Grants:PEG/Titodutta/Swami Vivekananda Encyclopedia

Withdrawn

This was a submission to the Project and Event Grants Program from an individual in 2013-14, but was withdrawn by that individual before a funding decision was delivered.

See the discussion page of this grant request for more information.
Since this grant was withdrawn, no report is required and no further action is required from the grantee.

Basic information

Project details

Official project name: Swami Vivekananda encyclopedia/Large scholarly website
Project start date (include month, day, and year): November/December 2013 (depends on funding)
Project completion date (include month, day, and year): It is difficult to answer this question, because the encyclopedia we are planning to create will always have a "work on progress" tag (compare with Wikipedia). But we hope finish our initial works withing February 2014.
Please describe the project in 1–2 sentences: We are going to launch an encyclopedia/a large scholarly website on Swami Vivekananda, the 19th century Indian humanitarian Swami Vivekananda), his works and his associates, friends and disciples. The encyclopedia will use MediaWiki software and text and content will be available under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 License and the GFDL

Please note

Swami Vivekananda: You'll see the mention of "Swami Vivekananda" in this submission. Actually here Swami Vivekananda means a movement, not a person, which'll include many more notable people. In brief the project will be on a part of Indian history. For more details on Swami Vivekananda please see these Wikipedia articles wikipedia:Swami Vivekananda, wikipedia:Influence of Swami Vivekananda, wikipedia:Category:Swami Vivekananda

Requested amount: Yes, the amount requested here is very low in comparison to our project. But if the project is funded, I wish to return to this Wikimedia Grants after 9—12 months and request a second grant giving full details of the work that we'll be doing in the coming months. That time, our requested grant might be a bit larger but currently this US$486 or so is enough for us.

Financial details

Currency requested: Indian rupee (wikipedia:Indian rupee)
Amount requested in currency requested: 30,000
Equivalent amount in US$ on the date of this submission: US$ 486.733 (conversion rate as of 7 November 2013)
List the exchange rate used to calculate the amount listed in US$: 61.84 INR = 1 US$ (reference)

Project lead details

See the eligibility requirements for more information.

Are you an organization, an individual, or an individual submitting on behalf of a group?: I am an individual, there are few more editors who are working in English language Wikipedia.
Project lead name: Tito Dutta
Project lead username or email: Titodutta (Primary Wikimedia account: Wikipedia:User:Titodutta) Email: tito.wikipedia "at" gmail.com and admin "at" swamivivekanandaquotes.org
Project lead title (position), if any: Not any or "Founder"

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

Project goal: The goal of the project is to create an open and free encyclopedia on Swami Vivekananda. There is not a single encyclopedia on Swami Vivekananda in entire web. Since mid-2012 we have been working in English language Wikipedia on "Swami Vivekananda" articles and created and expanded more than 100 articles and founded Wikipedia:Wikipedia:WikiProject Swami Vivekananda.
Our aim was to create a reliable and complete knowledge bank on Swami Vivekananda — and after working for almost one and a half year, we are successful to do so — currently the WikiProject Swami Vivekananda is the best place of entire world wide web where readers may get all information on Swami Vivekananda and his works.
Now we want to go ahead — other than working in the WikiProject Swami Vivekananda, we have few other aims —

Doing similar Swami Vivekananda related works in few other language Wikipedias (Bengali, Hindi — the work in Bengali Wiki has already started).
Creating an encyclopedia on Swami Vivekananda.
Encouraging people to join the encyclopedia and WikiProject Swami Vivekananda and the involving the Swami Vivekananda encyclopedia in some social activities.

Now 1) does not need any kind of financial or other help at this moment, 3) is a long time goal, that too doesn't need any help right now. But for 2) i.e. "encyclopedia" we need some help.

Questions you may ask

Question: Why do you want to launch an encyclopedia (we have noticed that you have already done a very good work at Wikipedia, why don't you continue there)?
Answer: Wikipedia is Wikipedia — and not Swami Vivekananda encyclopedia — we can not write articles on each and every part of Vivekananda's life and works in Wikipedia. The Swami Vivekananda Encuclopedia will be only on Swami Vivekananda?

Question: Does that mean you'll allow unreliable, unverifiable sources or POV pushing content, puffery in your encyclopedia?
Answer: No, we'll follow Wikipedia policies and guidelines.

Question: Is Swami Vivekananda an important figure/personality so that you want to launch an encyclopedia on him?
Answer: Absolutely. He is one of most prominent figures of India.

Measures of success

Please provide a list of measurable criteria that will be used determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed.

Measures of success

As it cane be noted we have not asked a huge amount and asked help for basic works only. We'll consider our project successful if —

The encyclopedia is successfully launched AND
People starts visiting and registering as editor AND
There are 50—100 (at least start class) articles (articles must not be copied or imported from Wikipedia)

Project scope and activities

This section describes what will happen if this project is funded. Who will do what, and when?

List of activities: If the project is funded we'll start work immediately. We'll try to finish the encyclopedia set up work (MediaWiki installation, critical extensions installation, preparing basic policy and guidelines page) and make the site open for registration (as soon as possible, target 3—4 weeks). Then we'll concentrate on content creation work. We'll also start promoting the site(we may apply for Google Adwords Grant but that may take some time).

Budget and resources

Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here.

Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table

Number	Category	Item description	Total cost	Notes
1	Set up	Setting up encyclopedia, server fees etc	INR 5000 (US$ 80 approx)	This will cover 1 year's expense
2	Technical support	Hiring professionals for technical support, creating a professional logo for the site and provide assistance in server initial set up and server side management	INR 13,500 (US$ 219 approx)	1) This will cover 6 month's expense. I have already talked to few professionals (some of those are my friends) and they have agreed to work here for much less amount than they usually charge 2) Editors (content creators) will not be paid. Volunteers may be given gifts such as T-shirts or books, but we do not need fund for that.
3	Resource	Collecting resources (books, CD, DVDs)	INR 5500 (US$ 90 approx)	We'll collect only those resources which are very very important for the project. It'll also help our Wikipedia WikiProject Swami Vivekananda
4	Networking	Site promotion, members' first meetup	INR 6000 (US$ 100 approx)	After launching of the site we'll start working on making the site popular. This amount will be spent here. In addition, we want to arrange an meeting of the core members of the site within first few months of the site's launch. Of course US $ 100 is not enough for these. So we are requesting a part of it.
5	VO/NGO registration	Voluntary/Non-Government Organization registration under Indian Government NGO act	INR 10000 (US$ 162.44 approx)	we'll also work on registering ours as a non-profit organization (it may help us to get future grant)

Total cost of project: INR 40,000—50,000

Total amount requested from the WMF Grants Program: INR 30,000

Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded: Own pocket :)

Non-financial requirements

See a description of nonfinancial assistance available. Please inform Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) of any requirements for non-financial assistance now.

Requests for non-financial assistance: Not any at this moment. We'll use Wikipedia's templates and scripts for initial set up under their CC SA 3.0 and GFDL license. We may need supplies for outreach or T-shirts for our editors, but that is not an initial need.

Resources

This section is optional. It may be used to highlight the potential grantee's potential for successfully executing this project.

Consider including the following information:

List of team members (names or usernames): wikipedia:User:Titodutta, wikipedia:User:Nvvchar, wikipedia:User:TheMandarin
Evidence of past success in executing similar projects: See "Resources" section below

Resources

What we have proposed here, actually we have already done similar things in Wikipedia. See #Project goals for some details. Now what we have done in Wikipedia, we are going to do it in a larger way.
In addition, I have also created this website on the quotes of Swami Vivekananda.

Impact

In the sections below, please describe how the project is related to the Wikimedia mission and Wikimedia's strategic priorities.

Fit to strategy

How will this project support the key organizational objectives of

This will be the first ever encyclopedia on Swami Vivekananda
The project will ensure many high quality content on the subject. The content will be free which others will be able to reuse under CC SA 3.0 license
This will involve more editors to our project and WikiProject Swami Vivekananda
This will be motivational and encouraging for the editors who are working in WikiProject Swami Vivekananda currently

Benefits

If the project will benefit a specific online community, please tell us.: Yes, this project will help the people (50 million) who wants to study on Swami Vivekananda related subjects on internet for various reasons such as personal studies, research work, personal interest, school/college studies etc.

Please provide a brief statement about how the project is related to other work in the Wikimedia movement. For example, does the project fit into a work area such as GLAM, education, organizational development, editor retention, or outreach?: The project falls into the education work area. The project also fits into the Wikimedia's ideals which advocates free and open knowledge.

If successful, will the project have the potential to be replicated successfully by other individuals, groups, or organizations? Please explain how in 1–2 sentences.: Theoretically others may replicate it, but, the amount of work needed to make such an encyclopedia successful and that too on one subject, I don't think there will be any/many replication. But there are some websites on this subject (not free and open encyclopdia), few more sites may be created and that should be welcomed. The more reliable and scholarly materials in web, the better...

Please list other benefits to the movement here.: Swami Vivekananda is a youth icon in India who is considered one of the most encouraging persons of modern India. The year 2013 is being celebrated as Swami Vivekananda's 150th birth anniversary. We have celebrated it in Wikipedia (eg. DYK month celebration etc, launching WikiProject), now such an encyclopedia might be a wonderful thing we can do here.