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Wiki Indaba 2014 - Johannesburg

Wiki Indaba was a 3 day conference held in Johannesburg (South Africa). It was a gathering of African Wikimedians and other open knowledge volunteers who are aligned to our mission.

Access to mobile devices is on the increase in Africa and is expected to intensify in the next few years, increasing Africa's on-line presence. In order to take advantage of this projected growth, it is therefore important to establish and strengthen Wikipedia and Wikimedia structures in Africa.

The establishment of Wikimedia regional co-operations in regions such as Latin America, India and Asia, has supported the progressive and systematic growth of awareness and coverage of Wikipedia in these regions. This conference is the first step towards the establishment of African co-operative structures and organs made up of Wikimedia Chapters, Wikimedians and mission aligned Thematic Organizations. This is the first regional conference to be held by and for African chapters in Africa, the region of the world with the lowest Wikipedia coverage.

Goals of the Conference

Establish a sustainable dialogue with collaborators in Wikimedia Chapters, the Wikimedia Foundation and the international communities to frame the issue of community activation and corporate governance in the context of Africa.
We aim to build a shared understanding of what it means to be a volunteer in Africa and why it is important.
Connect, multiply and create successful initiatives for increasing community activation and support within regions.
We aim to turn ideas into action.

Focus of the conference

To help us organize sessions and accomplish our goals of developing a shared understanding and set of actions for improving wikimedia's foot print in Africa, we intend to focus this first conference on two aspects as follows:

1. Community Activation - through gender specific initiatives, GLAMs and Educational institutions.

2. Corporate Governance - Chapter formations, Accountability and access to funding.