Wiki Loves Women/Focus Group/Results and best practices 2022

The Wiki Loves Women Focus Coaching programme is a practical, action-oriented, mentored online training programme that provides skills and knowledge transfer. It has been specifically designed to support community leaders as they create gender-equity programmes and drives within the Wikimedia and Open movements. The Focus Coaching programme provides ideas, guidance, skills transfer and mentorship as each Focus Group Member plans a gender-equity programme within their community, and gathers the resources and skills to implement this programme.

Launched in June 2021, the Focus Coaching programme comprises 14 women from across Africa (and southern France) who are committed to a monthly working session of training packed with knowledge to build the skills of the focus group to be community leaders with the digital, community and diverse knowledge of the Wikimedia projects. Since the launch, the Focus Group Members have learned how to apply for rapid grants, build their Wikimedia profiles, plan and prepare for events, conduct a successful event series around a specific focus, and collate the documentation to report on and celebrate their community's contributions.

Background

The Focus Group programme is a programme that transpired under the Wiki Loves Women a project led by Isla Haddow-Flood, Florence Devouard and Candy Khohliwe. The Focus Coaching programme is part of a multilayered strategy to ensure that gender-equity is at the heart of open movement community programmes across the continent. The new strategy is aimed at providing volunteers from within the open movement and aligned organisations the skills and knowledge to make these programmes sustainable and successful. Hence to develop these women skills we had them partake in the #SheSaid Campaign annual campaign. The #SheSaid Campaign online drive was established in 2020 to improve the visibility of female leaders by creating new or improving already existing Wikiquote entries.

Introduction

The Focus Group is a skills transfer and also to raise awareness of and action to counter the lack of representation of women generally, and more specifically on online platforms such as Wikipedia (or Wikiquote). Focused on transferring vital skills towards women and men – digital, technical, researching, writing and leadership – that allow them to access information in order to make up their own minds within their cultural specificity. The group will operate through training, mentoring, online learning, peer-to-peer support.

The first goal of the Focus Group members is to raise awareness by organising local community participation in the #SheSaid drive. When the #SheSaid Campaign took place in October 2021 the Focus Group Members and their communities participated and added Wikiquote entries of influential people women from their countries and beyond.

To develop the Focus Group members skills they had to undergo training consisting of the following aspects;

Coached training : Monthly working sessions focused topics ranging from gender equity in the open movement to leadership skills, partnership development and editing on Wikiquote and well as adding images on Commons, etc
Peer-to-peer support through discussion, both formally and ad-hoc on a dedicated Telegram channel,
Participation in the train-the-trainer programs designed to build gender-equity program within the Wikimedia communities, e.g Wiki Women in Red
Informal monthly meetings to discuss issues, share skills and workshop ideas, mostly office hours. Improve their public speaking and be engaged to participate in conferences like Wikimania and Wiki Indaba.

Focus Group Members (in alphabetical order)

Actveso (South Africa)
Afek91 (Tunisia)
Anthere (France)
ChabbieCee (Zimbabwe)
CMwaura (Kenya)
Cnyirahabihirwe123 (Rwanda)
FaithMwanyolo (Kenya)
Islahaddow (South Africa)
ola.mahadi (South Sudan)
Serieminou (Cameroon)
Sichelesile (Zimbabwe)
Shoodho (Botswana)
Tochiprecious (Nigeria)

Wiki Loves Women's Focus Group activities in 2022

A monthly thematic working session with the group (private recording for group members).
Bi-monthly office hours on Thursdays, we have hosted about 8 informal office hours.
More than 5 #SheSaid Office hours in french and english.
Ongoing Telegram group for discussion.
Application for Rapid Grant to host the #SheSaid drive from Oct-Dec 2022.
The Tell Us About Her ISA campaign which resulted 2814 images being described by 29, who posted 7414 descriptions.

Below is a table consisting of the monthly working sessions topics and overview discussions we did;

Date	Topic / Guest	Explanation / Links	Images
January, 13th 2022	Achievements & New year plan All the members	In 2022 the Focus Group regrouped and reflected and shared lessons learnt of activities and events from 2021. Hence we discussed about what each member would like to take away in the new year and how they envision to develop themselves this year and also share what key areas they may need help from them to reach their vision and personal development as a Focus Group Members. Using a Jamboard, we focused on the following aspects: Goals as a Focus Group member in 2022 Skills you'd like to have (Personal development) Things to do get out of your comfort zone (More of like challenging yourself) Reflect on last year what 2 things can you improve about the Focus Group Programme from last year Link to jam board	The jam boardː Vision Board 2022
February, 24th 2022	How to Translate a Wikipage? Florence Devouard	A tutorial on how to Translate a Wikipage.
March, 10th 2022	The ISA tool and how to create a campaign? All the members	Mainly focusing on: The creation of a campaign (determination of objectives, target audience, media strategy and analyzing results). The ISA tool	The ISA Tell Us About Her campaign
April, 20th 2022	IP rights & #SheSaid Florence Devouard All the members	A training on IP rights on Wikimedia Commons and the She Said campaign.
May, 26th 2022	Program Plan All the members	The Focus Group members voted for the topics and sat the second part of the working sessions plan of 2022. Based on their needs, the members suggested to work more on the following topics: Community building and motivation Ip rights Navigating lack of sources and media representation for underrepresented peoples Balancing Work/ life/ volunteer Community Building WikiData
June, 23th 2022	Community building and motivation (part I) Isla Haddow	Topic focus: Why people volunteer or join a community Psychologically, volunteerism helps people to feel more connected (which in turn wards off loneliness and depression). Volunteering and being part of a larger community: Connects like-minded people to others, Builds self-confidence and self-esteem, Provides a sense of purpose, Places personal or professional challenges within a wider context, Promotes long term planning (activating a possible future). The reasons movement members have joined Open movements The reasons they stay What they need to keep being involved Research: Creative Commons Global Network: A snapshot in time - CC Global Network Community Insights 2021 Report:Thriving Movement Wikimedia Organisers report
July, 6th 2022	Navigating lack of sources and media representation for underrepresented peoples Sherry Antoine & Betty Kankam-Boadu	Discussing the reality of media gaps, how they affect our work, and what we can do about them. Betty shared about her experiences as a broadcast journalist and media activist in Ghana and the impact that has had on her career. Sherry shared her experiences both as a media professional but as a Wikimedian supporting and partnering with key groups to ensure representation of people of colour is kept top of mind. Links from the discussion: From Betty: STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE GHANAIAN MEDIA: PROVIDING EVIDENCE FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND ADVOCACY PROJECT Unmute: the voices of women in Ghana’s media From Sherry: Wikipedia: Representation of African Americans in media Male experts outnumber females by 10 to 1 on Ghana media programmes. We found out why. News On Wiki: Educated information on the news you use by Sherry Antoine	Guest Betty Kankam-Boadu Guest Sherry Antoine
August, 17th 2022	Balancing work/life/volunteer Christel Steigenberger	Main focus: How to do a sccuessful balancing acts as Wikimedians? How can we deal with stress? Exercice: identifying wether things that need our attention are balanced with things the give us energy. what can we do to balance them? Who could help balancing them?	Christel Steigenberger presenting at the Balancing Work Live Volunteer working session
September, 21st 2022	IP rights on Wikimedia Commons Florence Devouard	Discussed points: Licenses Duration of copyrights in different countries Creative Commons licences and protection of copyright Licences accepted on WikiCommons Creative Commons attribution Freedom of panorama & De minimis Use of watermarks, logos and peoples photos Link to presentation	Florence Devouard presenting the IP rights
October, 19th 2022	Community building – part 2 Isla Haddow	Topic focus: Why do people join your community? What brings hem to your community? Who is your community? What are they expecting you to deliver? What keeps me in CC is the possibility of growing personally, and professionally? What brings them back? How do you communicate with them? Link to presentation.	The community building orking session by Isla Haddow
November, 26th 2022	Introduction to Wikidata: Creating items Nassima Chahboun	The Focus Group members had a workshop animated by Nassima Chahboun who presented WikiData and the Mass-Editing. During the second part the members practiced preparing and importing data working on some African Architect Women examples. Main focus: Editing Wikidata manually Mass-Editing How much time does it take to create 100 items? Preparing data Importing data	Introduction to WikiData Working Session by Nassima Chahboun
December, 18th 2022	End of the year party All the members	In December the Focus Group members hosted a party where they celebrated another year together and played funny games.

Wiki Loves Women's Focus Group at Conferences in 2022

The Focus group members were involved in most of the Wiki conferences this year, to present their communitites as well to share their notable experiences and work. Not only but some of the focus group members were involved in organizing local Wikimania events and conferences like Clementine who helped in organizing the WikiIndaba 2022 in Rwanda with her community.

Wikimania 2022

Clementine and Tochi hosted Wikimania 2022 events with their local communities:

WikiArabia 2022, Dubai

Afek and Ola attended the WikiArabia 2022.
Afek did the social media communications of the conference.

WikiIndaba 2022, Rwanda

7 members of the Focus Group participated in WikiIndaba this year, online and in person. Here are the presentations made by the FG members:

Afek & Nonny presented the Wiki Loves Women project, testimonies of the Focus Group members and the #SheSaid campaign. Link to presentation
Florence & Isla run the "Five Tools" workshop, they presented the ISA tool, Stremyard, Hootsuite, Montage and 1Password. Link to presentation.
Tochiprecious presented the Wiki Mentor Africa project.

WikiConvention 2022, Paris

Afek, Florence, Minette and Clementine attended the WikiConvention francophone in Paris.
Afek & Florence presented the WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique project.

Link to presentation.

The Focus Group members at WikiIndaba 2022
Minette, Afek, Florence and Clementine at WikiConvetion 2022
Ola at WikiArabia 2022
Florence and Tochi at Wikimedia Summit 2022
Tochi at Wikimedia Summit 2022
Tochi at Wikimania 2022 in Nigeria

Wiki Loves Women's Focus Group Coverage

The following are the newsletters that have been published on the Wiki Loves Women website about the Focus Group activities:

Wiki Loves Women Drives

She Said

#SheSaid social media campaign

A social media campaign was made by the WLW team and the FG members to promote the #SheSaid campaign. Some of the visuals shared:

#SheSaid campaign bookmarks to encourage participation

To celebrate influential women, the Focus Group members designed the below bookmarks to print and share with their communities.

SheSaid 2022 impact from the Focus Group activities

Wiki Loves Women's SheSaid is an annual drive that takes place on WikiQuote. At the onset of the programme, the Focus Group members committed to apply to the new Rapid Grant system for funding to plan and host a series of community based events around the programme.

SheSaid Grant Applications

SheSaid event activities

SheSaid 2022 in Cape Town
SheSaid 2022 in Rwanda
SheSaid 2022 in Botswana
SheSaid 2022 in Nigeria

Results

Collectively, the Wiki Loves Women Focus Group local activities contributed the following:

Dashboard links	Focus Group member (alphabetical)	Event page	Commons Category	Events held	Pages Created	Pages Edited	Total Edits	Editors	Words Added	Article Views	Commons Uploads
TOTALS				7	909	1216	4,488	141	2,243,200	199,758	733
Wiki Loves Women 2022 in Rwanda	Cnyirahabihirwe123	SheSaid Kigali-Rwanda	Wiki Loves Women - Events in Rwanda	1	289	303	1,960	52	127,000	19,200	20
SheSaid 2022 in Cape Town	Islahaddow & Nonny	SheSaid Cape Town	SheSaid in South Africa	1	26	34	404	9	15,800	738	24
SheSaid 2022 in Botswana	Kolobetsoo	SheSaid Botswana	SheSaid Campaign Botswana	2	68	95	575	17	33,400	5,020	89
SheSaid 2022 in Cameroon	Serieminou	SheSaid Cameroon	Wikimedia Events in Cameroon	1	42	53	269	4	107,000	164,000	12
SheSaid 2022 in Nigeria	Tochiprecious	SheSaid Nigeria	SheSaid Nigeria	2	484	731	1,280	59	1,960,000	10,800	588

Lessons learnt

Feedback survey

In December 2022, the members answered to the annual feedback survey in purpose to improve the activities of the Focus Group.

100% of the members want to continue the experience.
77.8% of the members want to expand the group.
On a scale of 1 to 5, 77.8% of the members rated 5 to the value and interest of the working sessions.
Looking forward 2023, the members would like to cover the following topics:

Governance issues - developing from volunteer group to an entity.
Grants & reports
Community engagement issues
Community organising and keeping meta pages updated
Use the translation system to get organizing pages in several languages
How to start a user group?
Gender equality and steps to ensure that our programs at community level are gender sensitive

What Worked Well

Through the working sessions and office hours, the members learnt how to effectively connect to people and feeling more productive working with their commmunities.
Representation of the FG members in all the conferences which allows them to make more connections, be more visible and notable and practice public speaking.
More engagement of the FG members with their local user groups by taking roles and leading activities, projects and events. Which means a better presentation of women in the African Wiki community.

What did not work well

Some Focus Group Members could not apply for a #SheSaid grant because of the complicated process and reports which lead to less events and contributions on the campaign.
The members need to work more on notability and how to communicate better about their activities.
Internet issues prevent sometimes the members to attend the working sessions.

2023 expectations

Up to 10 new members will join the group
All the FG members will host an AKI - Wangari Maathai/Environment Day activity
All the FG members will host a #SheSaid 2023 event
The FG members will manage the working sessions by themselves (planning, organization, logistics, communications)
More working sessions focusing on the topics suggested
More presentation of the FG in conferences