Hello everyone,
Since I have gotten such an overwhelmingly positive response from Xhosa
language practitioners on introducing them to Xhosa Wikipedia an informal
preliminary workshop for six people at the University of the Western Cape
has been organised by the African language department there. It would be
great to have some local Wikipedian volunteers to help introduce them to
editing Wikipedia. Below are the details. If you are interested in
joining us then please to let me know in advance.
Tuesday, 31/01/2012, at 13h00. University of the Western Cape, The Xhosa
Department, New Arts Building, Room D132.
Thanks,
Discott.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
UK mobile number: +44 (0)755 452 5277
Chinese mobile number: +86 1 364 330 7351
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Hello everyone,
Its been an issue for some time now that the African language Wikipedia's
are not doing as well as the vast majority of other Wikipedia's. Xhosa
Wikipedia, the language of more then seven million South Africans, has only 125
articles <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias>, making it the
272nd largest wiki. About half the size of
Inuktitut<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuktitut_language> Wikipedia.
I contacted the head of the African languages department at the University
of Cape Town and had a meeting with him yesterday to discuss it. It seems
like it went very well and I have already been contacted by 9 Xhosa
language specialists in the Western and Eastern Cape who are very
interested in attending a workshop to learn more about editing Wikipedia.
I would like to know if anyone would be interested in helping me host any
workshops in Cape Town the near future? It would be nice to have another
Wikipedian around to help coach people during the workshop. Since this is
still very early days yet we have not set a date yet for the workshop but I
would like it to take place within the next month or so, or even sooner
then that. I would also be interested in getting your feedback on the
idea. Right now the objective is just to train a few Xhosa language
Wikipedians and make it known to them how free and easy it is to edit
Wikipedia and contribute. As well as to expand Xhosa language Wikipedia by
translating articles from well written English Wikipedia articles. So far
all the people that have contacted me are either academics that specialise
in Xhosa studies at the Universities here in Cape Town or are from
government.
Best,
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
UK mobile number: +44 (0)755 452 5277
Chinese mobile number: +86 1 364 330 7351
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727
Oh wow!!!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jay Walsh <jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 9:00 AM
Subject: [Foundation-l] [Wikimedia Announcements] English Wikipedia to
go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA
To: wikimediaannounce-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Please also see the related blog post,
http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/01/16/wikipedias-community-calls-for-anti-so…
The release is posted here:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/English_Wikipedia_to_go_…
*English Wikipedia to go dark January 18 in opposition to SOPA/PIPA
*
San Francisco -- January 16, 2012 -- On January 18, 2012, in an
unprecedented decision, the Wikipedia community has chosen to blackout the
English version of Wikipedia for 24 hours, in protest against proposed
legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the
U.S. House of Representatives, and PROTECTIP (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. If
passed, this legislation will harm the free and open Internet and bring
about new tools for censorship of international websites inside the United
States.
Wikipedia administrators confirmed this decision Monday afternoon (PST) in
a public statement (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Action#Summary_and_c…
):
Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined
together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take
against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in
a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level
of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The
overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage
greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals
considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a "blackout" of the
English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites
opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.
“Today Wikipedians from around the world have spoken about their opposition
to this destructive legislation," said Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.
"This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we
regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even
a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free
speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening
precedent of Internet censorship for the world."
We urge Wikipedia readers to make your voices heard. If you live in the
United States, find your elected representative in Washington (
https://www.eff.org/sopacall). If you live outside the United States,
contact your State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs or similar
branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and want the
internet to remain open and free.
*About the Wikimedia Foundation
*http://wikimediafoundation.org
http://blog.wikimedia.org
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. According to comScore Media Metrix,
Wikipedia and the other projects operated by the Wikimedia Foundation
receive more than 474 million unique visitors per month, making them the
fifth-most popular web property world-wide (comScore, November 2011).
Available in 282 languages, Wikipedia contains more than 20 million
articles contributed by a global volunteer community of more than 100,000
people. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an
audited, 501(c)(3) charity that is funded primarily through donations and
grants.
*Media Contact:
*
Jay Walsh
Head of Communications
Wikimedia Foundation
Tel. +1 415 839 6885 x 6609
jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org
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--
David Richfield
e^(πi)+1=0