Wikidata:WikiProject LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group/Affinity Group Calls/Meeting Notes/2021-11-02
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Call details[edit]
- Date: 2021-11-02
- Topic: AfroCine project
- Presenter: Sam Oyeyele
- Link to original agenda with link to recording: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Slztz7F9jGkfcv66LAd4F26d_MHatYtDMjEtOc-U-Fw/edit#
Presentation material[edit]
- Best link for project: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_AfroCine_Project
Notes[edit]
- AfroCine Project
- Started in 2018 to bridge knowledge gaps in Wikimedia movement
- Personal info: From Nigeria, joined in 2011
- As volunteer and member of community organized several projects and campaigns
- Lot of research and information on existing knowledge gap in Wiki and internet in general
- Trying to be fair and neutral in representation but gaps still exist
- We can’t claim to see why that’s not the case, because it resembles the real world (some areas disadvantaged, not as well represented)
- More articles about 3 countries in Europe than entire African continent (54 countries) in Wikipedia
- Trying to create articles and content to help close gap somewhat
- Soon realized closing gap not achievable by one person
- Ventured into community organizing to make people aware there is a community and they can contribute
- Content gap arises from participation gap
- Participation gap arises because people don’t know about opportunities to contribute
- Important to raise awareness
- In 2018 came up with idea (with others) to get people interested by focusing on pop culture
- Pop culture is popular
- AfroCine project invited people to add articles on Wikipedia and items on Wikidata
- Started with recognitions for highest contributors
- Did some things on commons (upload pictures for example)
- Contest continued for 3 editions, on 4th edition
- Have created 5000 articles and thousands more Wikidata items
- Lot of initiatives related to Wikidata
- Created a lot of queries to see items around films and art to see those related to African languages and translated items from 12 African languages to make them available in other languages
- Dedicated prizes for Wikidata items for those who want to create items around the topic
- Current edition is ongoing from October 1 to end of November
- Organizers in Guana organizing an event based on Wikidata to add missing items (actors, etc.)
- Done several other things on side
- Partnered to create offline database to use in learning
- Have a proper project focused on communities that don’t exist yet or are just developing
- Have tried to involve existing communities, now moving into checking out more recently formed or forming African communities
- So far…
- Created 5000+ articles, impacted over 20 languages, 15 events organized in different part of continent, looking at results from current contest
Questions[edit]
- Continent wide movement, cataloged a lot of videos from Tanzania, sometimes difficult to find information on films, what countries are involved and level of involvement
- Continent wide event, community members from Tanzania, all over continent, anyone interested in doing something can reach out. Gap is huge, and it is difficult to get reliable sources, especially for smaller industries. Easier to put links to fan websites on Wikidata. Any form of collaboration is appreciated.
- Background as engineer, interesting interactions with library people or vice-versa?
- Different background, but process, and good to follow to process. Worked with a lot of open communities, different ways of organizing but best to follow process. Engineering may help in analyzing things.
- What are some of the most effective ways to recruit people to participate in campaigns and the movement in general?
- There is some networking to the movement, started by talking to people already knew in the movement, when know people doing great things reach out to them. Wikimedians willing to help and collaborate.
- For campaigns and things that require a large number of people use mailing list, telegram groups, social media (Facebook, discord), some communities use WhatsApp, share info.
- For building local communities it’s good to collaborate with communities, good way to get newer users is to reach out with local communities, non-profits or commercial organizations willing to share information. Some might offer space or platform to advertise.
- Mix of different approaches depending on what you’re looking to achieve.
- What was done to train new editors?
- Introduce basics, usually in the first meeting, usually good to have 2 days to train, it’s a vast platform with lots of components.
- Teach people the basics and what the movement stands for, some people are looking at it from different perspectives, good to teach people what movement stands for and what is allowed/not allowed, then move on to things like 5 pillars of Wikipedia to introduce people to do’s and don’ts.
- Generally like to start with workshops on Wikipedia, English Wikipedia has a robust policy and if they understand Wikipedia policy they can probably contribute everywhere else.
- Later on in workshop can start writing articles if they’re comfortable with policies.
- Visual editor in Wikipedia makes it so much easier for people to start, can use sandbox for practice.
- After workshop can send people off with relevant links (ex: notability, copyright policies, living persons policy)
- Can also use outreach dashboard and have people register to check on their progress
- Different methods for different people
- How important is referencing people's ethnic identities as well as national identities in the AfroCine project? Are the needed ethnicities adequately represented in Wikipedia and Wikidata?
- Different projects have different policies, there is some consensus in some areas (English Wikipedia) to not reference people’s ethnicities
- From a personal perspective important to reference but also subjective (probably why English speaking people stopped it)
- Sometimes causes editing wars, some people identify with both cultures, some with one
- Big issues with ethnicity on global platforms is how different they are and disagreement on standards
- From a personal perspective, important to reference people’s ethnicities, national identities important, although it is tricky
- Any plan to recruit people from more and other African countries (based on what is listed on your page)
- Currently have people from all over the continent, for events capacity is limited, can’t have events in all countries
- Achievable if we have more organizers willing to organize in their country