Grants:Project/Rapid/UG LK/Wiki Loves Earth 2019 in Sri Lanka

Conduct the first-ever Wikimedia contest in Sri Lanka
Obtain very high-quality photographs of the flora, fauna, and landscapes of Sri Lanka
Spread awareness of the local Wikimedia affiliate
Encourage new organic contributors to Commons, as well as Sinhala, English, and Tamil Wikipedias
Learn from the outcome of this first contest, for future projects

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:

1. What content will the contest focus on, and why is it important to your community?

This contest will be the local segment of the global Wiki Loves Earth 2019 photo contest. As elaborated in the link, the contest will focus on natural heritage, scenic landscape, as well as the flora and fauna of Sri Lanka.

2. How will you let people know about the contest?

The primary mode of publicity for this contest with be the CentralNotice banners and paid Facebook ads. We are also considering putting up posters in key venues in Colombo (and other cities where we have volunteers), but the feasibility of that is yet to be determined.

3. How will you judge the contest and award prizes?

We have an open call for volunteers to join as part of the jury. In addition to experienced Wikimedia volunteers, we intend to also find professional photographers who would volunteer as jury for no payment (although to encourage joining, we will offer Wikimedia swag and publicity on our pages). The photos will be assessed through a jury tool; to be decided. Awards will be issued via courier or registered post.

4. For photo contests, what is the strategy to get images used on projects?

As a guide, we will create a list of landmarks/topics that require quality images. This will not be a hard criteria, but it will act as an indicator on the nature of content we are looking for.

5. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

This will be the first wide-reach public event fully organised by UG-LK. Highlights of our previous projects can be found in our Annual Reports of 2017 and 2018. Our current internal working page can be found here. To make participation more attractive, we decided to channel more of the funds towards the prizes and advertising, and not host an "award ceremony". The prizes will be posted/couriered to their addresses.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more:

For photo contests:

Number of new users: 100+
Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 1,000+
Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects 50+
At least 20 natural sites are photographed

Note: The above figures are very conservative. As this is our first attempt to reach out to the public directly, we are not sure how effective it would be. Furthermore, Sri Lanka's professional photography industry is very tiny (hence the reason for the low quality coverage of photos on Wikipedia).

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

The project will be organised by members of Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka, led by User:Rehman. The project will be carried out by funds from this grant. Rehman is also willing to act as a funder should the project grant remittance take time for whatever reason (subject to Grants team approval).

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.

Subject	Description	Units	Cost (LKR/රු) ^[1]	Cost (USD/$) ^[2]
Advertising	Facebook ads	Rs. 2,500 × 8 weeks	20,000	114.60
	Google ads	Rs. 2,500 × 8 weeks	20,000	114.60
	Newspaper	Rs. 6,000 × 3 papers	18,000	103.14
Prize - 1st	Voucher	1	35,000	200.55
Prize - 2nd	Voucher (≈75% of 1st place)	1	26,000	148.98
Prize - 3rd	Voucher (≈75% of 2nd place)	1	20,000	114.60
Organising logistics	Certificate printing/courier	-	10,000	57.30
Courier	Distributing certificates/prizes	Rs. 2,500 × 10	25,000	143.25
Certificates	10 winners, 5 organisers	Rs. 500 × 15	7,500	42.98
Merchandise ^[3]	WLE bags (sponsored by Wikimedia Ukraine)	15	0.00	0.00
	Wikipedia globe stickers ($10 per pack from Store)	1 pack (50 stickers)	0.00	0.00
	Wikipedia globe buttons ($10 per pack from Store)	1 pack (50 buttons)	0.00	0.00
	Wikipedia pens ($11 per pack from Store)	4 packs (20 pens)	0.00	0.00
	Wikipedia notebooks ($8 each from Store)	15	0.00	0.00
	Wikipedia coasters ($22 each from Store)	15	0.00	0.00
	Wikipedia water bottles (blue) ($15 each from Store)	15	0.00	0.00
Incidentals (10% of total) - Bank charges, difference in actual prices, forex fluctuations, etc			18,150	104.00
Total			199,650.00	1,143.99

As this is our first project of this nature, we have added a 10% incidental buffer to the total project cost. Anticipated balances from the project fund will be allocated towards better advertising and increasing top prizes to encourage participation, at the discretion of the grants team.

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

Endorsing as grant proposer. Reh man 15:46, 17 April 2019 (UTC)
Azeez (talk) 09:29, 22 April 2019 (UTC)
Support Wikimedia Community User Group Sri Lanka is actively working with the WLE international team on organisation of this contest. The plan they are offering is good and will help them reach the necessary audience. This is a very promising application and I hope this will be a successful project for the user group — NickK (talk) 15:56, 6 May 2019 (UTC)
Strong support Support for activities in Sri Lanka is very crucial to grow the community in the country. This is a very good opportunity. With my previous interactions with the proposer, I am fully confident of his ability to execute this project. KCVelaga (talk) 10:04, 12 May 2019 (UTC)

[1] 1 USD is approximately 174.5 LKR

[2] 1 LKR is approximately 0.00573 USD

[3] 10 winners, 5 organisers/jury

[1]

[2]

[3]