Jimmy Wales for SA Wikipedia Academies

Wales will deliver a motivational keynote at the beginning of each Wikipedia Academy. Afterwards, attendees will learn how to edit Wikipedia through various intensive workshops. They will also have the opportunity to meet Ndesanjo Macha, considered the father of the Swahili Wikipedia, who will share his experience on how to sustain local language Wikipedias.

Driven by Wales' goal of “…creating and distributing a free encyclopaedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the plant in their own language…” the academy aims to bring Wikipedians, academics, students, public intellectuals, linguists, scientists, archivists, writers and anyone with an interest in using and contributing to Wikipedia for discussion, debate and training in the culture, ethics and processes of Wikipedia.

It is fitting that the first South African Wikipedia Academy will take place at CIDA City Campus. Wikipedia is dubbed ‘the free encyclopedia' and CIDA the first ‘free university' in South Africa, but it is not only the “cost” that these two pioneering initiatives share.

Both are founded on the concepts of community contribution: Wikipedia is built by thousands of contributors from around the world who share their knowledge with their fellow language speakers; CIDA is maintained by the students who help run the university, teach young people during their holidays and help pay university costs of other students when they graduate.

iCommons, the local organisation that is helping produce the academies, is coordinating these events and workshops with the aim of supporting local communities who are building free and open resources such as Wikipedia.

For more information, go to www.icommons.org/static/about/projects/wikipedia-academies/.