WikiIndaba conference 2021/BalukuBrian/Report

Event Name

WikiIndaba Conference 2021

My Experiences

Attending WikiIndaba was a great opportunity for me to connect with other Wikimedians across Africa, network with them, and also learn from their experiences and projects.

The experience was good as a learned more about the many existing Wikimedia Projects and also I learned how to use the Air meet Platform.

Using AirMeet Platform: I joined the conference via mobile using an android smartphone. The challenge with the AirMeet platform was that it did not allow speed networking sessions via their mobile application as that feature was only restricted to their web application.

I attended the pre-conference days that started on Wednesday 3 November 2021 to Thursday 4 November 2021 for the conference. Some of the sessions I attended included:

2. Community resources: How to get funded: Where I gained about the different types of grants, general support funds, and also the funds for groups and communities
4. Affiliation Committee: How to create and support an affiliate in the Movement: I learned more information about Chapters and UserGroups, the roles of Affcom, and factors to allow multiple User Groups in a certain location.
6. Privacy and security online: More tips and methods on how to ensure safe and secure online privacy were given, examples of the information and personal details someone is supposed to add online were given and also the tools one can to ensure online privacy were told to us.
8. Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC): The Enforcement Draft Guidelines Roundtable: - I learned about the different Phases of the UCoC and the ratification process.

I later joined the main Conference and the sessions I attended included:

1. Opening Ceremony: - The traditional dance was performed by the Banyankole People from the Western Region in Uganda
3. Exploring Wikivoyage to improve travel information about the African continent:- Learnt About WikiTravel vs WikiVoyage, history of Wikivoyage, and also why one should contribute to Wikivoyage.
5. One Thousand and One WikiProjects (Perspectives):- I learned more about the existing Wikimedia Projects, the languages used in those different projects.
7. Innovation in Free Knowledge: Insights of the African community Reda Benkhadra:- I learned about the free knowledge and African Projects.
9. Wiki For Refugees in Uganda:- I learned that Less information about refugee Settlements in Uganda is published on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons
11. Building a Wikimedia Community in African Educational Institutions: Experiences of Wikimedians in Africa:- I learned that Wikimedia volunteers can build other Wikimedia communities in their educational constitutions
13. How to reach out to those offline:- I learned more information about keyWiki, Open Foundation West Africa, and also Offline User group.
15. The Use Of QRpedia As A Tool To Generate QRcodes To Tell The Wiki Story In Africa:- I learned that QRpedia is a mobile web-based system that uses QR codes to deliver Wikipedia articles to users, in their preferred language. QR means Quick Response codes and Pedia for Wikipedia and that this tool works for all wikimedia projects

Connections

I managed to connect with Shanluan. Although the AirMeet platform did not support speed networking on their mobile application as I used an android smartphone to attend the conference.

More Sessions Attended

1. Indaba Diaspora: Rethinking and Resetting Knowledge Sharing on Africa in the 6th Region of the African Union, the Diaspora
3. WMF Communications Department Roundtable
5. WikiAfrica Hour episode 7: What the changes at WMF Community Resources mean for you
7. Wiki Loves Africa 2022
9. Privacy best practices for contributors and event organizers
11. Afrocine Project
13. The future of knowledge creation in Africa through partnerships
15. East Africa Wiki Communities Collaboration Discussion
17. Photography in Wikimedia Movement
19. Who governs the Wikimedia Movement (and why you should care)
21. Amplifying knowledge gaps on Wikimedia Projects by making them visible in artistic ways
23. State of Wikimedia in Africa