Somewhere in Cameroon right now, a student is revising from a photocopy so faded that the numbers are hard to read, and an elder is telling a story that no book has recorded. Cameroon Open Data is a community project that collects this kind of knowledge, such as exam questions, proverbs, translations between our languages, laws and facts about our places, and stores it in an open and organised way so that students, researchers and the AI tools of the future can learn from it.
You do not need to be a developer to help. You do not need to install anything, edit a file or learn Git. To contribute, you fill in a form on the GitHub website, the same way you would fill in any online form, and press Submit. A robot turns your answers into a properly formatted record and sends it to a reviewer. This guide shows you every click. You can find the project here: Cameroon Open Data on GitHub.
Contents
- 1. Create a GitHub account
- 2. Star the repository
- 3. Open the Issues tab
- 4. Choose the right form
- 5. Fill in the form
- 6. Submit and see what happens
- A worked example
- Rules to follow
- If something goes wrong
1. Create a GitHub account
GitHub is the website where the project lives, and creating an account is free. Open the GitHub sign up page, enter your email address, choose a password and a username, and follow the instructions. GitHub sends a code to your email to confirm that it is really you. Your username is the name that can appear next to your contribution, so choose one you are happy to see in public. If you already have an account, sign in and go to the next step.
2. Star the repository
A repository, often shortened to "repo", is simply the project folder on GitHub. Starring it is like bookmarking and applauding at the same time. It costs nothing, it tells other people the project is worth a look, and it helps us find more contributors. Open the project page and click the Star button near the top right. The star turns yellow once it is saved.
3. Open the Issues tab
On the project page, look at the row of tabs under the project name: Code, Issues, Pull requests, Actions and so on. Click Issues. On GitHub, an issue is a simple message to the project. For this project, issues are also how data is submitted, so this is the only part of GitHub you will use.
Then click the green New issue button on the right.
4. Choose the right form
GitHub now shows a list of forms, and each one has a short description. Pick the one that matches what you want to share. The exam question form is for questions from GCE, BEPC, Probatoire, Baccalauréat and entrance competitions. The text form is for proverbs, folktales, speeches, laws, recipes and descriptions of customs. The question and answer form is for something people in Cameroon often ask, with an answer you know is right. The translation form is for the same sentence in two languages, such as Pidgin and English, or Ewondo and French. The facts form is for details about one named place, institution, law, crop or event. If you have a recording, a scan or photos of a paper but no time to type, use the recording or photo form, and another volunteer will transcribe it. Click Get started next to your choice.
5. Fill in the form
The form is made of ordinary boxes and drop-down lists. Boxes marked with a red star must be filled in, and the others can be left empty. Choose the Folder that fits your data. The folders are organised by sector, so culture, languages, health, history and so on, and if you are not sure, choose the last option and the maintainers will place it for you. Then type your text exactly as it is written or said, and describe where it comes from. Two boxes near the end deserve a careful answer: Your right to share it and Does it need special care?. "I am not sure" is always an acceptable answer to the first one, and nobody will judge you for it. Finally, tick the agreement box.
6. Submit and see what happens
Scroll to the bottom and click Submit new issue. This is the last thing you do, and from here the project takes over. Within about a minute, a comment from the project's robot appears under your issue saying that your contribution was turned into a record and sent for review. Behind the scenes, the robot has written your data into the right folder, checked that the format is correct, and opened a pull request, which is just the project's word for a proposed change. You do not need to open it or do anything with it. A human reviewer reads it, and when they approve it your data becomes part of the collection, your issue closes by itself, and your name stays attached to your contribution.
If the same data is already in the collection, the robot says so politely and closes your issue. That is good news for the project, and nothing is wrong with your submission.
A worked example
To see how simple it is, here is the translation form filled in with one greeting. In the shared boxes at the bottom, choose Cameroon Pidgin English as the language, Whole country as the region, and "My own knowledge or experience" as the answer to how you know it.
| Box | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Folder | Languages / Parallel corpora |
| First language | Pidgin |
| Text in the first language | How you dey? |
| Second language | English |
| Text in the second language | How are you? |
| Subject area | Greetings |
Please use your own sentences when you contribute. Every sentence only needs to be added once, and your own phrases, from your own village and your own language, are exactly what the project is looking for.
Rules to follow
Please add only what you wrote yourself or have the right to share. Official exam papers belong to the bodies that set them, so choose the rights option that is honest, and pick "I am not sure" if you do not know. Do not include private phone numbers, home addresses, identity numbers or medical details about named people. Record people only if they agreed to be recorded and shared. If a story or tradition belongs to a community and may not be meant for everyone, say so in the "special care" box and let the right people review it first. The full explanation is in the rights and privacy guide.
If something goes wrong
If you cannot see the forms, check that you are signed in to GitHub and that you have access to the project. If nothing appears under your issue after five minutes, the robot may have been delayed, so wait a little and refresh the page. If the robot replies that a box was empty or something needs a fix, submit the form again with the problem corrected. If you spot a mistake in your own submission afterwards, write a comment under your issue and a maintainer will fix it. And if you are stuck at any step, leave a comment under any issue and someone will help.
Every record, however small, helps. One proverb, one translated sentence or one correctly typed exam question adds to a memory that belongs to all of us. Star the project, open a form and send your first contribution today.
