Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Hindi Riddles

Encouragement

I encouraged Ali to propose this grant, as I had known him as my language instructor in 2008. The idea to work with the poetry of Amir Khusrow was his own proposal, and when he mentioned to to me, I said that a classic text like this was the sort of thing that is celebrated in the Wikimedia community.

There have been regular proposals from groups in India to share all sorts of classic texts in India, but I think none have yet come from a professional language instructor at a language institute. Ali and Zabaan are ideal partners for the Wikimedia community in India and beyond.

Lately there have been more people calling for more wiki projects based in India. Katherine and others from the WMF just attended WikiConference India and discussions on mailing lists including @Millosh:'s "Our problem with India" letter have talked about the Wikimedia community's need to support India more. I am doing what I can to encourage people in India to start more projects. This is a small effort but I think it is likely to succeed and have a positive impact. It could grow and inspire others. Blue Rasberry (talk) 02:15, 23 August 2016 (UTC)

Response to Saileshpat

User:Saileshpat asked for targets for each of my goals. Thanks for asking. Here are the goals from the project page:

1. Organize a community project
2. Recruit new editors
3. Add or improve content

This community project will include 5 in person meetups with an average of 8 attendees at each one. Over all the meetups there will be at least 15 editors total, and I expect that at least 5 people will attend all 5 meetups all of whom who will be new editors. The editors will include people from local community organizations, so there will be organizational participation also. Additionally, we will getting online support from experienced editors.

The content which will be developed are transcriptions and translations of riddles. I expect that at least 20 individual riddles will be translated. Already we have uploaded the source text to Commons, as shown on the grant page. Beyond that we plan to create Wikisource translations of this text in 3 languages at least and insert a short sample riddle into the Wikipedia article about Amir Khusrow in those three languages. If the project goes smoothly then more people and organizations will do more translations in more languages, and we will plan for more similar meetups for managing similar texts. Ataqi (talk) 15:36, 31 August 2016 (UTC)

WMF comments

Hi Ataqi, thank you for the hard work you have put into creating this request and responding to questions. This sounds like a very interesting project and we are happy to hear that Bluerasberry encouraged you to share your skills and knowledge with others to help bring this content to Wikimedia projects. We have a few questions about your plans:

• I see that you have recently created your first article (with this user name) on English Wikipedia about the Riddles of Amir Khusrow, and have begun contributing to existing articles on the subject. The work you have done so far looks great, and it seems like you feel comfortable with editing. When training new people to edit, it is a good idea to have at least a few experienced editors at the training to help teach and answer questions. Your request mentions that there are two other people on the project team - can you share their user names and tell us about how they will be involved? Asaf (WMF) works closely with the community in India and may be able to introduce you to other editors in Delhi who may want to get involved in the project.
• You have explained that you will use your social networks and mailing lists to attract participants to the workshops. Have you posted notifications about the project and the grant request on wiki like the Hindi Wikipedia Village Pump?
• Please provide more detail about how you estimated the cost of food for the events. The budget for dinner and a coffee break at the recent WikiConference India was 400 INR per person. We realize prices can be higher in Delhi, so it would be helpful to know how you created the estimate for these events.
• Please provide more detail about the advertisements and visits to partners for each event. Where will you advertise, and what do those ads cost? How many partner visits do you think are required, and how will partners be involved in the project?
• You wrote on this talk page that you expect 20 riddles to be translated during the events - is that 20 riddles per event or 20 in total?

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns, and if you need support to get engaged with editors in Delhi or in the Hindi community. We look forward to learning more about your program. --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 18:13, 28 September 2016 (UTC)