Grants talk:PEG/Wikimedia Ghana Usergroup/Edit Ghana

Evaluation by the GAC

GAC members who support this request

1. --MikyM (talk) 16:16, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
2. --Ilario (talk) 09:09, 13 November 2014 (UTC)
3. --3BRBS (talk) 14:46, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

GAC comments

1. Hallo Ghana. I am personally very happy to see "wiki progress" in your country and thank you for this submission. I saw WMF comments and proposals and I am happy to see progress in joint work on this. Good luck with the project.--MikyM (talk) 16:24, 7 November 2014 (UTC)
2. Hi! Great to see a proposal of this kind. There is one thing that caled my attention, and wanted to know if you could explain one point with more detail. In phase 3 you talk about 12 trip for photo walks on the 10 regions of Ghana, are the regions going to be partially visited? Or there are going to be two regions covered in one month. Basically is there a bit more detailed plan on how to implement this part? It is a very well put togheter budget in my opinion. Congratulations!--3BRBS (talk) 14:51, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

Hi 3BRBS thanks for your comments and the opportunity to explain. We intend to do 1 visit to each of the 10 regions resulting in a total of 10 trips. We however decided to do 12 trips instead of 10 to allow us cover 2 of the regions we believe will need more than a trip to ensure full coverage Flixtey (talk) 07:42, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Tony1 comments and questions

I've come to this late in the process—sorry.

• Just a timing issue: the "Plan" and the "Budget" include the retrospective Phase 1, for which funding is not sought. In future it would help if these items had been clearly separated in the structure of the application form at an early stage (e.g. from plan into overview ... it's not part of the plan if it's already happened).
• It's due to start on Monday, and the application has been sitting here for six weeks—not ideal. Could the applicants please respond to Alex's insightful remarks as soon as possible, please?
• When you say "Wikipedia", do you mean the English Wikipedia? Are there WMF sites for local languages?
• Where was Phase 1 held? Will all of the activity be located in your capital city? What will the geographical reach be, and what is the state of connectivity in the country (is it possible to edit/upload to WMF sites only from a few locations?).
• Do you have a sense of what most urgently needs to be worked on in Ghana-related areas (both Commons and WP)? Could that information be a goal to come out of this activity?
• It's not a lot of money, even in a low-cost-structure zone. And Africa is a priority for WMF programmatic activities. So we're very keen for this to be successful if funded, and would look forward to your report to learn lessons from it.

Thank you. Tony (talk) 07:58, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

Hi Tony thanks for your insightful quetions.

• I mean to say English Wikipedia whenever i say Wikipedia. Currently there is only one local languages on Wikipedia (Akan Wikipedia) and we are looking at ways to create a group of interested edits on this and other local languages as well. It must all start with the demand for it though.
• Phase 1 is on this grant page because it was initially part of the whole grant when it was written before the Wikimedia UK extended their support. I don't think it should be much of a problem as we have stated clearly in the budget section that it was funded by the Wikimedia UK, a report was also sent to the effect and bits of updates of what ensured on this grant page serving as feedback for the next.
• The activities on here will cover all the 10 regions in Ghana and will seek to cover important issues and the way of life of the Ghanaian, hence the project name "Edit Ghana". We hope to develop very relevant topic areas that will be resourceful to Ghanaians both in the country and in the diaspora and possibly to all who seek information on these.
• We are glad to here that the WMF is keen on supporting projects from our terrain. I believe in under-promising and over delivering, with that in mind i will emphatically say that we are optimistic and will do our possible best to ensure maximum output. We hope the energy we give towards this is returned by all those we engage with us in on this.

Thanks Flixtey (talk) 16:56, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

WMF comments

Thank you for submitting this grant request. It's great to see this activity structure of sustained focus and small groups. It's also nice to see you've incorporated some of the learnings from your last grant in terms of planning for editor retention and having follow-up activities instead of one-off outreach events.

However, we would encourage you to re-design this project to ensure you are engaging people really interested in contributing free content to Wikimedia projects who can commit to regular meet-ups. We would recommend having a couple of your experienced editors (for example, Enock) organize a series of introductory events (3-5) to surface more of these people (who attend more than once). Don't try to cover everything at once, but do one meeting focused on basic syntax, then how to add citations, then categories, etc.). After you have held these intro sessions, you can see who is really committed and divide them into your groups.

We would be happy to support the intro events and then discuss phase two. Please note that we are excited to support a group focused on adding content to Commons (and adding that content on to the Wikimedia projects) and a "Depository Group" that is focused on contributing to English Wikipedia. Until a self-motivated core of editors exist on the smaller language Wikipedias, we won't invest in its development in the context of a grant or competition. If there is a core of editors in that language community, we will definitely support. We encourage you to focus on the Wikipedia that you actually use yourselves, which I understand is primarily English Wikipedia.

Please let us know what you think about the above suggestions and if you are open to reworking the grant request. It might be helpful to have a call to talk through these ideas. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 18:59, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for your suggestions and we are pleased to inform you that we held the follow up event on the 25th October, 2014 which saw 11 Editors of which 6 were from the previous event. A detailed report will be shared soon, kindly click here to view the comments of a participant about the previous event in a blog-post.

We wish to address the Wikimedia Commons bit and to assure you that pictures taken will be relevant to new or existing articles. As these pictures will be of monuments, prominent places and items or places of relevance. Pictures taken on our photowalks will be mainly used to create articles about places visited. Also our focus will be driven towards articles of relevance, like choosing the English Wikipedia over the other languages here in Ghana as these are not predominantly used.

We are in agreement with your suggestions, we also believe holding five (5) more intro sessions should be enough to get us some seasoned and committed editors to ensure phase 2 of our project will have a smooth grounding once launched. The five intro sessions will also serve as an incubation period for well versed editors and aid selection of the most committed to ensure maximum productivity when started.

Below are the list of proposed intro sessions:

• 5 pillars of Wikipedia
• Citation and Referencing Hands On
• Syntax Hands on
• Introduction to other sister projects
• Edit-a-thon (to surge some eidts and test ability to edit)

Once you agree to the suggestions above (list of proposed intro sessions), i will edit the entire grant page to reflect the new developments while i do away with the language edit group to rather focus on driving contents unto the English Wikipedia which is relatively relevant in our setting. Flixtey (talk) 18:34, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Flixtey. Thanks for your response and willingness to adjust the project plan. It looks good and we encourage you to make updates to the grant request page. I can send you some more materials regarding editing workshops and edit-a-thons as well. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 21:17, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Alex Wang (WMF) i wish to inform you and your abled team that i am done with restructuring the grant to suit the concurrence of our discussions. Please note that a new section has been created under activities titled developments to elaborate on reasons for changes, changes have also been made to the budget to reflect the values.

NB: Please also be informed that the total value in dollars have gone up despite the decrease in the cedi value because of the changes in current forex rates.

Additional comments

Hi Flixtey. Thank you for updating the grant request based on our feedback. We are excited to fund the series of introductory workshops and one photowalk (with camera) as a pilot project. We would consider this Phase 2. We would consider supporting Phase 3 (additional photowalks and depository group events) as a separate grant request based on the results of Phase 2. Please let us know if this sounds like a good plan for you to move forward. Additionally, we have the following questions:

1. What is the breakdown for the intro sessions costs?
2. What is the breakdown for the photowalk costs? 175 GHC per person per trip seems very high. Are there significant travel costs included?
3. Please provide a link or more details on the camera you plan to purchase. Does this cost include batteries and memory card?
4. If you purchase a camera, you will need to create a system for tracking camera usage. For example, a page on meta that tracks who has the camera, when it was checked out and when it will be returned (and to whom).

Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 23:36, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

Please note the grantee is currently working to update the proposal. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 17:21, 2 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Alex Wang (WMF) i wish to inform you that answers to the various questions above have been inputted to the grant page in the form of updates.

1. The breakdown of the intro sessions have been explained in the budget column.
2. A tentative breakdown of the photowalk and the travel expense have been submitted to reflect only that of the pilot project phase 2.
3. Relevant links have been provided for the cost of the camera and other relevant accessories.
4. A logbook has also been created to allow records for all Wikimedia owned equipments in the possession of Wikimedia Ghana Usergroup.

Thanks Flixtey (talk) 16:17, 8 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Flixtey. Thanks for the updates.

1. Intro sessions: Miscellaneous items make up almost 30% of the budget. What do you expect to include in this line item?
2. Camera: Are you expecting 4 people to participate in the photowalk? Is this based on the amount of demonstrated interest you have currently? I would enourage you to see if you can get more participants and ask if they are comfortable sharing rooms. Where do you plan on doing the photowalk?
3. Camera: The cost of the camera in USD needs to be updated. I would also encourage you to look at other camera models that are less expensive, but just as high quality as the Canon EOS 70D. For example, the Nikon D3300 is a highly rated entry-level DSLR and only $500. If you are specifically interested in a Canon, the Canon SL1 is a really good option and $550. Both cameras have a relatively good built-in flash. In most cases you would not need an external flash or tripod unless you are shooting inside a dark church, museum, etc. A telephoto lens that goes up to 300mm is only useful if you are shooting wildlife. Otherwise, I would suggest a faster lens with less zoom. Please let me know your thoughts on these suggestions. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 00:57, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Alex Wang (WMF)

1. The Miscellaneous for intro session may be used for internet costs, transportation of food and other relevant items to and from the venue of the event. It may even be more than the amount stated there, but going for the average will update you with all that ensures should there be a low or high.
2. Actually i chose 4 because of the high related cost of travel in Ghana. Since its also just a pilot project, we will like to do with this number then increase the numbers after gathering feedback from the pilot to ensure money is not wasted but put into judicious use should we consider increasing the number.
3. We only recommend the above cameras because we intend to provide quality with our work and to ensure it best communicates the passion we attach to this project and our intentions for the future. However if its on the high side then we will prefer the Canon E0S 60D as that will cut off some appreciable cost and still get us close to our preferred choice of camera. I also think that since this is going to be an asset for the WMGH UG and will be used for quite some time, it will be advisable to get an equipment that will stand the test of time in the role it plays.
4. The telephoto lens that goes up to 300mm is an equipment that can compliment great work both now and the future. We will be visiting places like the Mole park should we be granted the go ahead, this could afford us the opportunity to capture some animals for the use of Wikispecies. It could also be of use with other campaigns such as the WLA in the near future as themes keep changing and could one day be of essence, should the theme have any relation with African wildlife.

Please let me know your thought on these so to effect the necessary changes in the budget Flixtey (talk) 12:46, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Grant approved

Thank you for your updates to the grant request. We are happy to support Phase 2 of this project and are excited to see how a set of sustained activities will impact the level of new editors and content. Here are some good resources for editathons and editing workshops and photo events. Please also see the Evaluation Portal for information on Wikimetrics, the software used to track editor behavior and retention. Happy to help answer any questions. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 18:40, 11 December 2014 (UTC)