Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/Central Asian WikiCon 2025

Feedback on your proposal

Dear @Darafsh:,

Thank you very much for submitting your proposal for the “Central Asian WikiCon 2025.” I’m delighted to see this initiative to bring together the diverse communities from the Central Asian region, strengthen regional collaboration, and foster a sense of belonging to a “regional community.”

Overall, the proposal is substantial, and I appreciate the effort you’ve put into preparing it. After reviewing your proposal and discussing it internally with colleagues at the Wikimedia Foundation, I’d like to raise a few points for further consideration.

This appears to be the first international event of this type and size hosted by the Uzbek community. Could you provide more information about the experience you and your core organizing team have in organizing events in general? Additionally, what kind of support, if any, would you need from the Wikimedia Foundation to help organize this event?

Your proposed objectives and event activities are well-suited for a conference of this nature. I would highly recommend working with Wikimedia Foundation teams on program design and facilitation to ensure the event’s success and relevance to your target audience. Established workshop formats for training community members and sharing knowledge could be particularly helpful here. Additionally, in my experience, it may be beneficial to provide training for community members who are presenting at an event, especially if they have not done so before.

One key challenge I foresee is ensuring a plan for maintaining participants’ excitement and transitioning that energy into ongoing involvement with Wikimedia projects. Without a clear follow-up strategy, there is a risk that the enthusiasm generated by the event might not lead to sustained engagement with the movement.

Regarding the budget, I would appreciate further clarification on certain details, as not everything is fully explained.

• First, I recommend using our template for conference budgets (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rR-ptnhSdS_Q0gwcBGhllEOuor03ShgRSOF1vmJP0Gk/edit?gid=0#gid=0) and preparing your budget in your local currency, the Uzbekistani Som (UZS), as the grant will be transferred in your local currency.
• Please also specify where you expect scholarship holders to travel from (countries). For example, who are the “5 participants from locations outside CA” for whom you’ve budgeted $500 per flight? I assume this amount may not be sufficient for travel from outside Central Asia to Tashkent. Additionally, I’d like to confirm that you will be handling the travel arrangements for participants. Will you manage this on your own, or will you use a travel agency? If you opt for a travel agency, please include any associated fees in the budget.
• Your proposal mentions a one-day conference, but your budget accounts for three nights. Please review and adjust this accordingly.
• Could you also explain the rationale behind the “Streaming and Video Recording” budget item? How do you plan to use or share the recorded videos afterward? Often, additional technical support is needed to ensure good audio quality—might this be something you need to budget for as well?
• Lastly, I noticed that the budget does not include a stable internet connection at the venue. Be sure to confirm that this is included in your agreement with the venue, or specifically budget for it if needed.

These are relatively minor details, but they are essential for fully understanding the overall budget of your proposal.

Once again, I’m very pleased to see this proposal! I kindly ask that you provide more details and further develop your proposal as suggested, and then resubmit it via Fluxx (the proposal is now open for editing). The deadline for submission is September 30, after which the proposal will be reviewed by the volunteer Conference Fund Committee, with a final decision expected by mid- to late October.

Best regards, --Cornelius Kibelka (WMF) (talk to me) 17:32, 17 September 2024 (UTC)

@Darafsh: Some more comments on the budget (sorry, a bit late):

• Is the hotel/venue already chosen? (the rates give such an impression)
• Would you like to add airport transfers?
• Are the then participants from Uzbekistan "local" ones, as in, do they live in Tashkent? You have budgeted accomodation only for 40, not 50 participants.
• You have not budgeted additional hotel nights for organizers. Please confirm that you don't need to arrive early for preparation meetings and leave later.

Thank you! --Cornelius Kibelka (WMF) (talk to me) 22:14, 26 September 2024 (UTC)

@CKibelka (WMF) Thank you for your consideration and thoughtful comments.

Q:Could you provide more information about the experience you and your core organizing team have in organizing events in general?

A: Speaking on experience, we have organised Kazakh Wikimedia Conference in Astana (2023, Krasnyi and Batyrbek), Tajik Conference in Dushanbe (2023, Darafsh), various events in Uzbekistan (WikiCamps — Nikolai, Wiki Photo Workshop — Krasnyi and Nikolai), 3 days WikiKadam training in Bishkek (2023, Elbek and Aibek). The team as a whole is experienced enough.

Q:What kind of support, if any, would you need from the Wikimedia Foundation to help organize this event?

APre-conference preparation skills development training support for the COT by the Wikimedia Foundaiton teams on the following topics: online security, conflict resolution, and contingency planning (to be defined by the COT).

• Help organize skills development sessions (e.g. , how to present and engage the participants) for our speakers.
• Partnership and Networking: We will need support with getting in touch with possible partners in Central Asia. The partners may include various organizations that share our mission of disseminating free knowledge.
• Safe Space: Help us create and maintain a safe and welcoming space for all participants.
• Facilitation: Ensure facilitation of the sessions where necessary and help support community members to lead the sessions themselves.

Maintaining participants’ excitement after the event:

• We will create a follow-up strategy, which will include working closely with the participants of this conference.
• We will keep the channels of communication with the Central Asia WikiCon COT open to ensure that the initiatives that come up during the conference willmoved ahead.
• We will identify people who are dedicated to further the growth of the Wikimedia projects in the region, and we will make sure they are supported themselves and connected with the key stakeholders in the movement.
• The CA WikiCon COT will support the COT for the next CA WikiCon. The future of the CA WikiCon will be discussed during the conference.

We will try to disseminate information about the CA WikiCon by engaging with the media in Central Asia before, during and after the conference. We will also share information about the conference through our existing social media accounts. This will help raise awareness about Wikipedia and the possibilities to engage in different ways in the project. We will also run an event evaluation survey after the conference to identify areas for improvement for next time.

Budget

Please find the updated budget. Total amount requested has increased from $62.826 to $$75,452.01. We will explain below the changes made and the thinking behind them. We’ve left the budget in USD as the Sum is volatile (and is one of the top ten weakest currencies in the world according to Forbes) and as a result in practice costs are usually adjusted to the USD rate. Using USD would prevent the need to double or triple currency conversions. We had some challenges previously with the Wiki Workshop grant due to this.

• We have specified where the people from outside CA will be coming from.
  • We expect 3 people coming from the CEE region: this may include CEE Hub staff member/s and other folks who want to share their knowledge and skills with the region.
  • We expect 3 people coming from outside of the CEE region: We do not have a specific list of people at the moment yet, but we wanted to have this option to make sure that we can invite those people outside of the CEE region to come and share their knowledge/experience with us and contribute to the development of our communities after the conference.
  • We expect 3 people coming from the Russian language community: this may also include folks from the smaller language communities within Russia who wish to connect with the CA region.
  • We expect 3 people coming from Iran: Iran is not part of any hubs and regional conferences, but they are closer to CA region.
  • We expect 7 people from each CA country: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
  • 10 people will be traveling to Tashkent from within Uzbekistan, including 2 folks from Karakalpakstan (Nukus).
  • 5 organizers: the costs are based on our best estimates using Google Flights.
  • A total of 48 people, including 5 organizers, are covered for their travel to and from Tashkent.
  • Travel agency: There is no need for extra fee for the services of the travel agency.
• Re: Streaming and Video recording: We plan to livestream one of the halls via YouTube, while the second hall will be recorded. All of the recordings will be uploaded on Commons after the event.
• Re: Internet Connection: N/A, this will be provided by the venue.
• Hotel: Plan A: Lotte City Hotel Tashkent Palace, the prize is an actual quote given by the hotel. Plan B: Diplomat International School. One of the COT members works at that school. If we end up choosing the school as our venue, no fee for the venue will be needed.
• Accommodation: we have allocated 22 double bed rooms for three nights, which is for 44 participants, and 3 double bed rooms for four nights, for 6 organizers. -- Darafsh (talk) 10:52, 30 September 2024 (UTC)