Shoko Festival is kicking off and they have some exciting stuff lined up till the first of October. One interesting program that’s happening today is Pindula’s Edit-a-thon. You’ve heard about hackathons but this is an Edit-a-thon.
Pindula is our sister publication that produces easy-to-understand and insightful local news. It basically strips off those technical terms and jargon to make the news easily understandable by even a primary school kid.
Pindula’s story
Pindula came into existence to help Techzim journalist easily access background information on local tech, business and media information. However, the Pindula team realized that there wasn’t much local content on the internet and what little content that was available wasn’t really easily understandable by everybody.
And the journey really began. Pindula started to break down local content as news and curate it as Pindula Profiles (and Pindula news as well). Pindula Profiles is every bit like Wikipedia. In other words, Pindula Profiles its Zimbabwe’s own Wikipedia in terms of both the feel and structure of the site.
As noble as it sounds to have our own Zimbabwean Wikipedia in Pindula Profiles, it’s full potential can only be achieved if local people contribute in editing and adding/removing content on Pindula Profiles just like how Wikipedia operates.
But sadly, Pindula hasn’t find local people who are willing to voluntarily contribute to Pindula Profiles. Some of the few chaps who volunteered in the past have done so to only promote themselves for selfish reasons and not create our own Zimbabwean store room of unbiased content.
About the Edit-a-thon
Accordingly, the Edit-a-thon is all about telling you the importance of having our own Wikipedia where you find virtually everything about Zimbabwe. And on top of that, you will be told how you can be a volunteer contributor and taught how to even edit Pindula which is quite easy. Trust me, Editing Pindula is something that you’d really want to learn as you will learn how to use a Content Management System– a skill that you can actually get employed for in other organizations.
When and where can you attend the Edit-a-thon?
Today the 27th of September at Harare City Library.
What time?
Its starting at 2pm.
Do I pay to attend
No. Just bring your laptop so that you can learn how to edit Pindula.
Come guys. See you there!
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