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, making it the 272nd largest wiki. About
half the size of
Inuktitut 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