Wikipedia’s annual conference is coming to Africa for the first time, and it’ll be hosted in Cape Town. The conference, announced by the company and slated to take place in July, would bring with it volunteers from around the world and Wikipedia royalty.
According to a press release by the company, “Attendees will be made up of members of the global Wikimedia movement, including those who volunteer their time to edit and improve Wikipedia articles, create bots, or organise events and projects to draw more content onto Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects,”
They went further to say that, “Other open knowledge advocates will also attend, along with local academics, teachers, heritage specialists, and interested stakeholders.”
Wikipedia editions for Africa with a focus on versions of the wiki written in indigenous languages, coupled with the challenges of software localisation and data structures are the topics that would be discussed in the conference. The theme of the conference is “Bridging knowledge gaps; the Ubuntu way forward”.
In attendance would be Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales and Wikimedia’s executive director Katherine Maher.
Venue: Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel
Date: 18th to 22nd July, 2018