Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/Wikidata Arabic Community Meetup

WMF review and feedback

Hi @Alli Khalil,

Thank you very much for this proposal and for your initiative in organizing the Wikidata Arabic Community Meetup. I highly appreciate the time and effort you put into this proposal. I have reviewed your proposal and have some comments and follow up questions:

• The scope of the event (40 participants in total) is too low and is out of scope for the Conference and Event Fund program.
• I see you encourage newcomers to participate. As we generally welcome and encourage this at community events, with a total number of 40 participants, I don't see how it makes sense to have newcomers who do not have the basic Wikidata experience, to take part (and spots) at this event. If the goal is for this to be a professional event for capacity and skill building, a higher level of experience should be a requirement.
• Outreach - Education and GLAM institutions are natural partners for Wikidata work. Do you currently have any outreach efforts with such institutions or partners? Any existing working collaborations with knowledge partners in the region or in Tunisia?
• ‘Capacity building and skill enhancement’ - do you have any indication or mapping of the level of existing capacity and skills of contributors in the region? What are some of the clear gaps and challenges you have witnessed? Do you have any information on how many WikiData contributors there are in the region?
• ‘Establish a network of ambassadors’ - this is a good way to start an engagement plan and to build commitment and community. But this is something best done before a conference. When ideally, an indication for success is when those efforts of the ambassadors bear fruits through more engagements, and community growth.

I’m afraid the proposal for this WikiData Arabic community meetup is out of scope for the Conference and Event Fund program. My main concern is that a conference should ideally leverage exciting efforts of a sustainable community. In this case, it seems like there is not enough volume of work, capacity and existing community (or at least the volume is not clear) to indicate a clear need for an in person global gathering. Any further thoughts and clarifications on the topic will be appreciated.

I do have a few recommendations I encourage you to consider:

1. I think that designing a Strategy to Promote Wikidata and Structured Data in the Region is a goal and a discussion best suited to start on a regional platform such as WikiArabia. I encourage you to speak with the wikiArabia organizers to see if there is a space for such discussions or even a side satellite event focusing specifically on WikiData. If the need for this event becomes clearer, and If such collaboration can be designed, we might be able to support additional funding for WikiArabia to include such an event.

2. I suggest you also consider starting some of this work online with workshops and even local meetups (that can be funded through Rapid fund or through collaborations with local affiliates). You can start with Wikidata training, local community gatherings; the ambassador program and online discussions on starting a more strategic way of thinking about WikiData in the Arabic community.

3. Work with regional and local affiliates to build a network of ambassadors, contributors and representatives. The Wikimedia affiliates are very strong allies and can have a major impact on this work to grow the community.

When you're able, please respond to the questions on meta and revise the proposal on Fluxx if needed (I have sent the application back on Fluxx so you can edit it, just don't forget to re-submit when you are done). These revisions will be due by March 4, 2024 after which the Conference Grant Committee will begin formal review of the proposal to make the funding decisions.

Best CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 04:13, 27 February 2024 (UTC)

Thank you for the feedback, and here are some replies to the comments:

Through this gathering, we aim to consolidate the efforts of Arabic Wikidata in one place. There are many contributors to the data from the Arab region, each working on a different topic within Wikidata. We are already planning sessions at this time to develop the community's skills in Wikidata, especially for those interested but unable to find Arabic content on wikidata.

At this event, each person will share their knowledge of data with their colleagues, which will enhance the community’s skills and lead to the creation of courses and workshops in Arabic for everyone’s benefit. Those with basic knowledge will be able to understand and share more complex concepts with their community.

1. We definitely plan to hold sessions focusing on Wikidata in Arabic, but a plan to gather the community and work on data projects and recorded courses requires dedicated efforts and collaboration with various partners.

2. We have a clear plan that we have already begun implementing: developing the skills of newcomers to Wikidata through partnerships with institutions, remote sessions, and open discussions in our group. These sessions will continue throughout the year and aim to involve potential ambassadors from the region in sharing their knowledge with the community.

3. We already have diverse partnerships that will contribute significantly to the success of this event. In Tunisia, we have the Data Engineering and Semantics Research Unit at the University of Sfax and the Clibre Open Culture Association. Outside Tunisia, we are collaborating with the British Institute in Ankara on Wikidata-related projects, supporting their workshops and developing the community’s skills. We also have many prominent participants in Wikieducation from Morocco, Iraq, and the Levant who will play a significant role in integrating data into educational projects.

In addition to the founding team who are active members of Wikisource and the World Heritage Group.

As for the number, we can increase it to 55 people, allowing greater participation from experts and partners from institutions working on Wikidata.

Let me know if you need any further information to provide, I also resubmitted the applications.

Best, Alli Khalil (talk) 18:25, 4 March 2024 (UTC)