Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Edo History Write-a-thon:Filling the Wikipedia Content Gap (ID: 21913873)

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Applicant Details edit

Please provide your main Wikimedia Username.

Omorodion1

Please provide the Usernames of people related to this proposal.

Nosakhare Okuons, InspirePhotos and Omorodion1

Organization

N/A

Are you a member of any Wikimedia affiliate or group, including informal groups like Wiki Fan Clubs, emerging language communities, not recognized Wikimedia groups etc.? Please list them all.

Yes. I am a member of:

1. Wikimedia Usergroup Nigeria

2. Wikimedia+Libraries Usergroup

3. Wikimedians for Sustainable Development

4. Edo Wikimedia Hub

5. Port Harcourt Wikimedia Hub

6. Nigerian Wikibrarian Community

Grant Proposal edit

M. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.

Edo History Write-a-thon:Filling the Wikipedia Content Gap

Q. Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries? (optional)

Local

Q2. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

R. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has.

1. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important.

Edo State is home to several ethnic groups, including the Binis, Esan, Etsako, Owan, Akoko-Edo, Ijaws and many others. The people from the state were widely known in the 19th Century for their bronze making, bas-relief sculptures, life-size head sculptures, wood and ivory making amongst others. Their artistic works possess great value and significance, such that many of them are currently being displayed in many museums in Europe, including the British Museum.

Despite the uniqueness and value of the Edo culture, there seems to be a wide content gap about the culture and traditions of the Edo People on Wikipedia. A content analysis of Edo related pages on Wikipedia revealed a significant content gap. Many important subjects of Edo History and culture are missing from Wikipedia. Some of them include the Ten Blessings of Igue Festival, Benin-Idah War, Uzama, Benin Traditional Council, Ada and Eben, Ancient Gates of Benin Kingdom, Queen Iden and many others. These subjects would easily pass the Wikipedia notability test, yet, there are no pages on them in Wikipedia. More worrisome is the fact that a lot of the information are not available in open platforms and this further makes accessibility to the information difficult.

Given the existing gap, I would like to organize an Edo History write-a-thon where historians, elder statesmen and those with knowledge and interest in Edo history and culture, will write and create pages of Edo history on Wikipedia, with the objective of closing the existing content gap. This will help to properly document the endangered Edo culture and history, as well as promote open access to the same for educational, research and reference purposes. See the link below for list of important subjects that can be created during the write-a-thon. (Please note that the link is still being updated)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rCg705EvQYX2xJ49C1b1c1YymLKHsMRrwm4DBubswvw/edit?usp=sharing

2. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

The main strategy for achieving the changes proposed in this project is to build the capacity of historians, elder statesmen and indigenes of Edo State so they can be well positioned to write accurate and unbiased information about their history and culture on Wikipedia. I believe capacity building is one way to empower the people so they can tell their story without bias. I strongly believe this will work because, I have in the past, benefited from AfLIA Wiki capacity building projects which empowered me to create and improve Wikipedia contents as well as organize Wikimedia activities in my state (Edo). Furthermore, to successfully organize a write-a-thon, it is important for participants to be skilled in editing and creating Wikipedia pages.

3. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

For this project to be successful, the following activities will be carried out:

1. A call for volunteers will be made on different Edo related social media groups to enable us to recruit more Edo indigenes and native Edo language speakers.

2. Awareness and sensitization will be carried out on the use of Wikipedia and Sisters project to promote open knowledge with respect to Edo history and culture.

3. Organize an in-person Wikipedia training for Edo historians, elder statesmen, native Edo language speakers, as well as for people knowledgeable in Edo history and culture.

4. Organize two in-person write-a-thons focused on Edo people, history and culture so as to fill the Wikipedia content gap

5. Add recruited volunteers to the Edo Wikimedia Hub to ensure growth and sustainability

6. Create an outreach dashboard to monitor and track the participants` contributions and activities during the training and write-a-thons

7. Create a project Whatsapp group for online/real-time mentoring

8. Improve the list of notable Edo subjects that should be created on Wikipedia, as well as those that need improvement. This will help participants to know what to write etc

4. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign or event? If so, please select the relevant campaign below. If so, please select all the relevant campaigns from the list below. If "other", please state which.

Art+Feminism, Wiki Loves Africa, WikiGap

5. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

Yes, I have an experienced team to implement this project. They include:

User: Omorodion1 (Volunteer Project Coordinator and Facilitator) - He is an experienced Wikimedian with a high level of Wikimedia events` coordination experience. User Omorodion1 is a native Edo speaker resident in Edo State. In the past, he has organized an edit-a-thon where over 100 Edo related Wikipedia pages were created/improved. He also organized a photowalk in Edo State where about 100 distinct images were used on relevant Edo related Wikipedia Articles.

User: Nosakhare Okuons (Volunteer Co-Facilitator) - He is an experienced Wikimedian with good knowledge of Edo history and culture. He will be the co-facilitator for this project.

User: InspirePhotos (Volunteer - Publicity and other assigned task) - Inspirephotos is an experienced Wikimedian who will also join this project.

6. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Geography, Language, Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial

6.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.

7. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.

Education, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Human Rights

8. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities?

Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language, Age

9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities?

The target participants for this project are historians, elder statesmen, people with good knowledge of Edo history and culture as well as some members of the Edo Wikimedia Hub. While some of the participants for this project will come from the existing Edo Wikimedia Hub, we hope to, through this project, recruit more native Edo speakers into the Wikimedia community. Hence, a call for volunteers will be made on different Edo platforms and groups on social media. We have equally identified some historians who are willing to participate in the write-a-thon. All interested volunteers will be added to an online group using Whatsapp or Telegram. This will enable the organizers to engage the participants before, during and after the project. It is hoped that some of the newly recruited participants will join the Edo Wikimedia Hub at the end of the project so they can participate in the Hub`s activities.

10. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants?

By actively supporting the Wikimedia friendly and civility policies on and off Wiki. I also uphold these policies in all the Wikimedia events I organize. Additionally, I try to educate newly recruited Wikimedians on the Universal Code of Conduct within the community.

11. Please tell us about how you have let your Wikimedia communities know about the planned activities and this proposal. Use this space to describe the processes you carried out to make the community more involved in planning this proposal. Please link the on-wiki community discussion(s) around the proposals.

I have informed the Wikimedia community in Edo State about this proposal and they are excited about this project. On wiki, I have announced this project in the discussion page of the Edo Wikimedia Hub. You can find the link to the announcement below: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_User_Group_Nigeria/Edo_Wikimedia_Hub#Edo_History_Write-a-thon:_Filling_the_Wikipedia_Content_Gap

12. Are you aware of other Rapid Fund proposals in your local group, community, or region that are being submitted and that align with your proposed project?

No

If yes:

12.1 Did you explore the possibility of doing a joint proposal with other leaders in your group?

N/A

12.2 How will this joint proposal allow you to have better results?

N/A

13. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedia partners to implement this proposal? Required.

No

13.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

14. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of THREE options that most apply.

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Manage Internal Knowledge

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit

15. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

I hope to learn, amongst other things, how much Edo-related information is missing in Wikipedia after the implementation of the project. How many native Edo speakers and Edo residents are willing to continue editing Wikipedia? What are the information needs of Edo Wikimedians etc.

16. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following spaces provided.

Main Open Metrics Data
Main Open Metrics	Description	Target
Number of event	This refers to the minimum number of events for this project (i.e number of training and write-a-thon)	3
Number of Words added	Number of words added to Wikipedia content	15000
Number of Article views	Number of Article views for the project	1000000
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

17. Core quantitative metrics.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics	Description	Target
Number of participants	This refers to the total participants for this project.	40
Number of editors	The total editors for this project will consist of the project organizers and the 40 participants. It is expected that at least 25 of the total participants will be new editors.	43
Number of organizers	the number of persons responsible for organizing the event	3

Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project	Description	Target
Wikipedia	This refers to the number of Edo related Wikipedia article that will be created or improved during the Write-a-thon. While at least 60 new articles will be created during the write-a-thon, at least 140 Edo related Wikipedia articles will be improved.	200
Wikimedia Commons	The total number of images to be added to Commons	50
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

17.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

18. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support.

I will use the outreach dashboard and any other relevant tools to measure the project metrics.

Financial Proposal edit

19. & 19.1 What is the amount you are requesting from Wikimedia Foundation? Please provide this amount in your local currency.

1317914.91 NGN

19.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

3177 USD

20. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1auZ3mUT1GzDpyhYUKf0-0D2_syhe6tbxadK9LtMrKXc/edit?usp=sharing

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

Endorsements and Feedback edit

Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.

Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:

Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).

Endorse