Diane and Elisabeth,

It was a great honor to work with you for the six weeks. My vision is to improve sanitation in schools here in Kenya. I feel working on this project was a great opportunity for me to contribute towards sanitation related online content. I look forward to continuously contribute positively to improving online sanitation content.

Congratulations to Maureen Amakabane of Nairobi, who is receiving a $500 “thank you” for her contributions to Sanitation Wikipedia. She joined the project in October and worked steadily over the course of six weeks. In total, she worked on more than ten articles. She says one of her secrets was working at 5 am when she had a quiet house. I was often amazed to see how much she was getting done in two hours. And she did that day after day.



Maureen is quite new to SuSanA, so let me tell you a little about her. She started her career as a sales and marketing manager in the private sector. During that 10-year period, she was also a consultant to youth and women-led start-ups. Recently she decided to leave the corporate world and start a social enterprise. She is developing partnerships in Nairobi and working toward improving sanitation in schools and households. She has incorporated into her business model plans for addressing youth unemployment.

Thank You, Maureen !

Diane & Elisabeth
for the whole Sanitation Wikipedia team

Thanks to the Sanitation Wikipedia team, lots of good work has been done on WASH articles in the last month.
With World Toilet Day four days away, we need a new set of eyes to review each article. Could you volunteer an hour to read one article?

If so, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and let us know which one you'll read for us. New eyes find new ways of improving the read, or fixing awkward phrasing, or noticing where one good picture would save a thousand words.

SuSanA appreciates your time and expertise, and so do we.

Diane and Elisabeth
for the Sanitation Wikipedia Team

Have you done any Wikipedia editing yet in support of World Toilet Day this year? Maybe you'd like to get involved but don't know how to find the time or how to get started?

One option would be to join Arno and myself in the Adobe Connect virtual workroom: between now and World Toilet Day we have both committed to being in that room every day (except Saturday and Sunday) between 12 noon and 1 pm CET (Central European Time). Why not join us for some moral support or guidance on Wikipedia editing?

For details see here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/S...nect_work_room_hours

Or simply enter the room with this link:
seint.adobeconnect.com/Sanitation_Wikipedia

(this is not a webinar but literally just a virtual chat room)

By the way, yesterday I did some work on the Wikipedia page about SuSanA. Check out what I put under "activities" now:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Sanita..._Alliance#Activities

Much more could be added on SuSanA's various activities but please be aware that you need to add a reference with each statement. Just citing the SuSanA website is not so good. I cited the two press releases from SEI and the page of UN Water which is better as they are secondary sources about SuSanA, not from SuSanA.

Regards,
Elisabeth

Today is first of November - that means 19 days to go until World Toilet Day! The day when media attention turns to our favorite topic for one short day. The day when members of the public turn to Wikipedia to find out "What is World Toilet Day?". This means we have 19 days left to improve the content they will see there on Wikipedia.

The Wikipedia article about World Toilet Day is in relatively good shape already although I would like to see a better lead section. The lead is the part at the beginning which is meant to summarise the article and which is used by Siri, Alexa and other "personal assistants" to answer the question of "What is World Toilet Day?"

I've just investigated view rates of Wikipedia articles for the last two years. Interestingly, the view rates for World Toilet Day spike on 19 November, as you would expect, going up to 20,000 views (from only 50 views on normal days). The view rates for Toilet and Sanitation do not spike but are much higher than for World Toilet Day all year around (both around 1000 views per day compared to just 50 views per day for World Toilet Day). See here the data in logarithmic scale, starting in July 2015:



If you want to investigate the data further yourself, just click here:
tools.wmflabs.org/pageviews/?project=en....%7CToilet|Sanitation

So what does this tell me? I would say we need to put our efforts into those pages that get high view rates - on specific days or all year around.

Can you help? We still need enthusiatic people from our SuSanA network to join the team - the "Sanitation Wikipedia Team".

Just reply in this thread or e-mail me. Or simply take up a Wikipedia login (if you don't have one yet) and register here: outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Su...rds)?enroll=rfgsxeic
and start editing on Wikipedia - be bold! See you online!

Regards,
Elisabeth

We're scouting for SuSanA talent.......and for members who celebrate World Toilet Day.

The momentum is growing as World Toilet Day approaches. We have one month to get WASH pages in better shape for all those viewers who get curious about WASH topics around 19 November. I'm writing to put on a little pressure. We can always use more people on the team. Remember that SuSanA is awarding $500 honorariums to show appreciation for quantity and for quality. You, too, can be $500 to the good as of 19 November. Invest time. Invest talent. We'll reward both.

You've heard of the "wonder of the imminent deadline"? or maybe you resonate more with "there's nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus the mind?" We've definitely got a deadline. One month. Can you offer a little time to make sure the WASH articles you care about are good? Are you an academic who has asked yourself: "Does anyone ever read what I write?" Write for Wikipedia, and you'll have a ready audience. We need people who can work just on the introductory paragraphs of topics. We don't need a big time commitment. Just a talent commitment.

Here's the link to the 70 Wikipedia articles we want to see improved by 19 November:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/S..._from_for_this_drive. The list also tells you how many people read that article each day. Pretty impressive. And it shows you the readability score for each article. Not so impressive - lots of room for improvement!

The list is hyperlinked, so you're only one more click away from seeing what Wikipedia has to say on your favourite WASH topic. We hope you will join the SuSanA team and make your mark on this Public Education Initiative:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Sanitation_Wikipedia/2

Watch this space for more information on how we'll use the Adobe Connect Virtual Room as an Editing Work Room for an intense couple of days. You can meet your fellow Wikipedians there who are also working on WASH pages.

Elisabeth and Diane
for the Sanitation Wikipedia team

SuSanA will award $500 honorariums for contribution to Sanitation Wikipedia

Public education is within the scope of activities supported by the BMGF grant that is improving the knowledge management (KM) capacity of SuSanA. We are therefore happy to announce to SuSanA members that the grant will award $500 honorariums for outstanding Wikipedia upgrade work done between now and November 19. Read on to learn more.

The announcement just went live on the World Toilet Day website. www.worldtoiletday.info/meet-up-on-wikipedia/

Here’s the message:

Interested in public education? On World Toilet Day each year, Wikipedia always sees an uptick in clicks on topics related to toilets and sanitation in general. The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA) could use your help in upgrading information all those curious readers will find when they go to Wikipedia on 19 November 2017.

You can help make water and sanitation articles more readable, comprehensive and accurate. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to express interest or ask questions. (We respond within 24 hours: test them !) You can also go directly to the Meetup Page on Wikipedia to read the list of recommended articles and register as a “Sanitation Wikipedia” editor. This means your contributions will be logged to the project’s “Outreach Dashboard.”

As a special incentive, SuSanA will use that dashboard to award a few $500 honorariums on World Toilet Day. We want to acknowledge especially strong contributions: both quality and quantity of edits matter. We have a special interest in recruiting editors who are from developing countries, women, MSc or PhD students.

Raising knowledge and awareness about sanitation topics is one step toward accomplishing Sustainable Development Goal Number 6: water and sanitation for all.

++++++++
Note by moderator: some examples of what people are working on as part of this drive are available in this thread:
forum.susana.org/198-wikipedia/21779-exa...orld-toilet-day-2017

Thanks, Chris. I see your reasoning about a shorter list. In practical terms, people will be working on the ones that need the most work. The baseline study does include 70 because we thought it valuable to have those good examples in the mix with the ones that need more work. Our thinking was that it would help people see what "better" and "best" looks like.

There isn't a single one of the 70 that isn't deficient in some way, however small, given the high standard Wikipedia sets. Medical Wikipedia has set a high bar for Sanitation Wikipedia to reach. We intend to do just that, and see this as a long-term project. We want members of the Alliance to be proud of the information available to the public about their work.

Professor Alert: If you are already assigning specific Wikipedia pages to your students, or will consider doing this: please email us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to let us know which topics you've assigned. We will send you the baseline statistics for those topics, which will point them to areas that do and don't need attention, given our quality targets. Parameters include: number of citations, number of images, average sentence length, quality of the lead paragraphs, whether the JMP report is or should be referenced, and many more.

Action Requested: Please use "copy & paste" to email this request to professors who teach courses on water and sanitation.

Hi Diane and Elisabeth,

I would suggest that many of those pages are in good shape. It might be worthwhile to make a shorter list of pages that need help and diagnose them (This one needs references, that one photos, these proofreading, those translations, that one creation from scratch, etc.).

Like I have mentioned before, I recommend any Forum members who are professors to assign Wikipedia editing as class assignments.

Remember that individual participants can specialize on these various tasks, if they like. For example, someone who has a lot of sanitation-related photos may enjoy adding these (plus all of the SuSanA Flickr photos are readily available).

Best wishes,
Chris Canaday

World Toilet Day is two months from today. Between now and 19 November, a team of SuSanA members will be improving the quality of information available on Wikipedia about WASH (water, sanitation, hygiene) topics. Sanitation Wikipedia is an ongoing project* and we've selected 70 topics** to work on in this two-month period.

Why does Wikipedia matter? About 600 people go to Wikipedia each day to learn about "open defecation" and 900 view the Wikipedia article on “sanitation.” In total, more than 52,000 people access the 70 topics on water and sanitation in any given day. What they find needs to be well written for the general reader, include illustrations and images to support the text, and cite the most current references to assure accuracy. Healthcare professionals have made Wikipedia an excellent source of medical information. We are working towards that same high standard for sanitation information.

Here’s how you can contribute to the project:
1. Make sure your favorite topic is on the list of 70 pre-selected Wikipedia articles (scroll down). Post here or email us to make suggestions for other topics you'd like to see on the Sanitation Wikipedia list.

2. Become part of the Sanitation Wikipedia team by registering on the official “Meetup Page” here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Sanitation_Wikipedia/2. The Meetup Page page gives suggestions for how to improve articles and promotes collaboration with other SuSanA members. One hour of your time can make a difference: all volunteers welcome.

3. Want to ask questions or make suggestions? Post in this thread or e-mail us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Organizations are getting involved, too. Watch this space for more on what organizations like UN-Water, the Toilet Board Coalition, PHLUSH, WASH United, GATHER and Earthwatch are doing to improve the quality of WASH information on Wikipedia.

Regards,
Diane & Elisabeth

*This initiative is part of the BMGF grant to a consortium led by SEI that is developing SuSanA's global knowledge platform. Go here for more info about the grant: forum.susana.org/component/kunena/10-ann...l-knowledge-platform.
Go here to find discussion threads of previous Wikipedia work: www.forum.susana.org/198-wikipedia

**Current list of 70 Sanitation Wikipedia articles:
Antimicrobial resistance
Ascariasis
Behavior change (public health)
Blackwater (waste)
Child mortality
Cholera
Community-led total sanitation
Compost
Composting toilet
Container-based sanitation
Decentralized wastewater system
Diarrhea
Drinking water
Dry toilet
Emergency management
Emergency sanitation
Fecal sludge management
Fecal–oral route
Feces
Gastroenteritis
Global Handwashing Day
Greywater
Groundwater pollution
Hand washing
Helminthiasis
Helminths
History of water supply and sanitation
Human feces
Human right to water and sanitation
Human waste
Hygiene
Improved sanitation
Malnutrition
Malnutrition in children
Manual scavenging
Mass deworming
Menstrual cup
Menstrual hygiene day
Neglected tropical diseases
Omni Processor
Open defecation
Pit latrine
Public health
Public toilet
Reclaimed water
Reuse of excreta
Sanitation
Schistosomiasis
Self-supply of water and sanitation
Septic tank
Sewage
Sewage treatment
Social marketing
Stunted growth
Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable sanitation
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Toilet
Urine
Urine-diverting dry toilet
Vacuum truck
Vermifilter
WASH
Wastewater
Wastewater treatment
Water pollution
Waterborne diseases
World Toilet Day
World Water Day