Grants:Project/WMDRC-UG/WMDRC - UG 2020 Activities

This project is funded by a Project Grant

proposal

timeline & progress

finances

midpoint report

final report

statusselected

Project Grants

WMDRC - UG 2020 Activities

summaryGrant request for Wikimedians of DRC User group second semester activities

targetFrench, Lingala, Tshiluba, Kikongo, Swahili Wikipedia; Commons; etc.

type of grantuncertain

amount$14,350 requested - $7,175 awarded (partial funding for revised project plan referenced in decision post on talkpage)

type of applicantgroup

grantee• BamLifa

contact• news.abelprotonmail.com

created on13:48, 17 February 2020 (UTC)

Friendly space expectations

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

What problem are you trying to solve by doing this project? This problem should be small enough that you expect it to be completely or mostly resolved by the end of this project. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

List of WPs in national DRC-Language as per list of Wikipedias page as of March, 10th 2020

№	Language	Wiki	Articles	Admins	Users	Active Users
90	Swahili	sw	56,001	11	40,937	135
213	Lingala	ln	3,146	3	9,681	16
257	Kongo	kg	1,197	2	8,019	14

In DRC, people often use Wikipedia (WP) in French and sometimes in English. Since 2015, we have hardly worked to promote contribution in Wikimedia related projects in French only. While this work worked or is doing well, we have remarked that on the other hand we missed many things, especially to promote and create awareness for WP in local languages.

There are four national languages in DRC. Three of them have a WP version: Lingala, Kikongo, and Swahili. Lingala is spoken by over 70 million people worldwide. As a wiki, it is the 213th and has only 3,146 articles, mostly in a stub state. There are only 16 active contributors and 31 images. No active maintenance at all due to lack of admins (only 3 available).

(Ki)Kongo is spoken by 6 million people. The Kongo version of WP is the 257th one with 1,197 articles and 14 active contributors. As in the Lingala version, most articles are stub.

Swahili WP is the most evolved among all national languages WP. It is the 90th WP with more than 55 thousand articles. But it only has around 100 articles concerning the DRC.

There is not yet a Tshiluba WP, but we are planning to submit a request for its creation. This language is spoken by about 7 million people.

As you can see from the stat presented above, there is a great number of users of these languages and a huge need to promote and create awareness for them.

What is your solution?

For the problem you identified in the previous section, briefly describe your how you would like to address this problem. We recognize that there are many ways to solve a problem. We’d like to understand why you chose this particular solution, and why you think it is worth pursuing. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
Training of approximately 15 active speakers of Lingala to use Wikipedia and Commons. While this will be done in a small scope, we will launch a national contest to motivate more language speakers to contribute.

Project goals

What are your goals for this project? Your goals should describe the top two or three benefits that will come out of your project. These should be benefits to the Wikimedia projects or Wikimedia communities. They should not be benefits to you individually. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

1. We will work with the Wikimedia Foundation to train and build capacity among the core leadership team of the User Group.
2. We will conduct a pilot program for local language contributors.
3. We will continue to support user group members.

Project impact

How will you know if you have met your goals?

For each of your goals, we’d like you to answer the following questions:

1. During your project, what will you do to achieve this goal? (These are your outputs.)
2. Once your project is over, how will it continue to positively impact the Wikimedia community or projects? (These are your outcomes.)

For each of your answers, think about how you will capture this information. Will you capture it with a survey? With a story? Will you measure it with a number? Remember, if you plan to measure a number, you will need to set a numeric target in your proposal (e.g. 45 people, 10 articles, 100 scanned documents). Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

The report will be written and published on Meta and on our blog. In short, we will:

• Attract new editors
• Increase skills for existing editors
• Increase community engagement around Wikipedia in DRC
• Translate/create at least 20 articles in lingala Wikipedia

Do you have any goals around participation or content?

Are any of your goals related to increasing participation within the Wikimedia movement, or increasing/improving the content on Wikimedia projects? If so, we ask that you look through these three metrics, and include any that are relevant to your project. Please set a numeric target against the metrics, if applicable. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.

Project plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing? What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

Project scope and list of activities

1. Capacity Building for leadership team: Months 1-3
2. Material prep/logistic: Months 1-3
3. Support user group members: Months 1-6
4. Pilot: Months 3-4

Budget

How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. (You can create a table later if needed.) Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!

• Total budget requested: 14,350$
  • Internet (6 months: team): 750$
  • Internet (6 months: attendees): 2,600$
  • Materials (modems, laptop etc.): 1,500$
  • Wikipermanence: 1,000$
  • Contest prizes: 2,500$
  • Project management: 6,000$ (including marketing, communication, human resources (manager and assistant part-time), ...)

Community engagement

Community input and participation helps make projects successful. How will you let others in your community know about your project? Why are you targeting a specific audience? How will you engage the community you’re aiming to serve during your project?

Get involved

Participants

Please use this section to tell us more about who is working on this project. For each member of the team, please describe any project-related skills, experience, or other background you have that might help contribute to making this idea a success.

• BamLifa as grantee/project manager. He is a founder member of Wikimedians of DRC User Group, BamLifa is a longtime Wikimedia projects trainer. He is the main trainer for the WikiClub RFI project in Great Lake Countries. The WikiClub RFI is a project that aims at training Radio France International Clubs' members to edit Wikipedia and other sister projects.
• Yves Madika as a trainer.One of the founder members of the user group, a trainer and facilitator of local activities. the Wikimedia projects that the user group leads, I intervene for the needs of introductory contribution training and others.

Community notification

Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. 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, talk page, mailing list, etc. Need notification tips?

Endorsements

Do you think this project should be selected for a Project Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project below! (Other constructive feedback is welcome on the discussion page).

•  Support As reflected in one of the recommendations of WikiStrategy 2030, as a Movement we want to be more inclusive. A clear path to that inclusivity is including and growing the work of the Movement in more languages. I support this project proposal. --Kiraface (talk) 17:14, 10 March 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Nasepeli mingi na likanisi liye mpe nandimi yango mpenza Liesse fidel (talk)
•  Support Nafurahiya sana iyi wazo, yatatu saidiya zaidi tena katika inchi yetu. Kaholapat (talk) 08:56, 11 March 2020 (UTC)
•  Support I agree and so happy with this new third language initiative which will further standardize the WP in our country which is the DRC Germas yab (talk)
•  Support J'ai trouvé cette idée meilleure vu qu'en RDC, il y a aussi une grande partie de la population qui ne parle que le Tshiluba, longtemps privée à la connaissance libre (frontière linguistique). Alors ça va leur permettre de posséder les connaissances libres dans leur langue et d’être à la page avec le reste du monde Joel Basiki (talk)
•  Support J'ai vraiment aimé cette idée pour nous permettre d'avoir les wiki dans nos langues locales WINEUR (talk)
•  Support I am a lover of culture and would very much like to participate in activities to highlight different cultures of the world. This project aims to highlight Congolese linguistic cultures, pride for our people. I will be delighted, as Congolese, to participate actively and contribute to the documentation of our cultures through this project. Mkdpeter (talk) 15:26, 11 March 2020 (UTC)
•  Support Good initiative that will contribute to cultural representation on Wikimedia projects not only local languages, but also regional content coverage as Swahili is widely spoken in the East (African) region.Douglaseru (talk)
• I am generally in support with the idea (in particular because this is the path to increase awareness in Congo, step by step; Promote the project, train new people, recruit new people etc. and with years of experience doing this... we know it is needed and we already know what could go wrong, so nothing really unexpected might occur here). But I fear the team might be too optimist about its capacity to actually implement all what is planned here. They are only a handful and what they plan must be done from scratch entirely (= it is not linked to a specific global drive that could already provide part of the com for example). And I think it is a lot to put on the plate, especially when compared to the current group reported activity at Wikimedians of Democratic Republic of Congo User Group. So... I believe the group definitly needs support... but maybe this request is a bit too large for what they could actually implement. I noted that they asked or drafted grants for other projects in the past few months. Some drafts were never finished. Some requests were considered ineligible because the group was out of compliance due to missing reports on other grants. I am not saying that they should not be supported (they should be), but to the extent of what they can actually absorb. Anthere (talk)
•  Support C'est une dynamique à encourager vu la pertinence du projet mais aussi l'expérience de nos amis du Congo. Ils en ressortiront grandi.Papischou (talk)
•  Support Ndj kunima kua mudimu ewu bualu idj ambuluisha bamtu badi bamania muakula wa ditunga buane bikala ne dimanisha. Asina badi (talk) 13:47, 13 March 2020 (UTC)
•  Support J'en ai lu et je soutiens l'idée à 100% du fait que la diversité de culture demande à ce que tout le monde contribue dans sa langue d'origine cela faclitera la comprehension de chancun et chancune de contibuteurs. et je suis prêt à apporter ma contribution. Lingabo (talk) 15:04, 13 March 2020 (UTC)