Grants:PEG/Ravidreams - Tamil Wikimedians/TamilWiki 10 years

Funded

This submission to the Project and Event Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2013-14. This is a grant to an organization.

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Basic information

Grant details

Project details

Official project name: Tamil Wikipedia 10 years celebrations
Project start date (include month, day, and year): 1 September 2013
Project completion date (include month, day, and year): 31 may 2014
Please describe the project in 1–2 sentences: Tamil Wikipedia is a leading Indian language Wikipedia. We are celebrating its 10 years by organizing a first international Wiki meetup of Tamil Wikipedians and a year long essay contest and outreach activities.

Financial details

Currency requested: Indian Rupees
Amount requested in currency requested: 1,98,400.00
Equivalent amount in US$ on the date of this submission: ~ 3,100.00
List the exchange rate used to calculate the amount listed in US$: http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter/#from=INR;to=USD;amt=198400 on 23 August 2013

Grantee details

What is the official name of the organization requesting this grant?: Tamil Wikipedians
Are you an organization, an individual, or an individual submitting on behalf of a group?: Individual submitting on behalf of Tamil Wikipedians. The community page for this grant request is here.

Contact information

Primary contact name: Ravishankar Ayyakkannu
Primary contact username or email: ravidreams@gmail.com
Primary contact title (position within the organization): Bureaucrat user, Tamil Wikipedia

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

Project lead name: Natkeeran Kanthan
Project lead username or email: mailto:natkeeran@gmail.com
Project lead title (position), if any: Bureaucrat user, Tamil Wikipedia

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

To commemorate 10 years of Tamil Wikipedia and strengthen Tamil Wikipedia community and its outreach efforts.

Measures of success

We would deem these celebrations a success, if

at least 100 active Wikipedians and enthusiasts attend the conference, including participants from Sri Lanka and Malaysia;
at least 15 mainstream media articles are published highlighting Wikimedia projects;
a detailed documentation of ideas/issues/strategies/policies discussed at the conference is produced;
the active contributor count is maintained around 300 or above consistently;
500 important articles that should be present in each Wikipedia are expanded from their current stub form.

Project scope and activities

These celebrations include three major parts:

International Tamil Wikimedians meetup for two days during September 28, 29 (2013)

We are planning a two day meetup of Tamil Wikipedians during September 28 and 29. So far there has been no single major international event that brought all Tamil Wikimedians under one roof. This gathering can be thought of as a WikiConference for Tamil Wikimedians.

We expect around 40 core Tamil Wikimedians from India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, UAE and Canada to attend this event besides fellow Wikimedians from other Indian language communities, Wikimedia India chapter and organizations like CIS A2k which work towards a common goal. More than hundred participants are expected to attend the 2nd day evening event. A good number of these will be like-minded people from the academia, press and other FOSS projects.

The first day of this gathering will be marked by a tour to places of cultural interest in and around Chennai. The objective is for the participants to get to know each other, engage in informal brainstorming and also to capture as many snapshots for Wikimedia Commons as possible.

The second day will have two sessions. In the morning, there will be tutorials for Tamil Wikimedians. In the evening, there will be a public event to celebrate the 10 years of Tamil Wikimedia.

An ongoing 12 month long essay contest

We are running a 12 month-long essay contest that aims to improve the quality of 1000 most important articles that each Wikipedia should have. The contest has already started in June 2013. The first month saw improvement for over 100 articles and the essay contest has brought in many new contributors to Tamil Wiki.

Offline outreach efforts

Commemorating Tamil Wikipedia's 10 years, we plan to do a few offline outreach efforts:

Tamil Wikipedia T-shirts to spread awareness about the Tamil version of Wikipedia and to give a sense of belonging and pride for the Tamil Wikimedians.
Releasing a stamp through Indian Postal Service for Tamil Wikipedia. This is a symbolic effort which also helps to document Tamil Wikipedia's presence in a traditional way.
Printing a handbook with guidelines for contributing to Tamil Wikipedia. This handbook will be distributed to all participants during outreach events.
We are collaborating with ThaiVeedu (thaiveedu.com) newspaper in Canada to bring out a serious of Wikipedia user written articles about Wikimedia projects and themes. We are encouraging and engaging various other media to publish articles.

Budget and resources

Project budget table

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Cost per unit	Total cost in INR	Total cost in USD (approximate)	Notes
1	Conference Hall	Conference hall for second day celebrations				17,330	276
2	Accommodation	Twin sharing rooms for two days				23,460	374	Most of the prospective participants are from the city and are willing to share their rooms for guests.
3	Travel	Travel scholarships		11		40,800	651	9 scholarships each at 1,200 INR for participants from India; 2 scholarships each at 15,000 INR for participants from Sri Lanka.
4	Food	Snacks and Tea for 200 people for second day evening session.				7,050	112	We are saving on the food budget by going dutch for the two day event.
5	Felicitation Certificates	Certificates for 100 active contributors recognizing their contribution for the last 10 years	100 certificates printed and laminated	100	80	8,000	128
6	Cultural tour	Tourist bus to carry 50+ persons.	1 Tourist bus	1	7,500	7,500	120
7	Essay contest prizes	12 first prizes, 12 second prizes, 12 special prizes and 2 championship prizes. Championship prize will be 3000 INR (~45 USD), first prize will be 1000 INR (~15 USD) while second and special prizes will be 500 INR (~7 USD) each.	Cash prize			30,000	478
8	Essay contest certificates and postage	Certificates for contest winners	1 certificate	40 certificates	25	1,000	16
9	Media outreach	For arranging a press meet.				6,300	100
10	T-shirts	Custom designed T-shirt highlighting Tamil Wikipedia.	1 T-shirt	60 T-shirts	252	9,120	145	Actual cost is 15,120 INR. We received a sponsor of 6,000 INR towards T-shirt production from a Tamil Wikipedian.
11	Professional photography and videos	Videos and photograph expenses related to covering the event and creating promotional materials for Tamil Wikimedia projects.				37,840	603	The videos and photos will be used for promotional and documentation purposes. Actual cost is 60,000 INR. Remaining cost will be arranged through alternative funding source outside WMF grant.
12	Miscellaneous					11,000	175	reserves and unexpected costs

(Assuming 1 USD = 62.72 INR based on the value on 24 November 2013)

Total cost of project: 1,99,400 INR; ~US$3178

Total amount requested from the WMF Grants Program: 1,99,400 INR; ~US$3178

Non-financial requirements

Requests for non-financial assistance

Permission for use of Wikimedia logo and brand in outreach efforts.
Supply of Wikipedia branding souvenirs like stickers etc.,
A blog post in Wikimedia blog regarding the ten year growth of Tamil Wikipedia.

Resources

Team members

Coordinators

Community consensus

The relevant RFC and discussion where community consensus was reached is here.

Experience conducting similar successful events

We have successfully conducted two events before:

The 2010 Tamil Wikipedia article contest during 2010.< Media reports about this contest can be seen 1,200 here and here. This was a state wide contest involving thousands of students and was held in partnership with the State Government of Tamilnadu, India. This was organized on the occasion of International Tamil Internet conference. We also conducted a three day long Tamil Wikipedia and Internet workshop for thousands of people visiting the conference.

Tamil Wiki Media contest during 2011. Please see the Wikimedia blog post about this contest here.

Tami WikiMedia Contest added more than 15000 images and videos to the Commons. It helped to increase the profile of Tamil Wikipedia and accelerate the growth of Tamil sister wiki projects. Building on that experience, we decided to organize an essay contest to commemorate the 10 years of Tamil Wikipedia.

Impact

Fit to strategy

Participation and Community: This public celebration of the ten years of growth of Tamil Wikipedia will help us strengthen the community, review our progress and plan our future. The conference will help create a better environment for collaboration, particularly in resolving policy differences. This is very important considering the different cultural and historical backgrounds of international Tamil speaking communities.
Increase Reach: The meetup will provide an excellent outreach opportunity to popularize Tamil Wikimedia projects through the mainstream media, social media and direct outreach. The meetup will attract the general public, the academia, Tamil enthusiasts, professionals, journalists and well-wishers, raising awareness and drawing a considerable number of active contributors to Tamil Wikipedia. This fits well with the Vision 2015 Global South Strategy.
Quality Content: The essay contest will help us improve the quality of the most important articles that should be present in each Wikipedia.
Credibility: Putting faces to names behinds the Tamil Wiki projects will add to the credibility of Wikimedia projects. Conference will also provide many opportunities for general public, press and active contributors to ask questions and seek clarifications regarding the inner workings of Tamil Wikimedia projects.

Benefits

If the project will benefit a specific online community, please tell us.: These celebrations will specifically benefit Tamil Wikipedia and all Tamil Wikimedia projects in general. The handbook will help attract contributors for all Tamil Wikimedia projects. The two day Wiki meetup will help exchange of ideas and know how between contributors active in different Tamil Wikimedia projects. The pictures captured during the cultural trip will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons that can be used by any Wikimedia project.

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, organizational development, editor retention, or outreach?: The ongoing essay contest has prompted existing veteran editors to contribute more with specific focus. We are also seeing new contributors writing exclusively for the essay contest. Based on our past experience with organizing small meetups, we expect to see increased contributor activity and community bonding after the two day Wiki meetup. We are very active in organizing regular Wiki workshops and the new handbook will help us make our efforts more consistent.

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.: By organizing a self running contest, a hand guide that can be translated and a minimalistic international Wiki meetup, we hope to set a format that other small Wikipedias can follow. It will be a good example for most of the Indian and other language Wikipedias that will celebrate 10 years.

For grantees

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