Wikimedia Blog/Drafts/Wikipedia for election 2012 in Ghana
Draft post[edit]
Wikimedians in Ghana started a project to increase editing of Wikipedia articles concerning Ghana's election topics this year, as well of Wikinews articles. The campaign's aim is to help polish Wikipedia articles which profile competing politicians (flag-bearers and MPs alike), political parties and the various voting constituencies. Other articles outside these categories but are notable in the elections will also be considered.
The group wants people interested in this topic to know that Wikipedia, even if encyclopaedia, provides up-to-date information with a neutral point of view, and the external links the encyclopedia provides. The group wants editors and future editors get to know notability criteria espcially concerning politicians, parties, constituencies, and election results, as well as of newspapers.
The project's success depends on how many editors participate, besides hopefully getting some interesting and well sourced articles, and photos on commons.
The challenges the project is facing includes the "difficulty" newbies have with the Wiki markup and the funds to pay for a venue with free and good internet to organise edit-a-thons.
Currently Twitter and Facebook are being used to guide participants on how to edit Wikipedia. Contacts have also been made with political parties and other stakeholders to make available verifiable and objective information and free media especially images to help update articles.
The group is hopeful that with a few days to December 7, they can encourage more people especially Ghanaians to edit.