Grants:IEG/WikiNarratives

status: not selected

Individual Engagement Grants	review grant submissions	visit IdeaLab submissions
eligibility and selection criteria

project:

WikiNarratives

project contact:

dalia1600gmail.com
and
dimitar.dimitrovwikipedia.at

participants:

Dalia Lourenco
Dimitar Dimitrov

summary:

Organise WikiSafaris and WikiExcursions in European countries with no Wikimedia chapter to unlock local volunteer community and GLAM cooperation potentials.

engagement target:

Commons is top priority, but also aiming at WikiSource and WikiVoyage. (Improved) Wikipedia articles in English and the language of the country visited are a longer-term goal.
Setting up new GLAM cooperations is the second major goal.

strategic priority:

Improving Quality, Increasing Participation

total amount requested:

8069 USD

2013 round 1

Project idea

WikiNarratives will aim to capture information that currently only exists in oral or visual form by recording it on video. We will organise a series of three week-long excursions made up of several experienced internationals and enthusiastic local volunteers in countries with no local chapter. The videos, photos, scans and other acquired information during the safari will be uploaded to Wikimedia servers to enrich its information base.

Project goals

The aim of the project is to create oral and visual citations. That is, provide oral and visual accounts of history, events, rituals or traditions where written ones do not exist.

There are three distinct sets of goals this project aims at:

Foster Content Contribution

• This project will increase Wikipedia’s Wikimedia Commons’ and perhaps even Wikivoyage’s scope by reaching the cultures and geographical areas that either do not share the tradition of publishing historical facts or have never had the opportunity.
• This project will provide voices to the voiceless and increase their relevance. Currently, in many countries, villages have local historians whose knowledge dies when they do.
• Organising a geographically concentrated safari in a specified region is an opportunity to create high-quality photo and video content in ordinarily hard-to-reach places.
• Similarly, on-location research gathering will enrich existing articles on Wikipedia and WikiVoyage as well as contributing new ones.
• Volunteers will be given the opportunity to get in touch with the things they want to write about, which will have motivating effects.

Strengthen Community

• Volunteers in countries with no local organisational infrastructure (Wikimedia chapter) will be given the opportunity to participate in a Wikimedia project.
• Ties between local volunteers and internationally active Wikimedians will be formed.
• The local community will benefit from taking part in the project's organisation, gaining considerable know-how and financing.

Lay Basis for Future Outreach Projects

• The excursions will be planned well ahead and museums, galleries, archives, monasteries, libraries etc. targeted. This will provide a first contact between Wikimedians and said institutions.
• Local volunteers (with the help of the international community) will be inspired to run outreach projects with the institutions they visit and other establishments.
• The entire project and experience gained can and should later be upscaled to a global level, helping communities throughout the world run their first projects before they can mature to become a chapter organisation.

Project plan

Scope:

Scope and activities

• Create project page on meta.
• Pick country, region and dates.
• Look for locals who want to join. (If too many we would need to come up with a way to select or increase participant number.)
• Look for institutions (GLAMs, monasteries, folklore clubs, etc.) who we can visit and cooperate with.
• Look for equipment (photo and TV cameras, audio recorders, scanners). These can be found either in the technology pools of already existing European WM chapters or as the private property of participants.
• Look for hostels, food supplies, car/van rentals or train/bus connections.

• Coordinate all of the above. Set date. Go!

• Film interviews, songs, dance and activities or rituals that are unrecorded or unavailable in the public domain.
• Take pictures of monuments, places, sites, etc. throughout the trip.
• Gather information, create contacts, foster friendships and talk to GLAMs.

• Follow-up on sharing and upload of created content.
• Follow-up on future project ideas discussed with locals and visited institutions.
• Keep in touch and motivate people to carry on.
• Provide know-how and feedback for similar projects in the future.

Tools, technologies, and techniques

• Technology from technology pools of European chapters(e.g. WMAT, WMSE) or project participants.
• Tags and boxes identifying content produced as a result of the project.
• Cool merchandise to promote group spirit.
• Maybe a more official Wikimedia email address (I currently only have a wikipedia.at one) to be able to better contact local cultural institutions.

Budget:

Total amount requested

€6000 or about 8069 US$

Budget breakdown

The idea is to organise three excursions which will tell three narratives from different European countries that do not have their own Wikimedia chapter.

These countries could be among Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Cyprus, Albania, Croatia, Belarus and Latvia. Additionally there is a number of countries with chapters in founding, which would also be eligible.

The final selection can only be made after a volunteer call and first contact with local cultural institutions has been established. Therefore I am giving a sample budget breakdown for a one-week, 6-person excursion in Bulgaria (made up of two internationals and four local volunteers).

1. Safari

Item	Cost in Euro	Remarks
Renting a van	282	e.g. Opel Vivaro for 7 days from Sixt
Gas	130	calculated for 1000km at 1,3 EUR per litre for a consumption of 10l/100km
Accommodation	324	Average expected price in hostels (10*6*6=360) and monasteries (8*6*6=288)
International volunteers travel	500	Two return tickets within Europe (estimated average non low-fare prices).
Board	360	Calculated on a 10 Euro/day allowance basis for six people and six days.
International parcel	200	e.g. Shipping a camera from Austria to Bulgaria and back if necessary.
Merchandise	98.85	e.g. Six polo shirts, pens and lapel pins from the WM shop (6*14.92+5.6+3.73), if we're not allowed to use logos on own ordered items.
Budget buffer	105.15	ca. 5% of total estimated budget for possible price fluctuations
Total Calculation	2000	Unspent/saved resources will first return to this grant's budget, then to WM FDC budget.

2. Safari e.g. Bosnia & Herzegovina, 6 people on a 2000 Euro budget. (Due to price differences budget items might change.)

3. Safari e.g. Latvia, 6 people on a 2000 Euro budget. (Due to price differences budget items might change.)

Intended impact:

Target audience

The primary target of this project are the local wikimedian communities. Auxilliary targets are the international Wikimedia communities (and contacts between international and local) and national/regional GLAM institutions that should be attracted to cooperate with the movement.

Fit with strategy

• This project will add dimension, colour and life to Wikipedia by “bringing information to life” through video. Currently, Wikipedia relies predominantly on written citations. This project will widen Wikipedia’s scope by allowing cultures that do not have written publications to participate in the global public information domain. Furthermore, it will increase the site’s multimedia appeal. Also, it will play an important and major factor to enriching Wikimedia Commons with valuable, rare and difficult-to-access multimedia.

• The project idea is novel and the content it will generate has significant human and historical interest. Therefore, it can be can be pitched as a story idea to local, national and international media, which in turn would generate beneficial coverage of Wikimedia, the community and its ideals.

• Increase participation in Wikimedia project in areas presently not served by the Foundation or its affiliates.
• Increase reach by initialising contact with future GLAM partners
• Improve quality of the projects by providing multimedia and other material from hard-to-access areas.

Sustainability

After the programme ends the idea is to first evaluate its success (by including a long-term follow-up to see what GLAM cooperation projects were started by local volunteers as a result of the project).

Secondly the experiences and know-how will be written down and shared on a portal/meta page.

Thirdly, the project should be replicated on other continents (Africa, Latin America, Asia) if successful.

Measures of success

• Local volunteers/wikimedians involved (the more the better).
• Press coverage.
• Did new GLAM/cooperation projects start after the excursion?
• Did the local wikimedians organise themselves better and are they more active in the global movement?
• Was the grant/entire project replicated on other continent?

Participant(s)

Dalia - Traveler and culture explorer. Lived in over seven countries, speaks English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and learning Arabic and Russian. Produced, filmed and edited videos for various organisations including the United Nations, INTO University Partnerships and City University London. Academic background in International Broadcast Journalism. Experience conducting interviews with various community actors in Timor-Leste, from politicians to fishermen. Creator, presenter and video editor of travel series Getting Close to.

Dimi_z - Political scientist, member of Wikimedia Austria, currently working on founding Wikimedia Belgium and monitoring EU legislation from a wikimedian's perspective. This goes along with his usual work contributing to the Bulgarian Wikipedia and translating things on meta.

Discussion

Community Notification:

The project will be announced on the village pump of the Bulgarian Wikipedia, since the pilot excursion (out of a total of 3) is previewed to take place there. The target audience will be reached through both online and offline platforms.

Endorsements:

Do you think this project should be selected for an Individual Engagement Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

• Community member: add your name and rationale here.