Benutzer:Gereon K./Wikimania 2019

Wikimania 2019 logo

WikiGap reception in the foreign ministry

Presentation, day 2

African Meetup

About what I did and what I learned at Wikimania 2019:

• There were not enough codes left for scholarship holders to register for Wikimania on Eventbrite, although 30 codes had been issued for 25 scholarship holders. The early bird deadline was on a long weekend that had a public holiday on a thursday so that nobody from Wikimedia Deutschland could be reached. I secured an additional 10 codes from the Wikimania organizers so that 4 scholarship recipients could register in time.
• I was invited to a reception at the Swedish Foreign Ministry for my involvement with WikiGap. I had forwarded my invitation to Zenith 4237, who could attend as well.
• Together with my tandem partner Celestinesucess I held a presentation called How to teach Wikipedia in languages that are not taught in school in the language space. I was positively surprised by the high attendance in the room. As feedback Blossom Ozurumba showed interest in applying findings of our presentation for her teaching activities in the Igbo community. Another one that showed interest in my presentation was Asaf, who works on increasing contribution to small language Wikipedias as well.
• Together with Christine Domgörgen I presented a lightning talk in the education space about the TrainigsKit and how to build up a trainings kit for different language projects. Frhdkazan showed interest and is planning to use our findings for implementing Wikipedia in the school curriculum of Tatarstan. He was asked by the school ministry. I connected him to Ziko. We will all have a video conference together about how to write a school curriculum for teaching Wikipedia.
• I was approached by Lina Fredrika to promote the Projekt Fredrika on de.wikipedia. This is a project to improve the coverage of Swedish Finland on Wikipedia. I revised their project page, wrote an article about the project for the Kurier (Wikipedia:Kurier#Projekt Fredrika) and wrote an article about a Finland Swede for them: Aleksei Holmstén.
• Kenny McFly would like to start a Wikimedia community in Greenland. He asked me for ideas on how to start a community. I suggested to hold a WikiGap in Greenland since Sweden has a general consulate there. I asked Sara Mörtsell and she directed me to Axel Pettersson, who is now responsible for WikiGap. Axel showed interest. I asked the chairman of Wikimedia Danmark Fnielsen. Fnielsen connected me to Kaare, who has been the most active contributor to the Greenland Wikipedia, and to Oqaasileriffik, the language secretariat of Greenland. I trust that with these connections we will be able to at least hold one edit-a-thon in Greenland.
• I attended the presentation Reviving the wiki in your language by Amire80. I was reminded that the best way to improve any Wikipedia project is contribution. When you complain that your Wiki project is too small, just start writing articles. With all meta discussions about getting more users we sometimes forget that the most simple way to improve Wikipedias the most simple solution is to write one article after another. This is more effective than most other attempts and one person can make a big difference.

What do I bring back from Wikimania for me and my work in Wikipedia?

International conferences are a big help to get inspiration for wonderful projects. I got in contact with a Finland Swede project and plans for starting a community in Greenland. Those projects ware an inspiration that everything is possible and doable. This gives me strenght in my support of international projects.

What have I learned regarding international exchange?

Wikimedians are active, open and willing to help. I found again that it is enough to ask a question to immeadiately find support.

What have I contributed to the conference? What worked out well and what not?

My presentation on African languages had a very high attendance. People showed interest in my work. That worked very well. What did not work so well was travelling by train. With delays that let me miss my connection trains and cancellations travelling time was more than 24 hours in rather uncomfortable surroundings.

Which ideas for projects or similar activities came into existence? How have I pursued them so far, what are my plans for the future?
Which contacts to international Wikimedians have I made or foster, on which topics? How do they affect my activities in Wikipedia or its sister projects, and how do I intend to carry on dialogue?

I was approached by Lina Fredrika to promote the Projekt Fredrika on de.wikipedia. This is a project to improve the coverage of Swedish Finland on Wikipedia. I revised their project page, wrote an article about the project for the Kurier (Wikipedia:Kurier#Projekt Fredrika) and wrote an article about a Finland Swede for them: Aleksei Holmstén.

Kenny McFly would like to start a Wikimedia community in Greenland. He asked me for ideas on how to start a community. I suggested to hold a WikiGap in Greenland since Sweden has a general consulate there. I asked Sara Mörtsell and she directed me to Axel Pettersson, who is now responsible for WikiGap. Axel showed interest. I asked the chairman of Wikimedia Danmark Fnielsen. Fnielsen connected me to Kaare, who has been the most active contributor to the Greenland Wikipedia, and to Oqaasileriffik, the language secretariat of Greenland. I trust that with these connections we will be able to at least hold one edit-a-thon in Greenland.

How have I shared my Wikimania experiences with my local community? Which activities are still planned for sharing?

I posted on Twitter and Facebook and wrote this report. Videos of my presentations were shared on YouTube and Commons.