Hello, everyone.

I have an announcement about this: it seems we will have difficulty starting at the original timeline, as the isiZulu and Setswana Wikipedia communities are entirely inactive. We will need to perform some basic outreach activity in those language communities first, to see if we can create a core of contributors who would then be able to absorb the work of the Challenge participants.

We are therefore postponing the Challenge by at least 2-3 months, and so there's plenty of time to think about who volunteers to be a trainer.

As some have noted in your discussion, the training week is going to be pretty intensive, not just a fun trip and sitting in on some lectures... The trainer would first have to prepare, using materials provided by the WMF (in English) as well as their own KWC experience (and yes, in case it's still unclear -- we need a trainer who participated in KWC in 2009), and then, during the training week, deliver detailed training on the principles behind Wikipedia, on good encyclopedic style (facts, not opinions; neutral point of view; etc.), and on the technical side of using the Wikipedia platform (i.e. Mediawiki software).

I understand it may be difficult to come to a decision about the trainer, especially as your group doesn't have internal structure yet, so decision-making except by consensus can be tricky. If your group would prefer it, the Foundation is willing to pick the trainer itself.

Anyhow, I suggest we wait a couple of weeks until things are clearer about whether we can make any progress with isiZulu and Setswana contributors, so we can have a revised timeline.

In the meantime, let's focus on Kenya. (and see my next message in a separate thread)

Thanks,

    Asaf
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    Asaf Bartov
    Wikimedia Foundation