Re: [Wikimedia ZA] WikimediaZA Digest, Vol 19, Issue 14

Hi Lourie and Maarten WikiAfrica is very keen to support a Wiki Loves Monuments in South Africa, and indeed across Africa - we have been looking a this very subject (great minds obviously think alike!). Perhaps we could all meet to try to co-ordinate a campaign and draw attention to Wikipedia in the process?? When is good for any of you - perhaps when Maarten is back after the 6th? Warmest Isla : : Isla Haddow-Flood Marketing and Communications Manager Project Manager : WikiAfrica a. 5th Floor, 28 St George¹s Mall, Cape Town w. www.africacentre.net t. +27 21 418 3336 f. +27 21 418 5385 skype. islahaddow The Africa Centre is a non-profit social innovator that provides a platform for exploring contemporary Pan-African cultural practice as a catalyst for social change. > From: &lt;wikimediaza-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt; > Reply-To: &lt;wikimediaza(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt; > Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:04:18 +0000 > To: &lt;wikimediaza(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt; > Subject: WikimediaZA Digest, Vol 19, Issue 14 > > Send WikimediaZA mailing list submissions to > wikimediaza(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wikimediaza-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wikimediaza-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of WikimediaZA digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Pictures from Saturday's Xhosa Wiki Workshop (Heather Ford) > 2. Fw: Pictures from Saturday's Xhosa Wiki Workshop > (Lourie Pieterse) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:21:15 -0800 > From: Heather Ford &lt;hfordsa(a)gmail.com&gt; > To: Kerryn McKay &lt;kerryn(a)africancommons.org&gt; > Cc: WikimediaZA &lt;wikimediaza(a)lists.wikimedia.org&gt;rg>, MADe > &lt;MADe(a)wikipedia.be&gt; > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia ZA] Pictures from Saturday's Xhosa Wiki > Workshop > Message-ID: &lt;38CF2CEC-71E6-41B6-AA40-AE3513BB37F3(a)gmail.com&gt; > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > +1 yay! fab idea :) > > On Feb 16, 2012, at 3:59 AM, Kerryn McKay wrote: > >> Hi Lourie >> >> Yep, I'm with you. I think this is a great project, and - as you mentioned >> to me offline - really accessible for people to take part in and contribute. >> Some cool ideas also around it - we could organise an upload party where we >> could have a stall somewhere (at a university or shopping centre on a certain >> day) where we could help people upload their pics there and then. >> >> I'm also happy to chat - maybe we could get together on skype even? >> >> Kerryn >> >> >> >> >> >> * * * * >> Kerryn McKay >> The African Commons Project >> >> 082 334 6165 >> skype: kerrynmac >> twitter: kerrynmckay >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 11:21 AM, Lourie Pieterse &lt;louriepieterse(a)yahoo.com&gt; >> wrote: >> Hello Maarten >> >> It is nice hearing from you again! It sounds to me like a wonderful idea, and >> I am sure that there will be some South Africans who would like to >> participate in this competition. What do the others from Wikimedia ZA think? >> I would definitely be interested to meet up with you and discuss the >> possibilities. When are you again in the Cape Town area? >> >> Kind regards >> Lourie >> >> From: MADe &lt;MADe(a)wikipedia.be&gt; >> To: wikimediaza(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:23 AM >> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia ZA] Pictures from Saturday's Xhosa Wiki Workshop >> >> Hi all, >> >> Very nice to see all the activities on the smaller South African language >> wikis! Hopefully this means a start for those projects. I have another idea >> to get some more things happening. >> >> In Belgium I started the "Wiki Loves Monuments" competition. The goal for the >> participants was to take a picture of a heritage site and to post them on >> Wikicommons. The best images were selected and they could win a variety of >> prices (Belgium: iPad). It was part of a bigger European contest (18 >> countries). The goal was to attract new contributors to the wiki projects, >> and for Belgium to gather some wikipedians to start our own Belgian wiki >> chapter. >> >> The competition itself was fairly simple to organise. The European organisers >> provided tools, a website, logos, a dedicated Wiki Commons upload tool, ... >> and also funding (10,000 ZAR). We made the translations (Belgium alone: five >> languages), we searched for our own jury, we searched for Belgian prices, and >> we got into contact with government organisations that helped us with a venue >> for the price ceremony and some more practical things. >> >> The result was fantastic. 170.000 new images in Europe, of which 6000 in >> Belgium. Lots or media attention for the competition. At least 50 (!) new >> Belgian members that started working on Wikicommons or Wikipedia itself. A >> solid group of people that wanted to work on our own chapter. We established >> good contacts with government organisations that suddenly understood >> Wikipedia is not a black box but made by real people. Nice media coverage on >> the competition. >> >> The European competition will be organised in September of this year. They >> would really enjoy SA to join in, and I'm sure WMF can help us with most of >> the funding. I think this is an easy way to get the attention of new people, >> especially from poorer regions (if we provide the necessary translations). >> >> Who is interested to get more information, or to help with the organisation? >> We can meet in Cape Town, Durban or Johannesburg (I'm almost everywhere for >> my current job<338.gif>) >> >> >> Grtz, >> Maarten >> >> BE: +32 475 21 38 35 >> ZA: +27 71 491 31 38 >> Skype: mdeneckere >> >> 2012/2/14 Douglas Scott &lt;douglas.i.scott(a)gmail.com&gt; >> Hi, >> >> Ian is absolutely right. Although the workshops them selves tend to create a >> number of articles creating a community of dedicated editors for Xhosa >> language Wikipedia will be a very big challenge that I think will take a long >> time. On the up side people are very eager and interested but on the down >> side, as Ian has mentioned, there are still problems with basic computer >> literacy and access to computers/internet. I suspect that it will take a >> number of workshops followed by some sort of program such as one (and this is >> only an idea right now) whereby teachers use Xhosa Wikipedia to test their >> students translating abilities thereby creating a self perpetuating process >> that continually exposes new people to editing that wiki. >> >> As I mentioned to Ian on Saturday I think that a big part of creating a >> healthy community of editors on Wikipedia is finding enough people with the >> right type of personality that is at home using a computer. I think that is >> as much a numbers game as anything else which means spending a long time >> exposing as many people as possible to the idea and process of editing >> Wikipedia. A process that is made harder by relatively low rates of computer >> literacy. But then again we must start from some where I suppose. Either >> way, more work and support is needed and so long as I have free time and am >> in Cape Town I am happy help. >> >> P.S. Thanks for checking the stats Ian. To be frank I am delighted that one >> extra substantial edit was made since the workshop on Saturday. That in its >> self is a 0.7% increase! :-D >> >> >> On 14 February 2012 00:02, Heather Ford &lt;hfordsa(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: >> Thank you so much, Ian. Appreciate it. >> >> On Feb 13, 2012, at 1:15 PM, Ian Gilfillan wrote: >> >>>> Great :) I'd be really interested to know whether people continued to edit >>>> after the workshop if you could share. >>> To try answer Heather, the article count went from 125, which it has been >>> stuck at since at least November 2011, to 131 during the class, and there >>> has only been one substantial edit from any of the participants on the >>> weekend (a new article, increasing the count to 132) since the workshop, so >>> the answer seems to be no. >>> >>> The workshop was 2 hours, and, briefly, we hoped to teach creating a user >>> account, creating or editing (via translation from English) an article, >>> adding links, adding a picture, and I wanted to add interwiki links to the >>> list as well. Everyone created or edited an article, and most, if not >>> everyone, added links, though only some could create a user account due to >>> IP limits, and very few got to adding an image or interwiki links. Douglas >>> goes into more details in his post. >>> >>> It's more complicated to add links in Xhosa than in English due to the way >>> prefixes are used in the language, so quite often an article may exist, but >>> the link doesn't point to it, and there are already duplicate articles for >>> this reason. >>> >>> There is still such a barrier with basic computer use, that I found a >>> substantial portion of the class was showing people how to maximize and >>> minimize windows, how to open a new tab or window, etc, and I got the sense >>> that there wasn't always a real understanding of why the various steps were >>> being performed, which reduces the chances of them being repeatable outside >>> of the class. >>> >>> The one article that was created afterwards is an orphan, with no incoming >>> or outgoing links. >>> >>> There was a lot of enthusiasm, so hopefully having a followup quite soon >>> will keep the interest and momentum going, but I would expect there to be >>> not much sustained activity as a result of the workshop alone. >>> >>> -- >>> Ian Gilfillan >>> www.greenman.co.za >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> WikimediaZA mailing list >>> WikimediaZA(a)lists.wikimedia.org >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza >> >> Heather Ford >> www.ethnographymatters.net >> @hfordsa on Twitter >> http://hblog.org >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WikimediaZA mailing list >> WikimediaZA(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza >> >> >> >> >> -- >> Douglas Ian Scott >> ??? >> 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 >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WikimediaZA mailing list >> WikimediaZA(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WikimediaZA mailing list >> WikimediaZA(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WikimediaZA mailing list >> WikimediaZA(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WikimediaZA mailing list >> WikimediaZA(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza > > Heather Ford > www.ethnographymatters.net > @hfordsa on Twitter > http://hblog.org > >