Grants talk:PEG/Tec de Monterrey/Semana i September 2016

A decision has been made on this grant. Comments are still welcome on this page.

GAC members decisions

GAC comments

Polimerek

Hi, Your project looks interesting and seems to have good proportion of costs to expected results, but I don't understand clearly what do you exactly want to do. To clarify the whole thing, as I understand you want to:

1. invite 15 national-level artists to record the interviews with them and then use it as a source for their biographies in Wikipedia
2. invite a number (how many exactly?) of musicians and record traditional music performed by them
3. organize an edithaton for (how many?) - participants during which you are about to write (how many?) articles
4. organize 2 wikiexpeditions which are about to last for (how many days?) and participated by (how many?) people producing (how many?) pictures
5. produce a mini documentary movie summarizing all above activities

If this is what you mean - the question is if you are about to do it during one big event/meeting or there are simply 4 separate projects?

Then - in your budget project - there is no information which items are for which project, therefore is unclear for what purpose you need 200 T-shirts, to whom ethnomusicologist from FONATECA is about to speak (for recording the final mini documentary or during the edithaton?), when and where there will be toast for art and Wikipedia article exhibit, there are no costs associated clearly with activity #3 and #4 etc... There is also no information how and where do you want to perform your recordings, nor there are cost associated with recordings. Are you going to do this in professional studio or just using amateur recording equipment on the street? Finally - there is no information about the schedule of your activities. My suggestion is to a) create a clear budget - with items associated to specific projects + information what you expect from each activity and how many people are about to participate in which of them, and b) create a schedule for all proposed activities. Polimerek (talk) 08:40, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

Response

Ill respond here and modify the grant request:

1. The number of musicians will be between 4 and 5, depending on which of the 10 pieces chosen by the National Sound Library we work on during that week (as opposed to at other times)
2. We are planning for up to 50 people for the editathon. # of articles to be created or improve between 20 and 30.
3. The Wiki expeditions will be for about 60 people (30 and 30). Last time, we had 80 students who produced over 4,000 photos and thirty articles. We are cutting back a bit for quality.
4. The recording... video and audio... will be done using professional equipment which the Tec de Monterrey will be providing. In the case of the music, the students are from the sound engineering program... this is what they are training to do, though generally with popular music genres. The video will be done by digital media/communications students.
5. There are five "challenges," each headed by a different person, with me (Thelmadatter) coordinating and asking for the funds on their behalf. That means five different schedules, which come together only at the beginning and at the end. I have a rough schedule up now on the grant page.
6. All of the project leaders have experience with Wikipedia and/or working with the type of project. Martha and Alvaro ran wiki-expeditions last Semana i. I have 9 years experience with Wikipedia and have a relationship with the artists. Alejandro is the director of the sound engineering program and Lourdes has run Wiki Learning with me since the beginning. Antonio has worked with Wikipedia in his classes and with previous Semana i.
7. As for costs, the basics are being covered by the Tec de Monterrey as we have reserved campus studios and equipment. As I noted in the original grant request would cost more than the $4000 we are asking for if we were using outside facilities. What we are asking for are the things bring and event from functional to fantastic.Thelmadatter (talk) 01:36, 13 July 2016 (UTC)
8. The t shirts are to identify participants (especially vital for those in Wiki expeditions and working with outside partners.

Thelmadatter (talk) 02:06, 13 July 2016 (UTC)

Kiril Simeonovski

Thanks for the submission. In general, the proposal is fine and the activities seem to be cost-efficient but I would like to endorse Polimerek's questions above. In addition, I would like to know how many people will be involved in all these activities. Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 22:38, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

We will have a total of about 200 student participants and maybe 20-25 teachers. This does not include artists or experts.Thelmadatter (talk) 02:05, 13 July 2016 (UTC)

rubin16

Furthermore, you see some risks due to lack of some competencies: why won't you aim on those projects that you certainly have enough competencies and resources? rubin16 (talk) 15:05, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

I updated the resources section to indicate out personnel resources. Is there anything else in particular you are concerned about?Thelmadatter (talk) 02:05, 13 July 2016 (UTC)

WMF Comments

Hi Thelmadatter. Thanks so much for this grant request and for engaging with the GAC in the discussion. We're excited to see so much activity planned for the remainder of the year! The updated proposal is fairly clear, but one remaining question is how will the video ("mini doc") be used? Who is the intended audience? Additionally, we don't typically fund t-shirts as giveaways for all project participants. I can understand if you would like to publicize the projects when the students are out and about for something like a wikiexpedition, but we normally reserve t-shirts as a type of "gift" for project organizers or exceptional participants. Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 04:13, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

I didnt realize about the t shirts, which is a shame. While they have the same purpose in just about any other culture, swag seems to be particularly effective in Mexico. We are also talking about participants spending an entire week with Wikipedia, not just a few hours. If we go with tshirts for only organizers (teachers) and as rewards for exceptional participants, then we are looking at about 40. Should I change the proposal now? As for the video, it's purpose is very much like the video that Wikimedia Armenia did for its Wiki Camp and the one that students did for Wiki Learning in 2015. That video was shown at Wikimania in Mexico City, which led to a 6-page spread in the Unversitarios supplement of Reforma newspaper, one of the biggest in Mexico City. (I cannot put the pdf here because despite our best efforts, Reforma would not put the article in the appropriate license, but I can email it if you like) We have two audiences... the Wikimedia community, hopefully showing it in Montreal and the Tec de Monterrey community. We have 32 campuses over most of Mexico. Semana i is a nation-wide event and we want to have something wiki going on in all of them... Semana i offers a unique opportunity to convince new teachers to do just this, as wiki work and the aims of Semana i dovetail really nicely.Thelmadatter (talk) 13:29, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

Hi Thelmadatter. Thanks for your response. I understand about the t-shirts, but it is a considerable costs that shared across all grantees that we cannot sustain. We've tried to make this clear in the new Project Grants guidelines. Please do update the proposal. The video sounds like a great tool to spread awareness about the project. We're looking forward to seeing the final project! We are ready to approve once the proposal has been updated. Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 14:06, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

Proposal changed. We decided that teachers (who are the organizers) would be more comfortable with caps than t shirts, not to mention that they can be worn easily on multiple days. To have caps/tshirts printed, we need lots of at least 25/50 to make it cost effective, so having both is not possible. Thank you for your attention and patience.Thelmadatter (talk) 14:38, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

Extension of grant period

I would like to extend the period of the grant from October 31 to December 15. The main reason for this is that two of the people who earned honorariums during the event has trouble obtaining a tax id # (there are several here) so that the Tec can pay them. I do not know how long this will take. The second reason is that the paperwork inside the Tec de MOnterrey system is Byzantine and totally, not intuitive. The main thing holding us up are the small things (caps, copies, etc) not the big things (documentary filming, catering). Just getting a list together for the account seems to be rough.. Under the original grant end of Oct 31, 60 days is at the end of December. For all intents and purposes, everything stops here around December 15, with no chance of getting anything more done until the first week of the new year. In this way, I can focus on making sure our experts get paid they way they should and slowly figure out the rest, including getting the Tec to cut a check for the money we did not spend. (e.g. we didnt buy the stickers because the vendor that is registered with the Tec charges more than 4x what I got them for on my own last year. Yes, I will run small expenses through a personal grant next time... a lot easier!

Thank you for your time and patience.--Thelmadatter (talk) 20:58, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi Thelmadatter. Thank you for this update. It is fine to extend the grant end date. The new end date is December 15, 2016 with your final report due February 13, 2017. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 21:44, 24 October 2016 (UTC)

Thank you!--Thelmadatter (talk) 01:54, 25 October 2016 (UTC)