Wiki-Indaba 2014, Johannesburg, June 2014

Challenges, Successes and Future Opportunities of Wikipedia in Nigeria

Nigeria?

Courtesy: AFP

Successes of Wikipedia in Nigeria?

• Its easy to use;

• The phrase ‘According to Wikipedia’;

• Nigerian mobile networks and Wikipedia;

• Constant updating of Wikipedia pages.

One of the successes of Wikipedia in Nigeria

An Etisalat Nigeria advert indicating that Wikipedia will be offered to students for free

Courtesy: Punch Newspapers

Challenges?

• The word spreading about ‘Wikipedia' being unreliable;

• Localization of articles;

Challenges? • No viable local community

Courtesy: www.wikipedia.com

Challenges?

• Collaboration with corporate organizations who can sponsor the community’s activities.

Future Opportunities

• Nigeria is becoming a beehive of news;

• More people are getting online;

• More people are willing to create articles;

• There is a young team of volunteers who are ready to work on this.

• Distribution of offline version of Wikipedia to schools;

• Activation of GLAM;

• Collaborations with other communities in West Africa and Africa.

Future Opportunities

Thank you for listening

Kayode Yussuf Tech Lead, Creative Commons Nigeria