Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda/2019-2020 Annual Report

The Wikimedia Community User Group was recognized as a Wikimedia user group in June 2018. This report outlines the accomplishments and activities organized by the group between July 2019 and June 2020.

Activities

July to December 2019

Annual Planning meeting

The Usergroup held an annual planning meeting on Saturday 20 July 2020 to review 2018-2019 projects, complete pending outputs, and plan for 2019-2020 projects. The annual planning meeting was sponsored with a grant from the completed Wiki Loves Women project in Uganda.

Usergroup registration as a company

The Usergroup members drafted the Memorandum of Association (MoA) and Articles of Association (AoA), together with corresponding forms for company creation in Uganda.

Wikimania 2019

Our User Group was represented at Wikimania 2019 by our members Alice Kibombo and Erina Mukuta. You can read Alice's report on Wikimania 2019 here https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/AKibombo/Wikimania/2019/Report

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  With Jim Wales at Opening Reception
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  At the African Meetup
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  The Gender Gap Projects Discussion Panel
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  With other participants from Africa

East Africa Strategy Summit

From September 08 - 09, 2020 our User Group hosted 45 Wikimedians from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo at the East Africa Strategy summit. The event focused on bringing the East African voices to the global conversation on Movement Strategy while building a sense of regional identity and collaboration. You can read the outcomes of the event here.

• East Africa Strategy Summit 2019
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Open Movement meet ups with the Creative Commons Chapter in Uganda

The Usergroup engaged with members, and open movement organisations like the Creative Commons Chapter in Uganda through attending meet ups and joint events to ensure there is no duplication of efforts for example in GLAM, and other projects.

Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 in Uganda

Since 2017 the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda has been participating in Wiki Loves Monuments with the aim of increasing the number of high-quality photos of historical sites and monuments in Uganda on Wikimedia Commons and increasing the number of articles on those monuments on the English and Luganda Wikipedias. The competition in 2019 attracted 13 participants who uploaded 116 photos of cultural heritage sites and monuments in Uganda on Wikimedia Commons. We also held an event where prizes were awared to the winners of the competition. You can read the rapid grant report here.

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WikiIndaba 2019

The Usergroup was represented at the 2019 Wiki Indaba annual Conference in Abuja, this was also an opportunity for the Usergroup to receive the announcement to host the upcomming Wiki Indaba and gathering of African Wikimedians.

During the conference, our User Group was announced as the next hosts for WikiIndaba 2020 which was later postponed to 2021 due the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Selection for the Wikimedia Summit representation

The Usergroup was eligible, under Group 2, to attend the Wikimedia Summit. A representative was selected and forwarded to the Wikimedia Summit organising team.

Sensitisation of GLAM institutions in Uganda

On 7th December 2019, the Wikimedia Uganda Community User Group hosted a number of GLAM professionals at the Goethe-Zentrum Kampala Library. The meeting was in part to reach out to professionals we had not interacted with during the course of the year and therefore had no prior opportunity to showcase who we are and what we do in relation to the work they do. We were able to approach a number of institutions who then nominated their staff for participation as well as individuals that had expressed interest. You can read the event report here https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/July_2020/Contents/Uganda_report

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January to June 2020

Wiki Loves Africa Orientation meeting

An orientation meeting to provide information and support to Wiki Loves Africa 2020 organisers. The meetings and discussions were posted on meta, and etherpad

Wiki For Human Rights Editathon

On the 25th January 2020, the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda held an editathon to celebrate the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] into practice. The campaign began in November 15, 2019, and was to end on January 30, 2020. Its purpose was to celebrate the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by strengthening the factual coverage of human rights on Wikipedia. This year’s theme was “To claim your rights, you need to know your rights”. As part of the theme, the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda highlighted individual activists and organizations in Uganda that were championing Human Rights, to recognize the positive role or participation in collective movement in Human Rights. Articles and Wikidata of Human Rights Activists and Organizations working on Human Rights in Uganda were created to contribute to the theme. The major aim was to build awareness about gaps on Wikipedia in Human rights and to introduce new editors to the topic of human rights and to build Wikipedia editing skills among participants and support more experienced editors creating content.

During the editathon, a total of 10 articles were edited, 112 total edits were made, 16 editors participated, 3.75k words were added, 34 references were added, 46.9 articles views and 1 Wikimedia commons upload was made. Also, WikiData items were created. Follow this link for details.

This contributed to improved the quality and quantity of human rights content on Wikipedia and contributed to the shared commitment to increase access to human rights information and promote freedom of expression and information on the https://wikiuganda.wordpress.com/2020/05/13/how-it-all-went-down-at-the-wikiforhumanrights-edit-a-thon-in-uganda/

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Usergroup formal registration as a company

After finalisation of company creation documents, the Usergroup was able to formally register (Wikimedia Community Usergroup Uganda Ltd) as a company Limited by Guarantee in Uganda, on 7 February 2020.

Wiki Loves Africa

The Usergroup organised the annual Wiki Loves Africa competition. The theme for the 2020 contest was Africa on the Move or Transport, which started on 15th February 2020 and closed on 15th of April 2020, a project page on Wikimedia Commons with details was created. An online meeting for the Jury selection criteria was also held, and one of the local volunteer participants joined the international Jury for the 2020 competition.

African Librarians Week

Under the 1Lib1Ref campaign, the inaugural African Librarians Week as a collaboration between African Library & Information Associations & Institutions (AfLIA) and Wikimedia took place between 24th - 30th May 2020. As a user group we mobilised and trained local librarians on what the 1Lib1Ref campaign is about and how to participate. At the end of the campaign, we had at least 3 repeat editors and recruited 6 editors. You can read more about it in the GLAM Newsletter - https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/August_2020/Contents/Uganda_report

Wiki For Refugees Editathon

On February 22 and 23 the Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda conducted a #Wiki4Refugees Editathon Sprint in collaboration with Platform Africa an organization working with refugees in Rhino Camp Refugee settlement in Northern Uganda. The editathon engaged different stakeholders from Refugee Settlements in Uganda to co-create and collectively improve information about Refugee Settlements on Wikipedia.

This program was divided into three parts

• Intensive training: Introducing the participants to key skills and tools on how to update/ edit and add articles to Wikipedia for participants of the event
• Edit-a-thon - Dedicating the second day of the program to improving stub articles and creating new entries about critical topics, underrepresented groups, initiatives and putting up-to-date figures about refugees, etc.
• Creating content for upload on Wikimedia Commons including videos, audios and videos to document the life of refugees in Uganda

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Uganda/WikiForRefugees_Editathon_in_Uganda

WikiGap 2020

Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda in partnership with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented through the Swedish embassy to Uganda, and School of Women And Gender Studies at the College of Humanities And Social Sciences, Makerere University, and Internet Society of Uganda Chapter organized a Wikipedia edit-a-thon on Saturday, 7 March 2019 in Kampala which was followed by a WikiGap challenge that run for 6 weeks until 17th April.

33 people participated in the WikiGap challenge, 23 of those new editors, producing a total of 59 new articles on notable women in Uganda.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Uganda/WikiGap_2020_in_Uganda

Wiki Loves Earth

The Usergroup participated in this annual competition, for the second time, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, and the WMF ban on offline public gatherings, this competition was mainly done online. Wiki Loves Earth is an international photographic competition to promote natural heritage sites around the world through Wikimedia projects mainly Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, a project documentation page is available for reference.

Meeting with WisCom

The Usergroup, having been selected to host the upcoming Wiki Indaba conference has held a series of meetings and engagement with members of the Wiki Indaba steering committee, some of the results from these discussions have been shared, and announced to the Wikimedia Community.

1Lib1Ref African Librarians Week

Under the 1Lib1Ref campaign, the inaugural African Librarians Week as a collaboration between African Library & Information Associations & Institutions (AfLIA) and Wikimedia took place between 24th - 30th May 2020. As a user group we mobilised and trained local librarians on what the 1Lib1Ref campaign is about and how to participate. At the end of the campaign, we had at least 3 repeat editors and recruited 6 editors. You can read more about it in the GLAM Newsletter - https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/August_2020/Contents/Uganda_report

Visibility Project

The Wikimedia Community User Group Uganda partnered with Wikimedia Community User Group Nigeria on the Visibility Project/East Africa to improve the visibility of African Women and increase the number of female contributors on Wikipedia. The project focused on a month-long Wikipedia training for women journalists in East Africa. The report of the overall project can found here.