Grants:PEG/Hari Prasad Nadig - Wikimedians in Mysore/Wikipedia 10 Mysore/Report

Template:Grant report/Final/Submitted before january 2012

Project Goal:

Outreach about Wikimedia projects.
Bringing the public interested in Wikimedia projects together with the community on 10th celebration and to spread awareness about Wikipedia and its sister projects.

Description of actual activities:

Welcome note: (10 mins)

The 10th celebration and outreach program was initiated by Vinay Parameswarappa with a welcome note to the audience.

Introduction:

Hari Prasad Nadig gave an introduction to Wikipedia, its sister projects, Wikimedia foundation and its objectives. The focus right after that was on how Kannada language projects were faring. (30 mins)

break: A sweet from Mysore famous as the 'Mysore Pak' was distributed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia. (15 mins)

Editing HOWTO:

Wikipedia:

Dr. Pavanaja gave a walk through on how to edit on Wikipedia, answering queries of editors and newbies in the Q & A session right after the walkthrough. The walkthrough covered basics of getting started on Kannada Wikipedia.

Wiktionary:

Kiran B R gave a walk through of Kannada Wiktionary and walked the audience through the present community, edits and policies on Kannada Wiktionary.

Licenses:

Lokesh gave an introduction to licenses with focus on Creative Commons.

Panel Discussion:

Dr Pavanaja, Dr Chidananda Gowda, Lokesh, Kiran and Rakesh were in the panel. Hari Prasad Nadig was the moderator.

The discussion was on:

How to attract more users and contributors as volunteers to Kannada Wikipedia?

Post-lunch:

Hands-on workshop on editing Wikipedia and Wiktionary:

Participants were in the computer lab of JSSCMS to learn how to get started with editing on Wiki. Few participants started with Kannada Wiktionary while others started on Kannada Wikipedia. There was interest in editing Kannada Wikisource and Kannada Wikiquote as well. Volunteers helped the participants by clearing their doubts as many started contributing for the first time.

What lessons were learned that could help others succeed in similar projects?

The hands-on workshop was something we had not planned for previously. Luckily, on the day of the event, the professor of the department was keen and kind enough to offer us the lab for a hands-on editing session. It was then scheduled for the noon. The session turned out to be very useful for most participants and got them craving to edit.

However, the volunteers who had worked pretty hard running up to the event and the entire morning on the day of the event were quite exhausted and drained. It was tough on them answering the numerous questions the participants seemed to have which they did with plenty of patience and enthusiasm. If we organize an event similar to this again, we would probably plan an exclusive editing session preferably for a day and push the other activities before or after this.

What impact did the project have on WMF mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?

More than 56 people participated out of which there were students, women, teachers, journalists and linguists. The participants got a hands-on demo on how to participate by editing on Wikipedia. They created their user accounts and started editing. Many were keen to take part in movement and excited to share this with their freinds, class-mates or colleagues. This was encouraging for the volunteers who organized the event with passion and commitment. Mysore has a slowly growing community of Wikimedians, the project helped bring them together and to strengthen the community. Participation by women was encouraging as well.

Photos:

Report on Ten Wikipedia:

http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysore

Media reports:

Volunteers who helped make this possible:

User:HPN
User:wineye
User:Anilalur
Pavanaja U B
Kiran Ravikumar
Prashanth
User:Rock_mys
Suma Nadig
Vikas Kothari
Shamanth B.V

Detail of expenditures:

WMF has requested receipts or documentation of expenditures, but the grantee has not yet provided this, or requested information is still missing.

A request for reallocation of remaining funds has been submitted by the grantee and approved by WMFon the discussion page of this grant report.

Remaining funds have been used or will be used for other approved mission-aligned activities. This use has been requested in writing and approved by WMF.

Total Funds approved: $500
Funds Received: INR 22175 (@44.35 per USD)

(All expenses in INR)
Pre-event expenses – planning, press notification: 357 INR
Food for the particpants (during the event): 9440 INR
Print-outs, Banners and related expenses: 1337.69 INR
Auditorium maintenance fee: 2500 INR
Travel, food and stay of volunteers: 4999 INR
Miscellaneous: 2417.5 INR

Total: 21,051.19

Amount underspent in US Dollars:

$25.3

Will you be requesting re-allocation of remaining grant funding?

Yes, for use during other Outreach activities for Wikimedia Kannada projects.