This press release is also available on the Wikimedia blog here:
https://blog.wikimedia.org/2018/07/20/wikimania-2018/
*Wikipedia volunteers and free knowledge leaders gather in Cape Town for
the first annual “Wikimania” conference in sub-saharan Africa*
*First ever Wikimania in sub-Saharan Africa will be held in Cape Town,
bringing together more than 700 people to discuss how to improve the
diversity of knowledge represented on Wikipedia and Wikimedia sites.*
*Key participants include Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director Katherine
Maher, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, as well as notable thought leaders
from across Africa and the world.*
*(Cape Town, South Africa) 20 July 2018* — More than 700 attendees from
nearly 80 countries gathered today for the start of Wikimania 2018—the
annual conference celebrating Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, the
Wikimedia free knowledge movement, and the community of volunteers who make
them possible. This marks the 14th annual Wikimania, which takes place
18–22 July at the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town, where
volunteers will come together to discuss and share ideas around the future
of Wikipedia and free knowledge globally.
The event kicked off with an opening ceremony featuring a special
presentation by a group of local Sinenjongo high school students welcoming
conference attendees to Cape Town. It continued with remarks by Douglas
Scott, President of Wikimedia ZA, the local South African Wikimedia
affiliate and lead local organizer of this year’s conference who introduced
this year’s conference theme: Bridging knowledge gaps, the ubuntu way
forward, which aims to address gaps in knowledge, particularly those about
African people, cultures, and languages, on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia
projects. As part of this week’s centennial celebration to commemorate the
birth of Nelson Mandela, Scott announced a partnership with the Nelson
Mandela Foundation to make the inspirational writings of the former South
African President’s 1962 diary available to the world on Wikimedia Commons
and Wikisource.
Throughout this year’s Wikimania, attendees will explore sessions related
to development of Wikimedia projects in Africa, global collaborations to
support the advancement of free knowledge, and opportunities to partner
with galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs). Wikimania 2018 is
co-organized by the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia ZA.
Wikimania 2018 will also bring together a diverse mix of attendees,
including seasoned volunteer editors; researchers and data scientists;
members from the medical community; librarians; and other free knowledge
leaders. Confirmed keynote speakers include internet geographist Dr. Martin
Dittus, who will be speaking on economic development, labour, power,
participation, and representation, Joy Buolamwini, a noted artificial
intelligence expert fighting to remove bias in machine learning, and
Professor Sean Jacobs, an esteemed data scientist in digital culture and
digital geography, alongside Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director,
Katherine Maher, and Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales. All plenary sessions
will be live streamed and available for public viewing online. More
information and links to livestream session are available here. [1]
“Wikipedia today is already fascinating and expansive. But it does not
begin to represent the entirety of the world we live in — so much of the
rich history, diversity of language, culture, and peoples of Africa is
missing from the site,” said Katherine Maher, Executive Director of the
Wikimedia Foundation. “We are honored to be hosted by Cape Town for this
year’s Wikimania, the first ever in sub-saharan Africa, and look forward to
speaking with our global communities, South Africans, and more about how we
can begin to hear the critical perspectives that are missing from Wikipedia
today.”
As part of the Wikimania press conference held on Friday, Katherine was
joined by Banks Baker, Head of Global Product Partnerships – Search
Content at Google, to announce the outcome of a recent collaboration
between the Wikimedia Foundation and Google to expand and improve the
representation of knowledge in Indic languages on Wikipedia, called Project
Tiger. Through the project, both organizations, working in close
collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), Wikimedia
India chapter (WMIN) and local volunteers, hosted a pilot program to
increase locally relevant content available in 12 Indic languages on
Wikipedia.
Google provided Chromebooks and internet access to support volunteer
editors with content creation as well as insights into popular search
topics on Google that lack information in Indian languages online. Through
a three month writing competition, volunteers created nearly 4,500 new
Wikipedia articles across 12 languages, nearly double the initial
benchmarks for the project. Based on this initial success of the pilot
program, Google and the Wikimedia Foundation will hear feedback from
volunteers about the program in a session on Sunday at Wikimania and
further explore future implementation of these types of programs with other
volunteer communities.
The annual Wikimania gathering will also provide an opportunity for
volunteers to discuss Wikimedia’s future as part of Wikimedia 2030, a
global consultation to define the future of the Wikimedia movement.
Challenges with software localisation, the structure of data, and even
newforms of knowledge that Wikimedia has defined as “verifiable”
(text-based, rather than oral, for example) are some of the issues the
movement is grappling with as it moves actively towards incorporating more
diverse forms of knowledge within Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects.
Wikimania also offers conference-goers time to experience the unique
culture of Cape Town and join in the celebrations of Nelson Mandela’s 100th
birthday. The conference’s theme, “Bridging knowledge gaps—the ubuntu way
forward,” captures this spirit and finds its roots in the philosophy and
way of life ubuntu.
“Ubuntu is summarised as the philosophy of ‘I am because you are,’ or
alternatively ‘the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all
humanity,'” explained Wikimedia South Africa President, Douglas Scott.
“Volunteer community-driven projects like Wikipedia and what we are hoping
to achieve at Wikimania in Cape Town capture this ethos well. Wikimedia
South Africa is honored to have this opportunity to share this spirit with
our friends and colleagues around the world.”
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that supports
Wikipedia, the Wikimedia free knowledge projects, and its mission of free
knowledge for every single person.
To learn more about the conference, please visit:
wikimania2018.wikimedia.org.
You can follow the conference on #Wikimania as well as on:
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikimania/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/wikimania
[1]
https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program#Remote_attendance
About the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that supports
Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a
world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all
knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute
something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to
access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects,
build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia
content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia
possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free
knowledge to thrive.
The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that
relies on donations. We receive financial support from millions of
individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We
also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The
Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization
with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.
About Wikimedia South Africa
Wikimedia ZA is the non-profit volunteer-driven South African Wikimedia
chapter. It exists to promote the free knowledge movement in the country
by supporting Wikipedia editors, contributions to Wikimedia projects such
as Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, and increase access to free knowledge
sources. Membership is open to anyone based in South Africa with an
interest in participating in the free knowledge movement. Wikimedia ZA is
the local host of Wikimania 2018.
About Wikimania
Wikimania is the annual conference centered on the Wikimedia projects
(Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge websites) and the
Wikimedia community of volunteers who contribute to them. It features
presentations on Wikimedia projects, other wikis, free and open source
software, free knowledge and free content, and the social and technical
aspects which relate to these topics. Wikimania 2018 marks the 14th year of
the conference.
About Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the world’s free knowledge resource. It is a collaborative
creation that has been added to and edited by millions of people from
around the globe since it was created in 2001: anyone can edit it, at any
time. Wikipedia is offered in nearly 300 languages containing a total of
more than 46 million articles, and viewed more than 15 billion times every
month. It is the largest, collaborative collection of free knowledge in
human history, and today its content is contributed and edited by a
community of more than 200,000 volunteer editors each month.
In case of any queries, please contact:
Sascha Polkey
Rabbit in a Hat Communications
sascha(a)rabbitinahat.co.za
Tel: +27 83 414 04552/ 21 300 0052
Kui Kinyanjui
Vice President, Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
press(a)wikimedia.org
--
*Samantha Lien*
Communications Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
1Montgomery Street
Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
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