Wikimania 2022/Individual Reports/Ibrahim Achiri
- REPORT ON WIKIMANIA 2022*
Name: Lookman Ibrahim Sunday Hub Affiliation: Tamale Wiki Hub Wikipedia Username: Ibrahim Achiri
It is my pleasure to share with you about my attendance, experiences and celebration on this year Wikimania Festival Edition, 2022. Before I delve into the theme of my report, I would like to state clearly the mission of Wikimedia Foundation: The mission is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally. The festival basically took four (4) days from Thursday 11th August to Sunday 14th August 2022, for wikimedians to celebrate contributions of free knowledge with people around the globe. The period of celebration during the anniversary consisted of panel discussions, project presentations and workshops. Wikimedians had the space to attend the festival or anniversary in person or virtually. Ideally, I had the opportunity to attend the festival virtually at the Tamale Wiki Hub at Gbanyamli, Ghana. The Jitsi Meet app which I downloaded also facilitated easy channel for my virtual participation in the event. I virtually attended three (3) sessions from the first day to the last day of the festival edition. First to be mentioned is:
Day 1 (11th August, 2022), Tent 3 presented by Ananya Mondal at 10:00-10:15am on ‘Digital Conservation through knowledge sharing’ where she elaborated on the common aims of digital conservations: to theorize, collect and analyze data, and model and disseminate scientific findings to support systematic conservation; to promote sustainable use and management of natural resources. I quite remember the presenter mentioned about a butterfly of India; Egg of Suastus gremius (Fabricius, 1798)-Indian Palm Bob, A rare live gynadromoth specimen of the Athyyma inara butterfly identified in Wiki Loves Butterfly which is fist record in India and she displayed the images on her screen though at that moment I had challenges with my internet connectivity. In general, what I inferred from her presentation was that, digital conservation play a key role in a wide range of areas, including e-learning, data connectivity and digital public engagement. The second session presented by Konstantin Urbanec on ‘Digital Security Basics’ from 10:35-11:25am on 11th August, 2022. He refreshed our minds on what digital security entails (tools, spaces, habits, trade-offs), online identity, doxing, strong passwords, safer browsing (HTTP and HTTPS) and Two Factor Authentication. What I learnt from his presentation was that one has to be vigilant about his online identity to prevent someone or other entity from exposing his information publicly, purposely to cause harm.
Day 2 (12th August, 2022) led by Haley WMF’s on Wikimania Hackathon. The hackathon virtually took place in our social room meet on Jitsi Meet app. Hackathon is a free, online event open to the general public to work together to technical projects, learn new skills and meet other technical contributors. People from different countries joined the hackathon social room to learn and socialize with others. I met some friends from Nigeria, Benin and South Africa. The knowledge I acquired at the end of the session was purely on the importance of Phabricator, people keep their projects on it. We also had lovely questioning time and some fun.
Day 3 (13th August, 2022). We all gathered in person at the Tamale Wiki Hub at Gbanyamli- Ghana where the program was streamed live on a big screen for everyone to watch. Afterwards the program, we connected with fellow wikimedians by having some fun, playing games, singing, dancing, poetry recitals, taking photo shoots and having some refreshment. That was a lovely day we had. I personally did poetry recitation on ‘Life of a Hustler’.
I benefitted from the Wikimania 2022 scholarship fund by using the money into putting up a structure (building) for poultry farming, since I have a strong desire for business(poultry farming) and the pressures from my family financial constraints. I am hopeful by the grace of God, if the birds grow fully and starts laying eggs, it can generate some income for me to cater for myself, my parents and my junior ones. May God reward you all with good in manifold.
I would like to thank each and every one who in diverse ways contributed to the success of this year Wikimedia Festival Edition, 2022.
Lastly, I say congratulations to all winners who were crowned Wikimedians of the Year 2022 and to everyone for the outstanding contributions to the free knowledge movement and the burning desire to uplift Wikimedia movement by providing more space to everyone in the world. For the 2022 Wikimania Festival Edition being celebrated nicely this year, I am expressed in high spirits and very proud to be a wikimedian. Thank you.