Talk:Community Resources and Partnerships/India Rapid Project

Some concerns

Hi User:JChen (WMF),

I have a number of doubts about this project.

First, can you host more community meets for this at timings convenient to India? The only times we can discuss are all the way at 20 November or at 0630 UTC. Which happens to be 12 pm Indian time on a working day. This project will already be in action from this month onwards, so 20th November is very late. And as someone who has attended enough South Asia Open Community Calls and other such planning, nobody in Indic communities is usually free before 6-7 pm local time (1300 UTC, give or take).

Second, this project already begins from Round 2. Is the Round 1 aspect of this project already documented somewhere? Similarly, I think not enough people in the community are aware of what "regulatory requirements" entail here, and so elaborating it somewhere on the page will be helpful.

Third, the Round 2 deadline was October 1, even though this page was published midway through October. Is that still planned? I strongly urge you to interact with the community through this process more before the deadlines are already here.

Fourth, I notice that you mention To avoid conflicts of interest, CIS has nominated a non-Access to Knowledge employee. For transparency reasons, can we know who this point of contact will be? If this person has not yet been decided, a commitment to declare it is fine.

Fifth, could you elaborate on precisely what You are not in compliance with all requirements and in good standing for any current activities or programmes linked to the Wikimedia Foundation and CIS/A2K... means? Is that just everything listed on "Behavioural Requirements" page?

Lastly, could you clarify Applicants are not eligible for funding if indefinitely blocked on any Wikimedia project, even if the proposed work is independent from that Wikimedia project. For example, The U4C Special elections earlier this year had a case where a candidate became ineligible due to a simple block on a single wiki. The appeal process allowed them to continue participating in the election. Similarly, I am aware of community members who own multiple accounts publicly, but have one of them blocked on a local wiki for practical reasons (Say, that wiki does not allow WP:MULTIPLEACCOUNTS). I guess my concern is, what about these requirements are appealable? It is not clear to me.

Thanks,

Soni (talk) 10:13, 19 October 2024 (UTC)

Response to @Soni

Hello @Soni, thank you for sharing your observations and questions.

1) We are happy to host more conversation spaces. We are publishing the information of two more sessions and have also added them to the metapage. Based on your feedback we have made changes to the call schedule, thank you for your suggestions.

• 27 October 2024, 12:30 UTC (SAOCC)
• 6 November 2024, 13:00 UTC

2) Related to timeline, we are starting with Round 2 as we have used the time in the lead up to October 2024 to pilot test the re-designed interface and workflow processes before going live. The list of onboarded Rapid Projects can be found here. We have also been in touch with Cycle 2 applicants to support them onto this new pathway (i.e. all applicants have been made aware of the pilot and have been briefed on the requirements.)

3) On community engagement, we have had two rounds of discussions with the South Asia Regional Funds Committee to date and a session is also proposed for the next SA Community Call on 27 October 2024. We are also aware that October is a month of festivity in many parts of India and are intentional in streamlining engagement by tapping onto existing spaces of communication. Parallel to this, we also observed that prospective applicants are more keen on 1-1 support (which we are currently providing) compared to community conversations as the tailored conversations better address specific needs.

4) The point of contact for all applicants will remain the Programme Officer from WMF, any needed conversation/clarification will be via the Programme Officer. As mentioned in the FAQ, a non A2K staff from CIS will primarily screen for regulatory, financial, and operational feasibility of project applications based on local context, and would be someone from the CIS Finance and Administration team.

5) Being in good standing with funding requirements means that the applicant has adhered to all the terms of the grant agreement. Failure to meet these requirements can include incomplete or missing reports, mismanagement of funds, or not carrying out the project as originally agreed upon. For example, applicants may lose their good standing if they fail to submit project reports, misuse allocated funds, or deviate significantly from the proposed project activities without approval. On funding eligibility, we have retained behavioural requirements that are consistent across all existing resourcing programmes from the Wikimedia Foundation. If an applicant would like to appeal a decision based on a block or ban, they are invited to inform the programme officer who with other teams such as the trust and safety team will evaluate the case.

Thank you. Regards, Jacqueline on behalf of the project implementation team JChen (WMF) (talk) 06:10, 25 October 2024 (UTC)

Hi @JChen (WMF)

1 and 3, thank you for the more call times and the clarification on how participants have been preferring this.

2, I think the regulatory requirements that cause this project to be done this specific way is still not clear. Could the page be updated accordingly? It'll help the community understand and work at the regulatory needs as well as make clear why this needed a special project.

4, I understand this. However, the community is also deeply involved with the CIS in multiple ways and so transparency in the form of who the non-A2K staff from CIS would be, is a good idea regardless. So I was asking if you'll tell the officer when you finalise them.

Thanks. Soni (talk) 12:27, 7 November 2024 (UTC)

@JChen (WMF) Any updates on any of this? Soni (talk) 17:49, 30 November 2024 (UTC)

Hello @Soni,

Hope you are well. Thank you for your message on the talkpage. I'll be providing a response by the end of the week.

Regards,

Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 02:35, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

Hello @Soni,

Thanks for sharing your follow-up observations.

For (2), we have added the mention of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act in the introductory paragraphs.

For (4), the applicant(s) will be connected with the non A2K staff from CIS as they move through the application process. This is part of the planned workflow.

Let us know if there is additional clarity we can provide and if you would like to have a call as well, you can let me know at jchen@wikimedia.org. Thank you.

Regards,

Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 08:10, 6 December 2024 (UTC)