Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

Grants:PEG/Agripo/WikiVillages du Cameroun

< Grants:PEG


statusFunded
Agripo/WikiVillages du Cameroun
A 6 months writing contest in English and French to create articles about Cameroon villages
targetFrench Wikipedia, English Wikipedia, Commons
strategic priorityIncreasing Participation and Improving Quality
start date20th of May 15 September
start year2016
end date20th of November 31 January
end year2017
budget (local currency)10000 euros (not local currency) 1,969 EUR
budget (USD) Around 11000 US$ US$ 2,200
grant typeorganization
non-profit statusYes
creator• Elns
contact(s)• gic.agripo(_AT_)gmail.com
organization• AGRIPO (Adeline Flore NGO-SAMNICK)
endorse


Goal

edit

On the 44th National Day of Cameroon, Agriculteurs Professionnels du Cameroun (AGRIPO) is organising, from the 20th May to the 20th November 2016, a widescale, bilingual English/French encyclopedic writing competition under the theme Villages of Cameroon.

Titled #Wikivillages, the main aims of this pioneering African competition are as follows:

  • encourage sharing and spreading of documented information on history, geography, culture, economy, lifestyle, heritage, and the richness of Cameroonian villages,
  • fight against the digital isolation of Cameroonian villages and their communities,
  • allow them to communicate via the internet about development problems and actions.

This competition is open to all. The only requirement is to write an original, encyclopedic article on the topic of a Cameroonian village, adhering to the writing regulations as outlined on Wikipedia.

The contest is bilingual (english and french

Plan

edit

With the technical support of Wikipedia contributors, Agriculteurs Professionnels du Cameroun (AGRIPO) is organising, from the 20th May to the 20th November 2016, a widescale, bilingual English/French encyclopedic writing, photography and digital publishing competition under the theme Villages of Cameroon.

This pioneering African competition, titled #Wikivillages of Cameroon will help to :

  • Break down the isolation of Cameroonian villages and facilitate support documented by a reliable encyclopedic information for planning and following up of developmental projects.
The village is the fundamental administrative and cultural structure in Cameroon. Capitalising, networking and spreading information on the villages of a country, fundamentally stimulates a developmental dynamic. An encyclopedic knowledge of the villages will allow local developmental projects to be planned, implemented and followed up, and thanks to reliable information and indicators, built around logical goals and based on facts. The #Wikivillages initiative aims to accurately present the historical, social, economic, and environmental assets, issues and realities of Cameroonian villages.
  • Raise awareness about hundreds of Cameroonian villages
The initiative aims to simply get a response to certain historical, social, economic and environmental questions on Cameroonian villages so that a large number of Internet users who access this unique showcase can discover the villages of Cameroon.
Encyclopedic summaries of hundreds of Cameroonian villages will be released and accessible on Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia.
Raising awareness of the villages of Cameroon - together - is a wonderful collaborative project fueled mainly by the pleasure of participation.
As of the 13th April 2016, 2395 Cameroon-related articles are available on Wikipedia, with just 62 of these relating to the country’s villages. As Cameroon is blessed with more than 13,000 villages, this covers a mere 0.48% of rural areas.


Activities

edit

The project will be organised by a national team who centralise the competition, mobilise the writers and communicate on common sharing information, run the communication campaign, and will organise the national prize and visibility.
The project will be based at AGRIPO in Cameroon, a professional organisation active in rural development activities in Cameroon, but well-known at international level.

The organising team will be responsible for driving communications and social media surrounding the competition. The organising team - supported by an international team of Wikipedia activists - will encourage contributors to write articles on rural area during the competition period. They will lead the selection operations and the prize winning choices.

The detail of specific activities listed below.

Project management and administration

  • Build/maintain the Wikipedia page of the contest: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Projet:Wikivillages_du_Cameroun
  • Set out a clear timeline for the Wikivillages 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
  • Maintain communication with partners including relevant staff at Wikimedia Foundation
  • Evaluate the project and competition as a whole

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 online posters and press releases that can be used and/or built on by organisers
  • Connect with press (continental and national)
  • Support and disseminate national social media campaign
  • Track analytics of social media and media campaign
  • Identify major influencers (blogs, thought leaders, facebook / twitter leaders)
  • Build up database of press contacts in particular

Competition and prizes

Set up and rollout of the national contest

  • Implement communications campaign
  • Set up jury processes to select best contributions
  • Find suitable jury members for the international jury
  • Support the jury in their process, maintain timeline
  • Dissemination of results
  • Provide and distribute prizes to winners

Country of focus

  • The contest will operate in all Cameroon regions. However, special attention and support will be offered to less documented regions such as North, East and South regions.

The team will naturally take into account lessons learned from others operations in Africa such as Wiki Loves Africa and Wiki Loves Women. This might be done by for example additional material.

Timeline

edit
  • 1st to 20th May 2016: Preparation of the contest (design of the contest, plateform of registration of candidacy, communication tools, mobilizing human and financial resources)
  • 20 to 30 May 2016: Launch and intensive promotion contest
  • June 1 to November 20, 2016: Communication and follow-up of the competition
  • November 20 to December 31, 2016: Selection of articles by an independant and qualified jury
  • 1 January to 16 January 2017: organization of the awards ceremony
  • January 17, 2017: announcement of key results and prize (award ceremony)
  • January 17 to January 31, 2017: capitalization and reporting of the initiative

Impact

edit

Target readership

edit
French Wikipedia and English Wikipedia are to host the newly created articles. New illustrations will enrich Wikimedia Commons. Target readership is first the Cameroon people, second African readers, third World Wide Readers..

Fit with strategy

edit

What crucial thing will the project try to change or benefit in the Wikimedia movement? Please select the Wikimedia strategic priority(ies) that your project most directly aims to impact and explain how your project fits. Most projects fit all strategic priorities. However, we would like project managers to focus their efforts on impacting 1–2 strategic priorities. Examples of strategic priorities can be found here.

Primary goal would be to increase participation since the writing contest seeks to involve new participants living in Cameroon.
The secondary goal would clearly be improving quality, in improving the coverage of Cameroon, which is currently fairly limited. On the 7th of May 2016, the French Wikipedia features only 2,414 articles related to Cameroon, 63 of which are about Cameroon villages. However, half the population of Cameroon live in rural areas. Cameroon has over 13,000 villages, which play a vital role in the long-term developmental dynamic. The weight of the rural sector is significant. It contains almost 60% of the active population, and is the main provider of foreign currency with 55% of overall exports. Cameroon cannot be documented without including its rural areas.
So Wikivillages is a contest that hopes to rebalance the amount of visual, contemporary coverage there is of Cameroon on Wikipedia. The contest will heighten awareness of the rural development issues, and drive home the concept that Wikipedia is not just something to passively consume, provided by the “West" and “urban areas”, but that it is locally relevant, and can reflect local reality if local people contribute.
Although the focus will also be on improving quality on the ground in the country. The project hopes to visually harness some of that rich diversity to add to the understanding of subjects that relate to the deep part of Cameroon.
This project supports the key organisational objectives of the Wikimedia Foundation in:
  • driving awareness in African countries of Wikipedia as a resource,
  • lowering barriers for contribution by ordinary people across Africa,
  • providing guidelines to ensure quality submissions,
  • providing a large amount of previously unavailable, high-quality, culturally specific material on a universal practice.

Measures of success

edit

Please provide a list of both quantitative and qualitative 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. See the PEG program resources for suggested measures of success.

Preliminary notes
The contest will welcome media from Cameroon (and relevant international media).

Measures of success for the Wikivillages Competition

  • Minimum of 200 pages created from across the country
  • Minimum of 200 uploaders from across the country
  • A minimum of 5 media articles focused on content integration in wikipedia
  • 9 months after the contest has ended, at least 20 new users of Cameroon become active contributors (5 edits per month in any of the Wikimedia projects)
  • reuse on Wikimedia projects of at least 10%

Measures of success at the organizing team

  • A grant request is accepted successfully, and a report is produced according to the request
  • A survey is executed among national contributors, showing high levels of satisfaction (average of ~4 on a five-point Lickert scale)
  • A list of improvements is proposed for a following initiative
  • The prizes are handed out before May 2017.

Note: In addition to your project-specific measures of success, you will also be asked to report on some global metrics at the end of your final report. Please keep this in mind as you plan, and we'll support you as you begin your project.

Resources and risks

edit

Resources

edit

Project lead username or email

Organizing team

Other supporting people

Local partners

  • tbd once call has gone out

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

  • Will be operated by AGRIPO in Cameroon which has a well-known history of supporting rural development activities through its projects, AGRIPO gives root information on subdivision in Cameroon
  • With the project managed by AGRIPO, it can take advantage of an established track record in managing grants and partnerships with international donors and partners like United Nations or WWF with proof of satisfaction.
  • The project will benefit of the notoriety of AGRIPO in the country

Risks

edit
Risk Possible negative results Mitigation
Part 1: Internal
Remote project management (PM) team based in rural area
  • Less personal contact with external parties.
  • Lower participation grade of the project team.
  • Have experience of working online in rural area
  • Daily email contact
Flawed accounting by project actions
  • Misuse of allocated funds
  • Establish clear administrative guidelines.
  • Expenses only paid on proof of official invoice or out-of-pocket expenses.
  • Agripo accounting processes proven and experienced in cross-continental transfers
Over- or under-utilisation of the budget
  • Unexpected costs
  • Underestimate the work necessary for the volunteer groups to manage their side of the budget
  • Experience in budget and project requirements
  • Ask for and assess budgets before releasing money
  • Country specific amounts are expected to average out
Part 2: External
Socio political resistance to the project
  • Project participants and volunteers or volunteer groups threatened;
  • Second iteration, villages well-known by the population
  • Motivation for each theme has included a discussion around possible  risks and challenges
  • In such cases, lower the level of noise around the project; get departmental or celebrity buy-in.
Environment around open access or media unsafe or insecure
  • Project stalled or in jeopardy;
  • Project draws negative attention
  • Watch for early warning signs
  • Devise alternative course of action including working with country diaspora or external branches of the country partners (content and network)
Being able to find or activate enough volunteers for Wikimedia activity in each country
  • limited contributions from each country
  • weak or poor reach of local volunteer groups
  • Reach out to aligned open organisations, subject interested networks, and groups interested in wikipedia
  • Access organisations and individuals through each country’s diaspora
Problems with connectivity and electrical supply
  • inability to host events to drive contribution or upload media
  • inability to report on activities or update information in time
  • Provide quick fix, simple communications solutions specific to local problem like mobile phone alternative
  • Provide off-line training tools and processes
  • Provide protocol for delivery of material to connected sites for batch upload.
Wild exchange rate fluctuations in currency
  • Money in at one rate not possible to cover budget out at another
  • Agripo will pay the cost of fluctuation of the foreign currency and they pay attention that budgets are met as close to expectation as possible.

Budget

edit

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

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
Category Item description Number of units Unit Unit price Budget (euros) Comment
1 Project staffing Project manager months 6 250 1500
2 Project staffing Community manager months 6 100 600 Partial time job
3 Communication Design identity and communication per item 1 500 500
4 Communication In-country communication per item 10 100 1000
5 Communication Travel for in country communication per item 10 50 500
6 Communication Internet connexion 6 50 300
7 Events Ceremony general cost 1000 1000 Rent, travel of local awarded contributors, drinks etc.)
8a First Prize Covered by AGRIPO and its local support 1500 1500
8b Others Prizes general cost 2500 2500
9 Judges/Partners Follow up and selection general cost 6 200 1200 Jury activities are financially supported by judges/partners
10 Additional elements Contingency general cost 1000 1000
Total 11400


Total cost of project
11 400 euros = 12 958 dollars
Total amount requested from the Project and Event Grants program
9 000 USD
Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded
3958 USD by AGRIPO and its supports. Part of the operational aspect of this project is funded by utilising existing resources at AGRIPO. Additional financing will be sourced via national sponsors.

Non-financial requirements

edit

See a description of non-financial assistance available. Please inform the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) of any requests for non-financial assistance now.

Requests for non-financial assistance, if any
  • There will be a need to use the CentralNotice in Cameroon over the writing contest time period
  • Will need technical assistance for correct tagging with the upload wizard
  • Some assistance with statistics for reporting would be brilliant
  • Visibility on WMF communication channels (eg, WMF blog, Wikipedia logo, etc.)

New Budget on June 4th

edit

The new budget has 2 sources of payment for Prizes. The first and highest prize of 1500 euros will be supported by AGRIPO and its local support. The smallest prize ( 4 based on quality of articles) and the others prize on highest quantity of qualified articles (respect of wikipedia rules) could be supported by WMF grants. We also reduce the cost of ceremony prize which include the travel of local awarded contributors.

Project budget table
Category Item description Number of units Unit Unit price Budget (euros) Comment
1 Project staffing Project manager months 6 250 1500
2 Project staffing Community manager months 6 100 600 Partial time job
3 Communication Design identity and communication per item 1 500 500
4 Communication In-country communication per item 10 100 1000
5 Communication Travel for in country communication per item 10 50 500
6 Communication Internet connexion 6 50 300
7 Events Ceremony general cost 1000 1000 Rent, travel of local awarded contributors, drinks etc.)
8a First Prize Per item 1 1500 1500 Covered by AGRIPO and its local support
8b Others Prizes general cost 2500 2500 For these prizes, each prize has a value of less than 500 USD
9 Judges/Partners Follow up and selection general cost 6 200 1200 Jury activities are financially supported by judges/partners
10 Additional elements Contingency general cost 1000 1000
Total 11400


Total cost of project
11 400 euros = 12 958 dollars
Total amount requested from the Project and Event Grants program
9 000 USD

Discussion

edit

Community notification

edit

You are responsible for notifying relevant communities of your proposal, so that they can help you! Depending on your project, notification may be most appropriate on a village pump, talk page, mailing list. Please paste a link below to where the relevant communities have been notified of this proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips?

Community will be notified by
  •   Done Email sent out to the African Wikimedians list
  •   Done Email sent out to the francophone list
  • Information twitted and facebooked

Endorsements

edit

Do you think this project should be selected for a Project and Event Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

  • I am really looking forward to see all villages of Cameroon on Wikipedia. It is ridiculous that the world is not there and evidences demonstrate that uploading villages and places has a great impact on contributions and in making people feel Wikipedia do represent them, anywhere they are. great idea to work on this topic! thanks! --iopensa (talk) 15:46, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
  • These are extremely ambitious targets but considering the very low quantity of content available out there, not at all unrealistic. Extremely good value for money. Stephane (talk) 14:27, 17 May 2016 (UTC)

Final report

edit
 
Awards of Wikivillages_of_Cameroon

Hi iopensa and Stephane. The final report is ready.

For grantees

If you are the grantee or representative that wrote this grant submission, you may request changes by using these links:

Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grants:PEG/Agripo/WikiVillages_du_Cameroun&oldid=16496584"