Wikimania 2022/Individual Reports/Meritkosy
Welcome back from Wikimania 2022! Please write your report here. Once you have completed the application, please email the link to wikimania
wikimedia.org (by 20 September 2022). If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email us.
- Username
Meritkosy
- How did you attend Wikimania (virtually or in-person)?
I attended the Wikimania conference virtually. This was my first time of attending wikimania, and it was an exciting experience.
- What did you spend the scholarship funds on?
The things I spent my scholarship funds on include: Family services -$40 Data subscription: $80 webcam and Earphone:$ 60 Logistics: $40 Power( fueling of the generator) there were no steady power supply: $20 Miscellaneous expenses: $5
- Takeaways – choose 3 specific Wikimania sessions you attended and describe your key take-aways per session.
Takeaways I must confess the wikimania conference ( Festival Edition) was full of interesting and exciting moments despite the technical challenges.
I enjoyed the section tagged Don’t cite it, write it. What professors think about Wikipedia. This was a discussion of different professors and how they engage their students in editing and adding knowledge to Wikipedia's body of knowledge. They engage them not just to consume Wikipedia content but also to contribute on Wikipedia. From the experiences they shared, I got to learn new things on contributing to Wikipedia.
Furthermore, I enjoyed the project presentation sections. Where different wikimedians presented their projects. I got to learn interesting things. I enjoyed Lydia Pintcher’s presentation on games, and also Andrew McAllister’s presentation on scribes: wikidata powered language keyboards, which I indicated interest in learning to contribute to scribe and Andrew has been doing a great follow up, sending resources and organizing training to ensure that as many of us that indicated interest to learn were guided appropriately on the steps to take. This has also motivated me to also work on a project I will present come wikimania 2023.
The last but not the least is the session titled' Why do we need online learning platform. Wikilearn is an online learning platform which runs on the open Edx which is a free software, supports several teaching styles, self pace learning, live streaming, gives access to embeded videos, make video calls, has flexible exercises and assessment with other great features mentioned. I got to know that the courses available include: Introduction to partnership building, addressing harassment online, wikimania speaker handbooks etc of which other courses will be coming up soon. It was interesting and educative to know that Wikilearn is a learning platform like Udemy, Udacity, Allison, simplilearn etc. I will personally enroll for a course in this platform and also recommend it to others.
- How did you connect with other people during Wikimania 2022? How did you celebrate at Wikimania 2022?
I connected with people during one of the presentation sections where we have to share our ideas, also at the point when we broke into the social room, I used this medium to network with other wikimedians. I connected with Ngozi Osadebe, Lydia Pintcher, Andrew McAllister who has been of help till today. I loved the different cultural presentations that were showcased. Wikimania 2022 showcased the diversity and breadth of Wikimedia movement. I also celebrated with the people who won the wikimedians of the year 2022, I saw the surprise and shock on their faces when their names were mentioned which was accompanied with happiness and smile on their faces. I was glad that their efforts and contributions to Wikimedia were recognized.
- (Optional) Please share link(s) to your social media post(s) about Wikimania