Hi
A brief introduction from my side. I'm Ian Gilfillan, living in
Observatory, Cape Town. I first came across the idea of a free resource
of all the world's knowledge in a book by Ursula Le Guin, and when I
first encountered Wikipedia fell in love with the vision. I've been
involved in the English Wikipedia from very early on, and tinker in a
number of the other Wikimedia projects as well.
I have a background in Free and Open Source software, wrote a book on
MySQL, and currently am director of an online organic and ethical food
co-operative, the Ethical Co-op.
I participated in the first African Wikipedia Academy a few years ago
and co-ordinated the Cape Town bid to host Wikimania (it eventually went
to Alexandria).
I keep fairly close track on the progress of the various Wikimedia
projects in African languages, and write regularly on the topic on my
blog - you can see the latest at http://www.greenman.co.za/blog/?p=715
I look forward to meeting a lot more of you in person soon :)
--
Ian Gilfillan
www.greenman.co.za
Hello everyone
I am Lourie, as Kerryn already introduced me. Currently I am
studying physics at the University of Stellenbosch. In my extra time I work on
various projects, such as competing in the Google X Prize. In the past I
contributed on a regular basis to Wikipedia and later worked as a developer on
the Toolserver. Unfortunately I am currently too busy for even one these activities.
That’s why I don’t contribute anymore to Wikipedia or the Toolserver.
From the beginning of this year I started to look into the
possibility to include Wikipedia in the university curriculum in some manner.
Currently all the first years has a course that handles about scientific communication. One of the many
aspects we are focussing on is the correct use of references. As David said; the
fact that people doesn’t understand or know how to use references are a great
problem. I started to chat with the coordinators of these courses, with the
idea to incorporate Wikipedia. Unfortunately the head coordinator was in a car
accident this holiday, so things are going slower than usual. My idea was to
implement the concept at Stellenbosch and then spread it to the rest of the South
African universities. Currently we and Potchefstroom (and probably some other
universities) are already using the same sort of information for this course. That’s
why I thought that if I could get Wikipedia implemented at Stellenbosch, it
would easily spread to the rest of South Africa.
As Kerryn said in the one email; most of the people in South
Africa has a completely wrong idea of Wikipedia, and the other Wikimedia
projects. If we succeed in starting the South African Chapter; it would be
great if this could be one of the initial projects handled by the chapter. Not
only will we get the academia involved at contributing to articles, but we may
even succeed in promoting the quality of Wikipedia articles. This way we could
even encourage the rest of the South African population to contribution to
Wikipedia and make use of its information. That way we could address issues,
such as the tiny amount of Afrikaans and other African language articles on
Wikipedia. People like to read articles that are in their home language, so we might
improve the popularity of Wikipedia this way.
I literally wrote some of these ideas down as they went
through my head. So please do make comments and say where we could improve on
them. I am really excited to see you all at the workshop. I believe that if we
could get all the correct people together we could make a great success of the
South African chapter!
Kind regards,
Lourie
Hi everyone
Thanks Ian for introducing all of us.
I would like to start a discussion following on from a couple of discussions
with some Wikipedians. Lourie - The Extremist - and I had a great phone
conversation last week. He is on staff at Stellenbosch University but was
on holiday in the Northern Cape and only had dial-up to connect which made
it basically impossible to get online. So we had a good old fashioned
telephone conversation :)
Anyway, Lourie was talking about *Wikipedia in Academia* and the need for
academics to really understand the value of Wikipedia. In South Africa we
are sitting with that rather outdated perception that Wikipedia is a crazy,
error-riddled platform which can offer no support to academics or students.
As this notion has been brought up by Nhlanhla Mabaso who is at Wits
University, I think that this could be discussed in the Chapter workshop as
one of the initial projects/ vehicles that could be undertaken.
I'd like to vote that we start a thread here getting everyone's feedback on
this idea, and also on other issues that you think should be discussed at
the workshop in terms of goals in taking SA Chapter forward!
Cheers
Kerryn
* * * *
KERRYN MCKAY
director, The African Commons Project
email me at: kerryn(a)africancommons.org
phone me: +2711 486 0211, cell: +27 82 334 6165,
skype me: kerrynmac
Hi everyone
Following on from my earlier email please note that The Extremist is Jan
Vermuelen and not Lourie who is LouriePieterse on Wikipedia. Apologies to
Jan and Lourie for the mix up! :)
It might be a good idea for everyone to introduce themselves and share a bit
of background about how they've come to be a Wikipedian or Free Culture
activists/ geek who is interested in Wikipedia. I think that there is an
exciting mix of folk on the list who can bring dynamic thinking and great
skills to the proposed Chapter.
Cheers for now
Kerryn
* * * *
KERRYN MCKAY
director, The African Commons Project
email me at: kerryn(a)africancommons.org
phone me: +2711 486 0211, cell: +27 82 334 6165,
skype me: kerrynmac
Hi everyone
The introductory workshop for the Chapter will be held on 7 and 8 August
(Saturday and half day Sunday) and you are invited to come and take part.
Venue will be at Wits University; final details to be shared later.
Let me know if you are able to attend the workshop and, if you are from out
of town, if you will need travel/ accommodation scholarship.
Thanks so much
Kerryn
* * * *
KERRYN MCKAY
director, The African Commons Project
email me at: kerryn(a)africancommons.org
phone me: +2711 486 0211, cell: +27 82 334 6165,
skype me: kerrynmac
Hi, and thanks everyone for your interest in a local Wikimedia chapter.
We've had a few false starts before, but this time we've got a wider
range of people involved, some funding to help us meet up in person, the
help of the African Commons Project, and the assistance of someone who's
helped start up the recently-approved Indian Wikimedia chapter, Achal
Prabhala.
Local content is relatively poorly covered on the Wikimedia projects.
Not too many people outside of contributors even know that Wikipedia
exists in all 11 official languages, not just English. One of the main
goals of a local chapter is to promote the Wikimedia projects here so
that more people contribute - local scientists and academics, for
example, are often users, but not contributors.
And all of that is to help realise the vision of a world in which every
human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
Kerryn has already given out some proposed dates for our first meetup -
either full day Friday, 6th August and half day Saturday, 7th August
OR alternatively full day Saturday, 7th August and then half day Sunday,
8th August. Please let her know which day suits best.
Please help spread awareness of this initiative. We've already contacted
many local contributors directly, but if you know of anyone else who'd
be interested, please point them to our page on Meta-wiki,
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_South_Africa and to this
mailing list.
Hope to be meeting many of you soon, in person!
--
Ian Gilfillan
www.greenman.co.za
Hi everyone
Ian Gilfillan (Greenman) will be sending out an email soon welcoming
everyone to the mailing list. In the meantime, just an introduction from me
and the organisation I work for: We are local non profit org The African
Commons Project (TACP) and we promote and advocate open content and less
restrictive intellectual property laws, especially in a digital
environment. We are helping out with the coordination of setting up a South
African Wikimedia Chapter basically to helping out local Wikipedians in this
process because we - as the rest of you do - really see a space for a
Chapter here in South Africa to forward the aims of the Wikimedia
Foundation.
The process that SA is following, and has been followed elsewhere around the
world with other Wikimedia Chapters, is to gather the people and in this
instance to hold a workshop where the objectives and goals of the Chapter
will be discussed and debated, as well as the best formal structure that the
Chapter should take.
We're looking at holding the workshop in Johannesburg over one full day and
half day on the following day. However, I would like to offer two options:
first option full day Friday, 6th August and half day Saturday, 7th August
OR alternatively full day Saturday, 7th August and then half day Sunday, 8th
August. As most of you work and have other commitments, please let's
discuss quite urgently what would best suit you.
There are a number of Wikipedians from Cape Town and so those of you from
the fairest Cape will have to fly up to Joburg to attend the workshop.
There are some travel 'scholarships' available which will be given to cover
limited travel and accommodation so also let me know urgently if you would
need one!
Many thanks
Kerryn
* * * *
KERRYN MCKAY
The African Commons Project
email me at: kerryn(a)africancommons.org
phone me: +2711 486 0211, cell: +27 82 334 6165,
skype me: kerrynmac