Grants talk:Project/Wikimedia UG Nigeria /Wikipedian in Residence/Midpoint

Feedback on your report

Dear Olaniyan Olushola,

Thank you for submitting this midpoint report. I have some feedback and questions below:

• I want to suggest that you rewrite your summary section so that it is not a chronology of what happened, but instead an overview of your major accomplishments so far. Briefly state what you are most proud of in your work in the first half of the project.

Done as requested.

• Overall, is the project following the trajectory you expected? Or have things gone differently than you planned?

We are still on track with the existing plan, except for change in time due to clash of activities.

• You are at the halfway point of your project, and you have so far uploaded around 100 photos. Your target, as listed in your original proposal, was to upload "at least 2500" files by the end of the project. Can you update me on whether you still expect to meet this goal? If not, tell me more about what happened differently than you expected so far in the project, and what your new goal is going forward.

Our plans to upload 2500 images is still very much in place. As earlier said, plan to undergo mass uploading is in place for the moth of March.

• I am excited to learn that you are planning a massive upload in March! It sounds like you have big plans! Can you please share more about what you have in mind?

We plan to engage our selected staff of Goge Africa , WUGN community members and network partners on this task.

• You said that you have "secure approval of three major network partners that would work with us." Can you provide more detail about what this means? Sounds positive! But I'd love to know more about who the partners are and how they will work with you.

The following network contents have indicated interest to work with us on the project

1. Wikiimedia Fan Club at University of Ilorin
2. University of Ibadan
3. Nigeria Institute of Journalism

• The purpose of the WiR is to train volunteers and organizational staff to do this work, rather than to do it themselves. Further more, the goal is to set up sustainable work flows that are likely to continue to generate new content after the term of the WiR has ended. In light of this, can you tell me more about the process by which the photos are currently being uploaded? What thought have you given to creating workflows that might be able to continue sustainably beyond this grant? (For example, new workflows that organizational staff might maintain on their own in the future).

Process of Uploading photos

1. We agree on type and nature of continents eg videos and photos in the archive of the client.
2. The agreed contents are release and kept on external storage device
3. We designed a template customized for Wikipedia in Residence in Goge Africa project.
4. We created category for Wikipedia in Residence at Goge Africa
5. We have sent OTRS Permission template: Declaration of consent for the release of the images.
6. contents are shared among selected people for the upload.

Plan for sustaining the project after expiration of the grant

1. Our plan is to explore Wikimedia training for the selected members of the organisation who we believe are keen in knowing hoe Wikipedia works.

• You original targets also included "at least 200 improved and/or new articles after 6 months, made by Goge Africa staff and other Wikipedians" and "at least 12% of uploaded files used in new or existing articles." Based on your report, it seems that no articles have so far been improved or created. Again, can you update me on whether you still expect to meet your original goals by the end of the project? If not, tell me more about what happened differently than you expected so far in the project, and what your new goals are looking forward.

We are still sticking to the original plan.

• Can you provide a list of all the partners you have interfaced with so far in this project, and a summary of the status of each partnership? Please be as specific as you can and focus on outcomes rather than logistics. For example, it is not important to me to know that you had a meeting. But it is important to me to know what value you got out of your meeting(s) (i.e. "We finalized planning for two editathons to be held in February").

Goge Africa Foundation , we finalised one editathon with members of this organisation on how to use the uploaded images on articles to be held in April

Wikimedia Fan Club Ilorin, Editathon to be held in March

Wikimedia Fan Club University of Ibadan, Editathon to be held in Early April

• Your table says: "The Wikipedian in Residence was compensated for the month of November 2017, December 2017 and January 2018." Can you provide a full summary of what the WiR accomplished in that time?

Accomplishment of WIR in the month of Nov '17,Dec.'17, and Jan '18 are

1. WIR visited the partner at least two times in a week within the mentioned period to collate from archive of the partner, relevant images for the project. ( This visit does not include project meeting with partner and also with established content partners
2. Convening and attendance of meetings on request of the WIR or partner on how to facilitate the working of this project.
3. Uploading of photos on common which also including other related administrative works

• You mentioned that you are "constantly in touch with the management of the organization even thou, they are not in the country to show our level of commitment and this help to build the confidence of our partner in us." It sounds like you perceive the partnership has developing in a good way, and that Goge Africa has confidence in you and your work. Is that right? I am glad to hear that they have confidence in you!

Yes, they have a very strong confidence in us. If not the organization will not be willing to release their contents to us for free.

• I gather that the organizational staff have largely been unavailable so far during the project, and that you are making do with having experienced Wikimedians to get content uploaded in the meantime. Though these content donations have intrinsic value for their own sake, that value is very minor compared to the much larger value of helping organizational staff and Wikimedia volunteers to come to value the opportunity that the partnership presents for both Goge Africa and Wikimedia and setting up sustainable workflows to increase the likelihood of future content donations over time. In light of this, I caution you against continuing to work too much in the absence of organizational staff, since this will detract from the opportunity to build the partnership between the organization and interested Wikimedian volunteers in concretely meaningful ways. It is not a problem to pause the project and continue when organizational staff are available. It is a problem if the volunteers are so dependent on your work as a WiR that they are unlikely to continue once your role ends.

Noted

• "One thing I enjoyed most in the past three months is the readiness of my community members for task allocated to them. They are usually available for meetings at any time. This really makes me happy." This is so wonderful to read! I love hearing what great camaraderie and effectiveness there is in your team.

Thank you for the comments, we and our partner are willing to move to the next stagecOlaniyan Olushola (talk) 20:24, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

I look forward to hearing your response to the questions above!

Warm regards,

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 19:34, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

Report accepted

Dear Olaniyan Olushola,

Thank you for responses to my questions. I am accepting this report with the following comments:

• It is extremely important that for the remainder of this project you focus your efforts on long-term goals, rather than on short-term acquisition of content. I am concerned about how little this focus is reflected in your Midpoint Report. Please keep in mind that the value of uploading material or creating articles is very small compared to the value of building a lasting, productive partnership between Wikimedian volunteers and Goge Africa. Consider how content would be most likely to continue to be created after the WiR position has dissolved. Here are some things to consider:
  • Are you including Goge Africa staff in your efforts in such a way that they are becoming self-motivated Wikimedians themselves? Are you avoiding workflows that make them dependent on your efforts? Are your efforts fostering their independence? Are you training staff not just in how to do the work themselves but also helping them understand what value it would bring to their organization to do so?
  • Are you establishing volunteer workflows that are likely to continue after the WiR position has ended? For example, have you identified volunteers who are interested in continuing to upload content after the project ends? As content is uploaded to Commons, are you regularly notifying online communities about how it could be used in articles so they can continue to incorporate it after the project ends?
  • Are you documenting workflows so that staff and/or volunteers can continue to follow them after the WiR position is over?
• Remember that the WiR's role is to set up an ongoing, functioning relationship between volunteers and staff of the partner organization in order to foster content creation in the long term. The WiR's role is not to directly create content themselves.
• Before you begin your Final Report, please contact me at mjohnson wikimedia  · org to schedule a consultation about how to write that report. Your Final Report will need to be much more detailed and thorough than this Midpoint Report in order for me to accept it, so I'd like to prepare you for success by offering some guidance before you start writing it.

Our grants administrator will be in touch with you about your next disbursement.

Warm regards,

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 05:23, 12 March 2018 (UTC)

All your concerns are noted. RegardsOlaniyan Olushola (talk) 05:52, 12 March 2018 (UTC)