Dear Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Board of Trustees is preparing a call for feedback about the
upcoming Board Elections, from January 7 - February 10, 2022.
While details will be finalized the week before the call, we have confirmed
at least two questions that will be asked during this call for feedback:
- What is the best way to ensure fair representation of emerging
communities among the Board?
- What involvement should candidates have during the election?
While additional questions may be added, the Movement Strategy and
Governance team wants to provide time for community members and affiliates
to consider and prepare ideas on the above confirmed questions before the
call opens.You can find more information about this upcoming call for
feedback here
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…>
.[1]
Reach out if you have any questions or concerns. The Movement Strategy and
Governance team will be minimally staffed until January 3. Please excuse
any delayed response during this time. We also recognize some community
members and affiliates are offline during the December holidays. We
apologize if our message has reached you while you are on holiday.
Best,
Zita
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…
--
Zita Ursula Zage (she/her)
Facilitator, Movement Strategy & Governance
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
Greetings from Afrocine Project,
It is already the end of the Months of African Cinema global contest and a
lot has been achieved! We have been able to get over 4,000 articles created
in 16 languages!
We are about to constitute the International Jury team, which will consist
of members from all the languages that participated in the global
contest/edit-a-thon. If you would like to join us in the Jury team, please
let us know by 31 December 2021 by filling this form.[1]
Thanks for all your contributions this year and congratulations to you!
Together we are bridging the content gap and improving on the systemic
bias, in-respect of the African continent.
Regards,
Ebenezer Mlay
Community Liaison – Afrocine project
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScrt_xGsVNV1rJthKrEQvRlPOTAlgTU0Iz…
Dear All,
I am pleased to invite you to the Ghana Histo-Cita-thon 2.0 on Friday 17th
December 2021.
The Ghana Histo Cita-thon 2.0 Seeks to introduce participants on how to
source for reference and cite from open Books and Journals and use it in
creating and improving Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items.
The workshop will be followed by a month-long online contest.
Kindly make your reservation by signing up here👇
https://forms.gle/UXnsUQJRV46GupEz8
For more info: https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ghana_Histo_Cita-thon_2.0
Best regards,
Stephen Dakyi
--
Lead,
Ghana Histo Cita-thon Project
Apologies for cross posting -- join us to Decmber 14th to learn more!
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Alex Stinson <astinson(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Wed, Dec 1, 2021 at 2:39 PM
Subject: December 14 Conversation hour about organizing for
#WikiForHumanRights 2022
To: Wikimedia Mailing List <wikimedia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
*TL:DR --* Join us for a Conversation hour December 14 at 1500 UTC to learn
how to organize for WikiForHumanRights 2022.
Hello Everyone!
#WikiForHumanRights: Right to a Healthy Environment 2022 [1]is back!
From April
15 through to June 14 2022 we encourage local affiliates, individuals or
organizations interested in the campaign to organize activities around the
intersecting themes of human rights and the environment.
If you are interested in organizing your community for the campaign, please
join us for a conversation hour on December 14 at 1500 UTC [4] (more
details below) to learn how you can participate.
Why the Right to a Healthy Environment?
This October, the Right to a Healthy Environment was formally recognized
[1] by the United Nations Human Rights Council. According to Michelle
Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
"A safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment is the foundation of
human life. But today, because of human action – and inhuman inaction – the
triple planetary crises of climate change, pollution, and nature loss is
directly and severely impacting a broad range of rights, including the
rights to adequate food, water, education, housing, health, development,
and even life itself."[2]
The environmental crisis is getting more complex. Humanity needs to make
thousands of big and small decisions to address it. As the UN Environmental
Program described it, we need to make “Peace with Nature”[3] and protect
the human rights of the most vulnerable.
Wikipedia and other platforms need to fill the knowledge gaps at the
intersection of sustainability and human rights in every context and
language. The world needs access to reliable information about the link
between environmental sustainability and human rights.
What can you do? Help us organize!
We need your help! The campaign will officially launch on April 15 (one
week before Earth Day), but we need your help now to begin preparing this
global call to action.
Last year we had 24 community-led editathons, workshops, webinars, and
writing contests, with contributions to over 2000 articles in more than 40
languages. To match (and hopefully exceed) these impacts, we need your help
to organize your local communities!
Activities related to human rights and sustainability are good topics for
local communities to both a) identify new partners, b) recruit enthusiastic
participants and c) fill key topics for impact in their own language or
context.
Join the Conversation to learn more!
Join us for 1.5 hours of conversation Tuesday the 14th December 2021 15:00
UTC on Zoom <https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/84871090509> [4], to learn more
about:
-
How you can participate in this campaign and organize local events in
your community or region.
-
Which topics this campaign will target, and how you can connect with
subject matter experts, partners, and other resources to support successful
content creation activities.
-
How the Wikimedia Foundation Campaigns team can support you in designing
your event and doing targeted outreach to potential contributors drawn to
these topics.
Organizers can find more information at this (still under development): page
on Meta <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights>[5]
If you want to join us as an organizer, please join our Telegram Group
<https://t.me/joinchat/k_W9SVMG5K44YjJh>[6]
If you have any questions send us an email at campaigns(a)wikimedia.org
Looking forward to hearing you in the conversation,
Ruby Damenshie-Brown and Alex Stinson
[1] https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1102582
[2] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=27443
[3] https://www.unep.org/interactive/making-peace-nature/
[4] https://wikimedia.zoom.us/j/84871090509
[5]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiForHumanRights
[6] https://t.me/joinchat/k_W9SVMG5K44YjJh
--
Alex Stinson
Senior Program Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter: @sadads
Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new contributors
through campaigns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
--
Alex Stinson
Senior Program Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter: @sadads
Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects create calls to action to invite new contributors
through campaigns: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns
Dear Friends,
The Wiki World Heritage User Group and the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group are organizing a writing contest on Yoruba Wikipedia in order to document World Heritage cities as part of the project Told Cities.World Heritage cities are amazing and rich sites telling a lot of stories. They belong to the humanity and in Africa we count many cities listed as WH.
In the link below you can see the missing articles in Yoruba and we invite you to join us to document these beautiful sites and tell their story on Wikipedia. The winner will win a 100$ voucher.Link : https://w.wiki/4Xqj
Best RegardsYamenCo founder and board member of the Wiki World Heritage UG.
Dear Friends,
The Wiki World Heritage User Group and the Yoruba Wikimedians User Group are organizing a writing contest on Yoruba Wikipedia in order to document World Heritage cities as part of the project Told Cities.World Heritage cities are amazing and rich sites telling a lot of stories. They belong to the humanity and in Africa we count many cities listed as WH.
In the link below you can see the missing articles in Yoruba and we invite you to join us to document these beautiful sites and tell their story on Wikipedia.Link : https://w.wiki/4Xqj
Best RegardsYamenCo founder and board member of the Wiki World Heritage UG.
Hi Seydou,
Thank for your observation and concerns,
First of all, do you mind letting us know how you’re involved in the
Wikimedia projects? It will help us explain better if we know from which
perspective your concerns are meant to address.
As Emmanuel has already mentioned, the Dagbani Wikimedia user group is an
independent organization/user group based in the northern part of Ghana and
working to support the 16 Mole-Dagbani languages spoken in Ghana, Benin and
Burkina Faso. The breadth and scope of our work is available on our landing
page and Affiliations Committee/Resolutions for your perusal.
I was a founding member of GOIF but I’m no longer involved with them.
Please take a look at
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Open_Initiative/About_us to learn
about the current team of executives. Since you are not speaking on behalf
of affcom and the MEA regional committee, I will kindly request that you
address them directly about their decisions pertaining to the recognition
and funding of the User Groups in question. If you are interested however
in learning about what we do and our work on a daily basis, then feel free
to reach out to us on the usual channels.
To touch on the grant application though, the initial proposal has been
reviewed following the recommendations and discussions made by the grant
committee on Meta so I think it’s fruitless to continue a discussion here
that is no longer applicable. We have already responded to the MEA
committee on the discussion page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fu…>.
As a new user group and a first-time applicant, we are very much interested
in learning about the grant process.The proposal in question has been
changed long ago, do you mind letting us know why it is important to
continue a discussion about it now?
Finally, I am not here to argue with you on how many Mole-Dagbani languages
are “written
in Ghana, studied in schools and has a lot of Literature or content and
sohas encyclopedic status”. We have already noted your concerns and if you
need further clarifications, I will suggest you reach out to leaders of
these groups.
Good day.
Sadik.
On Tue, Dec 7, 2021 at 12:47 PM <
african-wikimedians-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Send African-Wikimedians mailing list submissions to
> african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, please visit
>
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/african-wikimedians.lists.wikim…
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> african-wikimedians-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of African-Wikimedians digest..."
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Grant Application concerns (Seydou Diakite)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2021 04:47:27 -0800
> From: Seydou Diakite <clement.bogous78(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [African Wikimedians] Re: Grant Application concerns
> To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians
> <african-wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Cc: "affcom(a)lists.wikimedia.org" <affcom(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Message-ID:
> <CACrpZeu7LeHMTnDV-Dg1DnwW0j02rTw7eaT=
> 6SZq+A0bAWXpBw(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
> boundary="00000000000094d05005d28dc6cb"
>
> Hello Emmanuel,
>
> Thanks for coming out to try and resolve the issue although your
> explanation is not convincing. Yes the Dagbani User group may be existing
> as a separate entity but why is that so? What I said is it is the same
> people are behind it and I haven’t because the Executive Director of the
> Dagbani Usergroup is a founding member of GOIF.
>
> In the budget it was the Executive Director who was requesting to be paid
> an amount of $5000 a month for a period of 12 months that’s $60,000 to be a
> project Manager. In fact the edit history shows he did most of the grant
> application so why is he not even coming to justify that grant here?
>
> Talking about Mole-Dagbani languages in Ghana how many of them are written
> in Ghana, studied in schools and has a lot of Literature or content and so
> has encyclopedic status?
>
> Concerning LUCG how different is their goals from GOIF? What is the
> ultimate plan of LUCG because I have seen the Twi group gearing up to be a
> Usergroup? And if you follow things closely you will realize the Dagbani
> Usergroup initially started as Twi, then GOIF and now the same group is
> trying to start a Twi group.
>
> Sorry if my tone is harsh but I believe that’s inconsequential in this
> regard. If you think I have been conclusive and my observation are out of
> place.
>
> Can you justify why a small language group like the Dagbani group was
> requesting $190,000 since you conveniently chose not to address any of the
> observations bothering around the padded figures in your budget?
>
> I think this is a public platform so by putting my concerns here is another
> way of reaching out to you publicly.
>
> Lastly I want to know on whose behalf you’re speaking because you seem to
> be in all these groups.
>
> Best Seydou
>
>
> On Tuesday, December 7, 2021, Emmanuel Yeboah <hazel3993(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear Seydou,
> >
> > Thank you Seydou for sharing your observations and raising these
> concerns.
> >
> > However, we would like to clarify that, although the Dabgani Wikimedians
> > Usergroup is one of the language groups that Global Open Initiative
> > birthed, they currently exist as a separate entity operating from the
> > Northern half of Ghana supporting multiple languages in the Mole-Dagbani
> > tree including Dagbani. And the Global Open Initiative team is not
> involved
> > or has no say in the day to day running of the Dagbani Wikimedians group.
> > We do still collaborate when asked but we are not aware or involved in
> > every decision or activities the group takes. So their activities and
> > operations are different from that of GOIF.
> >
> > We apologise for the delay in making this clarification soon.
> >
> > Secondly, concerning the LUCG
> > <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid/LUCG_Wikimedia_Communi…
> >,
> > this is a project proposed by a long-volunteer to recruit and maintain
> > already existing members of Lakeside University College, Ghana (LUCG).
> This
> > is in line with our objectives to empower self-sustaining Wikihubs at the
> > institutions that we collaborate with. Their proposal couldn’t have been
> > included in our plan because it was brought to our attention after we
> > submitted the annual grant.
> >
> > We do empower and support individuals and groups to contribute in various
> > ways to the Wikimedia Movement (which we believe aligns with the
> movement's
> > recommendation of increasing the sustainability of the movement) but at a
> > point, if they want to operate on their own as a group or embark on
> > individual projects, we give them a chance to.
> >
> > The assumption that GOIF is taking advantage of the Foundation by
> founding
> > offshoot communities to rip the Foundation off is absolutely wrong. The
> > tone of this message is rather conclusive. This makes it difficult for us
> > to accept that these concerns were raised in good faith. We’d kindly
> > request for you to reach out to us publicly to seek clarification before
> > drawing these conclusions.
> >
> > Warmly,
> >
> > Emmanuel
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 7 Dec 2021, 07:12 Mohamed Aliyu, <mmaliyu2012(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Good! Thanks for your insights into this matter.
> >>
> >> We hope that the Wikimedia grant committees be cautious in their
> >> decision to fund those types of affiliates.
> >> --
> >>
> >> Mohamed Mustapha Aliyu (he/him)
> >> Wikim(p)edian
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, 7 Dec 2021, 01:19 Seydou Diakite, <clement.bogous78(a)gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hello all,
> >>>
> >>> I have been following the grant process with keen interest. I have
> >>> rather noticed a worrying trend that I think for the sustainability of
> the
> >>> grant program and the continuity of the volunteer spirit we need to
> address
> >>> this issue as a regional group.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> First and foremost we must bear in mind that Wikimedia Foundation is
> >>> donor funded and non profit. And as such people give and make it
> possible
> >>> for the organization to support the activities of volunteers.
> Therefore our
> >>> request and demands must be guarded.
> >>>
> >>> Again we need to know that the movement relies on the activities of
> >>> volunteers ( more content are created by volunteers than any other set
> of
> >>> people) and as such that should be spirit we should be promoting
> through
> >>> all our undertakings.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> After painstakingly going through the grant request of some Usergroups,
> >>> what I noticed was something rather alarming. I will just mention a
> few of
> >>> my observations.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> The Wikimedia Inc Nigeria for instance was requesting over $55,000
> >>> (aprox $4800 a month) for an office space at a time when even bigger
> tech
> >>> organizations etc are moving to working remotely and hence promoting
> work
> >>> from home.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> In addition to this, there were line items for projects that have other
> >>> organizations running and hence have funds they disburse for
> organizations.
> >>> (Arts and Feminism,Wiki Loves Africa etc)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> My second observation wasn’t only alarming but also ridiculous.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> The Dagbani Usergroup which linked to GOIF as exclaimed on their own
> >>> pages (was actually formed from the GOIF
> >>> <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Open_Initiative#Planned_Activities
> >)
> >>> put in separate grant applications totaling over $220,000.( far higher
> than
> >>> a continental group like Wiki in Africa and country group like
> Wikimedia
> >>> CIV) This same group is also behind another group (LUCG) that has
> currently
> >>> put in another rapid grant
> >>> <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:Project/Rapid/LUCG_Wikimedia_Co…
> >
> >>> request. ( tye proposed Twi Wikimedians Usergroup
> >>> <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Twi_Wikimedians_User_Group/Memberships>
> >>> is also an offshoot) A question was posed about their link to GOIF
> >>> (their mother institution) and the answers seem quite unreasonable,
> because
> >>> all the separate activities can be rounded in one grant request as
> programs
> >>> to paint a holistic picture of their annual activities rather than
> create
> >>> fragments.
> >>>
> >>> Now let’s take things into perspective.
> >>> The Dagbani language is spoken by less than 10% of Ghana’s population
> of
> >>> over 30M people. The user group is fairly new and their primary focus
> is to
> >>> reach the target Dagbani population which could be much more organic
> than
> >>> their forced request for salaries for 10 trainers per month.
> >>>
> >>> Their community has less than 30 active contributors based on the
> >>> current criteria for active members (3 edits per month), and hence even
> >>> using their entire membership for the 12 month period, means members
> will
> >>> be overwhelmed and burned out easily.
> >>>
> >>> Now the request to pay volunteers to train is to be treaded cautiously
> >>> as this could change our culture for volunteerism and encourage
> >>> participation because members can receive payments for contributing
> >>> (mentoring, training, etc.).
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Based on the monthly salary requested for these 10 trainers, it is only
> >>> right to assume that each of these trainers will organise at least 2
> >>> trainings per month making a monthly total of 20 trainings (annual 240
> >>> trainings). This is somewhat ridiculous and overly ambitious for even a
> >>> well developed Wikimedia community.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Aside from the aforementioned monthly payment for 10
> volunteers/trainers
> >>> they are also requesting for 2 other paid roles with very exorbitant
> >>> amounts requested as salaries especially for the Executive Director
> role
> >>> ($5000 a month), which even top manager levels in Corporate Ghana and
> in
> >>> government workplaces never receive. In the first place this is a small
> >>> group trying to rally and sustain a community and these requests for
> staff
> >>> is just surprising and out of place.
> >>>
> >>> In addition to this, there was a request for a paid WiR for 12 months
> >>> ($3,500 for 12 months). Apart the huge salary this is even problematic
> >>> judging from the fact there was no partnership with any organization
> to do
> >>> a GLAM activity or a project that needed an embedded Wikimedian in a
> >>> partner organisation, which is normally the workflow that creates the
> need
> >>> for a WiR.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Again this wasn’t even part of the goals of this organization. A
> closer
> >>> look at the budget further shows that most of the requests are either
> >>> frivolous, overpriced or outrageous.
> >>>
> >>> Looking at such a small language Usergroup what is the need for an
> >>> office space and all the equipment for an office?
> >>>
> >>> The request for 6 MacBook airs for team members is rather an insult to
> >>> the charitable donors of the foundation. The million dollar question
> here
> >>> though, is why MacBooks? And why 6 of them? Wikimedians don’t need
> >>> priced equipment to deliver on their jobs and if the intention is to be
> >>> able to loan it to the community then macbooks still seem outrageous
> >>> (because they can be destroyed easily with change of hands).
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Then comes a request for two foreign trips at a time when most
> >>> organizations are putting hold on trips. However the question is trips
> to
> >>> where? For what? And why two team members?
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> These and many several budget items feel out of place, from requesting
> >>> for research line items (which I am wondering what it's meant for and
> the
> >>> goals of the research) to requesting specific team members for projects
> >>> (arts&feminism) which should be managed by already requested staff
> roles
> >>> (why hire other people again when you have a project manager for the
> >>> organisation, who is supposed to run projects anyways)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Everything in that budget seems padded and inconsiderate to the many
> >>> donors that believe in our vision. Such characters should not be
> supported
> >>> in our movement and be watched closely.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Lastly I have noticed significant changes to the budget (from about
> >>> $190,000 to about $39,000) after the questions posed by the committee,
> this
> >>> is a significant 80% drop from the initial request
> >>> <
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Da…
> >.
> >>> As to whether the new requested amount is a true reflection of the
> needs
> >>> on the ground we all all judges. I am fully aware that the grant
> proposal
> >>> has been updated but I decided to bring to light the initial grant
> request
> >>> because if it has has been approved I am sure the group would have
> accepted
> >>> the full funding. And also the current grant is still padded.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> I have also copied Affcom in this mail because I wanted to bring to
> >>> their notice the other trend that I wanted to spell out. The
> proliferation
> >>> of language Usergroups. The same group has one Usergroup and three
> >>> incubator groups why so? Three of these groups have applied for grants
> >>> separately.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> We need to re-examine our commitment to this cause. Wikimedia is a
> >>> voluntary movement to promote the sum of all human knowledge. Yes it’s
> ok
> >>> when we sometimes expend our expertise so ask for some remuneration.
> But we
> >>> shouldn’t form Usergroup groups with the basis of being employed or a
> >>> conduit for making profit.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Best
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Seydou
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> African-Wikimedians mailing list -- african-wikimedians@lists.
> >>> wikimedia.org
> >>> To unsubscribe send an email to african-wikimedians-leave@
> >>> lists.wikimedia.org
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> African-Wikimedians mailing list -- african-wikimedians@lists.
> >> wikimedia.org
> >> To unsubscribe send an email to african-wikimedians-leave@
> >> lists.wikimedia.org
> >>
> >
>