Grants talk:Project/Rapid/WMGUG/Africa Open Data Conference

Internet access

I know AITI-KACE to have internet access by default. Why do we still have to purchase, if that's the case. Kindly clarify this. Enock4seth (talk) 13:56, 2 July 2017 (UTC)

Hi Enock4seth, we're working around changing the venue of the conference from the Kofi Annan centre which charges a full capacity flat rate to iSpace which would likely offer us their space for free and could include internet. Sandiooses is also reaching out to MTN to see how they can help. But even so, we want to have an internet backup to prepare for an unlikely circumstance. —M@sssly^✉ 16:58, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

I need clarification to finish up the grant for Monday

Hello Mohammed, Hello Felix, when you are able to, please clarify these so I can finalise the grant. I would really want for Morgan Jue to the see grant by Monday. Sandiooses (talk) 15:20, 2 July 2017 (UTC)

Project Goals

You said: A pre-conference Wikipedia Edit-a-thon will take place on Saturday July 15 focused on improving Wikipedia entries related to feminism in Africa.

On consultation with Mo, I suggest you don't narrow the focus of the workshop by headlining gender gap. We can keep it open. However, when people arrive you can nonetheless profer gender articles for editing. What do you say?

I have no objections, its good to allow people the freedom to work on what would interest them. —M@sssly^✉ 17:05, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

Dates

I see Wikipedia gets the Saturday while Wikidata gets the Monday. I am concerned that Monday, people may be at school or work. Turn out for Wikidata may be low. Meanwhile, this event was specifically targeting Wikidata (from Sadat's first email). Due to the Wikipedia – sister projects gap, I suggest we push Wikidata more on this occasion. You may want to swap the days.

Yes its a legitimate concern few others too raised at our WMCon Meeting last weekend. —M@sssly^✉ 18:16, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

Kat's suggestion

Kat wants people to come and learn including journalists. The Wikidata hackathon really makes it seem like people should have a basic knowledge already. Can we have a Getting started with Wikidata/Introduction to Wikidata session too? I have added it to the schedule but I would like to know.

I see a break period will be followed by mproving the Wikidata item on Accra (Q3761) in collaboration with the Open Street Mapers at the same conference venue. Will you have enough time for now incorporating OSM? Is there something special they are bringing to the people we are trying to teach? Or they are just joining as guests?

We are no longer pursuing a collaboration with the OSM team as our event's location might change to iSpace. —M@sssly^✉ 18:20, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

Post event

You said: A post-event survey will be conducted

Are you sure we can pull this off? After you are tired from teaching? Or later? All participants are not always easy to reach after events.  I ask because once we put it in the grant we must deliver on the promise. Also what information are we collecting? What are we using it for?

T-Shirts

The grants team mentioned to us that for rapid ones, we can't give so much tshirts. We are allowed stickers, pens etc but for the tshirts they are limited. I am suggesting you cut this down to you the instructors, and a few more as prizes for top participants and maybe volunteers who will be helping you.

Numbers

In various parts of the overall communication I see 30 participants and I see 20 too. Please which number will you be going for? W/o the clarity the grants team will have us go up and down.

We are looking at a new venue location that has a 50 people capacity. Our aim is the maximum space capacity. —M@sssly^✉ 18:28, 3 July 2017 (UTC)

Are we guaranteed that number though? I think we should just aim 30. I would strongly advocate for 20 however I am assuming AODC is big enough to add 10 more. The food will go to waste if not careful with our numbers. Sandiooses (talk) 20:25, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

Time

Finally please confirm time for me.

10AM to 2PM both days. —M@sssly^✉ 18:09, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

10AM to 2PM is 4 hours – I propose a coffee/beverage starter and then a proper lunch, just like the post WMCon meeting. This will be kinder to the budget. Sandiooses (talk) 20:13, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

Letter to Newsrooms/news editors to participate

Dear Sir/Madam,

I write to invite your newsroom to participate in the Wikipedia and Wikidata workshops happening at the Africa Open Data Conference from July 17–21, 2017 in Accra.

The conference will also see a presentation by H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana

The Africa Open Data Conference is a place where the tech industry, small businesses, journalists, civic technologists, entrepreneurs, researchers, students, IT solution providers, banks, telcoms, insurance companies, NGO’s, donor organizations, and local and national governments connect to share advances in open data, share lessons, and form new collaborations.

The Wikimedia Ghana User Group will be at the conference to train reporters on Wikipedia editing and Wikidata use. This will help your newsroom to ....

Letter to Newsrooms/news editors to cover

http://africaopendata.net/index.php/media/

Comments from I JethroBT (WMF)

Hi Masssly and Flixtey, and thanks for your proposal for your participation at the Africa Open Data Conference in Accra. Thanks for providing specific details on the activities you have planned for each day. Here are my comments:

• I think it's interesting you've planned to help participants find a knowledge gap of interest that they can work on. I see you've mentioned the gender gap here on the talk page as one possibility-- what other content areas might you be suggesting?
• For Wikidata, I think it's interesting to focus attention on a single page (on Accra). I've seen just a few events do this with a larger group with a Wikipedia article, and they have generally been pretty successful. What improvements need to be made to the Accra item on Wikidata, and will there be enough tasks for ~30 participants to do?

Accra (Q3761) compared to other major cities on Wikidata is poorly represented and I believe there'll be enough tasks to engage our intended number of participants. Beside adding new statements, key properties that really need expansion include Population(P1082) - which presently has only one value, administrative divisions(P150) and heads of government(P6).

• What materials will you be using to teach about Wikidata and Wikipedia? What tasks do you hope participants will be able to do having participated in your sessions?

I'm relying on Asaf's Gentle Introduction to Wikidata tutorial on Commons and YouTube. Participants will gain a clear understanding of what Wikidata is and its objective to become a central fact repository for Wikimedia projects. Essentially, participants will be able to contribute new data to it, identify and create Wikidata items for Wikipedia pages without a Wikidata item, and embed Wikidata data on other wikis.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the proposal and am glad to see the Wikimedia Ghana User Group represented at the conference and educating attendees about two major projects. As soon as you are able, I'd like you to respond to the above questions, but I will approve the proposal as I'm not concerned about your ability to execute the project successfully. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 17:28, 10 July 2017 (UTC)

Hello I JethroBT (WMF), thanks for your feedback. I'll be leading the Wikidata session at the conference and so I'll speak to that and allow Flixtey respond to the aspect about Wikipedia. —M@sssly^✉ 23:09, 10 July 2017 (UTC)