2023:Program/GLAM, Heritage, and Culture/9V8NNS-Wikisource in Uganda

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 (9V8NNS). 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: Wikisource in Uganda

Speakers:

Alice Kibombo-Ekanya

She is a librarian and Wikimedian

Pretalx link

Etherpad link

Room: Room 311

Start time: Wed, 16 Aug 2023 14:25:00 +0800

End time: Wed, 16 Aug 2023 14:35:00 +0800

Type: Lightning talk

Track: GLAM, Heritage, and Culture

Submission state: confirmed

Duration: 10 minutes

Do not record: false

Presentation language: en

Abstract & description

Abstract

With support and advice from Satdeep Gill (WMF), Uganda had its first Wikisource event in December 2022. It drew a number of new and existing volunteers who were quite eager to participate for a number of reasons such as boredom/disillusionment with English Wikipedia, satisfy their curiosity about a new project , expand the range of Wikimedia projects they participate in and explore new tools such as the Wikisource contest board.

Description

GLAM in Uganda attracts a number of editors but our activities and participation in events such as #1Lib1Ref are normally on Wikipedia and Wikidata which comes with its fair share of negative experiences.In addition , GLAM in Uganda has always been marketed to and attracted librarians in Uganda. Introducing Wikisource in Uganda however had the effect of engaging archivists and their expertise in addition to catering for editors who had altogether abandoned editing because of negative experiences on Wikipedia.. Other results included volunteers offering Uganda-specific manuscripts that could be uploaded and transcribed in the next phase as well as offering tours to experience the digitisation process - it opened up opportunities for non-traditional contributions.

The aims of the session therefore are : The aims of this session therefore are To share our unique experiences that motivated us to get involved with Wikisource Share our learning points, challenges and unique successes Share the unique outcomes of our experience and future plans Engage with a wider audience and seek collaboration with those that can share their time, knowledge and experience as we seek to implement the next phases of Wikisource in Uganda

Further details

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

Engaging with Wikisource was an act of diversity as users had expressed boredom and some dissatisfaction with engaging with Wikipedia - we needed to expand our activities in addition to the nature of and number of contributors. The next phase of activities could also not have been conceptualised had it not been for offers of collaboration with the audience that came for the event

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?

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