WikiIndaba 2023/Report/Shahadusadik

Report on the Participation of Shahadusadik at WikiIndaba 2023 in Agadir, Morocco

Overview

Provide insights into your participation at the conference, including details about your contributions, experiences, and noteworthy encounters.

Sadik Shahadu and friends at Wiki indaba 2023

Wiki Indaba Morocco 2023 was one of the few Wikimedia conferences I attended in 2023. The event was filled with great excitement as it brought together all wikimedians from the African wikimedians community to connect, share and learn from each other and contribute to the growth of Wikimedia Projects in Africa. Wiki Indaba created an opportunity for many African Wikimedians to showcase some of the most inspiring projects in their communities. As a scholarship recipient, participant and speaker at Wiki Indaba 2023 in Agadir, I presented two sessions titled: ‘Increasing Language Diversity on Wikimedia Projects’ and ‘Art+Feminism West African Indigenous Language Program’ respectively.

Outcome

What significant learning or outcome do you take away from your participation?

On Friday, November 3, I presented a research report on behalf of the Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub: ‘Increasing Language Diversity on Wikimedia Projects’ in the Tahannaout Room from 14:30 - 15:00. During my presentation, participants had the opportunity to learn about the barriers faced by smaller language Wikimedia communities in Africa and how we can collectively address them. They also got the opportunity to ask questions and collectively, we proposed the next steps.

Sunday, November 5, was another opportunity to present my work as the West African Language Coordinator at Art+Feminism. I was very excited to introduce the participants to the Art+Feminism West African Language program and how they can be involved. It was great to learn about how the program can further support more language communities and the opportunity to collaborate with affiliates in West Africa.

As a participant, I had the privilege of attending several sessions to learn about different projects and how my community can benefit. The general outcome of Wiki Indaba 2023 was the opportunity to learn and share my experiences with fellow Wikimedians.

Impact

What impact the conference had on you and community plans, and what actions will you undertake to share learnings with your community?

Wiki Indaba 2023 was a great learning experience for me. As a community leader, I gained some leadership skills from other participants and I hope to transfer that knowledge to my community. Also, I learned how to use new Wikimedia tools to improve editing and translation on my language Wikipedia project. I got a better understanding of different community projects that are organized in Africa. I had the opportunity to connect with several experienced Wikimedians from Africa and also learned from their inspiring projects. I built new connections for future collaborations.

Anything else?

If you have a link to your slides or particular pictures from the event, you can share them here. Please also feel free to share any other feedback, information, or thoughts with us in this section.

Overall, the 2023 edition of Wiki Indaba was generally successful. It highlighted one of my best conference experiences in 2023. Congratulations to the entire team for putting together such an amazing conference. I wish to thank the entire Wikimedia Morocco team and their partners not forgetting Wiscom and the core organizing team for yet another successful Wiki Indaba.