Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Kaizenify/Wikipedia 20th Anniversary in Nigeria/Report

Comments from I JethroBT (WMF)

Hello Kaizenify and thanks for your reporting on these Wikipedia 20th Anniversary activities in Nigeria. I enjoyed watching all the unboxing videos. I hope everyone who went to the meetup and other activities had a good time celebrating an important milestone in the movement together. I am accepting the report with the following comments and questions:

• Thanks to you and your team for contacting and working with community members and celebrities to help spread awareness about Wikipedia and the volunteers who have built and maintained it. I want to acknowledge that the level of coordination required to bring all of this together was substantial, so thank you for this level of planning and care.
• You had reported that you had fewer organizers to support these activities than originally planned-- how did this impact your activities and were you able to adjust or consider alternative plans if needed?
• It's great to see that some of the produced videos (such as this one from Black Santino have enjoyed broad viewership, particularly because they were published on the celebrity's own personal Instagram pages. I think this was strong approach to take around this kind of project in order to spread awareness.
• Recently, I've seen a few grants that partially or largely involve celebrities promoting or celebrating Wikipedia. I'm curious about what you think the benefits or impact are from this kind of event or activity. For example: Is it supporting people to read and use Wikipedia? Is it helping people learn about affiliate groups or Wikimedia events in Nigeria? Do people come away with a positive impression of Wikipedia? Do they tell their friends or family about it? These are just some initial ideas I have, but I am wondering how you are your team may be thinking about the impact of celebrity promotion and involvement.
• You wrote that Gifting the celebrities the branded gift boxes and making them to make a video proved much of a difficulty. Would you recommend this approach to other organizers seeking to build awareness in Nigeria around Wikimedia projects and communities? Are there ways those difficulties can be reduced or prevented? The reason I ask is because I have observed that other organizers in Nigeria and other communities in the movement are interested in this approach as well as a means to build awareness, and I'd like to share what you have learned from this experience.

Thanks again for your work and happy 20th anniversary, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 22:28, 14 May 2021 (UTC)