Grants talk:PEG/Kannan Shanmugham - Malayalam Wikipedia/10th Birthday Celebrations

GAC member status

Abstaining

1. 3BRBS (talk) 12:47, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
2. ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) (talk) 16:35, 22 December 2012 (UTC) (Due to the fact that I may be involved as a contributor to the project).

No objection

1. Mayur ^{(talk•Email)} 17:56, 18 December 2012 (UTC)
2. Polimerek (talk) 20:14, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
3. I think it's a low budget, but if it is functional, go ahead. --ProtoplasmaKid (talk) 21:58, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
4. Nasir Khan Saikat (talk) 17:00, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
5. Solstag (talk) 03:46, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Comments by Polimerek

I have no objections as organizing an event for 200 people for less than 500 USD is really amazing, but have to questions (just for a sake of curiosity):

1. Are you really able to provide food for 200 people for 184 USD? It is less than 1 USD per person - what kind of food is so cheap? ;=)
2. What does it mean "Publicity" - printing some posters? or cost of adds in press?

Polimerek (talk) 20:14, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Response to comments above

1. Yes, by the word 'Food' we mostly mean only snacks & tea during short breaks. As such, austerity and cost-consciousness are always the hall marks of this community.
   Now, as a break-up, we expect some 70 people for the full-day main event at w:Ernakulam, for which, a typical simple lunch (cost approx. US$ >1.5) will be served. The remaining part of the budget will go for a simple snack & tea for tea-breaks (cost approx. US$ >0.4) for multiple half-day sessions at various locations. (BTW, We always reserve the rights for demanding higher standards and rates later for greater programs]. !
2. a)Publicity:

• We are conducting several Press meets at different city press clubs (Where representatives from all news media will take press notes from our briefings. This has a regular 'facilitation fee' involved.
• Flexboard posters (stage banners) of nominal sizes will be printed.
• We never give paid Advertisements!

b)Printing:

• We are printing a single sheet cheat card indicating all Wiki editing Codes and other necessary look-up references (cost approx. 4000 copies x US$ 0.02 each). These 'Quick Help Cards' will be distributed to all participants. Any remaining stock will be used for future Wikipedia Workshop participants.

Comments by 3BRBS

My reasons for abstaining are that I feel this budget is low, even though it seems possible after checking the price of a McDonalds hamburguer un Malasia. 2nd the starting date is going to be due tomorrow, so maybe that should be changed. I agree with some questions. Publicity is: Printing an add in a newspaper, a radio add, could this be more clear? Photography is: A person that takes photographs? Printing photographs for an exhibition? Same as above.

I recommend that unforseign events, should be calculated as a % of the budget (5%?), because what you are adding seems really low to me in comparison to the items list. Also, I believe that the breakdown, on how much money is asked to the foundation doesn't match. $25,494 + $2,051 = $28,000, but in dollars $477 + $38 = $515 ≠ $499... I know you have to compromise with the conversion (which by they is not stated), maybe adding decimals to dollars will fix the adding part, because 1 dollar diference is ok, but 16 dollars it's almost a whole other item in the budget (example: Transportation).--3BRBS (talk) 13:35, 20 December 2012 (UTC)

Response to comments above

• We know the budgets are lower than expected international rates. But we are not even intending to supply McD hamburgers! Typically, our snack service mostly confines to some banana fry and a tea in disposable (biodegradable) cups. Also, please read the break-ups above. As for photography, we need to hire a professional video/photographer to record the functions as these will help us later when approaching GLAM and other authorities. All such media will also be updated to Wikimedia Commons. Again, We DO NOT PRINT Photographs!
• The discrepancy in conversion is due to the exchange rate fluctuation over several months. This request is to expend the remaining balance of the original budget allocation for "Wikisangamothsavam - 2012" that was allotted in April 2012. Both the budgets have been formed in IRS. So the change in conversion rates invariably brings in the difference of US $ 16.

Thank you! ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) (talk) 17:49, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Comments (2) by 3BRBS

Well, I never said that you are planning to serve McDonalds, but that in comparison the price was reasonable. About the second point, all the above the explanations should be present in the breakdown, instead of "Photography", should say "Professional Photographer". The dates should be updated, the discrepacy in fees should be properly explained in numbers, since you opened the "Printing" item into two, that should be reflected in the breakdwon, again, the unforsein expenses I advice to be a percentage (since is extremely low), maybe I'm the only one, but since the explanations are very reasonable, they should be reflected in the breakdown that has suffered no change. Cheers!--3BRBS (talk) 12:47, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Comments by Kiril Simeonovski

Thanks for the submission. The request is fine and the idea is pretty good, especially after having read your immense report for the previous anniversary. However, there are still some points that should be clarified better:

1. How many events will actually take place and what are the cities that will host them? What is the exact date the celebrations will take place on?
2. What are the activities that will be executed over the time span from 21 December 2012 until 8 February 2013? Why the provisional end date is even in February? Do you plan to have subsequent activities after the anniversary events?
3. Could you provide quantified measures of success that exhibit real numbers, which will clearly identify the minimum requirements to consider it a success (e.g. 200 participants, 1,000 uploads, 1,000 articles, 5% growth in the activity level, etc.)? Some of the measures are quantitative and can be easily upgraded by inputting numbers, while others appear to include quality assessment and may lead to difficulties.

Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 21:44, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Response to the above comments

1. There are a multitude of events in fact. Some are already concluded, some are just going to take place. Some are still on the anvil of planning. However, the major cost components are attributed to the program at Ernakulam on 23rd December. This is a full day program including a mini-conference with distinguished chief-guests, some presentations, a symposium and a Wikipedia training Workshop. Other programs take much little part of the cost components. On successful completion of the whole series, we will report back with the detailed actuals. We expect to conclude this elaborate outreach series tentatively by the first week of February.
2. As such, our mission is to use the occasion (of 10th anniversary) as a means to raise public awareness of Wikipedia among common mass. Hence the long span of 'anniversary celebrations'.
3. Certainly, we will be able to show a substantial improvement in these parameters. However, any realistic projections in advance will be difficult due to the nature and mode of programs planned. By the end of program, we will come up with numbers proving our accomplishments.

Moreover, apart from any increment in numbers, our present orientation is towards awareness of

• 'Availability' of Wikipedia as a knowledge resource (to the prospective WP readers),
• Wikimedia commons as a 'free' repository of 'free' media
• Copyright and its variations (inward and outward of WP)
• Importance of depth and quality of content while creating WP articles
• Importance of citations and authenticity

The above orientation is sure to enhance the quality of existing and prospective Wikipedia articles.

Please also refer to our earlier grant requests for the past records and achievements.

Thank you! ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) (talk) 18:15, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

Thank you ViswaPrabha (വിശ്വപ്രഭ) for your response and explanation on behalf of the community. Sorry for the lack of details of estimated expenditure in the grant page. It was an inadvertent mistake. Actually we all are very busy with organising these events all over the state. Our efforts already created a marvellous response from general public ! Dec.21 was the B'day of our wiki. On that day we had witnessed a first ever seen traffic in to our wiki and it will caused to creation of 176 new article in that day as against our normal monthly average of 16.8. The statistics of that day is collecting by our team and which will submit along with the report. This is the event page of all of our programs during this celebrations. Sorry for the language page, we will create an English page soon for the purpose of other language readers.

We have great pleasure in the enthusiasm shown by all of you in ml wikipedia events. We hope that you may accept this grant request asap and allow us to utilise the balance amount which kept in our hand after the expenses of Wikisangamotsavam 2012. Thank you again --Adv.tksujith (talk) 00:24, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Multimedia reports (a silly but useful suggestion)

Friends, I'd love to see pictures and multimedia of the events in your reports. There's no need to show close ups of people's faces, as some might not want to be portrayed, but having a general view of what happened can encourage others to act and teach us about doing things, sometimes more than words. Oxalá, --Solstag (talk) 03:46, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Report past due

Hello, Kannan: Your grant report for this project was due about a week ago. You are currently out of compliance with WMF Grants Program requirements. Please submit the report right away in order to correct that, and contact grants at wikimedia dot org with any questions. In the mean time, I am updating your grant submission to reflect that this report is past due. Regards, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 21:07, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Sorry for the delay... plz see the REPORT Adv.tksujith (talk) 18:45, 17 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Sujith. We are looking forward to reviewing it. In the mean time, I've changed the status of this grant to remove the past due notice. Cheers, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 16:25, 19 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks! --Adv.tksujith (talk) 16:39, 20 July 2013 (UTC)