Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wiki Loves Folklore 2023

Feedback from the SA Regional Funds Committee

Hi Tiven2240, Hardarshan Benipal,

Thank you for applying for the Wikimedia Community Funds. The South Asia Regional Funds Committee has gone through your application and want to share some observations and suggestions. Please note that these suggestions are made in order to improve the overall purpose and impact of the project and you can make changes/alignment/improvement before 18 November 2022. If the suggestions are unclear or you would need more information a meeting can be set up with the members of the Regional Grants Committee before 12 November 2022.

We recognise that the Wiki Loves Folklore project is an improvisation, expansion of an earlier campaign. This is a healthy sign of growth within the Wikimedia movement where a project has seen multiple iterations, has acquired skills and built its community presence. With the experience that the project has acquired there are many ways in which the project can contribute to the free knowledge movement. These contributions in turn support the sustainability of our Wikimedia projects.

Conceptual expertise around the themes of folklore, feminism are key to the success of the project and the organising team should engage in conversations with academia and research community to understand these concepts at a more nuanced level. These discussions and interactions should become an integral part of the planning and implementation of the project. A sound understanding of these complex areas and the guidance stemming out of this should be the building blocks of this project.

The committee members feel that the proposal does not address the topic of Knowledge Equity. Knowledge Equity is a very important priority for the Wikimedia movement and this has to be reflected across not only the programmatic activities but also in the strategic goals, partnerships and budget considerations as well. An indicative list of the experts who have been involved and who will be consulted at a later stage to guide the project would be helpful to have.

Another observation is that there can be more diversification in the core team to ensure that there is bridging the gender gap within the organisational level as well. The leadership team of the project should be able to increase their skills and knowledge with every iteration of the project and hence if necessary some resources should be marked for such skill building activities.

It is also our recommendation that there can be a few more scholarships/prizes/rewards for participants from the marginalised communities to document folklore and other relevant traditions under the scope of the project.

Considering that this program has a global reach and has been able to collaborate with multiple global communities, has there been any other funding opportunities explored by the organisers? What kind of support other than financial resources are available to the organising team due to their global presence? It would be helpful if the budget is also explained from the perspective of impact that will be achieved. As it stands now the budget does not explain this perspective.

The Regional Funds Committee would recommend that the engagement with global communities and prioritisation of topics is done at a more inclusive level. While the links provided indicate many interested contributors, the ideas presented in the proposal do not take into account the cultural plurality across the communities. It would be beneficial if the organisers can share some observations/planning process that was used to engage the communities while building this proposal.

Another observation is towards the identification of metrics, the committee is of the opinion that there could have been more innovation regarding the nature of impact of the project. There is no restriction that all of the metrics have to be quantified, an analysis of the project, its growth, its future should be considered if possible in this iteration for a strong evaluation of the project.

On behalf of the South Asian Regional Funds Committee THasan (WMF) (talk) 11:14, 25 October 2022 (UTC)

Revert to Feedback from the SA Regional Funds Committee

Dear SA Regional Funds Committee and @THasan (WMF):,

We would like to thank you and acknowledge the appreciation you have shown for the work we have done over the years. Wiki Loves Folklore is not simply a contest but it is a movement and a drive for bringing the cultural heritage around the world on the internet in free licenses. We bring a platform for folk lovers and enthusiasts, cultural institutions, folklore societies to celebrate, promote and share their local folk culture and networks.

Because of the efforts of more than 3,800+ amateur photographers who have volunteered their time, we have been able to amass more than 42,000+ photos from 158 countries all over the world over the course of the past four years. Because of our efforts to write about women and Folk, as well as the inclusion of pages relating to LGBTQAI+ topics, we have had an effect on around 16000 articles on Wikipedia. 552+ individual volunteers hailing from 27+ different Wikimedia Communities contributed to the writing of these articles. Wiki Loves Folklore, along with Feminism and Folklore, is a movement that is being led by the Wikimedia community. This movement is only possible because to the tireless work and efforts of volunteers all around the world over the course of the last four years.

We have carefully taken note of your comments and suggestions. Please find our responses below.

We are in communication with a number of parties who are interested in serving on our board of advisors. We are doing so with the goal of achieving diversity in terms of areas of expertise such as glam, culture, folk, feminism, campaigns, academic research, and heritage from a variety of regional cultures, as well as the inclusion of members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Our work is an implementation of the Wikimedia 2030 Movement Strategy Recommendations for Managing Internal Knowledge, with a particular emphasis on initiatives such as Bridging Gaps in High-Impact Content, Building Capacity to Improve High-Impact Content in Underrepresented Communities, Identifying Topics for Impact, and Facilitating a Documentation Culture.

We adhere to the belief that it is necessary to bring together all individuals and organizations who have goals in common. The board will provide us with the recommendations for our project strategy, research, and partnerships and possible steps for the project’s overall improvement and growth for future.

The Wiki Loves Folklore initiative creates a platform for people around the globe to document their local culture under free licences on Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia. We have been successful in bringing together photographers, and folklore enthusiast from 158 different countries and assisting them in publishing their native culture on the internet under a Creative Commons License.

Our photographs, such as File:Another way to celebrate Christmas Eve in La Havana,Cuba.jpg and File:Défilé d’un Groupe de femmes.jpg, were taken on islands off the coast of Cuba and Haiti. Additionally, many images from African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, as well as images from Sierra Leone (such as File:Cultural dance in Freetown Sierra Leone.jpg), were used.

The very foundation of this project is inclusive in nature which includes one of the defining principles of knowledge equity - ensuring equitable access to all to create and consume information. One of the biggest achievement that is unique to only this project is its structure that allows underrepresented and margized communities, indigenous tribes from different parts of the world that have few resources but a rich cultural and historical legacy to document and share their culture. One of our amazing achievements is being able to engage folks from indigenous cultures and local tribes to document their culture from countries and regions such as Oman, Tajikistan, Serbia, Ukraine, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Laos, Iraq, Syria, Cuba, Lebanon, Ethiopia, China, Madagascar, Mongolia‎, Vietnam, ‎Yemen etc where there is little or no structured presence of Wikimedia leadership and affiliates for any organized campaigns. We provide toolkits and tutorials to ensure that new people can register, login and upload media easily during our campaign.

Its one of the only campaigns that allows for open participation from any part of the world with internet access without dependency from the organized affiliates to coordinate local editions of the campaigns. That being the case, we have also extended our support to local chapters and user groups to organize the campaign. This ensures that there is cultural plurality amongst the local topics for the photography and writing campaigns of this project for areas of folk that are locally prominent to their culture regionally.

As a result, it not only attracts new users but also their documentation of unique content on Wikimedia commons and the Internet which can be and are used for illustration of Wikipedia articles and beyond on the internet.

Through our years-long partnership with various projects like Les sans pagEs, WikiDonne and the Women in Red Campaign, and media partnerships with International agencies and Folklore societies, we have been able to ensure wide spread inclusion of diverse groups of interested participants and organizers alike.

We've been able to build a knowledge base around folk over the last four years in over 25+ language Wikipedia editions. This knowledge base covers folk music, folk personalities, folk traditions and cultures from around the world, and topics related to Feminism and LGBTQ+.

We have created a board of advisors for our project that bring expertise in different specialities including, partnerships, technology, GLAM & Culture, campaigns innovation from different Institutions around the globe, including, staff members from Wikimedia Foundation, Modern Arts Museum, Valencia and many more. In the coming days, we will finalize the ongoing conversations with the rest of the board and professionals working in this field and consult with them.

We will be investigating how we can provide structured datasets and also how to better utilize and make visibility for the already existing information about folk culture and intangible heritage lists on Wikipedia and UNESCO’S intangible heritage lists. We are currently in conversation with the subject experts for the way to integrate the datasets. We are hiring Wikidata specialist for a small pilot and initial survey on further expansion for this initiative.

Through all of these years, our Core International Team has consisted of members hailing from a variety of fields, all of which are required to successfully run the campaigns. Through all of these years, we have maintained a volunteer team that is a group of individuals from a wide variety of countries, including India, Nepal, Ghana, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Zambia, Germany, Canada, France, Nigeria, Spain, Brazil, and more. Our current team will continue the same diversity and even include Commons Administrators, MediaWiki and Wikidata experts, Other wiki projects administrators, Editors from various Wikimedia projects, regional outreach officers, etc.

Our team (over 100+ people) of National Country coordinators (WLF) and Local Language Coordinators (FNF) work closely with the international team to ensure the cultural plurality regionally for content and engagement. To ensure diversity, it is encouraged atleast one women leader is present amongst the organizing team of Feminism and Folklore and WLF local editions for supporting and skill building for women in Wikimedia leadership. Regular interactions include regular updates on social media channels we have build dedicated on Telegram, Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Wikimedia mailing lists and scheduled Google Meetups with our international team.

Our jury consists of professionals, photographers and seasoned Wikimedia Commons experts with good background with jury experience in various global photo contests and in-depth knowledge about Featured pictures, Quality images, Valued images and Featured media.

Following is brief explanation for the budget (please feel free to reach out to us via email or 1:1 meeting for any further clarification on any line item):

1. Wiki Loves Folklore International Prizes - We have set aside USD 2050 for the winners of the Wiki Loves Folklore Photography Contest.
2. International and local Feminism and Folklore prizes - We have set aside USD 2700 for the winners of the Feminism and Folklore writing contest (Details are provided below).
3. Postcards, Merchandise/Gift Cards for Winners and International Teams - We have budgeted USD 950 for the printing and delivery of Postcards to Wiki Loves Folklore winners and local teams. (Details below).
4. Campaign Outreach and Support - We have budgeted $1000 USD for social media campaigning (which would include google adverts, Facebook and Instagram adverts, and etc.) and designer.
5. We have maintained paid support for two part-time (15-hour-per-week) project coordinators, a Wikidata specialist, a French interpreter stipend, and Internet and childcare support (on request only) for the WLF and F&F Teams (National and International Team). We have added $100 for purchase of online skill building modules for internal Team. We have set aside $12,400 USD for this purpose.

(Note: Our team volunteers thousands of hours throughout the year to organize, plan, and execute the various activities, communications, strategizing and partnerships for the project but it is impossibly hard to grow without presence of professionals supporting in some kind of paid capacity. We are including two professionals for each WIki loves folklore and Feminism and folklore campaign who would be paid atleast partially, working rest of the hours in volunteer capacity.

One of the long standing language barriers is with our organizing teams from French speaking regional community including more than dozen countries. As per feedback from our discussions and feedback, we would hire a French interpreter who will assist us in translating live meetings, blogs, and communications into French.

Lastly, with some strong feedback received over the years from the local teams of Feminism and Folklore and WLF, regarding the inability of volunteers (noting almost all the teams are without paid staff capacity except coordinating team from some established chapters with good funding have). It is impossibly hard from limited sources of volunteers who have to put hundreds of hours for the campaigns organizing and jury work of both writing and photo contest, keeping in mind the amount of time consumed and internet used (which is very expensive in some countries and not affordable for common folks). As per these challenges and requests made, we have included the internet and childcare support for them (which will be given as per request per national teams).

6) Administrative Expenses - We have budgeted $700 USD for website hosting, domain, g suite, website builder softwares, hosting domain for website, videomaking softwares, etc.

7) We have set aside USD 500 as a contingency for currency fluctuations (The rate of USD keep on fluctuating throughout the year and our expenses are in international currencies (USD, GHS, EUR, INR, etc. Aadepending on the country of the winners) so conversion happens throughout the year whenever the expenses are made) per our experience through past iterations.

8) We have set aside USD 500 for Miscellaneous Expenses.

Particulars	Particulars	Amt	Amt total
Wiki Loves Folklore	First prize	500
	Second prize	400
	Third prize	300
	10 consolation	400
	1 Audio	150
	1 video	150
	top uploader of Images	100
	second top uploader of Images	50	$2,050
Feminism and Folkore	First prize	300
	Second prize	200
	Third prize	100
	10 consolation	500
	Prizes for local Winners	1600	$2,700
Stipends	Stipend for 2	8800
	French intrepretor Stipend	500
	Internal Team Online Skill Building Material purchase	100
	Wikidata Specialist	500
	Internet and childcare stipends (on request only) for language coordinators team for WLF and F&F	2500	$12,400
Expenses	Website hosting, domain, g suite, website builder softwares, hosting domain for website and other necessary softwares	700
	Facebook, Google and Online advertisements	500
	Merchandize/Gift Cards for Winners and International Teams	650
	100 Postcard Printing and international courier	300
	Designer	500
	Provision for Currency fluctuations	500
	Miscallenous Expenses	500	$3,650
Total			$20,800

We have added additional amount of $500 in our initial proposal for Internet and childcare support (on request only) for the WLF and F&F Teams (National and International Teams), as well as $200 USD for currency fluctuations. As suggested by Committee we also wish to include $100 for purchase of online Skill building materials for our Internal Team. This will make the total of our grant amount from $20,000 USD to $20,800 USD.

We have been keeping an open line of communication with all of collaborating and organizing partners. With an in-depth understanding and institutional knowledge of Wiki loves folklore project since last five years and four iterations but also other international campaigns such as Wikipedia Asian Month by some of our team members who had been core international team of numerous outstanding global projects and campaigns, we have designed this year’s project plan, strategizing and incorporating the feedbacks from our national teams, our jury members and participants who provide their feedback through survey as a guide to address the challenges and tools needed for growth of the program included in our grant proposal.

Apart from the above mentioned, we are receptive to suggestions and are happy to investigate new avenues for the improvement of the project and strategy at large. Hope this helps in providing our vision to the SAARC Funding Committee.

Thanks and warm Regards,

Tiven (User:Tiven2240) and Hardarshan (User:Benipal hardarshan)

--Tiven2240 (talk) 16:39, 13 November 2022 (UTC)
--*•.¸♡ ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕣𝕤𝕙𝕒𝕟 𝔹𝕖𝕟𝕚𝕡𝕒𝕝 ♡¸.•*^{𝕋𝕒𝕝𝕜} 18:19, 13 November 2022 (UTC)

Funding recommendation from South Asia Regional Funds Committee

Hi Tiven2240, Hardarshan Benipal and WLF team,

Thank you for sharing details and helping us understand your project better. It has been inspiring to see your journey so far. We appreciate your passion and hard work and as your campaign enters its 6th year, we look forward to supporting your mission to bridge the local folklore and cultural gaps, being part of your growth and scaling up journey. To that effect, please find below some of our observations and comments.

Our main suggestion is to explore a strategic roadmap for development of Folklore & Feminism work and improve organisational capacity.

We see that the project currently has a Board of Advisors that represent Wikimedia Foundation and its ethos strongly, but lacks experience in the core areas of your project - folklore and feminism. Since the project has a global reach, we recommend that the Board of Advisors is reflective of the same; perhaps experts from GLAM institutions that focus on folklore / feminism could steer your journey onwards.

Our recommendation is to also strengthen your core team by developing an internal practice of capacity building and learning in these areas.

We notice that few partners are from outside of the Wikimedia Foundation / supported initiatives. The committee would suggest partnering with organisations with a shared mission (such as UNESCO) on aspects such as knowledge-production / research.

Your website states the following as your goal: “The campaign is targeted at protecting the world’s intangible cultural heritage.” One of the most popular approaches has been building the capacity of existing practitioners to train the new generation. It is not clear to us, as to how your efforts in the last few years have contributed in “protecting the world’s intangible heritage”.

In the upcoming stages of progress report and conversations with Community Resources team:

We would like the organising team to elaborate on your partnership outreach efforts. We would like to have a brief overview of potential partnerships and planned efforts to materialise these.

We request to share a detailed breakdown towards expenditure on your tech-stack and the rationale for these expenses. Please also indicate if you have explored alternatives and your reason for choosing a particular provider (e.g: Animoto). We are suggesting this review as part of the progress indicator as we do not want to disrupt the technical workflow for the project in this iteration.

We would again like to emphasise that we’d love to see your project take its steps towards growth, and recommend exploring in-kind / other funding sources as well.

The South Asia Regional Funds Committee recommends full funding to this project.

On behalf of the South Asia Regional Funds Committee - THasan (WMF) (talk) 14:51, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

Additional funds request

Dear Grants Team,

I am writing to request an additional funding of 5000 USD for our ongoing project, Wiki Loves Folklore. As you are aware, one of the initiative of our project is to promote community participation and engagement.

We received some feedback from around 38 communities who are organising feminism and folklore in their respective language Wikipedia. Majority of them are from underrepresented communities and require support from our end to help them provide support for local prizes and in person events that they are excited to organize after almost three years of pandemic when there hadn't been in-person events. This support would mean great level of growth for these langauges. While we kept the funds in our grant for these groups but we did not anticipate such amazing level of participation. Currently, we have seen organizing in new Langauges and we are now one of the top most growing projects internationally.

We are extremely grateful for the initial grant provided, which has helped us initiate this project. However, due to the increase in participation, we will need grants team's support for additional funds that can help these growing language communities with the amazing growth they are working so hard for and deserve. We are currently running low on funds, which may hinder our ability to provide the necessary support to these communities. We would like to increase the amount of prizes from 1600 USD of the local prizes category to 6600 USD, (total additional funds requested, 5000 USD).

The additional funding will be used to cover the expenses incurred due to the increased participation, such as local prizes and onsite events for Feminism and Folklore writing competition. We believe that with the additional funding, we can expand the scope of the project and provide better support to the communities that have already signed up.

We would be also extending the Feminism and Folklore writing competition by 15 days. The writing competition will end on 15 April 2023.

1. Original amount : 20,800 USD
2. Amount recieved in first installment : 14,200.70 CAD
3. Extra amount requested: 5000 USD
4. Rationale for extra amount: Providing support to local language coordinators in underdeveloped and underrepresented communities is crucial for their growth and development. By allocating funds for local prizes and in-person workshops, we can help these communities organize their first offline events after the pandemic and promote editor growth and leadership skill development. Supporting these initiatives can have a significant impact on the long-term growth and success of these communities, and help them achieve the growth they seek. Originally we anticipated over 15 language communities to join the contest. But we got over 41 language communities. And with the number of organizers, editors and articles increasing drastically we would request for additional funds.
5. Change in metrics : Number of articles created - 1000 to Number of articles created - 2000

Please feel free to connect if you need any additional information.

Thank you Tiven and Hardarshan Wiki Loves Folklore International Team

--Tiven2240 (talk) 03:18, 29 March 2023 (UTC) —*•.¸♡ ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕣𝕤𝕙𝕒𝕟 𝔹𝕖𝕟𝕚𝕡𝕒𝕝 ♡¸.•*^{𝕋𝕒𝕝𝕜} 04:46, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

This request has been approved THasan (WMF) (talk) 04:02, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Documentation on challenges faced by the Core Organising Team of Wiki Loves Folklore and Feminism and Folklore

Hello @Tiven2240, @Joy Agyepong and Francesc,

Thank you for connecting with Morgan and myself earlier.

We would like to invite you to document here on the talkpage:

1) the fallout in collaboration with Hardashan, the challenges as well as revisions that you plan/need to make for the project;

Hardarshan Benipal has been unresponsive with communication with the Team since April 2023. Over the past months, we tried connecting with him via WhatsApp, Emails, telephonic calls and his meta wiki user Talkpage [[1]]but he has not responded to any of them.

2) share links to the talk pages / social media posts on the pressures from the community that you mentioned you are facing as a result of the fallout (above) and fund management situation related to the project;

We have received inquiries from various volunteers in the Feminism and Folklore Telegram group as well as on our Talkpage [[2]] We have received personal messages on Telegram from organisers as they have been contacted by the community for the status of prize distribution. The third instalment is due for disbursement of prizes of the contest.

3) list the asks that you are making /are requesting from the various teams within the Wikimedia Foundation given the present situation;

• Finance Team : For effective approaches finance budgeting and advise on financial measures for the upcoming editions.
• Community resources : For effective strategy building and planning of Future editions in a sustainable manner.
• Legal/Trust and Safety: Around the communication guidelines with Hardarshan moving forward.

4) Budget status. Specifically, Total amount requested;Amount spent from 1&2 instalment; Missing funds from the grant; Amount of the third Instalment and breakdown of third instalment.

Total amount requested: 25,800 USD

• Amount spent from 1&2 installment: 4,387 USD
• Missing funds with Hardarshan: 11,173 USD
• Amount of the third Instalment requested: 10,400 USD.

We would like to modify the budget as per below.

Breakdown of third installment (the final revised version is as follows):

• Prizes for WLF - 2050 USD
• Prizes for FNF - 6523 USD
• Softwares and Website expenses - 339 USD
• Currency Fluctuations and Miscellaneous expenses - 488 USD
• Fiscal sponsorship - 1000 USD
• Total - 10,400 USD

5) Given the above and also taking account your specific request to continue transferring the third instalment of funds to Joy Agyepong (who will be stepping up as the treasurer in place of Hardashan), could you suggest possible fiscal sponsors that would be able to waive the fiscal sponsorship fee and would be open to accept and manage the third instalment of the funds on the team's behalf?

We have requested Kiwix to support us as our fiscal sponsor for ensuring that we can prevent any such circumstances in future. For this, we are going to follow the guidelines provided by the Community Resources - our Program Officer Jacqueline and our Grant Admin Morgan who have provided excellent guidance around ensuring that we can do organised management as a team with the support of a fiscal sponsor who would be doing proper financial auditing. That along with our approvals from the international team and our board, we will ensure that the program, the behavioural expectations from the team members including communications and financial management stays excellent without any further issues.

Please let us know if we can provide further clarity regarding this. We are extremely grateful for your guidance. Thank you.

On behalf of International team of Wiki Loves Folklore,

Joy Agyepong (talk) 17:57, 30 June 2023 (UTC)

Thank you.

Regards, Jacqueline and Morgan (@MJue (WMF) JChen (WMF) (talk) 14:55, 19 June 2023 (UTC)