Hi Isaac, Thanks for your questions and comments, and I think they are important to bring forth so that we clarify them and get an understanding of what the Wiki-Indaba gathering and subsequent Wiki-Indaba Steering Committee (WIScom) is all about. Remember the conference brings together old hands of Wikimedia and newbies and Wikimedians with some experience but needs capacity building, we also have free knowledge advocates and mission aligned institutions including sponsorships like our friends the Goethe-institute, and some Embassies and university reprentatives. Projects and challenges are shared by Wikimedians here and solutions are identified, but how do we track if those solutions are being implemented and are working? How do we provide support? How do we give conference attendees the right tools to run their project? This is where the WIScom comes in. To provide simple actionable solutions that will bring together Wikipedians within the African continent after the conference. So, to simply answer you, Wiki-Indaba is not about the conference but is about Wikimedians within the African continent. And although helping Wikimedians organise the conference will be part of what WIScom do, but WIScom is not necessarily about events management (the conference) but it's more about people management (Wikimedians). We don't want meta or this mailing list to be the only way for us to communicate but we want to also include a Facebook page and Twitter handle for Wiki-Indaba where our friends the Goethe-institute or Creative Commons or some Wikipedian in Malawi or Central African Republic can know about us and receive the same assistance. Please read more about why we have the conference on the link here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiIndaba_conference_2014 Kind regards, Bobby Shabangu On Sunday, June 10, 2018, Isaac Olatunde &lt;reachout2isaac(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: > Hi Zeineb, > > Thanks for sharing this information. However, I do have some questions > and comments. I have listed them below. > > 1. You wrote "Support Wikimedians within The African continent who wants > to run Wikimedia projects but don't know where to start or how to go about > doing that, as well as finding out about the progress of projects run by > Wikimedians within the African continent and diaspora" How is this related > to Indaba? I believe an Indaba steering committee should primarily focus on > the business of Indaba which is the African regional conference. > > 2. While I do agree on the need to support individuals that one to run > Wikimedia projects in their countries, I do not think we need a committee > to do that, even if we do, I don't think Indaba steering committee should > be the one to handle this. This appears to be out of scope. > > 3. "Finding out about the progress of projects runs by Wikimedians in > Africa and diaspora " is a go thing, I also think this is out of scope for > Indaba steering committee " Reports/Progress reports are often published on > Meta Wiki for everyone to see and people are welcome to contact project > coordinator if there is a capacity in which they which to help. I do not > think we need a committee to do that and if we must have a committee, I > don't think Indaba Steering Committee is the appropriate committee to do > that. > > 4. In your page you wrote "Management of scholarships application and > awarding process " In 2017, I proposed here "Indaba Scholarship Committee " > like "Wikimania Scholarship Committee" but it does appeared that the LOC > with support of the WMF handled the process. Thus, it might be a good idea > to have a separate body like the one proposed above, WMF and LOC to handle > this process. > > > I do think the roles of this steering committee are overstretched and we > do need to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy. > > Regards, > > Isaac > > On Jun 10, 2018 12:01 PM, "Zeineb Takouti" &lt;zeinebtakouti(a)gmail.com&gt; > wrote: > >> Dear African Wikimedians, >> >> I hope this email finds you well. >> >> As you will remember that during our Wiki-Indaba >> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Indaba> conference in Tunisia it >> was agreed that we need to put together a steering committee that will be >> responsible for capacity building which includes amongst other things >> providing support to countries who wish to host Wiki-Indaba conference in >> the future, support Wikimedians within the African continent who wants to >> run Wikimedia projects but don't know where to start or how to go about >> doing that, as well as finding out about the progress of projects run by >> Wikimedians within the African continent and diaspora and letting everyone >> know through social media etc. >> >> Currently the Wiki-Indaba Steering Committee (WISCom) >> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Indaba#Wiki_Indaba_Steering_Committee_(WISCom)> >> is composed of representatives from countries who were previously host >> to the conference, this includes Myself, Bobby Shabangu and Felix Nartey. >> We would like to increase the steering committee, and we are calling for >> applications from volunteers who are interested to be part of the WISCom. >> The applications can be done by answering a few questions on this page >> here >> <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Indaba/Steering_Committee_(WISCom)> >> . >> >> The due date for applications is Friday 22 June 2018. >> >> You are free to share this message on other social groups for more >> participation. >> >> Kind regards, >> >> Zeineb Takouti >> >> >> Zeineb Takouti >> Chef de projet / Consultante Junior >> Co-fondatrice et secrétaire générale de Carthagina >> Membre de Wikimedia TN User Group >> GSM: (+216) 54 394 883 >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> African-Wikimedians mailing list >> African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians >> >>

Hello Isaac, Thanks for your concerns, I think its good to ask these questions now so that we all have some understanding of what the committee will or will not do. 1. I don't think the committee wants to create a bureaucratic process by offering to support Wikimedians on the continent. I think all that is being proposed is to offer help to those who require such assistance. Please note that this doesn't stop anyone who wants to help a group, community or country in any capacity, this is just a gesture to support and to be responsible for some of the action items ensued from Indaba. 2. I think during Indaba 2017 discussions around helping other African countries know about Wikimedia and starting communities where there wasn't any arose. However after the conference, just a handful of participants championed this cause. What the steering committee wants to do on this, is to ensure that discussions are followed through even after the conference and it takes responsibility of action items resulting from the conference. Once again this doesn't stop anyone who wants to help a neighbouring country, all this does is to provide more hands on deck to support. Nobody needs to report what they are doing for a country to WISCOM but sharing will go along way to encourage others who are doing same or want to start something around that. 3. I think we are all aware that nobody is obliged to share any progress reports or success stories with any group other than the WMF, however due to the kind nature of our ecosystem, these are made available anyway on Meta for transparency. The committee is interested in sharing and projecting amazing work from the continent. No hidden agenda here, just a way to share more stories about the good work of our brothers and sisters on the continent. However if pledges are made during indaba to pursue or work on something the committee may follow up with such participants to learn what has happened after the conference. 4. It is important for scholarships to be overseen by the committee to ensure that instrumental people attend the conference. Currently because every LOC has done this by themselves in the past there is not much data and knowledge sharing amongst previous hosts. People who attended in 2014 in SA were not passed on to Ghana and those who came in Ghana were not also passed on to Tunisia. The committee wants to create institutional knowledge around who attends and their impact after the conference, using this data by subsequent committees will help select the right participants each year. I hope this answers your questions. Cheers, On Mon, Jun 11, 2018 at 3:55 AM Isaac Olatunde &lt;reachout2isaac(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: -- *Felix Nartey* *Cofounder/Managing Director * *Website: Open Foundation West Africa <https://openfoundationwestafrica.org/>* *+233242844987 | **+447452508504* *Skype:Flixtey*

Hello Isaac, Thanks for your concerns, I think its good to ask these questions now so that we all have some understanding of what the committee will or will not do. 1. I don't think the committee wants to create a bureaucratic process by offering to support Wikimedians on the continent. I think all that is being proposed is to offer help to those who require such assistance. Please note that this doesn't stop anyone who wants to help a group, community or country in any capacity, this is just a gesture to support and to be responsible for some of the action items ensued from Indaba. 2. I think during Indaba 2017 discussions around helping other African countries know about Wikimedia and starting communities where there wasn't any arose. However after the conference, just a handful of participants championed this cause. What the steering committee wants to do on this, is to ensure that discussions are followed through even after the conference and it takes responsibility of action items resulting from the conference. Once again this doesn't stop anyone who wants to help a neighbouring country, all this does is to provide more hands on deck to support. Nobody needs to report what they are doing for a country to WISCOM but sharing will go along way to encourage others who are doing same or want to start something around that. 3. I think we are all aware that nobody is obliged to share any progress reports or success stories with any group other than the WMF,

however due to the kind nature of our ecosystem, these are made available anyway on Meta for transparency. The committee is interested in sharing and projecting amazing work from the continent. No hidden agenda here, just a way to share more stories about the good work of our brothers and sisters on the continent. However if pledges are made during indaba to pursue or work on something the committee may follow up with such participants to learn what has happened after the conference. 4. It is important for scholarships to be overseen by the committee to ensure that instrumental people attend the conference. Currently because every LOC has done this by themselves in the past there is not much data and knowledge sharing amongst previous hosts. People who attended in 2014 in SA were not passed on to Ghana and those who came in Ghana were not also passed on to Tunisia. The committee wants to create institutional knowledge around who attends and their impact after the conference, using this data by subsequent committees will help select the right participants each year. I hope this answers your questions. Cheers, On Mon, Jun 11, 2018 at 3:55 AM Isaac Olatunde &lt;reachout2isaac(a)gmail.com <mailto:reachout2isaac@gmail.com>> wrote: Hi Bobby, As you may already be aware, I know what Wiki-Indaba is all about and if you dig out some thread on this list or have been following discussions on this list, you will notice that I bided for Wiki-Indaba 2016 on behalf of my country, Nigeria. That being said, we do not want a situation where people will need permission from a committee to help countries that needs help. We do not want people to use the committee to promote personal agenda. I already noted that the goals of "Activating African Communities"[1], a personal project run by one of the three members of this committee are what we are seeing on the Wiki Indaba Steering Committee. We don't want another level of bureaucracy. I personally cannot give a progress report of my project to any committee except the WMF and or a committee constituted by WMF to handle such things. Again, Wiki-Indaba scholarship committee, LOC and WMF should handle how people are selected for scholarship. Regards, Isaac https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Activating_African_Communities On Jun 11, 2018 2:01 AM, "Bobby Shabangu" &lt;bobbyshabangu(a)gmail.com <mailto:bobbyshabangu@gmail.com>> wrote: Hi Isaac, Thanks for your questions and comments, and I think they are important to bring forth so that we clarify them and get an understanding of what the Wiki-Indaba gathering and subsequent Wiki-Indaba Steering Committee (WIScom) is all about. Remember the conference brings together old hands of Wikimedia and newbies and Wikimedians with some experience but needs capacity building,  we also have free knowledge advocates and mission aligned institutions including sponsorships like our friends the Goethe-institute, and some Embassies and university reprentatives. Projects and challenges are shared by Wikimedians here and solutions are identified, but how do we track if those solutions are being implemented and are working? How do we provide support?  How do we give conference attendees the right tools to run their project? This is where the WIScom comes in. To provide simple actionable solutions that will bring together Wikipedians within the African continent after the conference. So, to simply answer you, Wiki-Indaba is not about the conference but is about Wikimedians within the African continent. And although helping Wikimedians organise the conference will be part of what WIScom do, but WIScom is not necessarily about events management (the conference) but it's more about people management (Wikimedians). We don't want meta or this mailing list to be the only way for us to communicate but we want to also include a Facebook page and Twitter handle for Wiki-Indaba where our friends the Goethe-institute or Creative Commons or some Wikipedian in Malawi or Central African Republic can know about us and receive the same assistance. Please read more about why we have the conference on the link here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiIndaba_conference_2014 Kind regards, Bobby Shabangu On Sunday, June 10, 2018, Isaac Olatunde &lt;reachout2isaac(a)gmail.com <mailto:reachout2isaac@gmail.com>> wrote: Hi Zeineb, Thanks for sharing this information. However, I do have some questions and comments.  I have listed them below. 1. You wrote "Support Wikimedians within The African continent who wants to run Wikimedia projects but don't know where to start or how to go about doing that, as well as finding out about the progress of projects run by Wikimedians within the African continent and diaspora" How is this related to Indaba? I believe an Indaba steering committee should primarily focus on the business of Indaba which is the African regional conference. 2. While I do agree on the need to support individuals that one to run Wikimedia projects in their countries, I do not think we need a committee to do that, even if we do, I don't think Indaba steering committee should be the one to handle this. This appears to be out of scope. 3. "Finding out about the progress of projects runs by Wikimedians in Africa and diaspora " is a go thing, I also think this is out of scope for Indaba steering committee " Reports/Progress reports are often published on Meta Wiki for everyone to see and people are welcome to contact project coordinator if there is a capacity in which they which to help. I do not think we need a committee to do that and if we must have a committee, I don't think Indaba Steering Committee is the appropriate committee to do that. 4. In your page you wrote "Management of scholarships application and awarding process " In 2017, I proposed here "Indaba Scholarship Committee " like "Wikimania Scholarship Committee" but it does appeared that the LOC with support of the WMF handled the process. Thus, it might be a good idea to have a separate body like the one proposed above, WMF and LOC to handle this process. I do think the roles of this steering committee are overstretched and we do need to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy. Regards, Isaac On Jun 10, 2018 12:01 PM, "Zeineb Takouti" &lt;zeinebtakouti(a)gmail.com <mailto:zeinebtakouti@gmail.com>> wrote: Dear African Wikimedians, I hope this email finds you well. As you will remember that during ourWiki-Indaba <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Indaba>conference in Tunisia it was agreed that we need to put together a steering committee that will be responsible for capacity building which includes amongst other things providing support to countries who wish to host Wiki-Indaba conference in the future, support Wikimedians within the African continent who wants to run Wikimedia projects but don't know where to start or how to go about doing that, as well as finding out about the progress of projects run by Wikimedians within the African continent and diaspora and letting everyone know through social media etc. Currently theWiki-Indaba Steering Committee (WISCom) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Indaba#Wiki_Indaba_Steering_Committee_%28WISCom%29>is composed of representatives from countries who were previously host to the conference, this includes Myself,  Bobby Shabangu and Felix Nartey. We would like to increase the steering committee, and we are calling for applications from volunteers who are interested to be part of the WISCom. The applications can be done by answering a few questions on this pagehere <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Indaba/Steering_Committee_%28WISCom%29>. The due date for applications is Friday 22 June 2018. You are free to share this message on other social groups for more participation. Kind regards, Zeineb Takouti Zeineb Takouti Chef de projet / Consultante Junior Co-fondatrice et secrétaire générale de Carthagina Membre de Wikimedia TN User Group GSM: (+216) 54 394 883 _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:African-Wikimedians@lists.wikimedia.org> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org <mailto:African-Wikimedians@lists.wikimedia.org> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians -- *Felix Nartey* *Cofounder/Managing Director * *Website: Open Foundation West Africa <https://openfoundationwestafrica.org/>* *+233242844987 | **+447452508504* *Skype:Flixtey* _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list African-Wikimedians(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians