Annual Report 2021/Story: Usage of MediaWiki amongst Swedish authorities
In this Story we are focusing on the inventory we made on how Swedish authorities use MediaWiki. It turned out that several authorities either used, had used, or were interested in using MediaWiki for their internal work.
One of the major projects of Wikimedia Sverige is the development of Wikispeech, a speech synthesis for MediaWiki. EU legislation requires that all public authorities make their platforms accessible also for people with disabilities, and it was our hypothesis that Wikispeech therefore could make MediaWiki more interesting as software for public authorities in Sweden.
Thus, we reached out to all public authorities in Sweden, and asked if they knew of MediaWiki, and if they had used it, used it, or would be interested in knowing how to use it. While many public authorities had never heard of MediaWiki, it turned out that several public authorities either use it today, or had used it previously. Several also expressed their interest in using it in the future. As a consequence, we are planning events to cater for this interest.
It also turned out that wikis in general is an appreciated tool for authorities to use. The lack of interoperability between MediaWiki and other platforms used by agencies made, however, a few authorities move from MediaWiki to proprietary solutions. This is also relevant information, as it affects how we can work ahead in order to get more authorities interested in using MediaWiki.
Another learning from the inventory was that amongst the authorities that use MediaWiki, most of them use it for internal purposes. No authority explicitly answered that they used MediaWiki for communication or interaction with an external audience.
We will use this inventory to develop a series of events in the future, to compile, if possible, case studies for increased usage, and to see if there are possibilities for applying for funds for this kind of development. The report can be found here.
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