Grants:PEG/TMorshed/Bangla Wikipedia 10th anniversary/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2014-15 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:PEG/TMorshed/Bangla Wikipedia 10th anniversary.

You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email grants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Project status

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?: YES

Is your project completed?: YES

Activities

See also, Wikimedia Blog about Bangla Wikipedia 10th anniversary
Background

Bengali Wikipedia 10th anniversary celebration logo.

Bangla Wikipedia has completed 10 Years on March 2014. The bangla version of Wikipedia started it's journey back in 2004 and has gradually become the largest Bengali content website on the internet with more than 37,000 articles on various topics. To celebrate this historic milestone the Bengali Wikimedia Community & Wikimedia Bangladesh hosted and organized a series of activities throughout Bangladesh to celebrate the anniversary. This series of event was co-sponsored by Wikimedia Foundation and Grameenphone.

On the occasion of tenth anniversary of Bangla Wikipedia, a massive outreach program is being held on seven divisional cities of Bangladesh in an attempt to increase contributors & contents. The program includes Workshops, edit-a-thons, Photowalks, Photography contest, Best Wikipedian contest, school programs and collaboration between Bangladeshi & Indian Wikimedians. Through the first ever nationwide event, over the course of 10th months, we endeavored to engage and train as many volunteers and Wikipedians as possible to organize events and increase outreach in every division of Bangladesh. Almost every single event was covered by most of the television channels and newspapers in Bangladesh which gave us the benefit to spread the word "Let knowledge be free, where everybody can access". The events were inaugurated through a press conference on November 24, 2014 at Bishwo Shahitto Kendro in Dhaka.

Press Conferences

Newsmen at the press conference.

Two press conferences being held on the occasion of 10th anniversary celebration. One was held before the series program and another one was held before the Jimmy's arrival in Bangladesh.

The first press conference was being held at Bishwo Shahitto Kendro in Dhaka to brief the media and announce months long activity throughout Bangladesh to celebrate 10th anniversary of Bangla Wikipedia. The event was sponsored by Grameenphone and arranged by Wikimedia Bangladesh. It was announced at the event that WMBD will arrange university workshop and photowalk at 7 divisional cities in the country. It was also announced that three best Wikipedian from 7 divisions of the country would be selected for the Best Wikipedian award. The best three Wikipedian from across the country will be rewarded at the 10th anniversary conference to be held in February 2015. The event was covered by most of the television channels and newspapers.

Second one was held on February 24, 2015 to let the press to know about Jimmy's arrival in Bangladesh and about 10 year celebration of Bangla Wikipedia in details at BASIS (Bangladesh association of software and Information Services). Mr.Munir Hasan president of Wikipedia Bangladesh told about this program in details at this press conference. WMBD members and officials from Grameenphone also presented at the conference.

Jimmy Wales in Bangladesh Press Conference by Wikimedia Bangaldesh

Media coverage of first press conference

Media coverage of second press conference

Divisional Workshops

Bengali Wikipedia Workshop at Chittagong Independent University.

Participants at Sylhet workshop.

In total 7 workshops were held in seven divisional cities in Bangladesh. In every workshop, at the very beginning there were Guests arrival & Registration procedure then Grameenphone made a presentation on the importance of internet. There was training on Bengali Content enrichment in Wikipedia, donation of photographs on Wikimedia Commons and another presentation on Internet Safety. At the middle of the program there was training on Bengali Content enrichment- contribution in Wikipedia process through mobile devices. A quiz competition also held among the trainees and the winners were awarded certificate by WMBD and Grameenphone. Breakfast, Lunch, T-shirts and other logistics were also provided each of every participants attended on these day long events.

The goal of the workshops were to introduce Wikipedia (especially Bengali Wikipedia), and show the attendees how to edit the articles and contribute photographs to Wikimedia Commons. Usernames were collected from each and every event so that we can reach out to the attendees in future.

The very first event was held at Independent University (CIU), Chittagong on November 29, 2014. Rest of the workshops were held at Metropolitan University (MU), Sylhet, University of Barisal, Barisal, World University of Bangladesh, Barendra University, Rajshahi, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Khulna, Carmichael College, Rangpur. Bangladeshi author of science fiction and children's literature Prof. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, head of the department of electrical and electronics engineering at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology attended one of the workshops. we've reached around 500 students from 7 divisional workshops.

Images from commons

Media coverage

Photo-walks

Participants of Sylhet photo-walk used this drone to take the aerial view.

Photowalks were held in different parts of Bangladesh aimed to increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects and increase media files to Wikimedia Commons so that we can illustrate more Wikipedia articles about Bangladesh in various language. In-total eight photowalks were held and each photowalk attended by on an average 10 photographers/Wikimedians. In the photowalks, participants and volunteers of Wikimedia Bangladesh covered a specific area of city by taking photographs of historic and culturally significant buildings, archaeological sites and other important things of the area.

In sylhet photowalk participants used a drone to take the aerial view of Sylhet city and the surrounding river; these aerial photographs are yet to upload. More than 2000 images were uploaded during the photo-walks and some of the photos are yet to upload. During Rajshahi photo-walk, the participants from the Rajshahi University created a photography club to enhance Rajshahi related photos in Wikimedia projects.

Photo-walks images from commons

Media coverage

Photography contest

Bangla Wikipedia Photography Contest 2014, supported by Wikimedia Bangladesh and organized locally by the Bangla Wikipedia community members, was held on the theme of 'Bangladesh', as a part of the 10th anniversary of Bengali Wikipedia program. More than 4,700 photos were uploaded as a part of the contest out of which the jury chose the top 10 winners. The aim of the 4 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 Bangladesh 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 September and the final deadline was December 31, 2014.

Top six winning photos are shown below

A Smiling boy from "Gabura", a cyclone affected village in the south of Bangladesh.
A Hindu monk is walking in a mango garden Dinajpur, Bangladesh.
Rows of sail boats, Bangladesh.
kids are holding national flag of Bangladesh on yellow flied.
Statue located inside the Armenian Church in Dhaka.
An ancient civilization of 19th century - Ranir Kuthir, Mainamoti, Comilla.

Image category from Commons

Media coverage

Best Wikipedian Award

Best Wikipedian Award winner receiving the award from Bangladeshi screenwriter, novelist, dramatist and journalist Anisul Hoque (Middle).

Based upon the criteria, 10 prolific Bengali Wikimedia were selected as the best 10. The judging criteria were fixed via community consensus. The disscussion can be found at Bengali Wikipedia. The 10 best wikimedians are as follows:

School Programs

See also, Wikimedia Blog about school programs

Students of Chittagong Agrabad Government Colony High School showing 'W' sign at the Program.

Total nine awareness programs have been held in different schools when it was started back in June, 2015 throughout Bangladesh. Out of nine programs, 3 were held in Dhaka, 4 in Chittagong division, 1 in border town Patgram Upazila and last one in Rajshahi division. Local Wikipedians, school teachers, cultural clubs of particular school helped to organize these events. Each event was attended by an average of 70 students from 9th to 12th grade. The first one was held in Shaheed Police Smrity School in Mirpur, Dhaka. Then gradually it took place in Motijheel Government Boys' High School, Agrabad Government Colony High School (Boys' & Girls' Section), Chittagong Collegiate School and College, Government Muslim High School, Government Science College Attached High School and Rajshahi Collegiate School.

The Patgram event was held at the municipality community center in the Patgram upazila in Rangpur. Participants of this event were selected through a Wikipedia related quiz contest by Wikipedians from Patgram. Total 120 students from 6 different institutes attended the final workshop. It may be noted that the Patgram event is the first Wikipedia related event in the border town of Bangladesh organized by Wikimedia Bangladesh. Each of the event has been circulated by newspapers like Prothom Alo and other online news portals.

Participants in Patgram event.

In each program there was a survey about Wikipedia and with those understanding, we discussed about Wikipedia & other sister projects of Wikimedia Foundation; role of Wikimedia Foundation; what we do as volunteer of Wikimedia Bangladesh; the importance of Wikipedia how Wikipedia & other sister projects are relative to their studies. They were also showed how to use Wikipedia effectively for getting information.

School program images from Commons

Participants from Rajshahi collegiate school.

Media coverage

Facebook event page

10th Anniversary gala event & Conference

Gala event

The gala event was held at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, Dhaka on 26 February, 2015. The event was organised by Wikimedia Bangladesh and sponsored by Grameenphone. Jimmy Wales presented as a cheif guest of the program. This event was attended by around 300 invited participants including Wikimedians and other respected guests from different universities as well as from the govt. New wikimedia contributors from seven divisions of Bangladesh also awarded in this event. The event was circulated by local and national dailies/electronic media.

Gala Event images from commons

Some media coverage

Main conference

The Bangla Wikipedia 10th Anniversary Conference 2015 was held on 30th May 2015 at Daffodil International University in Dhaka. About 300 Wikipedians from Bangladesh and West Bengal of India attended the conference. State Minister of ICT Division of the People's Republic of Bangladesh was present at the conference. Vice Chancellor of the university Dr. Lutfur Rahman and Wikimedia Bangladesh President Munir Hasan were also present during the inauguration. A number of workshops and interactive sessions took place at the day-long conference. The sessions were conducted by WMBD Executive Committee and Operations Committee members. Participants at the workshops were given hands-on training on creating and developing articles, adding photos and contents to Wikipedia. Wikipedians also shared their experiences and discussed on improving the Bangla Wikipedia. Ten best Wikipedians were awarded at the program for their outstanding contribution. Three best photographers were also awarded for their photographs submitted for the Bangla Wikipedia Photography Contest 2014, which was arranged as part of the 10th anniversary of Bangla Wikipedia. Eminent writer and journalist Anisul Hoque was present during the award giving ceremony. A session was held particularly to enhance female contributors to Wikipedia. Another session was held where Wikipedians from West Bengal, India and Bangladesh discussed to collaborative activities among the Wikipedians of there region.

Group photograph during the conference
Participants at the conference.
WMBD organizing committee members with the guests at the inauguration of the conference
Afifa Afrin Discussing - Women Involvement in Bengali Wikipedia
Workshop during the conference
Women participants on a workshop
Collaboration Meeting- Bangladeshi and Indian Wikimedians

Lessons learned

Through series of program we had some problems; the political instability was one of the main reason that sometimes we had to postpone our events. We need more volunteers to organize this kind of events and more importantly we've to organize more awareness program than edit-a-thons.

Below is the lesson and suggestion learnt from Bangla Wikipedia Photography Contest 2014. The objective of this contest was to encourage volunteer participation through contests in Wikimedia commons, attracting new contributors, reactivating those that have retired and motivating the current ones. Such contests usually have good reception by the media and are a good opportunity to show to the general audience how crucial it is to involve volunteers to Wikimedia projects and continue to improve them permanently.

Well, In the contest we received 4,600+ photos from Bangladesh and 1,100+ photos from India. Through the contest we were able to attract at least 200 photographers to contribute to the contest and at least one third of them is still contributing. Over the contest we've learnt that most of the people of Bangladesh and India are not aware of Wikimedia projects. It's essential to create a awareness first and we're trying to create partnership with local photographers community.

Lesson learnt and should follow

Photo competition should be publicized through social media like, facebook, twitter and blog posts, at least 1 month before the starting date of competition.
Try to make a relationship with the local photography communities if you want some nice and professional photos. Most photography contest is ended up with rubbish images.
It is always important/sometimes helpful to send an announcement to the online news medias once the competition is started. They could be helpful to reach out broader audience because currently people are browsing online news more than the printed one.
Competition rules should be clear because most of the participants are new and not familiar with MediaWiki/commons extension.
It's better to make a tutorial before opening the contest to the public.
Organizer should collect all the crew (Judge, reviewer) to cleanup the uploaded photos (like, checking copyright, categorizations etc.) before starting the contest. It'll only load up the work if you don't.
And last please always make the rules clear that what image uploader should upload and what they shouldn't. It'll reduce the work pressure of the reviewers.

What would you do differently if you planned a similar project?

We'd keep the above things in mind if future.

Learning patterns

Outcomes and impact

Outcomes

Provide the original project goal here.: The goal of this series program was to increase Wikipedia contributors specially Bangla Wikipedia, creating awareness among the Bangladeshi people and to enrich Bangladesh related medias to Wikimedia commons. The workshops were for University students; how to edit and create articles in Wikipedia; how to use photos in Wikipedia articles and other ways to improve Wikipedia. The photo-walks and photography contest were to attract more people to the Wikimedia commons and improvement of historic and culturally significant buildings, archaeological sites and other important things on Commons and the school program was specially designed for the awareness in the very root level.
Did you achieve your project goal? How do you know your goal was achieved? Please answer in 1 - 2 short paragraphs.: Mostly, yes. For the 10th anniversary programs, we've considered the following as measures of success:

Bengali Wikipedia had an article count of only 33,000 before the program which is 38,000+ now. We had about 40-50 active and 6-7 very active editors back then, but now it is 100+ active editors and 15-16 very active editors.

For the 10th anniversary programs, we've considered the following as measures of success:

We have considered a baseline of 1000 articles during the workshops/conference (from 24 November, 2014 to 31 May, 2015). As of 15 October 2015, more than 2500+ new articles have been created.
Enhanced number of active users (both readers and editors). In most of the cases, we had to organize the divisional events in class rooms/lab and the number of participant were limited (maximum 60) due to logistic support for the attendance in each of the programs. That means, we've reached around 360 students from 6 divisional workshops. More than 1,500 new accounts have been locally created as of 22 January from 24 November, 2014.
From December 22, 2014 to January 22, 2015 We've more than 200 active contributors. At least 100 of them are totally new to wikipedia.
We have considered a baseline of 5000 photos in the Photo Contest, end of the contest 4703 images have been uploaded. We'd say, that's close enough.

School programs have been exactly planned to increase readership. We have already seen while conducting Wikipedia workshops that, people in most of the places in Bangladesh aren't aware of Wikipedia. The school programs are the events that directly address the issue of increasing readership among students. Because we've realized that in order to increase Wikipedia contributors, it's necessary to increase the Wikipedia readership. From the past several years of Wikimedia movement in Bangladesh, we've seen that most of the regular contributors are students either in university or in college level. Some are also from school. Then we figured out that, if a large number of the school going students use Wikipedia for learning purposes, more Wikipedia contributors would emerge. But currently, not a majority of the school-students use Wikipedia. We're hoping that through the school programs, a good number of students from those who will participate the programs, would use Wikipedia for their benefit. Some of the teachers of those schools have expressed their interest to suggest Wikipedia for gathering information for academic purposes to students. It would be effective and sustainable if we could increase readership among the school going students.

At the beginning of each event, a survey was conducted by the Wikipedians. After Analyzing the survey we have found out, 50% of the participants don't know What Wikipedia actually is; 20% of them think, it is a sister concern of Google; 10% of them think, it is a government sponsored organization; only 10% of them answered that it is an encyclopedia and rest of them either did not response the question or just wrote that it is a website. Among the attendees, very few of them knew that Wikipedia is actually editable. These survey helped us to gain an idea of the existing Wikipedia reading habit and number of those who have already been using Wikipedia.

A Wikipedia Club has already been formed at Shaheed Police Smrity School. The club is moderated by a teacher and it consists of the interested students from every grades. The club would undertake monthly and occasional meetups and programs to educate and inform students about how to use and contribute to Wikipedia, especially the Bangla Wikipedia.

Follow-up events: Over the period, we have developed communities in most of the 7 divisions of Bangladesh. We have already organized events in 6 of the 7 divisions in Bangladesh where local community members played the key roles. Our next target through these events will be the empowerment those communities so that they can organize outreach programs in their locality on a regular basis.

Progress towards targets and goals

Project metrics

Project metrics	Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
Increase in very active editors (editors who contribute at least 100 edits per month)	19 very active users	According to Wikimedia Stats, before commencement of the program we had 8 very active editors, but as of September 2015, the amount is 19. So the increase is 137%.
New Wikipedians	226 new Wikipedians.	According to Wikimedia Stats, 226 new Wikipedians have been created from December 2014 to June 2015.
New articles creation	15% increase in article count	According to Wikimedia Stats, total articles in Bangla Wikipedia were 33k in November 2014, the amount stood at 38k as of July 2015. This is attributed to the workshops and edit-a-thons. We also performed an article creation contest that lasted for 2 months.

Global Metrics

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.

Next to each required metric, list the actual outcome achieved through this project.
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	95 (at least 5 edits per month)	Before the initiation of the program we had 95 total active editors. We involved all of them.
2. # of new editors	250+ new editors	Throughout the program (December 2014 to June 2015, 226 new Wikipedians were involved.
3. # of individuals involved	1500+	We have orgranized university workshops in 7 districts that attracted 60 persons in each. The Gala Event (held in Feb 2015) was participated by about 350 persons and the 10th Anniversary Conference was participated by 300 persons. Besides there was 2 press conferences, photo-walks and 4 more workshops.
4a. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages	328+continue.. (4.15% of all images of category)	In the Bangla Wikipedia Photography contest, we have received more than 4600 photographs. Photowalks images are not included here as photos from both are still being added to Wikipedia articles/relevant projects.
4b. # of new images/media uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (Optional)	4703 (photography contest) + 2000 (photo-walks and some of the photos are yet to upload)	We have received 4703 photographs in the Bangla Wikipedia Photography Contest.
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects	2500+	We have considered a baseline of 1000 articles during the workshops/conference (from 24 November, 2014 to 31 May, 2015). As of 15 October 2015, more than 2500+ new articles have been created.
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects		It was actually eight/ten months serie of long events, hard to put the right value.

Learning question: Did your work increase the motivation of contributors, and how do you know?

Of course they did; like we said above what we really need in our country is awareness and the wide circulation of these events in various medias helped us to reach the people.

Impact

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?

We have organized 11 Wikipedia workshops across Bangladesh. The workshops targeted creating new Wikipedians and providing hands-on training to them. We organized Bangla Wikipedia Photography Contest, that has received 4703 photographs in the Wikimedia Commons.

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

The Wikipedia Workshops, held in universities across Bangladesh focused on providing hands-on training to the participants. Many of the participants were active Wikipedians. The training included ways to write better and good articles in Wikipedia and instructions for improving quality of articles. Also we included uploading quality photos to Wikimedia Commons.

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

Among the 11 Wikipedia Workshops, 7 were held across 7 divisional cities of Bangladesh. Other 3 were held in Dhaka. There were a number of new areas, where such kind of Wikipedia activities were held for the first time. The photography contest received submissions from different areas of the country. Furthermore, we arranged photo-walks, which were held (besides Dhaka) in Rangpur, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Chittagong, for the first time.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

This section describes the grant's use of funds

Documentation

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

Total project budget (from your approved grant submission): 10,06,414.40 BDT

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): 10,06,414.40 BDT

Total amount spent on this project: 834516 BDT

Are there additional sources that funded any part of this project? List them here.

Sl.No	Item	Quantity	Rate (BDT)	Total (BDT)	Notes
Common items (Subtotal : 293400 BDT)
1	Leaflet	6000	4.80	28800	we still have 700 left.
2	Booklet	1000	14.20	14200
4	Sticker	15000	1.80	27000	we've 2000 left
5	T-shirts	500	250	125000	given to the main conference participants, photo-walks participants+ some school students and volunteers
6	Mug	300	245	73500	given to the volunteers, guests, school teachers+university teachers, photo-walks participants, contest winners
7	Badge	500	41.50	20600	given to the main conference participants, photo-walks participants, contest winners
8	Pads	50	50	2500	WMBD'S use
9	voucher	20	90	1800	WMBD'S use
Press conference (Jimmy in Bangladesh) (Subtotal : 15000 BDT)
1	Refreshments	50	200	10000	for the journalists, guests
2	venue design+others			5000
School programs (Subtotal : 24000 BDT)
2	Banner	9	900	8100
3	Refreshment for students	630	20	12600
4	Transport for volunteers	15	200	3000
5	Others			300	local transports+tea
Photowalks (8 photowalks/on an average 10 participants per photowalks) (Subtotal : 135200 BDT)
1	Food cost for photowalk participants	80	1000	80000	1000 for each participants in each photo-walk
2	Local transportation cost	8	6000 (per photowalk)	48000	6000 (average in each photo-walks)
3	Banner	8	900	7200
Wikipedian Award (Subtotal : 11800 BDT)
1	Best Wikipedian Award	3	2250	6750	includes: crest (high quality)+wristband
2	Special Nominations Award	7	550	3850	crest (lower quality)+wristband
3	Certificates	10	120	1200
Bangla Wikipedia Photography Contest (Subtotal : 58000)
1	Award for best three photographs	3	1000	3000	crest+certificate
2	Prize-money for best three photographs	3	20000+15000+10000	45000
3	Highly Commendable Awards	10	500	5000	certificate+wristband+mug
4	Award for the judges	5	1000	5000
Scholarships for Wikipedians (23 wikipedians from BD (outside Dhaka) & 2 from India) (Subtotal : 137500 BDT)
1	Transportation cost	23	1500 (including return)	34500	For Bangladeshi Wikipedians
2	Transportation cost	2	4000 (including return)	8000	For Indian Wikipedians
3	Food cost (for 2 days)	25	2000 (1000 for each day)	50000	Both Bangladeshi & Indians Wikipedians
4	Accommodation (for 2 days)	25	1800 (900 for each day)	45000	Both Bangladeshi & Indians Wikipedians (the actual rate was 1500 per day; we got discount via Ali Haider's reference)
Gala event (Subtotal : 19900 BDT)
1	Gifts for Jimmy & others			12500
2	transportation cost+light foods			6450	volunteers
3	Meeting+others			950
10th Anniversary Conference (Subtotal : 139716 BDT)
1	Food	300	300	90000
2	transport			9000
3	venue design			15000
4	printing			16500
5	others			9216

Remaining funds

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of 171,898.40 BDT were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:PEG/TMorshed/Wikipedia 15 Celebration in Bangladesh.

Are there any grant funds remaining?: 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.)

171898.40 BDT

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'll use the remaining fund in the upcoming Wikipedia 15 celebration. We've already set up a page with potential plan in bnwiki and will come up with the details shortly.

Documentation of expenditures has been received by WMF.