Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Global Open Initiative Annual Wikimedia Activities

Regional Committee Recommendations

Dear Global Open Initiative,

Thank you for submitting your application. The Middle East and Africa Regional Committee has reviewed your application and they have comments and some follow up questions and requests: What’s exciting about the proposal is that it seeks to promote and improve the content in the local language. Also, the fact that the GOI was able to get the libraries foundation on board is exciting because that will help in creating more knowledgeable people.

Learning, Evaluation and Sharing Questions:

• "In the core metrics section, the number of organizers targeted is 20. The resources section shows 15 project team members are available for the project. Is the 15 part of the 20? If so, where and how will the remaining 5 emerge from and what roles specifically will they be playing in relation to the identified roles of the 15 members? It might be helpful to state clearly how many trainers and facilitators there will be out of the proposed 20 and if the number will be enough or more to carry the number of total participants. How many trainers/facilitators per event and on what basis is the distribution made?

Ans: The number of organisers targeted is 20 because by the end of our project, we hope to have trained at least 5 librarians to become Wikipedia Facilitators/trainers willing to join our team. In general we have 3 English Wikipedia Facilitators and 3 Twi Wikipedia Facilitators. And sometimes User: Mwintirew, User:Kinvidia and User: Nana yaa series do assist with facilitation when they have to. We usually have 2 to 3 facilitators per workshop. And the distribution is based on the availability of the facilitators on the day agreed for the training workshops. Some of these facilitators have other jobs or are schooling apart from their volunteering role with GOIF.

• Also, in the additional metrics section, a " number" should be stated in the target column of the first metric. The description of the first metric should align with the target. For example, the description says "number of editors that continue to edit after activities" and the target is saying "number of organizers retained". Organizers and editors are two separate target audiences. And then with the proposed target are the organizers non-wikimedians and entirely new in organizing? If so, what are their proven skillset in this?

Ans: There was a mistake in that section. Seems the text “Number of organisers retained” under target and “25” under description switched. So we have corrected it in the table. As explained above under the first question, the proposed 20 retained organisers include 15 of the team embarking on this project and 5 librarians we will be training to become Wikipedia trainers who will join our team.

• In the target column for the third metric, 6 was proposed contrary to the four partnered libraries. Who are the remaining 2 and where do they come in?

Ans: When we organised the first pilot project at Effutu Municipal main library, one librarian from Cape Coast Municipal Library expressed interest in coming to organise another workshop at the Cape coast Municipal Library. So Cape Coast Main Municipal Library is the 5th Library we are looking forward to working with. For the 6th library we will be working with another library in Effutu, Cape Coast or Tarkoradi. We are still in communication and yet to finalise this with the respective librarians.

• Regarding the budget, there can be a breakdown to show specific items covered in the budget and how it is distributed across the number of proposed activities.

Ans: Thank you for the suggestion, please the changes have been duly made on the budget to reflect that.

• The number of core team members and organizers keeps changing, there is a need to clarify this.

Ans: Based on our answer to question one and two we hope we have clarified this.

• The target metrics have to be relooked, we consider them to be quite low considering the amount requested. There is a need to align the resources requested to the impact outcomes.

Ans: We have updated the core metrics as suggested.

• We recommend purchasing a laptop on a reasonable budget. We were curious about the specific request for a Macbook.

Ans: We did not request for a laptop or Macbook in our budget, this question might have been a mistake from the committee.

• We also wanted to learn from you on your basis for the compensation amount? What informed the amount requested?

Ans: The project manager will be responsible for:

• Activities and resource planning.
• Organising and coordinating all team members.
• Monitoring project progress.
• Monitoring budget and managing expenses.
• Reporting monthly to advisors, the progress of the project.
• Managing reports and necessary documentation.

The project manager will be working 40 hours a week for 12 weeks. The project manager will be paid 32ghs per hour. Which translates to (40*4 weeks * 32 ghs = 5120ghs) 5120ghs as compensation a month. Kinvidia (talk) 21:39, 2 December 2021 (UTC)

Please reach to the MEA regional program officer to support you in making the needed changes to your proposal which are due by the end of the day, 2nd of December 2021. Looking forward to hearing from you. On behalf of the Regional Committee. Ptinphusmia (talk) 14:15, 25 November 2021 (UTC)

Clarifying Additional Concerns from Seydou Diakite

Thank you Seydou for sharing your observations and raising these concerns.

However, we would like to clarify that, although the Dabgani Wikimedians Usergroup is one of the language groups that Global Open Initiative birthed, they currently exist as a separate entity operating from the Northern half of Ghana supporting multiple languages in the Mole-Dagbani tree including Dagbani. And the Global Open Initiative team is not involved or has no say in the day to day running of the Dagbani Wikimedians group. We do still collaborate when asked but we are not aware or involved in every decision or activities the group takes. So their activities and operations are different from that of GOIF.

We apologise for the delay in making this clarification soon.

Secondly, concerning the LUCG, this is a project proposed by a long-volunteer to recruit and maintain already existing members of Lakeside University College, Ghana (LUCG). This is in line with our objectives to empower self-sustaining Wikihubs at the institutions that we collaborate with. Their proposal couldn’t have been included in our plan because it was brought to our attention after we submitted the annual grant. 

We do empower and support individuals and groups to contribute in various ways to the Wikimedia Movement (which we believe aligns with the movement's recommendation of increasing the sustainability of the movement) but at a point, if they want to operate on their own as a group or embark on individual projects, we give them a chance to.

The assumption that GOIF is taking advantage of the Foundation by founding offshoot communities to rip the Foundation off is absolutely wrong. The tone of this message is rather conclusive. This makes it difficult for us to accept that these concerns were raised in good faith. We’d kindly request for you to reach out to us publicly to seek clarification before drawing these conclusions. Kinvidia (talk) 12:52, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

Wikimedia Community Fund approved in the amount of 33,313.89 USD

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of 33,313.89 USD, with a grant term starting 1 January 2022 and ending 31 December 2022.

We remain excited about your project and especially since it is building off what you achieved with your most recent project grant. We hope that with this funding you will strengthen your programs including; Nubuke Editathon Series, GLA Libraries Wikidata and Wikipedia workshops, Twi Community Editing Meetups and Contests and partnerships developed towards achieving the set outcomes.

We recognize the efforts towards working with knowledge workers in building their capacity to be movement organizers and contributors. We encourage you to document this process, as a useful future learning process and resource for community members seeking to take a similar approach when working with librarians.

We encourage you to identify ways of continuing to engage the program participants beyond this project and others that you are working on ; taking on a sustainability lens.

Thank you for your work and all you do for the community and Wikimedia movement.

Best regards from the MEA Regional Committee and Staff Aristidek5maya (talk) 18:25, 15 December 2021 (UTC)