Kusaal Wikimedia Community Holds “My Kusaal Achiever Editing Contest” to Celebrate Notable Personalities in Kusaug 

Kusaal Wikimedia Community Holds My Kusaal Achiever Editing Contest to Celebrate Notable Personalities in Kusaug 

The Kusaal Wikimedia Community, with support from the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group, organized a one-month-long editing competition dubbed the My Kusaal Achiever Editing Contest, from August 27th, 2023, to September 26th, 2023.

The goal of the contest was to enable community members to create and/or improve Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items for notable people (living or dead) whose efforts have contributed to the development and wellbeing of the people from the Kusaug traditional area. Some of these personalities live within the area, while others live outside of it. There are some who are not indigenes of the area but have had a great impact on it.

The contest was also intended to enable community members to contribute more content to the Kusaal Wikipedia incubator as part of the measures to speed up the transition of the Kusaal language out of the incubator into mainstream Wikipedia. It is the goal of the Kusaal Wikimedia Community to obtain a full-blown Wikipedia for the Kusaal language by the end of 2023, and this contest couldn’t have come at a better time to help achieve that.

Prior to the start of the contest, the Kusaal Wikimedia Team, led by Co-lead, Musahfm held a number of online trainings for the community members to sharpen their editing skills on Wikipedia and Wikidata.  After the launch of the contest on the 27th August, 2023, short videos were recorded on how to make basic edits and shared with community members to enhance their editing skills. The leads also kept in touch with community members via phone calls and WhatsApp to address their individual peculiar challenges regarding editing on Wikidata and Kusaal Wikipedia incubator.

At the end of the contest, 227 Kusaal Wikipedia articles and 37 Wikidata items were created with 222 Kusaal labels being added to Wikidata items as seen in the dashboard here.

This helped increase the number of articles on the Kusaal Wikipedia, thus increasing its chances of  obtaining a fully fledged Wikipedia in good time, hopefully, before the end of the year. The contest also offered an opportunity for more volunteers to be recruited and trained to edit on Wikipedia and Wikidata. 

Prizes in the form of gift-vouchers were awarded to winners in the contest as follows:

1. WIKIPEDIA CATEGORY

1st. Highest Contributor

Abande Agurwin Isaac (User:Agurwin Isaac)

Prize: GHC 500

2nd. Highest Contributor

Ayamba Jonas  (User: Ayamba Jonas)

Prize: GHC 400

3rd. Highest Contributor. 

Poasana Regina (User:Poasana Regina)

Prize: GHC300

Top Female Contributor. 

Anaba Hannah (User: Hannah Anasco)

Prize: GHC 300

2. WIKIDATA CATEGORY

1st. Highest Contributor. 

Abande Agurwin Isaac (User:Agurwin Isaac)

Prize: GHC 400

 2nd. Highest Contributor. 

Isaac Awinimi  Adakudugu (User:Awinimi)

Prize: GHC 300

3rd. Highest Contributor. 

 Anaba Hannah (User: Hannah Anasco).

Prize: GHC 200

Top Female Contributor. 

Anaba Hannah (User: Hannah Anasco).

Prize: GHC 200

It is our firm belief that these prizes won by some of the volunteers could serve as motivation for members to continue contribuing to the Kusaal Wikipedia incubator.

The contest didn’t go without challenges as far as the Kusaal Community is concerned. Due to circumstances beyond our control, the community is still not able to organize an in-person workshop where the facilitators could have enough time to interact more effectively with community members. Most participants could not take part in the online trainings because of a lack of knowledge about online platforms like Zoom. Others complained of the cost of internet data as well as the poor quality of internet connectivity. Facilitators, together with community members, had quite a challenge with time for training and editing as most of them are either full-time workers or students. In a nutshell, just about ten (11) editors actively contributed to creating and/or editing during the contest which is on the low side and is quite worrying. 

The leadership of the community is hopeful that going forward, steps would be taken to address these and some other challenges so that the work of both community members and leadership will go smoothly.