Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/WBG/Annual Plan 2022-23/Final Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 31 January 2024
Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Final
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General information
[edit]This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results.
- Name of Organization: West Bengal Wikimedians User Group
- Title of Proposal: WBG/Annual Plan 2022-23
- Amount awarded: 15076.06 USD, 1100000 INR
- Amount spent: 12841.25 USD
Part 1 Understanding your work
[edit]1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
The following proposed activities which were implemented
- National-level photographic competitions on Wikimedia Commons
- Wiki Loves Monuments 2022 in India and Wiki Loves Monuments 2023 in India - The national photographic competitions on built heritage was organized by the user group for the 5th and 6th consecutive years during the month of September in 2022 and 2023 respectively on Wikimedia Commons, jury members were engaged to review the images and results were declared.
- Wiki Loves Food 2022 in India - The photographic competition focusing on Indian cuisine was also organized on Wikimedia Commons during the month of November, 2022.
- Field documentation through Wiki Exploration Program - 12 phases of field trips have happened till now covering 13 districts of West Bengal and 7 districts of Bihar. A drone operator was assigned in two of the phases to capture aerial view of built heritage structures. 17 museums of different collection sizes were also covered during this trip. Photographs and videos captured are uploaded on Wikimedia Commons.
- Proofread competitions on Bengali Wikisource - 3 proofread competitions were organized on Bengali Wikisource for a total duration of 5 months. which got expected traction from participants. The events were Rabimas proofread competition focusing on the books written by Noble Laureate polymath Rabindranath Tagore; Bangladesh Liberation War proofread competition focusing on reference books on Bangladesh Liberation War and Parashuram's Axe proofread competition focusing on books written by Bangla writer Rajshekhar Basu.
- Infrastructure and logistic support - A Sony ILCE-7M3 camera body and Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS Lens was purchased at the start of the grant period to support Wiki Exploration Program. A Lenovo legion laptop along with accessories were also purchased and handed over to a volunteer in need. Several reference books were also bought on topics related to built heritage, flora and fauna and culture of West Bengal and India at large.
- GLAM initiative in Bihar - A GLAM opportunity was successfully explored in Patna to digitize a leading newspaper named Behar Herald, which has been pursued through a separate grant proposal.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
Over the years, we have developed few strategies to find and bridge existing gaps about knowledge on the culture and heritage of our region, generate and bring useful content on Wikimedia sites about them and provide necessary infrastructure to the volunteers so that bring quality to their projects. In this grant period, the approaches and strategies were same as before.
- National level photographic competitions - We have a good photographic community which has proved as a vital resource to plan and execute national level competitions on Wikimedia Commons.
- Field documentations through Wiki Exploration - Our proactive search of built heritage by sending small teams to remote locations of the region has brought photographs and videos of built heritage structures located in West Bengal and neighboring state of Bihar.
- Proofread competitions - We have managed to engage and anchor volunteers on Bengali Wikisource through proofread competitions, focusing on topics which are relevant to the history and legacy of the region.
- Infrastructure support - The camera, lens, laptop and other accessories purchased in this grant period has helped our Wiki Exploration team and other volunteers to continue their contribution and bring more quality to their project. Reference books purchased on topics relevant to our activities will be used to enrich references on different Wikimedia projects.
3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?
While photographic competitions are regularly organized by many affiliates and communities around the world and proofread competitions, even fewer in numbers, are also organized by a few affiliates who are interested in Wikisource, we cannot claim innovations in there as we, more or less follow standard guidelines and practices which are followed elsewhere. But our Wiki Exploration program is one of its kind and quite innovative. As mentioned in the grant proposal, we send a small team of photographers, videographers, drone operators etc. to remote places, where they digitally document the current status of many built heritage structures which are often not documented anywhere or documented years ago. This proactive approach has helped document some of the structures for the last time as they are being destroyed or restructured due to indifference, ignorance and lack of awareness of the people living there. Wiki Exploration is not meant for thorough documentation of one monument at a time, rather it helps us to put them on a map and give a basic idea of distribution of different kinds of heritage structures in West Bengal and its neighboring states. The data, which is being built, will be utilized in near future by us for in-depth and detailed documentation of specific heritage structures, which are rich in sculpture and terracotta architecture.
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
We are operating as a user group, so all our core members are aware of all our activities. It is to be noted that all our projects and activities actually come directly from community volunteers, whom, we engage to implement the projects. We have also informed volunteers about our projects through mailing lists, village pumps, central banners, site notices and different relevant social media channels. Our call for participation for photographic competitions on Wikimedia Commons and proofread competitions on Bengali Wikisource got attention from relevant persons through central banners and site notices. We are also developing a working relationship with our fiscal sponsor Kiwix, with whom we will be very happy to engage for our future projects.
5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- The relevant links which can help understand the imapct are as follows:
- Wiki Loves Monuments 2022 in India - Winners, Statistics
- Wiki Loves Food 2022 in India - Winners, Statistics
- Wiki Loves Monuments 2023 in India - Winners, Statistics
- Rabimas proofread competition - Progress, Result
- Bangladesh Liberation War proofread competition - Progress, Result
- Parashuram's Axe proofread competition - Progress, Result
- Uploaded files taken with WBG camera Sony FE 24-105mm F4 G OSS purchased with this fund
6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Neither agree nor disagree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Strongly agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. | Strongly agree |
7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?
All our activities were focused on filling knowledge gaps, be it generating contents about built heritage, literary heritage, intangible heritage and art forms, museum collections etc. or building partnerships for future, and hence somehow related to underrepresented groups and topics. The media contents, which were brought under these efforts, were often not present on Wikimedia sites before. New data are being created and old data are getting enriched. The texts which were generated through transcription and proofreading of scanned books has also brought huge amount of reference material on different topics, for e.g. Bangladesh Liberation War etc. which were not present as a searchable format anywhere on internet and now can be used as citations on Wikipedia.
Part 2: Your main learning
[edit]8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
Our proactive approach to seek and document heritage structures under Wiki Exploration has helped us gain a lot of experience, practical exposure and insight related to digital conservation of built heritage. We are getting better in detailed background planning, crucial logistics management and handling emergency or hostile situations during the field trips. Our mapping of the heritage structures of the state is helping us understand their current status, which will be utilized for a future plan of ours to select richly ornamented buildings like temples enriched with terracotta reliefs and extensively document each one of them. We are still learning on how to engage and utilize drone operators, videographers etc. in this specialized task of heritage conservation.
Planning and executing all our hectic programs in a sustainable and decentralized way with very limited human resources available and no staff structure is itself a learning process. By doing this, we are figuring out on how to constantly support and retain the dedicated program leads, so that they can work out on their plans smoothly without worrying about administrative tasks attached to their works.
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
Although Wiki Loves Monuments competitions can be said as a decently successful event, but we were not been able to engage the professional photographers and archeological experts as we expected. Wiki Loves Food 2022 was an unexpected failure for us with very little participation compared to the last year, mostly because of the low visibility due to the strict diet placed on central banner. For now, we have decided to stop the competition from next year.
Wiki Exploration hit an unexpected temporary halt due to an unavoidable personal mishap in the real life of the program lead, which led us to extend the grant period for another six months.
We could not start the digitization project, which was planned in the proposal, as the lead responsible for the plan, took an unexpected break from Wikimedia, mostly due to his real life personal issues.
10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?
We have been mapping built heritage structures in West Bengal and generating data about them through our Wiki Exploration program. However impactful it might be, this fast documentation spanning a large area of land scratches only the surface of digital conservation as it only gives a basic understanding about the distribution of those structures in the region. But the knowledge generated about the current status of these monuments can help us dig deeper. We are identifying potential structures which have rich ornamentation in the form of terracotta reliefs and special features and aiming to focus individually each one of them to have detailed and comprehensive documentation. We will plan this as a separate program from next year.
It is very exhausting for one or two persons, who take responsibility to coordinate for financial and administrative works on behalf of all program leads. So, it has been decided to provide support to all our program leads from next grant year in a different way, so that they can request for funding of their own proposals themselves individually. That would help them gain confidence and experience in grants making and for future plans of theirs and distribute the responsibilities among the affiliate members.
11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?
The most fascinating stories will most probably come from the Wiki Exploration field trips. There are numerous stories which can be shared around the current conditions of the heritage structures, hostile and suspicious locals and the ways to deal with them, hardships taken by the team to search for the monuments etc.
12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- A Diff blog about Wiki Exploration program in nutshell- https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/12/24/wiki-exploration-program-documenting-the-cultural-heritage-of-eastern-india/
Part 3: Metrics
[edit]13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of new Wikimedia Commons uploaders | Number of newly registered individuals who will be uploading photographs on Wikimedia Commons
|
1200 | 438 | Number of newly registered individuals who will be uploading photographs on Wikimedia Commons
|
Tools used
|
| Number of places covered during Wiki Exploration field trip | * South 24 Parganas district - 36
|
188 | 179 | * South 24 Parganas district - 19
|
N/A |
| Number of volunteers supported w.r.t. logistics and infrastructure | This includes providing camera and lens for documentation purpose, along with laptop, WiFi routers and internet support for daily editing | 8 | 8 | * Camera and Lens - 1
|
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 |
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | * Wiki Loves Food 2022 in India - ~ 125
|
285 | 233 | * Wiki Loves Food 2022 in India - 50
|
N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | Number of individuals organizing programs, projects and events organized or supported by WBG
|
24 | 27 | * Wiki Loves Food 2022 in India - 5
|
N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | Wikimedia and non-Wikimedia partners of WBG relevant to this fund proposal | 2 | 1 | * Bihar Bengalee Association - 1 grant proposal | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | Online or offline activities organized by WBG through its different programs
|
18 | 18 | Online or offline activities organized by WBG through its different programs
|
N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
13b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | All individuals participating in different programs, projects and events organized or supported by WBG.
|
1600 | 757 | All individuals participating in different programs, projects and events organized or supported by WBG.
|
Tools used
|
| Number of editors | Number of individuals editing on-line programs, projects and events organized or supported by WBG
|
1590 | 752 | Number of individuals editing on-line programs, projects and events organized or supported by WBG
|
Tools used
|
| Number of organizers | Number of individuals organizing programs, projects and events organized or supported by WBG | 11 | 11 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikimedia Commons | Number of photographs uploaded
|
26000 | 26858 | Number of photographs uploaded
|
|
| Wikisource | Number of pages proofread in 4 proofreading competitions on Bengali Wikisource | 12000 | 10066 | Number of pages proofread
|
Number of pages proofread
|
| 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 | N/A | N/A |
14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?
No
15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.
For photographic competitions on Wikimedia Commons involving hundreds of participants, there are no handy tools available to our knowledge, which can estimate the number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities and so, we had to take a subjective guess, most of the time, based on previous experiences. A quarry based tool with friendly UI can make life easier to bring objectivity to the result.
16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
Annual activity
reportsGrant proposals
and reportsAnnual plans Wiki Loves Butterfly Wiki Exploration Program Other 
Images Grant proposals Grant reports List of butterflies Hesperiidae Lycaenidae Nymphalidae Papilionidae Pieridae Riodinidae
Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships
[edit]17. Organizational Capacity
Organizational capacity dimension A. Financial capacity and management This capacity has grown but it should be further developed B. Conflict management or transformation This capacity has grown but it should be further developed C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high D. Partnership building This capacity has grown but it should be further developed E. Strategic planning This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high F. Program design, implementation, and management This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation This capacity has grown but it should be further developed H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it J. Governance This capacity has grown but it should be further developed K. Communications, marketing, and social media This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it M. On-wiki technical skills This capacity has grown but it should be further developed N. Accessing and using data This capacity has grown but it should be further developed O. Evaluating and learning from our work This capacity has grown but it should be further developed P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it N/A N/A 17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Peer to peer learning with other community members (but that is not continuous or structured)
17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of volunteer time to participate in capacity building/training
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
Our affiliate is entirely volunteer driven and due to the provisions in our bylaws, we have managed to retain most of our dedicated volunteer force and engaged them with decision making and capacity building. However, we feel that the volunteer model to run our ambitious programs, is not sustainable for long and it totally depends on the motivation and dedication of our team members, but, we need a proper organizational structure for ourselves, the setting up of which cannot be done by ourselves and require support. During this grant year, we had planned to sustain ourselves through different means which did not work. We tried to register ourselves, get an office and hire staffs but that did not happen, because we did not get the proper legal support and guidance anywhere.
19. Partnerships over the funding period.
Over the fund period... A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) Strongly agree B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups Neither agree nor disagree C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree 19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of staff to conduct outreach to new strategic partners
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
Under this grant duration and funding, we had spent some money to explore a GLAM opportunity in Bihar, which has been later finalized as a separate funding proposal, the details of which will be shared in the corresponding report very soon. We are not selecting random GLAM organizations and waste resources, in stead our approach has been to triage the institutions based on their urgency and needs to digitize and release their contents. The bad condition of physical collections, insecure feeling as minority language community and decline of organizational infrastructure led the GLAM organization in Bihar to agree for digitization readily, when approached to build a partnership.
Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration
[edit]21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?
Our affiliate has always belonged to the Wikimedia movement as a free knowledge organization since its inception, when it was formed by the volunteers who had deeply invested their time for this movement for around or more than a decade and even before that, when the community did not ask for formal affiliation. The group has preserved immense amount of knowledge from the state, it belongs over the years, be it in text form or in media form and brought hundreds of millions of viewership on the contents they had generated over the years. In spite of different obstacles in technical limitations of the platform, financial constraints, real life issues etc. the affiliate has nurtured several dedicated volunteers from the region and forged them as leaders.
22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Increased significantly
23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
The funding has helped to plan and execute our programs, projects and activities in a more organized and structured way as it has provided us with the necessary resources, which we need as a volunteer organization. And with better planning, we were successful to run almost all our plans for multiple years, not only delivering quality output and bringing impact, but we were also able to retain most of the volunteer leaders in these years, even though not anyone of them is paid as a staff or contract.
24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Stayed the same
25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
N/A
26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.
No, we are not an activist organization. Our only focus is free and open knowledge.
Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration
[edit]We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.
27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
Yes
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
Our project outputs are shared in our physical and virtual meet-ups, including the annual general meeting of the affiliate, where we discuss every aspects of our projects in detail and plan for the future. We also share our learning with Wikimedia Bangladesh during the monthly meetings of Bangla WikiMoitree .
28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?
We do this occasionally (less than once a month)
29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?
We mostly share our learning from other grantees from our affiliate and help them draft and submit their own fund applications. We also share the learning with Wikimedia Bangladesh during the monthly meetings of Bangla WikiMoitree.
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance
[edit]30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
12841.25
31. Local currency type
USD
32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
Kiwix is the fiscal sponsor of this grant proposal
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15I0RzMXPAYzBRMV8dv-YGHBNZIOwvgGn/view?usp=sharing
33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.
N/A
34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
USD 14.75
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
C. I am planning to send them back to the WMF
34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.
36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
37. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.
