Organising team

This page summarises the team that is being formed to make Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa happen. It is not yet complete and will likely be expanded in the near future.

Andy Rabagliati

I live in Cape Town, and got involved with wikipedia around 2002, and deployed it in a stand alone configuration to assist schools without internet connectivity. I am still very interested in the Offline wikipedia project, and (related) the article rating system that is indispensable for its success.

From the wikipedia content perspective, I focus on Africa, African politics, and some technology articles.

Bobby Shabangu

I stay in Johannesburg and have been involved with Wikimedia ZA chapter as a director of projects since 2013. My editing activities on Wikipedia are spontaneous and influenced by what I may be reading or have seen on the news or the kind of music I may be listening to at that time, however I tend to be biased towards African content because that's where I feel we are lacking as a movement.

As a director I'm chiefly involved with the Joburgpedia project. Here, we work with several institutions advocating for free and open knowledge as well. My job is to identify these institutions, see how we can work together, organise workshops for Wikipedia training and expose their communities to Wikipedia. One of the reasons why I like working with my colleagues is because of the open culture and the dynamic nature of our work. Nothing is cast in stone, We get to experiment with different ideas. An idea that may be working today doesn't mean it will work the same way tomorrow. We can do a school's writing competition today, where we teach learners how to edit on Wikipedia but tomorrow our focus may change to teach the teachers how to edit, that way we have more reach and a sustainable one since learners are moving and teachers stay in the school. This, along with the support from the Wikimedia Foundation always makes me look forward to what the year have in store for us.

I'm looking forward to working on the Wikimania 2018 project.

Coenraad Loubser

Coenraad became an entrepreneur when he started a Wi-Fi ISP (or WISP) in 2004. He believes that the only kind of poverty is information poverty and that connectivity is the easiest way to spread the knowledge needed to help our teachers and learners, and that their local communities can be empowered to build the infrastructure that can contribute to economic welfare, in areas where incumbents fear to tread. (Due to "low" profitability.) He is working to bring expertise and relationships gained through his involvement in the Telecommunications industry, to build out Wikipedia in this new frontier.

Douglas Scott

I have organised the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 Wiki Loves Monuments competitions in South Africa and was on the organising team for the first Wiki Indaba conference in Johannesburg in 2014. I have attended the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Wikimanias as well as WikiCon in Berlin in 2014 and 2016. I was elected president of Wikimedia ZA in 2016 & 2017 and have been member of the chapter since 2012 and an editor on English language Wikipedia since 2006. I am the lead organiser for the Cape Town Wikimania conference in 2018.

Dumisani Ndubane

I am a Wikipedian with a focus on South African small language projects (especially my home wiki: Xitsonga Wikipedia) since 2008. I joined the South African Wikimedia chapter (WMZA) in 2012 and have been a chapter volunteer since then. I was elected as trustee in 2012 and onto the board as President the same year, through to 2014. I have continued to serve on the Wikimedia ZA board as Trustee and secretary (2015-2016) and then Treasurer (2016-2017).

I have been intimately involved in organizing the first Wiki Loves Monument competition in 2012 & 2013, with My attentions being turned towards organizing JoburgpediA (A GLAM Project in Johannesburg) since 2013 till to date. In 2014 I was part of the WMZA team that convened the first African Regional Wikimedia Meeting called Wiki Indaba in Johannesburg and supported the Ghana team in hosting the 2016/2017 Wiki Indaba regional meeting. I have also represented WMZA in 2 chapters conferences in Berlin 2013 & 2014. I am currently part of the volunteer committee being set up to support the African region with regards to Wiki Indaba Meetings and fostering continued regional co-operation.

My involvement with the global movement was increased into assisting the Wikimedia Foundation to evaluate Grants through the GAC (Grants Evaluation Committee) in 2014. I was then invited to serve in the Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC), which evaluates and recommends awarding of large grants administered by the WMF, between 2015 - 2016. I am currently invited to be part of the Community Process Steering Committee for the Wikimedia Foundation working on formulating the 2030 Movement strategy.

But above all, I am a volunteer on the team that is organizing Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town!!!

Emna Mizouni

I’m user Emnamizouni. A member of the Wikimedia TN user group since its foundation and the Affiliations Committee. Within the Tunisian User Group and in partnership with the NGO ‘Carthagina’ that I’m leading, I have co-organised several editions of Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Africa in Tunisia. In 2015, I was among the organising team of the first edition of WikiArabia held in Monastir, Tunisia. I have attend Wikimania London 2014, where I was in the Tunisian/Arabic stall in the community hall. I attended Wikimania Mexico City 2015 where I was among the panel that presented the importance of regional gatherings. I also attended WikiCon in 2016.

I’m part of the MedinaPedia team (if you wonder what is this project, read my blog on wikimedia).

I’m also contributing with the social media presences of Wikimedia TN User Group and its projects and the Arabic Wikipedia. I so excited to be among Wikimania 2018 team!

Ian Gilfillan

Started editing (with an account) in 2003, when the English Wikipedia was a blank canvas, and articles such as Durban, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Walter Sisulu were still waiting to be created. I tend to be WikiGnome-like in style. I helped set up the Wikimedia ZA Chapter, and was on the first board, and was re-elected to the current board in 2015. I helped co-ordinate the 2008 Cape Town bid, which was the runner-up (and am very grateful we did not win, as there was far less of a team behind it than this time around). I am also interested in the smaller South African and African-language Wikipedias, and regularly report on their progress.

Outside of Wikimedia, I have an IT background, am passionate about Free and Open Source Software, and currently work for the MariaDB Foundation. You can read a bit more about me on my blog.

Jessy Appavoo-Moodelly

Has participated in the organising and hosting of the Sustain Our Africa conference in 2012 as volunteer leader. Has many years of experience in the envormental sector and has participated in a number of Wikimedia ZA chapter events such as Wiki Loves Monuments 2013, 2014 and a number of edit-a-thons. Also attended Wikimania 2014 in London.

Michael Graaf

I've been a volunteer/organiser in several medium-sized civil society events, although none as large as 600 delegates. Most recently (2014) I was the community co-ordinator for the War Resisters International conference in C.Town, which had 300 delegates but also involved a public event where numbers reached about 500. My main contribution prior to the conference was to liaise with civil society organisations to publicise the event and recruit volunteers for the conference, then during the conference to serve on a committee which briefed & monitored the volunteers (about 50 of them).

The event made use of the City Hall so I was involved in reconnoitering and planning beforehand. My personal contribution was to discover and describe connectivity options (no dedicated arrangement was considered necessary).

I am somewhat connected with the computer science departments of both UCT and UWC (researcher in one, student in the other). I'm also active in the Right2Know Campaign which is highly volunteer-based and which is highly networked with other civil society organisations.

Mpho Sello

Wikipedian from Lesotho, now resident in Cape Town, South Africa. Recently joined the team. Attended Wikimania 2016.

Peter Southwood

Wikimania 2018 website, After-conference activities: Scuba dive charter

Retired engineer. Now working longer hours than ever before. So it goes. Frequent editor on English Wikipedia, mainly on underwater diving related subjects and marine biology, Admin and major contributor on dive site articles for Cape Town on Wikivoyage. I created a few hundred maps and other graphics and photographs for Wikipedia and Wikivoyage which I uploaded to Commons, and I have worked a bit on Wikiversity and Wikispecies. I am more a content contributor than an organiser, but have been known to chip in when it looks like I can make a useful contribution. I am able to use Inkscape for graphic work to a moderate standard. In other fields I do volunteer work in citizen science projects like iSpot, SeaKeys, and baieBIO diver environmental education and I am on the Diving Advisory Board to the SA Department of Labour.

Raymond Ellis

Volunteer coordinator, Social media coordinator.

I have more than 16 years’ experience in the field of data science. I have worked in marketing research, direct marketing, online transaction processing, financial fraud detection, stock market prediction, Natural Language Processing and online chatbot development. During this time, I have participated in numerous conferences as a speaker and sometimes participant in the organisation of the events. I speak at conferences several times a year, and I attend conference events.

Rossouw van Rooyen

I am an active editor on Southern Africa related topics on Wikipedia and highly active member of the South African Wikimedia chapter. I have attended Wikimedia ZA meetups in Cape Town for the past 3 years and organised the first Windhoek chapter meetup in 2016. I initiated a series of edit-a-thons around metal music in South Africa. In 2016 three Metal edit-a-thons were held at the Cape Town Public library. I am from Namibia were I currently live and work on a game farm from where I often commute down south to Cape Town, South Africa multiple times throughout the year.