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KNUST Wikitech Club Launching and Onboarding Season/Report

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Wikitech Student Developer Club Launch Event Report

The KNUST Wikitech Student Developer Club is a club supported by the Africa Wikimedia Technical Community (AWMT) and Open Foundation West Africa, was officially launched on June 1, 2024, at the College of Science, TF-34. The event was a hybrid session (online and in-person participation).

Event Outline

  • Welcome and Introduction
  • Live Session
  • Project Demo Session
  • Photoshoot and Closing

Welcome and Introduction

Ike (Vice President of the Club) and Prince Larbi (President of the Club) carried us through the start of the launch. Elizabeth Tandoh (Co Event Organiser) was responsible for registering the participants at the start and throughout the event.

Live Session

Joris Quarshie, the Team Lead for the Africa Wikimedia Technical Community, took us through what Wikimedia is and shed light on other Wikimedia projects. He also discussed coding challenges and contributions to Wikimedia projects. Joris detailed various global technical projects and contributions, emphasizing multilingual support, open-source platforms, and the importance of community involvement. He described the Wikimedia movement as a global effort to bring free educational content to the world, comprising various projects, chapters, and the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.

Joris explained that the main components of the Wikimedia movement are:

  • Affiliates
  • Technical contributors
  • Editors

He highlighted that there are relatively few developers from Africa contributing to Wikimedia projects, and more volunteer developers and technical contributors are needed to add new features and updates to MediaWiki and its extensions, skins, etc.

Joris discussed the key goals and needs highlighted in the introduction, which are:

  • Building tools and projects that can solve common problems within the African context to promote technical activities.
  • Avoid reliance on small groups of technical contributors to solve the many technical challenges, especially those specific to African volunteers.
  • Increasing participation from African contributors in global technical events and programs within the Wikimedia movement, such as Google Summer of Code, Google Season of Docs, Outreachy, Wikimedia Hackathons, and Wikimania Hackathons.

Joris emphasized that MediaWiki is the free and open-source software that powers Wikipedia and thousands of other websites. He also went over the steps involved in modifying repositories, making edits, and submitting pull requests to contribute to Wikimedia projects. He discussed the importance of setting up the environment for MediaWiki and the need for technical contributors to be familiar with the installation and configuration process.

Joris concluded by emphasizing the need for contributors in various technical areas such as writing technical documentation, designing interfaces, and translating software into native languages. He expressed the organization’s eagerness to welcome applicants to participate in programs, projects, and opportunities they offer.

Jael Boateng’s Session

Jael Serwaa Boateng, the Executive Director for the Open Foundation West Africa, took over and introduced herself to the attendees and gave information about writing and translation, Wikidata, Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. She highlighted the importance of creating content in local languages to make it accessible to more people. She also discussed the role of Wikidata in providing a centralized repository for structured data and how it can be used to improve the quality of Wikipedia articles.

Robert Obiri’s Session

Robert Obiri, a member of the Africa Wikimedia Technical Community, took over to give more details about writing and translation, Wikipedia. Questions such as what we would use the Twi language for in Wikipedia were duly answered by Prince and a participant.

Project Demo Session

Prince took us through his presentation. He talked about what ‘we’ are, and the projects we would take on, and officially introduced our roles. He talked about the Braille project, UI/UX, Embedded Systems and 3d Modelling. Joris gave us more details on UI/UX design and, Codex.

Photoshoot and Closing

Elikem (Club Manager) and Boderick took pictures of everyone, including participants, and executives. Prince said a closing prayer. Leftover pies were shared with the participants.

After Event Meeting

At the end of the event, core members talked about a few failures, problems, and disappointments we faced. They are:

  • Sound problems and data connection, where Ike lamented bitterly about how he had to buy data numerous times for a smooth online chat.
  • Late receipt of stipends for the refreshments led to us depending on luck for early retrieval of the refreshments.
  • Bad planning and late-minute adjustments.
  • Proper declaration of roles and accountability of everyone involved.

Mentioned solutions to these problems were:

  • Getting a Mi-fi or Wi-fi.
  • Plans must be ready two weeks before the events, with no last-minute planning.
  • The budget should be drawn with immediate effect and sent for early receipt.
  • Each person’s role in a particular event should be posted in the group so that if there is an issue with that role, that person would be held accountable.

With these problems addressed, we look forward to doing better in our next event. At the end of this, we arranged the classroom and took group pictures.

Action Items
[edit]

{{{2}}} Schedule a training session to teach contributors how to download, install, and configure MediaWiki (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Create a wiki account for new contributors (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Reach out to applicants for participation in programs and projects (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Schedule a meeting to discuss the product roadmap (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Create a documentation page for new tools (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Assign tasks for the project management to contributors (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Review and close the task on Phabricator once completed (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Set up a session to train contributors on MediaWiki installation and configuration (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Share some links in the chat about the WhatsApp platform installation process (Joris Quarshie)

{{{2}}} Coordinate with Prince Larbi to go through the documentation and have a video demonstration (Prince Larbi)

{{{2}}} Inform the team about the event documentation and the importance of their investment (Prince Larbi)

{{{2}}} Create a budget and timeline for the next event (Elikem Attah, Club Manager)

{{{2}}} Assign roles and responsibilities for the next event (Elikem Attah, Club Manager)

{{{2}}} Ensure proper communication and coordination with the technical team (Trishelle Akosah, Club Secretary)

Conclusion

The KNUST Wikitech Student Developer Club launch event was a success, and valuable insights and lessons were learned. The event provided an opportunity for participants to learn about the Wikimedia movement and the various technical projects and contributions. The after-event meeting also provided an opportunity for the core members to reflect on the event's challenges and develop solutions for future events. This documentation serves as a record of the event and a resource for those who were unable to attend or wish to revisit the insights and lessons learned.

The establishment of the KNUST Wikitech Club is one of the first clubs created under the AWMT Community. It is an initiative to help create an enabling ecosystem for technical who are willing to learn and build new skills in the open space through volunteering as technical contributions for the Wikimedia Foundation on University campuses and schools across Africa.

PICTURES TAKEN AT THE EVENT CAN BE FOUND AT THE CATEGORY: KNUST Wikitech Club

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