WM ZA/Annual Report 2017

Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2016–17

This report describes the activities of Wikimedia South Africa during Fiscal Year 2016–17, covering the period from December 2016 through June 2017.

Overall FY 2016/17 was a relatively quiet year for the chapter with only a few meetups and outreach activities happening. The focus for the year was on preparing for FY 2017/18 when Wikimania 2018 would be hosted by the chapter and the chapter would receive its first Annual Grant from the Wikimedia Foundation. Initiating a permanent move away from multiple individual program grants from the Foundation.

Governance

2016/17 was a relatively quiet year for Wikimedia ZA. This was due to preparations for both Wikimania 2018 and the postponement of activities requiring funding in preparation for the chapter's first annual grant that was to start in January 2018. Governance actions taken during this period:

Establishment of an additional chapter bank account for Wikimedia Foundation funds only.
A book keeper (Copia) was sought and appointed during this period, to be hired once the 2018 grant funding had been received.
Chapter restructured to start receiving Annual Grants from the Wikimedia Foundation

Programs

Chapter activities 2016–17

Joberpedia

Point person: Bobby Shabangu
Location: Johannesburg

The Joburgpedia-Digitization project continued. More than 285 images on rural land removals of 1970 - 1980 digitized during this period.

Meetups

Two meetups held in Johannesburg during this period.

One meetup held in Cape Town during this period.

On-going Wikipedia Cape Town workshop

Point Person: Douglas Scott (with assistance of Rossouw van Rooyen)
Location: Cape Town

Wikimedia ZA began hosting an ongoing Wikipedia workshop out of the American Corner at the Cape Town Central Library in down town Cape Town. The first event was held on the 27th January 2017. This was the first in an ongoing series of such workshops to be held at this location with the intention (in late 2017) to start hosting them monthly. We were unable to start hosting the event monthly starting from the beginning of 2017 due to the host venue being booked out during this period.

During this period the second and third Heavy Metal Edit-a-Thon was held.

Participants focused on editing the African heavy metal article
Wikipedia introduction training run by Wikimedia ZA at the American Corner, Cape Town Central library.

Advocacy

See also | Freedom of Panorama in South Africa call to action
Advocacy work on amending the South African Copyright Bill to allow for Freedom of Panorama continued in this period with the start of a public campaign calling for Freedom of Panorama in South Africa. This included a banner ad campaign that ran for one month in early 2017.