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@gmail.com>
wrote:
> hi ian, a very interesting post. are you able to somehow
judge how
> prices influence participation, quality, and
sustainability?
>
> On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 23:16, Ian Gilfillan <
wikimediaza@greenman.co.za>
wrote:
>> I've posted an update on the state of the African
language Wikipedias:
>>
http://www.greenman.co.za/blog/?p=953
>>
>> Been some positive progress, although Xhosa in
particular is disappointing
>> after the three workshops.
>>