Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/AfroSounds (ID: 21986798)/Final Report
Report Status: Under review
Due date: 31 March 2023
Funding program: Rapid Fund, Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Final
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edit- Title of Proposal: AfroSounds
- Username of Applicant: ReoMartins
- Name of Organization: N/A
- Amount awarded: 2151.9
- Amount spent: 2029 USD, 872370 NGN
Part 1 Understanding your work
edit1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented
The Afrosounds Project was initiated to bridge the knowledge gap and correct bias and misinformation existent on open knowledge as it regards credible and notable discuss in African music through Wikimedia projects, primarily Wikipedia, Wiki Commons and Wikidata. This community hoped to onboard new editors and increase the capacity of existing editors towards the contribution of indigenous/traditional concepts and elements of music in Africa as well as modern and contemporary stories in African music to the general sum of knowledge available for free global learning and adaptation. The project seeked to harness resources towards advancing a community that promotes knowledge equity of the underrepresented African community in music. To achieve this, the project support grant facilitated the start of a community of volunteer editors who share same interests and explored options of contributing to free knowledge through series of meet-up, lightening talks, edit-a-thon sessions and an edit contest which involved participants from various African countries. We hosted two meet-up sessions and an edit-a-thon in Lagos, Nigeria to intimate participants and volunteer contributors across Africa about our objectives at Afrosounds and how everyone is needed to contribute their quota of knowledge to the general sum available for free learning globally.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals? Please describe these strategies and approaches.
Advancing the objectives of this project was intrinsically linked with effecting strategic partnerships with individuals, collectives and organizations that resonate with our interests intercepting music, related arts and open knowledge especially within the African music industry, starting with Nigeria. It was also expedient to explore the interest of experienced volunteer editors who had similar concerns about bridging knowledge gap through interactions with the broad community that Wikimedia affiliations provide. These communities helped us build our collective for participants to volunteer their time, skills and interest in bridging the existential knowledge gap identified through conversations, meet-ups and edit sessions which were key impact activities for the project. Through the edit contest which followed the meet-up, project introduction and edit training, the project recorded over 35 participants from 6 African countries who were able to contribute to and create over 200 articles and items, improved upon over 900 articles, uploaded over 650 items on commons and added over 220,000+ words to the free encyclopedia which has gone on to gather over 660,000 article views across several Wikimedia projects, hence promoting the free and credible knowledge of African music.
3. Please use this space to upload media and other files that help tell your story and impact.
Field to type in URLs.
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Afrosounds/Afrosounds_Meet-Up_2.0_(February_2023)
4. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Strongly agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Strongly agree |
5. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?
The knowledge gap existent on open source that this project aims to bridge is geographic based, hence the need to increase capacity in open knowledge and African music amongst volunteers within this marginalized geographical location and also inform strategies to contribute knowledge in marginalized/local languages, since the concern of the project spans across several elements of African diversity which includes language, culture, tradition, country and so on. An example of how this was effected was the contribution of content on Rwandan Wikipedia by project participants from Rwanda. Moving forward, the project hopes to strategically advance the contribution of content with special attention to the diverse elements of culture and communities in Africa.
Part 2: Your main learning
edit6. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
The AfroSounds Project aimed to encourage the collaborative provision and addition of accurate information by volunteer editors to a wide variety of topics as it concerns African music and sounds on open source through Wikimedia projects. This project seeked to access and harness resources towards advancing a community that promotes knowledge equity of the underrepresented African community in music. This has been advanced by creating articles, adding citations, uploading media and data around the industry, history and contemporary evolution of African Music and related arts, to be available and accessible, both online and offline, and in different languages to a global audience through Wikimedia projects. This project is on a mission to bridge the lacuna existent between the music industry in Africa and open knowledge. Through the community which this project is trying to build, we hope to build a network of knowledge and music enthusiasts who are willing to capture and share the stories of African music and sounds. A lot of people in the African music industry are oblivious of the credence and workings of the free encyclopedia and open source. This is the bridge we are building. This project has confidently built a community of over 50 participants of which more than 50% have been equipped with increased capacity with the knowledge necessary to contribute accurately to free knowledge on topics of context.
7. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences?
The paucity of credible media houses documenting stories from this region has to be a challenge with the concept of free knowledge, and this why the project hopes to advocate for inclusion of players in the media to create a more definitive structure to collect ideas for documentary purposes. Further into advocating for free knowledge through open source and Wikimedia projects, the project could factor collaborations with more credible and reliable sources to also increase their reach in gathering notable stories within this marginalized yet growing region in the context of music and sounds for ease of citation to support claims and stories.
8. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?
The scope of this project is broad considering that it hopes to promote the contribution of knowledge about music across the continent - Africa. Hence we believe that this is doable with a continued structure of projects, programmes, right partnerships and collaborations. We plan to contribute to the general sum of knowledge one edit at a time. While also exploring innovative ways to advance free knowledge of African music stories, the Afrosounds project also began the creation of a portal on Wikipedia to serve as a one stop directory for information about African music and sounds on the free encyclopedia serving billions of people around the world globally. The portal would be a repository of information and guide to contributions about music and sounds in Africa. Through the community which this project has birth, the objectives of open source would be advanced on Wikimedia projects through regular meet-ups, edit-a-thons, trainings and so on. Projects to carry out documentaries of some indigenous heritage music stories could be a possibility, innovative ideas on how to use open source to enhance the exchange of sounds across the connect are other ways we can grow.
9. Documentation of resources: Use this space to upload any documents that would be useful to share with others (e.g. communications material, training material, presentations).
Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
Part 3: Metrics
edit10a. Open Metrics reporting
In your application, you defined some open metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with your metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in. Use the tables to report the result. Use the comments column to describe any aspects of this result that you find relevant. If the results were different from the initial target (goals) then you can explain why and what you learned from this. You can also provide any qualitative analysis regarding these results. In the last column please describe the tools and methodology used to collect this data and any difficulties you might have had.
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feedback from Participants on Skills Learnt | This project hopes to have confidently equip volunteers with the skills necessary to contribute accurately to free knowledge. | 30 | 35 | N/A | Number of Editors on the outreach dashboard |
| Contest Participation | How many participants contributed during the contest phase? | 15 | 25 | N/A | Number of Editors on the outreach dashboard |
| Sustainability of the Community | How many participants are willing to be a part of the community extensively? | 15 | 66 | A survey form was put out to collect contact details of participants who also indicated an interest to become a part of the community. | Google Form Survey |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
10b. Core Metrics reporting
In your application, you defined targets for some core metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with each core metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in. Use the tables to report the result. Use the comments column to describe any aspects of this result that you find relevant. If the results were different from the initial target (goals) then you can explain why and what you learned from this. You can also provide any qualitative analysis regarding these results. In the last column please describe the tools and methodology used to collect this data and any difficulties you might have had. Note: a table will appear for each Wikimedia project content contribution you defined in your proposal.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 30 Physical Participants, 10 Virtual Participants | 40 | 35 | 23 physical participants, 12 virtual participants | Spreadsheet & Outreach Dashboard |
| Number of editors | 10 New Editors, 30 Returning Editors | 40 | 35 | 15 New Editors, 20 Returning Editors | Spreadsheet & Outreach Dashboard |
| Number of organizers | Organizers for this project would include all 3 facilitators and 2 volunteer organizers. | 5 | 5 | 3 Experienced Wikimedia Editors and 2 Project Volunteer Support | Spreadsheet |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 20 articles created and 200 articles improved upon at least. | 220 | 256 | 21 articles created, 235 articles improved upon | Outreach Dashboard |
| Wikidata | At least 50 items created on Wikidata. | 50 | 72 | N/A | Outreach Dashboard |
| Wikimedia Commons | At least 100 images contributed. | 100 | 675 | N/A | Outreach Dashboard |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
12. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? This could include things like a lack of time or resources, or the expertise in your team to collect this data. It could also include difficulties with particular data collection tools.
No
12a. State what difficulties you had.
N/A
12b. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges?
N/A
13. Use this space to upload any documents and provide links to any tools you have used that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, program and event dashboard link, project page on Meta).
Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A
14. Have you shared these results with other Wikimedian communities (either affiliates, user groups, volunteers, etc., different to yours)? This can include things such as data and direct outcomes, lessons you have learned, or information on how to run or recreate your programs.
Yes
14a. If yes or partially, please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how.
The results of this project has been shared with the community and the public through social mediums and mail as well as on the project social pages.
Part 4: Financial reporting and compliance
edit15. & 14a. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
872370 NGN
16. Please state the total amount spent in USD.
2029 USD
17. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
17a. Upload a financial report file.
17b. Please provide a link to your financial reporting document.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LaqvVo4fsBvbQyMzYPBqeZhDH17dOCwoLaYdjTnjBjI/edit?usp=sharing
As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.
17c. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.
N/A
18. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
Yes
18a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
NGN52,030 is left from the funds for the project. This fund would be the excess in food budget for physical participants. We had a lesser number of physical participants to buy lunch for.
18b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future grant request with PO approval
18c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
We hope to utilize this fund in purchasing internet services to continue advancing the objectives of the project.
19. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
20. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
21. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
22. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.
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