Grants:TPS/Icem4k/Wikimania/2019/Report
Welcome back from Wikimania 2019!
Participant
[edit]Icem4k
Outcome
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I am excited to write about my experience at the second Wikimania conference, where I was one of the scholarship recipients under Wikimedia South Africa Chapter. The conference was a great opportunity to network and build relationships with the international community and the Wikimedia projects, and I am grateful for the chance to attend.
During the conference, I spent most of my time managing the quiet space and recording languages with the Wikitongues team, where I was one of the project leaders. I also attended several sessions, but two of them stood out for me. The first was conducted by Woubzena Jifar & Satdeep Gill, which inspired me to create an awareness program in Zambia to promote awareness about Wikimedia and its projects. The second session, led by Daniel Bögre Udell, was about sustaining a language online, and I believe the insights shared would be helpful in sustaining some of the local languages in Zambia.
Connections
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Networking was also an essential part of my experience at the conference. I was invited to a reception at the Swedish Foreign Ministry for my involvement with WikiGap in 2018, and there I met Gereon, who I had previously only known through Facebook. I also reconnected with Fabian, whom I had met at Wikimania 2018. Finally, I attended the African Wikimedians meetup, where I met new people interested in participating in African-based projects. These connections may be useful in building a Wikimedia community in Zambia.
People
[edit]This is a list of new people that i was able to connect with during the conference.
- Armine Aghayan
- Blossom Ozurumba
- Manfred Werner
- Felix Nartey
- Justice Okai-Allotey
- Irina Safaryan
- Anass Sedrati
- Eric Luth
- Vee
- Mehman Ibragimov
- Gereon Kalkuhl
- Joy Agyepong
Anything else
[edit]The photos that i took during the 2019 Wikimania conference can be found here. Some of the pictures of me during the conference can be found here. Overall, my experience at Wikimania was both enriching and fulfilling, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have attended. I look forward to implementing some of the insights gained and building on the connections made at the conference.