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Grants:Project/Rapid/Oral Culture Transcription Toolkit/Report

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Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2021-22 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Oral Culture Transcription Toolkit.
  • You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
  • You are welcome to Email rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

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Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Yes, we have met our goals. We are happy with how the project went as we accomplished our set goals and the outcomes exceeded our expectations in certain aspects.

Outcome

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Please report on your original project targets. Please be sure to review and provide metrics required for Rapid Grants.


Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
Creation of toolkit Toolkit created Oral Culture Transcription Toolkit was created in partnership with Wikitongues and OpenSpeaks. It has been translated into 3 languages.
Translate toolkit into Hindi and Punjabi Translating into Hindi, Punjabi and Bengali To ensure that wider audiences have reached the information contained by the toolkit and also that that gender gap is bridged. A proof of this claim is that 75% of the trainees were female who successfully utilized this toolkit to document their culture. We had planned to translate the toolkit into Hindi and Punjabi, Based on WIkitongues suggestion and also keeping our future project in mind, we decided to translate into Bengali as well i.e. Audio-Video Recording and Interview sections into Bengali (the user was also a reviewer for the Hindi translation toolkit.)
Train volunteers to utilize and test the toolkit Trained two existing and two newbies with the toolkit We had the target of testing out the toolkit with volunteers, the involvement of newbies ensured that we could test if the Wiki workflow section was easy to understand for them without any prior exposure to Wiki volunteerism. Learning from this exercise was that video files recorded by newbies have not been uploaded yet to Commons due to the entry-level barriers i.e. minimum 50 edits.
Additional outcome 10/ The volunteers added not only Wikimedia content but also a new way of bringing their culture online other than Wikipedia pages in their language. They also get to know the importance of the Wikimedia content, projects and open knowledge.

Anjalinegi07: 68 edits on Wikimedia commons and 5 edits on Wikisource, also used the Oral History Elicitation Protocol for a video uploaded on Commons.

Dugal harpreet: 2 videos uploaded or 5 edits, Text upload on Punjabi Wikisource

Gill jassu: 1 video uploaded and made 2 edits on Wikimedia Commons and Punjabi Wikisource

Jugraj Singh Sehri: He recorded three Punjabi folk songs and an interview video using Oral History Protocol.

Number of Participants 10 4 trainees,

2 reviewers (User:Gaurav Jhammat and User:Innocentbunny),

2 Translators (one reviewer was also a translator),

Daniel (Wikitounges),

Shubhashish (OpenSpeaks),

KC Velga (learning partner)

and also participated in virtual conferences and presented there about the current project.


Learning

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Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

  • What worked well?
    • Participation and enthusiasm of newbies and existing contributors were beyond expectations.
    • We were able to train one volunteer (User:Dugal harpreet) to become a trainer themselves. They provided one on one training.

It was the first time when I scheduled an online training. It was a great experience. But I faced difficulty as well, like, I never organised any online meet, faced internet connectivity issues etc. I fully tried that I teach everything to Jassu and she learned all the things which I told her. After experiencing this I felt that on-ground events are more relevant because during these events we teach or learn more things rather than online meets. Of course, the online platform is good enough for learning but in the small villages, users faced difficulty getting proper information. We should plan on-ground events, so, we can ignore network related issues.

  • What did not work so well?
    • Entry level barriers

1. The minimum number of 50 edits are required to upload videos on Wikimedia commons using Video2Commons. This becomes a major barrier in bringing newbies to projects like this. Quote by the contributor

The only problem I faced was in the uploading of the video. It asked for 50 edits first before letting you upload a video… Something needs to help and

provide the platform with more information.

2. Video2commons is not supported enough and there are multiple errors while uploading files which are sometimes automatically resolved while trying to upload the files again.

3. Internet connectivity

The whole work is dependent on the internet and due to poor internet volunteers faced difficulty attending meet and uploading videos on Wikimedia Commons. Quote by the trainee

We had a google meet on 23 December 2022 and at that time I faced a lot of difficulties attending the meet due to a bad internet connection. It wasted a lot of time.

4. Difficult to record content without training and equipment Without any kind of knowledge and training, volunteers had a lot of difficulties recording the content. We found that for understanding the cultural content and observing the content importance, we need experts who can teach the necessary skills for recording the videos. With their help or training, we can upload or generate qualitative content. Our next project Youth Skill Development Program to Document Oral Culture in Endangered Indian Languages is also inspired from it or upcoming project is the next step of these learnings.

Pieces of equipment are also important for recording the videos because it is hard to record videos in stable condition. It affects the quality of videos and audio. Quote by the volunteer participant,

It was really hard to record the videos to hold a phone in hands for a long time. I felt pain in my arms and there was nothing to set up. So, I think for recording the video volunteers must have basic equipment support.

  • What would you do differently next time?
    • Our major learning was that we must involve participants with basic ways to contribute to Wikimedia platforms rather than training directly to upload video files on Wikimedia Commons. We learned that we must inform them about the benefits and necessity of contributing to the open knowledge movement and bringing their language and culture online. So, we have included a few paragraphs explaining the same in the toolkit. Other than that, volunteers would do better and remain engaged if they are guided consistently as they need help with tricky bits of information, need to gain familiarity over time with Wiki platforms and the associated technology, and would do better overall with training and motivation.

Finances

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Grant funds spent

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Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

  • Project Manager salary: 1,50,000 INR
  • Community Coordinator: 75,000 INR
  • Translation Cost: 22,098 INR
  • Travel and Workshops: 12,436 INR
  • Remuneration for Participants: 10,000 INR
  • Internet Connectivity: 6,947 INR
  • Hardware support: 11,396 INR
    • Total: ~ 2,92,734 INR [~3,941 USD]

Remaining funds

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Do you have any remaining grant funds?

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of 27,266 INR were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/MSIG/ Needs assessment for documentation and revitalization of Indian languages using Wikimedia projects.
  • ~ 27,266 INR [~367 USD]

Yes, we would like to use the remaining funds for the new proposed project. You can find the proposal link here

Anything else

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Anything else you want to share about your project?

Thanks for funding and supporting this project. Special thanks to Daniel and Subhashish who supported this project at their end. We felt Oral History content and documentation is important for the Wikimedia movement and for inclusivity and representation on Wiki platforms.

We did two in-person training and the other was online training sessions. That's why our money is unspent from travel and workshops.

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