Phase 3 of Mozilla Webmaker Rwanda. A day we were all looking forward to, to see what the 26 participants had created this past 4 weeks. Mozilla Foundation partnered with Souktel Mobile Solutions in Rwanda and Cambodia to pilot Webmaker software in January. The case study was to see if it’s possible for youth of any skill level to quickly become content creators and read, write and participate on the Web. Rwanda had 26 participants who attended phase 2 of the event and these participants of different skill level, some of which were web illiterate, were transformed to be content creators on the web. About 70% had no idea what coding was so how could they creates anything on the web? That is the question they asked is in June (phase 2) during the first interview. But with Mozilla Webmaker, this was possible.
The past 4 weeks, Mozilla Rwanda Community has been working with the participants to guide them through the process and help them understand the app/ tool and it was now time t see the results.At 12.00pm, we started the interviews. 17 out of 26 participants came for the exit interviews and we asked them a few questions about their experience with the app. Mozilla Rwanda conducted the interviews.
In the afternoon, we had the Q/A session where participants would ask questions and also tell the audience what challenges they encountered and their experience in general. The audience also asked them questions about the app and what it can do.
After the Q/A session, we had a brief presentation about Mozilla, Mozilla Products (emphasize on webmaker), Mozilla Communities and how they can join a community and contribute to Mozilla. After the presentation, we had many questions because not many people know about Mozilla. Many people thought Webmaker is a product of Firefox but we had to emphasize Firefox is a product of Mozilla and Mozilla had many other products like Webmaker among others.
Finally the moment every one was eagerly waiting for had arrived. It was time for the competition to see what the participants had created. We had a panel of judges and an audience to see what the participants ad been working on. I must confess that before the presentations, I was a bit worried and scared that we would not get results and the research was a failure but after the first 2 presentations, I was amazed by what the participants had created. The first participant had never owned a smartphone before and did not even had an email account when we started this process but he was among the top 5 of the best content created. All the 17 participants presented their projects and the audience was amazed tat even if you do not have coding skills, you can create something on the web. They still did not believe that most participants were web illiterate and for this matter, they downloaded the app to try it and see it with their eyes and yes the results were true. You do not need web skills to create something awesome on the web. Webmaker app/ tool was created for this particular reason. so that anybody can can be web literate.
After everyone's presentation and all questions answered, it was time to name the winner of the competition. The panel of judges selected the best 5 presentations in this criteria; presentation, idea and practicality , The five were presented to the audience who also voted and gave reason as to why they think they vote for the app.
- Francine Uwingabire - https://beta.webmaker.org/users/446201/projects/3477
- Mugisha Christian - https://beta.webmaker.org/users/425304/projects/2233
- Eric Kubwumucunguzi - https://beta.webmaker.org/users/425177/projects/3884
- Bienvenu Ndakize - https://beta.webmaker.org/users/431500/projects/1196
- Kabera Jack - https://beta.webmaker.org/users/277436/projects/3635
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| Top five participants |
After everyone's vote, we had a winner Francine Uwingabire (Webmaker account francine-rw). Her winning project was https://beta.webmaker.org/users/426038/projects/2449
Everyone was still excited about the app and they did not want the day to come to an end but they say all good things must come to an end but that doesn't mean it is the end of webmaker but the beginning of Webmaker in Rwanda. We had 10 new Mozillians recruited and 14 participants willing to teach the web in future and be club captains. That means we will have more Webmaker events in Rwanda. Participants gave a vote of thanx to Mozilla and Souktel for making this happen and giving them an opportunity to be of a bigger picture. Az then gave a vote of thanks and closed the day.
Participants asked me to say thank you to Mozilla Foundation and they are willing to do more by teaching others what they learnt from Mozilla Webmaker and this group pictures say it all with the happy faces which show satisfaction with the exercise.
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