Talk:WikiIndaba conference 2019/Submissions/Growing and Sustaining African Developers for the Wikimedia Movement

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Hello Eugene,

Thanks for taking time to prepare this session. I've got a few questions around these claims! Retention of developers has always being a very difficult task everywhere and I know this because I've been doing this for a long time, say 3 years via mentorship in Google Summer of Code (Mentor 1x), Google Code-in (Mentor 5x and Org Admin 1x) and Outreachy (Mentor 1x) & Tech Lead for the AWMD program. As far as I can tell, AWMD program is doing well retaining averagely 1 - 2 developers per year (which started last year) and attempting to bring in more developers over time, which is good from Africa.

I'll like to know the following;

  • Where are your findings coming from? Have you been involved in mentorship programs or part of growing developers from Africa to see that the model used by AWMD is not working or should be improved?
  • Do you know the current model used by the AWMD project for developer retention?
  • You said "developer contributions are not noticeable", can you point out a few that were not noticed?
  • When you say developers are not prepared for trainings, what do you mean? Do you mean they're not prepared to attend the event (the training) or they are not prepared to become volunteer developer after the training?
  • What have you done or contributed to the AWMD program in order to bring in more developers from Africa over the year?
  • Do you attend monthly IRC meetings and/or Technical Advice IRC meetings regularly that usually take place to also make a catch?

The reason why I'm asking all these questions is because it's important to not say something is not working when you're not fully involved. The AWMD program is just 1 years old and some months and it's as far as I can tell made some impact (which of course can be improved) and it's an open program for anyone to contribute ideas to make it better.

To conclude, the AWMD is making attempts to improve on how trainings will be done in upcoming countries (internal discussions by the core Team). While retention is slow which there is little we can do about (general problem everywhere), we're also working on making the whole process efficient :).

Also, find some time to read this: Community_Engagement_Insights/2018_Report. It's a good place to get some insights too on Developers too as the survey covers that.


Thanks and looking forward to your responses. --Alangi Derick (talk) 09:22, 22 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Alangi Derick, I don't think the intention to present on the subject is malicious. I think it may be a great opportunity to show some of the insights on how the program is currently run and how it can be improved to meet the growing interest on the continent. It sounds very interesting to me and will like to really participate to learn more. --Flixtey (talk) 18:24, 23 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Flixtey, no one said presenting on the subject is malicious. I just raised a few questions and still looking forward to the response. It's indeed enthralling but would like to see the questions answered. The AWMD core team has a pending discussion on improving the program so this can be useful in the discussion. Thanks --Alangi Derick (talk) 18:31, 23 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]
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