Dear Wikimedians,

This email is to request your participation in a survey to ascertain if we should host an exclusively online WikiIndaba conference or a hybrid event. 

As you may recall that the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) had to halt all in-person events in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this had an effect on the planned 2020 WikiIndaba annual conference which too, had to be postponed to take place in 2021, hoping that the situation would have improved to allow an in-person event. However, the situation hasn’t changed much and it's hard to predict what is going to happen in the near future. In this regard, the Wikimedia Foundation’s COVID-19 Risk Assessment protocol and assessment tool have to be used for in-person events that are more than 10 people.

During the last year, Wikimedia movement organizers across the movement had to adjust to different formats and ways of engaging with the community. For this reason, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) in Uganda,  together with the  WikiIndaba Steering Committee (WISCom) have had discussions about having a  conference which will ensure everyone is able to attend. Thus, we request your participation in this survey to ascertain if we should host the 2021 WikiIndaba exclusively online or have a hybrid event. This has implications on the type of grant funding we will be applying for as well as reporting. However, to be more inclusive in our decision, we would like you to take part in this survey. 

We do believe there are benefits that come with organizing WikiIndaba this year, it would allow more people from Africa and all over the world to participate in WikiIndaba.

Please give us your feedback no later than 20th February by responding to this survey https://forms.gle/mrjpMk4vaLbpiKMt9

Kind regards,

Geoffrey Kateregga

On behalf of the WikiIndaba Local Organizing Team and WikiIndaba Steering Committee