2023:Program/Equity and Community Health/XLRRDF-A new approach to contributor growth in Africa

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The following is a mirror of what are publicly available details of submission made at the call for proposal platform, Pretalx. Any changes here may be overwritten by a bot while syncing updates from Pretalx (XLRRDF). Changes are monitored and may be updated into Pretalx if they do not change the context of the submission (i.e. correcting typographical errors).

Title: A new approach to contributor growth in Africa

Speakers:

Asaf Bartov (WMF)

I have been a practicing (volunteer) Wikipedian for many years; my home wiki is the Hebrew Wikipedia, but I am also active in Wikidata and the Wikimedia Commons, and I make occasional contributions on the English Wikipedia as well, all under my volunteer account. I have a strong background in software engineering, and an abiding interest in literature, education, open access, linked data, and library science. At the Foundation, I am working on increasing reach (readers) and participation (editors) in emerging communities, through community support as well as partnerships with grantees, other NGOs, and governments. My main project since 2019 is the WikiLearn online learning environment. Previously, I had worked on the Community Capacity Development program and as a grants program officer.

Dumisani Ndubane

I work as part of the Community Resilience and Sustainability team in the Legal department to support community governance committees such as Affcom, Arbcom, Ombcom and other functionary committees. In this role, I aim to work with other Wikimedians to collaboratively and equitably build systems of governance to support effective movement management.

Pretalx link

Etherpad link

Room: Room 310

Start time: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 14:15:00 +0800

End time: Fri, 18 Aug 2023 14:35:00 +0800

Type: Lecture

Track: Equity, Inclusion, and Community Health

Submission state: confirmed

Duration: 20 minutes

Do not record: false

Presentation language: en


Abstract & description[edit source]

Abstract[edit source]

The Wikimedia Foundation is considering a new approach to fostering contributor community growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), with a view to increasing the editor base in SSA to 5000 active editors, from about 2.1k today. This panel will share and discuss the new approach.

Description[edit source]

Community growth in Africa is slow, and overall, programmatic effectiveness in sub-Saharan Africa is low. There are a number of factors contributing to this, and the Foundation seeks to address them with a novel approach to investment in programmatic work in Africa. The panel members are the core team behind this new approach. We hope, but cannot guarantee, to also have the Foundation’s Executive Director, Maryana Iskander, participate in the panel.

Further details[edit source]

Qn. How does your session relate to the event themes: Diversity, Collaboration Future?

Africa is quickly coming online and increasing its share of global Internet users, but the growth in the Wikimedia contributor community has not been commensurate. Proactively addressing this is crucial to the future of Wikimedia in Africa, and to diversifying our contributor base.

Qn. What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Qn. What is the most appropriate format for this session?

  • Tick Onsite in Singapore
  • Empty Remote online participation, livestreamed
  • Empty Remote from a satellite event
  • Empty Hybrid with some participants in Singapore and others dialing in remotely
  • Empty Pre-recorded and available on demand


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