Grants:PEG/Wikimedia Ghana Usergroup/Edit Ghana

statusFunded
Wikimedia Ghana Usergroup/Edit Ghana
This event is in partnership with the Ghana Volunteer Program (GVP), organizers of the National Volunteers Day (NVDay). NVDay holds on the founder’s day each year, it is a day that institutes volunteerism towards nation building and community development. This year we wish to appeal with same general conscience that evolves the NVDay to entice Ghanaians to be patriotic on the day by contributing local contents onto Wikipedia. This will involve any individual not necessarily a Wikimedian or a member of the Wikimedia community in Ghana. We are harnessing the opportunity of the National Volunteer Day to appeal to people willing to volunteer their time to contribute contents about Ghana.
targetEnglish Wikipedia, Twi Wikipedia, Ewe Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiki Species, Wiki Voyage
strategic priorityIncrease participation
start dateDecember 27
start year2014
end dateFebruary 28
end year2015
budget (local currency)6105.29
budget (USD)1977.54
grant typeGroup
non-profit statusNo
creatorFlixtey
contact(s)• flixtey@gmail.com• kwadzo459@gmail.com• rberchie@gmail.com
organization• Wikimedia Ghana Usergroup
created on14:19, 9 October 2014 (UTC)


Overview

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There is not much buzz about the Wikimedia foundation in Ghana and many people don't voluntarily contribute indigenous content or contents about our heritage online. It becomes very difficult when edits are skewed towards a particular group (community) on which all edits from the country is dependent.

We will be organizing an event on the 4th of October 2014, titled Edit Ghana which will be the first of a series of events to be held through out a six month period. This event will be used to appeal to the general conscience that evolves the National Volunteer Day, to entice Ghanaians to be patriotic on the day by participating in activities that will help build the image of the country.

We plan to seize the opportunity to gain edits on the day and identify the expertise or interest of the various contributors so as to enable proper allocation for future activities involving this project. A community will be built with sections around their various interests so as to increase participation and the opportunity to pair people with similar interests.

Individuals will either be put into the Wikimedia Commons Group or Depository Group. These groups each will solve an issue in the community that directly is in their domain. The Wikimedia Commons group will focus on issues concerning pictures of heritage, culture and cultural activities, monuments, resorts and delicacy. The Depository Group will work on building data for WikiData and putting lots of words or data in the local languages.

Goal

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  • Create the awareness of Wikipedia, what it is, and the goals of the Wikimedia Foundation in building contents and other Wikimedia projects.
  • Establish and consolidate the existence of the Wikimedian Community in Ghana.
  • Increase participation on Wikimedia Projects and involvement in community projects.
  • Promote the contribution of local contents in the various languages

Plan

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Activities

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Phase 1

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This will be the first of all the events to be held. It will bring together individuals with an interest to provide indigenous contents to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia related projects. The focus of the gathering on the 4th of October 2014 is to create sub-communities within the larger group of volunteers with specific interests in a particular Wikimedia project.

This is to help us remove vagueness in the community and rather focus individuals on projects that they can better perform or are particularly interested in.

Summary of what ensued
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The Phase 1 was held on the 4th October, 2014 at the iSPACE hub in Accra. Participants were thrilled about the experience and wanted us to more of this. As a result a follow up event was scheduled for the 25th October, 2014 at the en:Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT.

Highlights of success:

Participants were excited and enthused about been exposed to something new and worth their while, the fact that they were contributing to projecting the image of the country through Wikipedia.

  • All participants pledged willingly to support future activities in the course of the project.
  • A follow up event was scheduled for 25th, October, 2014 to ensure some edits and plans for the future of the Edit Ghana
  • Project while we await the main grant from the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • A minimum of 50 edits and 7 new article stubs were created by 10 new editors.
  • Groups have been formed awaiting phase 2 of the project.
  • Announcement and awareness of the ongoing Wiki Loves Africa was made.

Planning and Challenges:

  • The basic challenges we faced were;
  • 12 out of 37 registrants were present.
  • People had difficulties in finding event venue.
  • Internet connection problems (bad internet access).

Visit this link to see some pictures from the event

Developments

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Deductions made from all the advices and feedbacks have afforded us the opportunity to restrategize and consider redesigning this project to ensure committed and seasoned participants are selected for its cause. We wish to ensure that volunteers will be committed within the project period in order to reach our goals and yield maximum productivity.

Due to this, 5 more intro sessions and 1 Wikimedia Commons event (Photowalk activity) as a pilot to the Phase 3 of this project. Below is a list of proposed intro sessions:

  • 5 pillars of Wikipedia (proposed date - 3rd January, 2015)
  • Syntax Hands on
  • Citation and Referencing Hands On
  • Introduction to other sister projects
  • Edit-a-thon (to surge some eidts and test ability to edit)

The grant will also be restructured to reflect activities that will ensure relevant contents. We presume that not all languages are relevant on Wikipedia if there is non-existence of a group of self driven individuals who are committed to the task. Hence our shift in focus and drive towards articles of relevance, like choosing the English Wikipedia over the other languages here in Ghana as these are not predominantly used. To align this grant to our conclusion we are dissolving the Language Edits Group till we can find a number of constant contributors in that respect and demand for articles in those languages.

Other items such as activities and budget have been augmented to reflect the above.

Phase 2

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This phase will focus on retaining active, highly committed and well seasoned editors for the purposes of the Phase 3 of this project. It will mainly consist 4 intro sessions, 1 edit-a-thon and 1 Wikimedia Commons event.

  1. The Intro Sessions will be used as learning and retention platform for serious and committed individuals who are determined to ensure the goals of this project are adequately met.
  2. The Edit-a-thon Session which makes up the last bit for the intro session will afford these individuals the opportunity to actually have a platform to put their acquired knowledge into practice while surging some edits for Wikipedia.
  3. The Wikimedia Commons Event will be a pilot project from the Phase 3 which will give us the opportunity to forecast or anticipate what prospects could await us should we toe that line.

Phase 3

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This phase will involve the creation of subgroups under the large with a focus on their interests. The groups will consist of the following:

  • Wikimedia Commons Group - This group will consist of individuals with an interest to contribute to Wikimedia commons, wiki voyage and wiki species. Activities under this group will consist of travel across all 10 regions of Ghana capturing contents for the aforementioned projects. This will consist of a photo walk twice every month for the six month period resulting in a total of 12 trips spanning the 6 month period. Each of the 10 regions will be captured under the duration.
  • Depository Group - This group will consist of individuals with an interest to contribute to Wikipedia, Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects that require contents of Ghana. Their main work will be working around just building any content on Wikipedia and increasing articles entirely. The WikiData Game and word translation on WikiData will be no exception. There will be a monthly Edit-a-thon spanning the 6 months. A total of 6 events within the duration.

NB: Phase 3 is wholly dependent on the success of Phase 2 of this project. In order words Phase 3 may only ensure if Phase 2 proves the need and prospects for the future of the project


Impact

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Target readership

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This project seeks to affect English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wikivoyage and Wikispecies. We also wish to improve on the available local language Wikipedia during the project period eg: the Twi, Ewe, etc.

Fit with strategy

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  • Increasing participation - This project will increase participation by recruiting new editors with in depth knowledge or interest in a particular skill that can support a particular Wikimedia project. It will also be an avenue to brace existing editors to be equipped for more exploits.
  • Increasing quality - Our edit-a-tons will focus on increasing and ensuring quality or improving the quality of articles on Wikipedia. It will particularly focus on providing relevant sources to existing articles and factual conventions that will improve the quality of Ghanaian articles.
  • Increasing reach - The project will ensure at least an event every week in a month within the duration period (start to finish) of the entire project. This will create awareness about what one can do to support the community in Ghana and provide them with the opportunity to experience and actually practice this via our events.

Measures of success for Phase 2

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Success will be mainly measured based on the number of participants, number of new editors, number of retained editors, new articles created/improved and number of photo uploads. SInce this is a grroming stage for the real project we wish not raise the bar for metrics now but rather produce people of huge merits and prospects for the future. We however hope to meet the following:

  • A minimum of 10 new articles will be created.
  • A minimum of 15 articles will be improved.
  • Get a minimum of 5 active editors for each group, ensuring a minimum total of 10 active editors for the entire project.
  • We expect a minimum of 200 picture uploads of Ghanaian foods, artifacts, places and buildings of historical importance that will compliment other Wikimedia projects over the pilot phase.

Measures of success for Phase 3

  • Success will be measured based on the number of edits, new articles created, number of uploads, number of attendees and how effectively we engage our audience on our social media platforms.
  • We expect a minimum of 1000 edits over the entire project duration.
  • We expect a minimum of 1000 pictures of Ghanaian foods, artifacts, places and buildings of historical importance over the entire project duration.
  • We also hope to create at least 100 new articles of Ghanaian origin which are currently not on Wikipedia and its related projects.
  • Increased community engagement
  • We are also going to develop a substantive number of Ghanaian stubs into good articles with pictorial representations.
  • A feedback form will be used to gather feedback on each event which provide insights about the event and to pin what went wrong and how to best improve that before the next event

Resources and risks

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Resources

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  • Flixtey is my username, i am a member of the Wikimedia Ghana User-group, the community manager for the Wikimedia Community in Ghana and a banker by profession. I edit from time to time as a way to contribute my quota to building local contents online and i come up with activities that breed engagement and participation in the community. You can find a couple of events organized by me in the community here (from BarCamp Accra Outreach 2013 to Software Freedom Day) and more about me and my potentials here Flixtey (talk) 22:28, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
  • Username: Enock4seth, am a long time member of the Wikimedia Ghana User Group, Organized series of voluntary outreach events and introduction to Wikimedia Foundation projects. I mostly contribute to Wikidata and Wikipedia (en and ee). --Enock4seth (talk) 04:07, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
  • User:Nkansahrexford I am a keen member of the Wikimedia Ghana User Group and have been part of activities and a couple of projects. I enjoy contributing images to Wikimedia Commons, and sharing content to Wikipedia and Wikidata. I'm a native speaker of Akan so can't wait to get started with the ak wikipedia. --Nkansahrexford (talk) 07:56, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
  • Raphael Berchie I am active member of the Wikimedia Ghana User Group and a contributor to Wikipedia and 10 others Wiki projects. I am joining to make a meaningful contribution to Wikipedia and other projects like Wikimedia Commons,Wikisources etc. As a speaker of ak I have already started with Wikispecies and Wikidata and hope to do more translation with this project. (talk) 11:54, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Risks

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All of us (grantees) with the exception of our advisor (User:Nkansahrexford) have not organized anything as big as this in our journey as Wikimedians but we believe there is always a first time to everything, we are focused on yielding results with the opportunity and to surge the community to do exploits in Ghana.

Budget

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

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DETAILS OF PHASE 1 EXPENDITURE
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Description Quantity Unit Cost GHC Unit Cost USD Budget GHC Budget USD
Transportation of Wikimedians 5 people 40 12 200 60
Water 2 cartons 20 6 40 12
Drinks 2 cartons 30 9 60 18
Lunch 30 people 15 5 450 134
Venue 1 200 60 200 60
Total Budget - - 950 GHC 306.46 USD


DETAILS OF PHASE 2 EXPENDITURE
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Detailed Budged for an Intro Session

Description Quantity Unit Cost GHC Unit Cost USD Budget GHC Budget USD
Snack 30 pieces 5 1.61 150 48.3
Transportation of 2 Wikimedians 2 people 50 16.13 100 32.26
Miscellaneous - 100 32.26 100 32.26
Total Budget - - - GHC 350 USD 113

Detailed Budged for Photowalk Activity

Description Quantity Unit Cost GHC Unit Cost USD Budget GHC Budget USD
Breakfast 4 pieces 6 1.93 24 7.72
Lunch/Dinner 4 pieces 15 4.83 60 19.32
Accomodation 4 rooms 80 25.81 320 103.24
Transportation 4 people 80 25.81 320 103.24
Total Budget - - - GHC 724 USD 233.52

Summary of Budget for Phase 2 Activities

Description Quantity Unit Cost GHC Unit Cost USD Budget GHC Budget USD
Intro Sessions 5 350 113.63 1750 565
Photowalk 1 724 233.55 724 233.55
Camera (Canon E0S 60D) 1 2768.92 899 2768.92 899
Telephoto Lens 1 723.77 234.99 723.77 234.99
Tripod 1 138.6 45 138.6 45
Total Budget - - - GHC 6105.29 USD 1977.54

Prices of some items in the budget.

Canon E0S 60D - $899

Telephoto Lens - $234.99 

Tripod - $45 

DETAILS OF PHASE 3 EXPENDITURE
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Budget for Phase 3 may not be available at this time as this phase is wholly dependent on the feedback from Phase 2. In order to keep the budget at this point clear and entirely free from unnecessary budget reflections this section will not be updated at this time.

Total cost of project

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Below is a summary of the budget for the project. Subsequent tables are detail breakdowns of the various phases.

Description Budget GHC Equivalent in USD Remarks
Phase 1 950 306.46 Supported by the Wikimedia UK
Phase 2 6105.29 1977.54 Requiring support from the Wikimedia Foundation
Total 7055.29 22834 Total budget for the entire project

Total amount requested

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Budget GHC Equivalent in USD Remarks
6105.29 1977.54 Requiring support from the Wikimedia Foundation

NB: Prices are subject to change due to current price hikes, some budgeted amounts are also on the high side because of the aforementioned issue. A reconciliation however will be done to sort out actual expenditure against budgeted amounts. Any excess will be returned to the foundation at the end of the project should any exist.

Additional sources of revenue

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Phase 1 of the project was funded by the Wikimedia UK

Non-financial requirements

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

  • We will wish to request for supplies for outreach from Wikimedia Foundation. This will help sensitize our campaign and help create the necessary buzz we expect.
  • Supplies will be needed in the form of stickers, pins, pendrives, notepads, pens, etc. (These items could be mainly sent through secured post such as the DHL to avoid heavy duty on shipping)

Discussion

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Community notification

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You are responsible for notifying relevant communities of your proposal, so that they can help you! Depending on your project, notification may be most appropriate on a village pump, talkpage, mailing list. Please paste a link below to where the relevant communities have been notified of this proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips?

  • The Wikimedia Ghana community has been notified via the mailing list wikimedia-gh@lists.wikimedia.org
  • An email blast was also sent round for interested participants to register via this link

Endorsements

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Do you think this project should be selected for a Project and Event 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.

  • Because it is very imperative to chronicle quality content of our nation to the world. I am Felix G (talk) 14:59, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
  • Since i got introduced to the internet, I've always used Wikipedia to access relevant information. So since I heard of this project i couldn't relent but to come on board to gather more information to help others in future. I would commit my time to author and edit articles about Ghana. Thank You. Akpah Prince (talk) 15:05, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
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