Workshop on the role of Wikipedia in the intellectualisation of the African
Languages: Why, what and how?
Hosted by the Academy of African Languages and Science (AALS), College of
Graduate Studies, Unisa
www.unisa.ac.za/aals
Date: 3 June 2015
Time: 08:30-15:30
Venue: Bamboo Room, Kgorong, Unisa Muckleneuk Campus, Pretoria
Attendance: Free of charge, but registration is essential since the venue
has limited seating.
RSVP: Ms Motswalle Kanyane, aals(a)unisa.ac.za
Purpose
Wikipedia changed the world by putting an encyclopaedia within reach of
anybody with internet access. Available in over 280 languages, it grows and
improves by the hour and has become one of the most well-known and used
resources on the Web. However, in spite of the many languages currently
represented in Wikipedia, not all of them have thorough and in-depth content
to support multilingual education. Moreover, outside of the realm of a human
readable online encyclopaedia in multiple languages, the full value of
Wikipedia has remained largely hidden to many readers. Today Wikipedia, for
example, also provides a building block for many other advanced
technologies, especially language technologies.
Through this workshop, the Academy of African Languages and Science (AALS)
hopes to play its part in creating an awareness of the significance of
Wikipedia as a key educational and language resource through which
encyclopaedic information and educational content can be produced and
consumed in the African languages.
Our hope is that academics, school teachers, language practitioners, subject
experts across many domains, students and any other interested persons will
recognise and embrace the opportunities that Wikipedia offers for the
development of the African languages. Possible ways of contributing are, for
example, by translating articles from other Wikipedias, specifically the
English one, or by writing new content in the African languages. Since
Wikipedia relies on volunteers for its existence, growth and quality, AALS
also offers opportunities for training and support for persons interested in
getting involved in the building of the African languages Wikipedias in the
future.
The specific aims of this workshop are to (1) explain what Wikipedia really
is and why it is of such strategic significance for sustainable
multilingualism; (2) explore possible ways to identify topics on which to
write and to select articles in the English Wikipedia to translate; (3)
provide basic technical information on how to participate and how AALS can
assist; (4) get a glimpse of what it means to be a Wikipedian - examples and
lessons learnt.
Invited keynote speaker - Amir Aharoni, Wikimedia Foundation
Amir Aharoni was born in Moscow and now lives in Jerusalem. He received a
B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Hebrew language and
Structural Linguistics, and began studying for an M.A. in Romance studies in
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a member of the language
engineering team of the Wikimedia Foundation, improving the software support
for different languages. As a volunteer, he is also a member of Wikimedia
Israel and of the Wikimedia Foundation's language committee.
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