2025:Program/AfroCROWD OpenStreetMap Wikimania Map-a-Edit-a-thon Workshop: Mapping the Global Impact of Kenya and It's Diaspora, with AfroCROWD, OpenStreetMap, Kenya, Vintage Dreams Africa, and Wikimedia Kenya

Session title: AfroCROWD OpenStreetMap Wikimania Map-a-Edit-a-thon Workshop: Mapping the Global Impact of Kenya and It's Diaspora, with AfroCROWD, OpenStreetMap, Kenya, Vintage Dreams Africa, and Wikimedia Kenya

Session type: Pre-conference event

Track: Wild Ideas

Language: en

August 4 for 4 hours: AfroCROWD, OpenStreetMap (OSM), Kenyan Wikimedians and Vintage Dreams Africa join for an exciting, hands-on workshop designed to highlight the global impact of the Kenyan diaspora. This interactive session will explore how to leverage Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikivoyage, Wikidata, and OpenStreetMap to discover, document, and map the notable people, places, landmarks, and events tied to Kenyan heritage and history worldwide. Participants will learn to map key locations, enrich Wikipedia articles, and upload photos to Wikimedia Commons, while uncovering some of Kenya’s global contributions in academia, arts, business, and social impact in one collaborative inter- platformed map.

Description

August 4 for 4 hours: Join us for this interactive, educational event that blends technology, culture, and community—helping to literally map understanding of Kenya’s global impact, one location at a time!

Key Workshop Goals:

Map Kenyan Contributions: Use OpenStreetMap and Wikimedia projects to create dropdown linkages that identify and map global locations of interest tied to Kenya and its diaspora, including: notable people, landmark achievements, cultural and educational institutions, and notable historic events

Enhance Wikimedia projects regarding Kanya: Improve information regarding Kenya by making contributions to Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, WikiVoyage and WikiData and linking them to OSM data.

Photo-Walk and Community Engagement: Capture and upload photos of landmarks during a photo-walk, enriching the projects with visual context.

Support Wikimania 2025: The workshop also supports the lead-up to the Wikimania 2025 conference in Nairobi, (we have held an online Training the Trainers workshop in advance with Nairobi based Vintage Dreams, Africa --a partnership sparked initially at the 2024 UN Summit of the Future conference) encouraging local contributions and fostering collaboration an connection among potential editors and Wikimedians based in Kenya.

We aim to also gather for a shorter luncheon Meet and greet for those interested during regular Wikimania programming at the conference venue.

Activities and Learning Outcomes: Mapping with OpenStreetMap (OSM), Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, WikiData and WikiVoyage: Add data drop downs and locations of historical interest to a project OpenStreetMap and link them to Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and WikiVoyage, enriching both platforms with reliable information in one map that can be added to Wikimedia.

Contribute to Wikipedia: Improve entries on notable Kenyan figures, landmarks, and events, linking them to specific geographic locations.

Explore Wikivoyage: Learn how Wikivoyage provides travel and historical context for Kenyan landmarks.

Local Nairobi Photowalk and Wikimedia Commons Upload: Engage in a photowalk to capture and upload photos of key local landmarks, expanding the visual representation of Kenyan influence.

Community Engagement: Understand how AfroCROWD, OSM Kenya, and local Wikimedia communities celebrate African heritage and amplify Kenya and its diaspora’s visibility globally while training editors who remain active both in local Kenyan editing groups and beyond.

How does your session relate to the event theme, Wikimania@20 – Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability?

Inclusivity, impact and sustainability are at the core of our mission within the Wikimedia Movement. This event for example, is purposely aimed at creating a welcoming space to share knowledge among people of every background and is led by four women speakers from emerging nations speaking several languages, including lesser known dialects. The workshop focus also aims to drive home the Impact of the even host nation, but also of increase the likelihood that after Wikimania's conference, local participant, some trained online via a training the Trainers event with AfroCROWD, can expand and grow with the local Nairobi editing groups widening the Impact of the event as well locally and internationally.

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

Everyone can participate in this session

Speakers

• Sherry Antoine

.