Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Satdeep Gill/Punjabi Wikimedians (Feb-June 2017) Plan

Dear Satdeep,

Thank you for your request. We are glad to see you continue to make use of the equipment you purchase for past grants. Before we make a decision, we had some questions and suggestions for improving your application.

First, we need some more details about your budget.

1. Please create a more detailed description of your expenses for each event, as you have done for previous grant requests. For example, please break down how many participants you expect to partake of refreshments at each event, and please break down how many travel scholarships you plan to offer. This applies to both meetup events and wikiexpeditions.
2. You refer to both "small events" and "Wiki related meetings" in your budget, but these terms are not defined in your application. Can you please explain the meaning of both of these terms?
3. SWAG: What specific items do you intend to purchase with the 5,000 INR you allocate, and how many of each item do you intend to purchase? How will these items be distributed?
4. For the digitization project, is the 5 INR per page a fee to pay somebody to scan the materials you are digitizing?
5. Please offer some more details about the Internet expense for five months. Presumably, Internet will only be needed during the events. Are you planning to cover ongoing Internet expenses at the event location throughout these five months, and where will these events be located?

We had a few questions not related to your budget:

1. What do you intend to accomplish through your collaboration with Punjabi University?
2. Do you have a list of organizations and institutions you plan to reach out to? How do you determine which organizations and institutions you will reach out to?
3. Please provide some more details about the roles each of the key volunteers listed here will play in the project.
4. Please verify that you will use the same procedures discussed here to store the equipment purchased and make it available to volunteers.

Once we receive responses to these questions, we can move forward with a decision.

Thank you! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 23:30, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

@Wolliff (WMF): Hi, Thanks for your questions and I would answer them one by one below:

1. I have made some improvements to the grant request page. We expect around 8-10 participants at 4 of these small events and around 15-20 participants at ArtAndFeminism event. We are also parternering with an organization based in Delhi named "Feminism in India" to organize a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon one 18 February 2017.
2. While small events means edit-a-thon and meetups, "wiki related meetings" means meetings with potential partner organizations and institutions in the region.
3. SWAG: We would like to purchase certain things like Pens and T-Shirts and these will not be randomly distributed to everyone. While pens can be given to everyone who contribute to Wikimedia Projects during an event, T-Shirts will only be distributed if there is a certain competition and the pariticipants have completed a certain target for getting these.
4. Yes, 5 INR per page is the fees to be paid to someone who will scan the books for us.
5. Internet will be required during at least 5 events at various locations like New Delhi and Patiala. Besides this, the internet will be shared among various Wikimedians in New Delhi such as Gaurav Jhammat, Nitesh Gill and Jagvir Kaur.

Other questions:

1. We have been using University Infrastructure to record Punjabi vocabulary for Punjabi Wiktionary. We are also collaborating with the university to do workshops to bring new editors. We are also seeking ways to digitize books currently locked up in the University Library.
2. We have a primary focus on Educational Institutes. Besides Punjabi University, we plan to reach out to Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Chandigarh University, Ghaduan. Besides these institues we plan to collaborate to Panjab Digital Library and Feminism in India.
3. Charan Gill will be helping in collaborating with educational institutes. Stalinjeet will be focusing on the digitization project and also to get more authors to release their works under appropriate licenses. Stalinjeet and myself will be working on interviews and wikiexpeditions. Dr. Manavpreet Kaur will be helping in organizing events like Art+Feminism and also to keep documentation of finances.
4. I verify that we will be using the same procedures discussed here to store the equipment purchased and make it available to volunteers.

I would be happy to answer any additional questions.

--Satdeep Gill (talk) 17:36, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Thank you, Satdeep Gill, for these clear answers and changes to the budget, which have helped me better understand your application and the expenses you are requesting. I have just two follow up questions, about internet fees and event locations.

1. Are you requesting grant funds to pay for home Internet for anyone involved with this project?
2. Are the events you are planning all located in public places, or in people's homes?

Thank you! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 17:43, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

@Wolliff (WMF): We will be using some device, like Mi-Fi, to have internet during any event at any place. All the events will take place at public places and not at someone's home.--Satdeep Gill (talk) 01:08, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for confirming, Satdeep :) Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 23:48, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Approved, up to 48,500 INR

Hello, Satdeep. Thank you for taking the time to respond to our questions, in order to help us better understand your project and its budget before making a decision. We will approve your request, except for the 5,000 INR portion allocated to paying someone to scan the books, which is not eligible for funding under the guidelines for Rapid Grants ("Not eligible for funding: Paying individuals to digitize materials as the primary focus of the project"). This means your request is approved for a total amount of 48,500 INR.

We are glad to support the continued work of your user group with the Punjabi community, and look forward to the results. The equipment requested for doing these interviews should make a nice addition to the equipment we already funded for your group, and the examples of media content created through your work are impressive. Your work with Punjabi wiktionary is especially exciting. It seems like there are a lot of opportunities for collaborating with institutions that share your interests.

Morgan and I will be in touch to arrange your grant. Best wishes for a successful grant! Winifred Olliff (WMF Program Officer) talk 23:58, 9 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks a lot Winifred. This is really exciting for us. We are really glad that you appreciate the media created and our collaboration with Punjabi University, Patiala. --Satdeep Gill (talk) 02:23, 10 February 2017 (UTC)