I was so pleased to be invited to assist the SWiP language preservation initiative and contribute and facilitate on their authorship training programme. I joined the SWiP project team and we ran three workshops in the central region, where we honed our Wikipedia skills (researching, markup, translation). We brought together communities and (hopefully) began to encourage language communities to make it a habit of of contributing to the preservation of culture, histories, identities and language on Wikipedia.
The word SWiP is a combination of three organizations SADiLaR / Wikipedia / PanSALB. These language preservation Wikipedia workshops were held all over the country. I assisted with those which were hosted at VUT, TUT and UNISA (the central region). A big thank you to all the academics and librarians who joined us at these events. Quite astonishing how two letters, can change your Wikipedia experience..
- af – Afrikaans https://af.m.wikipedia.org/
- en – English https://en.m.wikipedia.org/
- nr -Ndebele https://nr.wikipedia.org/
- nso – Sesotho sa Leboa http://nso.m.wikipedia.org/
- ss – SiSwathi https://ss.m.wikipedia.org/
- st – SeSotho https://st.m.wikipedia.org/
- tn – Setswana https://tn.m.wikipedia.org/
- ts – Xitsonga https://ts.m.wikipedia.org/
- ve – TshiVenda https://ve.m.wikipedia.org/
- xh – IsiXhosa https://xh.m.wikipedia.org/
- zu – isiZulu https://zu.m.wikipedia.org/
Everyone responded so enthusiastically over the two days. Was also impressed with the progress made by participants.
SWiP is working on a mission to preserve and promote South African languages through platforms like Wikipedia. Wikipedians like Bobby Shabangu, Matete Lesele, and Herschall Jackson (and me), are assisting the advancing vernacular languages use on Wikipedia.
More than a reference resource
Wikipedia is more than just a free online encyclopedia. Wikipedia is really all about the many Wikipedian communities worldwide who are striving to represent “the sum of all human knowledge” and fill in the many knowledge gaps. The cultures of these Wikipedia communities differ, but they have five pillars.
Five Pillars of Wikipedia
- Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia. Both free as in free-speech and free as in free-from-cost (like free beer)
- Wikipedia is written from a neutral point of view.
- Wikipedia is free content that anyone can use, edit, and distribute.
- Wikipedians should treat each other with respect and civility. Always assume good faith.
- Wikipedia has no firm rules. “Be Bold.”
Douglas Ian Scott advised me to be bold. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes (but always learn from them). Disagreements happen, what is important is how we settle disagreements. That’s where the Wikipedia culture helps.
Renewable Assignment
I’ve written a few articles on Wikipedia. This one, about “Renewable Assignments“, is perhaps one for South African Wikipedians who are part of a language community. Essentially the idea is that a renewable assignment allow for feedback to be incorporated. They offer the student a choice of topics, or even allow the student to choose what they will write about. Renewable Assignments can also be about collaboration in the field and the willingness to make this information open to others. This is possible in all of the languages of South Africa.
Very interesting. I will follow up and learn something from your activities
Hello Godfrey. You are most welcome to look around. Perhaps you’d like to check out the different ways I have played in the experimental page (called a sandbox). On English Wikipedia, this is my user page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Derek_J_Moore. Afrikaans Wikipedia, you can see it is quite different. https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebruiker:Derek_J_Moore. On Wikidata it is https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/User:Derek_J_Moore. There are many ways to play in your personal sandbox. To get confidence before you publish.