African Library and Information Associations & Institutions (AfLIA) in collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation, organized the African Librarians Week, #AfLibWk from 24 – 30 May 2020, as part of the global #1Lib1Ref campaign. The week-long inaugural event aimed at inviting and mobilizing librarians, engage the African library community to help fill key gaps in African content on Wikipedia by adding sources and missing references to articles about Africa on the online encyclopedia. 

The creative commons Uganda: chapter member Eric Haumba was on the Ugandan editorial team. Apart from adding missing references, #AfLibWk set in motion a major iterative opportunity for all African librarians to share knowledge, discernment and perceptions that epitomize African voices, cultures, philosophies and other information worthy of being open and accessible for free knowledge. 

Organized under the theme; “Promoting African Scholars to the World”, the campaign saw real-time participation by library and information professionals across 31 African countries including Uganda, which was represented by editors from the library fraternity and beyond. 

By the end of #AfLibWk Campaign on 30th May 2020,

• 27,846 edits were made and 3,946 articles edited,
• 10,055 missing references were added,
• A total of 660,539 words were added by the editors,
• 81 uploads to Wikimedia Commons, of which 22 had been used in articles by 30 May 2020,
• Although the campaign largely concentrated on adding citations, it led to creation of 28 new articles as a result of the creativity of some #AfLibWk editors, and 
• Wikipedia articles that were created during #AfLibWk have cumulatively garnered over 33.6 million views and counting, as recorded on the events dashboard.

Editing was concentrated on both English Wikipedia and French Wikipedia. Statistically, the contributions by #AfLibWk editors made on English Wikipedia constituted 96% of the overall contributions made during the Week.

Also worth noting is that Creative Commons Licenses were used throughout the campaign. It was interesting to find out which articles about Africa on Wikipedia were receiving edits and citations. One of the main and broad themes of articles edited during the week were related to biographies of famous Africans (politicians, intellectuals, authors, freedom fighters etc.). 

This was not much of a surprise as it resonated with the theme of the first edition of AfLibWk: Promoting African Scholars to the World. Editors also appeared to be interested in making edits and contributing to articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic (its spread and impact) in their respective countries. 

A total of 844 editors registered to take part in the week-long campaign. The top 50 editors were awarded with certificates of recognition and participation. They included Eric Haumba & Alice Kibombo who came in 10th and 15th positions respectively. They are both affiliated with the Creative Commons Uganda chapter.

Congratulations to Eric and Alice. 

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The second event was our Update Meeting held at Endiro Café in Kisementi, Kampala that was held on the 25th of September 2019 (above left).

Creative Commons Uganda E-checkin

On the 25th of August the Uganda chapter of creative commons had it e-checkin event where several issues were discussed. You can read more about it here.

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This post was created, in response to CC Certification Assignment – #1

So you have seen the circled C – the embodiment of restrictions – All Rights Reserved – the tag that accompanies CopyRight for more visits the following:

http://www.bssennoga.wordpress.com/2019/10/03/understanding-creative-commons

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In as many ways we can use Creative Commons to share, learn, and communicate with like-minded people around the globe, we can explain what it is that Creative Commons does. There are countless blogs, pictures, lectures, and songs on the benefits of CC. This time around, however, we’ve worked with the highly creative animators of WikiKiwis to produce an informative and entertaining animation explaining why and how Creative Commons achieves what it does best; promote sharing and creative content generation while respecting intellectual property rights.

The animation [comically] depicts creative people as they innovate with arts, science, literature, and music only to be hindered by the current strict regulations on copyrights. These regulations often do well with regards to protecting intellectual property in the physical, but their outdated restrictions compromises our ability as a global network of creative content creators to share and modify work freely and openly.

Enter Creative Commons: the protagonist of the story that helps us all share, mix and remix — while respecting copyrights! By providing content licenses which are primarily designed to allow for creative works to be used, modified, and shared, Creative Commons paves the way for a global community of inspired and inspirational content creators and users that can-in turn-revolutionize the way we work together through the Internet.

Check our video and feel free to use it as you want — keep it moving forward!

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