Greetings,
Wiki Indaba was a gathering of African Wikimedians and Open Source Advocates. The convention sought to realize, analyze and address situations peculiar to the continent while churning ideas for the future of Wikimedia projects on the continent. There was a representation from 10 countries spanning the entire regions on the continent. Ghana, Nigeria and Cote Divoire, Cameroon, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, Egypt and Tunisia and South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Malawi represented the Western, Central, Eastern, Northern and Southern African Regions respectively. There was also a representation from the Wikimedia Foundation and other countries such as Iran, France and Italy, resulting in a total of about 35 participants at the conference.
Day1
The general focus for the first day was to introduce and acquaint ourselves with the other participants while each country presented challenges and success stories that pertained to their specific countries. In the evening we had dinner at the House of Baobab. The restaurant had delicacies sprawling the entire African continent. The flagship jollof and bissap juice (popularly known in Ghana as sobolo) from the West African Region were served. Not forgetting the fried plantain with tomato sauce that was served as a starter.
Day 2
Day 2 started with great enthusiasm as we were gaining into the main agenda for the convention. Sectional meetings were hosted, ideas presented and trainings on more specific related programs. Success stories, suggestions and further education were done in these sessions. The day wouldn’t have been any better without the excellent film show on copyright by the creative commons team at the Jozi Hub. It was great insight to Wikimedians, artists and producers who were present.
Day 3
Day three was result oriented. The focus was on addressing the many concerns that were raised and drawing conclusions on the way forward. This was facilitated through allotment of groups which were tasked to solve or perhaps provide solutions to topics or issues that were deemed essential to the gathering. Day 3 was doleful as many were just not in the mood to come to a close to the summit I dubbed, “the gathering of the world’s most positive minds”
Generally I will say it was an event worth attending and hope it hosts more Africans next year so as to increase the pool of knowledge and ideas that will be shared.