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Grants:PEG/KSarkar/Bengali Wikipedia 10th anniversary in India/Report

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Report accepted
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Project name: Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Celebration Kolkata

Project team: Bengali Wikipedians from West Bengal, India

Time and Place: 9 January, 2015 - 10 January, 2015 and Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Amount of Grant: INR 322,500

Project status

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Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?
YES
Is your project completed?
YES
Is your project completed?
YES

Background

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Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Conference logo

Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Conference was one of the first regional Wikimedia meet-up and conference of its kind in West Bengal, India. The program of this conference was devoted to topics concerning the Wikimedia movement in the India, as well as related topics of free culture and digital rights. The conference featured a diverse array of offerings such as keynotes, presentations, panels, and workshop sessions; provide a lounge space and break areas for conference attendees to gather and mingle.

Activities and lessons learned

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Team

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Pre-conference Committee Meeting

The conference preparations were being led by members of the Bengali Wikipedia Community from West Bengal, who were playing a major part in various teams as well. Also part of various teams are members of the larger India Wiki-Community who have rugged it out for a few years and now share their experience in giving the hosts a welcome helping hand in this first national Bengali Wiki-initiative in the country. Arjuna Rao Chovala, former President of Wikimedia India Chapter; Bisakha Dutta, member of Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director of Centre for Internet and Society - Access to Knowledge| had graciously agreed to join the team in advisory capacity. The community received complete support, both in planning and field work, from the academia School of Languages and Linguistics, Jadavpur University.

Core Team Members
  1. Jayanta Nath - Secretary, Wikimedia India Chapter; Secretary, Organizing Committee
  2. Kalyan Sarkar - Chair, Organizing Committee
  3. Bodhisattwa Mandal
  4. Santanu Chandra
  5. Sujay Chandra
  6. Biswarup Ganguly
  7. Ayan Choudhury
  8. Sumantro Mukherjee
  9. Rangan Datta
  10. Prachatos Mitra
  11. Dr. Tanmay Bir- Joint Convener
  12. Partha Sarathi Banerjee
 
Bengali Language Wikimedians - Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Celebration,Jadavpur University,Kolkata 2015
Organizing Committee Member from Jadavpur University
  • Prof. Asis Mazumdar, Dean, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Jadavpur University
  • Sanjay Gopal Sarkar, Joint Registrar (Academic), Jadavpur University
  • Siddhartha Bhattachrya, Secretary, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Jadavpur University
  • Prof.Mahidas Bhattacharya, Director, School of Languages and Linguistics, Jadavpur University
  • Dr. Rita Ray, Jadavpur University
  • Dr. Samir Karmakar, Jadavpur University
  • Atanu Saha, School of Languages and Linguistics, Jadavpur University - Joint Convener

Activities

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Wikipedia takes Kolkata IV

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Participants at Dwadash Shiv Mandir, Kolkata. 14 Dec. 2014.

Wikipedia Takes Kolkata, a planned photo scavenger hunt in the spirit of Wikipedia Takes the City, was held in Kolkata on December 14, 2014. This event ws aimed at increasing the coverage of free photographs involving the city of Kolkata so that they can be used in Wikipedia articles which need pictures, as well as promoting awareness of Wikipedia. In this fourth annual photo-hunt, several temple complexes around Chetla and Tollygunge along the Adi Ganga river were photographed and 328 photographs were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The participants were encouraged to upload their photos as entries to the 'Bangla Wikipedia Photography Contest 2014 being held along the lines of the 10th anniversary celebration of Bengali Wikipedia. Fifteen persons turned up for the photo walk.

Photo contest

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Photo Contest Winner Announcement by Bengali Wikipedia Admin and Jury Nahid Sultan
 
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Bangla Wikipedia Photography Contest 2014, supported by Wikimedia India and organized locally by the Bangla Wikipedia community members, was held on the theme of 'India', as a part of the 10th anniversary of Bengali Wikipedia program. More than 1,100 photos were uploaded as a part of the contest out of which the jury chose the top three winners. The aim of the 3 months long contest was to collect pictures of natural heritage sites and gardens, such as nature reserves, nature / landscape conservation areas, natural parks, scenic / landscape areas, remarkable gardens, etc. of India to illustrate articles in Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation projects. The focus was not only on sites of national importance, but also on those protected at the regional level, and variety of natural and historic sites possible. The competition started from 1st October and the final deadline was December 31, 2014. This event was supported by Wikimedia India and organized locally by the Bangla Wikipedia community members.

Top three winning photos are shown below.

International conference

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An international conference was held at Jadavpur University on 9th and 10th January 2015. This was the first international meetup that brought the Bengali Wikipedians from India and Bangladesh in one platform. Apart from that, Indian and Nepali Wikiipedians actively contributing in other Indic-language Wikipedia like Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Maithili, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu also participated in the event.

 
Open Discussion - Collaboration among Bengali Language Wikipedians of Bangladesh and West Bengal,Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Celebration,Jadavpur University,Kolkata 2015
Call for papers
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The conference offered four tracks for paper submissions: Community, Technology, Knowledge and Outreach and emphasizing the areas of Open source software and technology, Technological glitches of softwares/platforms/interfaces developed in Indian Languages. The topics which were expected to cover in the presentation were as follows. The submissions were reviewed and successful candidates were accepted for oral and poster presentations and scholarships were given to those who requested.

Scholarships
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Reimbursement of travel expenses

With the assistance of Wikimedia Foundation and CIS-A2K, scholarships to Indic language Wikipedian delegates and Bengali language Wikipedians of Bangladesh were granted. The scholarship included dormitory or shared accommodation for two days with moderate facilities, food and refreshments. In addition, they were entitled to be reimbursed for the charges for a round trip train ticket for second class non-air conditioned sleeper from the city of the applicant, not exceeding INR 3000. Selected very-active Bengali Wikipedians from Bangladesh were granted to and fro Economic class flight fare.

Program
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M Krishna Doss and Shashank Gupta presenting collaboration between Microsoft and Indic Language communities

The two day international conference commenced with a welcome note by Professor Asis Mazumdar, Dean of the Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Jadavpur University, followed by the keynote by Professor Pabitra Sarkar, former Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University and then the speech by the chief guest of the program Professor Basab Chaudhuri, Registrar of Calcutta University.

 
Poster presentation

After the opening session, the program split into three parallel tracks - paper presentation, panel discussion and workshop. In the first track, eight papers were presented by scholars from various institutes. In the second track, panel discussions were held on topics of collaboration with academic institutes for the growth of Indic language Wikipedia and collaboration between Bengali Wikipedia editors from Bangladesh and India for the growth of Bengali Wikipedia. In the third track, nine sessions were held on basic and advanced editing in Bengali Wikipedia and sister projects. The day ended with the 10th anniversary celebration of the Bengali Wikipedia.

 
Open Discussion - Womens Contribution to Wikipedia,Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Celebration,Jadavpur University,Kolkata 2015

Day two began with a joint photo sessions. The program for the day was divided into three tracks. the first track included paper presentations, invited talks & poster presentation. The second track consisted of round table discussions on topics of women's contribution to Wikipedia and collaboration between Indic language communities for the growth of Indic language Wikipedias. The third track consisted of a day long editathon in Bengali Wikipedia and sister projects. The day ended with the 14th anniversary celebration of English Wikipedia.

 
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
 
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
Media Coverage
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Press Conference for Bengali Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Celebration
 
Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:
English Media
Bengali Media

Acknowledgements

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  • Wikimedia Foundation
  • Centre for Internet and Society, India
  • Wikimedia India Chapter
  • Jadavpur University

Lessons learned

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What worked well?
The event was an overall success. The speeches by the guest speakers captivated the audience. The round table discussions between the Indic language Wikipedians and the Bengali Wikipedians from Bangladesh and India were quite fruitful. The workshops drew an audience beyond the capacity of the hall. The first Bengali Wikipedia Editathon was also met with success. Food was good and enjoyed by all.
What didn't work?
Some of the guest speakers cancelled their speeches at the last moment. The management at the registration desk could have been better. The Wifi connection at the original venue for editathon was poor. We had to change the venue midway.
What would you do differently if you planned a similar project?
We would target a less number of attendees and of course with less budget. We would like to involve the actual contributors more than the newbies or academics.

Learning patterns

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Outcomes and impact

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Outcomes

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Provide the original project goal here.

Bengali is the 10th most spoken language in the world considering native and secondary speakers. If only native speakers are considered its rank would be even higher. Bengali Wikipedia is a growing in content with over 30,000 articles. The Wikipedia statistics shows 66 active editors and 15 very active editors as of July 2014. At present, in India, there are 8 editors actively contributing in the various Bengali Wikimedia projects - Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wiktionary. Apart from that we have around 15-20 volunteers who work mostly offline or little bit in the English Wikipedia and others. The objective of the Bengali Wikipedia 10th anniversary celebrations is to commemorate 10 years of Bengali Wikipedia and to strengthen Bengali Wikipedia community and its outreach efforts.

Did you achieve your project goal? How do you know your goal was achieved? Please answer in 1 - 2 short paragraphs.

The primary goal of the project was the 10th anniversary celebration of Bengali Wikipedia. We organized a two day international conference at Jadavpur University, Kolkata to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Bengali Wikipedia. The conference was attended by Wikipedians from India, Bangladesh and Nepal across various Indic language communities. The conference was an overall success. It has been covered in the English and Bengali media in India and Bangladesh.

The second objective of the project was to strengthen the Bengali Wikipedia community. The Bengali Wikipedia community is divided across India and Bangladesh and there had been very little interaction between the members of this divided community. The international conference at Jadavpur University aimed to bring these two communities together in a common platform. During the conference, free round table discussions took place between the Bengali Wikipedians from India and Bangladesh on various topics related to the growth of Bengali Wikipedia. Several proposals were raised, discussed and concrete action items were formulated. One of most successful of them has been online editathons in Bengali Wikipedia. Ever since the conference four such online editathons have been held, which have resulted in more collaborative editing and more content.

The third objective was strengthening the Bengali Wikipedia outreach efforts. This has been a constant endeavour of the Bengali Wikipedia community of India. The conference brought together interested people from various spheres and subsequent collaboration with them has resulted in new outreach efforts. There has already been four outreach activities including workshops following up on leads generated during interactions at the conference.

Progress towards targets and goals

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Project metrics

Project metrics Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
50% increase in the number of active contributors to Bengali Wikimedia projects in a period of next six months 25% increase in the number of active contributors to Bengali Wikipedia projects from India Prior to the conference, there were 8 active contributors from India. While a number of new editors came up, only 2 are contributing actively. The reason being we have put more emphasis on consolidation rather than expansion. We believe this will help in the growth of the community in the long run.
At least 500 images uploaded to Commons as a part of Bangla Wikipedia Photo Contest (India) 1,172 images uploaded We have been conducting annual photo walks 'Wikipedia Takes Kolkata' since 2010. There are a good number of amateur and semi-professional photographers who take part in the annual event. In the last season, the photo walk was held at a time the photo contest had started. This generated a lot of interest and as a result we had more than double the expected contributions.
At least 50 new contributors in Commons More than 50 Determining exact no. is tedious job. Counted upto 52, within the first 300 uploads sorted alphabetically. Reason for good response is probably because of good campaign and our annual photo walks which are quite popular.
Integration of at least 5-10% images uploaded in Commons to the Bengali Wikimedia projects Very difficult to determine. But some pictures are not usable because of watermarks or average quality.


Global Metrics

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We are trying to understand the overall outcomes of the work being funded across our grantees. In addition to the measures of success for your specific program (in above section), please use the table below to let us know how your project contributed to the Global Metrics. We know that not all projects will have results for each type of metric, so feel free to put "0" where necessary.

  1. Next to each required metric, list the actual outcome achieved through this project.
  2. Where necessary, explain the context behind your outcome. For example, if you were funded for an edit-a-thon which resulted in 0 new images, your explanation might be "This project focused solely on participation and articles written/improved, the goal was not to collect images."

For more information and a sample, see Global Metrics.

Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 40 Active editors of Bengali Wikipedia from Bangladesh and India and other Indic language Wikipedia from India and Nepal.
2. # of new editors 2 Two new active editors in Bengali Wikipedia joined the community through this event.
3. # of individuals involved 200 Around 200 individuals were involved including organizers, participants, guests, visitors and others.
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 1172 1172 images were added through the photo contest. Media related to the conference is not considered.
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 10 During the editathon on Day 2, participants worked on around 10 articles including Bengali and English Wikipedia
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects 45,401 bytes The contribution was made by 10 users in Bengali Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wiktionary during the editathon held on Day 2. This was the first ever editathon and it was held alongside the conference. Many of the members were busy as organizers and could not take part in it. Otherwise, the contributions would have been higher.
Learning question
Did your work increase the motivation of contributors, and how do you know?

Yes it did increase the motivation of the contributors. Existing contributors have participated in online editathons and started GLAM initiatives.


Impact

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What impact did this project have on WMF's mission and the strategic priorities?

Option A: How did you increase participation in one or more Wikimedia projects?

Option B: How did you improve quality on one or more Wikimedia projects?

Option C: How did you increase the reach (readership) of one or more Wikimedia projects?

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

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This section describes the grant's use of funds

Documentation

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Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grants at wikimedia dot org, according to the guidelines here? Answer "Yes" or "No".

Yes.

Expenses

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Please list all project expenses in a table here, with descriptions and dates. Review the instructions here.

The following table gives a summary of all the funds received, funds spent (i.e. the program expenses) and the excess amount.

No. Funding Body Funds Received Funds Spent Excess Amount Remarks
1 Center for Internet & Society 150,000 150,001 -1
2 Wikimedia India Chapter 200,000 200,000 0
3 Wikimedia Foundation 322,500 187,307 135,193 Part of excess funds have been spent in post conference events
4 Bengali Wikimedia Community of India 0 8,492 -8,492 Covers expenses for which either there is no bill or which can't be claimed from WMF
Total 672,500 545,800 126,700

The following table provides a breakdown of the expenses of the funds provided by WMF as a part of this PEG. The details of the expenses of the funds provided by CIS or WMIN are not provided here.

No. Date Item Expense Head Amount Remarks
1 12-Nov-2014 Refreshments PCE 90
2 12-Nov-2014 Refreshments at meeting PCE 293
3 13-Nov-2014 Refreshments PCE 54
4 18-Nov-2014 Paper PCE 420
5 18-Nov-2014 Pen, Paste PCE 47
6 18-Nov-2014 Refreshments PCE 191
7 21-Nov-2014 Refreshments at meeting PCE 704
8 22-Nov-2014 Refreshments PCE 60
9 03-Dec-2014 Paper cutting PCE 20
10 03-Dec-2014 Photocopy PCE 300
11 08-Dec-2014 Postage PCE 2,964
12 29-Dec-2014 Colour prints SPI 230
13 30-Dec-2014 Digital prints PCE 390
14 30-Dec-2014 Photocopies PCE 100
15 30-Dec-2014 Paper cutting PCE 30
16 06-Jan-2015 Dashakarma EFM 30
17 06-Jan-2015 Photocopies, colour prints PCE 1,150
18 06-Jan-2015 Ink PCE 3,790
19 06-Jan-2015 Flask EFM 740
20 07-Jan-2015 Miscellaneous prints SPI 400
21 07-Jan-2015 Photocopy PCE 82
22 07-Jan-2015 Photocopies PCE 1,035
23 07-Jan-2015 Photocopies 670 PCE 335
24 08-Jan-2015 Prints on colour page PCE 330
25 08-Jan-2015 Accommodation FAT 999
26 08-Jan-2015 Printed bags 200, Pens 200 SPI 23,000
27 08-Jan-2015 Photocopies PCE 1,365
28 09-Jan-2015 Decorator (Gandhi Bhavan) EFM 300
29 09-Jan-2015 Bengali Wikipedia Celebration Cake FAT 860
30 09-Jan-2015 Cakes FAT 605
31 09-Jan-2015 Photocopy PCE 600
32 10-Jan-2015 Sweets FAT 1,000
33 10-Jan-2015 Jute bag SPI 5,880
34 10-Jan-2015 Decorator (KP Basu) EFM 300
35 10-Jan-2015 Decorator EFM 360
36 10-Jan-2015 English Wikipedia Celebration Cake FAT 860
37 10-Jan-2015 Dinner FAT 920
38 10-Jan-2015 Honorarium FAT 10,000
39 10-Jan-2015 Scholarship FAT 114,479
40 18-Jan-2015 Staff Honorarium EFM 6,000
41 31-Jan-2015 Paper PCE 150
42 Miscellaneous stationery PCE 300
43 Flower EFM 3,500
44 Refreshments PCE 200
45 Photocopy PCE 518
46 Postage PCE 1,326 Posted in various dates
47 Awards and prizes (to be paid) PRZ 55,000
Total 242,307
Total project budget (from your approved grant submission)
INR 900,000
Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission, this total will be the same as the total project budget if PEG is your only funding source)
INR 322,500
Total amount spent on this project
INR 545,800
Total amount of Project and Event grant funds spent on this project
INR 242,307 (Please refer to the table above)
Are there additional sources that funded any part of this project? List them here.
  • Wikimedia India Chapter approved INR 300,000 and funded INR 200,000, all of which has been spent
  • Centre for Internet & Society approved INR 150,000 and funded INR 150,000, all of which has been spent
  • The Bengali Wikimedia community of India funded INR 8,492 to cover expenses for which their is either no bill or can't be reclaimed as per WMF policies.

Remaining funds

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The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of 80,193 INR were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/Rapid/WBG/Annual Plan 2017-18.
Are there any grant funds remaining?
Answer YES or NO.
YES.
Please list the total amount (specify currency) remaining here. (This is the amount you did not use, or the amount you still have after completing your grant.)
Out of the grant funds received from WMF, INR 80,193 was not spent in the conference. A part of the remaining funds were spent in the post-conference activities and subsequent events.
If funds are remaining they must be returned to WMF, reallocated to mission-aligned activities, or applied to another approved grant.
Please state here if you intend to return unused funds to WMF, submit a request for reallocation, or submit a new grant request, and then follow the instructions on your approved grant submission.
We intend to submit a request for reallocation to utilize the remaining funds.


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