Grants:PEG/Africa Centre/Wiki Loves Africa 2014

Funded

This submission to the Project and Event Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2014-15. This is a grant to an group, organization, or individual.

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Report: Please visit Grants:PEG/Africa Centre/Wiki Loves Africa 2014/Report to read this report, comment on this report, or review its status.

Basic information

Grant details

Project details

Official project name: Wiki Loves Africa.
Project start date (include month, day, and year): September 1, 2014
Project completion date (include month, day, and year): January 31, 2015
Please describe the project in 1–2 sentences: Wiki Loves Africa (WLA) is an annual contest where people across Africa can contribute media (photographs, video and audio) about their environment on Wikimedia Commons for use on Wikipedia and other project websites of the Wikimedia Foundation. Wiki Loves Africa particularly encourages participants to contribute media that illustrate a specific theme for that year. Each year the theme changes and could include any such universal, visually rich and culturally specific topics (for example, markets, rites of passage, festivals, public art, cuisine, natural history, urbanity, daily life, notable persons, etc).

Wiki Loves Africa

The theme for the 2014 photo contest will be Wiki Loves Africa Cuisine. This year's contest will seek to document in the form of various media, the diverse types of cuisines across the continent of Africa. The theme will encompass the "foods", "dishes", "crops", "husbandry", "culinary art", "cooking methods", "utensils", "food markets", "festivals", "culinary events", "famine food" and any other issues related to cuisine on the African continent.

The project is a two-month competition which will start on the 1st October and end on the 30th November.

The project will be run at the entire continental level. However, some specific actions (training, communication etc.) will be held in some countries with national organisers (CNO).

The project will feature a contest to select the best media at the continental level, with a ceremony and prizes as deemed appropriate.

The aim of the Wiki Loves Africa project is to provide support for national organisers, and organise the continental layer of WLA. The framework that will be developed could serve as a template for future editions of the WLA, thus expanding the value of the project well beyond its actual lifespan.

Financial details

Currency requested: US Dollars
Amount requested in currency requested: $ 19,000.00

Grantee details

See the eligibility requirements for more information.

What is the official name of the organization requesting this grant?

Africa Centre (WikiAfrica Project)

Are you an organization, an individual, or an individual submitting on behalf of a group?

Answer ORGANIZATION, INDIVIDUAL, or GROUP.

ORGANIZATION

Are you a for-profit entity?

Answer YES or NO.

NO

Are you able to provide local proof of nonprofit status within your country?

Answer YES or NO.

YES

Does your organization currently employ any fulltime or part-time staff or contractors?

Answer YES or NO.

YES

If you answered YES, please indicate how many. You may use fractions or percentages for part-time staff if appropriate.

10 full time staff members at the office; 4 fulltime remotely

If yes, please provide a list of their job functions, or a link to your organization's staff page, if it lists all employees and contractors employed or engaged by your organization.

An incomplete list of staff and contractors is available at http://africacentre.net/we-work/#team. Here is the full list if people and job functions:

Tanner Methvin: Executive Director, Africa Centre
Ethel Ntlahla: Office Manager
Ivana Abreu: Development Manager
Isla Haddow-Flood: Project Manager, WikiAfrica
Felicia Pattison-Bacon: Project Manager, Infecting the City
Linda Kaoma: Project Manager, Badilisha Poetry X-Change
Tambu Ndlovu: Project Manager, Everyday African Urbanism/ Talking Heads/ Artists in Residency (AIR)
Rexford Nkansah: Wikipedian-in-Residence
Tazneem Wentzel: Project Administrator, Badilisha Poetry X-Change/ Talking Heads/ AIR
Emma Chippendale: Fundraising Coordinator

Contact information

Primary contact name: Isla Haddow-Flood
Primary contact username or email: User:Islahaddow | islahaddow@africacentre.net
Primary contact title (position within the organization): Project Manager, WikiAfrica / Community Lead, Wikimedia ZA

If this project will be executed by someone other than the primary contact for your organisation, please list that person's details here:

Continental layer organising committee: Isla Haddow-Flood; Rexford Nkansah; Florence Devouard; other people to be determined (including within the list of local organisers)

Local organisers in CNO (Countries with National Organisers): Erina Mukuta (Uganda); Michael Phoya (Malawi); Abel Asrat (Ethiopia); Cyriac Gbogou (Ivory Coast); Rexford Nkansah (Ghana); Isla Haddow-Flood (South Africa); other local volunteers to be identified

Project lead username or email: Islahaddow and Isla [at] wikiafrica [dot] net; Anthere - fdevouard [at] anthere [dot] net

Project lead title (position), if any: Co-Project Coordinator

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

Project goals

The project has three primary goals which are to:

Create a contest that will drive understanding and usage of Wikipedia on a continent where awareness is minimal to non-existent,
Provide an easy mechanism (a contest) that breaks down the barrier for contribution for people from Africa, and
Provide a continent-wide project that will draw a group of Wikip/media interested people in each country and provide a platform around which to create a community.

Additional goals of the project are to:

Gather images and media about subject matter and topics related to the theme from across Africa;
Enable more information about Africa and, specifically topics related to the theme, to be represented on Wikipedia;
Create an easily accessible platform that encourages more Africans to contribute multimedia representations of Africa onto Wikimedia Commons for use in articles in the other sister project websites;
Provide local organisers with the tools and support that they need to organise the national Wiki Loves Africa competitions in their countries, including the technical infrastructure (templates, upload campaigns, guidelines, how-tos, etc.) for uploading images;
Provide a continental layer for Wiki Loves Africa 2014, including organising the international media competition and an international finale;
Provide and/or help provide a central infrastructure that can support and enable communication between chapters or user groups or volunteers; and
Create and maintain helpful documentation for multiple target groups, including national organisers and participants.

The above Project Goals outline the global objectives. Each of these global objectives will be specifically adapted to the chosen theme of each year. In 2014, Cuisine has been chosen as the theme for the inaugural competition.

Measures of success

Please provide a list of measurable criteria that will be used to determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed.

Preliminary note:
The contest will welcome media from all African countries (and relevant media from outside Africa). Photographs, videos and audio representations of cuisine from all over Africa may be nominated for the continental contest.
Countries in which a local organising team has been specifically set up are identified as CNOs. Only countries where the organising team has been officially recognised by the continental committee will be considered CNOs.
There will be a contest at the continental level.

Measures of success

Measures of success for the Wiki Loves Africa Competition

Minimum of 1,000 media files uploaded to the contest by each CNO (this level of contribution is expected to be an average of all the contributing countries)
Minimum of 8,000 media uploaded from across the continent
Minimum of 400 uploaders from across the continent
7 countries to join the contest as CNOs
9 months after the contest has ended, at least 25 new users become active contributors (5 edits per month in any of the Wikimedia projects)

Note: actual figures may be overestimated if no specific mobile application is made available in 2014

Measures of success for the Continental team

A grant request is accepted successfully, and a report is produced according to the request
A survey is executed among local organisers (before the end of 2014), showing high levels of satisfaction with the continental team (average of ~4 on a five-point Lickert scale)
A list of improvements is proposed for the following year
The African finale is successfully completed.
The prizes are handed out before March 2015, with a possible exception for travel-related prizes.
Documentation is available for all those organising a local Wiki Loves Africa contest.

Project scope and activities

This section describes what will happen if this project is funded. Who will do what, and when?

The project will be organised by a continental team who centralises the competition and assists and supports the country national teams, runs the continent-wide communications campaign, and will organise the continental prize and continental exhibition. The project will be based at WikiAfrica at the Africa Centre, but will not be limited to this geographical space.

The local organising team will be responsible for driving communications and social media around the competition. They will act as the spokespeople, and will be encouraged to host upload and wiki-takes events during the competition period. They will be asked to nominate local judges for the continental team.

The detail of specific activities listed below relate to the work done by the continental team.

Project management and administration

Build/maintain the website infrastructure(s)
Setting out a clear timeline for the Wiki Loves Africa competition
Set up documentation of best practices (in particular with regards to licences and what constitutes a good photo)
Create communication systems for reports and evaluation metrics
Monitor statistics and competition entries
Track analytics of social media campaign
Evaluate the project and competition as a whole

Support to National Organisers

Track the application of initiative to local context
Support national organisers
Share coordinated communications campaign and materials
Support and disseminate local social media and crowdfunding campaigns
Help to find a local solution for organisers to upload multimedia on behalf of others.

Budget and administration

Build and operate financial structure and control
Full financial report and governance

Communication

Create a strong and simple social media driven campaign to reach people internationally and locally
Prepare material such as leaflets, posters and press releases that can be used and/or built on by national organisations
Connect with press (continental, national and regional)
Identify major influencers (blogs, thought leaders, facebook / twitter leaders)
Maintain communication with international partners including relevant staff at Wikimedia Foundation

Competition and prizes

Set up and rollout of the international contest

Implement communications campaign to national and continental press and stakeholders
Set up jury processes to select best images
Find suitable jury members for the continental jury
Support the jury in their process, maintain timeline
Dissemination of results
Provide and distribute prizes and awards to winners

Prizes

Use a crowdfunding platform to ask people to contribute towards a continental prize

Countries of focus

The contest will operate in all African countries. However, special attention and support will be offered to the following countries: South Africa, Tunisia, Egypt, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, and Ethiopia/Malawi.

Budget and resources

Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here.

Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table

Line item	Qualitative amount	Number of item	Rate per item	Budget total US$
1. Projet staffing
Co-project manager	per month	5	$1.500	$7.500
Technical and administrative support	per month	3	$500	$1.500
Subtotal 1				$9.000
------------
2. Communication
Design, Identity and Communication	per item	1	$1.500	$1.500
In-country communication and materials	per competition x 8	8	$300	$2.400
Subtotal 2				$3.900
------------
3. Events
Wiki Takes and photo hunt events	per competition x 8	8	$100	$800
Meetup, edit-a-thon, activations, workshops or upload sessions	per competition x 24	24	$100	$2.400
Subtotal 3				$3.200
------------
4. Judges, thank yous and continental prizes
Thank yous and goodies	seven judges	8	$100	$800
Continental prizes (photo-related vouchers, photo safari)	10-15 awards
Prize winners printed (co-funded)	10 prints	10	$10	$100
Subtotal 4				$900
------------
5. Additional elements
Contingency				$2.000
Subtotal 5				$2.000
------------
TOTAL expenses				$19.000

Total cost of project: $ 43,000.00

Total amount requested from the Project and Event Grants program: $ 19,000.00

Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded: Part of the operational aspect of this project is funded by utilising existing resources at the Africa Centre (a portion of which is paid for by a grant for Kumusha Takes Wiki by Fondation Orange). Additional financing will be sourced via local crowdfunding campaigns and through finding a national sponsor for the main prize.

Non-financial requirements

Requests for non-financial assistance:

We might need support in getting trademark agreements in place for local organisers where appropriate, support in getting the technical infrastructure secured by 1 October and some support in placing blog posts/press releases, etc.
There will be a need to use the CentralNotice for specific regions in Africa - this will be discussed through the regular channels
Will need technical assistance for correct tagging with the upload wizard
Some assistance with statistics for reporting would be brilliant

Resources

This section is optional. It may be used to highlight the potential grantee's potential for successfully executing this project.

Additional resources that will benefit the project and ensure its initial success is that it:

Will be operated by WikiAfrica at the Africa Centre which has a history of supporting Wikimedia through its projects Kumusha Takes Wiki, Share Your Knowledge, OpenAfrica Toolkits, and Kumusha Bus.
With the project based at the Africa Centre, it can take advantage of an established track record in managing grants and partnerships with international donors and partners.
Already has buy in from five country-based Wikipedians that are already ready to begin the process. These Wikipedians are detailed above.
The project was been launched at Wiki Indaba - a copy of the presentation by Florence Devouard and Isla Haddow-Flood is available above.
The co-project lead has been involved in the successful execution of Wiki Loves Monuments in South Africa in 2012 and 2013.

Endorsement

If you support this project and are keen to be involved, please show your endorsement of this grant and intentions to be involved below:

Ethiopia

Abel Asrat
Melikte Paulos
Leul Dereje
Maereg Demeke
Nebiyu Sultan - Wikimedia Ethiopia

Ghana

Felix Nartey - Wikimedia Ghana
Rexford Nkansah
Enock Nyamador
Rberchie - Wikimedia Ghana

Egypt

Mohamed Ouda - Wikimedia Egypt

Tunisia

Côte d'Ivoire

Malawi

Michael Phoya WikiAfrica
Rachel Etter
Upile Malenga
Edmund Kachale

Botswana

Candy Tricia Khohliwe
Mompati Dikunwane
Oarabile Mudongo

Cameroon

Aminou Ndala TITA - Internet Society / Planning WM Cameroon
Dzekashu MacViban
Uwe Jung
Nfor Edwin N.

South Africa

Bobbyshabangu - Wikimedia South Africa

Uganda

Kenya

It is a great idea and an excellent way to involve users around the continent and a large network. Monuments (with Wiki Loves Monuments) is not easy to organize in Africa and the political meaning of monuments (history, colonial and post colonial) creates some specific challenges. A broader contest can be an excellent way to tap on the good practice of Wiki Loves Monuments but to prepare something more suitable for a general audience. I would be pleased to help in the communication and networking of the initiative. --iopensa (talk) 10:35, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Impact

In the sections below, please describe how the project is related to the Wikimedia mission and Wikimedia's strategic priorities.

Fit to strategy

How will this project support the key organizational objectives of the Wikimedia Foundation

driving awareness in African countries of Wikipedia as a resource, create a galvanising event around which active Wikipedians can work together in each country lowering barriers for contribution by ordinary people across Africa, greater understanding of the power of images, providing a platform to emphasise the need to reflect local context on international knowledge platforms encouraging participation from ordinary citizens, providing guidelines to ensure quality submissions, reaching out to professional photographers to ensure quality photos are submitted, by encouraging local people to contribute, this engenders more trust in our projects by people in developing countries suspicious of "Western" influence, creating sustainable processes from the beginning to ensure longevity of this project providing a large amount of previously unavailable high-quality culturally specific material on a universal practice by ensuring that all material relating to each theme encompasses all aspects of the theme, the material from places across the continent will display and illustrate very specific and subtle differences across Africa

This statement should address at least one of the strategic priorities listed here specifically. See Project and Event Grants program criteria for decision making.

Wiki Loves Africa's goals, as presented above, specifically fit to the Wikimedia Foundation's strategy. Wiki Loves Africa is a contest that hopes to rebalance the amount of visual, contemporary coverage there is of Africa on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. As a contest that can be curated each year, the project will achieve the Foundation's following strategic goals by:

Increasing reach - the project not only uses an easy means of contribution (the mobile phone is king in Africa, and camera- wielding smart phones sales are increasing yearly), it is designed to grow each year, and by offering different themes per contest, will consistently introduce Wikipedia to new interest groups.
Increasing participation - the contest will break through the barriers that currently prevent people in Africa from contributing to Wikimedia projects. It will heighten awareness of the educational value, and drive home the concept that Wikipedia is not just something to passively consume provided by the "west", but that it is locally relevant, and can reflect local reality if local people contribute.
Improving quality - the visual information that currently exists on Africa on Wikipedia is a thin veneer of what is happening (and has happened) on the ground in every country. The project hopes to visually harness some of that rich diversity to add to the understanding of subjects that relate to the continent of Africa.

In addition, the project enables the natural extension of the WikiAfrica model, which uses different tactics to develop sustainable awareness, contribution and support for Wikimedia on the continent. The WikiAfrica project's aims are inherent to the Wikipedian model, as based on partnership-building, volunteer-based local community building, and network-forming. This contest finds a popular and sustainable way to further those aims.

Benefits

The project will have the following benefit to local communities in the following ways

Through a cohesive and multi-application communications campaign, the project will increase awareness of Wikipedia in the countries in which there is a national organising committee - we envisage a minimum of 7 national organising committees for the 2014 contest (but are hoping to grow it to 30 by 2019).
Local aligned movement members will be encouraged to spread the word and get involved, allowing for more cohesion and support among the local Open Movement.
Visual images are the perfect medium for a contest as they allow an emotive connection to the subject that transcends language and cultural barriers, and fosters a deeper understanding and insight into "other" cultures - and are perfect to illustrate the relevant subjects of the many language editions of Wikipedia.

Please provide a brief statement about how the project is related to other work in the Wikimedia movement. For example, does the project fit into a work area such as GLAM, education, organisational development, editor retention, or outreach?

The entries to the competition on Commons will be used to improve specific articles on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Foundation project websites relating to Africa and beyond. To have local versions of universal cultural practices displayed visually and via other media will encourage understanding of little known cultures, and allow local communities to feel they have contributed to the global dialogue.

The event acts as a galvanising agent to bring together active Wikipedians in each country, events such as meetups, Wiki-takes and upload sessions will be expected of each national committee, and encouraged in all participating countries. This will make a stronger user group or planning community for future Wikimedia projects and the movement in general.
Each year a different theme will be chosen as the central focus of the competition. The universal theme for that year will be chosen to ensure the widest possible visual celebration of local or culturally specific practices, heritage or surroundings. In this way, the entries will potentially contribute as illustrations to many articles on all of the Wikipedia language versions as well as to WikiVoyage, WikiBooks, WikiNews, etc., and has obvious extensions to provide country or region specific visuals for education, GLAM and other projects within the Wikimedia movement.
While it is too early to be able to judge competitor (or ultimately editor) retention in the project, the main aim with this initial competition is to increase Wikipedia visibility - something that is needed in African countries.

If successful, will the project have the potential to be replicated successfully by other individuals, groups, or organizations? Please explain how in 1–2 sentences.

Yes, the project can be replicated successfully by different organisations. We hope that the contest will be renewed every year, with an increase of participating countries as time flies. The project is designed to engender a pride in local practices, heritage or environment. It is expected to be fun and fuel country-to-country competition. It is hoped that within 5 years we will have at least 30 countries in Africa contributing to the project.

Please list other benefits to the movement here.

There will be positive press coverage of the many national events, especially when one of their pictures scores high in the international competition.
The change of theme each year ensures that not only will the project grow to be an annual feature in all the countries in Africa, but that each year there will be a new theme to focus on. This ensures that we can avoid having different photos of the same subjects entered year after year, and that we can increase the kinds of people that contribute as the theme touches on different subject matter from environment to rituals to education. This will introduce Wikipedia and the concept of contribution to Wikipedia to many more types of people across the continent.
Other benefits include capacity building of volunteer groups that organise this as their first event, networking with other aligned movement members around a common goal, and a stronger core group in each country to organise more outreach and other projects.

For grantees

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Create a request for an extension of the approved project completion date.
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