Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Loves For Rural Works (ID: 22590894)

Funded

Hello Ange Dusabe and Cnyirahabihirwe123, thanks for submitting this grant request. The Organizing Lab review team has reviewed your grant request and here is their feedback and questions.

• This is a new project that targets new contributors. How can you leverage the new event registration tool to manage your varying events including photowalk/contributions, give first-time participants good experience on the wikis, and evaluate the impact of your work for effective reporting?

Sure, Wiki Loves for Rural Works' mainly target participants are citizens working and living in rural areas. They will be new contributors to the Wikimedia Project, that it's why we will have a lot of work to train them. Aside from physical training, we will organize more online training ( twice a week: on Wednesday and Saturday/ for one hour). In the Wikimedia Community user group Rwanda we have experienced Wikimedia. To accelerate learning on how to contribute to Wiki projects we plan to use a peer learning program, where experienced wikimedia will help those newcomers to know how to contribute efficiently. As we know peer-to-peer learning is a mutual learning and training strategy that involves participants in collaborative learning, they will learn and contribute at the same time and the dashboard will be ready to track their contributions. This practice will build a strong network between new contributors and experienced ones.

• It would be exciting to learn more about how you would use the project to contribute to Wikisource.

The Wikisource project will be one of the projects we will work on during this project period. As we know WikiSource is the free library that anyone can improve. However, there is a big Gap in the Wikisource of books written by Rwandan Authors. Contributors will be trained by an Experienced Wikimedia who knows the Wikisource project well, and books from identified libraries located in Rural areas will be scanned and uploaded on Wikicommon.

• It is lovely to see how you would empower the participants with Wikimedia skills to contribute to Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikisource. Do you think a 2-day training would be enough to transmit this knowledge? The participants would likely be people new to open knowledge in itself, have different levels of digital skills and learning pace. And this learning would occur across the 4 different Wikimedia projects you stated. We encourage you to revisit your training duration structure and identify what could be relevant for your project scope and audience.

As I mentioned above, We will adopt Peer to peer learning methodology ( experienced and newcomers) to support each other, and we will have regular online training(every Wednesday and Saturday), twice/a week, this will help efficient new contributors to feel more comfortable in the Wikimedia movement.

• Given your unique target audience (NGOs, schools and private institutions in rural areas), do you foresee internet connectivity, digital skills, power access and equipment creating limitations to participation particularly outside of the project provided spaces? If so, have you reflected on possible solutions? We would love to learn with you on what such support would look like.

In this 1st phase of the Wiki Loves for Rural Works project, we will identify audiences with the possible necessary equipment to participate. We hope that we will not have limitations to participate because NGOs, schools, and private institutions in rural areas are going to be provided with necessary equipment such as Power access, Internet connectivity, and refreshments.

• You intend to contribute to English Wikipedia during the 2-week edit-a-thon. Content relating to rural works, creativity, industries, organizations/groups and individuals might struggle with reliable reference sources and notability criteria of English Wikipedia. How do you intend to work with contributors to bridge this gap?

This project's target is to contribute in 3 languages, Kinyarwanda, French,and English. In this first phase, we will focus more on Kinyarwanda Wikipedia because we have a big gap, there are only 7.237 for more information here you have the link: https://rw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibidasanzwe:Statistics, As for eng & fr Wikipedia we will help new Wikimedia through training and encourage experienced Wikimedia to work with them. We will adopt peer-to-peer learning methodology, and I hope that slowly they will be able to contribute on eng &fr Wikipedia without much struggle.

• Additionally, the rural population often have varying perspectives about open knowledge and free license. This might make them struggle with your project objectives to make their work freely accessible online. How do you intend to assess and identify this gap and use the understanding to build engagement that would be relevant for your audience? How are you engaging them in the different stages of the project? Has any initial communication/discussion been made with any of these partners and/or relevant groups and how? We are happy to learn how you are thinking about this.

Yes as you said it is not easy to convince them Some of these risks and possible mitigation strategies are as follows:

Low participation: The community may not be able to attract enough participants, especially from underrepresented groups in rural areas. To mitigate this risk, the community can actively reach out to these groups and create a welcoming environment that encourages participation. The community can also provide incentives and recognition for active participants.

Resistance to change: Some new community members may resist changes proposed in the strategic plan and resist making their work freely accessible online. To mitigate this risk, we can provide clear and transparent communication about the reasons for the changes and the benefits to the community. Project organizers can also involve members in the planning process and seek feedback before implementing changes.

Lack of capacity: The newcomers from rural areas may not have enough skills or resources to implement all the activities in the plan. To mitigate this risk, the community firstly can ensure that all selected candidates are upskilled in basic computer literacy and internet navigation skills then, training can be provided, and development opportunities for members such as YouTube guidance videos and seek external support and partnerships where needed. The community can also prioritize activities that build capacity and skills for newcomers from rural areas.

Limited awareness and outreach: The community may struggle to raise awareness and attract new contributors and readers to Wikimedia projects, especially among underrepresented communities in Rural areas. To mitigate this risk, the community can invest in targeted outreach and awareness campaigns, such as social media promotions, local events, and media partnerships through local community radio advertising.

Limited access to technology: A risk is a limited access to technology that may hinder the ability to create and share knowledge. To mitigate this risk, the community can provide access Inspiring a culture of open knowledge sharing to technology and training on how to use it.

Gender Bias: Most women are more involved in rural area activities such as agricultural and artisanal. To mitigate this risk, the community can prioritize events and initiatives that focus on increasing the participation and representation of women during this project implementation. To encourage them we will provide childcare incentives.

Ineffective communication: Effective communication is crucial for the success of the plan. Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings and a lack of buy-in from stakeholders. To mitigate this risk, the community can develop a communication strategy that includes regular updates on progress, clear communication channels such as WhatsApp groups and email addresses, and engagement with Stakeholders.

Inadequate monitoring and evaluation: We will assess the gap that can be raised as a result of poor understanding of open knowledge in contributing to this project by ensuring that local community leaders have supported the project organizers to identify people who are literally and who have basic knowledge on technology who will be able to contribute easily to the project and encourage others to benefit it as well as providing their contributions. In terms of monitoring the Organizers will ensure that there are clear communication channels to gather daily reports and feedback from the participants.

Above mentioned are the proposed solutions which will used to bridge any gap that can be identified and etc..

• We see you contacted Wikimedia community user group Rwanda and the community about your project. Did the project team engage in discussions to shape the proposal and project plan? If so, it would be interesting to learn how you did this.

Yes, the Wikimedia Community User Group Rwanda, executive team has been contacted and they have information about the project, they are happy to work with the WLRWs project team and provide any guidance, in addition, experienced Wikimedia from the Wikimedia community user group Rwanda will contribute and help in peer to peer learning program during the project implementation.

• This is a fascinating project that would bring opportunity for you to learn and grow. We would like to know what you hope to learn from implementing such a project.

I expect that this project will increase the number of active contributors to Wikimedia projects through the training approach that we will use to train them and the intention to follow up, this project will also be a great opportunity to expand the network which will also help the participants to contribute with confidence as they will have someone to ask whenever they face problems while contributing as they will be paired with the experienced editors who will also guide them. Participants, especially newcomers, will receive ongoing mentorship and support to ensure that they can successfully create and improve articles on Wikipedia. I expect this project to generate a lot of contributions to Wiki Common, Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia projects (Wikidata, Wiki Sources, etc.).

• We see you plan to work with NGOs, schools, and institutions in the rural areas. Are there specific ones you have already identified and aligned with? If not, what are the plans to identify and engage with them? It would be also interesting to learn about their roles in the partnership.

Yes we plan to work with the above partners, located in three districts Bugesera, Muhanga, and Rwamagana, while designing this project I thought of ones who will be contacted and I am sure to have positive feedback from them.

We made a decision to fully fund this grant request in the amount of 6,365,000 RWF (4,996.27 USD) provided that you address all questions and requests. We wish you all the best with your upcoming project! Best regards, --

Thank you very much for this opportunity you have provided for us, we are so much excited and we commit ourselves to deliver beyond expectation and ensure that WikiLoves for Rural Works will achieve it's first phase goal which is to increase the amount of freely licensed material related to rural works in Rwanda in 3 districts: Muhanga, Rwamagana, and Bugesera. And we hope that it success will help us to pass to go to the next phase that reach out to many districts and other countries in the near future.