Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Promoting Open Knowledge practices in African Libraries through WikiData/Midpoint Report

Midterm Learning Report

Report Status: Accepted

Due date: 2023-01-25T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Wikimedia Alliances Fund

Report type: Midterm

Application Final Learning Report

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General information

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This form is for organizations receiving Wikimedia Community Funds (General Support) or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their mid-term learning and results. See the Wikimedia Alliances Fund application if you want to review the initial proposal.

  • Name of Organization: African Library and Information Associations and Institutions
  • Title of Proposal: Promoting Open Knowledge practices in African Libraries through WikiData
  • Amount awarded: 60000 USD, 450600 GHS
  • Amount spent: 93366 GHS

Part 1 Understanding your work

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1. Briefly describe how your strategies and activities proposed were implemented and if any changes to what was proposed are worth highlighting?

Taking on Wikimedians who will drive the project as Course Manager/English Facilitator, French Facilitator and a curriculum development expert on Wikidata for libraries, archives and museums in Africa was a major strategy for attaining the goals of the project. We had envisaged that advertising and bringing in a such personnel in for African library, archives and museum professionals would be as easy. It was most challenging. We reached out when we did not receive a single application for a curriculum development expert on Wikidata. The Community Programs and GLAm and Culture Teams of the Wikimedia Foundation provided valuable direction and guidance that saw us discussing with Wikidata experts across the globe. Eventually, we took on a team for curriculum development of the course as advised as we could not find one person in Africa who could really do all that was required. The WMF Teams also advised that we use the Learning Circle model in teaching the course so that people can get grounded well enough instead of teaching them a little and 'throwing' them out to do editathons. This was based on the fact that Wikidata is much different from Wikipedia and that the participants will need more attention.The following were taken on:

Alice Kibombo - course manager Abel Mbula - French Facilitator Georges Fodouop(French) and Jesse Akorfi (English) will develop the curriculum working with Alice and Abel.

The team has developed the content and minor clean-up is ongoing before it is publicly accessible but it can be viewed here - https://docs.google.com/document/d/105Wa72TZc2vyNQLoKgHk3htyN6Tn7bCqv-7cFHTq7LI/edit?usp=sharing

A major activity of the project is the admission of at least 200 librarians from 20 African countries to go through the course. The call has opened and 550+ library, archives and museum professionals from 33 African countries and from 3 non-African countries have applied. The course may have up to 3 Cohorts as it stands for now.

2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you feel are being effective in achieving your goals?

The most effective strategy employed within this period was seeking for and getting guidance from WMF Teams when we were stuck within the first 4-6weeks.

Also, operating from the understanding that we were charting new terrains assisted us in accepting guidance and imbibing new pathways especially in designing the course curriculum and structure. The idea of the Learning circle for deepening learning experience has been inculcated into the course. Targeted dissemination of information served us well as we have been able to get responses to the course from 33 countries in Africa and three outside the continent.

3. What challenges or obstacles have you encountered so far?

It was most challenging when we did not get a single application for the post of a curriculum development consultant on Wikidata from Africa. Extra time was given yet no application was received. It took discussions across the globe with many wikimedians to overcome the hurdle. Eventually a team of great African Wikimedians from Uganda, D. R. Congo, Camroon and Ghana with complementary skill-set were brought in so that they can pull their tacit and expressed knowledge about Wikidata, libraries, archives and museums together.

4. Please describe how different communities are participating and being informed about your work.

AfLIA has been able to share information about the project widely through targeted social media posts and African WIkimedians mailing list. Wikimedia Deutschland has indicated interest in the course and to better understand how it works and how African librarians are going to engage with the content.

User Group DR Congo will provide data support to library, archives and museum professionals in their country who are a part of the course. The call for participation was widely disseminated and we have applications from Algeria, Benin Republic, Botswana, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo - Kinshasa, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe. Here are links to some of the targeted social media posts;

https://twitter.com/AfLIACon/status/1594617075925917696

https://twitter.com/AfLIACon/status/1548968920677236738

https://twitter.com/AfLIACon/status/1538916887039512579 https://www.facebook.com/groups/510853778990224/permalink/5163244713751084/?mibextid=Nif5oz

https://www.facebook.com/groups/510853778990224/permalink/5175310182544537/?mibextid=Nif5oz

https://www.facebook.com/groups/510853778990224/permalink/5804336972975185/?mibextid=Nif5oz

https://www.facebook.com/groups/WikiLibrary/permalink/2442265302601107/?mibextid=Nif5oz

https://www.facebook.com/groups/WikiLibrary/permalink/2386721084822196/?mibextid=Nif5oz

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wikidata.glam/permalink/5306556466113741/?mibextid=nif5oz

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wikidata.GLAM/permalink/5122029907899732/?mibextid=Nif5oz

5. Please share reflections on how your efforts are helping to engage participants and/or build content, particularly for underrepresented groups.

AfLIA always tries to ensure fair opportunity in all her programmes and activities. Participation in the training programme would be open for all and will not discriminate against any underrepresented groups.
  • Content for the course was created to reflect African realities especially the examples that were drawn from Wikimedia platforms
  • .The call for participation in the course clearly asks would-be participants to identify if they identify as disabled. So far nine(9) have identified as disabled. Arrangements would be made to accommodate them and ensure that they are disadvantaged in any way in engaging with the course.
  • Also, participants were asked to declare their gender so that the proper pronouns can be used for them.

6. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What have you learned so far about these areas during this period?

A survey will be done once the participants are admitted into the course to determine their level of skills for opening up knowledge about their collections on Wikidata.Another evaluation will be run at the end of training to see if learning objectives were adequately met. However preliminary findings of focus group discussions with librarians in the five regions of Africa showed a low level of understanding of linked data and how to use it to map knowledge.

7. What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your work?

The first half of the project was spent getting the wikimedians that will drive the project and creating course content that will serve the intended purpose. .

The second half will be spent running the developed course and measuring the effectiveness of the content as professionals from libraries, archives and museums engage with it as well as mapping knowledge and creating visibility of the collections of African libraries, museums and archives these through Wikidata.

Part 2: Metrics

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8a. Open and additional metrics data.

Open Metrics
Open Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
N/A N/A N/A 581 Our target is to get 200 participants for the course. The call for participation in the course was opened on Tuesday, 24th January, 2023. Five hundred and forty information professionals have indicated interest in the course. As estimated, we have a 40-60% male-female gender distribution of intending participants from English speaking countries and 65-35% male-female gender distribution of intending participants from French speaking countries. No one identified as another gender. Only 9 identified as being disabled. Approximately 45% have had experience in editing Wikipedia and had participated in African Librarians Week and/or were a part of the Wikipedia in African Libraries course and out of this group, only about 20% has experienced physical training for Wikimedia projects. Approximately 45% of the intending participants have postgraduate degrees, 50% have first degrees, 4% have diplomas about 1% are students. The data is gotten from the spreadsheet analysis of the responses to the AfLIA Wikidata Online Course Registration. The call for the course registration opened on 24th January and the responses analyzed are those that came in between 24th - 27th January (12h00) GMT. The call will remain open until 7th February 2023 (24h00) GMT.
N/A N/A N/A 30 Our target is to get 200 participants from 20 African countries. Intending participants are from 33 countries namely: Algeria, Benin Republic, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon (English and French), Congo Kinshasa, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

There is also an intending participant from United Arabs Emirate, another from Germany and another from Brazil.

The data is gotten from the spreadsheet analysis of the responses to the AfLIA Wikidata Online Course Registration. The call for the course registration opened on 24th January and the responses analyzed are those that came in between 24th - 27th January (12h00) GMT. The call will remain open until 7th February 2023 (24h00) GMT.
N/A N/A N/A 0 No activities have been organized as the call for participation in the course opened on 24th January, 2023.
N/A N/A N/A 0 No data yet. No activities have been organized as the call for participation in the course opened on 24th January, 2023.
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Additional Metrics
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

8b. Additional core metrics data.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants The project will train at least 200 African library and information professionals. The participants will be from at least 20 African countries. We project that a number of these participants will be returning participants who primarily participated in the Wikipedia in African Libraries project (WikiAfLibs) project. These cohorts have demonstrated significant interest in expanding knowledge and deepening understanding of Wikimedia projects for the purposes of career development and effective library service delivery to their user communities (patrons). The returning participants may not be necessarily new to participating in Wikimedia events however, for most of them, this will be the first time they will be taken through a coordinated in-depth training on Wikidata, as a resource, its applicability and relevance to librarians or libraries in Africa. The project will encourage and ensure significant participation by females. By estimation, we are targeting a 40-60% male-female gender distribution of the participants.

Returning participants: 70-100 participants New participants: 70-100 participants Female participants - About 120 Male participants - About 80

200
Number of editors The project expects to produce at least 200 editors who will create and improve contents on Wikidata. The editors will be from about 20 African countries. Following the findings and learnings from the Wikipedia in African Libraries (WikiAfLIbs) project, we project that a good number of people who participated will constitute the bulk of returning editors. It is however important to highlight that even though the returning editors may not be necessarily new to contributing on Wikimedia projects, for most of them, this will be the first time they will be taken through a coordinated in-depth training on Wikidata, as a resource, its applicability and relevance to librarians or libraries in Africa. Further, the majority of participants will, for the first time, gain the knowledge and skills to specifically contribute to Wikidata through this project. The project is also targeting a 40-60% male-female gender distribution of the number of editors to be developed.

Returning editors on Wikidata: 50-100 editors New editors on Wikidata: 100 - 150 editors Female editors - About 120 Male editors - About 80

200
Number of organizers The project will involve development of education content, training and organization of outreach activities and workshops. As part of the course, participants will be assigned to at least 20 project groups (made up of 10 members each) and tasked to organize at least 20 Wikidata edit-athons, as mini-projects. The project groups will be expected to champion the planning and mobilization of new contributors for participation during the edit-athons.

For each edit-athon, the project envisages 1 project team for planning, publicity and recruitment of trainers, 2 coordinators (Course Managers), 2 resource persons who will provide training. The coordinator will provide the needed advisory and supervisory role for the edit-athon, including an oversight responsibility for all the campaigns that will be set up on the Wikimedia Outreach Dashboard. The project implementation committee will also offer the needed support, as and when needed. The edit-athons will be hybrid events involving virtual and in-person training sessions. AfLIA, through the grant will facilitate the logistical, human and financial resource support for organizing these outreaches. Concerning training, the project also hopes to involve not less than 5 Wikimedians, besides the course manager, to serve as guest speakers/trainers to handle selected topics within the course to be developed. The project implementation committee together with the Course Manager will organize the proposed pre-conference workshop. Speaking sessions will include at least 2 renowned African Wikimedians well versed in Wikidata.

50
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Wikidata The project ultimately seeks to build a pool of African library and information professionals who will contribute to and improve content on Wikidata, especially contents related to Africa. By the end of the project, we estimate that approximately 1000 new items would have been created whereas 1300 existing items would have been improved (measured as total edits). Statistics on the number of new content contributions will be obtained via the overall dashboard that will be created to track contributions of course participants as well as other contributors during the proposed edit-athons. 2300 N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

9. Are you having any difficulties collecting data to measure your results?

It is not envisaged that there will be problems with data collection for this project. Already the dashboard for French and English speaking participants have been set up;

https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/African_Library_and_Information_Associations_and_Institutions/AFLIA_Wikidata_Project_-_English?enroll=EWDAflia


https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/African_Libraries_and_Information_Associations_and_Institutions/AFLIA_Wikidata_Project_-_French?enroll=FWDAflia

  • Baseline and endline survey of the participants will be taken at the beginning and end of each cohort
  • Data will be collated from attendee logs for virtual training sessions, and registration form
  • A learner assessment report by Course Manager,
  • Moodle platform and Learner activity logs

10. Are you collaborating and sharing learning with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?

Partially

10a. Please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how?

We had reached out to User groups in Nigeria and Uganda during the conceptualization stage of the project. We had shared information about the project across different communities all over Africa. We intend to run at least one webinar to share lessons from the project with the User groups in Africa as the primary target audience. Presentations will also be made at the 2023 WikiIndaba and the next Wikimedia + Libraries conference on the challenges, outcomes of the project

11. Documentation of your work process, story, and impact.

  • Below there is a section to upload files, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g. communications materials, blog posts, compelling quotes, social media posts, etc.). This can be anything that would be useful to understand and show your learning and results to date (e.g., training material, dashboards, presentations, communications material, training material, etc).
  • Below is an additional field to type in link URLs.
AfLIA has shared information about the project severally through many platforms. Below are some of the links to the information shared;

https://web.aflia.net/aflia-receives-a-grant-for-promoting-open-knowledge-practices-in-african-libraries-through-wikidata/ https://web.aflia.net/job-opening-wikidata-course-manager-facilitator/ https://web.aflia.net/job-opening-french-facilitator-for-wikidata-course/ https://web.aflia.net/job-opening-curriculum-development-consultant-2/ https://web.aflia.net/aflia-takes-on-four-wikimedians-for-the-wikidata-project/ https://web.aflia.net/aflia-wikidata-online-course-registration-now-open/

Part 3: Financial reporting and compliance

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12. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

93366

13. Local currency type

GHS

14. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

  • Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
  • Provide links to your financial reporting documents.

15. Based on your implementation and learning to date, do you have any plans to make changes to the budget spending?

Yes

15a. Please provide an explanation on how you hope to adjust this.

The response to the project is overwhelming. We estimated that we will enroll 200 participants from 20 African countries for the course. Already, more than 500 have asked to participate in the course from 32 African countries. The lifespan of the project will need to be extended so that we can have between 3-4 Cohorts. This will mean retaining the Course Manager/English Facilitator and the French Facilitator for extra 3-4monts. Already, we had to adjust the budget to take on a curriculum development team instead of just one person, thus the present budget cannot bear further strecthing. We will apply for an extension as well as extra funds.

16. We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on how the experience of being a grantee has been so far.

Being a grantee of the Wikimedia Foundation means keeping your eyes and your mind open for collaborations and inputs from within and outside one's circle that can help you achieve the objectives of the project.