Community Resources and Partnerships/India General Support Project/IMD-UG:2025 Annual Plan

statusSupported

India General Support Project

IMD-UG: 2025 Annual Plan

proposed start date2025-01-01

proposed end date2025-12-31

budget (USD)72400.64 USD

organization (if applicable)• Indic MediaWiki Developers User Group

Universal Code of Conduct

Applicant information

Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)

Indic MediaWiki Developers User Group

Are you a first-time applicant? (required)

Yes, I have already applied and received a General Support Fund

You are applying as a(n). (required)

Wikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)

Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required)

No

Please provide links to the following documents if they are available

These documentation can be provided in your local language(s), no translations required.

• Organizational website
• Detailed financial reporting and/or audits
• Documentation of the governance structure, board list, governance processes
• Documentation of the general assembly decision on your plan

Main proposal

1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)

IMD-UG: 2025 Annual Plan

3. Proposed start date. (required)

2025-01-01

4. Proposed end date. (required)

2025-12-31

5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

No

• IMD-UG_ 2025 Annual Plan Timeline - Sheet1.pdf

6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)

No

7.1. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)

India

7.2. If your project includes in-person activities, are there any international participants travelling to India for them? (required)

No

7.2.1. List all countries of participation. (required)

N/A

7.3. Will the project be transferring funds to any international participants? (required)

No

7.3.1. List all international participants receiving funding and their countries. (required)

N/A

8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)

Indic MediaWiki Developers User Group is a group of volunteers working on technical issues and the development of tools, with a focus on the needs of Indic language Wikimedia projects. We have been an informal group since 2018, and have been formally affiliated to WMF since 2020. During the past few years, we have been engaged in several activities including active technical development such as IndicOCR, Indic Wikisource Stats, MassMove, BookReader, Incubator Stats, VideoCut Tools etc. and also outreach to welcome newcomers to Wikimedia technical spaces such as amFOSS hackathon, Small Wiki Toolkits workshop series, Wikimania Hackathon (regional level), Mini-Hackathon in Guwahati, etc.

Last year, we applied for our first annual plan grant, which focused on transitioning the group from doing ad-hoc activities to more planned activities throughout the year, which has been successful to an extent. We would like to use what we have learned from previous years and expand on the previous iterations of the activities for next year's annual plan, which will focus on evolving our working procedures and developing sustainability for the group in the long term.

Our work is broadly divided into two groups: technical support and outreach. 1.) Technical support focuses on the active technical development of tools, user scripts, and features, helping communities with any technical issues, and documenting technical resources. 2.) Outreach includes workshops targeted towards newcomers, hackathons at regional and national levels, online workshops for Wikimedia communities, and mentoring/supporting Google Summer of Code and similar programs.

For technical support, we plan to take up the following activities:

Technical Requests: The requests page has been well received by the community in the past. We will continue to maintain the process around accepting new tasks that come through it. We intend to do more outreach to both the community to increase awareness about it and its usage, and also with the developer community, wherein in the long term, more developers will be actively volunteering to address the requests posted on that page. Apart from maintaining the existing processes, we plan to create more awareness about this.

Community Technical Task Force: As a user group based in India, with one of the primary goals to support Indic language Wikimedia projects, we want to improve our interactions with the communities in the region and establish a solid network with them. In 2024, we initiated technical consultations ([1]) with five communities to broadly understand the technical issues being faced. By the end of the year, this will help us get a good understanding of the common problems. The technical task force will use that as a foundation, to further have conversations with communities to work on their most pressing issues. The way we are imagining this is to have a working group formed at the beginning of the year and will be working quarterly. Each quarter the group will consult with one language community, understand their issues, and surface them using Phabricator. These will be used not only for hackathons and workshops but also to guide new developers. The goal is to do these for at least three of the four quarters.

GSoC mentorship: Wikimedia Foundation actively participates in Google Summer of Code and Outreachy programs. In the past, we have both proposed projects for potential applicants and mentored students during the technical development of the projects. We plan to propose and mentor at least one project for GSoC. In addition, we will coordinate with WMF to engage the GSoC & Outreachy participants from the region, to invite them to participate in our activities.

Support VVIT TechClub: VVIT WikiConnect (https://w.wiki/3B$) in the past had been an active wiki-club at Vasireddy Venkatadri Institute of Technology (led by some of the current working group members), however, has been defunct post the COVID-19 pandemic. Collaborating with CIS-A2K, we plan to restart that. For that, we selected projects to mentor a group of 4-6 students on a technical project, who will also receive credit in academics for participating. We already did some prep for this in 2024 and confirmed the same with the college management.

For outreach, we plan to take up the following activities:

Hackathon in Kochi with amFOSS: In 2024 ([2]), we collaborated with amFOSS ([3]), a student-run community with over 50+ members from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri. This has been very successful, as the students already had exposure contributing to open source projects, and it was easy to onboard them to Wikimedia projects and the technical ecosystem. Some of them continued contributing and were able to participate in further activities. In 2024, we conducted a 30-hour non-stop hackathon, while it was good, it was also challenging. For next year, we plan to repeat this (and also plan for this as annual activity), in collaboration with amFOSS, to organize a hackathon in Kochi (more oriented towards students and the local community, at TinkerHub ([4]). For next year, we plan to do something similar with an expanded scope, where we will also be inviting members from the community and have it as a semi-workshop and hackathon format. Last year, we observed that students from amFOSS, as they are already contributing to open-source projects, have good skills to get started with, without having to spend much time on orientation. So we would like to bring folks from both the community and other FOSS folks in and around Kochi. This will enable the community in India to engage with amFOSS and other FOSS volunteers and vice versa. For the hackathon, we will have potential tasks listed out along with the call for scholarship applications, rather than before the event. That list will be used to ask applicants to indicate interest in contributing to one of them or propose a different task if they have. This will ensure that all participants are clear about the work beforehand. Also, clearly marking what is expected to be achieved during the hackathon and post follow up if necessary.

Workshops similar to Small wiki toolkits: The user group in the past had experience with organizing lightweight technical workshops for editors focused on minor/beginner-friendly technical topics. We did an iteration of this in 2020 ([5]) and also in 2022 ([6]), both of which received a good response. Although the global SWT initiative is no longer active, we found these small 2-hr workshops, on focused topics well received with the community. We plan to resume these for Indic languages, as more editors would be open to joining more regional and focused ones. We may choose a different name, but the idea is to have small 2-hour workshops on beginner technical topics, such as templates, using the API, basics of user scripts, etc. to help editors understand technical spaces and if possible, help them with their contributions. The goal is to organize at least 8 such workshops in the year.

Introductory/Awareness Talks: Have a half-day introductory talk about the Wikimedia movement and the technical spaces at an educational institution or related FOSS meetups such as FOSS-United meetups ([7]). The goal of these is not to be very outcome-oriented, but to keep them lightweight to create awareness about Wikimedia technical spaces, build networks, and tap into any potential opportunities for future years. We plan to do 2-3 of these during 2025.

Developer Skill Development: This workshop will be for about 15-20 existing developers, to further improve and refine their skills to contribute to Wikimedia technical areas. For this, we will have an open for enrollment during the first quarter, for developers who already have been contributing to some or the other technical areas. For each participant, we will focus on two things, what can you share/teach & what do you want to learn/contribute to. For example, I know how to develop bots using PAWS and I want to learn about creating web-based tools. Based on the responses received, we will form groups for various learning areas, and provide resources. The resources can be in the form of a trainer from within the group, connecting with an external trainer, or even an online course if need be. We will be mindful of having it lightweight so that the participants can keep up with that along with their other commitments. After starting, this will continue online for 4-6 months depending on the number of people and topics. Towards the end of the program, we will have an in-person gathering to work on something that people have learned about, for example, if their goal was to learn about web tools, then that participant will be working on something related to that during the event.

National Hackathon: We plan to organize one other major hackathon apart from the one with amFOSS. This will be the culmination of all our activities. Unlike training workshops, only a little time (about 10-20%) is spent on sessions, and most of the time is spent on hacking. For this hackathon as well, we will have potential tasks listed out along with the call for scholarship applications, rather than before the event. That list will be used to ask applicants to indicate interest in contributing to one of them or propose a different task if they have. This will ensure that all participants are clear about the work beforehand. Also, clearly marking what is expected to be achieved during the hackathon and post follow up if necessary.

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Apart from the above-mentioned, we have a few operational and miscellaneous considerations for next year's annual plan:

Operations & Logistics Coordinator: In the budget, we have included a part-time contractor to support operations and logistics of activities at an average of 10 hrs/week. This will be very crucial for meeting our goals next year. In 2024, we realized that for organizing activities (both in person and online) a lot of the volunteer time available is being spent on coordinating logistics (such as travel). This compromises the planning of some of our activities and takes time away from spending time on event programming. The contractor will work with the event coordinators to take care of the logistics, and support with communications otherwise if needed. We will have a more well-defined job description, and select the person with an open call for applications.

Expand the Working Group: Currently, the working group’s capacity is limited by the number of people available. For the activities we are planning for next year, we would like to expand the working group to have more people and also have people sign up to support specific activities, rather than committing to an entire year. This will ensure we will have more organizing support, and also create opportunities for newcomers to exposure outreach.

Long-term strategy for the user group: Something we couldn’t do in 2024, as it is also our first annual plan, but would like to do in 2025, is create a longer-term strategy for the user group, with an outlook of at least three years. This will be crucial for the long-term sustainability of the user group and planning for leadership development. This will also include planning for a governance model of the user group.

9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)

Category	Yes/No
Education	No
Culture, heritage or GLAM	No
Gender and diversity	Yes
Community support and engagement	Yes
Participation in campaigns and contests	No
Other	Yes

Gender and diversity

9.3. Select all your programs and activities for Gender and diversity.

Bringing in women and/or gender diverse participants and editors, Fomenting female leadership within the movement (either staff, members or boards)

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Community support and engagement

9.4. Select all your programs and activities for Community support and engagement.

Off-wiki training of community members, Organizing meetups, conferences, and community events

Other programs and activities if any: N/A

Other categories

Technical spaces Open source

10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)

The timeline has been uploaded as PDF.

11. Describe your team. (required)

Jayprakash12345 will be leading the technical wing along with mentoring newcomers as needed

Gopavasanth will be leading the program planning and workshop design aspects along with planning and strategy. He will also be mentoring a project for GSoC.

KCVelaga will be providing at-large coordination support, planning and strategy, and coordinating with relevant stakeholders

Nivas10798 will be leading event planning, logistics, finances, and budgeting

Jnanaranjan sahu will be supporting technical development and newcomer mentoring programs

Kalli navya will be supporting the overall coordination and communications.

ParasharSarthak will be supporting documentation, communication, and coordination.

In addition, before the beginning of 2025, we will have two to three more working group members.

12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)

Externally, we will be collaborating with amFOSS ([8]), a student-run community with over 50+ members from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, over the last 14 years. The community is very engaged with open source contributions, we have in the past organized multiple activities with them. The advantage they bring in is that they already have an existing system of open-source contributions, and support from the institute, which we will benefit from.

We will also work closely other stakeholders in technical spaces within the Wikimedia movement, such as CIS-A2K, Wiki Tech clubs and IIIT Hyderabad.

13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Improve User Experience, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Metrics

Wikimedia Metrics

14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)

14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.

All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.

Participants, editors, and organizers

Metrics name	Target	Description
Number of all participants	250
Number of all editors	N/A	N/A
Number of new editors	N/A
Number of retained editors	N/A
Number of all organizers	22	N/A
Number of new organizers	6

14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)

Contributions to Wikimedia projects

Wikimedia project	Created	Edited or improved
Wikipedia
Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia

Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)

Other Metrics

15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)

Yes

Other Metrics	Description	Target
Number of newcomers to Wikimedia technical spaces	Number of people who have been introduced to Wikimedia technical spaces	60
Number of new contributors to Wikimedia technical spaces	Among the "Number of newcomers to Wikimedia technical spaces", the number of people who have contributed to at least one technical task (bug fix, tool development, documentation etc.)	30
Number of new contributors to Wikimedia technical spaces retained	Among the "Number of new contributors to Wikimedia technical spaces", how many people have been consistently contributing to technical spaces. What is considered consistent will be hard to define, however, it will be a few contributions spread out across the year.	10
Number of bugs fixed or tasks resolved	Number of bugs fixed overall through the year, or tasks resolved in feature development.	35
N/A	N/A	N/A

Budget

16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required)

No

16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)

N/A

16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)

N/A

17. Local currency

Indian Rupees (INR)

18. What is the requested amount in Indian Rupees? (required)

6058630.6 INR

Requested amount in USD

72400.64 USD

19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required)

Yes

19.1. How many paid staff members and contractors do you plan to cover with this General Support Project? (required)

Operations & Logistics Coordinator: In the budget, we have included a part-time contractor to support operations and logistics of activities at an average of 10 hrs/week. This will be very crucial for meeting our goals next year. In 2024, we realized that for organizing activities (both in person and online) a lot of the volunteer time available is being spent on coordinating logistics (such as travel). This compromises the planning of some of our activities and takes time away from spending time on event programming. The contractor will work with the event coordinators to take care of the logistics, and support with communications otherwise if needed. We will have a more well-defined job description, and select the person with an open call for applications.

19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total will be covered with this General Support Project? (required)

0.25 FTE

19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Project if any. (required only for returning applicants)

We did not have any staff member before this.

20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Project. (required)

Budget category	Amount in local currency
Staff and contractor costs	360000 INR
Operational costs	789710 INR
Programmatic costs	4908920 INR

21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1L9oo4G_Q3pCOIp7SoFoH10Xn_AcWJ6XZSn52a6i-m7Y/edit?usp=sharing

Additional information

22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)

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By submitting this proposal request you agree with the Application Privacy Statements, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

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