Grants talk:PEG/Irvin Stotomas/Run for Free Knowledge

A decision has been made on this grant. Comments are still welcome on this page.

GAC members who support this request

1. --DerekvG (talk) 13:33, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Community comments

Language

Hi, you're gonna distribute offline Kiwix, does it includes an offline copy of Wikipedia in your local language, or just in Tagalog and/or English? ✒ Bennylin 09:12, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Benny for the support. We do not have a Tagalog or Bikol Wikipedia offline available so far. We will distribute the English edition. --Filipinayzd (talk) 23:49, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

English, really? Kiwix does provide ZIM files for those projects, please include all sister projects as well. [1] [2] [3] [4] --Nemo 15:45, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

The problem is lack of enough useful content in those languages, indeed not the lack of a ZIM file. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 20:06, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

That is right Asaf. -00:03, 15 September 2015 (UTC)

tarpaulins

What are they? wikt:tarpaulin did not help me understand. --Nemo 15:45, 6 September 2015 (UTC)

Hi Nemo. Tarpaulin is like one we used at 5th Bikol Wikipedia Day: Aldaw nin Talingkas na Ensiklopedya and at Bikol Song Festival organized by Sumaro Bikolnon. It can be used for the streamers, posters and bib numbers. --Filipinayzd (talk) 01:53, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

• 
  Bikol Wikipedia Day streamer
• 
  Wiki Takes Naga poster
• 
  Wiki Takes Naga bibs
• 
  streamer and posters featuring Bikol Wikipedia articles on James O'Brien and Jerry Adrados

Event logo

We have an ongoing Call for Run for Free Knowledge event logo design posted at Wikipedia talk:Tambayan Philippines and in Facebook. --Filipinayzd (talk) 07:47, 28 September 2015 (UTC)

WMF comments

It sounds like the next few months will be exciting for communities involved with the Bikol Sentral Wikipedia and Rinconada Bikol Wikipedias. We applaud your creativity in finding ways to build awareness and access to Wikipedia in your area, but have some concerns about how the proposed activities will have an impact on the target Wikipedias. Please see our comments below:

• Have you identified 700 schools who you will distribute Kiwix DVDs to? It is important to think about which schools have the equipment necessary to install the program, and whether volunteers in your community have the capacity to support these teachers and schools. Simply distributing DVDs may not lead to use. Ideally, the project should include guides, training or support for DVD recipients so that they are able to get as much value from the program as possible.
• One of your goals is to build awareness of Bikol Sentral Wikipedia in your area. How will you know if this project has accomplished that goal?
• If the goal of distributing Kiwix DVDs is to improve access to information for teachers and schools, you should set measures of success around Kiwix use. Do you have a plan for how and when you will track Kiwix use by recipients?
• What is the value of the prizes you propose to give to winners, and how do they compare with similar events? Keep in mind that grant funded prizes are usually reserved for participants who contribute content of significant quality or quantity.
• Registration fees should be applied to the cost of the event, rather than retained to pay for future running events.

In order to fund this project, the proposal should clearly demonstrate how it will have an impact on Wikimedia projects. The majority of the budget is going towards t-shirts and prizes, while the cost of Kiwix DVD's and the running event are quite low. The connection between the event and building awareness of local language Wikipedias is clear, but the proposal needs to include plans for how following up with event participants and recipients of Kiwix DVDs. We are pleased to see that your community is taking so many creative approaches to build awareness and access to free knowledge, and we want to support you in this effort. We look forward to your response and are happy to work with you to refine the proposal. Cheers. --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 19:25, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Hi KHarold (WMF).

• Each public school under the Department of Education (DepED) has an Information and Communications Technology coordinator. Identification of public school beneficiaries and the number of computers or laptops with (and without) DVD drive in each school, can be done thru coordination with DepED Division Office of Camarines Sur in Pili, Camarines Sur. Naga City and Iriga City has a separate DepED Division Office. A printed copy of a step-by-step instruction on installation of DVD Wikipedia offline can be included in the DVD. As to the training or support for DVD recipients, that can be included in the project proposal. Here is the data I have gathered so far in my informal survey. Once, the proposal is approved, we then formally ask the proper authorities regarding the data of the entire Division of Camarines Sur, Naga City and Iriga City.
• Building awareness of Bikol Sentral Wikipedia can be done at the Run for Free Knowledge event where a number of trivias taken from selected articles in Bikol Sentral Wikipedia can be seen throughout the course. During the awarding ceremonies, ten (10) participants who can answer the questions correctly, based on the trivias found along the route, will win Wikipedia merchandize (instead of cash prizes). The general participants can then be encouraged to contribute to Bikol Sentral Wikipedia in order, to attend future edit-a-thons conducted locally or to even become a Wikipedia volunteer, in order to have the same merchandize.
• A portion of the registration fees could also proceed to the Community fund for meet ups, if it cannot be used for future running events. No follow up activities or meet ups, at least, with the volunteers and potential contributors are one of the reasons why enthusiasm dies down.
• The success of distributing Kiwix DVDs to improve access to information for teachers and schools can be measured thru: a) the percentage of DVDs installed within the next month or before January 22, 2016 is 50%; and b) the average number of students, teachers and staff who browsed, consulted or used the DVD for research or leisure for at least 5 minutes, within the first week of installation is 30 (per successfully installed DVD). ICT coordinators must send the evaluation form to the Project Team on or before January 22, 2016.
• On the cash prizes: like any running event whether it is for charity or advocacy, there is always cash prizes involved for the top winners. After all, it is a competition and participants may have joined to win something aside from taking part in the advocacy. A cash prize of PHP1,000.00 (USD22,40) for the Top 5 Female and Top 5 Male participants is relatively modest. Ten (10) winners is simply 3.3% of the total number of 300 expected participants and the total cash prize is simply 8.5% of the adjusted total cost of project or PHP117,500 (USD2,632.17). Basically, the cash prize is just an element in a running event for a cause like this one.

We would be glad to discuss with you our ideas on follow up events for the participants and recipients of Kiwix DVDs. --Filipinayzd (talk) 18:13, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Other expenses

For ICT coordinator's trainings on installation of Wikipedia Offline and evaluation:

Item	Qty	Cost per Unit	Total cost	Remarks
Transportation	2		PHP2,000 (USD44.49)	good for 4 days; tentative venues
Schedule 1	2; 2	PHP200 (USD4.44)	PHP800 (USD17.80)	Ragay National High School (1st District); Minalabac Central School (2nd District)
Schedule 2	2; 2	PHP100.00 (USD2.22)	PHP400 (USD8.90)	Canaman Central School (3rd District); TBA - Naga City (City Division)
Schedule 3	2	PHP200.00 (USD4.44)	PHP400 (USD8.90)	TBA - San Jose (4th District)
Schedule 4	2	PHP200.00 (USD4.44)	PHP400 (USD8.90)	TBA - Iriga City (5th District); TBA - Iriga City (City Division)
Lunch and snacks	2	PHP200 (USD4.44)	PHP1,600 (USD35.60)	good for 4 days
Total			PHP3,600.00 (USD80.89)

--Filipinayzd (talk) 16:07, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

WMF Funding Decision

Thank you for all of the thought and hard work you have put into developing this proposal for this very creative approach to outreach and increasing access to knowledge. Both are commendable, however, we are not able to fund this proposal for two reasons. First, as noted in our previous comments, the funding requested for the project is primarily to raise awareness of Wikipedia Bikol Sentral, although there are no substantial strategies described for how raising awareness will have an impact on WIkimedia projects. Our experience shows that having an local, active editing community is necessary for outreach efforts to lead to increases in new users. If you find that the Wikipedia Takes Rinconada event is successful in activating new, local contributors, we can discuss funding events to support and grow that community. Second, although we would consider funding a project to distribute Kiwix to schools if that project involved local volunteers who could support educators. however, with only 10 schools listed and no evidence of local volunteers support for these schools, we are not able to fund the request, as it calls for distribution of Kiwix to 700 schools. Clearly you have put a lot of effort into understanding the feasibility of distributing Kiwix DVDs to local schools and training teachers. If your community decides to develop a more in-depth program to distribute Kiwix to local schools, we would be happy to help you develop a plan and funding proposal. Again, it is wonderful to see volunteers in your area take such a creative, enthusiastic approach to spreading free knowledge, and we hope to support you in future efforts. Thank you for all of the time you, and community members have put into preparing and commenting on the proposal. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Best,--KHarold (WMF) (talk) 00:28, 16 October 2015 (UTC)