Grants:IEG/MediaWiki and Javanese script/Midpoint

This project is funded by an Individual Engagement Grant

Welcome to this project's midpoint report! This report shares progress and learnings from the Individual Engagement Grantee's first 3 months.

Summary

In a few short sentences or bullet points, give the main highlights of what happened with your project so far. During the course of the grants, it is now possible to enable the Javanese script input method without the MediaWiki, and it is more feasible to do so. One of the method to do that is using Firefox add-ons (or Chrome's. The culmination of the project would be a Javanese script competition, where the participants would be competing in typing and reading through Javanese Wikipedia.

Methodology

How have you setup your project so far?

Describe the different parts of your experimental or pilot process, anything you decided was extra important to focus on, and any key concepts that are useful for understanding your work. Please also use this space to point to any background research or past learnings that have guided you in your decision-making process.

I'm partnering with a local magazine team, called Paduan, and they would handle the promotional materials and I'm the reachout and technical aspect.

Activities

What work has been completed so far?

Please list all activities you’ve undertaken as part of your project to this point, and provide a description for each activity.

Giving a live demo on the street for people to try to type their name in Javanese script pic
Activities includes several times interviewed by media (newspaper and magazines), meeting with school teachers and Paduan team, also with other people who would help for the event. pic
A detailed description and brochure for the event will be finished this week. pic

Midpoint outcomes

Logo of the "Nulisa" competition

What are the results of your project or any experiments you’ve worked on so far?

Please discuss anything you have created or changed (organized, built, grown, etc) as a result of your project to date.

Unfortunately many things I've planned didn't come to fruition. Several schools didn't teach Javanese anymore, a library that was central to my plan underwent a renovation for 6 months, and personal stuff taking much of my concentration.
Instead of my original plan of going to schools and educational institutions and teaching them about this new input method in MediaWiki, I decided to change the format to a competition for 5-8th grader. It is my hope that this young generation would use and integrate them in their daily digital activity.

Finances

Please take some time to update the table in your project finances page. Check that you’ve listed all approved and actual expenditures as instructed. If there are differences between the planned and actual use of funds, please use the column provided there to explain them.

Then, answer the following question here: Have you spent your funds according to plan so far? Please briefly describe any major changes to budget or expenditures that you anticipate for the second half of your project.

Major budget change in regard to transport fund (some) will be reallocated as prize for the winning students
I haven't bought the shirt yet (one of the major expense), because the design logo was just finished this week.

Learnings

The best thing about trying something new is that you learn from it. We want to follow in your footsteps and learn along with you, and we want to know that you are taking enough risks to learn something really interesting! Please use the below sections to describe what is working and what you plan to change for the second half of your project.

On one side, I was overwhelmed with the (moral) support I received online, but in reality, almost no one from the online world was able to give any real help (mainly due to geographical location). I was unable to find anyone around me who could help with the project, thus this has been very overwhelming experience for me too, because I still have to share my time with two other day and night jobs.

What is working well

What has been successful so far? What will you do more of? Please list these as short bullet points.

The input method itself has been perfected continuously due to feedback from the users who were made aware by this grant.

What are the challenges

What challenges or obstacles have you encountered? What will you change to do differently going forward? Please list these as short bullet points.

Convincing the elder generation (teachers) about the new technology
Scheduling between real life, grant schedule, and school (participants) schedule

Next steps and opportunities

What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your project? Please list these as short bullet points.

Organizing the competition, and resolving the technology needed for Javanese script typing contest.

Grantee reflection

We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on how the experience of being an IEGrantee has been so far. What is one thing that surprised you, or that you particularly enjoyed from the past 3 months?

Meeting with other grantees in Wikimania, and attending the IEG session made me realize that WMF is doing the right thing by enabling volunteers and contributors from around the world to undertake bigger projects that needs funding.
Some more thoughts, but I'm supposed to list only one :)