WikiAfrica Hour/Results and best practices 2025
Introduction
[edit]WikiAfrica Hour is a monthly community-driven vodcast designed to spotlight the activities, impact, and stories of Wikimedians across Africa and beyond. It is produced by Wiki In Africa and serves as a platform that connects, informs, and amplifies the work of African contributors within the global Wikimedia movement.
Programme Objectives
[edit]The programme aims to:
- Share key updates and highlight notable contributions from African Wikimedians.
- Host meaningful conversations with guests and engage live with community questions.
- Strengthen collaboration across the Wikimedia ecosystem by exploring challenges, opportunities, and innovative projects.
- Showcase African contributors and leaders to the regional and global Wikimedia community.
Production Highlights 2025
[edit]Episodes aired in 2025
[edit]You can find them all in this page.
Qualitative improvement
[edit]- Testing New Streaming Platforms: Tested Evmux and Riverside for enhanced streaming features.
- Youth Engagement: Episodes like Voices of the Future: Youth Rising in the Wikimedia Movement highlighted youth perspectives.
- Advisory Panel:** Established an Editorial Advisory Panel to recommend topics, improve format, and enhance production.
- Hosted WAH morning briefings @ Wikimania 2025. (Read more about it in "WAH in conferences" section)
- Showcasing insights from the Wikimedia Youth Conference in Prague through an Echoes segment.
- In support of OEWeek, and following from a successful WikiAfrica Hour episode on Offline Platforms, 3 special editions that provided Demos of these Offline Platforms
- Inviting newcomers and emerging organisers to be guest speakers in WAH episodes, such as In Focus section interview for WLA 2025 which was presented in episodes 46 and 49 and it hosted Hilary Ogali, WLA facilitator, and Dappa Solomon, WLA local organiser who made a big splash in 2025!.
WikiAfrica Hour Advisory Panel
[edit]As we always work to improve WikiAfrica Hour more and more, we decided to establish the Editorial Advisory Panel which is expected to play a key role in brainstorming and recommending relevant and timely topics that will enrich the WikiAfrica Hour, making it more engaging and beneficial for the Wikimedia community. The panel is composed of members with expertise in areas such as journalism, podcasting, communication, and Wikimedia projects. The panel convened one time, in which we collected some valuable feedback concerning the format and the production. They also suggested some valuable topics to be hosted in next episodes of WAH.
Here is the list of people who joined the panel:
[edit]- Jan Ainali : Co-founder of Wikimedians for Sustainable Development. From Sweden. He runs a podcast on his website.
- Sandister : one of the founding members of the Wikimedia Ghana User Group. Wikimedian of the Year in October 2020. multimedia journalist and digital media trainer. WMF staff member
- Donatien : Chairman Wikimedia Community User Group of Côte d'Ivoire. elected, in 2013, as General Secretary of the Bloggers Association of Côte d’Ivoire (ABCI). Professor in management
- Mervat Salman: co-founder of the Wikimedians of the Levant user group. a member of the Conference Grants Review Committee (volunteer) since 2016, and a member of the Elections Committee. Established the Wiki for She user group in 2024 and recently has hosted a vodcast in Arabic related to women.
- Anthony : Nigerian Program Director of the Africa Chatbot & Conversational AI Summit. Host of Africa Tech Radio.
- Romeo Ronald Lomora: Team Leader, Wikimedia Community User Group South Sudan.
- Delphine Menard: a postgraduate degree in international communication and marketing. French lives in Germany. Former Manager, Staff Experience, Wikimedia Foundation
Their main recommendations were
[edit]- Limit the number of guests to a maximum of two per episode to ensure deeper and more focused conversations.
- Improve episode titles and In Focus framing to increase visibility and reach beyond the Wikimedia community.
- Enhance production quality by collecting locally recorded videos from guests and editing them centrally before publishing.
- Shorten the episode preparation timeline, as long lead times increase the risk of guest cancellations.
- Keep the total episode duration within one hour, with clear time allocation across segments.
- Invite more non-Wikimedians to broaden external engagement and showcase Wikimedia work beyond the movement.
Suggested Topic Directions
[edit]Key suggested topics included AI and legal issues on Commons, technical skill-building, reuse of tools and templates, mapping and open data, digital safety, extended user rights, misinformation and disinformation, Wikimania-related insights, and local language Wikimedia projects.
Quantitative improvement
[edit]| 2025 Objective | 2025 impact | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Host a minimum of 10 WikiAfrica Hour episodes in 2025 | 11 episodes hosted | 1 episode each month, just one of them paused |
| Have a minimum of 24 guests discussing their experiences | 38 guests hosted | beside 11 different hosts (as host differs according to each episode's topic) |
In Focus section
[edit]In Focus section in WikiAfrica Hour have developed and been more varied, between inspiring open interviews, echoes from conferences, highlighting some projects such as Wiki Loves Africa and Wiki Challenge, and explaining/demo for tools such as Fluxx. You can find them all in this page, and on this playlist on YouTube.
News
[edit]We kept the news segment which is the favorite for many people. It is a prerecorded section highlighting the most important news, especially the ones that are valuable to the African community. By the end of 2025, we collected and presented 110 news items during 2025. Find them all here.
Lessons learnt
[edit]Challenges
[edit]- Limited access for French-speaking participants due to lack of simultaneous interpretation.
- Internet instability and technical issues (as what happened in episode 49: Celebrate Africa through the lens in which there was an internet issue in Nigeria and the host and some of the guests suffered to join)
Solutions implemented
[edit]- Some episodes we used interpretation like episode 46:Organize, Lead, Sustain - The Power of Wikimedia Bodies (but not simultaneously as the platforms we use cannot support simultaneous translation) and recently we started organising full episodes in French directed to the French speaking community like episode 51 about WikiChallenge Ecole. On the other hand, we do our best to involve the French speaking community in the conversation (as guest speakers or host) even if the episode is in English and they need to be bilingual to speak in English but to raise their voice and have good representation of them.
- We always have a backup plan, and sometimes not only plan B but also C, if the guest host or one of the speakers cannot show up due to connectivity issues. Pre-prepare all things with a clear script available for all WAH team and the conversation host makes things able to be corrected if there is an issue. (we could continue some episodes inspite of the connection issues such as episode 49 & 50)
WikiAfrica Hour in conferences
[edit]Since WikiAfrica Hour establishment, it eager to show up wikimedia conferences. This usually has been done over the years by recording interviews in the wikimedia conferences with some African attendees, then editing, collating these interviews, and present them in the live session under the name "Echoes from conference X". Some times WAH hosted full episodes related to conferences such as Wikimania 2024 in episode 38 last year.
WAH in conferences this year
[edit]- This year WAH proceed on the same track with more evolvement as it hosted morning briefings in Wikimania 2025 which was a part of the official programming at Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi. WikiAfrica Hour hosted a special morning segment titled WikiAfrica Hour Morning Briefings. This 30-minute livestreamed session took place each morning from the 6th to the 9th of August, from 09:00 to 09:30 Nairobi time (6 am UTC) to connect the onsite and online audiences through a dynamic and engaging format. Each day featured live interviews with Wikimania organizers, program speakers, and other special guests. The conversations highlighted the key events, themes, and sessions of the day, while also sharing insights from the previous day’s activities. Link on Wiki In Africa Channel on Youtube.
- Not only echoes from Wikimedia Youth conference were recorded and presented as an In Focus section, but also a full episode organised to host youth and speak up about challenges they face. (Episode 47).
- WikiAfrica Hour was presented as a poster session in Wikimania 2025 in Nairobi.
WikiAfrica Hour Wikimania 2025 Poster. - WAH featured Wikimania 2025 in episode 50 by a conversation between some of the COT of Wikimania 2025 who shared their feedback, challenges faced, and revisited some good memories.
Beyond the live episode
[edit]Many of WikiAfrica Hour spisode had great impact not just in audience, but also in guests and guest hosts themselves, here are some examples of WAH impact which extend beyond the live show:
- Episode 42 discussed the offline field especially in education. The episode encourage Isla (Wiki In Africa co-lead) to host special episodes of WAH "Offline demo series" exploring tools that are used in the offline eso-system. You can find them in Youtube here.
- Episode 43 discussed decolonisation of knowledge in wikimedia and out side it as well. The episode inspired one of the guest speakers Lutherking who reflected on his experience in the episode and in GLAM projects in this article. Moreover, the same episode inspired the guests to collaborate and organise a panel discussion on Wikimania 2025 about the same topic in which all panelist shared their thoughts and ideas and exchange.
Feedbacks and community engagement
[edit]Guest Survey conducted in 2025
[edit]Executive Summary
[edit]Overall, feedback from WikiAfrica Hour guest speakers and guest hosts in 2025 was overwhelmingly positive. Participants consistently described the experience as welcoming, supportive, and community-driven, with many highlighting the warm atmosphere and sense of peer-to-peer exchange rather than a formal broadcast.
The majority of respondents rated their overall experience and level of support very highly (4–5/5). Guests felt comfortable and engaged during the live sessions, and several noted that participating in WikiAfrica Hour positively impacted their visibility within the Wikimedia movement—particularly by connecting them with African communities they had not previously engaged with.
Key strengths identified include
[edit]- Strong facilitation and care from the organising team
- Meaningful conversations and diversity of perspectives
- Effective spotlighting of African voices and initiatives
Recurring areas for improvement focused on
[edit]- Clearer advance communication about questions and session flow
- Technical quality (especially audio and platform stability)
- Exploring more visual elements (slides, images) and alternative formats (podcast, open video platforms)
Interest in future participation was very high, with most respondents expressing willingness to return as guests or guest hosts. Suggested future topics clustered around climate change, gender equity, youth engagement, governance, indigenous languages, and supporting volunteers, reinforcing WikiAfrica Hour’s relevance to both African and global Wikimedia priorities.
Direct Comments
[edit]Overall Experience & Atmosphere
[edit]- “It felt like a conversation between friends hosted by friends.”
- “Everything was amazing—connecting with other Wikimedians.”
- “Great energy, kindness, and care throughout the process.”
Support & Facilitation
[edit]Guests appreciated the clear communication and welcoming approach, though several suggested:
- Receiving questions or role assignments in advance
- A slightly more structured written flow or script for panel discussions
Impact & Visibility
[edit]Many participants reported increased visibility and new connections, especially with African Wikimedians:
- “I met many Wikimedians from Africa.”
- “It opened conversations and expanded the audience for our project.”
Willingness to Return
[edit]Most respondents answered “Yes” or “Maybe” when asked about returning.
News & In Focus Sections
[edit]The In Focus section was generally well received, especially interviews and project highlights. Opinions on the News section were mixed:
- Some found it very useful
- Others suggested separating it from the main recording to improve focus and reusability
Final Reflections
[edit]- “Great project—keep doing the incredible work.”
- “Always a delight to collaborate with you.”
- “Looking forward to future episodes and new formats.”