Grants:Project/WM ZA/Joburgpedia Digitization 2016/Midpoint

This project is funded by a Project Grant

Report under review

This Project Grant midpoint report has been submitted by the grantee, and is currently being reviewed by WMF staff. You may add comments, responses, or questions to this report's discussion page.

To read the approved grant submission for this project, please visit Grants:Project/WM ZA/Joburgpedia Digitization 2016.

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Welcome to this project's midpoint report! This report shares progress and learning from the grantee's first 3 months.

Summary

In a few short sentences or bullet points, give the main highlights of what happened with your project so far.

Project Theme has been agreed with Gille.
Selection of images in progress.
Scanning facilities have been tested for quality and cost. Scanning to proceed.
Agreements with SAHA has been reached to organise Edith-A-thons.

Methods and activities

This project is the first of its kind that we are doing as a chapter, as it is mainly about Digitization of high value images being donated by a Long time Photo-Journalist. We decided to split project activities in three tiers as follows:

Theme and Focus:

This section of the project is jointly managed by Dumisani & Gille, with Gille taking the lead in shaping the theme of the project as this must tie in with the types of images she has. The following theme and focus has been developed thus far.

- Strong Rural women as part of Rural removal resistance.

- Rural Land removals of the 1980s to 1995.

- Tie in to Roots of Resistance Program with Mpumalanga Provincial Government.

- Link to Wikipedia knowledge gaps.

Technical:

This section is managed entirely by Gille, as it involved the technical aspects of digitization and necessary image retouches required. The following aspects have been clarified thus far.

- Imacon scanning facilities.

- Cost of scans.

- Batch uploads to Commons.

Out Reach:

This sections is jointly managed by Gille and Dumisani. We have now confirmed buy-in of SAHA in terms of out reach and publicity programs as follows:

- 2 Edit-A-Thons.

- 1 Possible Exhibition.

Midpoint outcomes

The following progress has been achieved per project tier.

Theme and Focus:

- Strong Rural women as part of Rural removal resistance.

Gille has confirmed that she has a fairly complete trove of image negatives covering the story of Mokgopa Driefontein, Mpumalanga Province and in particular of Pretty Mkhize and her group of Women who resisted land removals.

- Rural Land removals of the 1980s to 1995.

Gille covered about 4 such rural removals in Mpumalanga, she will confirm other areas as the project proceeds. Some of her work is already featured in the approved school curriculum.

- Tie in to Roots of Resistance Program with Mpumalanga Provincial Government.

The Provincial Government of Mpumalanga have completed a resititution process for Driefontein and are interested in images that this project will produce.

- 'Link to Wikipedia knowledge gaps.'

There is currently no articles about Rural land Removals on Wikipedia. This project will bridge this gap via collaboration with South African Politics Task Force in the English Wikipedia.

Technical:

- Imacon scanning facilities

After trying a few suppiers, we have finally reached an agreemet with Light Farm to digitize negatives. 5 scans have been completed and the quality is good.

We decided to buy an external hard drive to assist in saving the large RAW scan files.

- Cost of scans

The cost of scans is now in line with the budget cost. This is because the supplier agreed to a 50% discount.

- Batch uploads to Commons.

Gille will be registering with Commons and will be familiarising herself with how to upload and the licensing requirements.

Out Reach:

- 2 Edit-A-Thons

SAHA has agreed to assist us to organise the Edit-A-Thons, as well as link these to History Teachers Spring Programm.

- 1 Possible Exhibition

SAHA has also agreed to organise an exhibition of selected images from the digitized batch.

Finances

WMF grant funds have been spent according to plan:

We have used the Contingencies and Incidentals budget to buy a Wifi-Router to be used in this project and other Chapeter events.
We do not forsee any over run in costs going forward.

See the Finances project tab.

Learning

What are the challenges

The biggest challenge we have encountered so far is finding a supplier that can provide scanning facilities within the budget cost. We have now resolved this challenge.

Another challenge is finalising plans with South African History Archives (SAHA) for the Edit-A-Thons. We are still working on this as there has been some changes in the staffing of SAHA. We have been assured that all undertakings done by Catherine will be implemented.

What is working well

The relationship with Gille has really made things easier to manage the project. She is really commited to achieving quality in her work and is open to ideas. It also enables for link up to other partners she works well with.

What have you found works best so far? To help spread successful strategies so that they can be of use to others in the movement, rather than writing lots of text here, we'd like you to share your finding in the form of a link to a learning pattern.

Your learning pattern link goes here

Next steps and opportunities

What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your project? Please list these as short bullet points. If you're considering applying for a 6-month renewal of this grant at the end of your project, please also mention this here.

Complete digitization of Images in the next 3 months.
Upload images onto commons.
Finalise dates for Edit-A-Thons with South African History Archives (SAHA).
Finalise and firm up arrangements for an exhibition.
Evaluate if we need an extension of the project end date to accomodate above mile-stones if there is any risk of slipage.

Grantee reflection

This project has been particularily interesting as it deals with two of our passions, social activism and knowledge/content gap about such on Wikipedia. It also offered us an opportunity to build relationship with a new partner South African History Archives (SAHA).