WikiIndaba 2024/Proposal/Africa Wiki Challenge


Indaba 2024 Logo ID : Africa Wiki Challenge
Author(s): Eugene Masiku, Jael Boateng Username(s): User:Kaffzz User:Jael28 Session type: Presentation
Affiliation: Open Foundation West Africa Session track(s): Inclusion, Equity.
Abstract:

The Africa Wiki Challenge is an online initiative focused on creating African-related content on Wikipedia. The annual competition strives to enhance information about Africa on Wikipedia and its sister projects

Often, African-related articles on Wikipedia are either stubs or lack videos or photos to provide visual context and enhance credibility. This inadvertently diminishes interest in reading existing African-related articles on Wikipedia. It's evident that both Ghana and Africa as a whole face a notable deficiency, particularly in terms of content representation on Wikipedia.

Initiated by Open Foundation West Africa in 2021, the Africa Wiki Challenge has blossomed into a collaborative movement spanning over 30 countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, and beyond. The campaign has contributed to the creation of over 158,000 new articles and made nearly 10,000 edits on existing ones.

Audience : General
Mode: Hybrid
Special requirements:
How will this session be beneficial for the communities in the region?

This campaign seeks to bridge the content gap on Wikipedia by creating the opportunity for Africans to tell our own stories on the platform. 1. Capacity building- Participants are trained and guided during the campaign, on how to contribute content about Africa on Wikipedia. 2. African representation- The Africa Wiki Challenge has proven to be an initiative that has increased content about the continent on Wikipedia. 3. Collaboration- The campaign fosters collaboration with organizers from various communities in Africa to help attain the goal of projecting Africa on Wikipedia.

Interested participants

(register below and ask your questions now to the session organiser)