By Kikekon Manoah
At the 20th Anniversary of Wikipedia celebrated at Marina in Badagry, Lagos State on 15th Jan. 2021, the world's most famous encyclopedia, the Wikipedia has rebranded the face of Badagry at the global stage using its GLAM Project (Gallery, Library, Archives and Museum) in uploading the images in the Museum to the global face.
The event which marks 20th year of founding Wikipedia by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sager served as an opportunity to set up a Wikipedia hub in Badagry in order to put Badagry on a global stage where the participants were taught how to upload and improve articles on Wikipedia.
Moreso, it was an avenue to put Badagry and her rich history on the global stage.
In an exclusive interview with Newsproof, the president of Wikipedia foundation in Nigeria Mr. Shola Olaniyan, said “we are here to celebrate the birth of Wikipedia-the free online encyclopedia that everyone can write on.
As at today, English Wikipedia alone has 6.2million articles, altogether Wikipedia has about 55million articles. On monthly basics, Wikipedia has over 10billoin monthly visitor, and more than 82,000 active editors on English Wikipedia alone. One aspect why we are here is to celebrate and establish a Wikipedia hub in Badagry and we are also looking at the historical relevancy of Badagry. Besides, we seize this opportunity to introduce our GLAM project where we document and digitalize some of the history around slavery in Badagry. We were once in Badagry during our program called Wiki Love Earth, where we took photos of notable places in Badagry which was uploaded on our digital repository”.
Olaniyan noted that participant will learn how to improve articles related to Badagry on Wikipedia. "Since we are establishing a hub, we are here to train the youths and we are calling on all the youths in Badagry to be part of the program” he said.
Speaking with Mr. Samuel Setonji Okepevi, the chairman organizing committee, “What we are doing here today is to put Badagry on the Global stage. Right now we are on our GLAM project, which is putting the images we have in the museums on a global stage.
Actually there would be articles on these pictures but I believe pictures speak more volume. There are various articles on Wikipedia today without picture, but the pictures that are taken here today would be uploaded on the right articles. This will definitely give Badagry a place in the history of human”.
Okepevi further said “Today people complain about the neglect of Badagry by the government, I tell them we can’t continue complaining about the government, we have to start doing something ourselves to uplift Badagry. Project like this will bring various international bodies to Badagry for investment".
While unveiling plans for Badagry, Okepevi said "We have various programs for Badagry and I can assure you, we are coming back in two months time. Based on the turn up we’ve seen for this program, we are ready to make history in Badagry".
"The participants have taught how to edit and upload articles on Wikipedia, they have also learnt how to upload pictures on Wikipedia" he said.
He further asserted that the world today has become a global community and responsibilities lie in the hand of everyone of us, we can change the narratives.
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