Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Open Speaks
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Applicant information
[edit]- Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)
- Psubhashish
- Do you have any approved General Support Fund requests? (required)
- No, it is my first time applying for a General Support Fund
- You are applying as a(n). (required)
- Individual
- Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required)
- N/A
- Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
- Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
- Please provide links to the following documents if they are available
These documentation can be provided in your local language(s), no translations required.
- Organizational website
- Detailed financial reporting and/or audits
- Documentation of the governance structure, board list, governance processes
- Documentation of the general assembly decision on your plan
Main proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)
- Open Speaks
- 2. Do you want to apply for the multi-year base funding for 3 years? (required) (only for returning applicants)
- N/A
- 2.1. Provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan? (required)
N/A
- 3. Proposed start date. (required)
- 2025-06-15
- 4. Proposed end date. (required)
- 2025-12-31
- 5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)
- Yes
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kciJ5JNBHVbi0855A0RJRljRG9u_eFcFXsaPznDCYTw/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.rh5hrf2f6ad8
- 6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)
- No
- 7. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
- Regional (more than one country in the same continent or region)
- India, Nepal
- 8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
- Our programs
- OpenSpeaks (founded in 2017 on Wikiversity): Set of Open Educational Resources (OER) to help language archivists document Indigenous, endangered, and low-resourced languages in multimedia.
Won a National Geographic Society award and received support from Creative Commons, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, Online News Association, and the Interledger Foundation.
- OpenSpeaks Archives (first pilot supported by a Rapid Grant, July 2024): A digital language archive documenting Indigenous, endangered, and low-resourced languages.
The pilot validated our theory of change while building a language documentation working model and a resource wishlist. Helped five community archivists bring oral knowledge in their respective languages in multimedia, enriching Wikimedia projects in over 20 languages. Identified the need for simple, cross-platform, offline tools for archivists.
- Wiki Loves Language (WLL): A 2025 Wikipedia edit-a-thon about languages and speaker communities, encouraging Wikimedia communities to expand low-resourced language topics.
Past Work & GLAM Collaborations: Created ten Creative Commons-licensed documentaries, documenting 20+ low-resourced languages with speakers and activists. Documentaries in the Library of Congress (and their partners—noted U.S. university libraries) and Language Archive Cologne through GLAM collaborations.
- Approaches (broader process)
a. Theory of Change: Wikimedia and open knowledge projects can serve lesser-resourced language communities if: Such projects embed nuanced community knowledge in their languages. These projects act as tools for communities for their language assertion locally. Communities have the right tools and resources to disseminate their knowledge. b. High-quality, accessible language media in Wikimedia projects: Rather than mass-uploading multimedia files, we will carefully edit and publish accessible, translatable content. c. GLAM collaboration and citations: By partnering with notable GLAM institutions, we will increase citability of the published oral history recordings, keeping them useful in multiple Wikimedia projects, and not merely as representational content. d. Tools, workflows and OER: By identifying currently missing tools and other resources, we will create and avail them to language archivists under open access. e. Community & capacity building: By collaborating with other organizations and participating in conferences, we will provide resources to language archivists and train them about methodologies and tools for language documentation.
- Strategy
High-quality, accessible language media creation: Relevant language documentation media (primarily unpublished oral history recordings and descriptive videos from our film archive) from ten select languages will be selected, edited, subtitled, and published. Each language will have multiple media files and each file will be independent with a particular topic description. The subtitles will be multilingual: in at least one regional dominant language and in English, providing insight on language content spoken in media and ensuring accessibility for both Wikimedia project readers and people with disabilities. Tools, workflows and OER creation: We will create open source technical resources, that are required but are missing now, for language documentation and publication of documented media. We will create documentations to help other language archivists. Community & Capacity Building: Collaborating with like-minded organizations to facilitate training and capacity-building for language archivists. Hosting an in-person workshop at Wiki Conference India and a remote workshop at Celtic Knot Conference to train archivists on creating Wikimedia-ready language media. Co-leading Wiki Loves Languages campaign to encourage Wikimedia communities to create and expand language and speaker community-related entries/content on Wikimedia projects. GLAM collaboration and citations: We will partner with notable GLAM institutions so language media can reach beyond Wikimedia projects. We will use their online catalogues to enhance citations on Wikimedia projects, increasing the use of oral history to expand Wikimedia content in less-covered, important topics about communities and languages
- Challenges
a. Severe content gaps in Wikimedia projects: Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects were built to be diverse, multilingual, and participatory, yet they lack content on languages from the global majority and their speaker communities. Example: Wikipedia has detailed articles on fictional languages from movies, but many real languages from the global majority and their speakers are poorly covered or entirely missing. b. Limited access to archival tools: The OpenSpeaks Archives pilot confirmed that many essential tools for language documentation do not exist or are proprietary and expensive. There is an urgent need for simple, cross-platform, offline tools that community archivists require but cannot access. c. Oppressive citation practices in Wikimedia projects: Current citation policies reinforce post-colonial biases, making it difficult for oral histories and Indigenous knowledge to be citable and widely used. While efforts to challenge and reform these practices are ongoing, change is slow, complex, and met with resistance.
- 9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)
| Category | Yes/No |
|---|---|
| Education | No |
| Culture, heritage or GLAM | Yes |
| Gender and diversity | No |
| Community support and engagement | No |
| Participation in campaigns and contests | No |
| Public policy advocacy | No |
| Other | No |
Culture, heritage or GLAM
- 9.2. Select all your programs and activities for Culture, heritage or GLAM. (required)
- Documenting or incubating languages on Wikimedia projects, Introducing new approaches to underrepresented culture and heritage, e.g. decolonising or reparative work; oral and visual knowledge; outreach to communities of origin, indigenous and first nations self-determination, Partnering with institutions, professional associations, and allied organizations to raise awareness of open culture, ethical sharing, and related issues
- Other programs and activities if any: N/A
- 10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zha1qQ2jDOz1VaA6L__WwWEeEZAoiEHV8VdShwZyf_4/edit?usp=sharing
- 11. Describe your team. (required)
Language and translation experts:
- Opino Gomango (Jurai, Sora, Gutob, Odia)
- Gobardhan Panda (Bonda, Desia)
- Sanjib Chaudhary (Tharu, Nepali)
- Uday Raj Aaley (Magar, Kusunda, Nepali)
- Surendra Singh (Saukiya Khun — extinct language)
- K. S. Bharwal (Rangpo — threatened language)
- Arun Gaur (Jaunpuri, Garhwali, Hindi)
- Deepak Joshi (Jaunsari, Garhwali, Hindi)
- Jayprakash Chauhan (Bangani, Garhwali, Hindi)
- Nenavath Mohan (Lambadi)
- Subhashish Panigrahi (lead)
Tech and community (whether paid or volunteer role TBD):
- Jnanaranjan Sahu
- Chinmayee Mishra
Wikimedians (collaborators):
- User:Ssgapu22
- User:Aliva_Sahoo
Advisors:
- Positions to be filled
- 12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)
Internal partners:
- Odia Wikimedians User Group (I am a co-founder; admin and co-revived the Odia Wikipedia; co-created Wiki Loves Languages campaign)
- Santali Wikimedians User Group (have been involved in creating fonts and input tools before incubation and contributed during Incubator stage, and have mentored and assisted fellow Wikimedians)
External GLAM partners:
- Library of Congress (video acquisition, online catalogues)
- Language Archive Cologne (video acquisition, online catalogues)
- Indiancine.ma (video acquisition, online catalogues)
- 13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)
- Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Manage Internal Knowledge, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge
Metrics
[edit]Wikimedia Metrics
[edit]- 14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)
- 14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.
All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.
| Metrics name | Target | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | 50 | N/A |
| Number of all editors | N/A | N/A |
| Number of new editors | N/A | |
| Number of retained editors | N/A | |
| Number of all organizers | N/A | N/A |
| Number of new organizers | N/A |
- 14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)
| Wikimedia project | Created | Edited or improved |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 15 | 25 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 150 | |
| Wikidata | 50 | 50 |
| Wiktionary | ||
| Wikisource | ||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||
| Translatewiki | ||
| MediaWiki | ||
| Wikiquote | ||
| Wikivoyage | ||
| Wikibooks | ||
| Wikiversity | ||
| Wikinews | ||
| Wikispecies | ||
| Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia |
- Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)
Other Metrics
[edit]- 15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
Budget
[edit]- 16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required)
- Yes
- 16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)
We plan to bring in-kind donation of 20% up to US$2,000 as endowment,
- 16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)
- 2880
- 17. Your local currency. (required)
- CAD
- 18. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required)
- 28663.6 CAD
| Year | Amount (local currency) |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | N/A CAD |
| Year 2 | N/A CAD |
| Year 3 | N/A CAD |
- 19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required)
- Yes
- 19.1. How many paid staff members do you plan to have? (required)
Include the number of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include them separately and mention their terms.
- We don't have any paid staffer or consultant/contractor. We will only compensate for professional service that is not volunteer Wikimedia contribution. The detailed number of hours for each service and the kind of service are mentioned in the Budget spreadsheet.
- 19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total? (required)
Include the total FTE of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include their FTEs with the terms separately.
- As mentioned in 19.1, we do not have any FTEs, or short-term contractors or staff. We only have fixed pay-per-hour services mentioned in Budget. Based on our decade-long experience in this sector, we have made this decision. Since FTEs and equivalents require financial and HR infrastructure and resources we do not have, we have removed them entirely. However, a multi-faceted project like this require professional services. We have estimated those services and capped the cost. We do have contacts with the service providers. We will publish their details with permission once we confirm to them about rendering their service since most service providers would not permit prior publication of their details in a grant application.
- 19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Fund if any. (required only for returning grantees)
- N/A
- 20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Fund (required).
| Budget category | Amount in local currency |
|---|---|
| Staff and contractor costs | 0 CAD |
| Operational costs | 5750 CAD |
| Programmatic costs | 33690 CAD |
- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
Additional information
[edit]- 22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)
OFDN, an Indian nonprofit will provide support for IT, HR and finance infrastructure (except for being a fiscal sponsor) and other services if and when needed. For full disclosure, OFDN was co-founded by the primary applicant.
By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- Yes
Feedback
[edit]- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.
- Wikimedia Community Fund/Proposals
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