Dear Bobby, Shola and all,

You say, "We (Africans) were consulted". 

According to Meta[1], the Working Group for these awards comprised four English-speaking Wikimedians (at least two of whom are themselves journalists) from Nigeria, Ghana, South Sudan and Kenya. 

At the time of writing, the Meta page has been translated into German, Italian and Korean only. That's an odd assortment of languages for a pan-African award! 

It doesn't create the impression that there was a signficant amount of involvement by the large African communities speaking and writing in French, Arabic, Portuguese, Swahili or Afrikaans, for example. 

Another noteworthy aspect is that while Wikimedia staff are not eligible for participation, African Wikimedia volunteers are. This could potentially include members of the Working Group itself, as well as their friends and colleagues from their local Wikimedia user groups. 

The documentation says very little about how the winners will be determined. All I found was this:

· The Wikimedia Foundation (in collaboration with volunteer Wikimedia editors), through its discretion, will use these nominations to help identify journalists for this recognition.

Could the team say a little more about how conflicts of interest will be managed? 

Also, I would second what The Cunctator said earlier: "It might help to explicitly mention the awareness of these language issues in the public presentation of this effort." Just saying that this is a first effort and that other languages will be considered in future years would help a lot. 

For example, you could commit to just having French next year, Arabic the year after that, etc. 

At the moment, the incongruity between the professed emphasis on "diversity, equity and inclusion" and the restriction to English that follows immediately after is very striking.

This said, I hope you get great entries and look forward to reading the winning entries in due course.

Best,
Andreas

[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Open_the_Knowledge_Journalism_Awards

On Sat, May 6, 2023 at 3:38 AM Bobby Shabangu <bobbyshabangu@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for your email and concerns about inclusion Andreas. We (Africans) were consulted.

And thanks Shola for that response. The key word here is “Pilot”. Looking forward to the results and impact of this project in future.

Best regards, 
Bobby Shabangu 

On Fri, 05 May 2023 at 18:45, Neurodivergent Netizen <idoh.idreamofhorses@gmail.com> wrote:
I know there are cultures in the world that regard English as a litmus test with regards to whether or not you’re educated, and was wondering if that added a layer of nuance to the conversation. However, this changed my mind:

Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language that is not English. Can I submit a translated version?
A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are not accepting translated articles.

While I share Cunctators enthusiasm about the Working Group, the decision to not accept even a translated article has an exclusionary impact regardless of intent.

From,
Emily
She/her





On May 5, 2023, at 8:05 AM, The Cunctator <cunctator@gmail.com> wrote:

While I share the concerns expressed, I'm personally enthusiastic about the thoughtfulness and initiative of the Working Group. It might help to explicitly mention the awareness of these language issues in the public presentation of this effort. 

On Fri, May 5, 2023, 10:45 AM Andreas Kolbe <jayen466@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Lodewijk,

In your reply to Olushola you said:

"I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English."

As Shola hasn't provided any clarification on this, note that the FAQ[1] for the award states:

Q: My article is in French, Portuguese, Swahili, or any other language that is not English. Can I submit a translated version?
A: This year’s awards are focused on articles published in English. We are not accepting translated articles.

Best regards,



On Thursday, May 4, 2023, effe iets anders <effeietsanders@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Olushola,
> thanks for working on efforts like this. I think it's definitely our African communities that should be the judge of what shape works best for an award like this. Out of curiosity, as a way for us all to learn and maybe for Africans among us who want to participate in this conversation that you refer to, could you link to where this conversation/consultation is happening? 
> I hope you can perhaps also clarify whether 'in English' means that the original article has to be available in English, or that some translation should be available in English. I think the former would be much more restrictive than the latter, especially if some translation resources (including community resources) are available. 
> Best,
> Lodewijk
> On Thu, May 4, 2023 at 1:48 PM Olushola Olaniyan <olaniyanshola15@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>> My name is Olushola (User: Olaniyan Olushola). I am from Africa and have been a Wikimedia since 2014 and passionate about language. I co-lead the Oral History documentation of Nigerian indigenous languages ( see more about it here ). I am part and parcel of the working group for this Journalism Award. Together with other community members and some foundation staff, we have co-created the submission guidelines and award criteria, including that articles should be English language articles published in a major outlet. 
>>
>> Everything regarding the rationale for this award is being done in consultation with members of our African communities, aligned with our goals to increase exposure for the work we love in the region and close knowledge gaps. 
>>
>> One thing to mention is that articles about Africa, especially written by journalists with a local perspective, must be better represented in our language Wikipedias, including English. 
>>
>> With this being a brand-new initiative, it was the best time to learn. 
>>
>> It is a pilot, and we all see this as an experiment to draw more attention to journalists' important role as content creators on Wikipedia. 
>>
>> You will agree that we need to celebrate existing journalism excellence that helps fill knowledge gaps online. 
>>
>> The working group conferred, and since this is a pilot, we decided together that it was a good idea to consider the need to limit the scope to collect data and insights easily. We understand the sentiment behind language in Africa and beyond, and we always wanted to keep everything simple. We know that no language is superior to the other, so this is a pilot. From here, we will likely assess the impact we can have before scaling. 
>>
>> We wish to expand this initiative with more regional volunteers should it succeed - and we hope it will. 
>>
>> We already have more than a hundred entries! 
>>
>> Thank you 
>>
>> Shola 
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
>> Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/UEFHWM4CB5VAQM2IV2UGM65V6FMFYJHQ/
>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/VFIO3D4JKHKTCLKTYNEMWIACO2QOIIR2/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/DHTWZZJDG6ZSFTZRF65GX6N77PYD3EIA/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org

_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/YKDCG63PUED6Y2DV2IKNYEDXCS7I3YEB/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
_______________________________________________
Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/QHEO5YCTOY6QBUGDQS5XRPTEMNDAL4YO/
To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org