Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Accessible knowledge digitizing Libyan culture/Final Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 15 February 2023
Funding program: Wikimedia Alliances Fund
Report type: Final
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General information
editThis form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results.
- Name of Organization: Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT) Tunisie
- Title of Proposal: Accessible knowledge digitizing Libyan culture
- Amount awarded: 20000.96 USD, 19065.6 EUR
- Amount spent: 30225.42 EUR
Part 1 Understanding your work
edit1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
The program contained 3 main activities, one in Tunisia and two in Libya, each training targeted 10 participants to be trained on how to edit the Arabic Wikipedia. In the first training in Tunisia the training was given by a trainer from the Wikipedia community in Tunisia, the second training was a hybrid where the trainer joined online from Tunisia and two of the previous trainees were assistants on the ground, in the third training we conducted it completely independently by the trainers from the same team. The project was implemented in partnership with Libyan universities: the University of Benghazi, the University of Sirte, and the University of Tripoli. Those who supported the project through teachers trained the participants on how to write an article containing documented information based on facts using scientific research methods, with the aim of raising the quality of the content published about Libya on the Arabic Wikipedia. In addition, we have established a partnership with the University of Leiden from the Netherlands, who are implementing projects in Libya, and the have have co-financed some of the activities, which has helped us shift the format of trainings from online training to in-person training on the ground. This contributed to enhancing the training outcomes and strengthening the relations between the trainees. the main outcomes: 1- 30 trained editors on Arabic Wikipedia. who are effectively working on creating and editing published content about Libya. 2- Established and maintained communication channels between the group of editors, who are participating in other wiki projects whenever they are invited, and were represented in the efforts to establish Libya User-Group on Arabic Wikipedia.3- 3- User guide for new editors in Arabic, created by one of the project's participants, and edited according to the feedback of the group based on their experience as a new editors.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
Partnerships with universities have helped raise the quality of the courses, as the focus is not just on how to upload new content, but on how to create and then upload high quality information. The instructors were present at all trainings, and their knowledge answered participants' questions about sources of information, copyright, and other important details when creating and verifying content. As well as relying on local trainers, from the same group, who developed their knowledge through the project’s activities, it greatly helped to localize knowledge and make it available when needed, as experiences are exchanged between group members through communication groups on WhatsApp. It greatly facilitates the implementation of any training in the future locally, given the difficulty of summoning trainers from outside the country due to the deteriorating security situation locally. Seeking and finding other sources of funding helped conduct the activities personally on the ground, and that was very important in terms of building a group of editors with strong connections, who could participate or organize activities together in the future to strengthen the Wikimedians community in Libya.
3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?
The tendency in general to partner with academics and experts in content creation was unique to this project, and the presence of universities contributed to encouraging participants with a high level of knowledge to apply for the project, as the environment in general was of high and encouraging knowledge quality.
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
Initially, the collaboration in planning the activities was done in coordination with the Wikimedia user group in Tunisia, who contributed to the basic training of the group that later led the activities inside Libya. After establishing the group of editors by creating a space for communication during the project, which continued to function after the end of the trainings, the group was invited to participate in a training organized by the Wikisource group. Then we were also invited to participate in the Wiki-Libya community founding meeting, where the project manager was present at the meeting and talked about the experience as a whole and a number of group members attended the meeting. Most of the project group members want to join the wiki-Libya community, and they aspire to get more involved in the activities of other groups/projects.
5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Neither agree nor disagree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. | Agree |
7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?
Libya is an underrepresented country on the Arabic Wikipedia. Through this project, we worked with research and academic institutions to enhance the content published on Libya, and to raise the level of the publication already by adding, modifying and revising information on the encyclopedia.
Part 2: Your main learning
edit8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
The learning priorities we outlined in our proposal were:
1. Does the impact of the difficult phase of the dictatorship experienced by Libyans still control their desire to know and share facts? This question can be answered on the long term after we publish a large amount of knowledge content capable of creating different narratives of reality and history, and through people's interaction with publications, it is possible to measure how affected by years of restrictions on knowledge they are.
2. Will such initiatives motivate people from socially oppressed groups on cultural, ethnic or linguistic backgrounds to change the narrative around them, encouraging them to improve the social acceptance they need? We have already seen the demand from these groups to participate in activities with the aim of writing about themselves and introducing their history and culture, and some of them have pledged to pass on what they have learned to others close to them with the aim of increasing the number of activie editors on wikipedia who will be able to create a difference together.
3. How can we improve our mechanisms to promote and achieve this type of project? We as North Africa Media Academy are working hard to develop work mechanisms internally to be able to run large projects on a regional level, and this project helped us because of the flexibility and responsivity it required in dealing with the changes it went through in its various stages.
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
The thing that was expected, but not in the way it happened, was the great interaction with the project by academic institutions. Some universities were very much involved in the activities and were interested in knowing the results and how the work was progressing in order to provide support if necessary. We see this interaction as very promising to continue to expand and include more genre editors in the future.
10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?
We plan to continue working on our goal, to enhance accessible knowledge digitizing Libyan culture, and therefore we aim to use the lessons learned from the project to better plan our next activities/projects. We will apply for another fund with WMF as soon as we are eligible to apply, and we aspire to design all activities in a way that serves achieving this goal.
11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?
One of the most inspiring things that happened during the implementation of the project was people’s passion and interest in enhancing the content published about their country, correcting inaccurate information and publishing things that were not known on a regional scale even at the level of neighboring countries, with the aim of creating new narratives about their history and culture that have been obscured for years by dictatorship. This passion was very inspiring.
12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- N/A
Part 3: Metrics
edit13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
13b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | New participant: 30 trainees.
Returning participant: non |
30 | 30 | ||
| Number of editors | The participants are supposed to become editors on Wikipedia | 25 | 30 | All are newly registered users | |
| Number of organizers | planners and coordinators: 2
trainers: 1 teachers: 2 advisors: 1 graphic designer: 1 facilitator: 1 |
8 | 10 | planners and coordinators: 2, trainers: 2, teachers: 4, advisors: ,1 graphic designer: 1 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | We aim to improve 30 articles at least, and create 15 articles at least. | 45 | 150 | By the time the project ended in January we had more than 150 contributions.
The 30 participants in the workshops each of them had to creat a new article on a topic that they like to write about, and they also had to improve contributions already on Wikipedia. During the project all participants used to share their added articles on the communication group we had on WhatsApp, as new added articles we counted arouned 65 new created articles, and more than 85 improved contributions. we believe that the number is bigger now as the process was continuing since then on the indivisuals level. |
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| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?
No
15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.
N/A
16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- N/A
Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships
edit17. Organizational Capacity
| A. Financial capacity and management | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| B. Conflict management or transformation | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| D. Partnership building | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| E. Strategic planning | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| F. Program design, implementation, and management | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation | This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| J. Governance | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| K. Communications, marketing, and social media | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| M. On-wiki technical skills | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| N. Accessing and using data | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| O. Evaluating and learning from our work | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| N/A | |
| N/A |
17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Formal training provided from outside the Wikimedia Movement, Peer to peer learning with other community members in community/ies of practice* (structured and continuous learning and sharing spaces)
17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of staff time to participate in capacity building/training, Lack of volunteer time to participate in capacity building/training, Lack of training that fits contextual needs and interests
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
We faced some difficulties and confusion in managing the financial and administrative operations, especially because we got financing from a third party in the project, and we needed more support to integrate the fund into the project budget more smoothly and effectively, and we could have used more support from the financial experts in WMF.
19. Partnerships over the funding period.
| A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) | Strongly agree |
| B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Permanent staff outreach, Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Local policies or other legal factors
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
The reputation of the Wikimedia Foundation has attracted partnerships, especially with academic and research institutions that share the goals and values of the Foundation, and that aim to provide knowledge in an accessible manner to all. This is in addition to the ability of our organization's management to establish close relationships with partners based on respect, trust and common principles.
Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration
edit21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?
Our organization believes in the right to access information, as it is an inherent right for all people, and the Wikimedia Foundation was and will remain one of the pioneers in this field, and one of the most important workers in achieving this goal in the entire world, so we feel proud to work with Wikimedia, and we will always be proud of our contribution to establishing the first community users group for Arabic Wikipedia in Libya.
22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Somewhat increased
23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
Because everyone we worked with on Wikimedia was so encouraging and welcoming, and they felt a great sense of belonging to the institution, and that feeling was passed on to us through our interactions with them over the course of the project.
24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Somewhat increased
25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
N/A
26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.
N/A
Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration
editWe are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.
27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
Yes
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
We have shared the results of our project through a meeting to establish a group of Arabic Wikipedia users in Libya. This meeting was broadcast live on Facebook and about 45 interested and willing to join the community participated in the meeting. We also published a guide to using Wikipedia for beginners that was completed during the project through our various platforms, and the platforms of project partners from universities and study centers.
28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?
We do this occasionally (less than once a month)
29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?
We were not able to share our experience with other grantees yet, but we hope that our coordination with the group of Wikipedia users in Libya will achieve the required communication with the implementers of similar projects in Libya and facilitate the process of communication and exchange of experiences in the long term.
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance
edit30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
30225.42
31. Local currency type
EUR
32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.
N/A
34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.
36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
37. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.
As mentioned in the final financial report the total amount spent in the project was as follows: 19,065.60 Euro - WMF fund 11,159.82 Euro - Other sources co-fund