Cape Town to host Wikipedia’s ‘Wikimania’ conference in July

Wikipedia is hosting its annual conference in Cape Town in July.

Announced by the non-profit today, Wikipedia’s Wikimania conference will be heading to the African continent for the first time, bringing with it volunteers from around the world and Wikipedia royalty.

“Attendees will be made up of members of the global Wikimedia movement, including those who volunteer their time to edit and improve Wikipedia articles, create bots, or organise events and projects to draw more content onto Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects,” the company wrote in a press release.

“Other open knowledge  advocates will also attend, along with local academics, teachers, heritage specialists, and interested stakeholders.”

Topics on the agenda will include Wikipedia editions for Africa — notably, versions of the wiki written in indigenous languages, and the challenges of software localisation and data structures.

The overall theme of the conference is “Bridging knowledge gaps; the Ubuntu way forward”.

Key visitors include founder Jimmy Wales and Wikimedia’s executive director Katherine Maher.

The conference will take place at the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel from 18 to 22 July 2018.

Feature image: Cornelius Kibelka/Wikimedia