Hubs/Implementation/Hub Research in West Africa/Interview 5

This page is part of the Implementation Report for West Africa Regional Hubs. It regards explicitly Interview 5

Background

• Date: September 27th 2022
• Duration: 1 hour
• Profile: Wikipedia Editor - User Group Leader (active online and offline)
• Region: West Africa
• Gender: Man
• Interview language: French

Questions and answers

1.What is the mindset for the establishment of movement strategy and regional and thematic hubs?

I think the establishment of a hub is necessary and useful for the region. This will make it possible to implement the new strategies that are being put in place in the best possible way. For example, in the countries of the sub-region we have user groups and these user groups work to create and improve the content of their country in general and their culture. So if we have a hub that works with the region, it will make it possible to harmonize the different points of view at the regional level in order to be able to share information and practices.

2.What do you understand by the recommendations of the regional and thematic hubs?

I think it's about implementing the different resolutions of the new movement strategy within the communities in the regions.

3.What are the benefits of regional or thematic hubs?

Looking at the advantages, I think it's practically the same answers that we will have for all questions . Hub structures did not exist and we are trying to create them to be able to solve these problems. I think that comes down to saying what hubs should do given the benefits

4.Difference between thematic and regional pole:

A regional pole will work with the group activities while thematic is only concern about a given subject.eg: culture, politics, environment other topics

5. How does the hubs contribute to movement strategy and community affiliation?

The hubs will work by implementing the new recommendations of the movement strategy by supporting the user groups and the different communities in their region through innovation, equity, sustainability, decision making specially skills development .

6. Can you give us a specific example through which the hub can achieve its mandates?

By working closely with the various communities in the region. In order to work closely, it will be necessary to first of all identify the user groups, the communities that exist in the region and the people as well. Because in our communities we have groups and also people who work alone in certain countries who are not necessarily in user groups.

7.From your general point of view, how do you perceive regional or thematic hub?

I think that a regional hub would be a working group which ideally should consist of members from several countries in the region and speaking several different languages in the region. Because one of the main challenges of our regions is also that we have several local languages and also national languages that we are promoting.

8.Should the hub be a physical place or place where we can all meet physically? Or should it be an online space where all these communities with these different multiple languages can meet up or should it be hibride? (Both physical and online)

Yes, I think I made my answer clear that it would be difficult to do face-to-face activities or bring all the members of the hub together . To be more efficient I think working online would be the best since it saves time and energy and resources . Now based on the nature of the work or the activities, physical meetings can be organized at the country level. Example : workshop for new wikimedians

9.Should the hub be managed by the communities in the region themselves or should be run by the wikimedia foundation or by both the communities and the Wikimedia foundation?

I think ideally the members of the communities in the region would be really involved. Therefore members of the communities can manage the hub but under the control of the foundation most importantly when it comes to project management .

10. What are some of the challenges you think the implementation of hubs can solve ?

From my point of view there are certain communities which feel less involved in the movement and therefore if the hubs are installed and work well, I think that the work will allow these communities to feel more involved. The hub will also be able to solve the problems of development of local languages, especially in Africa. and valuing the work that is already being done on the continent.

11. Do you also think the hub can resolve internal conflicts between communities and individuals within the hub?

Yes, it is possible to solve these problems of conflict by doing arbitration for example if only the hub is able to work closely with the communities

12 Can you also share with us some of the challenges you are facing in your community?

Answer Yes, language is our biggest challenge because most of our communities are francophone however most of the initiatives in the movement take place in English. Here, for example, the interview we are conducting, 45% takes place in English. This interview could be better conducted if we all speak the same language. The other challenge is also the technological challenge, access to IT tools and connection which is not always easy in our regions. Finally the third challenge is that we are working on our local languages such as Fon, Ibo, Dagonba, Ewe and others. Despite our desires and efforts to develop and make our languages known, transcription problems became a barrier. In addition to that , the problem of the non-existence of keyboards to be able to transcribe on the various platforms.

13. Kindly share with us the challenges associated with the implementation of hubs?

I think the first challenge would be the selection of the representative at the hub level. This is because all Communities would like to be represented fairly in order for them to feel concerned in the work. And we all know for the fact that all communities cannot get a representative simply as a result of the pletoria number communities we have .

The second challenge will be how to bring and connect everyone together around the hub in order to work efficiently so that certain communities don't think they are neglected.

14.How do you manage these challenges?

The first challenge could be managed by involving the members during the process of the selection or the constitution of the teams of the hubs by asking the communities to propose people or to ask for volunteers, and also to carry out votes as we do periodically in our various communities and user groups. To address the second challenge, the established must make every effort and to reach all the communities of the region.

15. Have you considered the pros and the cons of the beninese community being part of two different hubs: West Africa hub and WikiFranca which most of the beninese community belongs to already?

WikiFranca has existed for several years and we have worked with them. it's truly a global movement that includes the French-speaking communities, but despite this we have our communities in our countries and in the region and setting up a hub at the regional level should not constitute a difficulty between the work that is done in the case of wiki franca and the work that will be done at the regional hubs. On the contrary, it will allow us to harmonize our points of view at the level of the region with those who speak other languages and finally to be able to work better within the wiki franca movement which is more global. Thank you.