Grants talk:PEG/Wikimedia Ghana User Group/GLAM GHANA

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

GAC members who support this request

1. -- DerekvG (talk) 15:15, 17 November 2015 (UTC) After revision --DerekvG (talk) 20:13, 5 January 2016 (UTC) wholeheartedly supports this project ( see my suggestions in GAC comments)
2. I support this project and hope it is given the go ahead soon. I think that the review of this project has gone on far too long for what is essentially a fairly simple and clearly defined GLAM project with beneficial intentions for Wikimedia projects. Islahaddow (talk) 05:43, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

GAC comments

I have seen the support from the community, nothing to say about the aim of the project and the good focus of the project, but some concerns about the costs and the plan. Several questions:

• What will happen to the equipment? The user groups are relatively recent, but I have no expertise to check who will be owner of this material.
• The biggest concern I have with this kind of project is that next year there will be a similar project with all material bought again and with another photo-expedition and another GLAM with the same partners. I would be more comfortable to see a strategy where there is the idea to build some infrastructure to be reused in other projects instead of having separate ones.
• I have another big question, but I would discuss it internally because it's a little bit tricky but.

--Ilario (talk) 10:08, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Ilario for your concerns and comments, we really appreciate them.Concerning the equipment, this is not the first time we are procuring equipment for a project. We have a system in place to ensure that equipment are put to best use after their intended project.This link shows how some equipment we procured for projects have been kept and are still being used by the User Group.

About your concerns of we having a similar project next year, yes we will because we had to scale down this project from its previous scope and plan to the recent one based on close advice by the WMF.This project is a pilot we intend to build on for a bigger project once successful. We will scale up this project and obviously the tools procured here will still be put to use without we having to buy same equipment.If you can see from the scope of the project too,this project will seek partnerships with Libraries and Publishers in Ghana. Once these are secured we will ultimately have to build these contents on Wikipedia and its sister projects as well as TWL.For instance last year we procured a camera for our project Edit Ghana and we are requesting for another camera to complement the one we already have because of the the nature of the expedition that will we have in this project. So the plan is to procure the equipment for this project and subsequently use them for a scaled up project and other projects of the Usergroup.With your tricky question too, I wish you could ask us so we give you an appropriate answer but since you want to do it internally, we respect your decision.Regards--Rberchie (talk) 15:25, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

To add to what my colleague has shared, equipments bought under our projects belongs to the community and members come for it whenever they need it for projects. Like in this example. Flixtey (talk) 22:22, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, please read my additional comment above. --Ilario (talk) 16:04, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

• I add the third comment because I have seen that already Tony did it. The average salary in Ghana is more or less 370$ per month as per March 2015. I don't know how is the cost per hour, but I can calculate a cost of around 2.5$ dollars per hour. I don't know from where you calculate the average of 10$ or 12$ per hour. In a monthly basis it's more or less 1'600-2'000$ per month. This salary is really high considering that is aligned with a salary of a WiR in an European country but there is the difference that the net amount of in Europe is around 40-60%. --Ilario (talk) 16:04, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

With that analysis out of the way, what amount do you suggest/recommend/expect the WiR receives? Is the WiR supposed/required to receive average salary because of living in a country with the average wage values? I don't know where you got your stats from, but it appears you're considering the work to be done by the WiR as "low-skilled". I will love to be enlightened on the sources of these analysis (yeah, I know Google) --Nkansahrexford (talk) 17:14, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

Hi Ilario we are very much aware of the average wage and the minimum wage which you want to posit as the average wage. We wish to clarify that these are two different things, the minimum wage explicitly states that no one should be paid below the sated amount where as the average wage is clearly the monthly average of salaries paid in Ghana. To further acquaint you with the specifics of what goes into a salary in Ghana, one must note that the minimum wage is just a mere guideline that sets the differences in wages based on qualification, expertise and nature of work. Therefore not a one shoe fit all sizes approach for meting out wages. If you care to know, even the amount stated in our grant does not reflect the true expenses that will arise in the course of discharging the roles as it includes transportation to and from the place of work and home, accommodation (if necessary for proximity to place of work), etc. of WIR or Coordinator. Also from our checks with some digitization companies in Ghana, a project of this nature will not cost less than $2,000 in wages. However if you still insist you can check with similar projects and other multinational based NGOs in the country. Flixtey (talk) 22:31, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

I am only asking to justify this cost per hour and to say that this is the "right" value but using a good reference. In Wikipedia world this is a "citation needed". Unfortunately I have a project from Ghana in IEG where the cost per hour is completely different. It's a simple question of project management. You have submitted a project where the cost of the staff is the 50% of the overall project, it's normal that you references to an external source to indicate that this is the normal cost per hour in your country. Anything else (trip, insurance, etc.) has to be calculated outside this amount. --Ilario (talk) 13:40, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

Well Ilario the citation needed will not work here because no company publicizes its salaries and emoluments on line.Besides calls like these only appear in newspapers and they and in just a few cases online.Like you admitted the job description of these are not only restricted to project management it involves other roles and duties.If a corporate entity is tasked to do this the cost will be way too high exclusive of tax and other things you mentioned that we haven't referred to here.With respect to the IEG it is a different project altogether because that is research based but this is not and I cannot tell what actually will go into it but all I know is that that is higher than this so that should even give you a rough idea of how projects of this nature cost.In all we want you to understand that we are all volunteers of Wikimedia and we know how things work. We are just committed to getting a project done and done well and in the end we want to see Ghanaian contents promoted and that is our primary aim.--Rberchie (talk) 15:46, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

Ok, complaint to this article and this the average gross salary is 10'480$ per year, so 874$ per month. I have calculated an average of 5$ per hour. Do you have additional links to check a different average salary in Ghana? --Ilario (talk) 00:15, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

[1] / [2] does have some statistics for Ghana (in 2007), there are big inequalities. Many jobs are 2 GHS/day, clerks 101 GHS/day, programmer 180 GHS/day, government executive official 212.0 GHS/day. Just saying, I didn't read the associated publications. Nemo 19:32, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Hi Ilario & Nemo, we genuinely understand your concerns and concur that donors money must be put to judicious use, we also wish to affirm that we are all on the same page here as we understand the operations of the movement and have its best interest at heart. However visiting all the reference data you provided, you will first of all realize that the statics shown are that of previous years. None that can be clearly related to the economic shift in this year, you may (or may not) be aware of the current economic turn around in the country but just so you get acquainted with the specifics of our economy. You may care to know that the recent harsh economic activities has adversely affected the value of the cedi to dollar, caused fuel hikes, price hikes, increase in rent and utility prices, etc. These have resulted in the close of businesses, laying of workers and for other companies increase in staff salaries (one to two times within 2015). The terrain is much harder and cost of living is high as compared to past years, let me reassure you that the recipients of this wage (i will call compensation) are not to or will not benefit as it is merely to cater for their normal basic needs or expenses while on the job so they don't have to use their additional resources (like money) aside their time and efforts already been donated for the cause. Look at it as motivation to do the job because its nothing compared to what should really be the charged for the job as you clearly noticed with the two different grants from Ghana. Flixtey (talk) 19:00, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

I understand your problem but I am asking you to give more transparency to your proposal. So I suggest to leave any additional cost from the salary and to put them in a different item (insurance, travel expenses, food, etc.) and to keep in the salary only the "real" salary of the person. To be clear this is not my personal request, it's a request to give more strength to your proposal because this proposal will be kept open and public. --Ilario (talk) 14:24, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Ilario for your suggestion. We have currently broken down the staff costing and analyzed what the real salary should be, against other expenses that may arise by virtue of occupying such positions.Flixtey (talk) 22:46, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

I did not say those numbers can be used as is, but certainly there are possible sources. The facts you mention don't seem very relevant, it's easy to adjust old numbers for inflation. It's less easy to verify how reliable those numbers are or what numbers make any sense at all. Hence Ilario's request: if your only rationale is "because we say so", people will fill the void with worse data points than those a local can provide. Nemo 20:18, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

I didn't also mean that's what you implied but just made reference to the facts that the data may not be relevant in this current day. The points i made were to just elaborate why things are a bit costly and why it seems the amounts quoted exceeded your expectations for Ghana. However we have considered Ilario's suggestion and have applied accordingly.Flixtey (talk) 22:46, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

Hi all, @Flixtey:. I read the whole discussion and I believe that it would be truly helpful that you provide a source that we can all check that shows what would be a reasonable (right measured) salary under the present context? Thanks a lot :] 3BRBS (talk) 18:24, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

@3BRBS: We sincerely also wished such sources existed because they would have saved us all this circuitous path our discussion has taken.Sadly such sources are not readily available and it is even against backdrops like these that is why we are trying start a process that will get more sources online.Sources of these are hardly available because most employers do not advertise salaries and in most cases they are only within the organization.It is only the government sector that there is a baseline single spine salary but even that it is only exclusive to certain class of workers and this even has a lot of controversy that is always characterized by industrial strikes.What I can say is that the standard of living is low but the cost of living is very high.I will give you a few links about the cost of certain things in Ghana to look at maybe this will give you an overview of the cost of living in Ghana.Cost of living in GhanaAirfare for a round trip within GhanaCost of fuelCost of pizzaCar rental chargesRberchie (talk) 10:46, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Hi @Flixtey: and @Rberchie:, I would explain better. I would not ask you to reduce the salary because I think that it's to high, but I am asking to use an external reference to demonstrate that you used the right measure. I would give you an example of a correct approach in Grants:IEG/Pan-Scandinavian_Machine-assisted_Content_Translation#Budget_breakdown. --Ilario (talk) 19:45, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

@Ilario: I have taken a look at the budget you shared here.It is not as itemized as this particular one I do not know what you want us to learn or compare to from there.I think @Flixtey: explicitly broke down the budget into its components.Looks like we are just going around in circles and it is because either we or you is not understanding something.We are however ready to have a hangout with you if that will be more effective and help us come to a consensus.Rberchie (talk) 10:46, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Project Coordinator role question:

• Even though there is a list of tasks for the Project Coordinator role, it seems to me that the hours of dedication are too high for the tasks proposed. The hours of work proposed are 25 per week, but I think there are too many, since I believe that many of the tasks could be performed once a week, once a month or in a part time manner, not considering the fact, that many times this tasks are mostly done by volunteers. Could you break down, at least here as an explanation, how the hours proposed correlate to the tasks proposed for the Project Coordinator? To better understand and have a more clear view of the Project Coordinator role. Thanks a lot again. 3BRBS (talk) 18:24, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks 3BRBS for your concerns with respect to the Project Coordinator role. Let me do some clarifications. The tasks of the Coordinator is not only restricted to project monitoring of the WIR's work. The Coordinator will also take charge and see to the organization of the Edit-a-thons and the Expeditions which will be held once every month over the six months period. This is to make it possible to get contents from Museums and Monuments across the stipulated regions using three active editors and other volunteers in the respective regions, that was a modification from an initial 2 WIRs who would have each done this for a period of six months.

These will require thorough planning in organizing volunteers from one focal region to other regions to be joined by other volunteers within that region. The Coordinator will plan and make arrangements for transportation, accommodation and feeding and even recruitment of volunteers. Again the Coordinator will be the liaison officer and contact person who will secure all GLAM institutions to be visited. The role of the Coordinator also involves publicity in all forms, be it through social media management and (or) blogging to engage our target audience.In order to even get volunteers from other regions to contribute to the Expedition, there is a need for extensive publicity. In addition to this we are looking at engaging stakeholders who will mostly have a need and use for the contents we will be uploading and digitizing. Apart from the edit-a-thons where we will make use of these contents we also want to reach out to interested parties to let them know the kind of contents that we are uploading so that they can make use of them and this will be achieved through regular updates, posts and other forms of mass communication.

The role of the Coordinator will also involve the creation of partnerships with content rich and network partners in Ghana. This will require a whole lot of cold calls, consultative talks, meetings and follow ups with the prospective partners. And these roles will be mostly performed by the Coordinator. We believe WMF thrives on the activities of volunteers and incidentally we are both volunteers. We would have loved that all these roles were voluntary-based but the truth of the matter is a project of this nature needs one or two dedicated or committed person who will be responsible for the turn out of the project and regular monitor it against initial plans. Additionally even if we decide to use volunteers there is the need to have someone who will even coordinate all the activities of volunteers to ensure efficiency and productivity. Looking at the scope of work involved we however think assigning all the roles to volunteers will not be the best because of the nature of work involved and judging from the fact that most of our volunteers are either students or workers who we cannot fully rely on hence the need for one committed person to be fully engaged.

Lastly this project will also engage the volunteers at all stages including the edit-a-thons and expeditions, we are however still open for suggestions if you still think there are ways we can still achieve these using volunteers. Rberchie (talk) 14:54, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Ok, I'll try to be mote specific about this point. I think, since this would be a payed position, and not a volunteer based role, that you should do a break down in a table, at least here as an explanation in this discussion, on how the hours proposed correlate to the tasks proposed for the Project Coordinator. You are estimating 25 hours per week, for the tasks mentioned, and despite the explanation, it still seems to that the hours per week are overestimated. With a break down table we would have an objective measure on what the hours are estimated to be used in, and then discuss if it is too much, well adjusted or too little. Thanks a lot! 3BRBS (talk) 13:59, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

@3BRBS: I have added the breakdown of tasks [3]] Regards Rberchie (talk) 08:33, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Rberchie: Hi, thanks for the table, I already read it completely, but I will try to review it as soon as possible with more detail, to provide feedback about it. Cheers! 3BRBS (talk) 07:27, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Comment/Question from Lankiveil

I would like to echo the questions about salary raised above. I realised that those working in paid positions will need to have certain skills, and I have no issue with paying what the market dictates for people with those skills. However, I am not clear on how the roles and skills of the WIR match to the proposed salaries. What would be helpful is a breakdown of the required attributes for those positions, matching to something that indicates that that is in the rough range that another organisation would pay for those skills in Ghana. Based on my experience, an 8% salary premium for a manager who looks like they have much more significant and complex duties than the WIR looks a bit strange, but I'm happy to be corrected on this point if this is the normal practice in your country. I am also curious as to whether you envision the project manager being an existing member of the Ghana Wikimedia community, or whether you plan to look outside the movement to fill this position? Craig Franklin (talk) 03:17, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

Hello Craig Franklin we appreciate your comments we are however quite confused as to what skills set you are looking at or you think match up with proposed salary. As at now what we can say is the activities of the WiR will be a multi tasked role which will involve different set of skills wit some which we may even readily mention here but come to use in the course of the project.Again the role of the Coordinator is being revised and may or may not be part of the project.I will however update you if there will be one and if the need be.Thanks for the late reply and we are grateful for your comments.RegardsRaphael Berchie

Meta data of pictures

Hi and thanks for your proposition :) The images uploaded during the pilot phase are of very high historical values and I already used some of them to illustrate fr-wikipedia articles. I think more effort should be put on providing information about the pictures : proper description, year the picture was taken, and institution where the picture is stored is a good start. Léna (talk) 10:29, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

Position of Coordinator and scope of the project

The scope of this proposition is really ambitious and it feels like you are more asking for the budget to handle six months of a chapter / user group whole activity than for a single project (which is perfectly ok for me :)). So, for instance, for me expenses such as cameras has to be evaluated as long-term investments. In this regard, I feel like the Coordinator position could (should ?) be the test of what the first permanent paid position in your organisation looks like. I'm thus concerned that with just six months, and the WiR being around in the same time, it would not be possible to proper evaluate them. My suggestion would be to have the Coordinator around for a longer period, and make them organize an event on their own to proof-test them, before hiring the WiR. I hope I make sense :) Léna (talk) 10:29, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

comments by DerekvG

I find the salary discussion above inappropriate for 2 reasons
a) if there are objections the fact that wage-estimates are "untransparent", before pointing the finger at the WGUG please provide the sources of information used to make that comparison evaluation, and btw if you quote wikipedia rules on citation the wikipedia itself is not a valid source ... ( that being said I do assume good faith on behalf of those questioning but my criticism is not their questions i criticize but about their sources : "universal statistics" like those about average wages are doubtful and hugely inaccurate, especially in realtion to a 3rd world country like ghana, therefore tehy are not a valid source of info because such statistics don't represent wage distrubution or qualification/wage relations).
b) I assume good faith and I think that our Ghanian friends have done their homework and gotten info about the actual cost of a salary. In this context my quote might be objectionable but Iḿ going to use it any way "if you pay peanuts you get monkeys". Being a WIR or a project manager in this context requires people skills and competences at university masterdegree levels and you should pay wages according to that level, so unless you want to evaluate the work as unskilled labour then and average wage should be sufficient, ans I do tend to disagree with that.

Having said that... I do support this project wholeheartedly, because i'm convinced by the urgency to collect an preserve that heritage ( even if part of it is colonial, but that period is part of Ghanaś historic heritage) which is deteriorating much more rapidly than the available capacity for preservation and digitalisation can absorbe the material, and this project adds valuable capacity.
I think the WGUG will need a WIR to do the actual work, and moreover we will need some measures and stewart-support to make sure this valuable work is not vandalised by overzealous moderators on Commons and on the English Wiki.
I also do think they will need a (paid) project coordinator, to coordinate the project with the different GLAM partners mentioned and establish working relationships with some other supplemantary partners.
@Flixtey: and @Rberchie: WMBE attended the SOIMA 2015 Conference held in Brussels which had a delegation of attendants of Ghana university. I will get you in touch with them and I think they should become partners in your project.
I will also get you in touch with IRCCOM who can provide supplemental support and additional funding for your future repeats of your project. please send me email through the link on my talk page --DerekvG (talk) 16:04, 17 November 2015 (UTC)
I want to add please incorporate more training about preservation techniques through IRCCOM --DerekvG (talk) 16:13, 17 November 2015 (UTC) I send you an email to establish contact with Mrs. Judith Opoku-Boateng, the Archivist in charge of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) Audiovisual and paper records of Ghana University ,Good luck with your programs --DerekvG (talk) 17:21, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Scanners

Hi,This is an interesting project and you have done a great job with the application! My question is regarding the "Hand Scanners" that you have in your budget. What is the reason for choosing hand scanners for only 80 USD? Is it a logistical issue or financial one? If it simply because of the price I would suggest that you present another alternative for the Grant Advisory Committee that include scanners of professional quality. As you will handle important (and fragile?) documents I think there is a great added value if your scans are of such a good quality that you do not need to redo them in the future. Just a thought. Best, John Andersson (WMSE) (talk) 14:13, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

Hello John Andersson (WMSE) thanks for reading through our grant and your contribution.Our decision to go for the hand scanner was informed by an advice from one of the content partners. They told us that most of the documents are very fragile and we may not be allowed to touch them so we thought hand scanners were the best in that regard.For the price we selected what we know can help us do the job.But we are however open to suggestions that is why we open our grant for recommendation .Is there any scanner you suggest or recommend that is better that our proposed scanner?Please give us details.--Rberchie (talk) 18:27, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

To add to what my colleague has said, upon consulting the personnel in charge at the partner institution, we were told that most of the documents are very fragile and using a book scanner might damage them. So an advice was given to resort to a hand scanner which will be handled by a human or person and pages of the book flipped cautiously. We then combed through lists of hand scanners and came up with this as one of the best hence our decision. We are however open to suggestions for what might be a better alternative to our choice as explained by my colleague above.Flixtey (talk) 11:29, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

So you did not consult any resource other than the person who suggested hand held scanners and that list? I suggest to consult http://digitize.archiveteam.org/index.php/Paper_Media and people at http://archivecorps.org/ + links there + past Wikisource discussions such as [4]. --Nemo 17:31, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

I find the links Nemo provided very useful, and in one of the links, I found this scanner to be an ideal one for our use tightly. The cost is moderate and from the spec sheet, I think it meets our project precisely. Thus, I think we will be going forward with that type. I will look around to see if such a device is available in Ghana. --Nkansahrexford (talk) 21:14, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Glad you found something useful. For a mass-digitisation of books, in the future a IA top scribe might prove useful. Given the hourly wage you propose, increasing the output per hour spent will at some point become important. Nemo 19:02, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your suggestion I looked it up and realized it was quite expensive and even currently there are no shipments to Africa.But like you said we will look into into in the near future. Thanks for your time.--Rberchie (talk) 16:37, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

Also, I would love to know a bit more how you will choose what material to start digitizing. Do you already have some criteria or will that be developed during the project? John Andersson (WMSE) (talk) 14:17, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

We will choose our materials according to their historical importance, rarity and scarcity. I hope this answers your question if you need any clarification please let me know.Regards--Rberchie (talk) 18:27, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

In addition to using the criteria explained by Rberchie, we will also, in union with the organizations, determine the 'soon-to-destroy' or the documents on the edge of uselessness, and try to digitize time immediately. --Nkansahrexford (talk) 21:09, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for your answers above and your continuous work on this proposal. I clicked on some images under "Gallery of photos covered under the pilot phase" and noticed that they are extremely small. Is there a reason for this (such as a demand from the archives)? Can we expect higher quality scans being uploaded as part of this project? I.e. will you be able to upload the highest quality scans possible? John Andersson (WMSE) (talk) 06:48, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Yes. High quality scans will be uploaded. --Nkansahrexford (talk) 16:13, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

To clarify, will you upload the original, lossless TIFF images? It would be useful if you performed some upload test to archive.org or Commons to check the speed etc. Nemo 19:02, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Nemo for your recommendations it has been dully noted.--Rberchie (talk) 16:19, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

Community comments

Hi, we're very supportive of activities in Africa. I do, however, have a number of issues.

1. Ilario's question above: I see the log, but given the expense, I feel we need firmer plans for how, when, who, for the future use and custodianship of the equipment. How is access determined by the custodian

   Like I stated earlier answering Ilaro we have a system in place whereby Community Manager keeps custody ot all WMF funded equipment.Members and volunteers apply for use of these gadgets and once they are done they return it for safekeeping.User:Flixtey is currently the Community Manager and keeps custody.When he hands over he will do so with the equipment,As you can see our User Group is an active one and this certainly will not be our last project.This project happens to be the first in series with the hope of scaling it up doing other projects whereby these equipment will be put to use.--Rberchie (talk) 23:04, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

   As rightly stated by my colleague i am the custodian of these equipments for the WMGHUG. I deliver it to members upon their request and after careful scrutiny of the merits of their projects. See an example of a project that made use of the community camera. Flixtey (talk) 23:49, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

2. I was perplexed to see photographs of the (British) Duchess of Kent and Queen Elizabeth, as well as of several other colonial figures. I'd rather been hoping for local culture to be the focus.

   I'm perplexed too to read your point. What we find or is available at the institution is what we will document. Assuming (just a theory) the institution only kept 100% of non-local content, that's beyond what we can fix or resolve. Our task is only to document and digitize what we find there, not conjure cultural content and document them online. On that note, be assured that, there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of cultural, local content to be shared. Its unfortunate the samples uploaded all appear 'colonial figures', but there're more local content available. --Nkansahrexford (talk) 17:32, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

   Well Ghana still maintains a close tie with UK and the Commonwealth and part of our History is hinged on Colonialism.Again if you read the goals of our project you will realize that one of the primary aim is to get contents that are not readily available or can be easily lost.You will also see that there are segments and colonialism happens to be just one our history and culture are still in the majority.Lastly an example it is a picture of the Duchess of Kent but at the Independence Celebration of Ghana which in itself portrays Ghanaian History.--Rberchie (talk) 22:49, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

3. I don't understand the costs/hourly pay in the budget. Given Ghana's low cost structure, is $12 per hour (if that's what it is) appropriate?

   So given "Ghana's low cost structure" (of which you seem unsure), working full time a day (8 hours) for 5 days a week, should tally up to how much? I got not less than $1,500. And to emphasis, its going to be a full time job --Nkansahrexford (talk) 17:42, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

   On this particular question you might want to check my response to the same question under the GAC Comment, but perhaps i suppose you make sense out of the fact that your quotes are unrealistic and can't transpire in real life scenarios. Flixtey (talk) 00:51, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

4. What exactly is the $150 per editathon spent on? Hire of venue and connectivity? Will people bring their own computers?

   Exactly, the $150 is for hire of venue. Connectivity is handled under the "Internet" section. If we get connectivity and hire all within allocated funds or less, then its a win-win situation! Otherwise, we'll simply roll with our connectivity solutions. --Nkansahrexford (talk) 17:57, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

   The $150 will also cater for the venue, refreshment for volunteers and transportation for active editors who will aid in the organization of the edit-a-thon.--Rberchie (talk) 23:11, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

5. "For sensitization of photo collection campaign"—unsure what you mean.

   The media sensitization is in our bid to get contents not necessarily from the content partners but individuals who may have pictures,books,collections etc of encyclopedic value.We will use print and electronic medua to reach out to orople so that they eill be aware of the project and donate accordingly.--Rberchie (talk) 23:43, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

6. I would oppose the merchandise components if they weren't so cheap (clothing etc).
7. Not enough detail ... photo expeditions nearly $3,000, spent on what? Breakdown, please?

   Just under the Budget, is the Photo Expeditions Details, unless that's 'not enough details', we will be happy to explain further. --Nkansahrexford (talk) 18:03, 21 October 2015 (UTC).

   As Rexford has clarified I wish to reiterate that all the information can be found at the link inserted above.--Rberchie (talk) 23:23, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

8. Geographical coverage is large. Since there's little track-record of programmatic management, success, impact, I wonder whether you might slim this down to something less ambitious in terms of coverage, and make it the planned first of two halves. That way, we could learn lessons from your first stage, to adjust the design of the second.

   I suppose your question is in relation to the PhotoExpedition, talking about track record, i suggest you check a similar event we hosted Edit Ghana. Flixtey (talk) 00:43, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

9. Do you have a list of priority subjects for photographing?

   Yes we do but it will depend on the particular monument or museum in question but here too histoty and culture dominate.--Rberchie (talk) 00:04, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

10. I don't see much detail about community engagement.

    The edit-a-thons, upload sessions and the expeditions are part of our community engagement strategies.There will be at least three active editors for each expendition who will in turn work with new volunteers.The edi-a-thons and uplaod seesions will also breed engagement.--Rberchie (talk) 23:30, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

11. Where will the WIR be "resident"? The expectation is a formal in-situ relationship with an institution, and physical presence for at least some of the time. Do we have names of collaborators in these institutions?

    The WIR will be resident at PRAAD. Kindly revert to the main grant page which covers details on this and some questions you have posed. Flixtey (talk) 00:16, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

12. Seek partnerships ... list of four libraries. Has contact already been made? I'd hope for that before the application was launched.

    Yes we have made contacts are have leads and contacts at the respective libraries.Talks are still on going to gain the partnerships for TWL.--Rberchie (talk) 00:08, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

13. All rather ambitious. My preference would be for splitting this and seeking advice and support along the way from WMF staff, who are keen to help to maximise your success. Again, Africa is important in the movement's priorities, and we want to build this up in a controlled way to ensure lasting activities and effects. Thank you for making the application. Tony (talk) 08:43, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

    PS Maybe I missed it, but what are your target WMF sites (apart from Commons)? Which languages? Who will ensure that uploads are documented and categorised? Tony (talk) 08:43, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

    Target WMF Site is Commons and language is English. See Target Readership. Considering most of the content to be generated are multimedia, Commons will hold majority of them, although some that qualifies to be on WikiSource/Wikipedia will be put there. Edithatons will be held to generate text around these multimedia content on Wikipedia. And speaking of what qualifies to be put where, the WiR will ensure all uploads are documented and categorized. --Nkansahrexford (talk) 17:24, 21 October 2015 (UTC)

    The initial project scope and plan was scaled down based on suggestions and advice by the WMF to this optimal level which they deem well in our capacity to handle as even a pilot.Flixtey (talk) 00:43, 22 October 2015 (UTC)

WMF comments

Thank you to the volunteers who developed this proposal, and to members of the GAC and the community who have engaged in discussion about compensation and project roles. It is wonderful that the Ghanaian User Group has so many volunteers who are enthusiastic about GLAM projects and content digitization! We very much want to support this pilot project, however in order to do so, the scope of work, budget and staff should be reduced, and measures of success need to be clarified. Please see our comments and questions below.

Project scope

• We recommend that you focus adding content to fewer Wikimedia projects. Which Wikimedia projects are most important to reach your goal of creating a repository of Ghanaian content?

• Because this is your first time to plan WikiExpeditions, we suggest that you plan just one or two trips so that organizers have a chance to learn what works well and what is necessary for successful trips.
• It is remarkable that you have developed partnerships with Ghanaian library networks, but if you recall from your conversations with WMF staff, this is just a preliminary step to developing a TWL program. We recommend that you do not focus on TWL in this grant project, as it has a minimal connection to the activities you have planned for this project. You can discuss a strategy for developing a TWL program with Alex.
• This project seems heavily focused on developing new partnerships. Please explain what kind of partnerships you are seeking and what you hope to achieve through partnerships. Does your community have sufficient volunteer resources to plan projects with many new partners?

Response

• Well noted we will revise our project scope to include fewer projects with major emphasis on Wikimedia Commons, Wikipedia and Wikisource.
• We will also have two expeditions for this Pilot.
• We are already in touch with Jake Orlowitz Ocaasi and incidentally both grantees are coordinators for TWL but we will still liase with Alex when the need be.
• We are seeking to get content partners who will freely donate to Wikipedia and its sister projects.These will include;Libraries,Museums,Monuments,publishers etc.Again we are looking at getting network partners like institutions and bodies.This will help the UserGroup to increase the number of editors,secure venues and use of facilities for our future projects etc.And yes the Community has enough volunteer resources but will require better coordination and project management to pull this Rberchie (talk) 10:21, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Budget

• The budget indicated the WiR will work 25 hours per week, but includes travel and meals for 5 days a week of work. Is a 5 hour work day standard in Accra?
• Do employers typically pay for commuting and two meals a day for employees?
• How does the WiR compensation compare to employees working at PRAAD?
• Why is it necessary to purchase a second camera if there is one WiR and the Ghanian User Group already has one camera?
• What costs are included in the ‘Media’ budget item?

Responses

• The 25 hours a week was actually just the minimum hours a week the WiR will work but technically it is a full time position.
• We captured this in the initial amount but a GAC member asked that we breakdown what was in the salary, hence what you are seeing. However that answer to your question will be yes as there is an allowance for transportation and food provided at the work premises.
• We are not aware of salaries at PRAAD since salaries are not in the public domain.Again the duties of workers at PRAAD varies and the job description of the WiR is somewhat different from that of the WiR because PRAAD officials do not digitize archives, they are basically custodians of archives.
• We requested for a second camera because we have experienced in past events that most of the time volunteers come without or do not have a camera. This means that they normally come around and are not able to take pictures like expected. Having a second camera will mean more hands at events and simultaneous use of both gadgets.Again in a situation where the WiR has to use a camera other volunteers can still proceed on projects using the second camera.
• We intend to employ the services of radio, tv and print media (graphic). As part of our activities we wish to cover the entire project in the daily graphic and use this as a medium to do PR the works of the Wikimedia Ghana Usergroup and our efforts in saving the deteriorating state of items in the target institution. Journalists who come take coverage are normally given a little allowance for their transportation.Again we will have some adverts in the dailies to get people to donate their content during the project span and this will have to be paid for.Rberchie (talk) 10:35, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Project staff

WiR

• It is unclear whether the WiR will be working at a single PRAAD office, or at multiple GLAMs. Please clarify.
• Planning editathons, backstage tours and working with the community to integrate digitized content into Wikimedia projects is typically the responsibility of the WiR or the chapter. Please refer to the documentation on projects and characteristics of a WiR and consider changing the WiR scope of work.
• Why is photography included in the WiR scope of work?
• The measures of success need to be more precise, 200-500 digitizations is too broad. How many images do you estimate that the WiR will be able to digitize and upload in one day or one week of work? How was this number determined?
• Please set a measure of success for number of digitized materials used in articles.
• Will the WiR be conducting any training or teaching PRAAD staff to continue contributing content to Wikimedia projects?

Responses

• We were advised by a WMF staff to concentrate our activities at only one PRAAD office for this pilot and based on the HQ being the largest archival depository, we decided to use there as our focal point for the pilot.
• Planning editathons etc has been done by us and some volunteers in the past.But looking at the scope and length of this project we realized we cannot solely rely on volunteers to get things executed and targets met but like we stated earlier on community engagement will be at all the stages of this project.We are completely not in agreement with this, as we think the WIR may not even be available at some of these events (such as the photoexpeitions). He /she is somewhat not responsible for photo-expeditions but maybe for edit-a-thons, we do not want other activities conflicting with his our her regular activities or duties which will require full enagegement.
• Some contents are very delicate and will not be allowed to be handled or in other words scanned. Such particular items will best require a photoshoot.
• We are working on the measures of success and will update it soon
• Yes we will be conducting training at PRAAD.Rberchie (talk) 10:53, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Coordinator

• It makes sense to request a project coordinator when there are several projects to coordinate. However, the proposal includes just two projects: a WiR (who should be responsible for planning editathons) and WikiExpeditions. The project coordinator’s compensation and expenses (US$7,510) drives up the cost of this proposal considerably without commensurate impact described in the measures of success. We will not fund compensation, expenses and equipment for a Coordinator at 25 hours per week, or 20 days per month.
• Many of the responsibilities included in the Coordinator’s tasks are normally done by the WiR or volunteers in the user group. Distributing tasks like managing social media and planning wikiexpeditions among volunteers is a great way to engage members of the user group in this project. Learn more about how to coordinate volunteer work.
• We understand that developing partnerships may require meetings during working hours. We are willing to pay for a limited number of hours and travel expenses for a volunteer to work on partnership development. However, in order to fund partnership development, the proposal should include strategy and measures of success for developing partners as requested in the Project scope section.

We look forward to your responses so that we can learn more about the project and how it fits with your GLAM partnership strategy. Please let us know if you have any questions or would like more clarity on some of the comments. Thank you again for all of the work you have done to prepare this proposal. Cheers, --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 00:06, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Responses

We think its plausible that we ask that a role such as a coordinator be created for other emergence like touching base with all the other institutions that we are doing away with during the pilot phase and meeting with other partners. What do you suggest the coordinator or whoever plays a similar role use in their line of duty? Most people in the user group do not own a pc which is why we own some as a usergroup to enable easy access to those who require for a particular task. Just reiterating this remains an asset of the Usergroup and not the coordinator.Again there should be someone who needs to handle the project management of a project of this enormity.Even though volunteers will help there is still the need for someone who will even coordinate the activities of the volunteers. There are a whole lot of tasks that cannot be left for volunteers because there should be someone who will be responsible for everything. We are however ready for further conversation for clarifications. Regards--Rberchie (talk) 11:05, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Funding decision

Hi Flixtey and Rberchie. This grant request has gotten complicated over the last several months as we have discussed ways to adapt the original plan to meet your goals of improving the availability of resources on Ghanaian history and culture while still following the standard practices for Wikipedians in Residence. I appreciate all of the hard work you have put into these plans as well as your patience in working with me as I have been learning how to be an effective grants officer in the PEG program. Your team is demonstrated a clear commitment to this project by being flexible, creative and highly responsive to comments and questions. We want to support your user group to pursue this exciting opportunity to digitize important materials at PRAAD so that it is easier for editors to establish notability and improve content on Ghanaian topics. In order to reach these goals, we think it is best focus this project on activities directly related to the Wikipedian in Residence at PRAAD. At this time, we will not approve funding for a coordinator to pursue new partnerships, or for travel and equipment for Wikiexpeditions. Instead, we encourage you to focus on the current partnership that you have with PRAAD before investing effort into developing new partnerships. The value of partnerships is that they provide resources that help your community do better work. With content partnership, you should focus on demonstrating that media uploaded as part of the partnership is also used to improve Wikimedia projects. By meeting goals around the use of content from this partnership will likely make it easier to develop future partnerships. It is important to focus the WiR’s efforts on digitizing materials on subjects that editors will want to write about. Let’s plan a check in after three months to evaluate whether the WiR should continue with the planned topics, or if they should shift focus to digitize materials that are in more demand. We will approve $8,173 in funding to pay for the following:

• $6,000 for WiR compensation of $1,000 per month for 6 months. This rate includes meals and transportation. In addition to scanning, uploading and categorizing media the WiR should be responsible for planning and coordinating the events, editathons or contests to encourage editors to use uploaded media on Wikimedia projects.
• $1,235 for equipment to support the WiR, including a laptop, hand scanner, ID badge and internet. The laptop should be made available for members of the user group to borrow once the WiR has completed the projects in this request.
• $200 for ads and transportation for volunteers to attend interviews. We strongly encourage your user group to appoint volunteers to promote events using social media, and to ask partner organizations to help promote events to their communities. We cannot approve funding for honorariums to press due to concerns about conflict of interest.
• $530 for three events, editathons or contests during the 6 month WiR period that are focused on incorporating content from PRAAD into new and existing articles. We would like to support you to develop effective strategies to engage editors in using the materials digitized by the WiR.
  • In your report on Wiki Needs Girls you noted that many people did not show up for events they had registered for, didn’t have basic technical skills or participants did not bring laptops or devices they could edit from. We encourage you to consider whether editathons are the best approach to get people engaged in using the content generated by the WiR. If you do decide to do an editathon, you should consider hosting it at a location that has computers and internet access available. Some places might include other NGO’s, university computer labs, or internet cafes.
  • You might organize a thematic writing week or contest to engage users from the global community in the new materials. The Nigerian User Group recently offered airtime vouchers as prizes for a writing contest - this might be something that is attractive to users in your community who do not have internet or computers easily available to them.

Please let us know if you have any questions about the plan we have proposed. Given the long discussion and many delays in reviewing this proposal, we think it is best to approve general funding for events with the understanding that you will submit specific plans and request approval for each event/contest/editathon on this discussion page. Again, thank you Flixtey and Rberchie for your dedication, flexibility and patience. I have very much enjoyed working with you both and look forward to working with you to plan events and check in on the WiR's progress through the duration of this project. Cheers, --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 01:37, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi KHarold (WMF),

We have reviewed your position on the grant and we wish to accept your offer. Even though we think some deductions made might affect the general outcome of the project, we are however poised on making this work especially relying on our initial motivation which is to preserve our cultural heritage. Thank you--Flixtey (talk) 19:01, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Request to extend start and end dates

Hi KHarold (WMF) our attention has be drawn to a very important fact that we think you should be in the know. The scanner we intended to purchase as per the grant proposal is not available in Ghana now (like we had seen early on). The stores that had it before don't, and we have to resort to buying it somewhere else or wait till there is available stock. Upon a few searches we noticed it was readily available in Europe. We however intend to purchase it in Europe next month through one of our members who will be attending WMCON. Hence we anticipate that the project may not start until 1st May which may also translate into a late completion date of at least a month. We therefore request that the start and end dates be amended to the 1st May and 15th November respectively. --Flixtey (talk) 16:23, 22 March 2016 (UTC)

Hi Flixtey, thank you for the update on your project schedule, the change in start and end dates are approved. --198.73.209.3 21:52, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

The project was delayed by almost a year because administration changed at the the host institution. They have recently gotten approval from the new leadership and the project will begin on March 15, 2017 and run through October 15, 2017.--KHarold (WMF) (talk) 23:33, 10 February

Question and Copyright Concerns

Hi Flixtey and Rberchie . It was really interesting to seeing a grant request for this project about 2 years ago. How is the project proceeding? It's almost 2 years now since you received a grant to carry out this project but nothing seems to have happened thereafter. BTW....May I respectfully asked why you uploaded the images at Grants:PEG/Wikimedia Ghana User Group/GLAM GHANA#Pilot and Feasibility Testing as "own work"? For example, you uploaded File:Govenor Thomas Shenton Thomas.png as "Own work" when you are obviously not the author of the work? You are not the author of any of the work yet you uploaded all of them as "own work". Uploading images like these as own work when you are clearly not the author is disastrous and poses some serious concerns about your understanding of copyright in general and your competency to continue with this project. In addition, there are two major problems with the MOU you received from PRAAD which you attached herein. Firstly, the MOU reads in part "Not for commercial use and with due acknowledgement of PRAAD". There are two problems here. First, Images that cannot be used for any purpose is unacceptable on Wikimedia Commons. They are against the Commons policy of attempting to provide media files that can be used by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose. In fact, the Licensing resolution of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) explicitly forbids Commons to host fair use materials. Secondly, PRAAD do not have the explicit right to freely license people's work without a written permission from each authors. The right to freely license a work always almost remain with the original author (see this discussion for example). For the record, I am providing a copy of PUBLIC RECORDS AND ARCHIVES ADMINISTRATION ACT - 1997 (ACT 535), Section - 20 - Copyright. reads "(2) No person shall make publication of facsimile copies, verbatim transcripts or literal translations of records in the custody of the Director in which copyright subsists in Ghana except with the consent of the author and the Director. Which means PRAAD cannot and does not have the right to freely license images in their records without a written permission from the author of each work. Pinging Mdennis (WMF) for an insight. With kind regards Wikicology (talk) 15:42, 15 March 2017 (UTC)

Addendum: User:Flixtey made this edit (removed some of their copyvios) on the grant request page following my copyright concerns here without responding to comments and questions. User:Flixtey (Felix) moved to Common to change the source of the images to PRAAD but still claimed to be the author of the works. That is, claiming he owns the works. See 1, 2, 3, 4 to mention few. Well, the conclusion I can draw from this whole mess is that they have no idea of copyright and I think this funding should be put on hold until they have a grasp of copyright. It seems Mdennis (WMF) is busy, so I am pinging Wolliff (WMF) for an insight. Wikicology (talk) 11:05, 27 March 2017 (UTC)

Flixtey should fix the incorrect attributions, to be sure.

I encourage you, however, to avoid using blanket assessments like "no idea of copyright" (and remember no one is born a copyright expert; I seem to recall you have had some difficulties grasping copyright yourself, earlier on), and in particular, I encourage you to avoid making negative recommendations about funding for the Ghana group's work, in light of your personal bias against it after they made a decision that disappointed you. Think about it carefully before continuing on this crusade, and avoid (even the appearance of) retributive stalking. Asaf (WMF) (talk) 20:45, 30 March 2017 (UTC)

Asaf (WMF), with all due respect, I sincerely found this comment "in light of your personal bias against it after they made a decision that disappointed you." very disappointing. Why did you draw such an irrelevant conclusion? Let me make it clear to you now, my action have nothing to do with Indaba conference. Conference funding is from WMF, they decide who they give scholarship and I'm not aware if Ghana Team was part of the decision and there is no where I appeal to Ghana Team to grant me scholarship. I have no personal relationship with Ghana Team, am not a member of Wikimedia Ghana User Group, and I don't live in Ghana. Why are you linking my on-wiki action with their offline activities?. Like anyone else, I was denied a scholarship to participate in Indaba by WMF. So? Is that a big deal? Am I the only person denied of scholarship to participate? Please, this irritating accusation needs to stop. Using cheap excuses to cover up their own mess and repeated uploading of copyvios after multiple warning may be fine with you, I have no problem with that but I'll continue to nominate their copyvios for deletion, raising alarms where necessary on copyright issues and any other problems. Such action is not close to a definition of STALKING. I'll be glad if this discussion could focus on the substance of the issues I'm raising above as the entire thread here have nothing to do with Indaba. BTW...I am aware that Felix and Rberchie have a direct contact with you, so they can influence your opinion without any stress. Let me add that "No idea of copyright" is not an insult but a statement of fact. Someone who uploads other people's work as "Own work" clearly have no idea of copyright and of course, you are correct that I had some difficulties grasping copyright in the past . With kind regards, Wikicology (talk) 10:45, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

• Comment - Felix, simply removing your name as the author of the works as you did here and here (for example) is not enough and does not address the problems. You must provide appropriate evidence to demonstrate either that the images are in the public domain or that the copyright holders have released them under a suitable license. I'll like to remind you again that PRAAD is not the copyright holder of the works. However, I am glad that you have now learned from my comments above that "Own work" means work you explicitly created yourself. Wikicology (talk) 12:01, 4 April 2017 (UTC)

Check in as they start the project

I had a really good check in with the team for this grant today following the recent launch of their project with PRAAD, about what they were working on and best practices for the workflow to ensure that the GLAM materials are supported strongly in their integration into Commons. They seem to have addressed some of the open processing and metadata questions with PRAAD, that had cropped up early in the project, and I am scheduling regular check-ins to support the team, as they firm up their workflow. Keep up the great work @Flixtey: & team, Astinson (WMF) (talk) 19:46, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Request for additional funds

Hi Kacie,

We are finally glad that this project has kicked off and is gradually picking up momentum. We however wish to request an increase in project funds to allow us meet the growing requirements and changes on this project. This project as we all know, was scheduled to run about 2 years ago but due to circumstance beyond our control the project was stalled and has just been finally launched. During this wait time we had to visit PRAAD several times to finally get this deal sealed. These number of trips/travel were not budgeted for and were alien cost to our project. The scanner at the time of purchase cost about $200 more than the estimated amount in our initial budget. Also the initial internet purchased was a total waste since the project couldn't start on the initial project date.

As part of the new agreements we were tasked to build the capacity of PRAAD to make use of the partnership and to build some digital skills. We have been able to host several trainings through an agent of Google and are looking out to some more trainings in the coming months, these trainings were also not budgeted in our initial budget and hence adds on to the new cost on this project. A few months into this project we now have a clear path on the additional things we need to make this project a success, hence our request. Our 2 most new requests will be an external hard disk for easy transfer of data between institution and WIR and a support fund for a coordinator who will be responsible for organising all trainings and other related activities (media and public relations, attending meetings and forums on behalf of the project, etc) to this project. Below is the request of additional funds:

NEW BUDGET REQUEST
ITEMS	QUANTITY IN USD	AMOUNT IN USD	BUDGET IN USD
External Hardisk	1	$160	$160
Edit-a-thons	3	$180	$540
Media	1	$120	$120
Coordinator	70	$10	$700
Miscanellous	1	$150	$150
			$1,670

Thanks --Flixtey (talk) 21:05, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Report

Is 2017 still the expected final year for this activity? Does a report exist? I'm especially interested in learning about the outcome on the digitisation front, because many options were tabled and I don't remember hearing anything since 2015 (right now I can only find some lines on an event). --Nemo 07:41, 18 April 2018 (UTC)