Wikimedia Usergroup Nigeria, Abuja Network/WikiGap Training and Editathon IWD2023

Wiki Gap: Closing the Internet Gender Gap

Background

As part of the lineup of activities to mark the International Women’s Day (IWD), the French Embassy in Nigeria and the French Institute in Nigeria collaborated with the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria (WUGN) and its Abuja Network to host the Wiki Gap event to close the internet gender gap, particularly for Nigerian women in STEM which resonates with the theme of the IWD celebration.

The Wiki Gap event, which was a Wikipedia Training and Edit-a-Thon, introduced participants to the Wikimedia community and trained new and old editors on how to edit on Wikipedia, and closed the event with the launch of the Wiki Gap edit-a-thon for participants to remotely create and/or improve and/or even translate profiles and articles about notable women in various fields in Nigeria with focus on women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This underscores our goal to align with the global celebration of the International Women’s Day with the theme, ‘DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’ #EmbraceEquity #IWD2023 #WikiGap

The Wiki Gap Event also aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDGs 5, 8, 10 and 17 as proposed.

Activity

The project activity held for a little above the planned 4-hour training and edit-a-thon and continues with the remote edit-a-thon that will close at the end of the month of March, rewarding editors with the highest contributions with prizes. The event hosted a brief opening session with welcome remarks from the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria President and the Abuja Network Coordinator, and the Deputy Director of the French Institute in Nigeria (IFN) delivered the welcome remarks for the French Embassy and the French Institute. Next, the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria President and Vice President took turns introducing participants to the Wikipedia Community and how to edit on Wikipedia.

Duration

As proposed, the training and edit-a-thon held on Saturday, March 11th 2023, as part of the IFN’s activities to mark the International Women’s Day.

Objectives

The proposed objectives were met.

Proposed Objective 1 - To build a safe space for Wikimedia editors to connect, share, learn, network, and collaborate.

Achieved Objective 1 - Although we had to work in a tight space, the collaboration with the French Embassy and the French Institute provided us with the opportunity to create a safe space for the participants to connect, share, learn, network and collaborate.

Proposed Objective 2 - To increase the digital gender balance by including profiles and articles about Nigerian women in STEM on Wikipedia and other sister projects.

Achieved Objective 2 - The focus of the Wikipedia training and editing on Wikipedia was Women. The examples used in the training session were women, and participants were challenged to focus their Wikipedia edits on women to mark the International Women’s Day and the WikiGap campaign.

Proposed Objective 3 - To promote the campaign for women and girls in STEM in alignment with the International Women’s Day campaign DigitALL.

Achieved Objective 3 - The WikiGap editathon challenged participants to focus their Wikipedia edits on women in STEM in Nigeria and around the world. Although, an exception will be made for edits on women in other fields. It is just important that the edits are about women to mark the IWD celebration and the WikiGap campaign.

Beneficiaries and Output

This project promoted strong cooperation between the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria Abuja Network and the French Institute in Nigeria. Two (2) representatives of the Wikimedia Nigeria User Group attended from Lagos and led the training and edit-a-thon. This cooperation was significant and further promoted the visibility of the event, including promotion in the global community to highlight the Wiki Gap event hosted to increase digital visibility of women in Nigeria, particularly women in STEM. The training and edit-a-thon was streamed live on Zoom and YouTube and also promoted on our social media platforms to strengthen the visibility of the project and the cooperation that organized the Wiki Gap event.

The proposed beneficiaries and output of the project were achieved with 27 people in attendance including new editors and some Wikimedia editors who had never attended a physical Wikimedia event in Abuja. All the participants were introduced to the Wikimedia community, to editing on Wikipedia and supported to contribute to increasing the profiles and articles about Nigerian women in STEM on Wikipedia.

Budget

As agreed, the project was implemented with co-shared budget from all the partners; The French Institute hosted the event at the Institute and provided internet coupons to provide internet to most of the attendees. The Institute also provided the lunch meal for the participants. The Wikimedia User Group Nigeria Leaders travelled to Abuja from Lagos and were accommodated and fed themselves on their budget, including transporting themselves within the city as well. And the WUGN Abuja Network leaders brought the equipment for the meeting – the projector and screen, some laptops for participants that did not come with any, WiFi router for some of the attendees and one of our donors, Cine Culture Films, provided the prizes – electronic gadgets that were given to four (4) winners of the last Wikimedia Commons Training and Edit-a-thon. Together, our cooperation achieved a successful event that has launched the 2023 Wiki Gap edit-a-thon to increase the profiles and articles of women on Wikipedia.

More importantly, this cooperation contributed significantly to the collection of activities implemented to mark the International Women’s Day and we look forward to sustaining the cooperation with the French Embassy and the French Institute in Nigeria.

To follow our progress on the Wiki Gap editathon, please, visit our project dashboard on Wiki - https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_User_Group_Nigeria_Abuja_Network/Wiki_Gap_Closing_the_Gender_Gap

Photos are also available on our social media: Facebook - @wikiabujanetwork; Instagram - @wikiabujanetwork; and Twitter - @wikiabujanet

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