[Wikimedia-l] Kumusha Takes Wiki

Florence Devouard anthere9 at yahoo.com
Thu Oct 3 11:48:52 UTC 2013 

Certainly a potential problem.
This said, having worked with both communication and touristic agencies, 
I *much* prefer working with touristic agencies.

The main problem with touristic agencies is the language they tend to 
use. They have an habit of adding flowers and honey in their text but 
the main thing to deal with is to make them realize the type of writing 
must be different. If the worker has been rather trained as a 
journalist, he gets the difference rather quickly once explained and can 
tone down.

The communication teams have different goals: they try to make bad 
information disappear, push good one, add irrelevant details... but the 
way they write text is quite similar to our. They have orders to make 
sure certain things are there and others are not, but often, they do not 
really care the way it is phrased. It is more sneaky and complex to deal 
with.

I prefer working with touristic-minded people.

  On 10/3/13 7:22 AM, Peter Southwood wrote:
> You could do that, but we find that tourist agencies tend to
> misrepresent their regions by misleading advertising. gross exageration
> and vague descriptions. You may be lucky.
> Cheers,
> Peter
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Florence Devouard" <anthere9 at yahoo.com>
> To: <wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2013 11:42 PM
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Kumusha Takes Wiki
>
>
>> Nod
>>
>> I was thinking that it could be an interesting idea to get in touch
>> with local touristic agencies because it is certainly of their
>> interest to make a little bit more information about their area
>> available.
>> I have a French friend for example, who is a geologist and living in a
>> nearby country, and propose those "nature-related" trecks. I think he
>> could give me a feedback on such an idea.
>>
>> Flo
>>
>> On 10/2/13 5:48 PM, Peter Southwood wrote:
>>> Hi Florence,
>>> No problems with OR for Wikivoyage, which is why I didnt ask...
>>> This would be a great opportunity to fill in some of the blank spaces.
>>> Perhaps the project could make use of some of the section headings used
>>> in Wikivoyage to encourage contributors to provide the specific
>>> information that would be useful to the project.  Not exclusively of
>>> course, but it would make the information much more accessible for
>>> re-use, and it might encourage the contributors if they see that their
>>> work is appreciated by another project. We are particularly short of
>>> good images for African destinations.
>>> Cheers,
>>> Peter
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Florence Devouard"
>>> <anthere9 at yahoo.com>
>>> To: <wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2013 5:11 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Kumusha Takes Wiki
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Peter
>>>>
>>>> Photo-upload, certainly as much as possible to Commons indeed. That
>>>> was part of the discussion indeed because the OF was interested in
>>>> funding a mobile application that would be super high simple to upload
>>>> photos (in particular with regards to licensing) but would also
>>>> provide simple tools within the application (such as cropping, light
>>>> balance and so on). But now that we have the Commons Mobile
>>>> Application, I think it not a priority.
>>>> With regards to licensing, I thought it funny that some people would
>>>> consider the current application as "complex" with regards to licenses
>>>> choice. When I first downloaded it and tested it, I was quite
>>>> horrified by the limited choices...
>>>> Of course, there will be some work to do around licensing issues (such
>>>> as a simple to read doc to explain IP rights and conditions in various
>>>> African countries).
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> With regards to text content, we already planned to have places to
>>>> host some of the content because I'm pretty sure some of it will not
>>>> fit in wikipedia with regards to its rules. Isla and I will probably
>>>> have differing views on this because she is used to working in an
>>>> artistic environment whilst I am primarily a rather pragmatic
>>>> engineer. Let me share some of the info we put on the proposal:
>>>>
>>>> The geographical article about Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is very
>>>> short and generic:
>>>> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Géographie_de_la_Côte_d%27Ivoire
>>>> The English version is hardly better:
>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Ivory_Coast
>>>> A list of Ivory Coast communities has actually been created (see
>>>> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_communes_de_Côte_d%27Ivoire)
>>>> but most articles are hardly more than placeholders (see
>>>> http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacanda for the French version and
>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacanda for the English version).
>>>>
>>>> In the past 11 years I have been on Wikipedia, I have discovered that
>>>> one of the thing newbies love to contribute are articles related to
>>>> their near life-environment. In short, their village, their city,
>>>> their neighborhood. It is right now getting much tougher to suggest
>>>> newbies to fill up some data about their city when they live in France
>>>> or the US because a lot is already there.
>>>>
>>>> But look out a few articles related to villages or cities in Ivory
>>>> Coast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboisso-Comoé
>>>> (navigate through the cities listed at the bottom). That's MISERABLE.
>>>> Look at
>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Populated_places_in_Lagunes to
>>>> see how are described "populated" places... jeeeee.
>>>>
>>>> I actually do not fear too much "original research" because if
>>>> Wikipedia does not like it, we can put stuff elsewhere (including on
>>>> non wikimedia sites). We can create a wikibook to host stories from a
>>>> famous griot for example, or the coverage of an event on Wikinews. We
>>>> can probably work on Wikivoyage. Everything is red there...
>>>> https://fr.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Cote_d%27ivoire (and trust me if I tell
>>>> you that this page is laughable... under the paragraph "travel by
>>>> boat/plane" it is written "There is a magnificent view, that's
>>>> extraordinary"
>>>>
>>>> Yeah right :)
>>>>
>>>> I actually do not fear NPOV too much because we can explain what it is
>>>> about. It would be no different from any other outreach project,
>>>> whatever the country !
>>>>
>>>> What I could fear is the lack of sources. Indeed, there is a chance
>>>> that if inhabitants improve the article about their village, they will
>>>> have a hard time to prove by sources that there are about 500
>>>> inhabitants there and that the primary resource is this and that crop.
>>>> We can rely on strong sources in France. Maybe not so in Ivory Coast.
>>>>
>>>> At this point, it will be up to the community to decide if they prefer
>>>> to keep totally empty articles such as now, or if they can tolerate a
>>>> number of inhabitants with no source.
>>>>
>>>> Best
>>>>
>>>> Flo
>>>>
>>>> On 10/2/13 4:23 PM, Peter Southwood wrote:
>>>>> Hi Florence,
>>>>> How much of the information is likely to be usable in Wikipedia? Will
>>>>> there be any requirement for reliable references, NPOV and NOR?
>>>>> Will photo-uploads go to commons?
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Peter Southwood
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Florence Devouard"
>>>>> <anthere9 at yahoo.com>
>>>>> To: <wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org>
>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2013 2:03 PM
>>>>> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] Kumusha Takes Wiki
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Dear friends
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It is my pleasure to announce the launch of a new project, "Kumusha
>>>>>> Takes Wiki".
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Kumusha Takes Wiki is a project that aims at activating communities
>>>>>> across Africa to create and contribute freely-licensed information,
>>>>>> texts, images and media about their communities (villages, townships,
>>>>>> suburbs, inner cities, etc). It will use community journalism to
>>>>>> gather community-relevant information on heritage, culture, notable
>>>>>> persons, geographical features, among other things. It will give each
>>>>>> community an online presence that is 'owned' by the community,
>>>>>> provide
>>>>>> information that can be pulled into Wikipedia, Wikimedia projects or
>>>>>> OpenStreetMap databases, and it hopes to add immeasurably to the
>>>>>> understanding of Africa to every human being on the planet (from the
>>>>>> people in the village to the person in New York, Mumbai or Milan).
>>>>>> This project gives a public voice to communities across Africa,
>>>>>> empowering them to share their own histories and, through
>>>>>> training, to
>>>>>> acquire valuable and transferable skills.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The project was designed by Isla (South Africa) and I (France), with
>>>>>> the support of Iolenda (Italy) (yeahhhh, three wikiwomens !)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Without going much into details (see links below), let's say that
>>>>>> this
>>>>>> project will involve Wikipedians in Residence in two African
>>>>>> countries
>>>>>> (Ivory Coast and Uganda), training in South Africa, local events in
>>>>>> the two above listed countries and a big photographic contest
>>>>>> involving the entire African continent.
>>>>>> More information here:
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kumusha_Takes_Wiki (available in
>>>>>> French and English)
>>>>>> For those unaware, the official languages of Uganda are English and
>>>>>> Swahili, whilst the official language of Ivory Coast is French. Our
>>>>>> project being bilingual is not a bug, it's a feature :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I should probably outline that our goal is not so much about getting
>>>>>> african content in Wikipedia but more about outreach and awareness in
>>>>>> the field.
>>>>>> As such, the Wikipedians in Residence will not so much focus on
>>>>>> getting in touch and establishing partnerships with institutions in
>>>>>> big cities so that content may be freed and added to our projects
>>>>>> (see
>>>>>> the current wikipedia description of a WiR:
>>>>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedian_in_Residence).
>>>>>> Our "Residence" will be the "Kumusha" (a Shona term meaning "the
>>>>>> place
>>>>>> where you come from"). Our WiR will rather try to activate the local
>>>>>> communities to help them discover our projects and share their
>>>>>> heritage with us. As such, the events are more likely to take
>>>>>> place in
>>>>>> little villages, suburbs, shantytowns, camps, agricultural
>>>>>> communities, than in big cities. Participants are more likely to be
>>>>>> teenagers with cellphones than middle age men in suits. Data
>>>>>> collected
>>>>>> is perhaps more likely to be geographical and social related data
>>>>>> about a little city than high level politics.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The project is financially supported by the Orange Foundation
>>>>>> (France)
>>>>>> for Ivory Coast and Uganda... starting 1st of October !
>>>>>> A good part of the original submission made last spring is available
>>>>>> here for those interested :
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Activate_Africa_(Orange_Foundation)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I am very glad to have the opportunity to work on that project :) It
>>>>>> is a long way from my presentation back in Wikimania 2005 (Wikimedia
>>>>>> projects in the developing world:
>>>>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania05/Presentation-FD1)
>>>>>> As for Isla, she is involved in the WikiAfrica project
>>>>>> (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiAfrica_Cameroon) through the
>>>>>> Africa Centre, and some of you met her at Wikimania Hong Kong where
>>>>>> she lead a panel about Activating Africa
>>>>>> (https://wikimania2013.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Activating_Africa).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Our twitter handle is @KumushaWiki
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You are naturally welcome to comment, criticize, relay, participate,
>>>>>> support and copy :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anthere
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list
>>>>>> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>>> Unsubscribe:
>>>>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
>>>>>> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list
>>>>> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>>>>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
>>>>> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list
>>>> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>>>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
>>>> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list
>>> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
>>> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia-l mailing list
>> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
>> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
>> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
> <mailto:wikimedia-l-request at lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>

More information about the Wikimedia-l mailing list