Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia Workshop Buea

Hi alangi_derick. Is this proposal ready for review? If yes, please change the status from "draft" to "proposed"? Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 20:24, 14 November 2016 (UTC)

Yes its ready for review. Let me change the status now and thanks for contacting. --Alangi derick (talk) 13:11, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Status has been changed. Whats the next thing to do now? Wait for the Grant Committee to review and get back to us I guess? --Alangi derick (talk) 13:13, 15 November 2016 (UTC)

Hi Alangi derick, will you please add information to the budget section so that we know the cost of food, internet, and the venue? Thank you, --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 00:48, 22 November 2016 (UTC)

Yes I will add more information. Do you mean the resources section? There is no section in the page could budget :). But what ever being the case, I have understood the question and I will do that and get back to you. Thanks. --Alangi derick (talk) 10:06, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Hello, I have edited the resources/budget section and added the expenses in values. Also, I added some expenses that was discussed during our last meeting with the members of the UG and there is the updated budget list. The UG T-shirt would be to use them in the event and after to sensitize the community about the Wikimedia UG and Wikimedia Foundation and its activities.

Hello, Is there any information that is needed from me concerning the grant request? We are still waiting for feedback. Thanks --Alangi derick (talk) 19:49, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

Invited comments by Asaf

The applicant has requested me (over e-mail) to review the proposal and provide feedback. Here are some thoughts:

1. I think the event is too ambitious, and quite unrealistic, in terms of the assertions about attracting new technical volunteers.
   1. Primarily, the focus of the training on introducing people to Mediawiki development seems unrealistic. Effectively hacking on Mediawiki requires a non-trivial level of pre-existing technical experience with at least some programming background; that background cannot be taught in a day.
   2. I don't see anything in the proposal that points to the likelihood of attracting several dozen people with both the pre-existing technical skills and the openness/interest in contributing to Mediawiki without financial reward. Just publicizing the event to a general audience ("this event has not yet been made public but the intended media that will be used for communicating this information will be; Meta-Wik page, Facebook, Twitter, Email etc.") is practically guaranteed to attract a lot of people completely irrelevant to technical training. The additional emphasis on merchandise (see below) further increases the likelihood of motivating attendees for the wrong reasons.
   3. The actual explicitly stated impact is literally nothing more than 50 people showing up, and 100 photos being taken, presumably documenting the event itself. Neither of those is in itself actually impactful for our mission.
   4. Apart from the question of the audience, there is insufficient evidence of the suitability of the trainers to effectively train others on either Mediawiki development or Wikipedia editing. To fund outreach, I'd expect the trainers performing the outreach to be at least fairly seasoned editors or Mediawiki developers. You cannot effectively teach what you are not yourself experienced with and comfortable in. Perhaps the team does possess such experience, but I was not able to see it demonstrated (e.g. by contribution logs to either the content projects or Mediawiki and related tools). Teaching people how to use the Gerrit environment, for example, without having used it oneself through at least one or two dozen commit workflows, is an untenable idea.
2. Unnecessary expenses
   1. I see an inappropriate emphasis on merchandise as giveaways to attract attendees and "enforce awareness". I think focusing on incentivizing attendees with merchandise is wrong-headed, and will attract irrelevant people. We should be looking for people who'd want to learn Mediawiki development, or Wikipedia editing, because they consider those activities rewarding in themselves. Merchandise is a good idea to celebrate and recognize prolonged contributions of experienced volunteers, at a national conference, for example. Not as giveaways to attract people. I do realize the latter is exactly what is commonly done in Africa, by Google and Mozilla and other organizations. I'm afraid I don't think it's a responsible use of our donors' money.
   2. I am disappointed to read (on Phabricator) that the applicant has already secured "swag" from Wikimedia Deutschland, a fact he neglected to mention when requesting merchandise from me personally. I think it demonstrates a disregard for our movement's funds.
   3. For documenting a technical event such as this, any available camera (presumably at least one person would have a standalone or phone camera) can do, and there is no need to invest funds in renting expensive gear.

In summary, I think there is insufficient justification for funding this proposal as it stands, and if it is the case that the prospective trainers do not themselves have significant experience in the editing or technical communities, I don't think a training event makes sense at all, no matter the budget, and my advice to the applicants would be to instead determine whether they are genuinely interested in integrating with and contributing to either the technical or the editing communities, and if so, to spend the time it takes to learn and gain experience in those communities before seeking funding for training others. I hope they do so, and look forward to seeing their contributions! Asaf (WMF) (talk) 00:24, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

P.S. I am sorry for all the time you have spent preparing this proposal. It would have been better had someone asked these questions sooner. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 00:25, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

CORRECTION: I now see that at least one applicant does have experience with committing code to Mediawiki, over more than several months and several dozen commit cycles. I withdraw my concern about the suitability of the trainer for technical contribution. The rest of my concerns stand. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 00:34, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments and feedback Asaf. We are much grateful for them. Alangi derick (talk) 14:21, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

1. On a personal perspective, I don't think the event is too over ambitious or unrealistic like you say. We are not teaching them everything in 1 day or trying to make them know how to develop on MediaWiki within few hours. The workshop is just to give them a head start and after the workshop, we do follow ups etc... I agree with the fact that MediaWiki is not trivial and one needs some programming experience to get to know how it works in terms of code. I have been part of the community for over a year now and with many PS merged in both MediaWiki and its extensions and you can bare with me that I must know Gerrit before those PS will even be reviewed. In addition to that, I have been a mentor of the GCI program in 2015 and worked on a Wikidata project during GSoC 2016 and still mentoring GCI this 2016 session. I feel I have enough technical skills to train MediaWiki developers.
2. Most of the targeted audience that will learn how to develop on MediaWiki are computer engineering and computer science students with a good level of programming experience, which is why we see the need to bring them into the community (and most of them ask for the opportunities everyday personally for me to bring them into Open Source development which their questions and concerns have been hunting me everyday). I wish this workshop session should hold in order for them to exploit their potentials on the Wikimedia projects available.
3. As for the pictures (100 photos), we decided to hire a good quality Camera because I remember we had a meeting as the UG and took some pictures with a Google LGE Nexus 5 smart phone and uploaded on Commons but some of the pictures where marked for delete because of quality and reflection of light which spoilt the pictures so since we are not very experienced with snapping pictures, we thought it wise to get someone who is specialised at taking good pictures with his/her Camera (which we will pay him for his services). That is why we decided on the point of pictures and good gears.
4. Talking about the merchandising I didn't mention to you about, I am sorry I forgot to do so, its not like its disregard on how we are using donors funds. When Wikimedia DE sent us the merchandisings, I asked Lea of the Wikidata team if I should write on the ticket about it and how to write it. She agreed and gave me what to write and I did just that. Since you where subscribed on the phab ticket, I thought you would have seen it (as it is public to everyone). But if you didn't see it, I am sorry I did not mention it to you by email personally. Also, as for it trying to pull irrelevant people, I agree with you that is true. But none of them even know whether there will be merchandisings for the event, most of them will be used as prices and motivation during the workshop, its not to pull them in (please understand this point very well). We will use some of them as prices for best students, most active students, etc... and encourage those who are serious with the swags. That is why we needed them and not to pull audience in.
5. The event has not been made public as per the dates and time when the event will hold because we are still working with the grant committee to secure the fundings but it has been made aware of in the community that there is an upcoming Wikimedia Workshop in Buea, Cameroon. No one knows the dates, time and place yet because we are not yet sure since we don't have everything at our disposal.
6. Concerning the Wikipedia editing and VisualEditor, I have more than enough experience to do that but I can't since I will be in the MediaWiki team. We have others that will handle that part and are planning to invite over some active contributors in Douala and Yaounde (friends and colleagues of ours) to handle part of that section but we have not yet contacted them. Its still part of the planning.

I don't know if there is something I am missing but the event is not unrealistic or over ambitious. I have been part of organising many events in our community including the Silicon Mountain conference, and maybe you (Asaf) have little knowledge about me, we can have a little chat via Hangout so I get to make you know me more and what I have been doing in the movement. Thanks for all your feedback and waiting for more... :) --Alangi derick (talk) 14:46, 24 November 2016 (UTC)

Comments from Rapid Grants team

Hi Alangi derick. Thanks for your patience on this request and for responding to Asaf's comments above. It's great to see that you have been contributing to MediaWiki and want to encourage others to do the same. While your responses above are clear, we still have a number of concerns about the proposal as it stands.

Considering that you are the only participant listed with any significant experience contributing to any Wikimedia project, it would be best to just focus on the MediaWiki awareness building and training. We have found that a series of focused workshops with a small number of people provide for more meaningful engagement and better potential for new people to actually build skills and stay active on the projects. We would suggest identifying a small group of people (5-10) that have a background in programming and expressed interest in open source software to recruit for the workshops. We would like to see a more specific plan of the skills you will cover in the trainings and what activities the participants will do.

We will not provide additional funds for swag, a camera, or stipends for volunteer time. We will cover event expenses (food, venue, internet, and transportation). If you are open to revising the project along these lines, please let us know. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 05:06, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

Hello Alex Wang (WMF), thanks for you reply/feedback on the previously updated proposal. I see that based on the responses from our attendees, its better to focus on the MediaWiki training, not to dual boot the event. We might plan a different training for Wikitext and VisualEditor. We are open to revise the project to meet the feedbacks from the grant committee. Since the total number of attendees will drop, stipends and/or swags are really not important anymore. Its ok if they are left out. As for swags, those from Wikimedia DE is enough.

I will send over the activities that we will focus on during the workshop and also revise the event agenda on phabricator we created. We will contact those who registered for learning VisualEditor for writing (just 3 of them) to better plan for their own event in the nearest future. If there are any more comments, please do well to leave them here while I prepare the list of activities and revision of the agenda. Thanks and waiting to hear from the Grant Committee. --Alangi derick (talk) 08:20, 18 December 2016 (UTC)

Hi Alangi derick. Thank you for updating the proposal budget and working on a more detailed plan for the workshop. Please also update the measures of success (we expect the number of people to be less than 50, number of photos is irrelevant for this type of project). We would like you to think about additional measures of success around participant engagement. What would success look like for you? If a few participants continue to work on MediaWiki after the meeting? If they pursue other opportunities? We'd like to hear from you what you think would be a good way to measure success. Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 05:02, 19 December 2016 (UTC)

Hello Alex Wang (WMF), I have done the final updates to the proposal. I hope its ok now and if there is anything else to add or questions, just let me know and I will get back to you. I have also sent you a mail concerning the updates I have made. I will be waiting for your response. Regards Alangi derick (talk) 13:42, 20 December 2016 (UTC)

Changes to grant dates and updates to grant

Hello,

The changes of the dates of the grant and some other information on the grant are due to the following reasons;

• We don't yet have a joint account for the UG so we are working on that right now. But since the date of the event reached and we didn't have an account, we are working on creating one so that we can use it receive funds from the foundation.
• Internet blockage in some parts of Cameroon which slowed down the process of the organisation of the workshop and registered attendees are still in their area of residence (due to strikes in Buea). This caused the event to be shifted for the atmosphere to calm down (hopefully) before the event holds.

As mentioned above, these are the reasons for shifting of the dates. Apart from those, everything was already planned and everything had been decided upon like space, time etc.... We just needed funds and a calm atmosphere to host the event. Thanks

--Alangi derick (talk) 09:44, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Hi Alangi derick. Thank you for this explanation and we're sorry you are dealing with these challenges. The change in dates is approved. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 19:26, 24 January 2017 (UTC)

Request for changes to event date due to continuation of crisis

Hello,

We wish to request that the dates of the event should be pushed again further due to the persistent continuation of the crisis we are facing in the English part of Cameroon. The date we have decided this time around is 25th March, 2017. Hoping that by that time, the crisis would have been cleared off and our internet brought back because currently, we don't still have internet and I am forced to commute from one city to another to browse.

Below is another reason:

• We do not yet have a joint account for the UG so we are working on that (but facing problems because of no internet in the section of the country where we are and some banks not even working at all). The situation is really serious.

Hoping to hear your feedback on this. Thanks. --Alangi derick (talk) 10:42, 12 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi Alangi derick. I am so sorry that the situation continues to be so challenging. We are happy to approve an extension of the grant until 25 May 2017. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 21:33, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Hello Alex, I have made the changes, please when the changes is approved, let me know. Thanks very much. --Alangi derick (talk) 10:57, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi Alangi derick. This is approved. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:03, 14 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for approving the changes Alex Wang (WMF), we are much grateful and hoping that things get better ASAP so that we can host this event. --Alangi derick (talk) 01:34, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Request for change of event dates

Hello @Grant committee,

We still plead for extension of the dates of the event. The problems in our community still persists. However, there are a few ideas we have in mind;

• Change the event location from Buea to Douala.

• Some of our community members are trying to install VSATs and/or use repeaters to move internet to Buea, so waiting on them for that so the event can still hold in Buea.

These ideas above will still need the dates of the event to be changed so one of them can be implemented. We wish the date be pushed to: May 6th. Thanks and waiting for your feedback.

--Alangi derick (talk) 17:42, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Dear Alangi derick, we are happy to push back the date for the time you mention. Can we please kindly ask you to keep us informed as soon as there are new developments? This helps us track how you are doing and make sure we can react if you need additional support or to discuss changes! Wishing you luck with it all and in the hope that you finally come to making this project happen! Do not hesitate to contact us at rapidgrantswikimedia.org for any questions! Delphine (WMF) (talk) 07:34, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Internet restoration in English Cameroon and continuation of the event planning

Hello Grant Committee,

I am happy to inform you and the grant committee that internet has been restored in English Cameroon (a place where we wanted this event to hold) and so now individuals from that part of the country have internet access which is one of the key cause of the halt of this event from taking place. Now that there is internet connectivity, we will proceed as planned and continue by hosting this event in Buea.

Also, I wish to plead that I will discuss with my team and select a final date that this event will take place and also kick start the process of getting the grant soon while doing the final preparation. Please do have in mind that when the final date of the event is decided upon, I will communicate it to you and the grant committee so that the changes can be made on the grant. Thanks for your understanding.

Kind regards
--Alangi derick (talk) 17:55, 25 April 2017 (UTC)

Hello grant committee,

We have finally decided on a date for the event and this time around, the event would hold. We have settled on 8th July for the event, so we wish to request that the dates of the event should be extended to the 8th of July so we can finally prepare for everything like; set-up our User Group and finalise on the event plan before it takes place.

Also, we wish to ask if there is a possibility to modify the budget for the grant if funded because as at now, we have more participants (37) registered so far for the event than the number stipulated on the grant (30) which might cause some issues for the planning of the event. If its possible to rework the budget then we wish to request to do that too but if it's not possible, we would try as much as possible to use what we already have even with the increase in the number of participants. Feedback is needed for this point please.

Apart from the date extension and the budget rework, thats all we have as updates for now. But the event will definitely take place since we have internet restored in Buea.

Regards Alangi derick (talk) 22:56, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Thank you for the updates. It's great to hear that internet has been restored and you have a date for the event! Please let us know what the increased budget amount would be and we can move forward. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 22:22, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Hello Alex W,

The increase will be due to the number of attendees for this event. Our target number was 30 as set on the grant but the number of participant that have registered using the Google Form we put our are 38 in number as of now. So we wish to plead if the target number could be shifted to 40 meaning we are considering 10 addition participant which will make the budget for Food and Drink item increase by 10,000frs making the total increase of that item from 30,000frs to 40,000frs and the total grand budget to in crease from 145,000frs to 155,000frs.

If this change is possible, we can go ahead and modify the grant then move forward to process the funds. Please let me know your feedback on this issue. Thanks so much and waiting for your reply. --Alangi derick (talk) 16:00, 27 May 2017 (UTC)

Budget increase approved

Hi Alangi derick. Thank you for the additional details. The increase in 10,000frs is approved. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 20:47, 1 June 2017 (UTC)

Hello Alex Wang (WMF), thanks so much for the updates and I have done some few changes to meet the updates you did. Thanks so much and we are good to go now. We will continue with the process and get the event done. Thanks again and If there is anything, we will let the contact the committee. --Alangi derick (talk) 21:15, 1 June 2017 (UTC)