[Wikimedia Kenya] New Wikipedia Challenge in Africa - WikimediaKE

16 Jun 2011

Hello, everyone.

Many of you know of the Google-sponsored Wikipedia Swahili Challenge of
2009.  Google is interested in running another such project, this time
focused on three languages in South Africa and Botswana -- Setswana,
isiZulu, and Afrikaans.  As in 2009, there will be prizes, the grand prize
being attending Wikimania _2012_ (in Washington DC).  The Wikimedia
Foundation is collaborating with Google to make this happen, trying to learn
from past experience and improve the competition this time around.

One such lesson is the need for more intensive training for the
participants, the vast majority of whom are non-Wikipedians.  To that end,
the plan is to have concentrated training days in 2-3 universities in South
Africa and 2-3 universities in Botswana, so about a whole week of training
days.  I think it makes sense to have one trainer from the Wikipedian
community in South Africa, for familiarity with (at least some of) the
languages, and another trainer from among those of you who participated in
the 2009 Swahili challenge, for your insight on the Challenge itself and on
the process.

The timeline is pretty tight -- Google wants to announce the Challenge July
1st, have the trainings on _the week beginning July 25th_, and open
submissions August 1st (till October 3rd).

My question to you -- is any of you interested in delivering this training,
_and_ is available on that week for an entire week, _and_ is able to travel
to these countries (passports etc.)?  The travel costs will be covered by
the Foundation, and accommodation covered by Google.

Thank you for considering this offer.

Cheers,

   Asaf
-- 
    Asaf Bartov
    Wikimedia Foundation