[African Wikimedians] Fwd: Project in Africa: Re: Afripédia Douala

Wiki Loves Africa: It is still too early to give a full feedback on what worked, what did not work, what was painful, what was nicely unexpected since the project is not over yet. But I would like to share a few quick thoughts with regards to the question of "who can undertake the organization of a project" :) 1. I think it is much easier for participants to the project when a structure can carry it from an administrative point of view because it can take the burden of admin/financial tasks off the shoulders of those interested to help, but not interested to do the paperwork 2. I actually also think it is safer from a financial risk management point of view :) 3. The contest took way more time and energy I would expect it would take. I come out of it with a brand new and strong respect for the organizers of Wiki Loves Monuments ! The number of volunteers in Africa is not unlimited and the amount of practical support we got out of Africa was not much (for example, Wikimedia France refused to relay the press releases. For example, The SignPost did not care to even write a line to talk about the contest. We were just ignored). As such... the load is heavy for those involved. Wiki Loves Monuments currently works in a more distributed manner (organized in large part per country), but in most cases, the country features a chapter or at least a developped user group. This is not what we have. In a few countries, we have a chapter and a small official user group. In most countries, we have at best one person. So I am rather little convinced that a model where groups of 1-5 people, in 10 different african countries, would request a grant from WMF and handle things from A to Z in their country, would actually work. But we will collect feedbacks on that matter after the contest is over to see what would be the best option for next year :) 4. Last... probably more than in other places in the world, we got official rubber stamping requests. For example, a "non wikimedian" jury member asked us official statement to describe what the contest is about, how it is run, what is expected from jury members and so on. For example, a potential local partner asked for an official document proving that Samuel was indeed in charge of facilitating the contest locally. This is typically one of the reasons why chapters were created in the first place. Often, external organizations are reassured when we show business cards, official paper letter, signatures and so on. And they prefer to send money to a bank rather than a paypal account. And they prefer providing gifts to a brick and mortar association rather than sending the gifts to a po box. So yes... it takes a group to take initiative to organize it. And we had this group this year. It was wonderful. I hope to see even more people to get in the boat next year (globally or locally). But just as I like Wikimedia France to be a "support" structure in France for the Wiki Cheese project, I think we need a "support" structure for WLA. And Africa Center does that. Cheers Flo PS: gosh, I am glad this list is alive !!!! Le 03/12/14 03:09, Asaf Bartov a écrit : --