its learning days had nearly 200 sessions, panels, talks, etc. These are great places for learning about a wide range of projects, tools, and wikimedia-related experiences. Aside from these, another key aspect of Wikimania is informal discussion. This is where you get the chance to meet people, learn more deeply about their initiatives, successes, and challenges.

Perspectives

• Translating WikiEducation syllabus by collaborating with Professor Nathalie Casemajor met during the Wikimedia Canada assembly
• Working with Daniel Bogre from Wikitongues and Hugo Lopez from LinguaLibre
• Engaging in WikEducation monthly newsletter, working more closely with the planning User Group, and having more WikiEducation activities on the ground
• Submitting a paper to the International Scientific Conference in Brazil as suggested by Rodrigo Padula, co-organizer of the event
• More GLAM activities related to content liberation
• Collaborating with Jochen Boeykens regarding MetaChat, a chrome or firefox extension that allows visitors to comment Wikipedia articles

Bonus: pictures from Canada

Some pictures were taken and uploaded on commons in Category:Wikimedia Côte d'Ivoire visiting Canada. Some of them are below.

• 
  5 dollars coin shaped in flower
• 
  Maurice Richard statue at Jacques Cartier Park entrance
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  Rideau canal in Otta
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  Ottawa parliament
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  Mother earth statue made with plants at Mosaïcanada 2017