Grants:Conference/Wikimedia User Group Nigeria/WikiIndaba Conference 2019

This Wikimedia Foundation grant has a fiscal sponsor. Open Foundation West Africa administered the grant on behalf of WikiIndaba Steering Committee.

statusFunded

Conference & Event Grant

WikiIndaba Conference 2019

Wiki-Indaba Conference is the regional conference of African Wikimedians within Africa and diasporas. The primary aim of the conference is to promote the growth of Wikimedia projects in Africa, enhance the growth and development of Wikimedia communities in this continent and to foster good working relationship between these communities. It’s a platform for capacity building and development, Wikimedia skills acquisition, leadership and knowledge sharing. The first edition of Wiki-Indaba Conference was held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2014 by Wikimedia ZA, while the latest edition was held in Tunis, Tunisia in 2018 by Wikimedia TN Usergroup. Wikimedia User Group Nigeria will host the 2019 edition of the conference in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria between 8 – 10 November 2019.

targetplease add a target wiki

strategic priorityIncreasing reach, and improving quality of contents and increasing participation from Africa

amountUSD 74,855.74

typeorganization

nonprofitYes

creator• Olaniyan Olushola

contact• olaniyanshola15gmail.com

organization• Wikimedia User Group Nigeria
Fiscal Sponsor: Open Foundation West Africa

website• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiIndaba_conference_2019

Friendly space expectations

index

Event overview

Purpose and vision Please give a brief description of the event you are planning. What do you hope to accomplish during the event? Why is this event important for your community?

WikiIndaba conference is the regional conference of African Wikimedians within Africa and diasporas.

WikiIndaba conference is the regional conference of African Wikimedians within Africa and diasporas. The primary aim of the conference is to promote the growth of Wikimedia projects in Africa, enhance the growth and development of Wikimedia communities in this continent and to foster good working relationship between these communities. It’s a conference for African Wikimedians to discuss the future of the Wikimedia Movement in Africa in terms of strategy, collaboration, and organizational development. Our events will includes partnership track which will provide a platform for learning, capacity building and sharing of experiences and ideas on how to kick-start partnership projects that will address the challenges and opportunities faced by Wikimedia movement in Africa. We also plan a “Capacity-Building & Learning track” that will provide a platform to learn from each other’s experiences and achievements and work with participants on how to best continue this exchange throughout the year.

Important details

Please add key information to the table below. The dates, location and number of participants can be estimates and do not need to be finalized at this time.

Proposed date(s)	08-09-10 November 2019
Proposed location	Abuja, FCT, Nigeria
Number of participants	60
Event page	WikiIndaba conference 2019
Primary contact person	Olaniyan Olushola

Background

Community input

Use the results from the community engagement survey to fill in the table below. Since you cannot cover all topics or meet all needs at one event, prioritisation is important. Please rank the priority of each topic, skill, project or problem as high, medium or low. Finally, please answer the questions below the table.

	Description	Priority
Strategic discussions: What are the top issues affecting your community that need to be discussed in person?	African language Wikipedia - Out of the 52 countries in Africa, about 11 countries have one or more languages Wikipedia. The report published in June 2018 on the state of African languages in Wikipedia suggested a decline in the growth of these country-language Wikipedias. Identifiable causes includes lack of awareness about these languages Wikipedias, and low number of contributors. There would be a strategic discussion on how to address these problems Fundraising - Many affiliates in Africa and individuals rely solely on Wikimedia Foundation funding to run their projects. Its important for user groups and individual to learn about fundraising. This is of strategic priority to this conference. Community engagement - This would focus on community management, recruitment of new editors,editors retention, training support and empowerment. Capacity building - The capacity building will focus on how to build and sustain partnership, contents creation, community development, conference/event planning, grant-making and reporting Gender gap There is a major gap in gender contributors to Wikikmedia projects. There are more male contributors than female in Africa. Wikimedia outreach There will be a strategic discussion that will focus on Awareness creation and partnerships.	high
Capacity development: Are there important skills that many people in your community need to learn?	Leadership skills Community Capacity Development skills Community management Mediawiki	High
Working groups: Are there joint projects that need to be planned in person?	GLAM project Wikipedia Education program Wikiwoman projects (e.g Wiki Women Radio, Wiki Loves Women) Offline Wiki projects (e.g Kiwis & Wiki-Fundi).	Medium
Community building: Are there other in-person activities that are important for community building?	Wikimedia contests (e.g Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth, WLA etc) Coding & MediaWiki software	Medium

Survey analysis:
1. How many people did you send the survey to? How many people responded to the survey?

37 People

2. Did you see consensus around shared goals that this community wants to focus on in the next 12 months? What were the top 2 goals?
Based on the answer we can see a consensus around these goals:

Yes and the top two goals are

• Capacity development
• Increasing contributors.

3. Based on survey responses, what are the most important things your community should do at the conference to achieve those goals?

• Training on how to organize an outreach projects of interest, how to contribute to other Wikimedia projects eg: Wiki Source, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, GLAM, etc. Training on use of metric tools. Training on basic copyright issues on commons, Training on the new grants program and how to put together a good grant.

Context

It is helpful to get an understanding of why this event is important to your community, and what experiences you have had in the past. Please answer the applicable questions below.

1. What inspired your community to begin planning this event?

Africans are underrepresented on Wikimedia movement and content contributions from Africa are not only poor but are very low. We see this event as an opportunity to build capacity for African Wikimedians, develop project leaders, grow individuals in areas they have little or no expertise, share or discuss projects that could work in Africa, equip leaders with new skills on how to improve Wikimedia projects. We are also aware that fostering cohesion, identification of collaborative projects to scale up efforts across the continent, and forging the way forward for Africa will go a long way.

2. How does this event relate to other activities that your community is working on?

There has been an increase in coordinated activities since the last conference. For example, participants from the last conference in Tunisia have gone back and have relatively impacted their Wikimedia groups. As part of the theme of building sustainable communities and the encouragement to support neighboring or sister countries in starting Wikimedia related groups, have yielded some results as we have received news of approved user groups including Wikimedia Community User Group Tanzania, Igbo Wikimedians User Group and there has been some increase in the contributions on Wikidata from Africa following the Wikidata workshop in the last conferences.

3 Please list the priorities identified in the report from the last conference organized by this community. What progress have you made in those areas?

Identified priorities	Progress made
Surge Growth Within Africa	Surging growth within Africa is one of the identified priority in the last conference and since the last conference, there have been significant growth in the number of contributors, contents and Wikimedia affiliates in Africa. It has yielded some results as we have received news of approved user groups including Wikimedia Community User Group Tanzania, Igbo Wikimedians User Group
Capacity / Skills Building	There has been some significant contributors to other Wikimedia projects. For example there has been some increase in the contributions on Wikidata from Africa following the Wikidata workshop in the last conferences.
Connecting Africans Within And In The Diaspora	This priority was identified to foster collaborations globally, run remote events that will increase content about Africa and the participation of Africans across the continent and in the diaspora. This priority has made it possible for participants of last conference to identify other continental projects that could connect Africans some of which are in the planning stage. for example, the AfroCine projects which will kick-off soon.

4. If your community has hosted a similar conference in the past, what key lessons were learned, and what would you like to improve on?

Although the Conference went well, we believe it could have been excellent if some issues were solved.

• The time the organizing team (Wikimedia TN User Group) had from the approval of funds to organizing this conference was really close and affected them in so many ways, such as the time of receiving funds, renegotiating deals because vendors weren't sure they would show up, prices of ticket shot up because bookings were closed, caused inconvenient flight bookings because of availability times of airlines, last minute change because vendors had given up on us due to no commitments, etc.
• What can be done: Final decisions about grants approval must be sent at least 3 months before the conference date.

Transfer of funds

• The transfer of funds were quite delayed because of the approval time, this affected the organization team in effecting some payments pre and post conference.
• What can be done: The process of sending funds at certain times only from the WMF should be looked at and make available a process for emergencies.

Breaking up funds

• Funds were sent in tranches which made payments awkward since the funds available at any particular time had to be used for part payments. This method is mostly useful to check progress of a project and to be sure an organization is able to manage such funds, however it didn’t work really well for them for the following reasons:
• They had to invest a lot of time and money in traveling to and from vendor's places of work to reassure them of payments.
• What can be done: We have began to talk to vendors, build relationship with them and assure them that they would get their funds in full and not in tranches

Inconsequential costs.

• These were due to the fact that the funding was approved late. This affected flight booking and other stuff and invariably we had to pay for people having to arrive earlier for the conference or having to stay later than the proposed departure because of difficulty in securing flight schedules close to the event date.
• What can be done: Grant must be sent far ahead of time so that organizers can do effective advance planning to save them from incurring such costs.

Enough time for sessions

• The Conference was very packed and speakers or trainers had to rush through their sessions and presentations in order to give a chance for other sessions. The reason behind this was that the program had many activities and speakers that did not adapt to the timeline we had.
• What can be done: This can be checked by reducing the program content or making room for days to ensure a fine pace to achieve each program goals.

Limited time outside programs and venues

• There were limited or no time outside events and activities for socialization because the timetable was jam packed but mainly because we only had a half day on the last day.
• What can be done: Could be corrected if days are made 3 full days or content of the program reduced to ensure no over packed activities.

Plan

Venue and Logistics

1. If the venue is more than 1 hour away from a major airport or transportation hub, how will participants travel to the event venue?

The venue of the conference is Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory and the hotel where the conference will take place is within 1 hour to the airport (Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport).

2. Is the event venue within walking distance from the hotel? If not, how will people travel between the two locations?

The event venue will be in the same hotel where the participants will be hosted.

3. Is the event venue and hotel accessible for people with physical disabilities?

Yes

4. Do you anticipate any challenges with using the space for the event you are planning?

No.

Friendly space policy

Please link to the friendly space policy that your community will be using for this event.

The friendly space policy for Wikimedia Foundation events will be used for this event.

Participation

It is crucial that most participants have a minimum level of Wikimedia experience so that they can engage actively in workshops and discussions. Please answer all applicable questions below.

1. Please describe the target audience for this conference or event.

Audience will be composed of active African Wikimedians and Chapters/Groups leaders.

2. If your conference has an outreach component, how will you ensure engagement with these participants after the conference, and what impact do you see them having on the projects?

To be developed after defining the outreach components that will be covered by the event.

3. Are you thinking about inviting WMF staff to attend or participate in the event? If yes, please list individuals or teams who you may want to invite, or describe how you would like WMF staff to be involved in the event.

We would like to have WMF staff members attend the event. List and how they will be involved will be developed when finalizing the program.

Scholarships

1. How many scholarships would you like to offer?

35 International scholarships and 15 National Scholarships

2. What expenses will the scholarship cover?

• Travel, Visa and Accommodation for International
• Accommodation and Travel for National

3. How will scholarship recipients be selected?

Scholarship recipients will be selected based on a clear defined and transparent criteria taking into account:

• The involvement of the candidate in the Wikimedia movement and Wikimedia projects,
• The involvement of the candidate within their communities to promote Wikimedia projects,
• The involvement of the candidate to promote Open Knowledge.
  

A scholarship form will be published (link) and shared via different communication channels (mailing lists, social media channels, conference page on meta). Wikimedians will be invited to submit their scholarship applications.

The scholarship timeline is as follows:

Scholarship processes	Proposed Timeline
1. Call for scholarship committee members	September 3- September 10, 2018
2. Scholarship application	12th September 2018 - 2nd October 2018
3. Notification of scholarship recipients	23rd October 2018

Goal

The primary aim of Wiki Indaba Conference is to promote the growth of Wikimedia projects in Africa, build capacity of African Wikimedians, enhance the growth and development of Wikimedia communities in Africa and to foster good working relationship between these communities.

Our specific goals for the conference are to:

1. Provide a platform for learning, capacity building and sharing of experiences and ideas on how to kick-start partnership projects
2. Share knowledge among Wikimedia affiliates in Africa organizational development.
3. Provide opportunities for training for chapters and user groups in African about program management, grants making and reporting
4. Support meetups for thematic work in the health care, cultural, and educational/academic sector.
5. Community management and leadership

The secondary goals of the event are:

1. Create long-term networking and partnering opportunities with organizations from the cultural and educational sector (e.g. GLAM, universities, etc.) in the African region in order to build on the existing momentum and to achieve sustainability beyond the conference.
2. Provide opportunities for face-to-face rapport-building connections between existing Wikimedia volunteers and community members to strengthening personal relationships between the participants and to improve the community health of the wikimedia movement.

Tracks	Why is this a priority?	What kind of session or activities will you do to help meet this goal?	What kind of participants need to be included in these activities to make them successful?	What do you want to accomplish by the end of the conference?	What do you want to happen 6 months after the conference as a result of this work?
Partnership	Partnership is important to the mission of the Wikimedia movement and a key to solving some of the challenges facing Wikimedians in Africa and Diasporas. There is need to learn how to build partnership with institutions like museums, cultural and educational institutions to promote free access to African-related contents	User Groups Presentation, Remote project presentations, Ideas of collaborative projects, discussing the future of Indaba and expected results of having the conference.	User Group Reps, Reps from emerging or new communities and Individuals	We want to strengthen communities understanding of how to build a partnership, how it works, how to collaborate with partners and best practices.	6 months after this training, we want to see more successful partnership within Africa and we hope to learn from their success story in the next conference
Surge Growth Within Africa	Foster cohesion, identify collaborative projects to scale up efforts across the continent, forge the way forward for Africa	User Groups Presentation, Remote project presentations, Ideas of collaborative projects, discussing the future of Indaba and expected results of having the conference.	User Group Reps, Reps from emerging or new communities and Individuals leading projects that could scale up.	To share experiences about past and new projects, Increase the visibility of continental projects and other thematic Wikimedia projects.	To see more successful projects organized by existing communities, usergroups of chapters. At least one new usergroup coming to fruition as a result of this conference. Increased participation of Africa in thematic projects eg WLA, WLE, WLM, WLW, etc. Set up a committee or team that will lead future organization of Indaba.
Capacity / Skills Building	To develop project leaders, grow individuals in areas they have little or no expertise, share or discuss projects that could work in Africa, equip leaders with new skills for projects.	Training on contributing on other Wikimedia and outreach projects of interest, eg: Wiki Source, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, GLAM, etc. Training on use of metric tools. Training on basic copyright issues on commons, Training on the new grants program and how to put together a good grant.	All active Wikipedians and Wikimedians.	Increasing the ability of participants to do more and opening them up to other opportunities or projects that could work in their respective countries.	More contribution on sister projects. See reduced incidents of copyright violations. Increased usage of Wikimedia metric tools for project reporting. At least 2-3 new GLAM and education projects started in Africa. More volunteers from Africa on Wikimedia volunteer committees and Increased participation or representation in WMF related conferences.
Connecting Africans Within And In The Diaspora	Foster collaborations globally, run remote events that will increase content about Africa and the participation of Africans across the continent and in the diaspora.	Presentations on what is happening in the diaspora, discuss possible projects to be collectively worked on and (or) upcoming global events that could be tapped in by all Africans.	Active Wikipedians or Wikimedians in the Diaspora, People living outside Africa but working on African focused projects.	To link Wikimedians in Africa to the Diaspora and to connect with opportunities of global collaboration or even keep up the motivation of participants from the diaspora.	At least one collaborative thematic project between Africa and the Diaspora community. Increased participation in remote events from Africa eg: Arts+Feminism, etc.

Lessons & Outcomes from WikiIndaba 2017 and 2018

The purpose of WikiIndaba 2018 in Tunisia was to provide an opportunity for wikimedians and other participants from different African countries to interact and to share their experiences and their activities, discuss organizational problems and solutions in order to enrich the quality and quantity of content of African projects.

Outcomes

• Letters to Katherine (L2K) - This is a series of letter, intended to share requests & issues about Africa with the Executive Director of the Foundation and the entire movement. The idea was conceived by the organising team and first implemented at the 2017 Indaba. The first edition was handed to Katherine at the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin and has sparked a culture of sharing our sentiments in the Wikimedia Movement. Groups like the Iberoconf and a few others in the movement have replicated similar letters to the ED. You can read the first issue of the letter here.
• Kiwix: Wiki Indaba created the platform to educate more on Kiwix and its usefulness for Africa: WikiIndaba conference 2018/Report/Stephane_(Kiwix).
• MedinaPedia and its expansion in other African countries (Egypt, Morocco, Cameroun): WikiIndaba conference 2018/Program/MedinaPedia_Sfax.

• African Wikimedia Developer Group- The idea of bridging the gap of representation in the movement was keenly raised and extensively discussed, this lead to a collaboration that is yielding recruits from the African continent to fill in volunteer developer slots in the movement. Other cross continental projects are in the pipeline and clearly ascertain the need for engaging Africans in the diaspora at WikiIndaba.
• Approved & Planning User Groups - Participants from the conference have gone back and have relatively impacted their Wikimedia groups. As part of the theme of building sustainable communities and the encouragement to support neighbouring or sister countries in starting Wikimedia related groups, have yielded some results as we have received news of approved user groups including Wikimedia Community User Group Tanzania, Igbo Wikimedians User Group, .
• There has been some increase in the contributions on Wikidata from Africa following the Wikidata workshop “Testimony about Wikidata” WikiIndaba Conference 2018/Helmi Hamdi/Report

• African Developers community (Derick Alangi)

• Consequential Impact on Ghana - As a result of hosting the conference in Ghana the Ghanaian community benefitted from an exclusive training on how to contribute to Wikidata by Asaf after the conference. This was one of the very important trainings yearned for by the participants of Indaba and the Ghanaian community. This has sparked a new interest in Wikidata not just in Ghana, but on the entire continent as several related events have been organised by participants of WikiIndaba and contributions surged.
• Increase in signups to the mailing list - Through awareness at the conference we have had more people within the African region subscribe to the African Wikimedians Mailing list, which is improving communication across the continent.

NB:You may find out more exciting stories from participants through blogs and follow up activities via this link .

Lessons

Approval of funds

The approval and transfer of funds to past organizers of Wiki Indaba Conference was delayed and this really affected the organizing team in effecting some payments pre and post conference.

What can be done

The process of sending funds at certain times only from the WMF should be looked at and make available a process for emergencies. We will open a discussion with WMF on how to better deal with this situation

Breaking up funds

Funds were sent in tranches which made payments awkward since the funds available at any particular time had to be used for part payments. This method is mostly useful to check progress of a project and to be sure an organisation is able to manage such funds, however it didn’t work really well for us for the following reasons:

• Due to late approvals, there shouldn’t have been payments in tranches because they were already behind time.
• Vendor’s had not been assured because they hadn’t made commitments and were skeptical about them working with them.
• They invested a lot of time and money in traveling to and from vendor's places of work to reassure them of payments.
• Payments to be made directly to vendors came in quite late and require a lot of work even after the conference.

What can be done We want to avoid this situation. This situation can be avoided if WMF can send funds timely and or completely abort the idea of sending money in tranches.

Inconsequential costs.

These were due to the fact that the funding was approved late. This affected flight booking and other stuff and invariably they had to pay for people having to arrive earlier for the conference or having to stay later than the proposed departure because of difficulty in securing flight schedules close to the event date.

What can be done

Grant must be sent far ahead of time so that organizers can do effective advance planning to save them from incurring such costs.

Enough time for sessions

The Conference was very packed and speakers or trainers had to rush through their sessions and presentations in order to give a chance for other sessions. This mainly resulted because they couldn’t have a full third day because of funding limitations and most participants had to leave later that evening.

What can be done

This can be checked by reducing the program content or making room for days to ensure a fine pace to achieve each program goals.

Apathy from the community

Community members were not really forthcoming with suggestions to help build the conference. Community members had to be prompted umpteen times in order to make contributions.

What can be done

Once WikiIndaba becomes institutionalized like Wikimania, community members will always look forward to it hence play their parts in making the conference a success.

Limited time outside programs and venues

There were limited or no time outside events and activities for socialization because the timetable was jam packed but mainly because they only had a half day on the last day.

What can be done

Could be corrected if days are made 3 full days or content of the program reduced to ensure no over packed activities.

Participants burnout

Apart from the coffee breaks there were no times for participants to rest or relax.

What can be done

If the conference venue and the venue for accommodation are at the same place, these could be easily avoided since the commuting times could be be saved and used by volunteers. We have ensured that conference and accommodation venue are in the same place

Different venue of conference and accommodation

Due to budgetary constraints the Organizers were forced to use different places for conference and accommodation. Albeit this also gave participants to experience two different parts of Accra and to see around town each day, we believe that if the conference and accommodation should have been held at the same venue, it would have saved participants the time and hustle of commuting to and from the conference venue and hotel on a daily basis.

Even though we managed to pull it off and was always on time it would have saved some time for more breaks and increased interactions amongst participants.

What can be done

Communities vary and methodologies of doing this may vary. Maybe Ghana and Tunisia was able to cope with this and didn’t have a problem with time but we anticipate it being a problem for others.

There shouldn’t be a reference to other countries for pricing of accommodation, transport or logistics in general, because countries vary and economies are not the same. Making provision for each country based on what is a standard price for others is not helpful and may cause a problem in our case.

Plan

Activities

WikiIndaba 2019 in Abuja, Nigeria will be a 3 day conference, where African Wikimedians from different countries will share knowledge and experience, discuss organizational problems and various challenges facing Wikimedia projects in Africa, and how we can provide solutions to these problems.

The conference will be a good opportunity to meet and debate about clear collective strategies

• for Wikimedians from the African region.
• for sustainable regional collaborative activities.
• for regional outreach campaigns with a special focus on Educational program, GLAM and the technical tools of Wikimedia like Wikidata, Mediawiki and bots
• for engaging African government with a focus on Nigeria about Open Access (OA) Advocacy.

Program Committee

A program committee composed of the following members: Sam, Shola, two members of WISCOM, WMF liaison, and two other community members will be set up and a call for program submission will be open via the conference page (link).

Provisional Conference Program

The program will cover the following sessions & topics:

1. Keynotes: Leaders and activists from the Open Movement will be invited by the organizers as keynote speakers to inspire and inform attendees.
2. Attendees will be given opportunities to sign up to give talks on their challenges, projects or case studies which will allow participants to have an overview of current challenges and opportunities across the African region.
3. Strategy sessions: The Conference is organised to allow for a collective understanding of the key issues that need to be overcome, and to establish clear actions and solutions that will drive contribution to Wikipedia within the region.
4. Panels and Workshops: Panels and workshops will be organised around the proposed topics listed below (this not a final list):
5. Thematic Workshops and tracks could include, but not be limited to the following:

Affiliates Workshop

Aim: to share experiences and build a sustainable framework and networks for User Groups across the region To cover:

• Presentations from current user groups; what can be done to support existing ones; what is needed to create new ones.
• Funding and administration of an organisation
• Project proposals, evaluations and metrics
• Communication & PR
• Toolkits, Training and Translation / Adaptation
• Outreach programs
• Conferences and application
• The Global South Coalition

Expected result: Chapters, established and new, fully equipped and resourced to grow communities.

Educational program

Aim: Build a sustainable Educational Program and inspire educational institutions (universities, schools..) to be part of this program and to publish Open Educational Resources (OER)

• Examples of working with Universities
• Open Education and OER
• Campus Ambassadors
• How to get started
• Step by step, toolkits, value proposition, etc
• Kiwix resources and other useful educational tools that pertain to the region.

Expected results: creation of working groups with agendas and outputs.

Problem solving sessions

Aim: to find lasting and practical solutions to problems faced by community and the movement across the region

• Finding adapted solutions to problems faced by community
• Community issues
• Tech, access and interface issues
• Accountability and funding
• Local Language Wikis
• Translation
• Evaluation and metrics
• Storytelling

Expected result: creation of working groups with agendas and outputs

GLAM

Aim: to inspire partners, and provide ways for institutions, to donate digitised media and text about culture, heritage, media and other layers of information

• Examples of working with local heritage sites
• Licensing and permissions requirements
• Conflicts of interest, declaration of interest
• How to get started
• GLAM workshop for partners
• Step by step, toolkits, value proposition, etc

Expected results: Working on a key national heritage partners to the project as an example

Capacity Building

Aim: To allow insight into the future of Wikipedia in the African region

• Problematising Local Language Wikis
• Establishing priorities for your community
• Getting started on grants and the use of metrics to evaluate projects.
• Step by step, toolkits, value proposition, etc
• Training in programs or projects that are needed yet not in the know of Africans eg: Kiwix, Wikisource, Wikidata, etc.

Expected results: Give guidelines and understanding for editors wishing to work on local language editors and building capacity for engagement in other useful projects.

Engagement with larger populations

Aim: to provide feedback to user groups on low level, easily accessible competitions

• Wiki Loves Monuments
• Wiki Loves Africa
• Wiki Loves Earth
• Wiki Loves Women
• Local Wiki Loves …

Expected results: Provide a clear year-long plan for chapters, user groups and communities to roll out community engagement activities, provide toolkits and templates to assist with these events.

Impact

Target readership

Mission

The mission of WikiIndaba is to strengthen the existence of Wikipedia and its sister projects on the African Continent through the collaboration of local communities. A serious discussion will take place to analyse the situation, exchange ideas, set a strategy, and find ways of support and cooperate in advancing this cause.This will also be used to foster ties between Africans on the African Continent and in the Diaspora who invariably contribute to promoting African contents.

The Need

Africa has over 54 sovereign states and a population in excess of 1 billion. Africa is underrepresented in the Wikimedia movement and Africa-related contents are poorly represented on Wikimedia projects despite been one of the fast growing continent in the world. There are low number of contributors to Wikimedia projects in Africa and this has invariably affected the quality of Africa related contents on Wikipedia and its sister projects. Therefore, it is extremely important and timely to launch and support Wikipedia and Wikimedia structures across the African Continent which will champion this cause. Thus, more people, either from organisations, local governments or independent volunteers, will be encouraged to get involved and to contribute to the quality and quantity. We have conducted a survey to find out the challenges faced by African Wikimedia communities and how to address these at the conference. The information gathered from the survey will be used to elaborate the provisioned program illustrated in the next chapter. This year conference would be the 3rd edition, the first edition was held in South Africa in 2014. The African Continent happens to be a region  where Wikipedia is not well known and open knowledge spirit of Wikimedia movement is blurred.

Fit with strategy

What crucial thing will the project try to change or benefit in the Wikimedia movement? Please select the Wikimedia strategic priority(ies) that your project most directly aims to impact and explain how your project fits. Most projects fit all strategic priorities. However, we would like project managers to focus their efforts on impacting 1–2 strategic priorities. Examples of strategic priorities can be found here.

Increasing participation/Community Engagement

1. Increase the visibility of continental projects and other thematic Wikimedia projects.
2. Active editors who are not yet members of their country's community may engage more actively after the conference.
3. Encourage or spark the interest of countries that do not have existing communities or affiliation status.

Increasing quality

1. Participants will build capacity to increase the quality of Wikimedia Projects in their respective countries.
2. Onboarding and educating community leaders whose skills will be enhanced to do a better outreach.

Measures of success

Please provide a list of both quantitative and qualitative criteria that will be used to determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed. See the PEG program resources for suggested measures of success.

The conference will be considered successful if at least:

• 60 people participate from more than 15 different countries in the region.
• Train at least 30 active members on how to contribute to other Wikimedia Projects (Wikidata, Wikisource, GLAM, etc).
• Train at least 30 participants on how to use project management and measuring tools (Phabricator, Wikimetrics, etc).
• At least 20 attendees will participate as speakers or workshop trainers but every participant will contribute to the diversity of the Conference by sharing their experience.
• Solutions are proposed to the common issues facing contributors from Africa (internet accessibility & cost, harassment, language input not standardized, volunteer burnout, etc.).
• A common strategy is agreed, to be executed by a working plan of activities and campaigns.
• Collaborative relationships are strengthened between the affiliates and active Wikimedians throughout the African Continent.
• Active Wikimedians are encouraged to activate communities that could in the long term become affiliates.
• Best practices of promoting Wikimedia projects on the African Continent are exchanged in the sessions and talks.
• The resources (presentations and other materials) are saved and shared with the community to be used after the conference to guide our next steps.
• A plan is set up for the next WikiIndaba, in 2020 or 2021.
• Goals are agreed for the participation of Africans in Wikimania 2019.

Note: In addition to your project-specific measures of success, you will also be asked to report on some global metrics at the end of your final report. Please keep this in mind as you plan, and we'll support you as you begin your project.

Beyond The Conference

After the conference the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria will ensure that the following actions are fulfilled:

• Generate a report to evaluate the conference and check whether expected objectives are met
• Follow up the activities of the working groups formed during the conference
• Coordinate with the Wikimedia User Group that will organize the 4th edition of the conference.

Resources and risks

Resources

This year's conference will rely on expertise and experience from members of Wikimedia User Group Nigeria, WISCOM and other experienced volunteers who have organized or participated in Wikimedia conferences, Wiki Indaba, Wikimanian, WikiArabia etc. There will be consultation and support from these groups to ensure a successful conference. Below is a list of individuals playing a role in the planning of the conference.

Organizing team

Team	User Names
WMF Liaison	Olaniyan Olushola
Logistics	Runcie Chidebe
Conference Program	Sam Oyeyele, Olaniyan Olushola, 2 WISCOM members, WMF Liaison, 3 community members
Scholarships	Organizers (Olaniyan Olushola, Olatunde Isaac, Ayokunle Odedere), WISCOM members (Felix Nartey, Reda Kerbouche), WMF Liaison, community members (David Richfield, Sami Mlouhi, Alangi Derick, Kipala,Ahmed Mohi El din)
Communications	Kayode Yusuf, Mrs. Florence Onuegbu (News Agency of Nigeria), Jemilat Abudulai
Volunteer Coordinators	User:Agbalagba, User:Danidamiobi
Other team members	User: Mahveotm

Partners

The following organization has expressed interest in helping us undertake this projects:

• National Tourism Development Corporation

Risks

• Timing: Looks like there is too short a time for planning but the organizers have done most of the ground work and logistics are properly in place.
• Small volunteer base: Due to the less volunteers to aid in organizing this conference, we anticipate that timing may be an issue.

Budget

Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here. See Budget Guidelines.

Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table

	Bill No. 1: Preliminaries and General
		Qty	Rate	Total (NGN)	Total (US Dollars)	Remarks
1.1	Telecom costs for 6 months	6	30000.00	180,000.00	590.61	Telephone calls for LOC members for planning of the event
1.2	Internet Cost for 6 months	6	30000.00	180,000.00	590.61	Internet cost for LOC members for the planning of the event
1.3	Customized T-shirt & Bags for conference participants and volunteers	65	3,000.00	195,000.00	639.34	T-Shirts and Bags for the event
1.4	Event badges (60 pcs)	1	18,000.00	18,000.00	59.02	Event Badge for the conference
1.5	Press Kits	5	10,800.00	54,000.00	177.05	Kits for accredited Press
1.6	Project Management (Postage cost, T&T for meetings, food during meetings, etc.)	6	200,000.00	1,200,000.00	3,934.43	This item will focus on every activities involve in the planning of the event eg. Periodic meeting, Control, Executing, Refreshment, Logistics etc
	TOTAL BILL Number 1			1,827,272.15	5,990.16

	Bill No. 2: Local Organising Team Setup
	Qty	Qty	Rate	Total (NGN)	Total (US Dollars)	Remarks
2.1.1	Accommodation + breakfast per person for 5 days ( N34000/Night) Amount Charged after discount is 30k (12%)	5	180,000.00	900,000.00	2950.82	The actual figure for single room is 34k, we got 12% discount ( 30k)
2.1.2	Meals (Lunch and Dinner) for Pre-Conference days at 7,000 per day per person (for 5 days)	5.00	42,000.00	210,000.00	688.52	Lunch and Dinner for LOC members for 5 days
2.1.3	Transportation (1 x Hired car for 5 days at N20,000 per day)	5.00	20,000.00	100,000.00	327.87	Hired Vehicle for LOC for the event
2.2	Wifi wireless network connection (Dedicated for Conference)	1	400,000.00	400,000.00	1,311.48	Dedicated Wireless Network for the LOC for the period of event
2.2.1	Stationery (Paper, staples, marker, flipchart table... etc)	1	6000	6000	19.67
2.2.2	Flight ticket for LOC	6	75,000	450,000	1475.40	This is the estimated cost of returned ticket for the committee members
	TOTAL BILL Number 2			2,066,000	6773.77

	Bill No. 3: Conference Days
	Qty	Qty	Rate	Total (NGN)	Total (US Dollars)	Remarks
3.1	Venue and Conference rooms: for 3 days. ( Main Hall cost 400k/ day) ( 2XBeakout Room 70k each)	3.00	513,000.00	1,519,000.00	4,980.32	The actual amount for the Conference Hall is 400k ( we secured 5% discount (380k) The 2 other Breakout Room is 70each ( 140k(less 5%)NGN 133k
3.1.1	Lunch ( Buffet) ( 7000/person) for 3days	3	420,000.00	1,260,000.00	4,131.15
3.2	Tea Break ( 2500 per person)	3	150,000.00	450,000.00	1,475.41	This include Protein, Tea and snack serve in between meetings
3.2.1	Guest artists and others	1.00	300,000.00	300,000.00	983.61	Invited Entertainer for the Closing Ceremony
3.2.2	Dinner for 3 days at N7,000 per person (Note that one night is wiki nightout)	3	420,000.00	1,260,000.00	4,131.15
	TOTAL BILL Number 3			4,789,000.00	15,701.64

	Bill No. 4: Social Events
	Qty	Qty	Rate	Total (NGN)	Total (US Dollars)	Remarks
4.1	Wiki Night out: Event
4.1.1	Group Buffet	60	7,000.00	420,000.00	1,377.05
4.1.2	1 Drink per person	60	800	48,000.00	157.38
4.1.3	Transport to and from conference venue (50 seater Bus)	1	20,000.00	20,000.00	65.57
4.2	Smaller bus- 16	1	10,000.00	10,000.00	32.79
TOTAL BILL Number 4			460,000.00	1,632.18

	Bill No. 5: Travel Scholarship
	Qty	Qty	Rate	Total (NGN)	Total (US Dollars)	Remarks
5.1	International Scholarships:
5.1.1	Flights (Average cost) @ 850 USD/ person ( Cap)	35	260,000.00	9,100,000.00	29,836.07
5.1.2	Visa Assistance (Countries that require Visa)	1	250,000.00	250,000.00	819.67
5.1.3	Accommodation for 3 night) ( Shared Accomodation) ( 48,000/Night) * Breakfast Inclusive ( We got 15% discount)	3	1,020,000.00	3,060,000.00	10,032.79	We got 15% discunt off the sum of 48k for the shared Accomodation ( 40.8K)
5.2	Local Scholarships:
5.2.1	Flights (Average cost)	15	60,000.00	900,000.00	2950.82
5.2.2	Travel Agency company:
5.3.1	Arranging and booking of flights	1	400,000.00	400,000.00	1311.48
	TOTAL BILL Number 5			13,710,000.00	44,950.00

Total cost of project

PROJECT BILL OF QUANTITIES PRICE SUMMARY PAGE		Total in Dollars (USD)
1	BILL NO. 1: PRELIMINARY & GENERAL	5,990.16
2	BILL NO. 2: LOC SET UP	6,773.76
3	BILL NO. 3: CONFERENCE DAYS	15,701.64
4	BILL NO. 4: SOCIAL EVENTS	1,632.79
5	BILL NO. 5: TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIPS	44,950.82
6	INCIDENTAL COST & CONTINGENCIES	1,000.00
7	TOTAL	76,047.75

Total amount requested from the Project and Event Grants program

USD 76,047.75

Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded

Non-financial requirements

See a description of non-financial assistance available. Please inform the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) of any requests for non-financial assistance now.

Requests for non-financial assistance, if any

Endorsements

•  Support WikiIndaba is a meaningful and helpful event for a group of countries and languages with great potential. Kipala (talk) 09:00, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support Wiki Indaba always has a strong impact on the African community. After every Wiki Indaba, we see new Usergroups spring up, we also see increased activities and motivation from other Usergroups. SO I strongly support the grant application for Wiki Indaba 2019 Kayusyussuf (talk) 10:59, 27 August 2018 (UTC)
•  Support There is no significant alternative to Wiki Indaba Conference. This is a conference where Africans equip themselves with various skills to effectively contribute to Wikimedia projects. T Cells (talk) 16:40, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
• -Mahveotm (talk) 18:24, 31 August 2018 (UTC)
•  Support, the conference is the only platform in Africa that validate the level of collaboration, unalloyed networking, knowledge impartation, ingenuity and growth of the open movement in the region. Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 00:04, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support This is a step in the right direction as it will Foster the growth of the coverage and involvement of Africa in Wikimedia projects and also bridge the gap of African contents on Wikimedia projects. SuperSwift (talk) 00:35, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• It is a great opportunity to gather minds and also impact lives. Over the past year, a lot of women and young people have benefited, I hope this continues. 41.190.3.221 00:37, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• It's a Project that will promote the growth of Wikimedia projects in Africa and the earlier the preparations begin; will help avoid unnecessary and unwanted extra expenses. Tochiprecious (talk) 05:02, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• I support this project because is going it's going to bring all wiki-medians across the globe together and learn about various features and styles of editing and likewise Networking Session. Effectzda Change (talk) 05:15, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• Makes sense that WikiIndaba takes place in the first African country by population, where a lot of Wikimedia-related projects are being developed at the moment! DonCamillo (talk) 05:26, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• This will greatly help in consolidating the various achievements of Wikimedians in groups and individuals across Africa. Will gives room for idea sharing and exploring ways for future collaborations. –Ammarpad (talk) 06:56, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support This conference is an open access opportunity across Africa where great minds will gather to further add values to Wikimedia projects. And no other means to develop these projects other than regular research and promotion. Nurudlight (talk) 04:30, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• I support this project because it will create a good forum for Wikimedians from Africa to come together and share in each other's strengths, help with our challenges and ultimately become better contributors to the various Wikimedia projects. Adefanike (talk) 07:08, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• It promotes the growth of Wikimedia projects in Africa, enhances the growth and development of Wikimedia communities in this continent and also fosters good working relationship between these communities. Mutiat Mustapha (talk) 07:15, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• This conference provides an opportunity for Africans to share their challenges, and also to develop solutions that will deal with the typical African problems.Timmylegend (talk) 07:38, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support From experience physical networking such as this among Wikipedians has a way of getting the best of the volunteers. I don't know if I will be selected (definitely gonna apply), but I'm confident whoever makes the cut should come-out as better contributors, thereby having a net-positive impact on the project. Additionally, since Nigeria is part of the very active emerging WM communities in Africa, I think this is coming at a time when the level of interest to Wikimedia activities is on a high. And I think a conference such as this will further solidify it. HandsomeBoy (talk) 07:52, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• It will be of great impact to the community of volunteers in Africa. Tayofag (talk) 07:55, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support the Algerian Wikimedia supports this conference. this event is important for our community.--Reda Kerbouche (talk) 10:15, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Africa has realized that there is so much behind the edit button than it has ever known in past years. The Wiki communities across Africa have cared enough to push through the challenges of literacy, web literacy, internet access amidst many more to create awareness and participation for Wikimedia projects. Wiki Indaba will give us the opportunity to discuss and put heads together in order to make the Wikimedia vision viable and sustainable in Africa. I'm sure the Nigerian community will exceed the expectations. Danidamiobi (talk) 13:09, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support Anthere (talk) 13:35, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support Modjou (talk) 13:42, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support Papischou (talk) Wikiindaba has become a great and important moment for Wikimedia movement in Africa. A momet to evaluate, share, learn and build strong local Wikipedian and Wikimedian communities in Africa 14:05, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• Wiki Indaba is a very important part of growing communities in Africa, I learnt a huge amount attending last year John Cummings (talk) 14:13, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• WikiIndaba is a great avenue for African editors to keep contributing to Wikipedia as well as learning new things about the Wikimedia community. This will be an eye opener for new and existing editors in Africa.Teemah 24 (talk) 14:33, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support I believe Wiki Indaba is a unique opportunity for African Wikimedians to meet and discusss issues they face with their work in Wikipedia and other open knowledge works. Owula kpakpo (talk) 16:16, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support African Hope (talk) 19:02, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
• Events like this makes the African wikimedia team grow stronger. Preciousayara (talk) 20:07, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support I can travel easily to most countries in the World, an to Africa. I have never had to ask for a visa to attend a Wikimedia event. My colleagues from Africa do not have the same privilege: it is not a question of money (which can be covered by grants), it is a visa question. And that one is very difficult to resolve. The Wiki Indaba conference is a great way for African wikimedians to get together and build their community from the ground up. GastelEtzwane (talk) 10:33, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
• this event lats year...opened gates for wikimedia community user group Erinamukuta (talk) 10:56, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support African minds coming together will help bridge the gap of under represented infromation of Africans on Wiki. Chabota (talk) 11:24, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support This conference has proven to be the biggest Wikimedia gathering in African. A great opportunity for Wikimedians across Africa to meet and brainstorm ideas. Shahadusadik (talk) 15:49, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support Another series of Wiki Indaba which will act as a platform for uniting Wikimedians in Africa in one place, to share ideas and solidify the impact (why and how) of Wikimedia activities in Africa (via exchange of ideas, working on projects, sharing of experiences, etc). Endorsing this proposal for the hosting of this year's conference. --Alangi Derick (talk) 15:57, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support African Wikimedians in one space. The only way forward for the movement in Africa. AminouT (talk) 17:20, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support This conference has proven to be the biggest Wikimedia gathering in African. A great opportunity for Wikimedians across Africa to meet and brainstorm ideas, culure and sharing experience . Abakar B (talk) 11:20, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support This is an opportunity to bring African editors together and deliberate on how to increase Wikipedia feasibility projects in Africa MaryamOke (talk) 17:05, 8 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Michaelgraaf (talk) 05:15, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support The Wikiindaba conference is needed to foster the links between the different African communities, especially given the common issues and needs that are best tackled when the users come together and meet physically to discuss and get inspired from each other. Anass Sedrati (talk) 06:53, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support I trust that Wikimedia User Group Nigeria can make from this event a big success. Sami Mlouhi (talk) 08:04, 10 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support A significant event that allows African Wikimedians to meet and share their experiences Abdallahbigboy (talk) 00:22, 13 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support I am convinced that WikiIndaba is a valuable tool to grow the African community. --Slashme (talk) 16:02, 16 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Support Mompati Dikunwane (talk) 10:51, 17 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support - Darwin ^Ahoy! 13:35, 28 September 2018 (UTC)
•  Strong support for our African regional conference and for the Nigerian Wikimedian community!--ولاء (talk) 15:14, 3 October 2018 (UTC)