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African Wikipedian Alliance

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African Wikipedian Alliance

    African Wikipedian Alliance (AWA) is a network of African Wikimedians who are change makers working collaboratively to strengthen information integrity. It is a continental community of African Wikimedians who help combat information vandalism on Wikipedia and its sister projects, by helping to fact-check and verify suspected deliberate distortions by lobbyists, ideologues and other inauthentic contributors. AWA also proactively helps identify gaps in Africa-focused content, especially in indigenous languages, on Wikipedia and its sister projects, and supports the wider Wikimedia community to fill the gaps by supporting edit-a-thons or, in the case of Wikidata, digitization campaigns to build datasets that are of public interest.

    AWA achieves its mission by underwriting Wikipedians-in-Residence who connect Africa’s fact-checking and mis/disinformation researchers with Wikimedia communities. It also provides technical support or digital tools for Wikimedia chapters/communities that are developing resources for topic-focused initiatives around issues such as women representation on Wikipedia, or during the lead-up to key events such as elections by, for example, assisting with digitizing data about parliamentary representatives and election candidates on Wikidata.

    AWA is supported by Code for Africa(CfA). CfA is a nonprofit public interest organization founded in Kenya in 2012, and registered in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, with staff in 26 African countries. It is the continent’s largest digital democracy initiative. It seeks to leverage civic technologies and open data to give citizens access to actionable information, and to amplify citizens' voices, to make the society more responsive and accountable. CfA achieves this by building ‘knowledge ecosystems’, through support for communities such as AWA. CfA also supports a range of other communities-of-practise, such as the African Digital Democracy Observatory (ADDO), the africanDRONE network, the African Fact Checking Alliance (AFCA), the AfricaSensors maker movement, the PROTO digital activist community, and the WanaData women data science network

    Africa Wikipedian Alliance (AWA) Mission

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    To grow a pan-African network of Wikimedians who are expert fact checkers, editors and creators on Wikimedia projects.

    Our Focus Countries

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    While our team operates remotely with a presence across 30 African countries, our physical offices are located in:

    How We Engage With Wiki

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    CfA engages with Wikipedians on three levels

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    Wikipedian in Residence Fellows

    AWA works with experienced Wikipedians as fellows who contribute to its existing projects. These fellows act as a liaison between AWA and the Wikipedia community to rally efforts to update content on Wikimedia on specific core issues. At present the Wikipedians in Residence are focused on climate change and elections in Africa. The WiRs are given a stipend to cover their basic internet needs and to facilitate edit-a-thons. To participate in the Wikipedian in Residence fellowship, AWA observes the following process:

    1. Call for Application: A general call for application put out for experienced Wikipedians with core skills to apply
    2. Shortlisting: Fellows are shortlisted based on a selection criteria based on the number of campaign organized, number of wikimedia contributions to projects, and number of edit-a-thons carried out, experience in advanced Wikipedia edits, eg. meta-pages, experience in the use of outreach dashboard
    3. Onboarding: AWA has an onboarding process which takes about one to two weeks to orient selected Wikipedians In Residence on the projects and processes. This includes:
      • Sending onboarding emails to selected WiR fellows
      • A presentation by AWA explaining AWA community engagements and details on projects and deliverables
      • Adding WiR fellows to AWA slack channels for effective communication
      • Provision of mentors for guidance for the WiR fellows from the AWA team
    4. Training: AWA organizes training sessions in fact checking and use of advanced Wikipedia tools to support the AWA’s. The AWA use acquired skills to organize training sessions for their communities
    5. Quality management:
      • A work plan of deliverables is made available to the WiR fellows to ensure they update their work
      • The outreach dashboard is used to track fellows and contributors' activities i.e, number of edits, number of articles created, number of citation, number of uploads, number of debunks etc
      • Regular meetings with fellows are held to review the quality and state of their deliverables. These meetings are also an opportunity to raise and explore solutions to any concerns in the fellowships
      • AWA’s Wikipedia expert monitors programmes to ensure the quality of work done by fellows meets the set standards
      • AWA involves the Wikimedia team as necessary to ensure that Wiki policies are observed, and programmes are impactful and executed in an excellent manner

    AWA Contributors

    AWA recruits Wikimedia contributors/editors to support its mission in making relevant edits and uploads across Wikimedia projects based on key topic or themes identified. The contributors receive training from AWA on key topics such as fact checking and identifying mis/disinformation on Wikipedia, as well as tools that they can use. The contributors participate in their voluntary capacity and may from time to time receive a small stipend to support their internet cost. AWA uses the following process to engage contributors in our projects:

    1. Call for Application: A call for application is made by AWA for contributors to apply. The call for application is also shared with fellows to share in their networks
    2. Shortlisting: Contributors are selected to participate in campaigns based on their skills on how to edit wiki-pages on identified topics and on general experience as registered Wikipedians
    3. Onboarding:AWA fellows go through an onboarding process to understand projects better and how to participate
    4. Training: The AWA fellows access contributors and provide trainings to contributors through their edit-a-thon sessions/trainings organized by the fellows
    5. Performance review /Quality Checks:
    • Fellows monitor what every contributor is doing to ensure the right guidelines are observed
    • The outreach dashboard which is monitored by fellows and CfA team is used to track contributors’ activities
    • AWA team/Fellows hold meetings to discuss projects’ progress and raise and deal with any challenges and concerns related to projects
    • AWA’s Wikipedia expert monitors programmes to ensure the quality of work done by contributors meets the set standards
    • AWA involves the Wikimedia team as necessary to ensure Wiki policies are observed and programmes maintain a high quality standard

    AWA Community

    AWA is investing in growing the community of Wikimedians in Africa. AWA's community organizes monthly meetups, edit-a-thons, develops online courses, and continental events. The community members are also eligible to apply for WiR fellowships by AWA. To participate in the community, the following criteria must be met:

    1. Registration: All community members should register using this link
    2. Interest in participating in our community events: Be a registered Wikimedian or in the process of registering as a Wikimedian by creating an account on any Wikimedia projects
    3. Location: Be a Wikimedian in Africa or a Wikimedian interested in developing African content
    4. Change Makers: Be a person who is driven to empower and transform marginalized communities

    Our Community Activities and photos

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    • Meetups – Holding monthly meetups whose objective is to empower Wikimedians by training them on how to create and improve contents on Wikipedia and its sister projects with a focus on, fact-checking, and information verification. Meetings target Anglophone and Francophone-speaking countries.
    • Edit-a-thons – Holding bi-annual edit-a-thons/campaigns on specific topics (for both Anglophone and Francophone countries)
    • MOOC Courses – Conceptualizing and creating Wikimedia online courses.
    • Continental Event – Holding continental events on relevant topical subjects on Wikimedia projects and its movements.
    • Fellowships – We offer regular WiR fellowships that focus on cross-disciplinary content development.

    See more photos here

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