User:NegMawon

My main interest on Wikipedia is Haiti - particularly the improvement of the education sector. I value accuracy, truth and transparency. I respect Haitian citizens and strive to provide information that will help them govern their own country. "Neg Mawon Pap Jamn Kraze" (The English translation: The Free Man Can Never Be Destroyed).

=Use the Power of Wikipedia to Boost Access to Kreyol Resources=
 * Would you like to see Haitians have the latest medical info in their hands whenever they need it?
 * Would you like to see a Haitian child have an explanation of the solar system in a language they understand?
 * Would you like to see a Haitian teen grow in pride when they read in their native tongue what their ancestors accomplished?

You can do all this and more by contributing to the Haitian Kreyol Wikipedia. You don't need special credentials or permission to edit the world's largest encyclopedia. You don't need to have a degree or pass a test. All you need is the ability to write in Kreyol.

Your efforts combined with the free access to Wikipedia on mobile phones in Haiti will turbo charge the amount of useful information getting into the hands of Haitians.

The free access to Wikipedia is by Wikipedia Zero -  a project  between Wikimedia Foundation and its partners that gives free access to Wikipedia over mobile phones - data charges are not applied. So anyone - rich or poor - in Haiti with a cell phone has the world of information in their fingertips. So let's give them valuable information in Kreyol.

NegMawon is starting a grassroots effort among the Haitian diaspora to increase the number of quality articles in the Kreyol Wikipedia. The fastest and easiest way to do this is to translate key articles from the English or French Wikipedia and then move them into the Kreyol Wikipedia. The first goal is to harness the wisdom of Haitian scholars and thought leaders to generate a list of 200 key articles to translate in one year.

Since NegMawon is based in Massachusetts, the Boston Diaspora has been approached first but all Haitians everywhere are welcome.

In addition to seeing that 200 high quality articles are added to the Kreyol Wikipedia, NegMawon wants to dramatically increase the number of Wikipedia editors who will continue to add to the Kreyol encyclopedia. We want to empower Haitians to be contributors and creators of content on the web, not only consumers.

The Basics of Wikipedia (WP)
Anyone can edit WP. You can edit without signing up for an account but that will expose your ISP - which can identify the location of the edits. Editing from an account gives more anonymity. In the WP encyclopedias that have existed longer and have more articles such as the English or French there are a number of safeguards against vandalism, inaccurate or biased information. There are about 10 kinds of safeguards that range from robotic checking of text to thousands of eyes scanning the work for errors. An important part of robust error checking is a system of editors who take on administrative tasks and keep an eye on things. The Kreyol WP at the moment has one administrator.

The entries in the WP encyclopedia are called articles. Each fact in an article must be verifiable with a citation to a published valid source such as a newspaper, book, journal article, etc. Articles must be balanced and offer a neutral point of view. Editors should avoid working on articles that might cause a conflict of interest. If an editor has subject expertise, they still need to cite their sources. These are bedrock principles that underpin the whole WP effort.

Articles are usually built up over time by multiple editors. Perfection at the beginning is not necessary since successive editors will add and improve article over time. Each article has a Talk page where editors interested in that article can leave messages for one another. This is where editors can share sources, pose questions about the direction an article is going or share editing insights related to the article. Editors can also 'watch' articles.

The WP community is composed mainly of Caucasian men under 40 but many steps are being taken to add other voices to WP. This demographic is frequently privileged with the latest technology and the free time to edit WP On an article Talk page, communication from many of these editors can seem  harsh but it is usually not coming from a mean place  They can fall into Tech Speak when explaining a Wikipedia process to a newcomer and that can seem overwhelming. But not to worry - there are many places in the English WP to go for help and to gain more understanding. This is a good place to start: As you explore WP, you will come across pages of more experienced editors and they often list pages they have found useful for newcomers.

There is a Haitian community on the English WikiProject Haiti at the Haiti Portal. This section of WP lists among other things the quality of various Haiti related articles and which articles should be edited first. To find out who is working on different Haiti articles, you can click on the article's History tab and all the editors and their changes will be listed. if you click through to the editor's space, you can leave a message on their Talk page or click on the email tab if their email is operational. User Aliceba is very active in promoting Haitian interests on WP.

Wikipedia is just one project of the Wikimedia Foundation. The foundation manages many other Wiki projects. They include WikiSource where documents can be uploaded and Wikibooks where books with no copyright restrictions can be uploaded. It also provides the Wikimedia Commons where photos and audio are uploaded and then can be used in Wikipedia articles. All items uploaded to a Wikimedia wiki are then open to be used in any way by anyone on the web. The Kreyol subdomain of Wikisource  contains just one document at the moment - the 1987 constitution. Items uploaded to the Wikisource or Wikibooks do not have to meet the requirement of each fact being verified with a citation. Wikisource is for items already published and in the public domain. Wikibooks is designed for instructional materials that are being written in a wiki fashion in Wikibooks.

How to search Wikipedia. Most users are only interested in the subjects of the articles and the search box in WP is adequate for that. But if you want information about how some part of WP works use Google. Wikimedia is working on a better search engine for WP.

=Contributions=

Edit-a-thons
Facilitated 4 edit-a-thons with the University of Massachusetts Lowell library focusing on local history.

Major Work

 * Digital Library of the Caribbean
 * Education in Haiti
 * Rayford Logan

Minor Work

 * 2014 American immigration crisis
 * Haiti
 * Haitian Creole
 * History of Lowell, Massachusetts
 * Music of Haiti
 * National Archives of Haiti
 * South End, Boston
 * Timeline of Lowell, Massachusetts
 * United States occupation of Haiti
 * West End, Boston