Africa Portal/Projects and Programs
Projects and programs contributing to increase the quality and quantity of African content on Wikipedia and its sister projects, and to foster access and participation to the Wikimedia projects in Africa. For the full list of initiatives please refer to the timeline.
Access to Wikipedia
[edit ]Wikipedia Offline
[edit ]Wikipedia Offline. Development and distribution of Wikipedia Offline.
- Contacts with Hope for Kenya's Kids, 2005?[1] .
- Project for Kenyan Schools [2] . (pilot in 2011; in hiatus since)
- Distribution in Africa of OLPC with Wikipedia offline and access to the Internet[3]
- Afripédia.
- Kiwix.
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Afripedia hardware.
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Presentation of Mesh Sayada at Wiki Indaba 2014.
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Access to Wikipedia offline provided by Afripedia.
Wikipedia on Mobile Phones
[edit ]Wikipedia Zero is a project which supports access to Wikipedia on mobile phones.
Content on the Wikimedia projects
[edit ]Wikiprojects Africa
[edit ]- Wikiprojects coordinate the development of content related to Africa on different Wikipedia linguistic editions. There are general projects related to Africa and more specific projects related to regions and nations. Of course also other thematic projects develop content related to Africa (es. geography, cinema, art, literature...).
Research projects releasing content in cc by-sa and contributing to the Wikimedia projects
[edit ]The project Mobile Access to Knowledge: Culture and Safety in Africa. Documenting and assessing the impact of cultural events and public art on urban safety is a comparative international research project which is releasing all its background documentation under Creative Commons attribution share-alike and it is uploading its documentation on the Wikimedia projects. The project has been developed in collaboration with WikiAfrica and it is focussed on Luanda, Douala and Johannesburg.
30'000 African contribution milestone
[edit ]In 2009-2010 WikiAfrica has set a milestone of 30'000 African contributions to the Wikimedia projects by 2012. The milestone was reached by uploading the the Wikimedia projects texts and in particular images in collaboration with 100 institutions and many people.
Oral citations
[edit ]- Indigenous knowledge for Wikipedia workshop (a WMF grant for an experiment)
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Presentation by Peter Gallert of the oral citations experiment at Wiki Indaba 2014.
African Languages
[edit ]- African languages is a project which focuses on African languages in Wikimedia projects, in order to increase the number of writers on the continent itself. In particular the project presents on African languages with many speakers, but not many writers, so excluding French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic and Afrikaans.
- Songhay. Project related to Songhay languages http://songhay.org and https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Special:Translate?filter=&action=translate&group=core&language=ses. Mohomodou Houssouba is a promoter of the project, president of the Association Projet de Dictionnaire Songhay].
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Presentation of Ingo Koll of African language Wikipedias at Wiki Indaba 2014.
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Presentation of Ingo Koll of Wikipedia in Swahili at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Education Programme
[edit ]Conferences, presentations and events. Conferences in Africa about Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, and conferences anywhere about Africa on Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects.
- Education and Training. Initiatives to involve schools and universities in contributing to the Wikimedia projects and training to support the capacity of individuals to contribute to the Wikimedia projects. Wikipedia Academy.
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Map of training organized by Afripedia.
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Presentation of Wikipedia Primary School at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Events
[edit ]Wiki Indaba 2014
[edit ]
Wiki Indaba was a 3 day conference held in Johannesburg (South Africa) from the 20th - 22nd June 2014. It was a gathering of African Wikimedians and other open knowledge volunteers who are aligned to our mission. The goals of the conference were to:
- Establish a sustainable dialogue with collaborators in Wikimedia Chapters, the Wikimedia Foundation and the international communities to frame the issue of community activation and corporate governance in the context of Africa.
- Build a shared understanding of what it means to be a volunteer in Africa and why it is important.
- Connect, multiply and create successful initiatives for increasing community activation and support within regions.
- Turn ideas into action.
Links:
website: http://wikiindaba.net
Programme:
Report of the working groups:
- Team 1: WikiIndaba_Strategy
- Team 2: WikiIndaba_Strategy
- Team 3: WikiIndaba_Strategy
Grant application for WikiIndaba 2014 Grant report on WikiIndaba 2014
Contests
[edit ]Wiki Loves Monuments in Africa
[edit ]
Wiki Loves Monuments. An international photo contest which invites everybody to document monuments and post them on Wikimedia Commons. In 2012 the contest is also organised in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
- Wiki Loves Monuments Cameroon, 2013 on Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Cameroon
- Wiki Loves Monuments Ghana, 2012 on Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_Ghana
- Wiki Loves Monuments Kenya, 2012 on Wikipedia in English http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_Kenya
- Wiki Loves Monuments South Africa, 2012-2013, http://wikilovesmonuments.co.za/wiki/Main_Page and on Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wiki_Loves_Monuments_in_South_Africa
Case study on Wiki Loves Monuments in 2012 in Africa on Wikipedia in English https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiAfrica/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2012_in_Africa.
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Presentation of Wiki Loves Monuments in South Africa at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Wiki Loves Africa
[edit ]Wiki Loves Africa was launched in 2014 and featured a second edition in 2015.
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Presentation of Wiki Loves Africa at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Presentations
[edit ]The presentations we know of are listened on the Africa timeline.
Wikimania
[edit ]Conferences at Wikimania related to Africa are listed on the Africa timeline.
Community
[edit ]Information on active chapters, affiliates, institutions and people active in contributing to projects and initiatives related to Africa and in Africa are listened in the Africa community page.
- Wikimedia Movement. Wikimedia chapters and affiliations with existing institutions in Africa. Wikimedia South Africa and Wikimedia Kenya.
- Collaboration with GLAMs. Collaboration with galleries, libraries, archives and museums in Africa or with content related to Africa to facilitate uploads of existing documentation and their involvement in the Wikimedia projects (through events, meetings, training, presentations). GLAM Newsletter.
Community Online Networks
[edit ]- Afriphone Wikipedias - a mailing list and yahoo group focussing on working on Wikipedias in African languages, which has been active since it was started at Wikimania in 2006.
- Mailing List - a mailing list for wikimedians who are interested in sharing project work and ideas across the continent of Africa. Started after the WikiIndaba conference in June 2014.
Activating communities in Africa
[edit ]For Wikimedia chapters and affiliates please refer to the Africa community page.
- Afripédia, since 2012.
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Presentation of Afripedia at Wikimania 2013.
- Kumusha Takes Wiki, since 2013.
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Presentation of Kumusha Takes Wiki at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Cameroon
[edit ]- WikiAfrica Cameroon, 2012-2013.
- Afripedia training in Cameroon.
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Afripedia training in Cameroon.
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Afripedia training in Yaoundé.
Chad
[edit ]- Afripedia training in Chad.
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Afripedia training in Chad.
Congo, Democratic Republic of
[edit ]- Afripedia training in Kinshasa 2013.
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Afripedia training in Kinshasa 2013.
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Afripedia training booklet for the training in Kinshasa.
Côte d'Ivoire
[edit ]- WikiAfrica Côte d'Ivoire, 2013-2014.
- Afripedia training in Abidjan 2012.
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Presentation of Wikimedia in Côte d'Ivoire at Wiki Indaba 2014.
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Apripedia training in Abidjan 2012.
Ethiopia
[edit ]- WikiAfrica Ethiopia, 2013-2014.
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Presentation of Wikimedia in Ethiopia at Wiki Indaba 2014.
- Kumusha Bus 1.0, Ethiopia 2014
- Creative Commons Ethiopia
Malawi
[edit ]- WikiAfrica Malawi, 2013-2014.
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Presentation of Wikimedia in Malawi at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Mali
[edit ]- Afripedia training in Mali.
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Afripedia training in Bamako.
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Presentation of Afripedia in Mali at Wikimania 2013.
Namibia
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Presentation by Peter Gallert of Wikimedia in Namibia at Wiki Indaba 2014.
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Presentation by Peter Gallery of the project Omaheke at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Niger
[edit ]- Afripedia training in Niger.
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Afripedia training in Niger.
Tunisia
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Presentation of Wikimedia in Tunisia at Wiki Indaba 2014.
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Presentation of Mesh Sayada at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Uganda
[edit ]- WikiAfrica Uganda, 2013-2014.
Wikimedia Governance
[edit ]- Global South programme.
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Presentation of Asaf Bartov of Africa and the Wikimedia Foundation at Wiki Indaba 2014.
Linguistic Networks
[edit ]- Iberocoop (Regional Cooperation Initiative for Ibero-America) links together the local chapters and working groups, thus fostering collaboration and experience sharing. Ibero-America supposes a strategic area where the organization of the Wikimedia movement is still a big challenge. In 2012 the network does not include Lusophone African groups (do any exist?).
- WikiFrancA - French speaking community. In 2012 there have been a meeting during Wikimania 2012 and there have been the establishment of a specific mailing list.
- Arabic Language Initiative supports the Arabic Wikipedia community in order to develop the overall status of Arabic Wikipedia and reduce the gap between the over 400 million speakers and the below 200K articles. It is one of the Wikimedia Foundation's global development projects directed towards Global South.
Data
[edit ]- Wikidata. A free, collaborative, multilingual, secondary database, collecting structured data to provide support for Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, the other Wikimedia projects, and well beyond that.
Research and resources (incuding communication tools)
[edit ]Please refer also to statistics related to Africa and bibliography.
- Research. Articles, publications, studies and information design about Africa on Wikipedia, African languages and the involvement of African users on the Wikimedia projects.
- Research conducted on the Mxit platform in South Africa about Wikipedia (11'500 + responses) https://surveys.ponderingpanda.com/dashboard3/255?token=209dww9z
- Statistics collected by Erik Zachte Statistics related to Africa
- Bookshelf project. Materials and communication tools to present Wikipedia and its sister projects.
- Videos video Share Your Knowledge why and video Share Your Knowledge how. The videos address GLAMs and they have been produced in collaboration with the Africa Centre; the voices have been recorded in South Africa (including the voice of Francis Awinda Wikipedian in residence at the Africa Centre, from Kenya).