Grants talk:Project/Indigenous Audiovisual Archives through Wiki tools in Cambodia

Proposal Clinics

Hello,

Thanks for submitting your proposal for the Project Grants open call! I wanted to make sure you are aware that our Project Grants process involves ongoing feedback. We want to inform you that we are hosting proposal clinics for applicants to ask questions and get feedback. If you would like to attend, you can find the dates, times, and videoconference links posted on this page https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project. These are optional opportunities to get support improving your proposal. Let me know if you have any questions! Good luck with finishing your proposal for the February 10 deadline!

Warm regards,

--MCasoValdes (WMF) (talk) 23:40, 9 February 2021 (UTC)

I endorse this project It is very important to collect and preserve the maximum audiovisual archives concerning the life and the arts of the indigenous minorities of Cambodia. They have long been marginalized. The catastrophe of the Khmer Rouge period has already affected them a lot and current modernity, with the grabbing of agrarian and forest lands which are the living environment of these peoples by magnates close to power and / or foreigners, threatens them with disappearance. as its own peoples and cultures. You have to keep as many traces as possible.
It would also be great if it was accessible to French readers.--Marie-Walt (talk) 16:13, 24 February 2021 (UTC)

Eligibility confirmed, Round 1 2021 - Community Organizing proposal

This Project Grants proposal is under review!

We've confirmed your proposal is eligible for review in Round 1 2021 for Community Organizing projects. This decision is contingent upon compliance with our COVID-19 guidelines. Proposals that include travel and/or offline events must ensure that all of the following are true:

• You must review and can comply with the guidelines linked above.
• If necessary because of COVID-19 safety risks, you must be able to complete the core components of your proposed work plan _without_ offline events or travel.
• You must be able to postpone any planned offline events or travel until the Wikimedia Foundation’s guidelines allow for them, without significant harm to the goals of your project.
• You must include a COVID-19 planning section in your activities plan. In this section, you should provide a brief summary of how your project plan will meet COVID-19 guidelines, and how it would impact your project if travel and offline events prove unfeasible throughout the entire life of your project. If you have not already included this in your proposal, you have until March 3rd to add it.

The Community review period is now underway, from February 20-March 4. We encourage you to make sure that stakeholders, volunteers, and/or communities impacted by your proposed project are aware of your proposal and invite them to give feedback on your talkpage. This is a great way to make sure that you are meeting the needs of the people you plan to work with and it can help you improve your project.

• If you are applying for funds in a region where there is a Wikimedia Affiliate working, we encourage you to let them know about your project, too.
• If you _are_ a Wikimedia Affiliate applying for a Project Grant: A special reminder that our guidelines and criteria require you to announce your Project Grant requests on your official user group page on Meta and a local language forum that is recognized by your group, to allow adequate space for objections and support to be voiced).

Please feel free to ask questions and make changes to this proposal as discussions continue during the community review period. By March 4, make sure that your proposal has incorporated any revisions you want to make and complies with all of our guidelines. If you have not already done so, you can make use of our project planning resources to improve your proposal further, too.

The Project Grant committee's formal review for round 1 2020 will occur March 5 through March 20, 2021. We ask that you refrain from making any further changes to your proposal during the committee review period, so we can be sure that all committee members are scoring the same version of the proposal.

Grantees will be announced Friday, April 22, 2021. Sometimes we have to make some changes to the round schedule. If that happens, it will be reflected on the round schedule on the Project Grants start page.

We look forward to engaging with you in this Round!

Questions? Contact us at projectgrants wikimedia  · org.

--Mercedes Caso (platícame) 17:35, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

Comment from Wikimedia Foundation GLAM & Culture team

Hi,

Thank you for putting in your proposal. We have a couple of clarifying questions for you:

• Can you explain how you will manage unexpected difficulties related to the pandemic, since the project requires travel and contact with people in several different locations?

• Do you have a plan for maintaining the new digital files in perpetuity? Wikimedia Commons is not a platform for digital preservation because files can be deleted or removed by the community. Institutional repositories or the Internet Archive are more durable platforms for the preservation of these materials.

• What metadata will you capture alongside the content?

• Could you work with your cultural partner to produce a toolkit for language documentation that can be used by other communities?

--SGill (WMF) (talk) 14:17, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

Answers to the questions by the proposal team:

Thank you very much for your questions SGill. Please find our answers to your questions below:

(1) First of all, all the training part of the project will take place in a fixed building in Ratanakiri (a COVID-19 low-risk area) - during the whole training period, the trainers and the indigenous youths will be inside the province. We will provide materials for the trainers to also introduce some COVID information to the youths and preventive rules will be applied during the training. Only the essential transports of equipment will happen during the training and Bophana Center will make sure that the trainers and people sending equipment will follow COVID preventive rules. In the case of a COVID outbreak inside the province, the initial part of the training may be conducted only by indigenous youths who were trained by the Bophana center in their previous project to teach the other youths the basic concepts of making audio-visual recordings and may guide them using mobile devices to exercise before the equipment could be shipped to the town.

(2) Yes, the archives will be kept in UNESCO's digital repository. We will create a Medium or Facebook page for sharing the audio-visual archives to the public. Through the MOWCAP network, we may also preserve them in GLAM institutions inside Cambodia. Also, as we were in touch with Wikitongues, and Wikitongues agreed to keep a copy of the documents and feature them on their website.

(3) The metadata will include the materials from the training and the materials from video-making. Training materials will include guidelines on making audio-visual recordings (summary written and may be recorded), the open access policy and materials that we will work together with the Wikimedian-in-Residence, and the practice documents of the indigenous youths with their consent. Materials from video-making will include the final video (content as you mentioned), the introduction of the background stories, the behind-the-scenes, and other records or documents that the indigenous youths and the trainers would agree to share.

(4) Yes, the training guidelines and procedures will be developed and noted down during the training (in written) which can be used as training sources for other communities. We will try to engage volunteers to help with recording the training process so that we can include the video tutorials as well.

--UNESCO Bangkok - CI (talk) 03:23, 5 March 2021 (UTC)

@UNESCO Bangkok - CI: Thank you so much for answering all the questions. The plans looks pretty good to me. Looking forward to it. --SGill (WMF) (talk) 09:59, 16 March 2021 (UTC)

Aggregated feedback from the committee for Indigenous Audiovisual Archives through Wiki tools in Cambodia

Scoring rubric	Score
(A) Impact potential Does it have the potential to increase gender diversity in Wikimedia projects, either in terms of content, contributors, or both? Does it have the potential for online impact? Can it be sustained, scaled, or adapted elsewhere after the grant ends?	6.7
(B) Community engagement Does it have a specific target community and plan to engage it often? Does it have community support?	5.5
(C) Ability to execute Can the scope be accomplished in the proposed timeframe? Is the budget realistic/efficient ? Do the participants have the necessary skills/experience?	5.5
(D) Measures of success Are there both quantitative and qualitative measures of success? Are they realistic? Can they be measured?	5.3
Additional comments from the Committee: Project aligns with both strategic directions (knowledge equity and knowledge as a service) by focusing on opportunities to increase content around Indigenous languages and culture through collaboration with local cultural centres and UN agencies. Sustainability of the work will be supported through development of training/documentation materials but more thought needs to be given to how to engage and set up youth participants from the project to continue adding content after the project ends. Project goes directly in the direction of our strategic orientation towards knowledge equity. There have been interesting partnerships with UNESCO before. There is potential for learning for the movement through collaboration and refined workflows with Wikitongues. More thought needs to be given to evaluation and measuring impact beyond just carrying out the project. The general idea of the project is interesting, especially as it relates to areas and cultures our movement has failed to reach. Nevertheless, impact is very modest relative to expected investment. Given the expected amount to be reimbursed, outcomes should be more ambitious, both in terms of metrics and in terms of how they will connect to the Wikimedia vision of knowledge infrastructure. To some extent, just contributing content --which is what our volunteer community does all the time-- is important but is not sufficient for a project of this magnitude. A key aspect is how this investment would be related to creating a stronger Wikimedia community to sustain the kind of work that this project might spark. A project with no concern with sustainability might lead to frustration in the long run. This project brings together interesting and experienced partners including Wikimedia user groups and GLAM institutions. The budget however is quite high. I don’t fully understand the scope of work for the Wikimedian in Residence over the 10 month period so would like more details on that. I would also hope that expenses related to equipment rental, venue rental, and training could be provided in-kind to some degree from the WiR host institution (Bophana centre). The project is strongly dependent on finding the right WiR. I would have been interested in having an actual assessment on how other UNESCO-Wiki partnerships have worked on this. Bophana and UNESCO seem to have existing relationships with Indigenous communities that will be engaged through the project. There are lots of endorsements - many from those who don’t have accounts but have maybe been engaged through the MOWCAP? I have similar questions with this project as I had with the Grassroot Language Documentation in Nigeria project - specifically, it’s unclear if what’s being proposed is a language documentation project or an oral history/traditional knowledge documentation project. However, my concerns are mitigated by the involvement of the Bophana centre which has previously engaged with some of the Indigenous communities and worked on oral history projects. As the budget is quite high compared to other applications in this round, I would like more details on the activities for the WiR and whether there is an opportunity for in-kind contributions from the host organization. The project is interesting and can be supported but I am skeptical about the videos (more than audios) done by youth people. It seems to me that the preparation and the training may take more time than described in the project. Project to be investigated but interesting. The budget feels too high for the given deliverables. Since this is the first iteration, I would suggest a scaled-down project. An option is to scale it down by half, by hiring a part-time WiR instead of full-time, and also the deliverables accordingly. One also needs to understand how feasible it is to produce "audio-visual recordings" of the indigenous culture. This is a massive request of funding and in the context of our movement expected outcomes are modest: in terms of content improved and in terms of learning practices. At the same time, I think a stronger relationship with UNESCO from Cambodia could be an interesting step forward.

Opportunity to respond to committee comments in the next week

The Project Grants Committee has conducted a preliminary assessment of your proposal. Based on their initial review, a majority of committee reviewers have not recommended your proposal for funding. You can read more about their reasons for this decision in their comments above. Before the committee finalizes this decision, they would like to provide you with an opportunity to respond to their comments.

Next steps:

1. Aggregated committee comments from the committee are posted above. Note that these comments may vary, or even contradict each other, since they reflect the conclusions of multiple individual committee members who independently reviewed this proposal. We recommend that you review all the feedback carefully and post any responses, clarifications or questions on this talk page by 5pm UTC on Monday, March 29, 2021. If you make any revisions to your proposal based on committee feedback, we recommend that you also summarize the changes on your talkpage.
2. The committee will review any additional feedback you post on your talkpage before making a final funding decision. A decision will be announced no later than Friday, April 22, 2021.

Questions? Contact us.

--Mercedes Caso (platícame) 05:04, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Many thanks for all the comments from the committee! Please find below our answers to the comments:(We've gone through thoroughly all the comments, if some comments are not yet answered by Monday, March 29, we will definitely try to reply to them by the end of this week. Thanks in advance for your understanding!)

Concerning the impact of the project:

• The project includes both capacity building and indigenous language documentation. The indigenous youths will be empowered with the essential skills to continuously produce audio-visual content to Wikimedia Commons in their local languages and other languages in the future. The audio-visual recording part will focus on their daily lives in indigenous languages while including some cultural activities, oral histories and other issues such as the challenges that indigenous women usually face in their daily lives.
• Campaign at the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022-2032). As the leading agency of the coming UN Decade concerning indigenous languages, UNESCO will organize globally different activities and campaigns relating to the preservation, protection and revitalization of indigenous languages. Throughout this project, we will initiate a wiki-campaign, engaging with the IDIL network to promote and showcase the outcome of the project and extend the impact on people from other regions worldwide. This will possibly involve a big number of indigenous languages activist joining the Wiki-campaign, contribute to the Wiki contents, and having them join the Wikimedia communities. Also, if the project runs successfully, it can be a successful pilot project of the International Decade to show to UNESCO's member states and attracts more supports to similar initiatives that preserve indigenous languages and making them open access in collaboration with Wikimedia communities.
• Gender equality - We will keep the gender balance of the indigenous youths that will be trained. This will ensure that at least half of the videos will be produced by women or from women perspectives. The importance of diversity and inclusion will be highlighted in the story-telling training sessions when all the indigenous youths will learn about gender equality issues. Both UNESCO (Memory of the World Women in History archive) and Bophana Center (documentaries on the issues and challenges that indigenous women face) have experience and expertise in this issue.
• Promoting Open Access - The Wikimedian in Residence (WiR) will not only help on training the indigenous youths to use wiki-tools but also work together with UNESCO to produce guidelines on promoting open access for UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme and GLAM institutions. This could also promote the connection between GLAM institutions from UNESCO and MOWCAP's network and the GLAMs community from Wikimedia.

Concerning the budget of the project:

• With the budget proposed and the potential support with Wikimedia Thailand, UNESCO will be able to work with Wikimedia Thailand and Wikimedia Khmer-Cambodia to host two Wikimedians in Residence - one in the UNESCO Bangkok office, the other in Cambodia with Bophana Center and remotely with UNESCO Bangkok and UNESCO Phenom Penh Office - to involve more local volunteers as well as be able to record the training process and produce a more holistic guide on how to produce audio-visual documentation in minority languages and improve the content on Wiki-platforms.
• For all the equipment that will be used during the training, we've only put the part excluding in-kind contributions from Bophana Center and UNESCO. Actually, the amount is mostly less than 25% of the total amount required, which will be used to maintain the equipment and pay for the mechanical loss. Detailed information on the in-kind contributions is added to the proposal page. Even though documentary filmmaking is a costly process itself, the impact of the products - the short audio-visual documentaries will be long-lasting and can reach more audience.

Concerning the role of Wikimedian in Residence

• Train the indigenous youths on using Wiki-tools and upload their audio-visual products on Wikimedia Commons.
• Organize Wiki-campaign for the preservation of indigenous languages within the framework of IDIL all along the project.
• Support UNESCO on Open Access related initiatives, especially promoting open access to documentary heritage along memory (GLAM institutions).
• Document the process of the capacity-building training and create guidelines to teach people how to create indigenous languages documentations and make them open access on Wiki-platforms.

Modifications in the proposal according to the comments of the committee:

• More details of the project activities (added the Wiki-Campaign and linkage with IDIL)
• More details of the qualitative and quantitative impact added
• Details of in-kind contributions from UNESCO and Bophana Center (see the budget table added)
• Details of the WiRs' working content

--UNESCO Bangkok - CI (talk) 11:17, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Suspicious endorsements

There is an abnormally high number of endorsements coming from different IPs. This IP is just canvassing a lot and thus the entire endorsement section looks extremely suspicious. Pinging @Mjohnson (WMF): and @MCasoValdes (WMF): for kind attention. -- Bodhisattwa (talk) 06:17, 22 April 2021 (UTC)

Round 1 2021 decision

This project has not been selected for a Project Grant at this time.

We love that you took the chance to creatively improve the Wikimedia movement. The committee has reviewed this proposal and not recommended it for funding. This was a very competitive round with many good ideas, not all of which could be funded in spite of many merits. We appreciate your participation, and we hope you'll continue to stay engaged in the Wikimedia context.

Next steps: Applicants whose proposals are declined are welcome to consider resubmitting your application again in the future. You are welcome to request a consultation with staff to review any concerns with your proposal that contributed to a decline decision, and help you determine whether resubmission makes sense for your proposal.

Over the last year, the Wikimedia Foundation has been undergoing a community consultation process to launch a new grants strategy. Our proposed programs are posted on Meta here: Grants Strategy Relaunch 2020-2021. If you have suggestions about how we can improve our programs in the future, you can find information about how to give feedback here: Get involved. We are also currently seeking candidates to serve on regional grants committees and we'd appreciate it if you could help us spread the word to strong candidates--you can find out more here. We will launch our new programs in July 2021. If you are interested in submitting future proposals for funding, stay tuned to learn more about our future programs.

Marti (WMF) (talk) 00:38, 23 April 2021 (UTC)