Grants talk:Project/MSIG/Wikitongues Accelerator II

Clarification on LDH role

Hi all, the Language Diversity Hub steering committee met today and clarified that Wikitongues will serve exclusive as the fiscal sponsor of the LDH. A separate host will be chosen from among the hub's member affiliates and chapters.

— Bogreudell (talk) 19:28, 13 October 2023 (UTC)

Wikitongues Accelerator updates

Hi all, I wanted to share some updates from our current Accelerator cycle.

• Several hundred lexemes in the Banjar language have been recorded for entry into Wikidata.
• The Dendi language test Wikipedia was launched in the Incubator with at least 30 articles.
• The Igala language test Wikipedia, which became active in April, now has 272 articles and has been recommended by LangCom for approval. Last month, Igala Wikipedians organized a successful roundtable event in Nigeria with dozens of in-person and remote attendees.
• The Sekgalagadi language test Wikipedia is now active, with its first article created.
• Over 500 lexical items in the Jewish Neo-Aramaic language have been collected for entry in Wiktionary and Commons. Most of the entries will be for the dialect from Tekab, Iran (known as Lishana Noshan), but there will also be entries for the dialects from Urmia, Iran (Lishan Didan) and Zakho, Iraq (Lishana Deni).
• Angikan Wikipedians have hosted online training sessions for creating videos and created two toolkits for creating good quality videos, published in Hindi and English, with an updated a questionnaire in Angika, Hindi & English, designed for eliciting a variety of folk songs and folk tales.

With your support, we can build on this work over the next year and expand Wikimedia access to more endangered and under-resourced languages in 2025.

— Bogreudell (talk) 17:55, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

Another update: we've set up a dashboard for our Accelerator fellows to track Wiki contributions. So far, we've added two if this cycle's ten projects, with the rest on the way. — Bogreudell (talk) 17:46, 29 August 2023 (UTC)

Feedback for improvement

The application effectively highlights the global issue of language extinction, emphasizing its impact on cultural, historical, and ecological knowledge. The team has presented a well-defined approach, outlining clear objectives for the project with a structured and purposeful strategy. Additionally, the commitment to global representation, including gender and geographical diversity, adds a commendable level of inclusivity. It is great to read the clearly outlined long-term vision of building a dedicated support track for endangered language communities within the broader infrastructure o a proposed future hub, is commendable. This forward-thinking approach aligns with the movement’s need to provide support structures that enable language projects in the movement.

The proposal acknowledges the importance of oral tradition stories and biographies for language documentation but may benefit from expanding the scope of acceptable content formats beyond the traditional Wikipedia style. Consider incorporating a variety of content formats that align with the nature of oral traditions, such as audio recordings, multimedia presentations, and curated storytelling platforms. This will make Wikimedia projects more adaptable to the unique characteristics of each language.

The application provides a brief mention of Abstract Wikipedia but the team might benefit from its potential in fostering language revitalization through scalable representation in Lexemes on Wikidata. Do consider the benefits of Abstract Wikipedia instead of a full wikipedia for easier scalability, especially in representing dictionaries in machine-readable formats on Wikidata's Lexemes. This might enable better alignment with language documentation efforts. Doing this would also potentially address the challenge highlighted regarding the challenges in aligning traditional language documentation with Wikipedia's historical content standards. It would be good for the project team to encourage flexibility in content standards for languages with rich oral traditions. Recognize that a more personal and descriptive approach may be suitable for certain languages. We could learn the example of Oshkaabewis Native Journal project.

Finally on the budget, reviewers recommend a review based on the following considerations

• If Wikitongues is an affiliate, is there not already an annual grant that would essentially cover the overheads for this project?
• The recommendation is to review the budget line items related to design communications, and discretionary funds.
• It is unclear what the purpose is for the proposed stipends to the language communities. How are these language groups expected to use the funds? More clarity is required regarding this and the recommendation is to keep this cost at half the proposed sum, if needed at all.
• More clarity is needed regarding the role of the project leader. Consider providing more clarity regarding the specific responsibilities of this role, the duration, and how the rates are calculated.

YPam (WMF) (talk) 17:33, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you, team, for the feedback and for approving partial funding for our proposal. I've provided answers to your specific budget questions below. More broadly, I would like to clarify that this program supports, and will continue to support, adding oral knowledge to Commons, lexemes to Wikidata, and more. We recognize the technical and cultural challenges to building mother-tongue Wikipedia editions and believe that this is not the only way to contribute to the Wikimedia movement. In fact, of the 2023 cohort, which we describe in this proposal, only a handful are working on Wikipedia, while others are contributing their languages and cultural knowledge to Commons, Wikidata, and Wiktionary.

If Wikitongues is an affiliate, is there not already an annual grant that would essentially cover the overheads for this project?

When we initially drafted this application, our annual grant had not yet been reapproved. However, our annual grant is now approved, so we can remove overheads from the project budget.

The recommendation is to review the budget line items related to design communications, and discretionary funds.

We have made significant changes to the proposed budget, bringing it down to $30,000 USD: we removed overheads, technical subscriptions, and translation costs, and reduced our stipends to participants (see below). The breakdown is now $15,480 for the project leader, $12,000 for project stipends, $250 for international transfer and bank fees, with a remainder of $2,520 reserved for discretionary and unforeseen expenses.

It is unclear what the purpose is for the proposed stipends to the language communities. How are these language groups expected to use the funds? More clarity is required regarding this and the recommendation is to keep this cost at half the proposed sum, if needed at all.

Unfortunately, endangered and under-resourced language communities are often economically marginalized, so direct support may be necessary to help a revitalization project get off the ground. We have historically distributed stipends without restrictions because we trust our community to allocate funds appropriately. However, to guarantee more fiscal accountability for this project, we will structure stipends as reimbursements for preapproved expenses, up to $1,200 for each participant. Examples of qualified expenses will include: local gatherings that bring together Wikimedians; working space, services, prizes, outreach, and other common costs needed to support edit-a-thons, translate-a-thons, contests, photowalks, and other campaigns; project-related travel; compensation for well-defined roles that do not replace volunteer activities, including (but not limited to) graphic design, training, childcare services, translation, project management, and Wikimedian-in-Residence roles; or general living expenses; data costs to support access to online events; and other general technology costs, especially computers and recording devices.

More clarity is needed regarding the role of the project leader. Consider providing more clarity regarding the specific responsibilities of this role, the duration, and how the rates are calculated.

The project leader's day-to-day responsibilities include: facilitating community among the program's participants (maintaining Telegram threads, organizing online meetups), promoting the participants’ work (in a word, PR), designing and implementing curriculum support for participants (publishing written guides and hosting webinars about how to technically navigate Wikimedia platforms and how to culturally navigate the Wikimedia movement), finding volunteer support for participants who need specialized technical assistance, representing Wikitongues in the LDH, and mobilizing our broader User Group in support of linguistic diversity goals (organizing training webinars, edit-a-thons, etc). These responsibilities accounted for 25-30 hours per week in 2023, averaging a $12.50 hourly rate, just under 2X the federal minimum wage in the U.S., where Wikitongues is based; and annualizing at $22,000-26,000/year, 2X-3X the median salary of $10,000/year in Nigeria, where the project leader lives.

Bogreudell (talk) 00:24, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

Partially Funded

@Bogreudell Following the numerous round of reviews, feedback shared and discussions with the project team, this applicaiton is now approved for funding in the amount of $30,000 (USD). Thank you for your work contributing to the advancement of Movement Strategy Initiatives and recommendations. YPam (WMF) (talk) 07:28, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for your support! For posterity, I have added our responses to the feedback above, originally discussed on Zoom, so we have a record of them in writing. Bogreudell (talk) 00:25, 5 December 2023 (UTC)