Grants talk:Project/WikiInAfrica/WikiFundi/Midpoint

Questions about your report

Dear Anthere and Islahaddow,

Thank you for submitting this midpoint report. Some comments below. I have some questions about it before I approve it, which might be easier to talk about in a call rather than on the talkpage, but since I'm about to take a couple of days off work, I thought I'd post them here at least.

• This is the main question with respect to report approval: From your summary and your finance table, it seems like the project is not actually to its halfway point yet. Is that true? I'm asking this because I wonder if it makes sense to delay your midpoint report deadline until things have picked up a bit? I can review this version now, if you prefer, but thought I should check on this.
• It sounds like there have been a lot of delays in the project, especially around tech. Has Emmanuel given you any indication of when they will have capacity to work on this project? Do you have a plan B in the case of further delays? From our end, if you need to pause this project to wait for Kiwix tech support to be available, that can be arranged if you want to talk about that.
• In your Summary, you say that, "Communication part a bit light so far (but not a very big issue given that the tech is late)." However, your finance table shows that 1878 of 2000 of the budget for Communications management has been spent. Is this a concern? Can you provide more information?
• I am curious about the discovery videos that sound like they emerged in Indaba!
• I can see why you are proud of the videos you've made so far. They are very clear in audio, video and script quality, and it's great that you got them completed in so many languages with so many different faces... with Florence's notably missing, though! :-) That was a great use of the opportunity presented by the gathering at Indaba!
• Good idea to explore how the current offline Wikimedia actors might be able to help with partnership expansion. That seems like a good model for growth.
• I would love to hear more about the three partnerships you are grooming right now. If we can set up a check-in by voice, let's discuss this further.

That's all for now!

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 04:42, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Hello Marti

Thanks for your comments. Here are my feedbacks

• This is the main question with respect to report approval: From your summary and your finance table, it seems like the project is not actually to its halfway point yet. Is that true? I'm asking this because I wonder if it makes sense to delay your midpoint report deadline until things have picked up a bit? I can review this version now, if you prefer, but thought I should check on this.
  • I think it makes sense to review the mid term anyway. See below.
• It sounds like there have been a lot of delays in the project, especially around tech. Has Emmanuel given you any indication of when they will have capacity to work on this project? Do you have a plan B in the case of further delays? From our end, if you need to pause this project to wait for Kiwix tech support to be available, that can be arranged if you want to talk about that.
  • I found a developer (Florent) interested and available to work on the project and Emmanuel approved him. Florent started working on the project about a month ago. According to Emmanuel, he is basically on track. We are rather optimistic (crossing fingers...) that we will be on time for delivery of the software at Wikimania. You may have a quick look on GitHub to follow the activity around the tech dev. [1]. I am currently working on the tutorials. We should be fine.
• In your Summary, you say that, "Communication part a bit light so far (but not a very big issue given that the tech is late)." However, your finance table shows that 1878 of 2000 of the budget for Communications management has been spent. Is this a concern? Can you provide more information?
  • Isla is in charge of communication and she is late. Most of the budget has been spent because she has invoiced.
• I am curious about the discovery videos that sound like they emerged in Indaba!
  • Yeah ! That was fun
• I can see why you are proud of the videos you've made so far. They are very clear in audio, video and script quality, and it's great that you got them completed in so many languages with so many different faces... with Florence's notably missing, though! :-) That was a great use of the opportunity presented by the gathering at Indaba!
  • I am the person featured on https://www.dropbox.com/home/WikiFundi%202018/Videos%20Introductives?preview=WikiFundi+Intro+video+French+2.mp4 but yeah, you see my hands and you hear my voice. I am not good looking enough to show my face ;)
• Good idea to explore how the current offline Wikimedia actors might be able to help with partnership expansion. That seems like a good model for growth.
• I would love to hear more about the three partnerships you are grooming right now. If we can set up a check-in by voice, let's discuss this further.
  • Yes. Two are on hold till we have the new software version, but the people are definitely interested and willing to do things with us. I'll get back to them asap we publish the V2 (by then... chance is that all of them are on holidays though. Usually mid-July to mid-August is a time where it is impossible to get in touch with anyone... but I can definitely tell you more about them by skype one day or at Wikimania; Then I am discussing with one other at the moment. It turns out to be a bit weird to discuss anything without having the new version in hand... Last, Orange Foundation changed leadership (ED and program director) this spring, and the new program director only started. I was on the phone with him last week and V2 is likely to get on their digital kits (finalized in September). Anthere (talk) 11:42, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

Report approved

Anthere,

I'm so sorry about my delay in posting approval. I am "officially" approving it now.

Thanks for these comments. I enjoyed reading your follow-up. Everything sounds in order (except for the part about your own video--I truly can't imagine anyone not enjoying seeing your face).  :-)

Thanks for all your work.

Kind regards,

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 20:25, 17 August 2018 (UTC)

awesome ! Just came back from rather long lasting holidays and now ready for the final steps for software delivery :) Anthere (talk) 10:12, 27 August 2018 (UTC)