I was asked to do a presentation at a Wikipedia 20th birthday party hosted by Wikimedia South Africa, which unfortunately I can’t make, but I still took the opportunity to look in a little more detail at the state of the South African language Wikipedias. I include all eleven official languages, with the exception of… Continue reading South African language Wikipedias 20th birthday review
RIP Dawn
Dawn Pilatowicz died last night. Dawn was one of the most inspirational people I’ve met. Warm, generous, kind-hearted, wise. I first met Dawn through our involvement in the Talent Exchange, a Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) that started here in Cape Town. She lived with polymyositis, a muscle-wasting disease. Her power was in a remarkable… Continue reading RIP Dawn
November 2020 African language Wikipedia update
My last look at the state of the African Wikipedias was in March 2019, so the time is nigh to have a long-overdue look at whats changed since. (Thanks to this tweet from today for forcing me to use “nigh” in a sentence. May as well have asked me not to think of blue). As… Continue reading November 2020 African language Wikipedia update
Weeeee’re back!
You may not have noticed, but my server crashed a while back (I did get one unprompted comment, so I’m not completely writing into a vacuum). Since it no longer runs anything business-related, and I had been looking for a cheaper server, I wasn’t in any rush to restore it. I had already got an… Continue reading Weeeee’re back!
Fourteen years of silence
But it’s been 14 years of silence It’s been 14 years of pain It’s been 14 years that are gone forever and I’ll never have again Yes, the lyrics of a Guns N Roses classic, and yes, also how long it feels to have been locked up for two weeks alone in my house due… Continue reading Fourteen years of silence
South Africa in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index
It’s been a while since I looked at the World Press Freedom Index. South Africa was ranked 21st in the world when I first started looking back in 2003, and had slumped to 52nd back in 2013. Looking at the rankings since, there has been a notable improvement from 2013 until 2017. While the Nordic… Continue reading South Africa in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index
Farewell Matthew Buckland
It came as quite a shock to hear this afternoon that Matthew Buckland had died. I first met Matthew at the Digital Citizens Indaba (DCI) in Grahamstown in September 2006, where I was speaking on the Web 2.0 panel. Matthew was editor of the Mail & Guardian Online at the time. Mail & Guardian online… Continue reading Farewell Matthew Buckland
Election arithmetic
It’s almost election time, and with 48 parties standing nationally (and a further 32 standing only at provincial level), there are lot of hopeful party leaders out there. It’s safe to say the majority of them are going to be very disappointed when the results are announced. Let’s look at some election arithmetic: First, nationally:… Continue reading Election arithmetic
Wondering who to vote for in May?
It’s very rare that you come across a political platform that jumps out at you in the way this one did. From the moment I first set eyes on it, I knew this was the one. Meet the Alliance for Transformation for All. They have two main policies: 1) Subsidies for taxis (we’re talking minibus… Continue reading Wondering who to vote for in May?
March 2019 African language Wikipedia and Wiktionary update
African Language Wiktionaries Language 30/5/2010 15/5/2011 29/10/2014 22/3/2019 % + Malagasy 4,253 – 3,599,084 5,482,632 52.33% Afrikaans 14,669 14,731 15,794 20,831 31.89% Swahili 13,000 13,027 13,903 14,029 0.91% Wolof 2,689 2,693 2,310 2,312 0.09% Somali – – – 1,635 – Sotho 1,389 1,398 1,343 1,343 0.00% Lingala – – – 673 – Zulu 131 510… Continue reading March 2019 African language Wikipedia and Wiktionary update