Wikimania 2022/Individual Reports/Obuezie

Welcome back from Wikimania 2022! Please write your report here. Once you have completed the application, please email the link to wikimaniawikimedia.org (by 20 September 2022). If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email us.

Username: Obuezie

How did you attend Wikimania (virtually or in-person)?

I attended Wikimania virtually through the program platform- Pheedloop and YouTube.

It was my first time since I joined Wikimedia Foundation in 2020 to attend the conference.

What did you spend the scholarship funds on?

I spent the scholarship funds that were granted to me on minor repairs to my smartphone, ear piece and data purchase to participate fully in the conference.

Takeaways – choose 3 specific Wikimania sessions you attended and describe your key take-aways per session.

This year’s Wikimania conference themed “The Festival Edition” was so interesting that I never wanted it to end. I attended several sessions because all were very interesting. Writing women into Wiki History: Experiences and Best Practices, Education program of GLAM Macedonia, Wikivibrance initiative, Yoga & Dance Party, Ninai/Udiron: Using Wikidata Items and Lexemes for Abstract Wikipedia-Like Text Generation, Theory, Fact, or Fake: Global Wikipedia Research Trivia Social, Wikifunctions-A new Wikimedia project, 10 years of Wikidata-Overtime Discussion, Wikimedia Sound Logo Production Master Class, Crisis & GLAM by Brazil-2013, Hands off to Wikimania 2023, Wikimedia award session and the closing ceremony were some of the sessions I attended that got me glued to the event platform. I wished some of the sessions didn’t clash with other sessions so that I could participate in all. Three sessions I would discuss include the10 years of Wikidata-Overtime Discussion, Wikimedia Sound Logo Production Master Class, and Hands off to Wikimania 2023.

10 years of Wikidata-Overtime Discussion: This was an interesting and informative discussion between the founders of Wikidata. Denny V. Randecis the founder of Wikidata discussed how the call for Wikimania 2005 at Frankfurt, Germany raised his idea and discussion with Marcus Cruch on the development of a platform that can connect research topics with Wikipedia. His approach to the community manager on semantic media wiki at the time in the person of Lydia Pintscher to help with the community in Wikidata. How the funding for the project came from friends, google and WMF to make Wikidata happen. Wikimedia Dutchland agreed to host the project and the board of trustees agreed for the project to take place. Eric suggested a move to centralize Wikidata. In the discussion, their initial confusion, hopes, and fears in Wikidata were mentioned although it developed over time. Lydia’s leadership helped in achieving their aim of improving Wikidata for the better and we all enjoy the success today as Wikidata editors and as consumers. Even smaller organizations are now using the knowledge as a small airline company was seen having the information, “powered by Wikidata”. Their story was interesting and inspiring, most especially the collaboration, team spirit and trust that something good will come out of their idea and the support. It was a source of encouragement for other editors that have great project ideas to go ahead to propose them and bring them into reality. It worked as early as 2005 and is successful today, so it will certainly work out better in the present era. I admired the support rendered to them from all around and today, we have Wikidata!
Wikimedia Sound Logo Production Master Class by Joe Bush and Emma Byford: I attended this session out of curiosity. Wanted to find out what the session is all about and I did. I learnt how sound logos are made for different alerts. The session which started with the definition of some basic audio terminologies like tracks, key-major/ minor Tempo/speed and Instrument/Timbre that they played out for the class got me excited to learn more as piano and other sound instruments were used to mix interesting alert sounds right before our eyes. Brief histories of sound logos were discussed in their presentation which dated back to 1920, the wiki jingles and the revolution among others. Sound logo can make a difference in how Wikimedia is perceived as it is said that people react to sound 17% faster than they react to visuals according to the University of Groningen. Sound logo operates directly on the subconscious and therefore are effective mechanism to modulate emotion and add significant emotional depth to how the movement is perceived according to the presenters. They said the tonal prompt of Wikimedia’s sound logo should feel human, inspired, smart and warm. The session was very interesting and I realized that Wikimedia editors are great comrades that strive to make Wikimedia better with our various professionalism. Musicians are developing projects based on their field, engineers-software, tools, programmers-codes breeds different interesting projects like the story surrounding the birth of Wikidata. There is something for everyone on Wikimedia and everyone has something more to offer than just adding references, creating articles and evaluating resources. Anyone can volunteer, join, learn and participate. We can do a lot more within the movement.
Hands off to Wikimania 2023 by Joel Letang: This was an interesting session where what seemed like a brief history of Wikimania was exposed. I got ecstatic to learn that Wikimania started as early as 2005, the records of the event venues all these years, the failed in-person event in 2020 due to Covid-19 that would have taken place in Bangkok, Thailand, and the decision in 2021 to go virtual for the Wikimania conference which would have been handled by ESEAP (East, Southeast Asia and pacific, a unique first-time regional collaboration that would have been phenomenal, and the virtual/ few in-person events in different parts of the world in 2022. I am happy to be part of this session as I have a passion for historical events and I was able to keep up with the hot news of the next Wikimania conference in 2023 which will take place in Singapore. I enjoyed the welcome speech by Gnangerra, Robert and Jackeline about the next conference venue, Singapore.

Ninai/Udiron: Using Wikidata Items and Lexemes for Abstract Wikipedia-Like Text Generation and Wikimedia award session: Now I know I am supposed to discuss just three but I wouldn’t feel right not saying anything about these two events also. Mahir Morshed really did justice to that topic, I was elated to learn about Ninai/Udiron: using Wikidata… it was quite comprehensive and indeed a lecture session. The award session gave me an insight into the type of awards available on Wikimedia. My interest in the movement was inspired more as a close senior colleague, Dr Nkem Osuigwe was awarded the Wikimedian Newcomer of the Year Award alongside other awardees and we (African Librarians and other librarians at large) were so excited that our contributions really count.

How did you connect with other people during Wikimania 2022? How did you celebrate at Wikimania 2022?

The Nigerian participants really encountered huge network and technical issues on the first day. Most of us had to run over to YouTube for solace, happy we had that option anyways but the other remaining days of the conference were awesome as we had a flexible experience navigating through the festival platform and the zoom rooms. I connected with a few people during the conference. Some of the connections were extended to connecting via other social media channels. I have had and will have zoom trainings with one of my connections assisting him on a few basic Wikipedia edits. Collaboration in a project has also been built and on the incubation stage at the moment. During the Wikimania period, I tweeted and retweeted almost every single tweet from WMF, Wikimedia Community UG Nigeria, Igbo Wikimedians UG and, Wikipedia+Libraries to mention but a few on Twitter related to Wikimania 2022 due to my enthusiasm about the whole event. Even created a thread tweet [1] about Wikimania 2022 a few days after the conference LOL! only an overwhelming experience can put one in such behaviour. I was entertained by the piano music performance from South Africa too. The closing ceremony was awesome as I danced along with my kids throughout the party. I joined Room 1 and it happened to be the heart of the party as we all jammed to the music blast from the DJ. oh! I almost forgot the laughter therapy session 😊👍. I said to myself, “if a virtual conference is this interesting, how would the in-person be”! I applied as a volunteer to assist in the event, unfortunately I was not assigned any task but all the same, I enjoyed the conference. Thank you very much, Wikimedia for having in existence such a wonderful annual event “Wikimania” and for the great opportunity granted me to participate comfortably in the conference.

(Optional) Please share link(s) to your social media post(s) about Wikimania

https://twitter.com/AdaObuezie/status/1559995265100271616?t=dkXg8qDxxXfglxbAJH4s-w&s=08