Event:SICSS 2026 Kenya
The objective of this webinar is to provide information to Wikimedians interested in joining the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya..
This Information Webinar is related to the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science and the related SICSS Research Programme which will take place in 2026 in Kenya.
Representatives of the Research project, from the Kenya Summer School, and from the Wikimedia UserGroup Kenya will attend the event to introduce interested wikimedians to the Programme, and answer their questions.
Please read the context before attending the webinar
[edit]Short introduction
[edit]The purpose of the Summer Institutes is to bring together graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and beginning faculty interested in computational social science. Since 2017, the Institutes have provided more than 1,200 young scholars with cutting-edge training in the field and the opportunity to develop more than 120 research collaborations that break down disciplinary barriers.
In 2026, the SICSS Research Programme will propose unique experiences to Wikimedians.
Called "Wikimedia at Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science", the initiative aims to build ecosystems of collaboration between African Wikipedians and computational social scientists by developing research about the Wikimedia movement as part of the regular annual two weeks Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (information here : https://sicss.io). The initiative is lead by Dr Nathan Matias with the support of Dr Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, both from the Citizens and Technology Lab (link: https://citizensandtech.org/).
In 2026, there will be 3 summer schools involved in this "wikimedia related" initiative, as part of the more global drive.
What is the core essence of this initiative ?
[edit]Summer institutes typically study the types of social data that the Wikimedia projects collect. Yet while SICSS programs have worked with data from Twitter and Meta, there have been no targeted attempts to incorporate Wikimedia into SICSS events in African countries so far. CSS scholars are often looking for detailed, high-quality, and often longitudinal data for research on communication, technology, political science, and other fields, which Wikimedia typically has.
At the same time, the Wikimedia movement needs more people who can study and improve the social processes taking shape within Wikimedia projects, with social science and data analysis skills.
So the idea is that by focusing on Wikimedians and CSS scholars across Africa, we hope to increase Wikimedia studies done in local contexts and languages that are still underrepresented in science and across Wiki projects.
The locations
[edit]To foster such an exchange, the Research Programme will support three different 2026 SICSS events, all based in Africa, to work alongside Wikimedians to enable mutual learning and create impactful research projects. The following locations have been selected.
- Nairobi in Kenya : https://sicss.io/2026/kenya/
- Ouagadougou in Burkina-Faso
- Uyo in Nigeria
The specifics
[edit]Each SICSS event will draw scholars from the regional area and we aim to bring regional Wikimedians to each of them. One or two African wikimedians per site will join the first 2-3 days of each summer school. They would be presenting Wikimedia and the Research questions they have on site. Afterwards, they would then stay available online to answer questions throughout the summer institute, and will remotely attend the final student presentations.
Costs fully covered.
Expectations with regards to Wikimedians
[edit]For each summer institute, we are looking for 2 African Wikimedians to join to contribute their expertise on Wikipedia, the larger Wikimedia community and engage in the exchange with attending social scientists. Concretely we expect Wikimedian participants to
- Attend the summer institutes for at least 2 days at a to be-defined time during the first week of the summer institute, during which they will present Wikimedia, its local community, and potentially research questions that the local Wikimedia community would have that social scientists could help answer. While knowledge of (computational) social science could be beneficial, this is not required.
- During the remainder of the summer institutes, remotely join 4-5 calls with student researcher teams to be available to answer questions (e.g. about particular ways that Wikipedia works, whether research assumptions about norms in Wikipedia are correct, …)
- Lastly, work with the student researchers and institute organisers to produce a blog post about the event experience and how students worked with Wikipedia data.
Webinar Description
[edit]This webinar will allow to present the programme and answer questions from Wikimedians interested in applying.
It is organized by the Research Team.
Presenters:
- User:Anthere from Wiki in Africa (facilitator of the meeting)
- J. Nathan Matias (CAT Lab)
- Bastian Greshake Tzovaras (CAT Lab)
- Dr. Amos Langat, SICSS Kenya host organizer
- Dr Mary Muyonga, SICSS Kenya
- Winnie Kabintie (Wikimedia Kenya User Group)
🗣️ The session will be in English. It will last one hour. The link will be shared 24 hours before the Event.
👉 What do you need to prepare?
[edit]Please read in advance:
- this full page :)
- Research:Wikimedia at Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science
- https://sicss.io and more specifically: https://sicss.io/2026/kenya/
- For reference, last year programme: https://sicss.io/2025/kenya/schedule
After the webinar
[edit]If you are interested, you will be invited to contact Wiki in Africa (a link will be added later).