2010/9/28 Ian Gilfillan wikimediaza@greenman.co.za:
David Richfield wrote:
At Software Freedom Day I got some schoolkids from Mamelodi interested in the project, and they tried their hands at translating some English text into the Sepedi wikipedia incubator. They were very eager, and were intensely debating which word to use for which concept. We didn't get much done: only a paragraph or two, but I spoke to their computer studies teacher, and they have a computer lab with internet access, and she's willing to open it up for us on a Saturday, and the kids said they'd be happy to come in on a Saturday for the project. I still have to hear from her again, and I'll keep you all in the loop as things develop.
I'm happy to go there and facilitate, but if you have experience of this kind of thing, or know Sepedi, or have a clear idea of what the most urgent, achievable or useful articles would be, please help!
Great, that sounds very hopeful. If the students can remain active that may be enough to get the project bumped up to official status. Have you spoken to Mohau, or has he got hold of you? He's been keeping the Sepedi Wikipedia going almost single-handedly, and may know his way around best. He's on this list, but that's no guarantee he saw or read the mail. I've made the subject more descriptive to help :)
There's a list of "articles every Wikipedia should have" at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_articles_every_Wikipedia_should_have but I'd ignore it, and just let the students be guided by their interest rather than try and force them to write "important" articles. I'm not sure getting someone to write about Verdi or Sarah Bernhardt is the way to go :)
More general things I'd suggest focusing on include getting people to register and log in rather than just edit anonymously (according to the tracker at http://toolserver.org/~pathoschild/catanalysis/?cat=0&title=wp/nso&w... no one has edited while logged in this month) and to be aware of interwiki language links.
Great suggestions, thanks for the input. I guess my next actions are:
* Call Gatang Comprehensive School up to re-establish contact with the teacher. * Contact Mohau (what are his details?)