Wikimania 2022/Individual Reports/Sharonkusa

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

Username

Sharonkusa

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

I attended Wikimania Virtually using Pheedlop, Zoom, and mainly YouTube

What did you spend the scholarship funds on?

1. Internet subscription 2. Meals and Refreshments 3. Child care

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

I attended a number of sessions however what stood out was, 1. Indigenous Knowledge, epistemic decolonisation and the power of images. Traditional knowledge also called indigenous or local knowledge was looked at in depth and different types of the same was shared during the session. Different images of plants, herbs and historical sites were shared which made following the narrative easy. It was also helpful in learning plants that have always been in my surrounding but I did not recognise as important. The session has broadened my understanding of indigenous things especially the plants. 2. Wikimedian of the year During this session resilience an focus was highlighted as depicted by some wikipedians who live in places where researching and writing is a crime and have been arrested. These should be heroes and deserve to be celebrated for sticking to the movement. . It was such an interesting session where hard work was recognised and rewarded. The expressions of the people that were celebrated was priceless and some of them were not expecting to receive these awards. 3. Don’t cite it, write about it. Here we viewed how information becomes important even in studies. A number of professors use Wikipedia for research and also ask their students to write articles for the site.

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

I connected mostly on the Pheedlop App, especially with the people that gave me support when I was having challenges manoeuvring the different Apps. These were helpful and with some, we are still in contact to date. I celebrated Wikimania by participating and enjoying learning sessions as well as the musical breakout sessions from other parts of the world.

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