Activating Africa

Africa.

Who is online?

• South Africa = 33% of adults over the age of 15 use the Internet (one in three of the population)
• Kenya =26%
• Ghana= 13%
• Botswana = 19%

• and growing ...

What happens when Africa doesn't contribute?

• We miss important voices,
• Subtle and important cultural richness and differences are wiped out by global noise
• We reinforce ignorance about and stereotypes of Africa
• We fail to give our cultures equal global weighting with European or American culture
• We fail to be heard on our own terms, by our own means
• We contribute to systemic bias
• We cannot have rounded, relevant and informed global conversations about Africa
• We run the risk of not recording our indigenous knowledge and digitising our heritage before time runs out.

Credits:

"Digital Divides - The Potential of the Internet for Development", Dr Mark Graham, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford, presented to DIFD March 2012

CC-BY-NC-SA: Graham, M., Hale, S. A. and Stephens, M. (2011) Geographies of the World’s Knowledge. Ed. Flick, C. M., London, Convoco! Edition.

Praekelt Foundation, Spotlight on Africa, Mobile 2012.

The New Wave report, written by Indra de Lanerolle, designed by Garage East © University of Witwatersrand; http://www.networksociety.co.za

Images:

CC-BY-SA, Attribution: NASA/Apollo 17 crew; taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans

Through the Dark Continent: Princeton University http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/africa/explorers-central.html

CC-BY SA, Mercator image: Attribution: User:Mdf, derived from NASA's Earth Observatory "Blue Marble" series.

CC. The True Size of Africa infographic by Kai Krause

CC-BY-NC-SA, Attribution: Dr Mark Graham, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford

CC-BY-SA, Attribution: S@veOurSm:)e on flickr.com

CC-BY-NC-SA, Attribution: kigaliwire on Flickr, Downtown Kigali through broken wing mirror 2

CC-BY- SA, Attribution: Erik Zachte, May 2011, thematicmapping.org

CC-BY-SA, Attribution: Isla Haddow-Flood, Have Chicken Can Travel,

CC-BY-NC-SA, Attribution: Dr Mark Graham, Bernie Hogan, Ahmed Medhat and Richard Farmbrough, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford

CC-BY-SA, Attribution: eliduke on flickr; Antarctica: Castle Rock & Mt. Erebus

CC-BY-SA, Attribution: Emilio Labrador; Timbuktu preferred method of transport, Mali, W. Africa

CC-BY, Attribution: cfwee (Chris Wee) on Flickr; Galleria degli Uffizi;

CC-NC-SA, Attribution: Eva the Weaver on flickr

CC-BY-SA-NC, Happy Cashews, Kevin Flood

Activating

Or the site of one of the longest running

universities in the world

11 500 + responses

• 69% had heard of Wikipedia
• 28% accessed it through the week
• 38% used it at least once a month
• 36% did not know about it or couldn’t be bothered

• 57% knew they could edit

• 21% had edited Wikipedia (around 2,000+)

More geotagged Wikipedia articles about Antarctica (7,800 out of 1.5 million articles) than that relate to any one country in Africa or South America.

(Graham, 2012)

Indexed by Google 2009 (sample 250,000 points)

Why is it important that we Activate Africa on Wikipedia?

• It forces more than a single story of Africa
• It shakes up outdated and flagrantly wrong information
• It empowers people to take charge of their own heritage
• It emboldens cultures to state their values and worth on their own terms
• It ensures people have access to alternative ideas, thoughts, impressions, attitudes and approaches
• It fosters cultural understanding and empathy,
• etc., etc., etc.,

Wiki

CC-BY-NC- SA Attribution: Dr Mark Graham, Scott A. Hale,

Monica Stephens; Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford

• 84% of all geotagged articles come from Europe and North America (Graham 2012).

+

The New Wave Report, 2012

How can Wikipedia be truly

global when 84%

of articles are written by

people in the global North?

the world's 2nd largest market

65% penetration of mobile ...

Access to Internet via Mobile:

- 71% in South Africa

- 50% across Africa

525 museums on AfriCom

- 26% have articles

- 48% no mention

Why does Wikipedia NEED Africa?

• The next, tech-savvy and accessible generation will find no relevance in Wikipedia
• They will not find themselves represented, and so they will find another platform to reflect their heritage, culture, contemporary passions.

• How can we ignore an audience of 1/2 billion future viewers?

CC-SA - Attribution: S@veOurSm:)e on flickr.com

Isla Haddow-Flood

info@wikiafrica.net

@wikiafrica

@havingaflood

Enormous Thanks ...

Created in 2006 by lettera27, WikiAfrica is an international collaboration between lettera27, the Africa Centre and the Wikipedia community of Africa.