We've confirmed your proposal is eligible for round 2 2015 review. Please feel free to ask questions and make changes to this proposal as discussions continue during this community comments period.
The committee's formal review for round 2 2015 begins on 20 October 2015, and grants will be announced in December. See the schedule for more details.
Does it fit with Wikimedia's strategic priorities?
Does it have potential for online impact?
Can it be sustained, scaled, or adapted elsewhere after the grant ends?
5.2
(B) Innovation and learning
Does it take an Innovative approach to solving a key problem?
Is the potential impact greater than the risks?
Can we measure success?
3.2
(C) Ability to execute
Can the scope be accomplished in 6 months?
How realistic/efficient is the budget?
Do the participants have the necessary skills/experience?
3.2
(D) Community engagement
Does it have a specific target community and plan to engage it often?
Does it have community support?
Does it support diversity?
3.0
Comments from the committee:
Generating lists of potential articles to be created is a traditional approach to addressing content gaps on Wikipedia, and has a track record of successful implementation. However, success is closely related to the availability of volunteers to create articles from the list. It is unclear whether this volunteer capacity exists on the Amharic Wikipedia.
Project fits with strategic priorities to increase participation and improve quality. I think it's very impactful for smaller projects to focus on article creation according to the List of articles every Wikipedia should have, but the project does not seem to be sustainable (it depends on a lot of funding for project management and prizes).
The project needs metrics that can be measured.
Writing contests are well known and have been running on various wikipedias for years. As there is already significant existing knowledge regarding the use of potential article lists for improving content gaps, it is unlikely that this project will produce any significant degree of innovation or learning for the movement.
I have deep concerns about paid editing and this proposal seems to propose to pay editors for articles. I regard this as a rather risky proposal not in line with what the wikimedia communities want.
A contest does not strike me as a sustainable or likely to be successful approach to solving the problem of there being very few Amharic Wikipedia editors. The project plan is significantly lacking in details.
The budget is not clear.
The proposed project management budget is large for an activity plan focused on preparing lists of potential articles. The prize budget is not elaborated, but appears high, given the limited scope of the contest and the likely target audience.
Would like more clarity about planning of operations and finance. For a writing contest, not much more is needed than creating a wiki-landing page containing the redlinks and spreading the message about the contest. This is work volunteers typically do. On the other hand, you will need a jury to rank the entries and their meet-up may cause travel costs etc, which do not appear in this proposal.
$10,000 for prizes seems very expensive. I'd like more detail on what $8,000 for project management covers. The project lead is experienced in the administration of Amharic Wikipedia and is passionate about its growth and success.
There is no indication of community engagement or support. Plans for engagement are vague - I don't think noticeboards are enough to get the interest and participation necessary for a project like this to succeed.
I would like to see a proposal from this applicant in the future, with more consideration as to how best to grow the Amharic Wikipedian community and content. For example, I think funds would be better used to establish a local Wikipedia education program or series or edit-a-thons.
Amharic is important. I know that there are no encyclopedias in this language, but I cannot justify the cost. If the costs are reduced, it could be accepted in the future.
This project has not been selected for an Individual Engagement Grant at this time.
We love that you took the chance to creatively improve the Wikimedia movement. The committee has reviewed this proposal and not recommended it for funding, but we hope you'll continue to engage in the program. Please drop by the IdeaLab to share and refine future ideas!
Comments regarding this decision: We would like to see this proposal in the future, with more consideration as to how best to grow the Amharic Wikipedian community and content. While this project aims to increase participation and improve quality with contests, we are unclear about its sustainability, as well as how the community could be motivated beyond the activities and prizes the proposed funding would cover.
Next steps:
Review the feedback provided on your proposal and to ask for any clarifications you need using this talk page.
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