Fallout of the Language Diversity Conference

I was not at the Language Diversity Conference in Ghana and for many reasons I wish I was. I am grateful that there is a lot of messaging about events like this, results can be measured in many ways relevant for the Wikimedia ecosystem are two growth of knowledge about languages and cultures (sum of all knowledge) and the viability and relevance of languages for our global public.

At day one of the conference, Professor Samuel Alhassan Issah gave the keynote speach. One of his arguments is that translation is not enough. Relevance is gained by writing about the language, the culture the country itself that goes with a language. Anyway there is a Wikidata item for the professor it even includes a link to his ORCID identifier and that is what enables me/us to find publications and co-authors.

Adding the first publication, "The semantics of Dagbani cut and break verbs" to Wikidata brings me a few surprises. Wikidata has Dagbanli as the preferred name for Dagbani.. never mind. Also there are two co-authors both with ORCID identifiers. One of them is Bashiru Nurideen, who also has a Google Scholar identifier, I found this because I wanted to see a picture. He now has a Wikidata item and is linked to this publication. Wikidata knows about a Bashiru Nurideen Ponaa known as a volunteer, he may be the same person if he is, someone may merge the Wikidata items. Google Scholar indicates another publication for the same author. However in the publication there is no link to his ORCID identifier and his name is now Nurideen Bashiru..

In the article there is a picture who may include the professor and Bashiru Nurideen Ponaa. It would be good when there is a foto for them at Commons..

Thanks,

     GerardM