Re: [Wikimedia ZA] African language Wikipedias

Hi Ian, Thanks for looking into this and writing this up, especially the part on the Xhosa language Wikipedia. It is a very interesting post and I agree that it is the case that the increase in the number of articles on Xhosa language Wikipedia has been disappointing after the workshops. I think that this will be a long term and on going project with the goal of finding that one or two people amongst X large number of people that has both the natural inclination to edit Wikipedia (which I think is a relatively rare trait) and the Xhosa language skills. As well as building up a community of editors that can grow on its own. So I remain optimistic that although it will requite what will feel like a long period of beating our heads on a brick wall that eventually some thing will come out of it. It will just take time and perseverance. A quick summery of the Xhosa workshops lack of success (as measured by article output) off the top of my head. - Beginning of academic year: interest in learning more about, attending and editing Wikipedia for the Xhosa language professionals that this series of workshops was aimed at was high at the beginning of the year and petered off quickly because people had to get back to work and so felt they had less time to devote. - Computer literacy: as has already been mentioned in a previous email on this subject. - Over focus on Xhosa language specialists and lack of role-out to students and other possible interested editors. Students I think is a good area to possibly focus on in future outreach projects for the wiki. On a more optimistic note I feel that it was not a complete loss because it did: - Create an awareness of the Xhosa language Wikipedia amongst Xhosa language specialists and academics. Judging from discussions I have had with them previously they had no idea that it even existed and that they were able to even edit Wikis in general. - Created some good will and firmer foundations for future projects. People seem eager to learn more about getting back into it at the end of term. - Created some good will and introductions for other unrelated Wiki projects. Such as providing an introduction to the Western Cape Provincial Archives who I have been talking with about setting up a possible small GLAM project. Time will tell though if anything comes out of that. Cheers, Douglas. Discott P.S. Many thanks again Ian for helping out with the first workshop. On 14 April 2012 07:41, rupert THURNER <rupert.thurner(a)gmail.com> wrote: wrote: disappointing -- 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)79 515 872