Grants:Project/Rapid/Animated Videos Promoting Indigenous Communities' Participation in the Wikimedia Movement

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Barrioflores/Animated Videos Promoting Indigenous Communities' Participation in the Wikimedia Movement

To create two animated videos that will encourage Latin American indigenous communities' participation in the Wikimedia movement, both in Spanish and native languages of the region.

targetQuechua, Aymara, Nahuatl, Guaraní, and Spanish

start dateAugust 15

end dateDecember 15

budget (local currency)US$1,800

budget (USD)US$1,800

grant typeorganization

non-profit statusYes

grantee• Barrioflores

organization (if applicable)• Rising Voices

website (if applicable)• https://rising.globalvoices.org

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Project Goal

Briefly explain what are you trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant. Example goals include, "recruit new editors", "add high quality content", or "train existing editors on a specific skill".

We would like to introduce Wikipedia to indigenous youth that are already actively using internet, some of whom may already have used Wikipedia but may not have participated as an editor. This group that we are targeting already has access to technology either on mobile or desktop and have an existing interest in their culture and language. We also want to make the video available in four languages to begin where there is an active project: Náhuatl (Mexico), Aymara and Quechua (Andes region), and Guaraní (tri-border area of South America). We will also explore dubbing the video into other languages where there is a potential based to expand, based on interest and available resources.

We especially want to engage with indigenous students at many of the region’s indigenous or intercultural universities where a large number of indigenous students currently study.

The goal of this video is to raise awareness and to attract new editors and readers, both in Wikipedia in Spanish, but also about the possibilities of participating in the Wikimedia movement by creating and sharing knowledge in their native languages.

Note: this was originally shared as part of the Inspire Campaign for New Readers, but was not developed into a Rapid Grant. We wish to submit to not only attract new readers, but also new editors.

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?

We will convene and facilitate the creation of an advisory committee that is comprised of native-speaking editors and experienced Wikimedians from the region. This group will work directly with the animation artist to decide on imagery, messaging, and script. From this collaboration, two videos will be created in Spanish. One will focus on how indigenous communities can take part in the Wikimedia movement, including to better understand how it works and opportunities to get involved. The other video will focus on the opportunities for Wikipedia in native languages of Latin America. We will also help facilitate the dubbing of the 2nd video into at least four languages in which Wikipedia exists as an official project (Quechua, Aymara, Guaraní, and Náhuatl).

Following the creation of the two videos, we will work with the committee to help share the videos on social media platforms and direct outreach to institutions, organizations, and individuals that may be interested in the messages.

We will work very closely with the Wikimedia Foundation's Global Reach Team, who has experience with creating videos to attract new readers and editors, as well as to raise awareness about the movement. We also want to learn from experiences in Nigeria, India, and Mexico that have created videos to tell the story of Wikipedia.

How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience?

The original idea originated from conversations with native-speaking editors with whom we are in touch from communities in Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay, and Guatemala. Their role in this process will be essential, as they will provide their input regarding imagery, messaging, and strategies for outreach to their communities. As part of an "advisory committee" for this project, they will help shape the message. We will also invite members of regional Wikimedia affiliates that have demonstrated an interest in supporting indigenous communities' participation in the movement. These two groups will work and advise the work of the primary artist that will be responsible for the animation taking into consideration the input from both groups.

What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

At the end of the project, there will be two animated videos created with a duration of approximately one minute each. One video will focus on encouraging and inviting members of Latin American indigenous communities about the Wikimedia movement and the possibility to share knowledge in Spanish. The other video will focus on the possibilities of creating and sharing knowledge in their native languages.

We want to dub the video focusing on knowledge in native languages into at least the four languages in which there is an oficial Wikipedia project (Quechua, Aymara, Nahuatl, and Guaraní)

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:

Number of videos created: two
Number of indigenous languages in which one of the videos is dubbed: at least four

We would like to track the number of page views using the WikiStats2 tool and see if there are any noticeable increases in page views based on the roll-out of the various versions in indigenous languages, as it will be difficult to track this in Spanish. However, we understand that it would be difficult to make the causation connection, but we hope that the videos will have some impact in site visits.

We plan to upload the video to different social media platforms and where we can track the number of views and shares.

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

Rising Voices has been working with networks of indigenous internet users across the region and where participation in Wikimedia projects has been a special interest. We also completed a mapping project on the opportunities and challenges of creating and sustaining Wikipedias in native languages. An element of the project included a survey completed by 163 including indigenous editors and other indigenous youth that are active online. From the results, it was clear that many respondents were only familiar with Wikipedia on a surface level, as well as the unfamiliarity of the possibilities of Wikipedia in their language. In addition, during discussion at the Strategy Salon that we co-hosted with the Wikimedia Bolivia Working Group, we heard a lot of misconceptions about Wikipedia and examples of how many didn’t fully understand how it works.

We are engaging with an initial team of indigenous language-speaking Wikipedians and experienced regional Wikimedians that will be a part of the advisory committee for this project:

Team to date:

Native-speaking Editors:

Zapoteco_diiste (Mexico)
TBA
TBA
TBA

Regional Wikimedians

Sahaquiel92 (Colombia)
TBA
TBA
TBA

We have identified two animators from Latin America, who have already expressed initial interest and who with experience working with indigenous themes that would be good fits form this project. If the project is approved, we will approach both to gauge their availability.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense:

Honorarium for Animator (tasks to also include engaging with community manager and advisory committee for storyboarding and input for script) - US$1100
Honorarium for Community Manager (this individual will facilitate the work of the advisory committee) - US$700

Endorsements

I support this project, because we as aymaras in the region have been participating in variety of projects related to Wikimedia movement. Personally, I consider this kind of videos mentioned in the project will help to spread out the opportunity to work with Wikipedia platform in order to preserve language. I'll be happy to be involved with Aymara language. Ruben Hilari Jilalu Qhisphi (talk) 17:34, 13 May 2018 (UTC)

I am part of the Committee and I support the project. This initiative seeks to cover a need of the editors in indigenous languages to increase their participation, their communities and knowledge to the Wikipedia movement. The video will continue to show the value of free knowledge and how it becomes a right that must be available in different languages and for all humanity.--Zapoteco diiste (talk) 15:32, 15 May 2018 (UTC)

Oppose Thanks for the proposal, it's very valuable the work behind more languages in the movement. I will give my endorsement after some questions in the Discussion to this proposal. Best, ProtoplasmaKid (WM-MX) (talk) 16:49, 17 May 2018 (UTC)