Hausa Wikimedians User Group/Report 2023

Editors share their stories of discovering Wikipedia/Wikimedia through our programs at the local Wikimania 2023 event (in Hausa language)

WPWP Contest top contributors share their thoughts about participating in the contest and contributing to Wikimedia. (in Hausa language)

About Wikimedia Hausa

Hausa Wikimedians User Group (Wikimedia Hausa) is an official Wikimedia affiliate group founded in early 2018 and approved by Wikimedia Affiliations Committee in August, 2019. The group was then formally incorporated as a nonprofit charity in Nigeria in November 2022 with registration ID CAC/IT/192786. Since then, the organization has continued with the work of inspiring and enabling individuals to fully participate in contributing to open knowledge especially through Hausa language Wikimedia projects.

Wikimedia Hausa organizes in-person and virtual workshops, contests and campaigns, meetups and training programs to encourage and educate Hausa-speaking users and communities on the importance of open source, knowledge sharing, access to open knowledge and utilization of Wikimedia educational projects. We also design and implement themed programs and special initiatives that seek to increase participation in Wikimedia projects and reduces barriers to participation of new users.

In 2023, Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup has consistently organized a variety of in-person and virtual editathons, outreach initiatives, workshops, and contests. These concerted efforts have not only brought significant awareness of Wikipedia and open knowledge but also rekindled a community that had been relatively dormant for the preceding five years after the maiden Northern Nigeria Outreach project of 2018.

This resurgence has been marked by a surge in volunteer participation, an expansion of content creation, and a growing appreciation of Wikimedia projects in the region. The successful completion of 2023 Annual Plan demonstrates how our community is thriving and experiencing growth in multiple facets as well as the effectiveness of Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup strategic initiatives and organizational structure’s ability in designing and implementing impactful projects that propel our community forward.

As our membership base continues to grow and our activities reach new places, we remain deeply committed to advancing Wikimedia Mission and will continue to provide an enabling environment for Hausa speaking communities to effectively and freely participate in this all-important work.

Mission statement

Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup mission is to engage and equip volunteers with necessary skills and resources, through editing training programs and workshops, to access and develop Wikimedia educational contents especially in Hausa language under a free license and also share the contents freely with others.

Vision statement

Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup aims to promote access to free knowledge through Wikimedia educational contents in Hausa-speaking communities; inspire and enable individuals to become active contributors in building open knowledge and drive participation in its curation and dissemination especially in Hausa language.

About the 2023 Annual Plan

Annual Report summary

This is the annual report of activities of Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup for the fiscal and project year 2023 which ended on December 31st, 2023.

The report outlines and describes in detail major activities organized by the User Group independently or in collaboration with our partners, from January 1st to December 31st, 2023. This period covers Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup harmonized financial and Annual project year.

This community activities report, which complement the main report presented to Wikimedia Foundation, comprises seven major sections: Introduction, Project overview, Contest programs, Content programs, Data Support program, Other activities and Challenges & Opportunities. PDF version of the report, designed for print and wider audience, will soon be available on Wikimedia Commons.

Introductory sections contain information about Wikimedia Hausa, the organizer of the programs in this report, as well as our mission and vision.

Project overview section gives a detailed summary of implementation process, key focus areas, strategies and approaches used for the project.

Contest programs section discusses in detail, along with photos and visual data, the Wikimedia contests we formally participated in as well as results from that and effectiveness of using such programs as a means to both improve the Content projects and increase participation and awareness to Wikimedia projects.

Content programs section gives per-event accounts of our major in-person events which were organized under different themes as key content drive and community development initiatives.

The Data Support program section contains the summarized report of our pilot Data Support Program. The program has its own more detailed report separately.

The Challenges sections discusses some of the impediments to the implementation of the project and our approaches for remediation.

The report ends with a Concluding Note from the Programs Director.

Annual Plan overview

In our Implementation Plan for 2023, we have itemized four key areas we intended to focus on, these are; (i) content generation and capacity building, (ii) Community building and reducing barriers for participation (iii) Increasing participation and engagement, and (iv) Increasing retention rate. While we acknowledge the amount of work yet to be done, our activities, as described in this report have touched on all these components and many more.

There is a significant improvement in editor participation in our programs compared to previous year (when we worked with Rapid Fund program). In numbers, over 400 active editors have participated in the programs described in this report excluding organizers, facilitators and non-editing in-person and virtual events support team. These editors participated in active editing in one or the other in the programs described in this report.

Cumulatively the programs were attended, facilitated and made possible by over 1000 people. Our activities have reached far places now and have made it much easier to participate in Wikimedia activities by outsiders due to the frequency of our activities and strategy, location and promotions being done on various social media platforms and at in-person external events relevant to our mission.

In increasing participation, engagement and media component, we have participated in two international contests with great results. Both contests were preceded by in-person and virtual training which helped in increasing participation because the training provided a needed push and helped editors to more clearly understand how easy and rewarding participation in such programs is. Some editors also were hesitant to participate due to misunderstanding, fear of failure or even lack of awareness that a particular contest is ongoing.

In the Contest and Campaigns component, we used the pre-contest training programs we organize to provide participants, especially less-experienced, with adequate support to help them prepare and contribute meaningfully to the relevant contest, this is in addition to dedicated contest information pages tailored to our community participation and members' needs which are in the local Hausa language.

The Volunteer Data Support program has been successfully completed and we have so far provided data support to 60 beneficiaries as indicated in the program proposal in our 2023 Annual Plan Application. Owing to the significant interest shown in the program and the limited number of people we were able to support this year, we have decided to expand the program to serve more people, the expansion strategy is already included in our 2024 Annual Plan.

In building capacity, representation and increasing the pool of skilled trainers and facilitators, we have made significant progress. We organized sessions every other month dedicated for expert editors and prospective Wikimedia trainers for tailored training and fostering community resilience. We have also made careful consideration in expanding female participation in all our organized events and Data Support program. Female participation has greatly increased during the project implementation as a result.

We have worked in collaboration with two universities and other mission-aligned non-Wikimedia organizations to raise awareness of Hausa Wikipedia to undergraduate students and focus groups through in-campus editing workshops and also commenced the process of forming university Wikimedia fan clubs to support continuity and growth of Wikimedia activities in university campuses in the region.

Throughout the 2023 project implementation, our programs collectively resulted in direct creation of over 4,000 articles and additional 10,000 were also improved on Hausa Wikipedia. Over 1,000 images and media files were uploaded on Commons and there were over 4,000 articles that were improved with media files through contest programs.

Implementation of this Annual Plan involved the careful coordination of more than 36 distinct activities, a significant increase compared to our previous year. These activities primarily focused on organizing in-person editathon programs, special training for experienced editors, awareness campaigns to new locations as well as Wikimedia contest programs. Each of these initiatives helped in part towards the development and dissemination of free knowledge and collective success of the project.

In-person training for skills improvement and content generation remains the most effective means of achieving our strategic objectives and featured heavily in our line of activities. We have continuously reviewed our processes and plans to make subsequent programs better based on informed learnings, successes and problems encountered.

As we finalize this annual report and march forward to implementation of 2024 Annual Plan, we remain committed to the cause of open knowledge and will continue with activities that proven effective, as well as innovating new initiatives for advancing Wikimedia mission in our region. We are enthusiastic about contributing to the global changes band discussions on the new Movement Charter and the establishment of a Global Council and also excited at what the future holds for Wikimedia movement as a whole.

Contest Programs

Each year, Hausa Wikimedians User Group decides which contest to formally participate among the array of Wikimedia international contests and campaigns. We primarily look for programs that align with our strategic direction for the year as well as the campaign timing fit with our calendar of events. In 2023, we selected two contests which are widely participated from across the world and among Wikimedia affiliate groups. The contests for this year are WikiLoves Folklore 2023 and the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos contest.

WikiLoves Folklore 2023

Further details on Commons: Wiki Loves Folklore 2023 in Hausa Community ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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e participated in the Wiki Loves Folklore Photography Contest for the first time. This is part of the annual international contest which is open to individual editors, allowing them to contribute folk culture media to Wikimedia Commons. We chose Wiki Loves Folklore encourage participation of our community members in the global campaign and help in documenting media about Hausa culture and traditions.

In organizing the program, we first created awareness about the contest through our social media platforms and encouraged prospective contestants to upload their pictures to Wikimedia Commons under a free license. To support participants, we have also organized in-person and virtual pre-contest training where attendees were walked through practical steps of participating in the contest and navigating Wikimedia Commons. The program was formally launched on February 19th, 2023 and concluded on March 31st, 2023.

The In-person training for prospective contestants took place on Monday 20th February at Gusau Institute in Kaduna. This was to formally launch the program and also acquaint users with the international program to allow seamless and productive participation from our community.

Before the in-person training, a virtual training was organized earlier on Sunday 19th February 2023 which was conducted via Google Meet to allow more members of the community to participate who would otherwise not be able to take part in the in-person training scheduled for the following day due to distance or other logistic issues.

At the end of the contest, the jury was set up to review the submissions, and the top contestants were recommended by the jury for prizes. These prizes were awarded by Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup in addition to the international prizes that participants are eligible for. Apart from the local prizes for the top 3 contributors, certificates were also given to the top 10 contributors for encouragement.

Some photos from Wiki Loves Folklore 2023 and Contest training in Hausa Community
Group picture
Event facilitator
Group picture
Hausa royal dress
Donkey rider
Hausa royal dress
Okorosha Dance
Hausa traditional dress
Owu festival participants

Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos 2023

Further details: Gasar WPWP 2023 A Hausa Wikipedia (in Hausa) ● Hashtag tool: Hausa WPWP Stats ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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s part of our photo-related initiatives and to promote improving Hausa Wikipedia articles with media files, we participated in the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos 2023 contest. This is our third participation having previously participated in the 2020 and 2021 editions. The user group formally launched the program in July with clear plans designed to increase participation and ensure successful completion of the contest.

Training was provided to all editors who expressed interest in participating whether they're experienced or are just starting. The activities for the program were divided into three; in-person pre-contest training, virtual pre-contest training and actual contest activities as well as prize/certificates giving ceremony after the contest conclusion.

The pre-contest training was designed to provide firm grounding to editors and up-skill them in areas related to using media files on Wikipedia. Editors were run through series of presentations on how to successfully participate in the campaign, how to handle media files as well as how to find the relevant images on Wikimedia Commons through direct search and through the use of other specialized Toolforge tools as well as the importance of the contest in developing and enriching the textual contents of Hausa Wikipedia.

Similar presentations from the in-person training were made and questions were answered. Then the actual contest period began and lasted till the end of August 2023. The preparations and training worked well and resulted in a significant improvement in participation and quality of contributions compared to previous years when Hausa Wikimedians User Group also participated in the project. The in-person training event took place on Saturday 15th July, 2023 at the Lumilab Hub, in Katsina and was immediately followed by a virtual training on Sunday 16th July, 2023 through Google Meet to provide opportunity for broader participation by our members that are spread in different states and distant locations as well as those who were unable to participate in the in-person training for various reasons.

Pictures from in-person pre-contest training for Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos contest
Cross section of participants
Group picture
Lead facilitator presenting
Participant
Participants
Participants

At the end of the campaign, Hausa Wikipedia was the second top project in terms of total contributions in the global campaign overall trailing behind Serbian Wikipedia, with over 10,000 contributions towards improving articles with media files. After the conclusion of the contest, a total of 4,629 pages were improved by 26 members of the Hausa Wikimedians User Group who actively participated in the contest. Prizes and certificates for the winners of the contest were later presented to the top contributors in Katsina in November, 2023. Consolation prizes were also given for encouragement. Additionally winners got Wikipedia branded T-shirts, jotters and tote bags.

Certificates and prizes presentation to top 5 contributors
First prize winner
Second prize winner
Third prize winner
Fourth place winner
Fifth place winner

Content and Outreach Programs

In content creation, with our primary focus being Hausa Wikipedia, we have organized more than dozen in-person article editing programs collectively with attendance from over 300 active editors and created more than 4,000 articles. Equally more than 10,000 articles were improved or translated in copyediting and translation drives to increase the quality and coverage of existing articles. These programs took place in various locations in 2023.

Focus on Capital Cities Coverage

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Event Dashboard ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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e organized the first in-person event for content editing as part of the 2023 Annual Plan on Saturday, February 18th 2023. We were not able to began our offline and in-person programs earlier due to some delay beyond our control at the time. The program was initially planned to take place at Lumilab Hub conference hall but was later moved to the conference hall of the Albhustan Hotel due to unforeseen issues with the former facility’s management, this late change a few days to the event made some intending participants to miss the event.

The event was well attended and more presentations were made by individuals after the end of the editing sessions. There were parallel discussions on the issues regarding the format, location and sundry issues regarding our future programs as of then which were discussed with helpful suggestions and feedback from our members which we incorporated in organizing subsequent programs. At the conclusion of the program over 130 articles were created and an additional 1000 improved. There were 36 registered editors who participated in editing activities at the program.

This event being the first in the cycle, began with introductory speeches about Wikimedia and its projects as well Hausa WIkimedians UserGroup mission and our plans for the year. The editing session of the event focused on training new contributors basics of editing and also creating and improving articles for world capital cities that are missing from Hausa Wikipedia.

Female participants
Cross section of participants
Editor looks on
Group picture
Introduction session presentation
Facilitator flanked by editors

Better Biographical Content

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Event Dashboard ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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n continuation of our core editing programs, we organized an in-person event in March to create and improve biographical content on Hausa Wikipedia. The theme of the event was Better Biography and took place on Thursday, 16th March at the conference hall of Albhustan Hotel.

This training was specifically targeted towards experienced editors and contributors with some level of experience on Hausa Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects. The event proved successful, as participants created and improved hundreds of biographical content article on Hausa Wikipedia.

Before the editing sessions, the lead facilitator made slide presentations on essential aspects of Wikipedia biography writing, including issues such as notability requirement, sourcing, and all-important requirement of writing in neutral perspective. The participating contributors also shared their insights and unique approaches in researching topics and writing on wiki. This event format was quite helpful in fostering a collaborative learning environment and helped with real-time editing and article improvement exercises. As most participants already knew their way on wiki, they were let to find and write any biography content after resuming from presentation break.

During this program editing sessions, about 406 articles were created and an additional 1500 improved while making over 2,900 edits on Hausa Wikipedia. There were about 26 editors who registered their names on the Outreach Dashboard.

Facilitator making a point
Providing support
Providing support
Participants
Group picture
Editing session

Fix the Culture Content Gap

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Event Dashboard ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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his is our second in-person general editathon in the month of May, 2023 which was in furtherance of content generation drive on specific topics identified as well as continuous improvement editing of skills of exisiting editors and new budding contributors.

Despite Wikipedia Hausa being in Hausa language, we observed that there was a dearth of Hausa culture content, though not very surprising giving the overall size of the project. Nonetheless, this event was organized to address that. The theme of the month was simply Hausa Culture and was designed to create, raise awareness and improve articles about Hausa culture on Hausa Wikipedia.

For empirical emphasis, participants were also encouraged to put on traditional Hausa wear to further adorn the event. It was attended by over 40 Wikimedians dressed in native attires to showcase the cultural heritage of the language and make the event more lively. Because there were so many newcomers who had no account or needed basic Wikimedia introduction, the program started with our Introduction to Wikimedia projects presentation by the lead facilitator, followed by account creation for users and practical editing sessions.

The event which took place at the main conference hall of the Albhustan Hotel, in Katsina city on Saturday, May 27th, 2023 leads to creation of around 680 articles as well as many more that were improved. By the end of the event, a total of 27 editors registerred their names on the Outreach dashboard.

Editing with mobile
Cross section of participants
Group picture
Presenting gifts to prolific editors
Cross section of participants
Facilitators

Mix of Local Food & Biographies

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Event Dashboard ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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n the second event for the month of June, the theme was Local Food and Biographies. The theme was chosen to encourage creation and improvement of articles about local dishes and delicacies as well as biographies. The two unrelated topics were used to highlight the approaches of Wikimedia editors in handling variety of topics and subtle guidelines that may be applicable to some specific topics such as biographies of living people.

For newcomers, there were basic presentations such as 'the General Introduction of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects.' The role of the Wikimedia Foundation on free knowledge sharing, functions of Hausa Wikimedians User Group and its role in promoting free knowledge contents on the Hausa Wikimedia projects and why anyone that shared our values should join us. This was followed by a practical editing hands-on workshop, where first time participants were encouraged to test their editing skills by editing Wikipedia.

The in-person program took place on June 25th, 2023 at Legacy House, Gusau Institute in Kaduna. During the program, around 611 articles were created and an additional 1,100+ were improved by the participants. Total number of 32 editors registered their names on the Outreach Dashboard and collectively contributed over 1,900+ edits.

All the participants were excited about the program. Many of the newcomers expressed readiness to continue their involvement in Wikipedia editing, contributing to our goal of providing free and reliable knowledge on especially Wikimedia projects in Hausa.

Cross section of participants
Editing session in progress
Female group picture
Group picture
During presentation
Participants look on

A Mix of Wikipedia & Wikidata

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Event Dashboard ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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s part of editor recruitment-focused drive we organized editathon in July with extensive sessions for newcomers who have not participated in our programs previously. The newcomers were introduced to Wikipedia and basics of creating articles on Wikimedia project and uploading pictures on Wikimedia commons. Parallel sessions were held for returning experienced editors who were able to independently develop decent article on Hausa Wikipedia.

The event, which took place on 29th July 2023, at Albhustan Hotel in Katsina, also focused on rejuvenating the interest of our members to participate at the various levels of the Wikimedia movement’s activities, by re-introducing them to the various projects and contests going on at movement’s global level such as the all-important discussions on Movement Charter and recurring contests on Wikimedia Commons.

Additionally, there was Wikidata training for the returning editors who have not used Wikidata before. A presentation on Basics of Wikidata Editing was made and then the participants were run through Wikidata account setup which was pretty seamless as all participants already had Wikimedia accounts and only needed to integrate with Wikidata while logged in another project. At the end of the Wikidata session, all editors successfully registered and practiced entity item creation.

During the program, 1,200 articles were created and an additional 3,600 improved. 28 Editors successfully registered their names on the Outreach Dashboard. A total of 28 editors registered for the event on the Wikimedia Outreach dashboard.

Facilitator
Editing session
Cross-section of participants
Editing session
Participant
Editing session
Facilitator

Awareness Project at UMYUK

Files on Commons: Event photos

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n Monday, 4th September 2023 Hausa Wikimedians User Group organized a Wikipedia awareness and editing program at Umaru Musa Yar'adua University. The institution is a public university in the Northern state of Katsina. The program took place at the university's main ICT lab.

As an outreach and awareness project, the main purpose was to raise more awareness about the Wikipedia editing process to students and staff and also explain the role of local affiliates like ours in furthering Wikimedia's mission in our base. The target audience was primarily non-editors and people who are unfamiliar with Wikipedia or its editing community, so the first component of the program focused on the very basics in introducing Wikimedia to the participants.

In the afternoon session after break and Wikipedia account creation, participants were introduced to the basics of Wiki Markup and simple article creation. Participants also practiced editing with support of facilitators and event support team.

In all, there were various presentations on the Wikipedia project and specifically Hausa Wikipedia followed by a Hausa language presentation on pillars of Wikipedia and a host of reasons why a student should be involved in the Wikipedia project. The presentations were made in both Hausa and English.

We have encountered some problems with IP auto block during account creation during the program. Many participants were not able to create accounts on the spot due to the block, alternate arrangements were however made to create some accounts through Outreach Dashboard after the program by the organizers and for other attendees to create their own when they could.

The event was attended by more than 80 participants including students and staff of the university. Participants were given souvenirs of jotters, pens and Wikipedia tote bags after the event.

Session prep
Elated participants
Participant
Group picture
Session in progress
Program support team

A Day to Focus on Geography

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Event Dashboard ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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his is Hausa Wikipedia Editathon which was organized as an interactive training session which focused on creating new and improving existing content on Hausa Wikipedia as well as developing editor skills. As usual, this program is part of the series of our monthly editathons which aims to provide training to our existing User Group members as well as potential editors by targeting a particular topic of interest that was not covered on the Hausa Wikimedia projects so that the community can create them as well as enhancing the existing ones.

For this session, the chosen topic of interest was Geography. So, Participants were engaged in the creation and improvement as well as translation of contents related to geography on Hausa Wikipedia during the program. The event took place on Saturday 9th September, 2023, at Dome Suites, Modibbo Adama Crescent, Kaduna City Centre, Kaduna State.

Results from the program were impressive, with a total of 227 new articles created and over 500 articles significantly improved. The participants collectively made more than 1,800 edits, showcasing a high level of commitment. The feat was achieved with active participation of 33 registered editors, as documented on the Outreach Dashboard. One important aspect of the program was the high level of enthusiasm shown by the participants, especially the first time attendees.

The newcomers were given adequate support through answering their direct questions and also were pointed to multiple online resource materials for Wikimedia beginners.

Lead facilitator presenting
Explaining a point...
Group picture after the program
Session ongoing
Cross section of participants
Providing support to editor

Nigerian Scientists & Writers

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Event Dashboard ● Files on Commons: Event photos

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he theme for the month of November was Nigerian Writers and Scientists on Hausa Wikipedia. So this editathon program was organized to create new articles and improve existing ones about Nigerian writers, scientists (mostly Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Science) as well as some academic administrators. There were also a small parallel session for experienced editors dedicated to article creation specifically about Nigerian women academics and scientists. Accomplished career women in general have a very low coverage on Hausa Wikipedia and sessions like this move us an inch closer to addressing that issue.

During the program, more than 500 articles were created and around 1,700 were edited. Collectively, participating editors made more than 2,000 edits and improved many more articles related to the theme. Experienced editors and facilitators provided support with account creation and editing to the newcontributors during live editing sessions.

Part of side activities of the event was the presentation of certificates, prizes and awards to two categories of people. First, some certificates from our September collaboration project at Umaru Musa Yar'adua University that were not ready then were presented. There were also prizes of Wikipedia merchandise that were presented to the top participants of the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos contest that was organized earlier by Wikimedia Hausa between July and August 2023. This program took place on Saturday, November 25th, 2023 at the conference hall of M.A Digital Consult in Katsina.

A section of participants
Cross section of participants
Cross section of participants
Cross section of participants
Group picture after the program

Local Wikimania 2023 Meetup

Files on Commons: Event photos

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n Saturday, August 19th, 2023 we organized a local Wikimania meetup at Dream Creams Ice Cream Hub in Katsina city. This day coincides with the final program day of the Wikimania 2023 conference and the event was organized with a view of bringing the global conference closer to our members and also to celebrate and share the moment together as we did in the previous years. Participants arrived at the venue early in the morning and some were able to watch the Wikimania 2023 closing ceremony and other sessions.

This local Wikimania watch party brought many Wikimedians, primarily Hausa Wikipedia editors, and other Wikimedians together to celebrate the work we have accomplished so far and connect with each other. The party was also invaluable in connecting our growing local community with the global community and other fellow Wikimedians from different parts of the world.

This is the second year we are organizing a local Wikimania meetup and the participants are diverse. Among the participants, for almost 50% this is their first time participating in any Wikimania activity, and around 20% were new contributors to Wikimedia projects. In this event, we adopted the theme for this year’s Wikimania which is Diversity. Collaboration. Future. It served as our local theme and stimulated discussions aimed at increasing diverse representation in our local events, activities and brainstorming on the kind of future we envision for the Usergroup and Hausa community at large.

Hausa post-Wikimania video

The event was well attended by more than 30 editors and presentations were made on Wikimania and community discussions were held. There were also separate panel discussions on the future of the User Group and Wikimedia activities in Hausa as well as presentations on completed and ongoing work that the user group is working on. Around half of the members who participated in the event, this year was their first time attending a Wikimania event at some point in the past.

The occasion was also used for participants to share their experiences and unique stories as well challenges since joining our user group or discovering Wikimedia. Some of these stories were captured in the video produced after the event which was made available on Commons. All participants were given free Wikimania branded T-shirts during the program. The event ended successfully late in the day and was full of fun and wiki-spirit of friendship and collaboration.

Cross section of participants
Participants
Group picture
Setting the stage...
Some facilitators

Data Support program

For further information see Wikipedia:Hausa Wikimedia Data Support (in Hausa) ● Grantee portal: wikimediahausa.org ● Report: Data Support Report

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Volunteer Data Support program is a special program designed to provide internet data support, through a lightweight process, to editors who are facing difficulties in purchasing or subscribing to internet data plans to support participation and community development. The idea of Data Support program began in early 2022 when we did comprehensive impact assessment our activities as part of preparatory steps for starting Annual Plan project later in the year. The evaluation highlighted several challenges impeding community growth, including editor retention, the exorbitant cost of internet subscriptions, in our locality as well as the need for effective incentives to sustain engagement in an emerging community.

In conceptualizing the program, we understudied many similar active and defunct programs and chose the Indian (Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge) CIS-2K Internet Support model for a more indepth look. We eventually modeled ours based on that with some adjustments and modifications.

To initiate the pilot phase outlined in the 2023 Annual Plan, the program subteam undertook a series of preparatory steps in December 2022 and January 2023. The work involved the development of comprehensive application submission pages on wiki and the establishment of a review committee and defining the evaluation criteria to ensure a fair and transparent process. The program was officially launched in February 2023 with a virtual kickoff event. This event served as a means to introduce the program's objectives, eligibility criteria, and application guidelines to community members.

The application process for the program is open, wiki-way, and hosted locally on Hausa Wikipedia (Wikipedia:Hausa Wikimedia Data Support). All applicants do not provide anything about themselves beyond their usernames and application statements which are generally in the local Hausa language. Applicants with successful applications however provide some amount of personal data about themselves (after approval) necessary to facilitate the receipt of the support cash. The data is collected through a custom form in our website; wikimediahausa.org (with Wikipedia identity verification) and then stored in Google sheet for the Data support administration as well auditing and reporting.

The program has been well-received by the community and for each cycle, there were more applications than the program can actually support. We have received feedback and comment from beneficiaries and applicants on the need to reduce the period between cycles or to increase the number of applications we approve. A number of applicants also request for a larger support which is more than the program can handle in 2023. In the 2024 Annual Plan, we incorporated some of the feedback received and expanded the program to support more beneficiaries by more than 60% of total in 2023.

In numbers, across all the five rounds of the program, we received a a total of 181 valid applications, of which we were able to support 60 applicants after review (or 33% of all valid applications) per the program and budget constraints. In the approved applications, 16 submissions were from female editors (or 27% of accepted applications) while the remaining 73% were from male editors.

A more detailed report of the program is available on Wikimedia Commons.

Challenges and opportunities

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hile a lot of things worked well or as planned there are some issues that have a negative impact on the implementation of the project.

We faced intermittent challenges with IP Blocking which inhibits account creation and editing. This is a recurring problem in almost all our editing programs and it significantly interferes with the process of account creation. Our programs often are situated in different locations and involve a large number of newcomers who would need to create new accounts.
We were not able to provide Data Support to all deserving applicants as envisioned in the original proposal because of reduction in the budget allocation for the program and the attendant changes in the overall program. Notwithstanding that, the program was very effective in the limited form it was implemented and is among the components we retained for the 2024 project. We also expanded the program through reviewing other components and resources reallocation.
To support functioning of Wiki clubs with partner universities and colleges, our UserGroup needs to be able to provide some level of funding at the initial stage of the project before the community takes off the ground and be able to source for funding from Wikimedia or other external sources independently. During this project implementation we were not able to do that and limited our expansion goals and prevent actual progress in wiki clubs formation in campuses.
In some of our programs where there are a majority of newcomers involved, like workshops in universities it's often difficult to enroll editors in Outreach Dashboard partly due to the inability to create the Wikipedia accounts in the first place during the event because of the aforementioned IP block issue. Failure to be able to properly create mass accounts during such programs leads to potential editors loss and inhibits community growth. We have used several approaches to mitigate the problem such as creating accounts before the event where possible and guiding users to create one individually post-event.

Concluding note

At Hausa Wikimedians User Group, we strongly believe that active engagement in the process of creation, curation, dissemination, and preservation of freely accessible and reliable knowledge is a noble cause and remains the cornerstone of our community’s existence. For us, it’s also very important working in collaboration with other Wikimedia communities and organizations across cultures and geographies in furthering the Wikimedia free knowledge mission.

Our participation in the global Wikimedia community as well as collaboration with Wikimedia and external organizations that have goals similar to ours helped greatly in the success of this project. We are glad to be able to work with all of them to contribute a little to the Wikimedia movement's overarching goals and vision.

Implementing this project involved some 1,000 persons, thousands of person-hours, four external organizations, several Wikimedia affiliates and scores of organizers and facilitators who participated in in-person and virtual events, special programs and contests and helped in one way or the other to make them possible.

We would like to thank all those involved. Also we would like to express our sincere appreciation to the hundreds of dedicated volunteers and support team, too numerous to mention, who contributed to our cause, supported us, or took part in our events through this period.

We extend our gratitude to the Wikimedia Foundation and its Community Resources team, for their invaluable support throughout the implementation of this project.

Thank you. Mun gode.

Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup

Wikimedia Hausa |

wikimediahausa.org