Week 5: What Even Is This Project? Let Me Explain

Hey friends 👋

We’re already in Week 5 of Outreachy and this week’s theme is “Think About Your Audience.” Basically, we were asked to write a blog post that explains our project in a way that a newcomer (or someone like past-me before Outreachy) could understand. So here’s my attempt at that — a little story-style, a little tech-y, and hopefully helpful!

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The Community I’m Working With 🧑‍💻🌍

I'm contributing to the Wikimedia Commons Android app, which is part of the huge open-source family under the Wikimedia Foundation (yes, the folks behind Wikipedia!). But instead of editing articles, this project is all about contributing images.

Think of it this way: Ever searched for a monument on Wikipedia and found zero pictures? That’s where Wikimedia Commons comes in. It’s a media repository of freely-licensed images that people from all over the world can upload — and the Android app makes it easier for folks to contribute directly from their phones.

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What Have I Been Working On?

Here’s a glimpse of the things I’ve contributed to so far:

• Improved the “Nearby Places” feature: This helps users find locations around them that need pictures. I worked on tweaking how these are shown and filtered, including making it clear when a place might no longer be active.

• Fixed a UI bug in the custom image picker: Sometimes the selection overlay icon wouldn’t show up properly — I dug into that and made it work smoothly again.

• Tested and debugged location-related features: Worked with geolocation and SPARQL queries to ensure that the nearby places shown are accurate and relevant.

• Contributed to discussions on improving user experience: Whether it’s layout, icons, or just how users interact with features, I’ve had the chance to pitch in!

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Why This Project Matters ❤️

This project empowers people from anywhere in the world to contribute local knowledge through pictures. Whether it's a small temple in a remote village, a statue, or even a library — if it’s not yet represented visually, you can change that. And I think that’s pretty powerful.

It’s also teaching me real-world skills: working with a large Android codebase, contributing to open source, understanding how to deal with backend data like Wikidata, and collaborating asynchronously with people from all over the globe.

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If you’re an Outreachy applicant thinking about working on this project or anything similar — don’t worry if things seem confusing at first. Ask questions, be curious, and know that you’re contributing to something meaningful. :)

Until next time,
Sonal