Grants talk:Project/Ammarpad & DonCamillo/Outreach in Northern Nigeria

Scheduling Project Grant Interview

Hello DonCamillo, I will be reaching out shortly to set up your project grant interview. Can you please send your email address to me at lmiranda wikimedia  · org at your earliest convenience? Thank you! LMiranda (WMF) (talk) 22:39, 4 April 2018 (UTC)

Hello DonCamillo, This is a reminder to please email me with your contact information so that I may set up your project grant interview. Thank you!! LMiranda (WMF) (talk) 17:15, 9 April 2018 (UTC)

Eligibility confirmed, round 1 2018

This Project Grants proposal is under review!

We've confirmed your proposal is eligible for round 1 2018 review. Please feel free to ask questions and make changes to this proposal as discussions continue during the community comments period, through March 12, 2018.

The committee's formal review for round 1 2018 will occur March 13-March 26, 2018. New grants will be announced April 27, 2018. See the schedule for more details.

Questions? Contact us.

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 02:22, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

Questions about grantee status

Hello DonCamillo,

For administration purposes, can you please respond to the following questions?

• The grant type is listed as 'group' in your proposal but a group name is not listed. We need clarification: If this proposal is selected for funding, will grant funds be received by user:DonCamillo in their personal bank account (individual grant/grantee type) or is there a group bank account set up that will receive the funds?
• If it is a group grant type, what group will be the grantee?

Thank you!

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 20:41, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Hello Mjohnson (WMF),

Sorry for the late answer.

Oh, that's a misunderstanding on our side. We thought that since we were two people involved on this project (Ammarpad and I), we were technically a group. There is no established group nor group bank account, and the funds would have to be received by myself on my personal bank account.

Thanks a lot! --DonCamillo (talk) 08:49, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

@DonCamillo: I'm replying on Mjohnson (WMF)'s behalf. Thank you for the clarification, DonCamillo. I confirm that your reply answered our questions completely, and we will make the note of your reply in your grant request record. -- Best wishes, JTud (WMF), Grants Administrator (talk) 16:28, 5 April 2018 (UTC)

Aggregated feedback from the committee for Outreach in Northern Nigeria

Scoring rubric	Score
(A) Impact potential Does it have the potential to increase gender diversity in Wikimedia projects, either in terms of content, contributors, or both? Does it have the potential for online impact? Can it be sustained, scaled, or adapted elsewhere after the grant ends?	7.8
(B) Community engagement Does it have a specific target community and plan to engage it often? Does it have community support?	7.2
(C) Ability to execute Can the scope be accomplished in the proposed timeframe? Is the budget realistic/efficient ? Do the participants have the necessary skills/experience?	6.3
(D) Measures of success Are there both quantitative and qualitative measures of success? Are they realistic? Can they be measured?	6.0
Additional comments from the Committee: Fits with strategic direction of knowledge equity by increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects and participation among Hausa speakers in Nigeria. Also aligns nicely with the recent Inspire New Readers campaign. There is enormous potential for impact given the number of Hausa speakers and internet users in Nigeria. This project fits into the strategic priority of diversifying Wikimedia and promoting knowledge equity. The online impact of this project is in terms of attracting new volunteers by making participation easier. The project can be adapted to other small language Wikipedias if it becomes successful. This is a great fit with strategic priorities via increasing diversity. The potential for online impact is also high as we are basically starting from nothing as Hausa Wikipedia is very small and barely active. The project is intended to make a sustainable impact, although it is not sure whether this sustainability will be achieved indeed. I think risks are fairly low and am excited to see experimentation and action around increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects in low awareness regions. Also nice to see some support and potential for collaboration with the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria. Measures of success (for participation, not awareness) are provided but seem a bit unrealistic. If they are successful it could extend to other parts of West Africa This project has an effective plan but the measures of success are not objective. However, for a project conducted in low scale, it is acceptable to have qualitative measures of success. The long term impact will depend on the community's culture, technical expertise and accessibility to the internet. This is a sort of replication of known outreach approaches to the community that has never experienced anything like that before. To me this is especially a learning experience for the community. The project has clear and measurable outcomes. Applicants appear to be experienced editors but I would like more information about other relevant skills (e.g. training, public speaking, outreach, etc.). I think with the support of Wikimedia Nigeria they can easily execute this. The project appears to be realistically achievable. Budget is reasonable and the participants appear to have necessary skills and knowledge of the local community and culture. There are good reasons for concerns here: firstly, outcomes seem to be too optimistic to me (25% retention in Africa was probably never or hardly ever achieved), and secondly, the budget is a bit too high (mainly because the only project's sysop is leaving in another country, but we should pay for his travel to launch the project), but this would still be fine for me. Have the applicants already identified some institutions they could partner with on this? The project has a lot of support from the Nigerian community and it tackles an area that nobody is looking at. There is good community support, but the project leaders have to be careful in making sure that women participants are adequately represented. The target community is well defined. There is a specific target community (Hausa Wikipedia) which is very small at the moment. The engagement plan is good, the only question is whether it will work as expected. Given that we are working with an underrepresented community, this project clearly supports diversity. I like what is being proposed here but need more details. I also think the project should focus primarily on increasing awareness, and have editing as a secondary focus. This is a good project for diversity in a region where there are several conflicts and terrorism. I recommend full funding, but would like for the project leads to ensure that women are adequately represented in the workshops. I would also like them to give a detailed report of what kind of partnerships they tried to make, how did it work out, and if the responses from the Universities etc were positive. I would like them to document even failed attempts to building a partnership, so that Wikimedia can, in future, act on the basis of this learning. I would go with full funding: the sum is rather low thus even if this project does not result in the outcomes expected this will still be a good learning experience for the community.

This proposal has been recommended for due diligence review.

The Project Grants Committee has conducted a preliminary assessment of your proposal and recommended it for due diligence review. This means that a majority of the committee reviewers favorably assessed this proposal and have requested further investigation by Wikimedia Foundation staff.

Next steps:

1. Aggregated committee comments from the committee are posted above. Note that these comments may vary, or even contradict each other, since they reflect the conclusions of multiple individual committee members who independently reviewed this proposal. We recommend that you review all the feedback and post any responses, clarifications or questions on this talk page.
2. Following due diligence review, a final funding decision will be announced on Thursday, May 27, 2021.

Questions? Contact us at projectgrants wikimedia  · org.

Answers to comments

• Fits with strategic direction of knowledge equity by increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects and participation among Hausa speakers in Nigeria. Also aligns nicely with the recent Inspire New Readers campaign. There is enormous potential for impact given the number of Hausa speakers and internet users in Nigeria.

• This project fits into the strategic priority of diversifying Wikimedia and promoting knowledge equity. The online impact of this project is in terms of attracting new volunteers by making participation easier. The project can be adapted to other small language Wikipedias if it becomes successful.

• This is a great fit with strategic priorities via increasing diversity. The potential for online impact is also high as we are basically starting from nothing as Hausa Wikipedia is very small and barely active. The project is intended to make a sustainable impact, although it is not sure whether this sustainability will be achieved indeed.

• I think risks are fairly low and am excited to see experimentation and action around increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects in low awareness regions. Also nice to see some support and potential for collaboration with the Wikimedia User Group Nigeria. Measures of success (for participation, not awareness) are provided but seem a bit unrealistic.

Very true, after feedback on the project page or during the review, I realize that I was a bit too optimistic.

• If they are successful it could extend to other parts of West Africa

Certainly, and parts of the project could be replicated pretty easily (translation of help & support materials, page with patterns to make the creation of stubs easier...).

• This project has an effective plan but the measures of success are not objective. However, for a project conducted in low scale, it is acceptable to have qualitative measures of success. The long term impact will depend on the community's culture, technical expertise and accessibility to the internet.

• This is a sort of replication of known outreach approaches to the community that has never experienced anything like that before. To me this is especially a learning experience for the community. The project has clear and measurable outcomes.

• Applicants appear to be experienced editors but I would like more information about other relevant skills (e.g. training, public speaking, outreach, etc.).

• I think with the support of Wikimedia Nigeria they can easily execute this.

We will definitely rely on Wikimedia Nigeria for long-term engagement with new editors and community-building.

• The project appears to be realistically achievable. Budget is reasonable and the participants appear to have necessary skills and knowledge of the local community and culture.

• There are good reasons for concerns here: firstly, outcomes seem to be too optimistic to me (25% retention in Africa was probably never or hardly ever achieved), and secondly, the budget is a bit too high (mainly because the only project's sysop is leaving in another country, but we should pay for his travel to launch the project), but this would still be fine for me.

Agreed about the fact that the retention rate is a bit too optimistic. Regarding the travel from abroad, it would be only for this project, after that it would not be needed.

• Have the applicants already identified some institutions they could partner with on this?

Yes: Kaduna State University, Bayero University, Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Kano State Commissioner for Education...

• The project has a lot of support from the Nigerian community and it tackles an area that nobody is looking at.

• There is good community support, but the project leaders have to be careful in making sure that women participants are adequately represented. The target community is well defined.

We will make sure women are adequately targeted during outreach in order to maximize the number of women participants.

• There is a specific target community (Hausa Wikipedia) which is very small at the moment. The engagement plan is good, the only question is whether it will work as expected. Given that we are working with an underrepresented community, this project clearly supports diversity.

The active community at this moment is very small but the potential is high and significantly higher than for most African languages. The potential of Hausa can be compared to the one of Kiswahili (community of speakers in the tens of millions, many media outlets, very active social networks, literature, secondary education in a large area...). But there is a huge problem of awareness that this project tries to (partly) solve.

• I like what is being proposed here but need more details. I also think the project should focus primarily on increasing awareness, and have editing as a secondary focus.

Increasing awareness is a core focus but I think it should go hand in hand with editing. The content is very basic as of now (mostly stubs and only 25 to 50 articles with more content).

• This is a good project for diversity in a region where there are several conflicts and terrorism.

Having a platform for reliable information like Wikipedia definitely cannot hurt in Northern Nigeria.

• I recommend full funding, but would like for the project leads to ensure that women are adequately represented in the workshops. I would also like them to give a detailed report of what kind of partnerships they tried to make, how did it work out, and if the responses from the Universities etc were positive. I would like them to document even failed attempts to building a partnership, so that Wikimedia can, in future, act on the basis of this learning.

Sure, that will be taken into account during reporting.

• I would go with full funding: the sum is rather low thus even if this project does not result in the outcomes expected this will still be a good learning experience for the community.

• Community engagement

As requested during the interview, please find links to:

• a Facebook post about this project on the Hausa Wikipedia Facebook page, with comments from people who seem to be interested or react in a positive way:
• a post regarding the project on the Hausa Wikipedia community page (no engagement yet but I'm going to reach out individually to editors later). --DonCamillo (talk) 14:18, 22 April 2018 (UTC)

DonCamillo, please contact WMF

@DonCamillo: please email <grantsadminwikimedia.org> as soon as possible. This is regarding your the due diligence review mentioned in the committee's feedback. We contacted you a week ago via 'Email this user' and again in your user's talk page, but have not heard back from you. Please email us immediately, if you are still interested in receiving funding. -- Thank you, JTud (WMF), Grants Administrator (talk) 00:44, 5 May 2018 (UTC)

@Jtud (WMF): Apologies for the belated responses. I got in touch with DonCamillo . He will respond shortly. Thank you. –Ammarpad (talk) 04:52, 5 May 2018 (UTC)

@Jtud (WMF): Thanks to both of you! I have sent an email this morning (East Africa time). --DonCamillo (talk) 10:12, 5 May 2018 (UTC)

Round 1 2018 decision

Congratulations! Your proposal has been selected for a Project Grant.

The committee has recommended this proposal and WMF has approved funding for the full amount of your request, 5 000 USD

Comments regarding this decision:
The committee is glad to support this project to develop Hausa Wikipedia and its volunteer community. We look forward to seeing the foundation you will lay for new partnerships and volunteer initiatives in Kano and Kaduna .

New grantees are invited to participate in a Storytelling Workshop on June 5 and a publicly streamed Project Showcase on June 14. You can learn more and sign up to participate here: Telling your story.

Next steps:

1. You will be contacted to sign a grant agreement and setup a monthly check-in schedule.
2. Review the information for grantees.
3. Use the new buttons on your original proposal to create your project pages.
4. Start work on your project!

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