Thank you flo for this information. This means we only have April for the submission. We will set the ball rolling...
Olaniyan Olushola Director, WUGN Treasurer, FOSSFA MD, Olbims Consulting Phone: +2348154876844 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email:[email protected] User page: Olaniyan Olushola Facebook: Olaniyan Shola Twitter :Olaniyan73 Original Message From: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2016 8:36 AM To: [email protected] Reply To: [email protected] Subject: African-Wikimedians Digest, Vol 8, Issue 46 Send African-Wikimedians mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of African-Wikimedians digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Fwd: Reimagining WMF Grants consultation: Next steps (Florence Devouard) 2. Re: Wikimania (Olatunde Isaac) ([email protected]) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2016 02:13:47 +0100 From: Florence Devouard <[email protected]> To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians <[email protected]> Subject: [African Wikimedians] Fwd: Reimagining WMF Grants consultation: Next steps Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed" Reforwarding Alex email to this list since some seems to have miss it. Rapid grant can be asked anytimes, but it is only up to 2000 dollars for rather standard requests Wikiindaba would rather belong to Project Grant and those are only approved twice a year. Last day to apply for next session is 30th of May. Flo -------- Message transféré -------- Sujet : [African Wikimedians] Reimagining WMF Grants consultation: Next steps Date : Wed, 9 Mar 2016 15:10:15 -0800 De : Alex Wang <[email protected]> Répondre à : Mailing list for African Wikimedians <[email protected]> Pour : [email protected] Hi everyone, In August, we asked for community feedback on a proposal to change the structure of WMF grant programs. Next steps for implementing changes based on the consultation are now available: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Reimagining_WMF_grants/Implementation <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Reimagining_WMF_grants/Outcomeshttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IdeaLab/Reimagining_WMF_grants/Implementation> Important dates to note: 1 May: Rapid Grants launch; submission forms available for new Project Grants program 30 May: Last day to apply for a grant under the current Project & Event Grants program 1 July: Project Grants and Conference Support launch Come read about the timeline and next steps for implementing changes based on your feedback. Your questions and comments are welcome on the discussion page. Cheers, Alex -- Alexandra Wang Program Officer Project & Event Grants Wikimedia Foundation <http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home> +1 415-839-6885 Skype: alexvwang -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/african-wikimedians/attachments/20160313/1a78b327/attachment-0001.html> -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2016 07:36:08 +0000 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [African Wikimedians] Wikimania (Olatunde Isaac) Message-ID: <1046182714-1457854572-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1756997251-@b18.c1.bise7.blackberry> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Rupert, I don't see mobile editing replacing the conventional desktop editing experience but I disagree with your claim that mobile editing is "unusable". This assertion is certainly not true. Personally, I created over 500 articles on Wikipedia with thousands of edit to other articles through a mobile phone. In fact, I promoted an article I created with a mobile phone to a GA-status. Yoruba Language is one of the most difficult language to write yet there was a day I wrote 2 articles in that language Wikipedia. I and Olaniyan later wrote some articles there on mobile device. I will also like to mention that the fact that Africa is a mobile connected continent is not a major reason for the poor contributions from this region. The poor contributions from Africa may be attributed to low number of contributors from this region which could be as a result of unwillingness of Africans to participate in volunteering activities, poor internet facilities, lack of basic understanding of Wikimedia projects and how it works, lack of awareness that any one can contribute, among other reasons. The difficulty of bringing on new volunteers from Africa has resulted in seven straight years of declining editor participation from this region. Thanks for the emergency of new usergroups in Nigeria, Ghana, Tunisia, Algeria and the significant contributions of WikiAfrica Centre. Kudos to Florence and Isla for their efforts! However, a recent Pew Research Center report found that 39 of the top 50 news sites received more traffic from mobile devices than from desktop and laptop computers, sales of which have declined for years. This is a challenge for Wikipedia, which has always depended on contributors hunched over keyboards searching references, discussing changes and writing articles using a special markup code. Even before smartphones were widespread, studies consistently showed that these are daunting tasks for newcomers (Not even our youngest and most computer-savvy participants accomplished these tasks with ease) There is no doubt that the pool of potential Wikipedia editors could dry up as the number of mobile users keeps growing; it’s simply too hard to manipulate complex code on a tiny screen. This is not about Africa but the entire continents. In 2014, the WMF under Lila Tretikov took the unprecedented step of forcing the installation of new software on the German-language Wikipedia. The German editors had shown their independent streak by resisting an earlier update to the site’s user interface. Against the wishes of veteran editors, the foundation installed a new way to view multimedia content and then set up an Orwellian-sounding “superprotect” feature to block obstinate administrators from changing it back. Before Lila left the Foundation, she has been hiring developers from the world of open-source technology, and their lack of experience with Wikipedia content has concerned some veterans. These are existential challenges, but they can still be addressed. There is no other significant alternative to Wikipedia, and good will toward the project — a remarkable feat of altruism — could hardly be higher. If the foundation needed more donations, it could surely raise them. The real challenges for Wikipedia are to resolve the governance disputes — the tensions among foundation employees, longtime editors trying to protect their prerogatives, and new volunteers trying to break in — and to design a mobile-oriented editing environment. One board member, María Sefidari, warned that “some communities have become so change-resistant and innovation-averse” that they risk staying “stuck in 2006 while the rest of the Internet is thinking about 2020 and the next three billion users.” Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Sender: "African-Wikimedians" <[email protected]>Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2016 23:38:28 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: African-Wikimedians Digest, Vol 8, Issue 42 Send African-Wikimedians mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of African-Wikimedians digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Wikimania Scholarship 2016 (Olatunde Isaac) ([email protected]) 2. Re: Wikimania (rupert THURNER) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2016 20:44:48 +0000 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [African Wikimedians] Wikimania Scholarship 2016 (Olatunde Isaac) Message-ID: <823653853-1457815494-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1785644118-@b18.c1.bise7.blackberry> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" That should not be on this thread. You can start a new thread on "Wikimedia Project in Africa". The thread on Wikimania 2016 Schorlarship remain the same. Don't divert attention, please!. Best, Olatunde Isaac. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld from Glo Mobile. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] Sender: "African-Wikimedians" <[email protected]>Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2016 20:33:05 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: African-Wikimedians Digest, Vol 8, Issue 41 Send African-Wikimedians mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of African-Wikimedians digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Wikimania 2016 Schorlarship (Nkansah Rexford) 2. Re: Wikimania (rupert THURNER) 3. Wikimania (Nkansah Rexford) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2016 22:31:44 +0000 From: Nkansah Rexford <[email protected]> To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians <[email protected]> Cc: Wikimedia Mailing List <[email protected]>, [email protected] Subject: Re: [African Wikimedians] Wikimania 2016 Schorlarship Message-ID: <caah37truecnx2s8eev69otzkkhjvhhtd-g_wdlet5grza63...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Awesome! Asaf throws an invite to all. I start my clock and bookmark this thread. If you would take me up on this invitation, I would love to hear your thoughts on work in Africa, beyond Wikimania scholarships. Well said, Asaf, well said! I personally would love to also hear the thoughts of everyone on the invite above. On 11 Mar 2016 10:03 pm, "Asaf Bartov" <[email protected]> wrote: I hear you, Olaniyan, and understand you are feeling alienated and demotivated by not receiving a scholarship. Regarding your assertion that the selection criteria are unfair, I think that to agree with it would require you to present an actual argument against one or more of those criteria, and I invite you to do so. I also invite you to think about what else might be done to support and promote the creation and sharing of free knowledge in Africa, beyond awarding a few more scholarships to Africans. I remind you that the Wikimedia Foundation is eager to support mission-aligned work, including experimentation, through the various grants programs[1], and that there is a wealth of written materials about program design and best practices[2][3][4], for African volunteers motivated to do more programmatic work in Africa. If you would take me up on this invitation, I would love to hear your thoughts on work in Africa, beyond Wikimania scholarships. A. [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Start [2] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/ [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Learning_patterns [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/Program_Toolkits On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 6:32 AM, shola ishola <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All, > > I am writing this mail in solidarity with all active Wikipedians in Africa > . I felt rather alienation and de-motivated by the announcement of the > result of Wikimania Scholarship 2016. I have reviewed the parameters for > the selection of candidacy for the above mentioned event and I came to the > conclusion that the selection is not fair to us (WUGN) and Africa in > general. Considering what we did withinn the shortest period of the > recognition of our group, we are more than qualify to be represented at the > event. > > Perhaps, we may be considered to be too young... I wish to state here... > what's the benefit of an event that won't be developmental in nature. We > are the future of the movement. Frankly speaking, Africa remains Virgin in > term of the wikimedia concepts and projects compare to other continents. In > my opinion, resources should be channel to assist the continents rather > than the already developed one. > > Lastly, if indeed we are so serious about the projects and the movement. > Then, special quota and interest should be created for developing > continents rather than the developed ones. > > Submitted. > > Olaniyan Olushola > Director, WUGN > Treasurer, FOSSFA > MD, Olbims Consulting > Phone: +2348154876844 > Email: [email protected] > Email: [email protected] > Email:[email protected] > User page: Olaniyan Olushola > Facebook: Olaniyan Shola > Twitter :Olaniyan73 > > > _______________________________________________ > African-Wikimedians mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians > > -- Asaf Bartov Wikimedia Foundation <http://www.wikimediafoundation.org> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality! https://donate.wikimedia.org _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/african-wikimedians/attachments/20160311/69733c65/attachment-0001.html> ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2016 09:57:59 +0100 From: rupert THURNER <[email protected]> To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [African Wikimedians] Wikimania Message-ID: <CAJs9aZ-SXfBhE3i9vB=4bryf09ikpjcmsvwbk607tzdowjr...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" hi, i find this a delicate topic in general, boiling down to two aspects at the end. first, value edits (article space, not talk page and meta edits), software contributions. when persons apply for positions in the wikiverse, edits are considered a nice to have - which is imo setting a bad example. second the technology that edit is easy highly influences contributions. mobile edit experience is by far not where it should be, for me it is unusable. given that africa is a mobile connected country it is no wonder that we have so little contributions. on a scholarship side, factor in the financial possibilities, and the cost of coming might not be to bad. if africans contribute and 20 apply, i would not find it wasted money to have them all come. i do not care about africa as a continent, or percentage of whatever. it is a personal, human factor. what counts is if persons from regions attend where the knowledge of the movement is not so high. let people mix up with experienced persons to discuss attitudes. but - they need to meet persons who edit otherwise it has more an effect of travel agency :) this also means that i consider it pointless if every year the same persons come. my mail does not mean i appreciate the style and tone of olaniyans mail though, there i am 100% with asaf, and rex. rupert On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 10:40 PM, Douglas Scott <[email protected]> wrote: > I think Rexford and Asaf raise some good points here. If we are serious > about Africa having a stronger presence at future Wikimanias we must > improve our efforts at increasing the number of editors from the continent > whist encouraging more editors to apply for scholarships with high quality > applications. It's a long road to travel that requires a lot of work but I > feel that the rewards in terms of edits from African sources and > representation within the broader community make it well worth it. > > Regards, > > Douglas. > On 11 Mar 2016 23:13, "Nkansah Rexford" <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Thank you Ellie for the short breakdown of the stats in here. Will be on >> standby for more of these stats to be put up on the wiki. >> >> I think things will be more clearer when all the stats are up. >> >> Thanks. >> On 11 Mar 2016 7:25 pm, "Ellie Young" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Isla, >>> >>> I am in the process of putting up information from the scholarship >>> committee onto the wiki and will respond to the other thread on wikimania-l >>> soon. >>> >>> 124 Scholarships were awarded. >>> >>> Of the 400 scholarships that passed into Phase 2 of the review, 20 were >>> African applicants passed Phase 2. 4 of those got scholarships, so by my >>> calculations that's 20% of the eligible African applicants. >>> >>> Geographic regions are *not* the emphasis of the program. >>> >>> You might want to take this up directly with the Scholarship Committee >>> if you have ideas for changes to the program in the future? >>> >>> Ellie Young >>> WMF Events Manager >>> on behalf of the Scholarship Committee >>> >>> >>> >>> On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 6:18 AM, Isla Haddow Flood < >>> [email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Okay - so - of 170 potential full and partial scholarships offered by >>>> the WMF, Africa got 4. >>>> >>>> FOUR. >>>> >>>> that is 0.02% of what was on offer. >>>> >>>> Mexico I could understand was difficult to access. BUT you couldn’t >>>> get closer to Africa than Italy, if you tried. >>>> >>>> That is just not acceptable. >>>> >>>> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/african-wikimedians/attachments/20160312/2bb8fcad/attachment-0001.html> ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2016 20:33:01 +0000 From: Nkansah Rexford <[email protected]> To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians <[email protected]> Subject: [African Wikimedians] Wikimania Message-ID: <CAAh37tqvUy1ZKK6=+tadnvclrbmuvcoavpz725-md4dxz+x...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" second the technology that edit is easy highly influences contributions. mobile edit experience is by far not where it should be, for me it is unusable. given that africa is a mobile connected country it is no wonder that we have so little contributions. Is this to say that contributions from Africa are to some extent low because of Africa being mobile, and the mobile editing platform not being fully advanced yet? If that's your point, then I won't agree on that. At the moment, I personally find the mobile editing (both from the native apps and web app ) to be great. There's not much I would add to the current state without bloating up the small screen of a mobile to the stage where control buttons have taken over the screen estate. I don't do extensive editing on mobile, and I don't know anyone who makes extensive editing on mobile. I've always seen the mobile editing to be an added advantage, and not to replace the conventional desktop editing experience. On the go, you wanna fix a typo in an article, you wanna add a paragraph, that's how I see the mobile experience, and not as a reference/citation editing experience, or not for the advanced editing stuffs. I wouldn't blame the low edits from the 'mobile Africa' ( is that even a good thing?) on the fledgling Wikipedia mobile editing experience. Perhaps it boils down to a blame game. Without PC? "I would edit if I had a PC". No Internet? "I would edit if I had Internet." No smartphone? "I would edit if I had one." Give me all that and I'll say: "If only the internet was that fast, and phone and PC were that high performing, I would edit." Gimme combined power of all quantum processors in the world, and I'll still say: "If only my PC was a bit slower, it's too fast." My point? Something is always to be blamed; something always is the culprit, but never *me*! I'm never the problem! On 12 Mar 2016 8:58 am, "rupert THURNER" <[email protected]> wrote: > hi, > > i find this a delicate topic in general, boiling down to two aspects at > the end. first, value edits (article space, not talk page and meta edits), > software contributions. when persons apply for positions in the wikiverse, > edits are considered a nice to have - which is imo setting a bad > example. second the technology that edit is easy highly influences > contributions. mobile edit experience is by far not where it should be, for > me it is unusable. given that africa is a mobile connected country it is no > wonder that we have so little contributions. > > on a scholarship side, factor in the financial possibilities, and the cost > of coming might not be to bad. if africans contribute and 20 apply, i would > not find it wasted money to have them all come. i do not care about africa > as a continent, or percentage of whatever. it is a personal, human factor. > what counts is if persons from regions attend where the knowledge of the > movement is not so high. let people mix up with experienced persons to > discuss attitudes. but - they need to meet persons who edit otherwise it > has more an effect of travel agency :) this also means that i consider it > pointless if every year the same persons come. my mail does not mean i > appreciate the style and tone of olaniyans mail though, there i am 100% > with asaf, and rex. > > rupert > > On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 10:40 PM, Douglas Scott <[email protected] > > wrote: > >> I think Rexford and Asaf raise some good points here. If we are serious >> about Africa having a stronger presence at future Wikimanias we must >> improve our efforts at increasing the number of editors from the continent >> whist encouraging more editors to apply for scholarships with high quality >> applications. It's a long road to travel that requires a lot of work but I >> feel that the rewards in terms of edits from African sources and >> representation within the broader community make it well worth it. >> >> Regards, >> >> Douglas. >> On 11 Mar 2016 23:13, "Nkansah Rexford" <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Thank you Ellie for the short breakdown of the stats in here. Will be on >>> standby for more of these stats to be put up on the wiki. >>> >>> I think things will be more clearer when all the stats are up. >>> >>> Thanks. >>> On 11 Mar 2016 7:25 pm, "Ellie Young" <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Isla, >>>> >>>> I am in the process of putting up information from the scholarship >>>> committee onto the wiki and will respond to the other thread on wikimania-l >>>> soon. >>>> >>>> 124 Scholarships were awarded. >>>> >>>> Of the 400 scholarships that passed into Phase 2 of the review, 20 were >>>> African applicants passed Phase 2. 4 of those got scholarships, so by my >>>> calculations that's 20% of the eligible African applicants. >>>> >>>> Geographic regions are *not* the emphasis of the program. >>>> >>>> You might want to take this up directly with the Scholarship Committee >>>> if you have ideas for changes to the program in the future? >>>> >>>> Ellie Young >>>> WMF Events Manager >>>> on behalf of the Scholarship Committee >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 6:18 AM, Isla Haddow Flood < >>>> [email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Okay - so - of 170 potential full and partial scholarships offered by >>>>> the WMF, Africa got 4. >>>>> >>>>> FOUR. >>>>> >>>>> that is 0.02% of what was on offer. >>>>> >>>>> Mexico I could understand was difficult to access. BUT you couldn’t >>>>> get closer to Africa than Italy, if you tried. >>>>> >>>>> That is just not acceptable. >>>>> >>>>> > > _______________________________________________ > African-Wikimedians mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/african-wikimedians/attachments/20160312/25260723/attachment.html> ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians ------------------------------ End of African-Wikimedians Digest, Vol 8, Issue 41 ************************************************** ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 13 Mar 2016 00:38:07 +0100 From: rupert THURNER <[email protected]> To: Mailing list for African Wikimedians <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [African Wikimedians] Wikimania Message-ID: <cajs9az8rr2z_ckbo+-8rfhst+wbuznys5lqynlakjppkyxy...@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 hi rex, On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 9:33 PM, Nkansah Rexford <[email protected]> wrote: > On 12 Mar 2016 8:58 am, "rupert THURNER" <[email protected]> wrote: >> second the technology that edit is easy highly influences contributions. >> mobile edit experience is by far not where it should be, for me it is >> unusable. given that africa is a mobile connected country it is no wonder >> that we have so little contributions. > > At the moment, I personally find the mobile editing (both from the native > apps and web app ) to be great. There's not much I would add to the current > > I don't do extensive editing on mobile, and I don't know anyone who makes > extensive editing on mobile. I've always seen the mobile editing to be an > added advantage, and not to replace the conventional desktop editing > experience. On the go, you wanna fix a typo in an article, you wanna add a > paragraph, that's how I see the mobile experience, and not as a > reference/citation editing experience, or not for the advanced editing > stuffs. your edit statistics shows well what you say here: https://tools.wmflabs.org/guc/?user=Nkansahrexford. a typo fixed to test once a year or so. currently i cannot tell you "edit or shut up" because i am not willing to do more mobile edits than you - and this needs to change :) i am a software development person, and i know app or browser editing can be done better, especially for citing references. without taking up screen estate. given my zero contribution to wikimedia software i am not allowed to criticize too much. i only hope asaf is reading us and gets it prioritized higher at WMF *wink wink* rupert ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians ------------------------------ End of African-Wikimedians Digest, Vol 8, Issue 42 ************************************************** ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians ------------------------------ End of African-Wikimedians Digest, Vol 8, Issue 46 ************************************************** _______________________________________________ African-Wikimedians mailing list [email protected] https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/african-wikimedians
