South African language Wikipedias – Wikimania 2022 update

It’s Wikimania 2022 and, being a hybrid event, Cape Town hosted its own get-together. I took the opportunity to take a long overdue look at the state of the South African language Wikipedias. I include all eleven official languages, with the exception of English. Afrikaans 104,335 (95,700 on 18 January 2021) articles 190 (210) active… Continue reading South African language Wikipedias – Wikimania 2022 update

South African language Wikipedias 20th birthday review

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

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

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

Six days of the Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of Shakespeare’s less well-known, and less well-regarded, plays. Some believe this to be because Queen Elizabeth instructed Shakespeare to write a play featuring Falstaff (the lecherous main character, who also appears in the two King Henry IVs) and complete it in fourteen days, in which case it’s a… Continue reading Six days of the Merry Wives of Windsor

Cape Town Wikimania, and some Wikidata observations

The 2018 Wikimania was held in Cape Town from July 18 to July 22. Wikimania is the annual conference of the Wikimedia Foundation, the foundation supporting Wikipedia and other hosted projects, such as Wikimedia Commons, WikiVoyage, Wikidata and Wiktionary. I’ve never been to a Wikimania before – the closest I came was almost going to… Continue reading Cape Town Wikimania, and some Wikidata observations

Zulu Wikipedia reaches 1000 articles

Just in time for Wikimania, the Zulu Wikipedia has reached the 1000 article milestone. Congratulations to user Njabulo19 who created the 1000th article. Njabulo19 started editing actively in 2017 and has continued into 2018, and has paid particular attention to article categories. Well done Zulu Wikipedia community for having reached 4 figures – wishing you… Continue reading Zulu Wikipedia reaches 1000 articles

Better than the Beatles

I’m not sure I’m going to sleep tonight. I’ve discovered a classic album, one of those new discoveries that sears itself into your consciousness, leaving you forever changed. Kurt Cobain listed this as his fifth favorite album of all time. Frank Zappa apparently called them better than the Beatles. I can’t believe I haven’t heard… Continue reading Better than the Beatles

June 2018 African language Wikipedia update, 50 000 articles for Afrikaans

There are only 19 days to go until Wikimania in Cape Town, so it’s a good time to look at the state of the African language Wikipedias again, as always based on the imperfect metric of number of articles. The following tables show the number of articles for each language on a particular date, as… Continue reading June 2018 African language Wikipedia update, 50 000 articles for Afrikaans