Grants talk:PEG/WM PH/Open Web Day

A few questions about your grant proposal

Hi, Jojit. Thanks for your proposal! Sounds like you are nurturing a fruitful partnership with Mozilla.

I have a few questions and suggestions:

1. In your "measures of success", you state, If the number of new editors to the Wikimedia projects increases as a result of this workshop, whether it be on the English or Philippine-language projects. How do you plan on measuring that?
2. How are you considering following up with the attendees of your workshops? Will you plan on tracking their contributions on-Wiki and will you be following up with a survey about the usefulness of the workshops after each workshop? (Not only would this track the success of your workshops, but it would help you make changes that could improve their effectiveness each time.)
3. Are you (or Mozilla Foundation) considering how you will leverage each successful event to encourage greater participation and increase momentum over a 12-month period? Do you have a plan for publicizing your work? (For example, a blog.)
4. As you're working on each training session, will you plan on making the content of each session available to the community by posting slide presentations, pictures, and other materials publicly? This would be an added benefit to the movement that would strengthen your proposal.
5. Would you consider adding a budget item within your proposal to print copies of the "Welcome to Wikipedia Manual" in- country instead of requesting that WMF ship copies to you as a non-financial requirement? In the end, this might be more cost-effective than shipping them to you from San Francisco; what do you think?

(As a side note, if your proposal is approved and you have funds left over from the project that you would like to reallocate to other WMPH projects you will need to request this reallocation separately at the time of reporting, so it is not necessary to include it in your current proposal.)

Looking forward to reading your comments and the GAC's comments. Wolliff 18:09, 18 January 2012 (UTC)

I generally like this project, it seems to be well tought of - I am just a bit affraid if you really will be able to continue it for a year - I mean - after first 2-3 workshops it might start to be boring duty for you :-) Producing T-shirts (just 12) or Wikipedia Manual in small quantities (200-300) won't be very effective as well. If so - there should be quantities of at least 100 T-shirts and 500-1000 Manuals made by WM Philiphines and then used not only for this project but also others. The other option is just to print the manuals on simple desktop printer and order 12 T-shirts in any company which produces single, unique T-shirts on demand... Polimerek 14:55, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

See my reply below on number 5. --Jojit (talk) 10:24, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Answer to Woliff questions

1. As with other projects that we have, we let the participants register and get their contact details. During the workshop, we will take note of the username that they created.
2. We will do both methods. We will track their contributions on-Wiki and conduct a survey about the usefulness of the workshops after each workshop.
3. We haven't discussed in detail on how we will publicize our work. So far, we only plan to have a poster outside Netopia. Mozilla already had this project on their wiki. For further promotion of the workshop, WMPH has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a local PR firm and they can publicize it. There are a number of WMPH members who are bloggers and they can help in promoting this workshop. We have social networking accounts with a lot of followers and we can invite them to come to future workshops. Inviting people through online social networking is very effective. WMPH were able to increase membership because of that. Mozilla and WMPH can sit down and plan further promotion of the workshops.
4. On WMPH side, we make our materials available publicly. It has been a practice on our past events to video our presentation and upload it either on YouTube or on Commons. On Mozilla side, I think they can make their materials publicly because they are advocates of Free/Open Source Software.
5. I think Polimerek suggestions are great. I like the option where we print the manual on a desktop printer. Actually, we do that on our brochures. I just buy paper and ink and have it reimbursed. It's cheaper and there are no minimum prints unlike on a printing press company, which requires a minimum number of prints (usually 1000). Although, the printing press produces high quality prints. Also, if these were going to be budget items, it would no longer be a 50/50 share with Mozilla because they have their own manual and swag budgets.

--Jojit (talk) 10:24, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the responses, Jojit. Related to #2, do you think you'd be able to provide WMF with a mini-report after each workshop with a summary of how the event went and if any lessons were learned, including results from the survey and pictures from the event? Wolliff 19:53, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Some thoughts

Hi and thanks for the submission. I've always been in favor of giving lectures and workshops about Wikipedia, so the idea is fine to me. My questions are as follows:

1. How did you make the decision to held the meeting in an Internet Cafe and rent computers for the people attending it and did you have any other alternatives? Isn't it possible to organize it in a small venue or elsewhere, where the people interested to attend would bring their own computer for the workshop? This will significantly reduce the costs that you have in the monthly budget.
2. Can you give me more the details about the topic of the presentations and speeches and do you plan to have the same agenda for each workshop? I suppose it is generally focused on the Wikimedia projects and how to edit them.
3. Why to use a raffle for a T-shirt per workshop? Isn't it more grateful to look for the possibility of getting Wikimedia or Mozilla T-shirts that will be delivered to everybody attending the workshops?

My suggestion is if possible to use a questionnaire to get well informed about the people willing to come. It usually gives pleasant results. Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski 19:09, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Answer to Kiril's questions

1. The Internet cafe was Mozilla's idea. And yes, we have alternatives. We planned to have it on a university. But we thought that having the workshop at Internet cafe would entice people with diverse backgrounds. Having it on a university might make it a homogeneous audience and limited to students. The Internet cafe is inside a mall and it will invite people who just strolling around. About the other venues and bringing own computers, this scenario would be a logistical problem because we have to setup the broadband and setup each computer or laptop that they bring. It is also not zero cost because we have to rent the place. If it were a desktop computer, it would be inconvenient to the participants to ask them to bring it. Also, most students, our target audience, do not have their own laptops or computers. This is the reason why in the Philippines, there are cheap Internet cafés abound to do their research. So, having the workshops at an Internet cafe is ideal because it would free us from setting a broadband Internet and it would encourage more participants. By the way, WMPH own a pocket Wi-Fi Internet but the broadband speed in Internet cafés are faster than our own.
2. Yes, on WMPH side, it is focused on Wikimedia projects and how to edit them. We are generally covering what are written in the Welcome to Wikipedia manual. It is more than just presentations and speeches; there will be hands-on training. On Mozilla side, I still have to see on what they will present but I believe that they will focus on programming and anything related to Mozilla.
3. Giving T-Shirts to all participants will be expensive and besides, Filipinos are generally excited on raffles. The swags (buttons and stickers) and free snacks are enough already for showing our gratitude. :-)

We will take note of your suggestion about the questionnaire. --Jojit (talk) 08:55, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks.--Kiril Simeonovski 16:47, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Having visited the proposed venue, I should add that the Internet cafe in question is inside a huge and very busy mall in central Manila, and so there's a good chance of attracting "walk-ins", i.e. mall visitors with some time, who would be interested in hearing us out and trying some editing. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 22:02, 24 January 2012 (UTC)