In WikiAfrica Hour’s 38th Episode, aired live in August 2024, guest host Andrew Lih discussed the future of partnerships at the most significant global meeting point of Wikimedians – Wikimania.
Wikimania 2024 was recently held in Katowice, Poland. Future Wikimanias are scheduled to occur in 2025 in Nairobi, Kenya and in 2026 in Paris, France. The WikiAfrica Hour panel comprised Wikimania hosts, and members of the Wikimania steering committee. It discussed the historical, current and future vision of the conference and its strategic position that can encourage partnerships and collaboration with other organizations.
The WikiAfrica Hour In Focus segment shared the experiences of Africa’s Wikimedians at Wikimania 2024.
“Wikimania is not for the community, but by the community. It’s very important that Wikimania is made by the community, the community is part of the decision-making process.
I think this is something special about our communities, that we work like hell, we produce content, we engage with GLAM. So we want to do new things. We plan a new project. So it’s not a community that is there only to chit chat, but we actually produce things. “
— Iolanda Pensa – Chair of Wikimania steering committee
Watch the full episode on YouTube
“… for a long time, African Wikimedians have been left behind a little bit when it comes to participation in bigger conference events like Wikimania. So for this one, with Nairobi, the visa restrictions aren’t that much.
We anticipate that this will be one of the Wikimanias that will bring in more Africans Wikimedians. As we know, there has been a rising number of African Wikimedians and contributors, and it’s a way that we can show them they belong to this movement.”
— Antoni Mtavangu – Core Organizing Team member of Wikimania 2025 Nairobi
This WikiAfrica Hour episode’s guest host is Andrew Lih, author of The Wikipedia Revolution and Wikimedia extraordinaire, is also a member of the @Wikimedia Steering Committee. He was at the helm of this episode’s discussion. Website • X • Instagram • Linked In • Wikipedia
Our guests were …
Iolanda Pensa
User:Iopensa
Iolanda is chair of the Wikimania Steering Committee, former chair and now national coordinator for GLAMs of Wikimedia Italia, co-founder of Wiki in Africa.
Rémy Gerbet
User:Rémy Gerbet WMFr
Executive Director of Wikimedia France.
Maciej Artur Nadzikiewicz
User:Nadzik
Board Member and Secretary of Wikimedia Europe. Former member of the Wikimedia Poland Governance Board. Lead organizer of Wikimania 2024.
Antoni Mtavangu
User:Mtumiaji:Jadnapac
Antoni Mtavangu is a co-founder of Wikimedia Community User Group Tanzania. He is one of the EARTHub core team members, a Wikiindaba 2024 COT member and one of the Wikimania 2025 COT leads.
African Wikimedians interviewed at Wikimania 2024 include:
- Tesleemah Abdulkareem
- Minette Lontsie
- Mounir
- Aristide Kouamé
- Sadik Shahadu
- Bobby Shabangu
- Yamen Bousrih
- Dominique Eliane
- Hossam Eldin Torki
This WikiAfrica Hour episode aired live: check out our Website or the WikiAfrica Hour meta page to watch this or previous episodes. All WikiAfrica Hour episodes are available on YouTube.
Episode Notes:
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