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Re: [African Wikimedians] 4. Re:...

Fwd: Project in Africa: Re: ...

Kasper Souren

30 Nov 2014 30 Nov '14

12:27 p.m.

In 2005 I did some work on Wikipedia in African languages, mainly Bambara and Peul. A couple of months ago I was asked to go to Madagascar and provide training as part of the Afripedia project. Currently I'm in Douala, Cameroon for a 3 day session that will gather people from previous Afripédia sessions. Our main focus will be to find way to create sustainable communities of editors. https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:Afripédia/Formation_Douala_2

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Enock Seth Nyamador

30 Nov 30 Nov

12:58 p.m.

Great Kasper! Will follow along. I believe some Wikimedians in Cameroon also on this list have already connedcted with you. Best, - Enock twitter: @Enock4seth enockseth.blogspot.com | [[User:Enock4seth]] On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 11:27 AM, Kasper Souren <kasper.souren(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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Nkansah Rexford

1 p.m.

Great work done. Keep on the awesome work. On Nov 30, 2014 11:59 AM, "Enock Seth Nyamador" <kwadzo459(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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_______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians

Kasper Souren

1:40 p.m.

My email was sent too quickly. There are few more things I wanted to bring up: I'm curious about (creating) connections between Francophone and Anglophone contributors. It seems WikiAfrica has mainly been about the English Wikipedia and Afripédia is almost only about the French Wikipedia. How many people on this list speak French? How many have contributed to French language projects? And then there is the question of African languages. Personally I think this is where Africa can gain most. How many of you have contributed in African languages? Which languages Any obstacles? There is a mailinglist list about Wikipedia in African languages which has been active since 2006: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Afrophonewikis On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 12:58 PM, Enock Seth Nyamador <kwadzo459(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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I believe some Wikimedians in Cameroon also on this list have already connedcted with you.

Enock Seth Nyamador

4:36 p.m.

On 11/30/2014 12:40 PM, Kasper Souren wrote:

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I'm curious about (creating) connections between Francophone and Anglophone contributors. It seems WikiAfrica has mainly been about the English Wikipedia and Afripédia is almost only about the French Wikipedia. How many people on this list speak French? How many have contributed to French language projects?

Interesting! I can speak and write little French, but haven't contributed to any French language projects.

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And then there is the question of African languages. Personally I think this is where Africa can gain most. How many of you have contributed in African languages? Which languages Any obstacles?

I've contributed to in Ewe <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewe_language> and still do sometimes. On 11/30/2014 12:40 PM, Kasper Souren wrote:

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I believe some Wikimedians in Cameroon also on this list have already connedcted with you.

Yeah I have exchanged a few emails, it's a bit hard to keep up with everyone and I also have to adapt to the heat :) It would be great if we can have dinner together, we can try to gather all the participants and other Wikimedians who are present in Douala who are interested. I can post here and on https://twitter.com/guaka when I know more about a possible location for this. a k'an be, Kasper _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians

-- - Enock Sent via Mozilla Thunderbird

Nkansah Rexford

5:13 p.m.

I've contributed to Akan Wikipedia before. The challenge I faced was the fact that, contributors to the language were just a couple, plus people don't read it that much so spending time writing wouldn't get that patronage of reading except for the fact that its a way to document our Akan language. On Nov 30, 2014 3:36 PM, "Enock Seth Nyamador" <kwadzo459(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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On 11/30/2014 12:40 PM, Kasper Souren wrote: I'm curious about (creating) connections between Francophone and Anglophone contributors. It seems WikiAfrica has mainly been about the English Wikipedia and Afripédia is almost only about the French Wikipedia. How many people on this list speak French? How many have contributed to French language projects? Interesting! I can speak and write little French, but haven't contributed to any French language projects. And then there is the question of African languages. Personally I think this is where Africa can gain most. How many of you have contributed in African languages? Which languages Any obstacles? I've contributed to in Ewe <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewe_language> and still do sometimes. On 11/30/2014 12:40 PM, Kasper Souren wrote: My email was sent too quickly. There are few more things I wanted to bring up: I'm curious about (creating) connections between Francophone and Anglophone contributors. It seems WikiAfrica has mainly been about the English Wikipedia and Afripédia is almost only about the French Wikipedia. How many people on this list speak French? How many have contributed to French language projects? And then there is the question of African languages. Personally I think this is where Africa can gain most. How many of you have contributed in African languages? Which languages Any obstacles? There is a mailinglist list about Wikipedia in African languages which has been active since 2006:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Afrophonewikis On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 12:58 PM, Enock Seth Nyamador<kwadzo459(a)gmail.com> <kwadzo459(a)gmail.com> wrote: I believe some Wikimedians in Cameroon also on this list have already connedcted with you. Yeah I have exchanged a few emails, it's a bit hard to keep up with everyone and I also have to adapt to the heat :) It would be great if we can have dinner together, we can try to gather all the participants and other Wikimedians who are present in Douala who are interested. I can post here and on https://twitter.com/guaka when I know more about a possible location for this. a k'an be, Kasper _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing listAfrican-Wikimedians@lists.wikimedia.orghttps://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians -- - Enock Sent via Mozilla Thunderbird _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians

Kasper Souren

8:06 p.m.

On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 5:13 PM, Nkansah Rexford <nkansahrexford(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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The challenge I faced was the fact that, contributors to the language were just a couple, plus people don't read it that much so spending time writing wouldn't get that patronage of reading except for the fact that its a way to document our Akan language.

Interesting. I just found out that Akan has 11 million native speakers according to Wikipedia. So if the Akan Wikipedia becomes a success there is a much higher chance that your work will be read by people from your own country, right? Of course this is a chicken/egg problem. You need a limited number of articles to attract readers and e.g. get the press interested in the project. I think a Wikipedia needs to have at least 1000 articles and probably more than 10000 to become somewhat useful and it's a struggle to get there if there is no attention for a project. Limburgish is a regional language that I speak, somewhat between Dutch and German. I wanted to practice my spelling and preserve the language for future generations and back in 2004 I decided to work hard on the Limburgish Wikipedia until we had 1000 articles at some point in 2005, with only 3 active contributors. Now there are 8100 articles and some more contributors - I personally stopped contributing back in 2005, and I'm very happy the project is there. I think African languages are much more important though than regional European languages Do you think it would be feasible to create local or international groups of active contributors in African languages? Possibly with a very specific goal, such as reaching 1000 or 10000 articles. Or translating important medical articles, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ebola_translation_task_force and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Translation_Ta… What would be required to make that happen? This is a question that we will also discuss this week in Douala.

Ilario Valdelli

8:57 p.m.

On 30.11.2014 20:06, Kasper Souren wrote:

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On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 5:13 PM, Nkansah Rexford <nkansahrexford(a)gmail.com> wrote:

There is a strange discrepancy. Akan has 11 million of speakers. To be a success, the work should have readers. Being speakers doesn't mean being readers ane lesser being writers. It's important. regards -- Ilario Valdelli Wikimedia CH Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera Switzerland - 8008 Zürich Tel: +41764821371 http://www.wikimedia.ch

Nkansah Rexford

10:59 p.m.

In the case of the Akan language, there're many speakers. And many schools teach the language, how to write and speak from primary schools to even sometimes senior high school. I, myself, can go back to writing articles onto the Akan Wikipedia. What I ask myself sometimes is that, "Will I have to translate the english versions for whatever article I wanna write to Akan? How will I provide referencing for the articles I write in Akan? What is the standardized Akan language to use?" I have lots of interest in improving the Akan Wikipedia, and I'm gonna fix it in my workflow and help improve it. Because, Why not? Thanks for suggestions. On Sunday, November 30, 2014, Ilario Valdelli <valdelli(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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On 30.11.2014 20:06, Kasper Souren wrote:

On Sun, Nov 30, 2014 at 5:13 PM, Nkansah Rexford <nkansahrexford(a)gmail.com> wrote:

There is a strange discrepancy. Akan has 11 million of speakers. To be a success, the work should have readers. Being speakers doesn't mean being readers ane lesser being writers. It's important. regards -- Ilario Valdelli Wikimedia CH Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens Association pour l'avancement des connaissances libre Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera Switzerland - 8008 Zürich Tel: +41764821371 http://www.wikimedia.ch _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians

-- +Rexford <http://google.com/+Nkansahrexford> | Africa Center <http://africacenter.net> | WiR <https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedian_in_Residence> | WikiAfrica <http://wikiafrica.net> | User:Nkansahrexford <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Nkansahrexford>

Florence Devouard

2 Dec 2 Dec

5:08 p.m.

Hello Kasper I regret I could only connect today to answer your email :( I wanted to outline that both Kumusha Takes Wiki and Wiki Loves Africa are being conducted in English and French https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Africa I was quite disappointed by the limited participation of Cameroom to the photo contest. Given the effort already been done in that country to train editors and to promote the project, I expected more input. Just saying... Florence Le 30/11/14 13:40, Kasper Souren a écrit :

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I believe some Wikimedians in Cameroon also on this list have already connedcted with you.

Kasper Souren

3 Dec 3 Dec

12:01 a.m.

On Tuesday, December 2, 2014, Florence Devouard <anthere(a)anthere.org> wrote:

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I wanted to outline that both Kumusha Takes Wiki and Wiki Loves Africa are being conducted in English and French Great!

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Africa

I see the contest is over now, will there be another one coming up?

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While trying to upload some pictures to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Afripedia_Douala I'm starting to understand at least one part of the issue. Internet connections are really bad. Very high ping times, both at the French institute as well as in the hotel I'm staying in now, which I can't easily consider cheap (at least in terms of pricing). Is there a robust way to upload pictures to Commons over bad internet connections? Facebook and G+ Android apps have done a fairly good job at uploading pictures automatically, but now I still need to first download them to my laptop and then upload them through the Upload Wizard, which is failing me. Using the Commons Android app is not a good alternative from the hotel connection because it wants me to enter a user/pass combination too often on my phone. Cheers, Kasper

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Asaf Bartov

3:09 a.m.

On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Kasper Souren <kasper.souren(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Africa I see the contest is over now, will there be another one coming up?

Maybe. What it takes for that to be a "yes" is a group to take initiative to organize it, and to request the resources needed to run it (at the very least, prizes, but usually also logistics etc.), whether via a grant or through local sponsorships or crowdfunding. In the case of this competition this year, the organization was undertaken by the Africa Centre, which secured a WMF grant to fund it: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:PEG/Africa_Centre/Wiki_Loves_Africa_… (you might also be interested in the talk page) I was quite disappointed by the limited participation of Cameroom to the

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photo contest. Given the effort already been done in that country to train editors and to promote the project, I expected more input.

Not that I know. It may be a good discussion to have on wikitech-l and/or commons-l. Cheers, A.

Nkansah Rexford

9:20 a.m.

Hi Kasper, I don't think I've ever recommended to anyone to use the Wikimedia app. Its never worked for me, so no reasons why I should tell someone to. However, its still possible to use the in-browser upload wizard, which is much better to use this time. Its easier to use and works nicely. If you have lots of pictures too, you can use the uploader script called the Commonist. It has worked all the time for me. Since the commons server is on the other end, and network connection is between you and the server, I don't think the server will be able to boost speed if your uploading speed network connection is slow. Precisely, do you know the uplink and downlink speed of your connection at the hotel? On Dec 3, 2014 2:10 AM, "Asaf Bartov" <abartov(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

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On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Kasper Souren <kasper.souren(a)gmail.com> wrote:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Africa I see the contest is over now, will there be another one coming up?

photo contest. Given the effort already been done in that country to train editors and to promote the project, I expected more input.

Not that I know. It may be a good discussion to have on wikitech-l and/or commons-l. Cheers, A. _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians

Florence Devouard

3:10 p.m.

Le 03/12/14 00:01, Kasper Souren a écrit :

...

On Tuesday, December 2, 2014, Florence Devouard <anthere(a)anthere.org <mailto:anthere@anthere.org>> wrote: I wanted to outline that both Kumusha Takes Wiki and Wiki Loves Africa are being conducted in English and French Great!

And to a certain extent in Arabic thanks to a couple of volunteers who helped. But not as thoroughly than as in French or English.

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Africa I see the contest is over now, will there be another one coming up?

I hope we will have another one in one year from now ! We will have to identify the topic though. Any idea ? The other thing is that we are thinking a very nice extension to the photo contest could be a project to write a collection of wikibooks related to Cuisine in a variety of countries. That would be a nice opportunity to clean/categorize/use the uploaded photos.

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I was quite disappointed by the limited participation of Cameroom to the photo contest. Given the effort already been done in that country to train editors and to promote the project, I expected more input. While trying to upload some pictures to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Afripedia_Douala I'm starting to understand at least one part of the issue. Internet connections are really bad. Very high ping times, both at the French institute as well as in the hotel I'm staying in now, which I can't easily consider cheap (at least in terms of pricing).

Yes. We had the problem in many countries as well. Which is why we agreed that a few groups from the focus countries upload till the end of this week. I remember for example, Erina (Uganda) organized a visit to a food market in the morning with students and an upload session in the afternoon. The connexion was so bad they only succeeded to upload a dozen images. She gave up in the end. And later uploaded the images in a dropbox for someone else to upload them on Commons. And yes... that is one of the big issues we met on the way. Flo

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Is there a robust way to upload pictures to Commons over bad internet connections? Facebook and G+ Android apps have done a fairly good job at uploading pictures automatically, but now I still need to first download them to my laptop and then upload them through the Upload Wizard, which is failing me. Using the Commons Android app is not a good alternative from the hotel connection because it wants me to enter a user/pass combination too often on my phone. Cheers, Kasper _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians

Emmanuel Engelhart

10:41 p.m.

On 02.12.2014 23:01, Kasper Souren wrote:

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Asaf Bartov

5 Dec 5 Dec

4:15 a.m.

AFAIK, the Commons app is indeed abandoned by WMF. The problem is that allowing resumable uploads requires changes on the server side as well, not just the app or browser. While the Commons server supports "chunked uploads"[1], that still doesn't solve the problem of trying to upload a modest (say 1MB) photo on a choppy 1x connection. It seems to me that market forces and economic development efforts will gradually improve speeds in Africa, and our the best hope for alleviation of this problem. :( A. [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Chunked_uploads On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 1:41 PM, Emmanuel Engelhart <kelson(a)kiwix.org> wrote:

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On 02.12.2014 23:01, Kasper Souren wrote:

No AFAIK. Revamping the Commons app should be one of tech. priority to increase involvement in Africa. But, this is not a priority at the WMF AFAIK, so we should find a way to work on this. Emmanuel -- Kiwix - Wikipedia Offline & more * Web: http://www.kiwix.org * Twitter: https://twitter.com/KiwixOffline * more: http://www.kiwix.org/wiki/Communication _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians

-- Asaf Bartov Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! https://donate.wikimedia.org

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Asaf Bartov
Emmanuel Engelhart
Enock Seth Nyamador
Florence Devouard
Ilario Valdelli
Kasper Souren
Nkansah Rexford