Hausa Wikimedians User Group/Report 2023

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Editors share their stories of discovering Wikipedia/Wikimedia through our programs at the local Wikimania 2023 event (in Hausa language)

Overview[edit]

Executive summary[edit]

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ausa Wikimedians UserGroup is in the process of implementing our 2023 project funded through the General Support Fund in November 2022. The duration of the Project is January to December 2023. So far we have completed almost 80% of the project and below we have provided some details about the activities completed or ongoing. Some details about ongoing work may change or be expanded as the work progresses. In our Funding application, we have itemized four areas we intended to focus on, these are; (i) content generation and capacity building, (ii) Community building and reducing barriers for participation (iii) Increasing participation and engagement, and (iv) Increasing retention rate. Our activities have touched on all these components and this resulted in creation of over 4,000 articles and additional 10,000 were also improved on Hausa Wikipedia. Over 1,000 images were uploaded on Commons and there's over 4,000 articles that were improved with media-files through contest programs.

There is significant improvement in editor participation in our programs compared to previous year (when we worked with Rapid Fund grants). In numbers, over 227 active editors have participated in the under-listed programs excluding organizers, facilitators and non-editing in-person and virtual events support team. These editors participated in active editing in at least one of the programs listed here. Cumulatively the programs were attended by over 560 people. Our activities have reached far places now and have made it much easier to participate in Wikimedia activities by outsiders due to the frequency of our activities and strategy, location and promotions being done on various social media platforms. During our local Wikimania 2023 meetup several editors shared their stories on how they joined us easily (or what made them stay) after coming across our activities on social media or through friend-invites. Some of these stories are captured in this short video (in Hausa language).

In increasing participation, engagement and media component, we have participated in two international contests with great results. Both contests were preceded by in-person and virtual training which helped in increasing participation because the training provided a needed push and helped editors to more clearly understand how easy and rewarding participation in such programs is. Some editors also were hesitant to participate due to misunderstanding, fear of failure or even lack of awareness that a particular contest is ongoing. We used the pre-contest training to provide them with one-on-one support in addition to dedicated contest information pages tailored to our community participation and members' needs.

The Volunteer Data Support program is ongoing and we have so far provided data support to more than 50 beneficiaries. We have worked in collaboration with two universities to raise awareness of Hausa Wikipedia to undergraduate students through in-campus editing workshops and form university Wikimedia fan clubs to support continuity and growth of Wikimedia activities in the schools.

In building capacity, representation and pool of skilled trainers and facilitator, we have made a significant progress. We organized sessions every other month dedicated for expert editors and prospective Wikimedia trainers and for the first time we have onboarded a female expert editor into the core organizer group. We have also made careful consideration in expanding female participation in all our organized events and Data Support program.

In this report, we have provided a summary of some of these events and the Data Support program. We have highlighted some of the adjustments made to our programs to align with the funded amount as well as some challenges encountered during execution of these programs.

Programs and budget adjustments[edit]

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hen our General Support Fund application was approved, we had to make some adjustments to our budget and implementation plans so as to fit into the approved amount. Key changes in the planning are.

  • We have implemented a reduction in the scope of the Volunteer Data Support program. Although our initial projection was to extend data support to 120 applicants over the course of a year, the budgetary constraints necessitated a reduction to 60 beneficiaries. We however plan for more expansive implementation in the 2024 Annual Plan cycle.
  • We have decided to not hold an in-person Annual General Meeting. While this is quite important to our organizational development and fostering mutual understanding to our diverse teams living in different locations; the minimum cost of organizing it is quite high due to travel, feeding and accommodation logistics from different states. Unfortunately, there’s no reasonable way to reduce the cost substantially. We have opted to continue using online means for the project duration.
  • We have canceled most “Equipment and materials” purchases. Specifically, proposed Camera and Retractable banners were canceled. T-shirts and face caps will be produced in smaller quantities when possible with a program-specific budget. We however retained Internet routers purchase. Limited general-purpose banners were also produced in the general services budget. For event photo coverage we continue to hire contract photographers.
  • Due to the budget constraints and the overall reduction in in-person event budgets, we have decided to reduce the core editing activities from 12 to 10. This also gave us room to organize the partnership projects in a dedicated month and the whole activities spread evenly through 12 calendar months (with exception of contest programs, which were run concurrently with other monthly activities).
  • We initially planned to implement a Video promotion campaign which aligns with our strategic goal of increasing general awareness and recruitment mission. We have, however, scrapped all video campaign activities; production and purchase of related branded Wikipedia merchandise in the adjusted planning document after application approval.
  • We have revised down staff compensations owing to the reduced scope of the programs and individual responsibilities as well as the extent of the project in entirety.
  • All budgeted, program-specific amounts for the final list of activities have been revised down accordingly to fit the approved amount.
  • We have also revised all projected metrics due to the project scope reduction. These changes were all made in the Fluxx application portal and the shared (revised) budget document.

Noted challenges[edit]

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hile a lot of things work well or as planned there are some issues that have adverse impact on the implementation of the project:

  • Resource constraints limiting participation; because of the cutting down of budget for most in-person events we have to limit our event participation to the number of people that we can reasonably cater for. This in turn reduces the number of potential active editors. Moreover, it's often quite a challenging task trying to promote an event, with limited or not very open participation mode in a movement that champions openness and extends welcoming hands to all. We do use registration forms and there's always more people rejected than accepted due to the need to ensure the participants do not outrun our space size and what our resources can cater for.
  • IP Blocking inhibiting account creation and editing. This is a recurring problem in almost all our editing programs and it significantly interferes with the process of account creation. Our programs often are situated in different locations and involve a large number of newcomers who would need to create new accounts. Even returning editors are almost always facing IP auto block issues.
  • We are not able to provide Data Support to all deserving applicants. In internal review notes of the 131 applications received (excluding applications deemed invalid, duplicates), 89 applications (or 68% of the applications received) were recommended to be approved after satisfying the support conditions. However we were only able to support 54 applications (or 61% of applications that were determined to pass the set criteria and should be approved; 41% of all valid applications) because of reduction in the budget allocation for the program.
  • To support functioning of Wiki clubs with partner university our user group needs to be able to provide some level of funding at the initial stage of the project before the club mature and be able to source for funding from Wikimedia or other sources. Currently we do not capacity for that and that impeded progress in this regard.
  • In some of our programs where there are a majority of newcomers involved, like workshops in universities it's often difficult to enroll editors in Outreach Dashboard partly due to the inability to create the account in the first place during the event because of the aforementioned IP block issue.

Editing programs[edit]

Wiki Loves Folklore Photography Contest[edit]

One of the program promotion fliers

Further details on Commons: Wiki Loves Folklore 2023 in Hausa Community


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e participated in the Wiki Loves Folklore Photography Contest for the first time. This is part of the international annual contest which is open to individual editors, allowing them to contribute folk culture media to Wikimedia Commons. We chose Wiki Loves Folklore to encourage participation of our community members in the global campaign and help in documenting media about Hausa folklore.

In organizing the program, we first created awareness about the contest through our social media platforms and encouraged prospective contestants to upload their pictures to Wikimedia Commons under a free license. To support participants, we have also organized in-person and virtual pre-contest training where attendees were walked through practical steps of participating in the program. The program was formally launched on February 19th, 2023 and concluded on March 31st, 2023.

In-person training for prospective contestants was organized on Monday 20th February at Gusau Institute in Kaduna. This was to formally launch the program and also acquaint users with the international program to allow seamless and productive participation from our community. The in-person training was preceded by virtual training on Sunday 19th February 2023 which was conducted via Google Meet to allow more members of the community to participate who would otherwise not be able to take part in the in-person training scheduled for the following day due to distance or other personal issues.

At the end of the contest, the jury was set up to review the submission, and the top contestants were recommended by the jury for prizes. These prizes were awarded by Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup in addition to the international prizes that participants are eligible for. Apart from prizes for the top 3 contributors, certificates were also given to the top 10 contributors for encouragement.

Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos Contest[edit]

One of the program promotion fliers

Further details on Hausa Wikipedia: Gasar WPWP 2023 A Hausa Wikipedia (in Hausa) and WPWP Stats for Hausa Wikipedia


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s part of our photo-related initiatives and to promote improving Hausa Wikipedia articles with media files, we participated in the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos 2023 contest. This is our third participation having previously participated in the 2020 and 2021 editions. The user group formally launched the program in July with three sets of activities designed to increase participation and ensure successful completion of the contest. Training was provided to all editors who expressed interest in participating whether they're experienced or are just starting. The activities for the program were divided into three; in-person pre-contest training, virtual pre-contest training and actual contest activities as well as prize/certificates giving ceremony.

WPWP Contribution stats

The pre-contest training was designed to provide firm grounding to editors and up-skill them in areas related to using media files on Wikipedia. Both new and existing editors were run through series of presentations on how to successfully participate in the campaign, how to handle media files as well as how to find the relevant images on Wikimedia Commons through direct search and through the use of other specialized Toolforge tools as well as the purpose and importance of the campaign in developing and enriching the contents of Hausa Wikipedia. The in-person event took place on Saturday 15th July, 2023 at the Lumilab Hub, in Katsina.

The in-person training was followed by a virtual training on Sunday 16th July, 2023 through Google Meet to provide opportunity for broader participation by our members that are spread in different states and those who were unable to participate in the in-person training for various reasons. Similar presentations were made and questions were answered. Then the actual contest period began and lasted till the end of August 2023. The preparations and training worked well and resulted in significant improvement in participation and quality of contributions compared to previous years when Hausa Wikimedians User Group also participated in the project. In fact Hausa Wikipedia was the second top project (in terms of total contributions) in the global campaign overall trailing behind Serbian Wikipedia, with over 10,031 contributions towards improving articles with media files. After the conclusion of the contest, a total of 4,629 pages were improved by 26 members of the Hausa Wikimedians User Group who actively participated in the contest.

Prizes and certificates for the winners of the contest are set to be presented to them during one of the Hausa Wikimedians User Group's November editathons scheduled to take place in the last weekend of the month.

First Hausa Wikipedia Editathon[edit]

One of the program promotion fliers

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: February Hausa Wikipedia Editathon


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e organized the first in-person event for content editing on Saturday, February 18th 2023. The event focused on training new editors and also creating/improving articles for world capital cities that are missing from Hausa Wikipedia. The event was initially planned to take place at Lumilab Hub conference hall but was later moved to the conference hall of the Albhustan Hotels due to unforeseen issues with the facility management.

The event was well attended and presentations were made followed by active editing sessions. There were parallel discussions on the issues regarding the format, location and sundry issues regarding our future programs as of then which were discussed with helpful suggestions and feedback from our members which we incorporated in organizing subsequent programs. At the conclusion of the program over 130 articles were created and an additional 1000 improved. There were 36 registered editors who participated in editing activities at the program.

The event was well attended and presentations were made followed by active editing sessions. There were parallel discussions on the issues regarding the format, location and sundry issues regarding our future programs as of then which were discussed with helpful suggestions and feedback from our members which we incorporated in organizing subsequent programs. At the conclusion of the program over 130 articles were created and an additional 1000 improved. There were 36 registered editors who participated in editing activities at the program.

Second Hausa Wikipedia Editathon[edit]

One of the program promotion fliers

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: March Hausa Wikipedia Editathon


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his program was organized to create and improve biographical content on Hausa Wikipedia. The event took place on Thursday, 16th 2023 at the conference hall of Albhustan Hotel. The training was targeted towards experienced editors and editors with some level of experience on Hausa Wikipedia or other projects.

During this program 406 articles were created and an additional 1500 improved while making over 2,900 edits on Hausa Wikipedia. There were 26 editors who registered their names on the Outreach Dashboard.

Third Hausa Wikipedia Editathon[edit]

One of the program promotion fliers

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: May Wikipedia Editathon Kaduna


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n May 2023, we organized two in-person events to strengthen editor skills and improve Hausa Wikipedia articles. The first was organized in Kaduna followed by another in Katsina. This event took place at Dome Suites in Kaduna on Saturday 21st May, 2023

During this program, 530 articles were Created and an additional 749 were improved or expanded with more information. There were 29 editors who registered on the Outreach Dashboard and collectively made more than 1,400 edits.

Fourth Hausa Wikipedia Editathon[edit]

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: May Wikipedia Editathon Katsina


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his event is one of the series of programs organized by Hausa Wikimedians UserGroup as part of our annual plans for the year 2023 and in furtherance of content generation derive and editing skills improvement. It's also the second in-person event of May, after the one we organized earlier on 21st May in Kaduna. The event took place at the main conference hall of the Albhustan Hotel, in Katsina city on Saturday, May 27th, 2023.

The event theme was Hausa Culture and was designed to create and improve articles about Hausa culture on Hausa Wikipedia. Participants were also encouraged to come in traditional Hausa wear to further adorn the event. It was attended by over 40 Wikimedians dressed in native attires to showcase the cultural heritage of the Language and elicit. Because there were so many newcomers who had no account or needed basic Wikimedia introduction, the program started with "Introduction to Wikimedia Foundation projects' ' presentation by the lead facilitator, followed by account creation and practical editing sessions.

There was a little hiccup with the account creation process due to IP block so not all participants were able to create an account at the venue. There were also general presentations on Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata, underscoring the ability to leverage their unique contents and improve the content presentation on Hausa Wikipedia.

In this event, over 680 articles were created and more than 1000 were improved. Total 27 editors registered their names on the Outreach dashboard.

Fifth Hausa Wikipedia Editathon[edit]

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Hausa Wikipedia June Editathon 2023


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his event is part of the ongoing monthly editathons carried out by the Hausa Wikimedians User Group as part of its General Support Fund project on Hausa Wikimedia projects. The program took place on June 25th, 2023 at Legacy House, Gusau Institute in Kaduna.

As usual, prior to the event, invitations were sent to members of the User Group, potential editors and other interested individuals of the forthcoming program. Also, pre-event communications were done to outline the chosen topic for the month to be worked on, which is 'Local Food and Biographies’. On the event day, we started by making sure all the computers were connected and working and briefing the participants about the WMF friendly space policy. We then started with 'the General Introduction of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects.' The role of the Wikimedia Foundation on free knowledge sharing, functions of Hausa Wikimedians User Group and its role in promoting free knowledge contents on the Hausa Wikimedia projects and why anyone that shared our values should join us. This was followed by a practical editing hands-on workshop, where first time participants were encouraged to test their editing skills by editing Wikipedia.

During the program around 611 articles were created and an additional 1,100+ were improved by the participants. Total number of 32 editors registered their names on the Outreach Dashboard and collectively contributed over 1,900+ edits.

All the participants were excited about the program. Many of the newcomers exprressed readiness to continue their involvement in Wikipedia editing, contributing to our goal of providing free and reliable knowledge on Hausa Wikimedia projects.

Sixth Hausa Wikipedia Editathon[edit]

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: July Hausa Wikipedia Editathon


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s part of editor recruitment-focused drive we organized editathon in July with special extensive sessions for newcomers who have not participated in our programs previously. The newcomers were introduced to Wikipedia and basics of creating articles on Wikimedia project and uploading pictures on Wikimedia commons. Parallel sessions were held for returning experienced editors who were able to independently develop decent article on Hausa Wikipedia. It also focused on rejuvenating the interest of the members to participate at the various levels of the foundation's activities, by first getting themselves familiar with in the various projects going on at both the user group level and Community Level. The event took place on 29th July 2023, at Albhustan Hotel in Katsina.

At the end of the event, a total of 28 editors registered for the event on the Outreach dashboard. There was special Wikidata training for the returning editors who have not used Wikidata before. A presentation Basics of Wikidata Editing was made and then the participants were run through Wikidata account setup which was pretty seamless as all participants already had Wikimedia accounts and only needed to integrate with Wikidata while logged in another project. At the end of the Wikidata session,all editors successfully registered and practiced entity item creation.

During the program, 1,200 articles were created and an additional 3,600 improved. 28 Editors successfully registered their names on the Outreach Dashboard.

There were a lot of suggestions for more investment in Wikidata-focused programs at the end of the program by the participants.

Seventh Hausa Wikipedia Editathon[edit]

One of the presentation slides used (in Hausa)

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n Monday, 4th September 2023 Hausa Wikimedians User Group organized a Wikipedia awareness and editing program in collaboration with Umaru Musa Yar'adua University. Umaru Musa Yar'adua University (UMYU) is a public university 10 kilometers away from Katsina city. The program took place at the university's main ICT lab.

The target audience were primarily non-editor, so the program focused on introducing Wikimedia to the participants first. There were presentations on the Wikipedia project and specifically Hausa Wikipedia followed by a Hausa language presentation on pillars of Wikipedia and a host of reasons why a student should be involved in the Wikipedia project.

During the program we have encountered problems with IP auto block and so the majority of participating students were not able to create accounts and make edits during the programs.

The event was attended by 81 participants including students and staff. All participants were given branded jotters and pens as well as Wikipedia tote bags.

Eighth Hausa Wikipedia Editathon[edit]

Program stats on Outreach Dashboard: Hausa Wikipedia September Editathon 2023


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his special Hausa Wikipedia Editathon was an interactive training session which focused on creating new and improving existing content on Hausa Wikipedia as well as developing editor skills. As usual, this program is part of the series, Hausa Wikimedians User Group monthly editathons which aims to provide training to our existing User Group members as well as potential editors by targeting a particular topic of interest that was not covered on the Hausa Wikimedia projects so that the community can create them as well as enhancing the existing ones. For this September session, the chosen topic of interest was Geography. So, Participants were engaged in the creation, translation, and improvement of contents related to geography on Hausa Wikipedia during the program. The event took place on Saturday 9th September, 2023, at Dome Suites, Modibbo Adama Crescent, Kaduna City Centre, Kaduna State.

Results from the program were impressive, with a total of 227 new articles created and over 500 articles significantly improved. The participants collectively contributed more than 1,800 edits, showcasing a high level of commitment. The feat was achieved with active participation of 33 registered editors, as documented on the Outreach Dashboard.

One important aspect of the program was the high level of enthusiasm shown by the participants, especially the first time attendees. They were very eager to learn and to contribute to Hausa Wikimedia projects.

Local Wikimania 2023 Meetup[edit]

One of the program promotion fliers
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n Saturday, August 19th 2023 we organized a local Wikimania meetup at Dream Creams Ice Cream Hub, Katsina. This day coincides with the final program day of the Wikimania 2023 conference and the event was organized with a view of bringing the global conference closer to our members and also to celebrate and share the moment together as we did in the previous years. Participants arrived at the venue early in the morning and some were able to watch the Wikimania 2023 closing ceremony and other sessions.

The local Wikimania brought Wikipedia editors (primarily Hausa Wikipedia editors) and Wikimedians together in Katsina to celebrate the work we have accomplished so far and connect with each other. In the event, we adopted the theme for this year’s Wikimania which is Diversity. Collaboration. Future. It’ll served as our local theme and stimulated discussions aimed at increasing diverse representation and to foster more collaboration and look into the future we envision for Hausa Wikimedians User Group

The event was well attended by 26 editors and presentations were made on Wikimania and brainstorming discussions were held. There were also separate panel discussions on the future of the User Group and Wikimedia activities in Hausa as well as presentations on completed and ongoing work that the user group is working on. Around half of the members who participated in the event, this year was their first time attending a Wikimania event at some point in the past.

Members share their experiences and stories as well challenges since joining our user group or discovering Wikimedia. Some of these stories were captured in the video produced after the event: Commons: Hausa Wikimania video (in Hausa). All participants were given free Wikimania branded T-shirts.

Data Support program[edit]

One of the program promotion fliers

For further information see Wikipedia:Hausa Wikimedia Data Support (in Hausa)


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olunteer Data Support program is designed to provide internet data support to editors who are facing difficulties in accessing internet data plans to support participation and community development. After General Support Fund approval in November 2022, we set up the application submission pages, review committee and refined the procedures for reviewing submissions in January 2023. The program was officially launched in February 2023.

One of the fliers used for beneficiaries announcement

The application process for the program is open, wiki-way, and hosted locally on Hausa Wikipedia (Wikipedia:Hausa Wikimedia Data Support). All applicants do not provide anything about themselves beyond their usernames and application statements. Applicants with successful applications however provide some amount of personal data about themselves (after approval) necessary to facilitate the receipt of the support. The data is collected through a custom form in our website (with Wikipedia identity verification) and then stored in Google sheet for the Data support administration as well auditing and reporting.

The program has been well-received by the community and for each cycle, there are more applications than we can actually support. We have received feedback and comment from beneficiaries and applicants on the need to reduce the period between cycles or to increase the number of applications we approve. A number of applicants also request for event support which is more than the program can handle presently. We are planning to expand the program to be able to serve more people and open new opportunities.

In numbers, from the inception of the program in February 2023 to November 2023, we have received a total of 131 valid applications, of which we were able to support 54 applicants after review (or 41% of all valid applications). Out of the 54 applicants, 40 were distinct users (or 31%) and 14 (or 10%) were users who have received the support at most two times (at different cycles). No instance of data support to a single user more than twice. In the approved applications, 13 submissions were from female editors (or 24% of accepted applications) while 76% were from male editors.

Our intention is to conclude the program with the December (special) application cycle, we will then provide a more detailed analysis and assessment of its impact.

Upcoming programs[edit]

We are currently working on organizing two editathons in November 2023. First on November 18th which will be a specialized session for expert editors and trainers. We'll then have a general editathon open to all on 25th November.

There will be a virtual staff retreat in the last week of November and general community meeting in the first week of December.

We will also have an in-person editing event in December with the final date of the event yet to be determined. Final cycle for the data support program will open on December 1.