Hello, everyone.
Many of you know of the Google-sponsored Wikipedia Swahili Challenge of 2009. Google is interested in running another such project, this time focused on three languages in South Africa and Botswana -- Setswana, isiZulu, and Afrikaans. As in 2009, there will be prizes, the grand prize being attending Wikimania _2012_ (in Washington DC). The Wikimedia Foundation is collaborating with Google to make this happen, trying to learn from past experience and improve the competition this time around.
One such lesson is the need for more intensive training for the participants, the vast majority of whom are non-Wikipedians. To that end, the plan is to have concentrated training days in 2-3 universities in South Africa and 2-3 universities in Botswana, so about a whole week of training days. I think it makes sense to have one trainer from the Wikipedian community in South Africa, for familiarity with (at least some of) the languages, and another trainer from among those of you who participated in the 2009 Swahili challenge, for your insight on the Challenge itself and on the process.
The timeline is pretty tight -- Google wants to announce the Challenge July 1st, have the trainings on _the week beginning July 25th_, and open submissions August 1st (till October 3rd).
My question to you -- is any of you interested in delivering this training, _and_ is available on that week for an entire week, _and_ is able to travel to these countries (passports etc.)? The travel costs will be covered by the Foundation, and accommodation covered by Google.
Thank you for considering this offer.
Cheers,
Asaf