Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Wiki Digital Volunteering Club - Palestine

Feedback from the Middle East and Africa Regional Funding Committee on your proposal

Hello , I'lam - Arab Center for Media Freedom, Development, and Research,

Thank you for taking the time to make the application submission for the Wikimedia Alliances Fund. We were pleased to learn that you have been implementing the Wiki Digital Program in the past and looking to grow it further to support in addressing the knowledge gaps you see related to Palestine and its people.

To support us in moving to the next stage of the reviewing process please find our comments and questions for consideration and response;

• We would like to learn more about your past implementation of this project. Could you share or direct us to where we can learn more about it and its successes including past reports or dashboards.
• Would you share more on the topic areas you are hoping to focus on with this proposal.
• We are keen in learning more about your past and current engagement with user groups in the region including Wikimedians of the Levant in this project? You mentioned that you would work with education focused communities - would you share specific details.
• Please share a timeline guiding the implementation of the proposal.
• We found it challenging to review the budget seeing that the costs indicated in the proposals do not match what is in the proposal and also the currency indicated in the budget.
• Please share as well your risk assessment and mitigation plan.
• Would you say more on your sustainability plan for the project - what is the plan to engage those who go through the program. How has this been done before?
• We note you mentioned as part of your metrics “ 20 photos of 50 different locations related to the Palestinian society in Israel.” - we find the metric of 20 low and keen to learn on what informed it and in case there is a possibility of growing the number.

As always we recommend meeting with the regional program officer to support you in providing any clarity needed with the feedback shared here. The committee is also available to meet and join the call if that would be meaningful for you - just let the program officer know.

Thank you so much and we continue to appreciate the work of I’lam in advancing the mission of the movement.

On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and Staff , VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 07:15, 25 April 2023 (UTC)

We would like to learn more about your past implementation of this project. Could you share or direct us to where we can learn more about it and its successes including past reports or dashboards.

Wiki Digital Volunteering club (WDVC-Palestine) is an initiative that began in 2019 as part of I’lam Center’s strategy to develop and promote civic engagement among Palestinian youth in Israel. To that end, we conducted 3 rounds of training (2019, 2022, 2023) for undergraduate & graduate students. The training included practical use of Wikimedia and its projects, Wiki editing standards, and the importance of a free knowledge ecosystem. So far, we have been focused on updating and contributing articles in Wikipedia. The first phases of this program were a learning process not only for the participants, but for the project’s team as well. I’lam’s team was able to deepen its knowledge regarding the inner structure of Wikimedia, the different projects and tools available, and the extensive peer network that exists. We have recently started utilizing the Dashboard as a tool to monitor the progress of the participants, however, previous contributions were documented on separate excel sheets (please see attached).

We now feel that we have a much better understanding on not only our potential contribution to the free knowledge ecosystem, but also how we can use the different Wiki tools to improve on our work in other fields

Would you share more on the topic areas you are hoping to focus on with this proposal.

2023 marks an election year for local authorities in Israel, where there are three types of local authorities: 63 municipalities (54 Jewish, 9 Arab), 149 Local Councils (77 Jewish, 72 Arab), and 53 Regional Councils (52 Jewish, 1 Arab). 78 of the Arab local councils on Wikipedia are not updated, and the information regarding the population is inaccurate. During this phase of the program, we will focus on updating articles on Wikipedia, Wiki Data and Wiki Commons, including but not limited to demographic data, up-to-date photographs, and contributing additional data.

We are keen in learning more about your past and current engagement with user groups in the region including Wikimedians of the Levant in this project? You mentioned that you would work with education focused communities - would you share specific details.

In past implementations, we cooperated with individual Wikimedias from the Levant group, however, it was a direct cooperation and not an official one with the affiliation itself. Previous trainings were conducted by Maqbula Nassar, a former member of Wiki Israel. ِAdditionally, we participated in a Wiki Source as part of the Wiki Heratige community - the trainers included Adel Nahawa from Wiki Algeria, Nassima Shaaban and Nanor (Nehaoua , Nassima Chahboun, NANöR) from Wiki World Heratige. The current training is conducted by Ajwaan; NANöR; Nada kareem22. Furthermore, we intend to consult with Wiki communities that have already established a strong Wiki education program such as Marocco, to better learn from their experience.

Please share a timeline guiding the implementation of the proposal.

Month 1-2: Logistic preparation, Contacting Wiki communities - Wiki Education

Month 2:Month 3-6: ToT training (4 sessions - 24 hours) & Training for journalist (6 sessions 38 hours)

Month 7-9: Training for university students ( 8 sessions - 40 hours), additionally, each participant who received ToT will train a group of secondary school students (20 students per group) as part of their mandatory volunteering unit.

Month 9-12: completing the training kit and concluding the project with an Edit-thon.

As mentioned previously, Dania will participate in the Wiki Education training due in September 2023.

We found it challenging to review the budget seeing that the costs indicated in the proposals do not match what is in the proposal and also the currency indicated in the budget.

Apologies for the confusion, the budget originally attached was incorrect. We have amended the budget and uploaded the new one.

Please share as well your risk assessment and mitigation plan.

From previous experience, the biggest challenge we might face is maintaining the constant participation of the Club’s members. As this is an issue all projects face, we found it best to offer participants a range of areas so that they are able to focus on what interests them most. Additionally, we will share the training dates with prospective participants, and request their commitment in advance.

Working with the secondary school students will offer some stability in the form of the minimum hours required from them by their schools.

Would you say more on your sustainability plan for the project - what is the plan to engage those who go through the program. How has this been done before?

During this phase of the program, we intend to focus on developing a sustainable infrastructure that will enable the development and organic upscaling of the initiative. This will be achieved by a number of strategies:

Provide ToT training to previous participants: this will allow us to expand our training capacity by establishing a strong team of trainers.

Design an educational tool kit: Project manager, Dania Eid, will be participating in the Wiki Education training in September. This will allow us to provide schools, educators and students with new engaging and educational activities.

Introduce Wikimedia projects: The purpose of this strategy is to increase the use of Wiki projects such as Wiki Commons and Wiki Data as professional tools for journalists, photographers, and other content creators. This will encourage their contribution as they will experience the professional benefits of Wikimedia.

Student Volunteerism: We intend to welcome secondary school students as volunteers of the Club, as part of their 60 mandatory volunteering hours that serve as school credit.

These interventions will allow us to establish a strong infrastructure for the continued expansion and development of the project.

We note you mentioned as part of your metrics “ 20 photos of 50 different locations related to the Palestinian society in Israel.” - we find the metric of 20 low and keen to learn on what informed it and in case there is a possibility of growing the number.

Apologies for the confusion, the end result would be 20 photos of each of the 50 different locations, making a total of 1000 photos. Maramslimanilam (talk) 16:19, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

Links

Please see some of the activities that were part of previous activities: Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5. Maramslimanilam (talk) 16:19, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

Wikimedia Alliance Fund Application Approved in the amount of 30,000 USD

Dear, I'lam - Arab Center for Media Freedom, Development, and Research,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Alliance Fund. The Middle East and Africa Regional Committee and Staff have reviewed your application and recommended funding in the amount of $30,000 for the period of July 2023 - June 2024.

As shared on email - We thoroughly reviewed and discussed the proposal together with the responses shared based on our initial feedback and questions and recommend the following;

• We found your work to be very clear on the audience and geography of work you would be focusing on - we are of the opinion that this is important to mitigate instances of overlap with other community efforts that are equally important.
• While we find the project to be meaningful and impactful we are making the following provisions for this edition of the project;
  • To clearly make open the role of Wikimedians brought in to support the project during and after the project.
  • To have a clear plan on how the project will engage with other communities in the region. For instance, how do you intend to share the learnings and outcomes of the project?
  • It was clear for us that currently there is a gap internally regarding the capacity and especially regarding Wiki skills and while this is a concern for us , see the opportunity with this grant to develop these skills internally. While you are tapping into the community for support we find it important and especially with the sustainability lens that the team needs to also have these skills to better support participants beyond the training.
  • Given the reduced funding amount, we recommend that the scope be reduced and that programmatic resource needs are prioritized.
• Lastly, it is important that there is sufficient documentation of the project progress - outputs and outcomes and that you use tools such as the dashboard and others to support this documentation.

We look forward to learning more about the progress being made including on the outcomes of the project.

Thank you for your contribution to the movement; we value you as a partner of the movement. On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and staff, Kaizenify (talk) 21:03, 29 May 2023 (UTC)