dear Wikipedians in Kenya,
with Tobias Schönwetter and Kelsey Wiens from the University of Cape Town and CC Africa, Isaac Rutenberg from the Strathmore University Centre for IP and IT Law, and another partner from Germany we are currently identifying, we are planning to apply for a project which it would great to link with you.
The project is called Wikipedia Primary School and it aims at providing on Wikipedia the information necessary to complete the cycle of primary education in the languages used by the different education systems.
Our idea is to focus on Kenya and South Africa with the ERAfrica New Ideas programme (2014-2016). you find below an overall description of the project.
The project actually comes from your experience of distributing offline Wikipedia in Kenya and it would be great if some of you would like to contribute to it.
Also the Africa Centre is working to organize trainings and activities for wikipedians in residence in Kenya.
We don't need an official letter, but simply a letter for the people interested in the project. you can also contact me directly or you can maybe discuss among you if the project is relevant and write together a letter with the names of the people who would like to participate. for the moment i will keep you updated on the project development and invite you to join the activities or to apply for open positions. I think it would be also very precious to document your experience with offline Wikipedia, maybe with some interviews. this could also be a specific activity directed by your group. Maybe also the link with the Strathmore University Centre for IP and IT Law can be useful for further initiatives linked to GLAMs. I also just wrote to OER Africa - Open Educational Resources Africa which is based in Nairobi.
what do think? would it be possible to collaborate on this project?
please consider that i would be more than pleased to change the project also according to your ideas and proposals.
looking forward to hear your impressions and my very best regards
iolanda/iopensa
--
Iolanda Pensa - via Rabolini, 10 - 20125 Milano - Italia. Tel. +39 335 655 36 33, io(a)pensa.it - http://www.iopensa.it - Skype: iopensa.
Researcher at SUPSI University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland
--------------------------------------
Wikipedia Primary School
Providing on Wikipedia the information necessary to complete the cycle of primary education in the languages used by the different education systems.
A project allowing students, families and teachers to find on Wikipedia the documentation necessary to obtain the primary school qualification in their country, in their language.
Wikipedia is meant to be an educational tool and it is currently available online, via mobile phones and offline. Experiences have shown that, once accessible, Wikipedia does not provide information that responds directly to curriculum-based questions. The project relies on Wikipedia as an existing and growing resource, it solves the need for an encyclopaedia capable of responding to curriculum-based questions, and it fosters Wikipedia content, quality and outreach.
More specifically the project aims at:
Bridging Wikipedia and primary education. This objective implies to move the Wikipedia community towards a focus on primary education, and at the same time to strengthen the capacity of the education ecosystem to contribute to Wikipedia, and in general to open collaborative knowledge.
Enriching Wikipedia with new content relevant to primary education. This objective implies an assessment of the articles produced.
Fostering the development of translations and new content in different Wikipedia linguistic editions. This objective implies the release of existing educational resources (OER in cc by or cc by-sa), the production of datasets and the involvement of the Wikimedia movement.
Verifying and evaluating the use of Wikipedia as a source of information for primary education. This objective implies the involvement of stakeholders and data analysis.
Wikipedia Primary School contributes to universal primary education and to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG2: Achieve Universal Primary Education). Even if it is scalable and international, the project is conceived primarily to address African countries and languages.
Wikipedia is a very peculiar encyclopaedia. It is a living organism made of a wide community with specific policies, clusters and dynamics. Contributing to Wikipedia means to play a fair game, and to respect the way Wikipedia works, its rules and community. To strengthen the capacity of Wikipedia to respond directly to curriculum-based questions, the project does not simply transfer content from national schoolbooks into Wikipedia. The methodology is centred around research and fieldwork activities.
Research activities focus on monitoring Wikipedia in different linguistic editions; understanding the different national education systems and identifying which are the content capable of responding to curriculum-based questions; involving a scientific committee in contributing to the project; establishing and managing a Wikipedia Scientific Journal, a peer-reviewed scientific publication in Creative Commons attributions share-alike license, designed to involve scholars and to assess Wikipedia articles, in collaboration with other scientific journals and by fostering synergies between scientific knowledge and Wikipedia and open access; producing datasets to generate stub articles on Wikipedia in all linguistic editions; uploading content, in particular OER Open Educational Resources already available and images and texts provided with an open license compatible with Wikipedia; supporting territorial development with tutors and with upload capacities (in particular for countries with low connectivity); monitoring and evaluating the project.
Fieldwork activities focus on testing and enhancing the use of Wikipedia in primary school and it is developed in collaboration with the stakeholders already working in education. They provide training, in particular training for Wikipedians in residence; they organise Wikipedia events, in particular Wiki Loves Monuments; they allow networking with institutions and governments to facilitate the release of content with open licenses; they tutor institutions and people; they develop pilot projects in schools and in collaboration with NGOs working in education; they establish hotspots where needed; and they facilitate the distribution of Wikipedia offline in countries where relevant.
What we do not do
Wikipedia Primary School is a scalable and international project with a specific goal: it responds to a real need, it relies on existing networks and resources, and it is structured to allow people and institutions to contribute to it. The very nature of the project is meant to produce a broad impact. If the project Wikipedia Primary School is successful, it can be developed in the future by producing content for other cycle of education.
We do not break Wikipedia rules. The project respects Wikipedia pillars and the opinions of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia communities.
We do not believe the project substitutes in any way the essential role of people and institutions working in education. We want to contribute in a specific way to the work many people and institutions are already implementing and we believe only a collaborative approach can really allow the project to be effective and relevant.
We do not produce a selection of Wikipedia articles. We want people to access and benefit from the whole Wikipedia.
We do not address students, teachers and families only. Contributing to Wikipedia is meant to provide better knowledge for everyone everywhere.
We do not work for governments and ministries of education. The project is meant to be independent. It selects articles to be based on national educational systems, but it does not implement on Wikipedia governments’ strategies or requests.
We do not provide offline access to Wikipedia over online access. We consider online access to Wikipedia a priority and the best way to access Wikipedia, because it allows to contribute to it.
We do not consider Wikipedia a schoolbook. Wikipedia is not a schoolbook and it can not substitute teachers and educators and other appropriate educational resources.
We do not simplify Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia is an encyclopaedia and it requires a certain level of literacy in order to access it. We do not want to adapt Wikipedia to primary school level; we want to include topics and content relevant for primary education.
We do not make content available for Wikipedia only. Using Creative Commons as part of the project methodology allows contents to be available beyond Wikipedia.
We do not promote Wikipedia as a stable and passive resource. We consider essential that people who use Wikipedia understand what Wikipedia is. To understand it, the only appropriate way is to contribute to it and being part of it.
We do not provide Wikipedia as it is. The project aims at fostering a joint effort to improve Wikipedia and to assess its quality.
We do not centralise all the activities. The project can only reach its goal and produce high quality content and impact, if people and institutions can adapt them to their context, vision and work.
What practically we want to do
1) Involving governments in releasing dataset about public administrations (to contribute to Wikidata and produce stub articles; at the moment only Botswana is fully documented)
2) Asking OER open educational resources to be released in cc by or cc by-sa (and not cc by-sa-nc-nd).
3) Asking other institutions working in education to contribute to OER.
4) Assessing Wikipedia articles by creating a Wikipedia Scientific Journal. the idea is to assess wikipedia articles with the involvement of academic peer-revierwes. this is specifically necessary for content related to Africa because it needs to acknowledge the last 60 years of postcolonial studies (which at the moment they are not well represented on Wikipedia). the Wikipedia Scientific Journal is established in partnerships with existing scientific journals; the peer-reviewers of those scientific journals review the articles (existing ones and new ones) and we can make calls for papers. those call for papers can address existing Wikipedia authors but also scholars (who can add those publications to their cv since they ae peer-reviewed and made in collaborations with scientific journals). it is not a direct way of working on Wikipedia but i think it is the most relevant on the long run.
Once articles are peer-reviewed they can be translated and they can be rewritten in specific ways. At the same time also articles from Vikidia can be a source.
5) Establishing a scientific committee who defines which articles contribute to primary education and they overview and evaluate the project. the scientific committee is also a communication tool which makes sure stakeholders are involved.
6) Fostering communication and community building among the different Wikipedia/Wikimedia clusters (project pages on Wikipedia, different projects, different wikipedia linguistic editions, wikimedia chapters, project such as wiki loves monuments which helps to understand what wikipedia is and to start contributing)
7) Monitoring what happens with data analysis.
The project Wikipedia Primary School and all its documentation is under Creative Commons attribution share alike license. Iolanda Pensa drafted the project in 2012.
At the moment WikiAfrica Cameroon promoted by doual'art with the support of Orange Foundation is implementing a pilot project around Wikipedia and primary school (2012-2013).The WikiAfrica Primary School Feasibility Study has been developed in 2012 with the support of volunteers and lettera27 Foundation to evaluate the possible synergies between Wikipedia and primary school with a focus on the linguistic editions of Wikipedia and their use in primary education in Africa, current Wikimedia projects, OER-Open Educational Resources and case studies on the primary schools systems and current relevant projects in the field of education in Italy, Cameroon and South Africa. The Africa Centre based in Cape Town is currently developing trainings in Africa for Wikipedians in residence. SUPSI University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland and University of Cape Town, in collaboration with Wikimedia Switzerland and the Africa Centre based in Cape Town have applied in March 2013 for a Swiss South African research project related to Wikipedia Primary School within the SSAJRP programme.
Consider me available as well
------------------------------
On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 21:18 MSK Kosgei Isaac wrote:
>Count me in.
>
>On 19 March 2013 11:40, Oliver Stegen <info(a)oliverstegen.net> wrote:
>
>> ** ** **
>>
>> Thanks and welcome (again), Ednah, David & Obonyo,****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Together with Limoke, Steve, Dennis and myself, I’m now counting seven.
>> Looking forward to our first new meeting.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> More power to Wikimedia in ****Kenya****!****
>>
>> BT****
>>
>> ** **
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* Ednah Kiome [mailto:ednahkiome8@gmail.com]
>> *Sent:* 19 March 2013 11:24
>>
>> *To:* **The discussion list for the Wikimedia Kenya chapter.**
>> *Subject:* Re: [Wikimedia ****Kenya****] Fwd: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania
>> 2014:Officialbid list
>> ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I am in.****
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:07 AM, David Mugo <raidarmax(a)gmail.com> wrote:*
>> ***
>>
>> Count me in.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> David.
>>
>> Sent from my iPad****
>>
>>
>> On Mar 19, 2013, at 10:10 AM, Limoke Oscar <oslimoke(a)gmail.com> wrote:****
>>
>> I agree, Its a Challenge rather than an embarrassment to us. :-) What
>> matters is now for us to re-energize ourselves and re-align our objectives
>> to move forward.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Oliver, I am still calling on folks interested to join the User Group
>> model so that we can re-establish a membership based on interests and
>> commitment. Am assuming we will have to get new commitment from folks. So
>> far we have : Dennis, Oliver, Steve and **I.** when we get to 6, we can
>> have our 1st meeting. Yes?****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Thanks for all the wishes Asaf, SJ and Tom****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Regards,****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 9:23 AM, Oliver Stegen <info(a)oliverstegen.net>
>> wrote:****
>>
>> +1
>>
>> Any meetings of our group on the horizon? Either RL or virtual/online?
>>
>> With continued hope and best wishes for Wikimedia in **East Africa**,
>> BT****
>>
>>
>> > -----Original Message-----
>> > From: Samuel Klein [mailto:meta.sj@gmail.com]
>> > Sent: 18 March 2013 20:57
>> > To: **The discussion list for the Wikimedia Kenya chapter.**
>> > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia ****Kenya****] Fwd: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania
>> 2014:
>> > Officialbid list
>> >
>> > On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 1:49 PM, Asaf Bartov <abartov(a)wikimedia.org>
>> > wrote:
>> > > On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 11:37 PM, Limoke Oscar <oslimoke(a)gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > >
>> > > I don't think it's a shame, and shouldn't be a pain: organizing a bid
>> is
>> > a
>> > > lot of work, but is almost purely on-wiki, and can be done by one or
>> two
>> > >
>> > > Anyhow, we should all be happy for our Tanzanian colleagues for having
>> > found
>> > > the initiative and energy to do this. It's not a competition. :)
>> >
>> > Yes. You might even try working with them to organize a shared
>> > regional event, if their bid for Wikimania itself doesn't work out.
>> > They clearly have a lot of energy for bringing people and speakers
>> > together around Wikimedia topics.
>> >
>> > > Like I said in my more formal letter, you must not look upon the
>> > expiration
>> > > of the provisional recognition as a blow or as a failure -- it was
>> > merely a
>> > > deadline expiring, for a formal process that doesn't actually matter as
>> > much
>> > > as it used to, because we now have these new affiliation models, which
>> > would
>> > > have been more suitable in the first place, had they existed at the
>> > time.
>> >
>> > Yes. And once you have some projects underway, if they start to grow,
>> > you may always reapply to become a Chapter.
>> >
>> > SJ
>> >
>>
>> ****
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> WikimediaKE mailing list
>> WikimediaKE(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediake
>>
>>
Such a shame and pain to us that Arusha actually bid for Wikimania 2014,
with no Organized Chapter down there (-: and we had a very organized Chapter
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: James Forrester <jdforrester(a)gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 8:55 AM
Subject: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2014: Official bid list
To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)" <
wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
All,
To confirm, the candidate bids to host Wikimania 2014 are:
* Arusha, Tanzania
* London, UK
The bids now have two weeks (until 23:59 UTC on 17 March 2013) to
finalise all major information on their pages, responding to questions
from the jury and the community, and prepare for the
question-and-answer phase.
Good luck to both bids!
On behalf of the Wikimania 2014 Jury,
Yours,
--
James D. Forrester
jdforrester(a)gmail.com
[[Wikipedia:User:Jdforrester|James F.]] (speaking purely in a personal
capacity)
_______________________________________________
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
--
*Limoke Oscar
*GIS, Google Apps & Business Development
Pawa IT Solutions Limited
Hello Everyone,
As some of us remember, Last year, we organized some Outreach Ecents across
various regions in Kenya including Mombasa and Nakuru (
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Kenya/Outreach_2012 )
The Mombasa Outreach was held in collaboration with the Kenyan Mozilla
Community and the The Mombasa Tech Group in Mombasa.
The Mombasa Tech Group is requesting if we could have such Outreach Events
and allow them to engage and collaborate with us in various Wikimedia
Related events/activities this year. To quote
We were thinking to collaborate with you on working out on a
> Wikipedia/Wikimedia event whereby you guys can come down and train more and
> more people on Wikimedia.
> We can also discuss and plan for a competition related to Wikimedia
> commons,GLAM contest or anything interesting that will promote as well as
> benefit Wikimedia and the tech community as well.
>
I think this is a positive step in the r-grouping of our chapter and
reaching out to newer member of the community and contributors. As such,
can we start thinking and drawing up of a Schedule for the year and some of
the events and activities we can engage in?
--
Regards,
Limoke Oscar,
Dream.Believe.Become....a world of endless opportunities
"I will open the book. Its pages are blank. I am going to put words on them
myself. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is the dawn of
every New Day."
Hi all,
First of all, a very big thank you to all those who made it for Saturday's
meetup and for those of you who couldn't make it, we made sure to document
everything here: http://wikimedia.or.ke/Meeting_Minutes:16_Jan_2013 Feel
free to chip in on the discussion page or this thread.
A summary though:
- *Company Registration*: It will take a month from this week to get a
certificate of registration issued
- *Offline Wikipedia*: We need to submit a spreadsheet of articles we
want for our zim file. Dennis is following up on this
- *Mombasa Outreach*: In a bid to make activities in Mombasa more self
sustainable, most people felt that getting someone from Mombasa to attend a
major Wikipemedia event in Nairobi may be more productive.
- *Themed Monthly meetups*: We already have thoughts lined up from March
to May. Asaf, let us know if you are still up to doing something over video
con this April
- *Financial Oversight Committee*: Alex and Bruce to balance off last
year's expenditure and issue report
Alex
Hi all,
I think we really had a good thing going with the monthly meetups. I'd
suggest we resume with this and have every meetup geared towards aching a
particular task eg: edits on specific topics, focus on commons etc
We can have it ran by someone different every month, to make it
participatory and exciting.
Building from that, we haven't met this year so I'm usggesting a meetup for
the 15th of Feb. Any takers...?
Alex
Dear Bence,
(Sorry for the very delayed response: I had hoped that a more appropriate person would have made an ''official'' response.)
WRT the Chapter founding, I recently (last week, I think) connected Alex with the lawyer, to resume the legal process, which was halted after the misappropriation saga.
I don't expect Alex (and Alex can correct me if I'm wrong) to have made any progress thus far, as things are still moving sluggishly after the (organizational) hiatus.
Thanks,
Abbas.