Dear all,
We would like to inform you that after long deliberations between the
Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and the WikiIndaba Steering Committee (WISCom)
we have reached an agreement that the suitable dates to host the WikiIndaba
conference 2019 in Abuja, Nigeria will be from 8 - 10 November.
We know that this news will disappoint many of you, who were gearing up for
the meeting. Unfortunately, operational difficulties created some delays.
We have discussed this with the staff of the WMF, and all agree that a
postponement will give us some extra time to ensure that a quality event is
planned for all. WikiIndaba conference is a key pillar in the Wikimedia
movement strategic direction, and an important platform for the African
Wikimedia community.
WISCom and the WMF continue to support Wikimedia Nigeria as the host and
venue for the conference.
We greatly appreciate your support and understanding, and we hope to see
you at WikiIndaba!
Kind regards,
Bobby Shabangu
[apologies for cross-posting.]
Hi all,
If you are a representative of a chapter, user group, or affiliate [0]
attending Wikimania 2019 and interested to talk with the Research team
at Wikimedia Foundation, we would really like to meet you. In this
case, please read on. Otherwise, please feel free to ignore this
message.
(We do have a focus on addressing Wikimedia's knowledge gaps,
especially as it is related to missing content on Wikimedia projects
and small languages.)
-------
One of the empowering aspects of attending Wikimania for me in the
past years has been to be able to connect to many of you in person: to
build lasting relationships, to understand the challenges that you
face in your Wikimedia related efforts, and brainstorm with you about
how/if research can help you answer some of your open questions. These
conversations have been a source of inspiration for at least a few
projects that the Research team at Wikimedia Foundation has picked up
over the past years [1]. As our team is planning for our presence in
Wikimania 2019 [2], I only hope that we can have even more of this
kind of interaction together while we're in Stockholm.
To this end and in order to make the best use of our collective time
together, I'd like to propose an experimental meet-up during this
year's Wikimania where the interested representatives of chapters,
user groups, affiliates and the members of the Research team to meet.
In order to organize this session, we need your input and I have put
together a few questions at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe1YZmgxkJJA2lO6jl_nmOL9pwhbNu5GKV…
that I'd appreciate if you answer if you find the idea of meeting up
interesting. If you do not want to go to the link above and still want
to provide your input, please send your responses to the questions at
the end of this email to me privately.
Whether the meet-up idea ends up being a useful one for you or not
will be determined by your responses. Independent of that, I look
forward to touch-basing with many of you soon. :)
Best,
Leila
[0] From earlier conversations with chapters, user groups, and
affiliates I've got the impression that it's useful to have a
dedicated session focused on these groups and their
needs/perspectives. This being said, this is not a hard rule. :) If
you are not a representative of these groups and you'd like to attend,
you're welcome to. Please fill out the survey.
[1] https://research.wikimedia.org/projects.html
[2] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T229267
----
Survey questions if you don't want to fill out the survey by going to
the link provided in this email:
Description:
[The following is a tentative description of the event and it may
change based on your responses to this survey. The agenda for the meet
up will be finalized on 2019-08-07.]
Let's use the opportunity of being in Wikimania to get together and
discuss the following and beyond:
* [10-min] An update about what the Research team at Wikimedia
Foundation has done since we met last year in Wikimania. We will
provide updates on "Addressing Knowledge Gaps" and research
contributions to "Knowledge Integrity".
* [5-min] What stopped us from doing more? What challenges did we face?
* [15-min] Let's talk longer term: what does it take to have a global
network of researchers around Wikimedia projects? Why is having such a
network important? Can we work together on this?
* [30-min or more] What are some of the most pressing needs/questions
that chapters, affiliates, and user groups face? (with an eye for
converting them to research questions.)
* ...
-------
To learn more about the Research team at Wikimedia Foundation and what
we do, please visit https://research.wikimedia.org/ .
-------
Question 1. Are you interested to attend a meet-up with Wikimedia
Foundation's Research team?
Question 2. If your answer to the above question is Yes or Maybe,
please let us know which affiliate, user group or chapter do you
represent or are a member of?
Question 3. What is a good outcome of the meet-up for you if you
choose to attend it?
Question 4. If you have specific times and days that you cannot attend
the meet-up, please indicate them below.
Question 5. Anything else you'd like to share with us and we should
take into account when planning for this event?
--
Leila Zia
Principal Research Scientist, Head of Research
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello, and happy Africa day!
[ crossposted to African Wikimedians list, general Wikimedia list, and
mediawiki-i18n ]
To celebrate this, I am announcing the completion of a little pet project
that I started a year ago: it is now easy to type in all the languages of
Africa in which there is a Wikipedia or an active Incubator.
This is available in all Wikimedia projects and in translatewiki.net. This
release is intended for desktop and laptop computers. For mobile phones and
tablets, I strongly recommend trying apps such as Gboard, SwiftKey, or
African Keyboard.
For full details and project description see this blog post:
https://aharoni.wordpress.com/2019/05/25/happy-africa-day-keyboards-for-all…
Or jump straight into the (easy!!!) technical documentation here:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:UniversalLanguageSelector/Inp…
These keyboards were tested by myself, and some of them were also tested by
a few other people who speak these languages, and as far as I know they are
easy to enable and disable and the work correctly. However, it's possible
that some things are missing: I could have missed some letters, I could
have made mistakes in documentation, I could have missed some languages.
Please contact me if you find any problems.
Thanks!
--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
Hello all,
Hope this email finds you well. We are sending this message to select
community mailing lists and all previous recipients of Wikimedia Foundation
Rapid Grants.
As you know the Rapid Grants Program
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid> [1] has played an
important role in helping our communities to grow. The number of grants we
have given out grew by 30% between FY16 -17 to this fiscal year, and they
grew by 55% when measured by the total amount disbursed. (See the spending
analysis
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_spending_analysis>
[2] for reference.*)
While communities have valued these flexible funding opportunities, on our
part, it hasn’t been easy to measure and track their impact. We therefore
will be implementing a number of changes in Fiscal Year 19/20, starting *August
1 2019*, to sharpen the focus and impact of rapid grants, whilst at the
same time maintaining the quick and flexible funding options for community:
1) In the months specified below, we will prioritize support to *contests
and campaigns* which have been an exciting source of growth in editorship,
innovative participation and content generation by communities. These
months will be solely dedicated to different contests and campaigns
throughout the year:
- *August*: only receiving proposals for *Wiki Loves Monuments*
- *September*: only receiving proposals for *Awareness Grants*
(campaign)
- *December*: only receiving proposals for *Wiki Loves Africa *
- *January*: only receiving proposals for *Art + Feminism* (campaign)
- *March*: only receiving proposals for *Wiki Loves Earth*
2) Outside the months specified above, proposals are welcomed in all other
categories: edit-a-thons, contests, photowalks, general promotion
campaigns, and video campaigns. For added flexibility, we will also
consider proposals outside of these categories, such as software
development. However, we will no longer be providing rapid grants for
travel support, equipment purchase or meetups.
3) We will evaluate each batch of grants once a month and accept the best
proposals in alignment with the Wikimedia Foundation’s medium-term goals.
We will share the evaluation for the Rapid Grants Program that led us to
sharpen the focus for the program once the evaluation is completed by
September 30, 2019. In addition to these changes, we’ve also considered
comments around Wikimedia Foundation Rapid Grants eligibility criteria and
have clarified these criteria. Please take the time to re-familiarize
yourselves with the Wikimedia Foundation Rapid Grants Guidelines and
Criteria <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/Learn> [4]
page.
The Wikimedia Foundation’s Medium-term
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019>
[3] plan goals are set out here for information.
If you have any questions, please email us at <rapidgrants(a)wikimedia.org>.
Best regards,
Woubzena
*Please note that we have not yet put out the final FY 2018-19 numbers and
we’re basing this calculation based on up to date internal numbers of 184
grants and $270,194.
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Resources/Grants_spending_analysis
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/Learn
Woubzena Jifar (pronouns - she/her/hers)
Program Officer, Rapid Grants
User: WJifar (WMF)
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Dear Wikimedian,
Many people use Wikipedia as their first point of reference for their
school research projects and general update on daily subject topics. The
Wikimedia Foundation which runs Wikipedia would like to find out from you
through a workshops which will be held in Johannesburg and Cape Town, how
can they improve Wikipedia's user interaction and how can they support
content contribution so that it represent the diverse people who reads it,
it's a movement strategy which they aim to reach by year 2030 where
Wikimedia content represents everyone who consumes and contributes to it.
These will not be edit workshops but Salon Strategy where participants will
discuss and take a short survey afterwards. So, we would like to invite you
to take part in this Salon Strategy Survey.
Over the next months Wikipedians around the world will be getting together
to be part of this survey, so any ideas you have are very important to us.
Come through!!! Even if you want to listen to how the conversation is
going.
For *Johannesburg* here are the details:
Event date: 2 August 2019 ( Friday)
Venue: Wits Writing Centre, Warternweiler Library
Time: 3-5pm
Facilitators: Bobby Shabangu
Topics: *Diversity* and *Capacity Building*.
For *Cape Town* here are the details:
Event date: 3 August 2019 ( Saturday)
Venue:
Time: 10 -1pm
Facilitators: Adri Baard
Topics: *Diversity* and *Capacity Building*.
Refreshments will be available.
You can read more about the movement strategy here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20
Kind regards,
Bobby Shabangu
Director
WikimediaZA
072 067 9593
bobby.shabangu(a)wikimedia.org.za
Thank you Bobby for the announcement.
@Sherry, the venue details are been worked out and will be announced once confirmed.
Kayode Yussuf
On Thursday, July 18, 2019, 07:07:28 AM GMT+1, <african-wikimedians-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Send African-Wikimedians mailing list submissions to
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You can reach the person managing the list at
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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of African-Wikimedians digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Re: WikiIndaba announcement (Emna Mizouni)
2. Re: WikiIndaba announcement (Adjoa Linda Fletcher)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 2019 00:08:04 +0100
From: Emna Mizouni <emna.mizouni(a)gmail.com>
To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians
<african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [African Wikimedians] WikiIndaba announcement
Message-ID:
<CAPAk4SBGG9piSRau59tjTrhBfHW3Zd1JMO-3PhOow5ig_k3PwQ(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Excellent news and amazing level of collaboration between the WISCom, WMF
and the Wikimedians of Nigeria.
Wish you the best of luck!
Cheers,
Emna
On Wed, 17 Jul 2019, 21:54 Rajeeb Dutta, <marajozkee(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Congratulations and thanks for updating all of us for the same.
> All my best wishes for the WikiIndiba conference.
>
> Best Regards,
> Rajeeb Dutta.
> (U: Marajozkee)
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 18-Jul-2019, at 1:37 AM, Sherry Antoine <sherryantoine(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Thanks Bobby,
> Where in Abuja will they hold it?
> Thanks,
> Sherry
>
> *Sherry-Ann L. Antoine, MPA*
>
> Program Development and Outreach Specialist
>
> Program Director, Afro Free Culture Crowdsourcing Wikimedia (AfroCrowd),
> AfroCROWD.org <http://afrocrowd.org/>, #AfroCROWD
>
> Board of Directors, The Internet Society New York Chapter (ISOC-NY),
> ISOC-NY.org <http://isoc-ny.org/>
>
> Phone / Whatsapp: 1(718) 772-4802
>
>
>
> *Sent in a hurry. Please excuse any typos, thanks.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 17, 2019 at 2:00 AM Bobby Shabangu <bobbyshabangu(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> We would like to inform you that after long deliberations between the
>> Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) and the WikiIndaba Steering Committee (WISCom)
>> we have reached an agreement that the suitable dates to host the WikiIndaba
>> conference 2019 in Abuja, Nigeria will be from 8 - 10 November.
>>
>> We know that this news will disappoint many of you, who were gearing up
>> for the meeting. Unfortunately, operational difficulties created some
>> delays. We have discussed this with the staff of the WMF, and all agree
>> that a postponement will give us some extra time to ensure that a quality
>> event is planned for all. WikiIndaba conference is a key pillar in the
>> Wikimedia movement strategic direction, and an important platform for the
>> African Wikimedia community.
>>
>> WISCom and the WMF continue to support Wikimedia Nigeria as the host and
>> venue for the conference.
>>
>> We greatly appreciate your support and understanding, and we hope to see
>> you at WikiIndaba!
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> Bobby Shabangu
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> African-Wikimedians mailing list
>> African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians
>>
> _______________________________________________
> African-Wikimedians mailing list
> African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians
>
> _______________________________________________
> African-Wikimedians mailing list
> African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians
>