Video transcript · 3 min · 486 words

Rethinking diversity and inclusion: a Ugandan experience: transcript

Alice Kibombo-Ekanya of the Wikimedia community user group in Uganda describes how a very young population shapes editing in the country. She explains how the group involves older people and non-editors through partnerships, panels, and recorded conversations that can enrich Wikimedia content.

Key points

Uganda has the second youngest population in the world, with about 48 million people and 77% under 25, which shapes who edits.
Many older people and other groups are not represented on Wikimedia projects.
Past thematic projects included Wiki for Refugees, Wiki for Human Rights and WikiGap.
Some people sign up for accounts but do not edit, yet hold influence that can expand community involvement.
Partners include a cultural organization in Kampala that provides space, and university librarians who support GLAM on tour.
Recorded conversations with senior citizens can be used to enrich content on Wikimedia projects.

Chapters

0:00Uganda's young population and who is missing
1:07Thematic projects and who they leave out
1:37Partnerships with non-editors of influence
2:14Senior citizens, recorded recollections and closing

Full transcript

0:00Just made the line. All right, go ahead. We've got another great speaker. Ladies and gentlemen, after Niger, Uganda has the second youngest population in the world. We have a population of 48 million people and 77% of these are under the age of 25. And this is reflected in the number of active editors that we know in Uganda and the kind of content that they contribute as well as the quality of content that they contribute. So that leaves a large percentage of senior citizens and other groups that are not presented on Wikimedia projects. The dance floor that you see is the Wikimedia Foundation projects and the dancers are both young and old, meaning that they are different strokes for different folks. My name is Alice Chivombo Ekanya and I am a project lead for the Wikimedia community user group in Uganda and I'd like to share our thoughts on rethinking diversity and inclusion

1:07for our young and old population. So, over the years, we've had the opportunity to participate in a number of projects that cater to diversity, for example, Wiki for Refugees, being a large refugee-hosting nation. We've also had Wiki for Human Rights. We've also had WikiGap and many others that I'm not able to enunciate right now. But these all cater to thematic content and thematic engagement.

1:37And again, another section of the population is left out. So during these, we have found that there are a number of people that are eager to participate with us. People who have signed up for Wikimedia accounts but do not edit. And most importantly, are in positions of influence to be able to leverage their connection to expand our involvement in the community. So we've had space and venue partnerships, for example, with the Gute Zentrum in Kampala, which is a cultural organization, so we don't have to worry about space.

2:14We have had universities with university librarians who are Wikimedians, they don't have time to come and edit, but they are able to provide the experience of GLAM on tour. We also have panel discussions with experts to promote mutual understanding and support, and we also have conversations with senior citizens, and they give us access to private collections for references, but most importantly, we have a kind of citizen deposition program where we have recorded conversations of their recollections of the times and the circumstances, and we can use these audios to enrich the existing content on Wikimedia foundation projects so all these in the long term they pick the curiosity and the population is therefore able to see and contribute to the topics that they relate to in luganda we say to simbude which means we are on our way and by boat by air thunder fire magic whichever way we will see you

3:20Poland next year. Let's give it up. Let's give it up. That was fantastic.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Wikimania 2023 - Plenary - 18 August - Lightning Talk - Rethinking diversity and inclusion, A Ugandan experience.webm by Wikimania 2023 (2023-08-18), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. The transcript, summary and chapters on this page are shared under the same licence (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.