"Preserving Languages: Open, Free and Accessible Knowledge for All"
SADiLaR-Wikipedia-PanSALB (SWiP) is a collaborative initiative by the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR); the free encyclopaedia (Wikipedia) and the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB).
The project will be officially launched on Wednesday, 20 September 2023 at UNISA (Main Campus - Muckleneuk), Pretoria. The launch event will shine a spotlight specifically on isiNdebele to encourage amaNdebele to actively participate in contributing to Wikipedia. This is crucial since isiNdebele is currently one of the languages that seriously lack content representation on Wikipedia.
Project aims:
- To practically bring together communities of language practice with an aim to advance and celebrate the use of South African languages.
- To encourage language communities to actively contribute content to the free encyclopaedia (Wikipedia)
Target audience:
Are you passionate about languages, culture, and the power of written expression?
Language preservation is an endeavour that transcends generations. By contributing your language content to Wikipedia, you are not only honing your writing skills but actively contributing to the preservation of culture, histories, and identities. Unlock the writer within you and embark on a journey to preserve languages, one word at a time. Find your voice and preserve your language.
This project aims to empower anyone with an interest of contributing their language content to Wikipedia. The project is targeted at aspiring authors, language practitioners, lecturers, students, and the language community of practice at large.
Project roll-out:
The project is scheduled to run from October 2023 to October 2024. The first cycle of the project focusses on in-depth Wikipedia authorship training across the country followed by shorter training events that also include other elements of language celebrations and hands-on training. Three (3)-day authorship workshops will be conducted across 6 Regions targeting 10 universities and training 20 participants per university.
Authorship training outcomes:
Day 1-Introduction to Wikipedia (Adding citations)
Day 2-Advanced Wiki Editing (Adding content and photographs)
Day 3-Train the trainer (How to pass on what you have learned)
Cycle 1: Regional Three -day authorship training events
o Northern Region (University of Venda; University of Mpumalanga-Siyabuswa Campus)
o Central Region (Vaal University of Technology; Tshwane University of Technology; UNISA)
o Western Region (Cape Peninsula University of Technology)
o KwaZulu-Natal Region - (University of Zululand)
o North-Western Region - (Central University of Technology; Sol Plaatje University)
o Eastern Region - (Walter Sisulu University)
Cycle 2: will comprise 1-day events to follow soon after the 3-day events, to allow for trained participants to run their own training events (train the trainer).
Get involved:
Individuals: By joining the SWiP authorship training programme, you are not only honing your writing skills but also actively contributing to the preservation of culture, histories, and identities. The SWiP project team will be in contact with identified universities to confirm dates for workshops.
Organisations and prospective partners can get involved by
- hosting authorship workshops for authors at their companies or universities
- sponsoring travel costs of Wikipedia trainers
- sponsoring venue and catering for workshops
- featuring the project on their communication platforms like newsletters and digital platforms
- hosting authorship workshops as part of corporate social responsibility programmes
The SWiP project team will be in contact with identified universities to confirm dates for workshops. All project related enquiries can be directed to swip@sadilar.org