Wikimedia CH/Grant apply/Wiki Loves Folklore

Infodata

Name of the project: Wiki Loves Folklore 2021 (Meta page)

Amount requested: 2550 Euros

Type of grantee: Individual(Joy Agyepong)

Name of the contact: Anass,Joy Agyepong and Hardarshan

Contact: wikilovesfolkloregmail.com, sedranasgmail.com, jagyepong@openheritagefoundation.org

In case of questions, please write to grantwikimedia.ch

The problem and the context

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

While fragile, folklore and folk culture is an important factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the face of growing globalization. An understanding of the folk cultural heritage of different communities helps with intercultural dialogue, and encourages mutual respect for other ways of life. The importance of folklore is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next. The social and economic value of this transmission of knowledge is relevant for minority groups and for mainstream social groups within a State, and is as important for developing States as for developed ones. Traditional, contemporary and living at the same time: folk culture does not only represent inherited traditions from the past but also contemporary rural and urban practices in which diverse cultural groups take part; Inclusive: we may share expressions of intangible cultural heritage that are similar to those practiced by others. Whether they are from the neighboring village, from a city on the opposite side of the world, or have been adapted by peoples who have migrated and settled in a different region, they all are intangible cultural heritage: they have been passed from one generation to another, have evolved in response to their environments and they contribute to giving us a sense of identity and continuity, providing a link from our past, through the present, and into our future. Intangible cultural heritage does not give rise to questions of whether or not certain practices are specific to a culture. It contributes to social cohesion, encouraging a sense of identity and responsibility which helps individuals to feel part of one or different communities and to feel part of society at large; Representative: intangible cultural heritage is not merely valued as a cultural good, on a comparative basis, for its exclusivity or its exceptional value. It thrives on its basis in communities and depends on those whose knowledge of traditions, skills and customs are passed on to the rest of the community, from generation to generation, or to other communities; Community-based: intangible cultural heritage can only be heritage when it is recognized as such by the communities, groups or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it – without their recognition, nobody else can decide for them that a given expression or practice is their heritage.

What is your solution to this problem (please explain the context and the solution)?

Wiki Loves Folklore is an international photography contest that takes place annually in the month of February. Wiki Loves Folklore invites the photographers to take part in documenting their local traditions and culture in different formats (photographs, video, and audio) to Wikimedia Commons under free licenses to be used on Wikipedia and any other space with attribution. It is essentially a Wikimedia Commons contest that will attain the valuable media - images and videos about different forms of folk cultures around the globe that can later support various Wikimedia projects. It will animate the broader Wikimedia community in improving its coverage on various cultures and new forms of heritage that haven’t otherwise been documented so far. The themes of the contest are chosen every year after research on the gaps on focus areas within intangible cultural heritage. The theme for Commons: Wiki Loves Love 2019 was the celebrations, festivals, rituals and ceremonies of love around the world in different geographical locations and cultures. The theme of 2020 Wiki Loves Folklore focused on folk culture — the unique folklore and traditions that make up a large proportion of the world’s intangible heritage — the folk dances, folk music, folk activities, folk games, folk cuisine, folk wear, folktales, folk arts, folk religion, mythology, and so on. For research, we used English Wikipedia, Wikidata items and Wikimedia Commons repositories to check up the categories of Folk culture and folklore and from there we defined different categories and subcategories for participants for references. The 2019 photography contest led to 7121 images from 1700+ participants from over 120 countries. The 2020 photography contest led to 19052 images, 144 videos, and 13 audio files from over 125 countries by 1496 photographers. One of our primary goals is to teach and train the local organizers from emerging countries to be able to start coordinating the campaign locally to improve the visibility of the campaign in their region with local photowalks and regional partnerships with heritage bodies and better coverage of their traditions with wider participation. This campaign allows the local photographers to be able to share and pass the wealth of oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, traditional knowledge and practices and crafts to Wikimedia Commons, thus, not only documenting the important part of their heritage but also releasing content under free license so it can be reused for research and educational purposes by academia and cultural lovers. Feminism and Folklore - Wikipedia Campaign: The Wikipedia edition of this campaign aims to document the gaps related to culture and gender under theme of women and queer personalities in folklore professions and mythologies. It is organized in parallel to the photographic campaign but it continues from 1 February - 31 March.

Links

Project goals

The project aims to offer opportunities for communities and photographers all around the world, including the regions that have no or little organized Wikimedia community to organize or coordinate such contests and some of the important tribal and indigenous areas of Asia, Africa, Latin America that have no documentation over the internet. In such regions, it may not be possible for individual explorers to visit and document their everyday life and traditions but our campaign allows the local photographers who stumble upon the contest to be able to share and pass the wealth of oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, traditional knowledge and practices and crafts to Wikimedia Commons, thus, not only documenting the important part of their heritage but also releasing content under a free license so it can be reused for research and educational purposes by academia and cultural lovers. The project will additionally create a framework for:

Country coordinators to organize the Wiki Loves Folklore locally
Organizing photo walks with additional guidelines around safe photo walks with the ongoing pandemic
Training modules (text and video) for the participating photographers to upload photos, videos, and audios on Commons and the licenses
Illustrate articles

Project impact

Do you have any goals or metrics around participation or content?

Goals for success in 2021:

At least 13 country teams get actively involved in the competition (measurable by activities)
At least 2000 images submitted in 2021 ( we want to keep the initial target low due to ongoing pandemic)
At least 10 local teams get actively involved in the Feminism and Folklore competition (measurable by activities)
At least 300 articles in different languages are created in 2021 ( we want to keep the initial target low due to the ongoing pandemic)
Reuse on Wikimedia projects of at least 10% after a year (12 months)
A survey is conducted amongst team organizers, winners and jury
Documentation of best practices, training modules with a toolkit
WLF wmflab tool is set up for campaign stats
A final report is published for the general public

Activities and project plan

Key Wiki Loves Folklore 2021 activities:

Research and list creation for the content gaps on intangible heritage
Partnerships with the local country organizers
Communication management (before, during, after)
Social media driving
Prize management
Coaching, mentorship, and support for local groups
Post contest clean up with volunteers
Categorization and quality image nominations
Jury coordination and contest results
Documentation and report

Budget

Community Coordinator stipend: 2000 Euros for 6 months (Part-time)
Translation fees 500 Euros
Bank fees: 50 Euros
Total: 2550 Euros

Community engagement

Chapter response

First request and renewal accepted by Wikimedia CH.--Flor WMCH (talk) 12:33, 20 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]