Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Sandeep Raut/Wiki For COVID-19

Comments from WMF

Hello Sandeep Raut, thanks for this Rapid Grant request. I’m glad that you are planning this online initiative which will definitely support people of your community in acquiring knowledge about the COVID-19. I have a few questions and comments after reviewing your proposal:

• In which language will you be producing the videos? Will you also consider translating them into more languages in the future?
• Could you please clarify whether your videos are going to give information about the COVID-19 or only direct the audience to the corresponding pages on the Wikimedia projects?
• Given that the COVID-19 is a sensitive topic and it is important to have accurate information about the disease and pandemic, how will you make sure that the information in the videos is reliable? While we appreciate that the Word Wings and Wikimedia community support you, do you have any experts in the field of public health — perhaps from the Wikimedia community — who would advise you and revise the script?
• Could you please confirm in the proposal that no offline (in-person) activities will be organized in terms of this project?

Thanks again for your contributions to the Wikimedia movement. Looking forward to your response! Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 14:24, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

Hi DSaroyan (WMF), many thanks for reviewing this grant proposal. We would like to thank you for putting questions and comments. The answers and thoughts are likewise:

• We will be producing the videos in English basically to reach a larger audience. The visuals in the video will however make people understand what the video is about, to those who are not comfortable in English. Yes, we will consider translating the videos into more languages like Nepali and Maithili in future.
• As already mentioned in the promotional plan, we will be producing the videos that revolve around Wikimedia projects. We will not be giving any detailed information on COVID-19. We will be only directing the audiences that they can get the reliable information about COVID-19 on Wikipedia so that viewers can abstain from watching fake news and stop panicking. Moreover, our videos will also promote Wikimedia Commons so that the people quarantined in their homes can enjoy the virtual tour to various places using the photos and videos of beautiful places around the world which are available in Commons.
• We clearly understand that COVID-19 is a sensitive topic and any misinformation will spread like a wildfire. But, the point is that our videos will not be giving any information on COVID-19 rather it will direct them to Wikipedia for getting reliable information ultimately promoting Wikimedia projects. We assure you that our videos will not be giving any kind of medical information on COVID-19. Our main motive here is to promote Wikipedia and it's sister projects. Our promotional videos will convey a message to the audiences that they can get accurate information about COVID-19 on Wikipedia.
• Under activities in the project plan section, we have already mentioned that the entire event remains online and no in-person activities will be conducted considering the safety measures.

Thank you for reading the response! Regards, Sandeep Raut (talk) 13:48, 9 June 2020 (UTC)