Grants:Conference/Innocentbunny/Wikisammelan Kolkata 2019/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Conference Grant approved in FY 2018-19 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Conference/Innocentbunny/Wikisammelan Kolkata 2019.
You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email conferencegrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

Did you meet your goals?

PARTICIPATION

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
No. of Participants expected: 20	38+3 online	We got amazing response for attending the event. Participants who were unable to attend the event in-person, opted to attend as online resourse persons. The local organising team also did a great job, training and including students from the local student community, by conducting several pre-conference workshops. This helped add a significant number of new active contributors to Hindi Wiki Community.
No. of Scholarships Awarded: 20	22 given; 19 showed up	The scholarship committee managed to alocate travel scholarship funding to 22 applicants. However, few applicants, selected for scholarship were unfortunately unable to attend the event due to some personal preoccupations.
To ensure as diverse participation as possible, so as to cover most of the large geographic area of the Hindi speaking region	We had participants from 11 States of India, and Nepal. Out of the participants from India, we also had participants from outside the typical Hindi Speaking region of North India, amounting to ~26% of scholarship recipients.	Such a diverse participation shows the appeal and reach of Hindi Wikipedia and other wikiprojects, all throughout the geography of the Hindi Speaking region and also beyond the Hindi belt. To us, this did serve as a moral booster and reflects the potential Hindi Wikipedia has among Hindi speakers.
Focusing on Gender gap and giving special preference to including as many new contributors as possible	~32% of the participants were female ~47% of the participants were first timers in any offline event ~62% of the female participants were first timers	These targets with respect to diversity of participation was a special point of focus for the Scholarship and conference program committees, and they did their best to include diversity of participation wrt to gender and skill-gap in the community. For a small community like ours, introducing as many new contributors to the rest of the community is an essential method for growing the community and by allowing new people to meet each other in person and know the larger community and this was an important point in our agenda for this conference The Gender gap issue has always been a point of concern for our community, as with the larger wikimedia movement as well. Although we hadn't put a targeted value for the number of female participants in this event, given the very small size of the community; a score of above 30% is a clear jump from the 20% of the last conference. The local organising team also conducted several pre-conference workshops with the Hindi Dept. of RBC college, Naihati. participants from these workshops were invited in the conference on interest and merit-basis to learn advanced skills and to meet the larger community.

Next steps

Please share a brief update about the status projects, important discussions and/or capacity building that took place at the event.

	Activities during the conference	2 months after the conference	6 months after the conference
Strategic Discussions: Were any significant issues your community discussed at the conference?	The following srtategic discussion sessions were held in the conference. Planning a strategy for the organised developement of articles on Hindi Wikipedia for the next 12 months: The session was held on the sencond day of the conference. This open-space styled discussion which lasted for ~45 minutes had all the perticipants of the conference in attendance. Inputs were taken from every community members and these discussions led to adopion of a 5-point and 3-point agenda for Hindi Wikipedia and Wikisource respectively. The agenda was published on the Village pump (here) for other community members to join as members of the working group responsible for working on this agenda. Reducing Gender gap and Community Best practices: The presentation cum interactive session, conducted by senior female community members and Resource persons was held on the first day of the conference. The interactive session, focused significantly on the inputs of the newbie female participants of the conference, asking for their reviews and suggestions about the gender gap issue on wikipedia. Though primarily focused on increasing awareness about the gender gap issue on wikipedia, the significant outcomes of the discussion was gaining an insight into the gender gap issue with a focus on the Hindi wiki-community, since it was a first ever gender gap discussion in our community. The feedback round had various steps being proposed. A clear-cut future plan, and agenda are still under discussion within the community.
Capacity Development: Please list capacity building sessions or workshops.	Capacity Building and skill gap being an important point in the agenda of the event. The program team did their best to include sessions, with foucus on capacity building and inviting Resource persons from cross wiki communities. The program schedule can be seen on the event page (here) The capacity development sessions were: Demonstration/Presentation: Featured Articles and Files on Commons Reviewing and Use of RTRC tool Administrator tools Workshop sessions Translation of .svg files into Hindi Wikisource (Workshop and Introduction) Media-wiki Workshop Translatewiki Workshop	No parallel sessions/discussions were held during the Workshops/training sessions. Hence, these sessions were attended by all the participants of the conference, including students.	Survey participants 6 months after event -- how many people have used the skills they learned?
Projects or Working Groups: What are the most important projects that were started or improved during the conference?	The conference, managed to create a concensus towards organically and systematic developement and management of articles/content on Hindi Wikiprojects, specifically on Hi Wikipedia and Wikisource. Two main working groups/projects have been started after this conference for follow-up activities/implementation of the agenda discussed: Management and development of Hindi Wikisource: Work was resumed on Hindi Wikisource, which was left dormant and didn't even have it's own independent domain. Hindi Wikisource has been approved for its own independent domain and might come live in a few months time, thanks to the continuous work that is being done there. Organised development of Hindi Wikipedia: The structure and articles on Hindi Wikipedia has been largely disorganised and haphazard. The idea of creating a 12-month agenda and forming a follow-up group for implementing it was a primary point in the agenda of this conference. This group is responsible for implementing the 12-month agenda for Hindi Wikipedia, discussed in the conference. All the discussion regarding this takes place on the Hindi Wikipedia Village Pump.		Provide an update on projects that were started, or changes that were made as a result of work done at the conference.

Learning

Conferences and events do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

What worked well at the event?

The event saw a diverse and enthusiastic participation from all over the Hindi Community and Cross community as well; and actually was the biggest event organised by the Hindi Community in terms of number of participants.
This event was able to successfully able to create a local Hindi Wiki Community in Kolkata, thanks to the involvement of local students in the conference as participants and through pre-conference workshops. The effects of this can be seen primarily in the sudden boost in activity on Hindi Wikisource.
Bridging Genger gap:32% female participants.
47% of the participants were first timers in any offline event. Thus giving oppertunity to socialize and create new wikifriends.
pre and post conference work was able to establish Wikisource as another active Hindi Wikiproject as an important online resource. And the work is set to continue under the working group focused on wikisource.
The event was well-scheduled and a dedicated stage management ensured that the program routine was followed largely on-time and as planned, which was a problem in the last conference.
The event venue was centrally located in the city with lots of transportation options available nearby, thus allowing easy access to transportation and tours to the participants. This also ensured complete attendance at the conference venue up until late.
Creation of dedicated email account helped in communication and transparency among the organisers.

What did not work so well?

Some senior member of the community were unable to attend the conference due to personal preoccupations. Most however gave online presentations/workshops.
There were speed issues with the wifi/internet provided by the hotel.
Due to delay in funds transfer, the airfare expenses increased very significantly. Although we managed to keep the expenses within budget.Thanks in part to the participants who responded to our requests to keep moderation in their travel expenses.
We had problems paying advance payment to book the hotel, due to lack of any viable online payment options in the hotel. For organisers of future events, we would highly recommend choosing a hotel which accepts easy online payments.

What would you do differently next time?

Plan in advance to ensure timely transfer of funds.
Make sure that flight tickets be booked well before conference dates (3 weeks atleast), so as to keep prices within budget.
Make sure that the hotel has online money transfer facility and make arrangements for better wifi speeds in the conference.

Financial documentation

This section describes the grant's use of funds

Budget table

Please list all project expenses in a table here, with descriptions. Review the instructions here. These expenses should be listed in the same format as the budget table in your approved submission so that anyone reading this report may be able to easily compare budgeted vs. actual expenses.

Number	Category	Description	Expenditure (IN₹)	Expenditure (USD) based on exchange rate on 14/7/19 as per Oanda US$1=IN₹ 68.33	Total Budget in IN₹	Total Budget in USD (approximate) based on exchange rate on 4/9/18 as per Oanda US$1=IN₹ 70.93	Notes
1	Conference Hall	Conference hall for two days	31,869	464.65	50,000	704.92	Costs related to renting the conference equipments like Microphones, projector, high-speed internet, etc.
2	Food & Catering	Cost of meals and buffet for participants	52,364	763.46	50,000	704.92
3	Accommodation	Twin sharing rooms for three day.	1,77,277	2,584.70	1,80,000	2,537.71	Rooms booked @ INR 4500+taxes/day plus minor room service charges.
4	Travel Scholarships	Includes air-fare and cab fares	1,38,543	2,019.96	1,80,000	2,537.71
5	Felicitation / Gifts	T-Shirts, Certificates & Id cards	11,650	169.85	20,000	281.96
6	Print Material	Banners & Posters	4,012	58.49	5,000	70.49
7	Misc	Miscellaneous Costs	3,481	50.75	20,000	281.96	Includes money transfer charges, local travel costs and other small uncategorized expenses
8	Administrative Fees	administrative fees by fiscal sponsor	0	0	1,01,000	1,405.08	No fiscal sponsor was included
		Total	4,19,196	6,111.89	6,06,000	8,430.48

Summary of funding

Total project budget (from your approved grant submission):

IN₹ 6,06,000

Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission):

IN₹ 6,06,000

Total amount spent on this project (this total should be the total calculated from the table above):

IN₹ 4,19,196

Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project:

IN₹ 4,19,196 (USD 6,111.89)

Are there additional sources of revenue that funded any part of this project? List them here.

No

Remaining funds

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of 186,798 INR were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Conference/UG HI/Hindi Wiki Conference 2020.

Are there any grant funds remaining?

Answer YES or NO.

YES

Please list the total amount (specify currency) remaining here. (This is the amount you did not use, or the amount you still have after completing your grant.)

IN₹ 1,86,798

Anything else

Is there anything else you want to share about the conference or event?

Pictures of the conference: