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<BR>Below is Delphine's report.<BR>
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Regards,<BR>
Abbas.<BR><BR>
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> Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:14:15 +0200<BR>> From: notafishz@gmail.com<BR>> To: wikimediaza@lists.wikimedia.org<BR>> Subject: [Wikimedia ZA] Wikimedia South Africa, kickoff Workshop - 7/8 August 2010<BR>> <BR>> Hi Folks,<BR>> <BR>> I am finally finding five minutes to thank you all for the warm<BR>> welcome and to reiterate that Bence and I, as well as any other member<BR>> of the chapters committee, are here to help with any questions you<BR>> might have.<BR>> <BR>> Here is our "wikimedia report" of our workshop.<BR>> <BR>> Best,<BR>> <BR>> Delphine<BR>> <BR>> ========<BR>> Wikimedia South Africa, kickoff Workshop - 7/8 August 2010<BR>> <BR>> == BACKGROUND ==<BR>> Wikimedia activities in South Africa are not exactly new, in 2007,<BR>> iCommons and the Wikimedia Foundation organised a Wikipedia Academy in<BR>> Johannesburg, while a group of Wikimedians started to put together a<BR>> bid for Wikimania. The South African chapter idea probably finds its<BR>> roots in those two initiatives, but for lack of momentum at the time,<BR>> did not pick up. In 2010, Achal Prabhala, member of the advisory board<BR>> of the Wikimedia Foundation, who helped found the Indian Chapter, put<BR>> the idea back on track.<BR>> <BR>> Achal, with the help of Kerryn McKay and Daniela Faris of the African<BR>> Commons Project [1], advertised the idea of a workshop to kick off a<BR>> South African chapter, and invited various wikipedians and otherwise<BR>> interested people (FOSS activists, users of Wikipedia, non-profit<BR>> experienced people) to participate in a workshop destined to kick off<BR>> a South African chapter.<BR>> <BR>> == WORKSHOP ==<BR>> The Workshop gathered around 25 people [2] from different backgrounds,<BR>> among which Ian Gilfillan, who had been leading the Wikimania bid and<BR>> Nhlanhla Mabaso, Head of CNS at The Universtiy of the Witwatersrand,<BR>> who played a great role in reaching out far and wide for interested<BR>> (and interesting) people. Bence Damokos and myself attended as members<BR>> of the chapters committee.<BR>> <BR>> === Saturday, 7th August ===<BR>> The session started with an introduction to the Wikimedia Universe,<BR>> focusing on the existing organisations (Foundation and Chapters) and<BR>> outlining the existing processes to set up a chapter, as well as what<BR>> chapters do.<BR>> After a round of introduction of each of the participants, the group<BR>> then split into smaller working sessions which reflected on the<BR>> following topics:<BR>> *Potential activities and initiatives for a South African Chapter<BR>> *Vision of a Wikimedia Chapter in South Africa<BR>> *Purpose of a Wikimedia Chapter in South Africa<BR>> *Challenges that a Wikimedia Chapter in South Africa might face<BR>> <BR>> The results of these sessions can be found on meta here:<BR>> <BR>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_South_Africa&oldid=2072112<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> Of those results, two have particularly caught our attention as being<BR>> specific to South Africa, or at least different than one might expect<BR>> from such a session in other chapter groups, namely:<BR>> <BR>> *Ownership of Wikimedia to South Africans (in the purpose section):<BR>> this was meant as giving the chapter the task of making sure that<BR>> Wikimedia projects don't appear too "foreign" or even too "western",<BR>> but rather would hopefully be recognized as fair in representing South<BR>> Africa but also the whole African continent.<BR>> <BR>> *Documenting content which is only orally available; finding a<BR>> workable citation method for languages with oral traditions (in the<BR>> challenges section): a task which actually questions fundamental<BR>> pillars of Wikipedia (no original research and "cite your sources")<BR>> and is much more critical in many of the African languages than maybe<BR>> in western languages.<BR>> <BR>> A third point that was unique - so far - to South Africa, though maybe<BR>> less novel than the above two was the role and share of mobile<BR>> internet access and the associated opportunities and challenges that<BR>> it will bring. Africa is a continent where internet access through<BR>> mobile phones is the rule rather than the exception, and efforts to<BR>> make Wikipedia accessible not only to read, but also to edit, are a<BR>> real challenge that an African chapter should tackle.<BR>> <BR>> === Sunday, 8th August ===<BR>> The Sunday session focused rather on presenting and discussing the<BR>> different legal options for a Chapter in South Africa as well as work<BR>> on a timeline of next steps and the formation of a team for the<BR>> creation of the chapter. Results can be found here:<BR>> http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_South_Africa&oldid=2072112#Proposed_Timeline<BR>> <BR>> == CONCLUSION ==<BR>> The idea of fostering the creation of a chapter by enabling people to<BR>> meet, specifically reaching out to potentially interested people and<BR>> bringing them together for a workshop is somewhat of a novel idea in<BR>> chapter creation. We found it to be extremely interesting and<BR>> productive. It allows, in countries where getting together, or taking<BR>> the first (legal) steps might be a real hurdle to chapter creation, to<BR>> be extremely helpful in ensuring that diversity of the people<BR>> represented in the first step of the chapter is achieved.<BR>> <BR>> Bence and I would like to thank Achal for starting this process,<BR>> Kerryn and Daniela for organising the workshop and everyone present<BR>> for their participation and the lively dicussions. We are confident<BR>> that such initiatives should be fostered in countries where founding a<BR>> chapter might encounter difficulties to emerge.<BR>> <BR>> The future of Wikimedia South Africa is discussed on the wikimediaza<BR>> mailing list:<BR>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza, as well as<BR>> on meta. Please join the conversation.<BR>> <BR>> <BR>> [1] http://www.africancommons.org/about/<BR>> [2] http://picasaweb.google.com/davidrichfield/Wikimedia#5502986611082048162<BR>> <BR>> -- <BR>> ~notafish<BR>> <BR>> NB. This gmail address is used for mailing lists. Personal emails will get lost.<BR>> Intercultural musings: Ceci n'est pas une endive - http://blog.notanendive.org<BR>> <BR>> _______________________________________________<BR>> WikimediaZA mailing list<BR>> WikimediaZA@lists.wikimedia.org<BR>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza<BR> </body>
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