Re: [Wikimedia ZA] Wikimedia South Africa Newsletter - April 2014

A warm welcome to all our fellow Wikipedians, It's been 3 months since our last communication so we just want to touch base with you, and tell you what we have been up to. What does 2014 have in store? The first months of 2014 have been packed with mostly project focussed activities. As part of our ongoing commitment to increase awareness of the South African Chapter and Wikipedia as a whole, we have been busy putting together many projects that will do just that. Here is a quick glance of these upcoming projects: Joburgpedia 2014 The first phase of Joburgpedia was received very well, and we are pleased to announce that we have received funding to implement the second phase of the project, which will kick off in April. This year will see the appointment of the first South African Wikipedians in Residence at Johannesburg Heritage Foundation and Museum Africa! Collaboration with Constitutional Court WMZA is very excited about a collaboration with the Constitutional Court. Training sessions will take place with various participants which will see contributions to Wikipedia in terms of documentation and information relevant to the Concourt. Wiki Meetups Wiki Meetups are an opportunity for Wikipedians and anyone else interested in getting more involved in Wikipedia and other Wikis, as well as open collaboration projects, to meet and talk about issues of shared interest. We will keep you posted of upcoming events. The 5th Cape Town Wiki Meetup will take place on Sunday, 4 May at 11:00 at Truth Coffee, 36 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town. More information about the meet up can be found here. Everyone is welcome to attend. Wikimania 2015 We are very excited about our bid for Wikimania 2015. We expect the bid committee to make its final decision in April! Wiki Indaba The first ever gathering of African Wikipedians for Africa will be held in Johannesburg in June. Scholarship applications can be made online. This conference is the first step towards the establishment of African co-operative structures and organs made up of Wikimedia Chapters, Wikimedians and mission aligned thematic organisations. Wiki Loves Monuments & Others September is Heritage month and the kick-off of Wiki Loves Monuments 2014. We look forward to increased participation and number of submissions this year. WMZA is also investigating the feasibility of a Wiki Loves Wildlife competition and, in collaboration with other Chapters, a Wiki Loves Earth competition. We are also proud to announce our new partner, Western Cape Heritage, who have come on board to promote participation from the Western Cape. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with this new partner. Chapters Conference - Germany, April 2014 Douglas Scott, Theresa Hume and David Richfield will be representing WMZA at the Chapters Conference in Germany during the first weekend of April. GLAM As a pilot project for the GLAM initiative, we have approached the National Archives in Pretoria to discuss a possible collaboration which will see the digitisation of their libraries onto Wikipedia. WikiXhosa Unfortunately despite numerous attempts, Wikimedia ZA has not had much success with activating Xhosa language Wikipedia. As such, activation activities have - for the foreseeable future - been put on hold to free up more time and resources to focus on other projects. If you, or anyone you know is interested in promoting Wikipedia Xhosa language, or any other African language Wikipedia, then please let us know. WikiZero Have you heard about the Sinenjongo High School success story? They launched a campaign to get cell phone providers to provide South Africa with free access to Wikipedia for research purposes. MTN has heard their call and started providing free access to all its subscribers. We are very excited about what this means for the learners of Sinenjongo and will be meeting them at the end of April to discuss the way forward. So that's it from us for now. Remember to like our Facebook pages so that you can get up to date information! Happy Editing! The Wikimedia ZA Team Dumisani Ndubane, Maarten Deneckere, David Richfield, Douglas Scott, Bobby Shabangu, Isla Haddow-Flood and Theresa Hume _______________________________________________ WikimediaZA mailing list WikimediaZA(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaza