Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/Bangla WikiConference 2024

WMF review and feedback

Hi @RockyMasum and the Wikimedia Bangladesh team,

Thank you very much for this proposal and for your initiative in organizing the Bangla WikiConference 2024. I highly appreciate the time and effort you put into this proposal. I have reviewed your proposal and have some comments and follow up questions:

• Do you have a suggested host city?
• What kind of skill development are you planning?
• Can you please share some of the latest initiatives and projects of the Bangla Wiki Community that motivate you to organize this conference?
• How many team members do you have? Are there any on ground support?
• I see that one of the main learnings you are looking for is engaging with external partners. Do you have any previous experience with forming partnerships? Do you currently have any partners or visionary allies you are working with?
• We know that SWAG is a tangible way to share our love for Wikimedia and let folks know we are part of the community. However, over the last several years reports on event swag practices have made it clear that they have a very damaging environmental footprint other than very high costs that are increasing. Therefore we now ask you to limit swag to low cost items like stickers.
• Have you had any local in person community gatherings in the past?

As we do see the importance of gathering with the community to strengthen the connections and capacity, I wanted to let you know in advance that this is unfortunately a bit out of scope for the Conference Funf program which usually funds bigger scale regional and thematic events. I’m looking forward to hearing your response and the Conference fund committee will still consider this proposal, but we might recommend on finding a different funding path to be more suited to this kind of initiative.

When you're able, please respond to the questions on meta and revise the proposal on Fluxx if needed (I have sent the application back on Fluxx so you can edit it, just don't forget to re-submit when you are done). These revisions will be due by March 6, 2024 after which the Conference Grant Committee will begin formal review of the proposal to make the funding decisions.

Best, CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 01:22, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Hello @CAlmog (WMF), thank you for reviewing the application. Please find the following response against the follow up questions.

1. Yes. We are planning to host the event at the outskirt of the Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The venue should be within the 50km from the all major transportation hubs.
2. The skill development plan includes learning effective collaboration and communication within the Wikipedia community, gaining proficiency in using Wikidata to connect information across projects, acquiring project management skills for organizing and leading initiatives, understanding legal and ethical considerations related to content on Wikipedia, improving technical editing skills, and developing advocacy and outreach strategies to promote Wikipedia within local communities and engage with schools and libraries for increased awareness.
3. In 2024, there are several initiative already going on. In January 2024, a cultural exchange edit-a-thon happened between Asssamese and Bangla Wikipedia, facilitated by Assamese wikipedians and Wikimedia Bangladesh. From Jan 15, 2014 we launched the first iteration of Wiki Loves Bangla, a photo contest, an annual international photography competition around the Bangla culture and heritage, jointly organised by Wikimedia Bangladesh and West Bengal Wikimedians User group under the banner of Bangla WikiMoitree, the thematic hub for Bengali-speaking Wikimedia community. From February 1 to February 29, we organised the 9th edition yearly article contest “Amar Ekushey Article Contest 2024”. This article contest is one of the flagship event of Wikimedia Bangladesh. In 21 February, the International Mother Language Day, our volunteers organized “Ekushey Wiki gathering” in 4 cities across Bangladesh. This is a public awareness program where Wikipedians of Bangladesh stand in public places with banners, asking passersby to contribute to Bangla Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. This is one of the longest running yearly events, started in 2007.
   In 2023, we organized 4 edit-a-thons, 13 meetups (8 online and 5 in-person), 1 Workshop, 1 Datathon, 1 in-person day-long volunteer meetup. More details can be found on our yearly activity report. (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_chapters/Reports/Wikimedia_Bangladesh/2023)
   In 2022, we organised the local event of Wikimania 2022 in Dhaka. It was a day-long event with around 40 participants.
   In 2023, we organized another day-long volunteer meetup (already mentioned above) with around 30 participants. It was advised by the community during these events that we should organize another conference to celebrate 20 years of Bangla Wikipedia. We launched a survey in response to that advice and gathered more information from the community to get a more clear idea about the needs from the community.
4. So far we have 5 core organising team members and we have a plan to include several more team members from our new volunteer pool.
   We have team members in our COT who worked as a Logistics Officer by profession. We have members who worked as programs committee member in WIkiConference India 2023 and Wikimania 2023. We have team members who were part of the core organising team of the previous Bangla Wikipedia Conference and unconference. And we have a handful of motivated young volunteers from the community who already expressed interest to work with us.
   As we have adequately experienced and well networked team members in our COT and a handful of motivated young volunteers, we do not feel that any other on ground support will be necessary other than the vendors.
5. Yes, we have prior experience collaborating with institutions such as schools, universities, national museums, and newspapers. Our past engagements involved organizing events like workshops, editathons, awareness-building sessions, and article contests. Currently, there is growing interest from organizations like the Internet Society of Bangladesh and Better Future for Women for potential collaborations. We are actively exploring and building partnerships to enhance our outreach and impact in the community.
6. We understand the concern. We have adjusted the proposed swag items and budget as well with stickers, pen and notepads.
7. Yes, we have had smaller and big in-person events in the past. In 2023, there were 5 in-person meetups. We also organised a day-long volunteer meet-up in Dhaka, where 30 wikimedia contributors and volunteers joined from all across Bangladesh. In 2022, we had the local event of Wikimania designed as a day-long mini-conference. 40 participants joined this in-person event from all across Bangladesh. This event had 6 lighting talks and 6 presentations along with one group discussion session.
   In previous years, we organized Bangla Wikipedia 10 years Anniversary Celebration Conference in 2015. In 2012 we organized a Bangla Wikipedia Unconference as well.

I hope that my responses have met your expectations. If there are any further questions or adjustments needed, please feel free to let me know. However, we submitted our application under the conference grant track since we perceived it as fitting within the conference category. If this categorization isn't suitable, we would appreciate your guidance on which track would be more appropriate for our submission.-Rocky Masum (talk) 02:59, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

Endorsment from ~ Yahya (talk • contribs)

Following the Wikimania satellite event in 2022 in Bangladesh, many participants expressed that such events should be held annually. They shared that they gained substantial knowledge and that the event significantly motivated their contributions on Wikipedia. If the proposed event materializes, it will offer a chance to connect with Bengali Wikipedians from two countries for the first time in ten years. I am thrilled at the prospect of meeting and learning from my wiki-friends from various parts of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India after such a long interval. Hence, I endorse this grant proposal. --~ Yahya (talk • contribs) 11:59, 2 April 2024 (UTC)

Update on Bangla WikiConference 2024

Hello @CAlmog (WMF): We want to inform you that due to recent political development in Bangladesh, which we are observing closely, there might be a few changes of plan and declared timeline of Bangla WikiConference 2024. However, security and safety of the participants and volunteers remains our top priority. We are still hopeful that if the situation doesn't deteriorate further and keep improving to a satisfactory level then we will be able to host the conference in planned time (October 18 and 19). We expect to come to reach to a decision in next week or two. Thank you.-- Rocky Masum (talk) 06:05, 12 August 2024 (UTC)

Hi @RockyMasum, I'm replying here, as Chen is about to go into maternity leave, and I will be your point of contact during the time. Thanks so much for your update on the status of your planning. Is there something I can do from our (Wikimedia Foundation's) side, like specific support we could provide, independently of the developments? Looking forward to hear from you. In case you have specific concerns to share, that you wouldn't like to publish on wiki, feel free to write me an email to ckibelka-ctrwikimedia.org. Cheers, --Cornelius Kibelka (WMF) (talk to me) 14:26, 20 August 2024 (UTC)

@CKibelka (WMF): I wanted to update you on our budget allocation for staffing. After careful consideration, we decided that engaging volunteers would be more effective and convenient for everyone. As a result, we have not onboarded any staff but instead engaged a few paid volunteers. Please advise if we can classify the allocated budget as a management cost.--Rocky Masum (talk) 16:39, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

@RockyMasum: Thanks for keeping us informed! Yes, you can allocate the funds as you suggest. --Cornelius Kibelka (WMF) (talk to me) 22:20, 11 November 2024 (UTC)