Grants talk:Project/Rapid/WBG/Annual Plan 2017-18/Report

Report Accepted

Hello Bodhisattwa thank you for this thorough report. You did such a great job on this Annual Plan. I see that you had organized the right resources for the particular events:

• Experienced wikimedians for the workshops including having our colleague Asaf.
• Experienced people to document good quality photos
• Working with CIS-A2K for free venues

I also saw that you documented things that could be done differently very well.

• I am interested in learning more about the museum documentation programs. You mentioned it was hard to get cooperation from Museum staff. I'm wondering what you plan to do differently in the future to find staff that have more willingness to work on Wikimedia projects.

Thank you again for such a great project and report. I am accepting your report and expense documentation. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 16:34, 21 December 2018 (UTC)

Hi @WJifar (WMF):, thanks for reviewing and accepting the report as well as your interest on our Museum Documentation Programs. The State Archaeological Museum we approached had unfriendly and obstructing base level staffs and their unwelcoming supervisor. We didn't approach the museum officially and went there as a common person to photograph the artifacts, may be that was the reason, our team didn't receive the help it deserved. Next time, we are going official for this museum. But the problem does not always lie with our approach. The museums in this part of the world have the strange mentality to not allow photograph any of their collections. They always say to the visitors that if someone started writing a book and publish all the photographs, then the museums will lose visitors and revenue. That's why they charge hefty amounts for photography, which is impossible for a common person to bear. For example, check Ashutosh Museum website for rules regarding photography. Now, this is the main obstacle which a Government museum and library run by public money lay in front of us. To overcome this, we sometimes take different strategies like finding someone influential or powerful in the museum and convince the person somehow to help release their content. This helps to bypass the institutional bureaucratic red-tapism. This kind of backdoor strategy is sometimes the only option for us and we have a fancy name for it i.e. Guerilla GLAM. To break this mentality and make the staffs willing to work on Wikimedia projects is not impossible, but it requires a lot of time and energy to spend, which as a volunteer, we do not have much. So, our target always remain to release the content somehow for the time being, by any means, and most of the time we succeed to do so. This may not be the most sustainable approach, but may be the most practical approach to deal with these kind of institutes. :-) -- Bodhisattwa (talk) 13:41, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

Also, if it is possible to review this rapid grant proposal for user group activities during 2019-20, then that would be really helpful. We want to resume our activities as soon as possible, as we now have winter here and the on-field photographic documentation work would be much comfortable now than the scorching heat in summer. Thanks in advance. -- Bodhisattwa (talk) 13:51, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

Hello Bodhisattwa thank you for your response to my comments. We have been away on holiday since December 21st here in the US but new we're back at work. I will look at your rapid grant before the end of the week and leave my comments and questions on your discussion page. Best regards, WJifar (WMF) (talk) 23:36, 2 January 2019 (UTC)