This project sets out to provide students, families and teachers the information on Wikipedia that is required to complete the cycle of primary education in their country, in their language. Wikipedia aims to be an educational tool and it is available online, via mobile phones and offline. Experiences have shown, however, that once accessible, Wikipedia does not provide information that...
This project sets out to provide students, families and teachers the information on Wikipedia that is required to complete the cycle of primary education in their country, in their language.
Wikipedia aims to be an educational tool and it is available online, via mobile phones and offline. Experiences have shown, however, that once accessible, Wikipedia does not provide information that responds directly to curriculum-based questions.
The Wikipedia Primary School project relies on Wikipedia as an existing and growing resource – and solves the need for an encyclopaedia capable of responding to curriculum-based questions. It also fosters Wikipedia content, quality and outreach.
Wikipedia Primary School contributes to universal primary education and to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG2: Achieve Universal Primary Education). Even if it is scalable and international, the project is conceived primarily to address African countries and languages. It was conceptualised by Iolanda Pensa and is currently a research project at the Laboratory of Visual Culture at SUPSI.
WikiAfrica is an international movement that takes place on the African continent and beyond. It encourages individuals, interested groups and organisations to create, expand and enhance online content about Africa. This involves motivating for the representation of the continent’s contemporary realities and history, its peoples and its innovations on the world’s most used encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. WikiAfrica is not owned by one organisation and it belongs to all people and organisations contributing to its scope.
In its various guises and hosted at several institutions (including Lettera27, Africa Centre, Ynternet.org, and Wikimedia CH), the WikiAfrica movement has consistently instigated and led multi-faceted innovative projects. These projects have activated communities and driven content onto Wikipedia. Examples include Share Your Knowledge, #OpenAfrica training Courses and Toolkits, Kumusha Bus (in Ethiopia and Ghana), WikiEntrepreneur (in Ethiopia and Malawi), Kumusha Takes Wiki (Cote d’Ivoire and Uganda) and Wiki Loves Africa.
Over 2016/17 it is working on Wiki Loves Women (in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut), WikiPack Africa, WikiFundi and the WikiChallenge African Schools (funded by the Orange Foundation), WikiAfrica Schools (funded by lettera27), Wikipedia Primary (funded by SUPSI) and Wiki Loves Africa (funded by Wikimedia Foundation).
WikiAfrica was started in 2006 as a collaboration between Wikimedia IT and lettera27, since then – via the support of several organisations and the work of a few people – it has grown to embrace the continent and build communities. It has been pivotal in driving the current contributions done by communities across sub-Saharan Africa.
The projects detailed below form the main backbone of the WikiAfrica movement. They have all been conceptualised, instigated and led by three members of Wiki In Africa, although until 2017 through the agency or fiscal sponsorship of different organisations.
2006
2009
2011
2012
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2015
2016
2017
The organisations that have hosted or are collaborating on Wiki Africa projects include: