Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Say-It-Right:Wikipedia as a tool for preventing mispronunciation of names (ID: 21930417)/Final Report
Report Status: Under review
Due date: 2023-01-30T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Rapid Fund, Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Final
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- Title of Proposal: Say-It-Right:Wikipedia as a tool for preventing mispronunciation of names
- Username of Applicant: OtuNwachinemere
- Name of Organization: N/A
- Amount awarded: 2130
- Amount spent: 2730 USD, 1141850 NGN
Part 1 Understanding your work edit
1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented
We worked as a team to collate a list of names from 5 Nigerian languages (3 major and 2 minority groups) and participants were grouped according to ethnic extraction and interests to contribute through the various language groups. Each group was assigned a leader. Most of the participants were contributing to Wikimedia Commons for the first time and needed trainings to be introduced to the project.
Each group undertook its training and proceeded to make their recordings and upload to Wikimedia Commons after which it was linked to the respective Wikipedia article.
Afterwards, the group leaders proceeded to check the quality of the recordings and if they were properly linked. Errors were fixed and corrections were made where necessary.
All of the aforementioned processes was overseen by the project lead.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals? Please describe these strategies and approaches.
- Grouping participants and names list according to ethnic extractions and interests.
- Assigning group leaders to coordinate smaller focused group trainings and contributions, Inspecting recordings to ensure quality and correctness.
- Utilising shared google workpace tools so everyone could work on the same space at the same time and thus make clean up easier.
3. Please use this space to upload media and other files that help tell your story and impact.
Field to type in URLs.
Here is a link to the project documentation page on Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:IG_Commons_Hub/Projects/Say-It-Right:Wikipedia_as_a_tool_for_preventing_mispronunciation_of_names
A diff article is also in the works and will be shared when ready.
Below is a list of links to Google sheet docs which was used to coordinate and track contributions and participant activity. It also made the work of cleaning up much easier.
- 1. Ibibio - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SPswfxKkTDz428jQumQMgY9kvCc-na6loDXPhqr3ClM/edit#gid=0
- 2. Igbo - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13CV9_sB5_TYf1Zut6Cr1v4GYk_U9Db5jwEww3xa9kXk/edit#gid=0
- 3. Hausa - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1D6Y0mTF9xTZD1fPrEqsjmIERTB9rpLMHCx4bEwqAKR4/edit#gid=0
- 4. Yoruba - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BF-8rwNXyu-TM5T1sXLLtu8Fo_Zu_PuFRDpDpiX3aws/edit#gid=0
- 5. Igala - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f9O65viqwyMp66_FGo_Kg2QPqD3BmtJK6DhYjuq8Ao0/edit#gid=0
4. 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 | Strongly agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Strongly agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Neither agree nor disagree |
5. 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?
A lot of Wikimedia activities in Nigeria is focused on the 3 major ethnic groups - Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. This project recognised and gave participants from underrepresented communities like Igala and Ibibio and a couple others the opportunity to contribute content on and about their ethnic groups.
Its interesting to note how the Wikipedia app recognises the IPA template and gives prominence to the pronunciation button on BLP articles. This made our work quickly gain recognition as using the template quickly added a speaker icon to the article and anyone could simply tap to hear the name pronunciation without leaving the page. The feedback was awesome!
We had a little run-in with a particular admin of the English Wikipedia who seemed to cast some sort of aspersion on our work at first but was subsequently put in order by other members of the admin who discovered the initial grant page on Meta. We only found out about this when the conversation had all but ended.
Finally, the IG Wiki-Commons Hub, which was originally a language specific community, is now faced with the need to evolve to accommodate members (most of whom are new to the movement) from other ethnicities who wish to focus on contributing to open knowledge via Wikimedia Commons.
Part 2: Your main learning edit
6. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
I had looked forward to creating awareness and seeing Wikimedians utilise Wikipedia as a reference resource not only for textual and graphic information about indigenous data but also as a reference for correct pronunciation of indigenous names and a tool to fight the micro-aggression that is deliberate name mispronunciation.
I think, to a very good extent, this has been achieved especially in the context of community members realising that contributions can be made in various formats. Some of he participants had only ever made text based contributions prior. They were introduced to recording audio, Wikimedia Commons, Templates, spell4wiki etc.
More than once, we received feedback from participants who were so enthralled at the prospect of being 'the voice behind the recording' that they proceeded to make social media posts about respective Wikipedia articles they had worked on. I think this is very good publicity for the project and the movement at large.
7. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences?
Yes, a lot of unexpected and surprising things happened. I'll share only two here:
- There was a ton of mispronunciations in two groups particularly, and in many cases, poorly recorded files. I discovered that it may not entirely be a good idea to have a large group of people work on a project of this nature. Unlike texts, poorly recorded audio has to be removed as it defeats the purpose for which it was created - to fight mispronunciation. This made the job of cleaning up quite hectic. I also discovered a ton of Nigerian names mispronunciations uploaded by the Voice of America (VOA) - It was an interesting find and it gave credence to the importance of the work we were doing.
- We had a little run-in with a particular admin of the English Wikipedia who seemed to cast some sort of aspersion on our work at first but was subsequently put in order by other members of the admin who discovered the initial grant page on Meta. We only found out about this when the conversation had all but ended. i had heard stories about the English Wikpedia prior, it was quite the experience to become the subject of one.
8. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?
- Pay more attention to trainings and have participants do mock recordings outside Commons to be sure they're ready for the main thing. Identify participants who show some level of promise and ask them to guide others while coopting them into supervisory and quality check roles.
- Unfortunately, there isn't alot you can do about En-Wikipedia admins. Just ensure you have all your necessary project documentations and keep track (daily) of participant work to ensure no one mistakenly presents as a vandal.
- Spell4wiki is a great app for creating and uploading audio to Wikimedia Commons. It however doesn't make room for names that are more than 30 characters. This was a little challenging but we found a way around it.
9. Documentation of resources: Use this space to upload any documents that would be useful to share with others (e.g. communications material, training material, presentations).
Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A
Part 3: Metrics edit
10a. Open Metrics reporting
In your application, you defined some open metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with your metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in. Use the tables to report the result. Use the comments column to describe any aspects of this result that you find relevant. If the results were different from the initial target (goals) then you can explain why and what you learned from this. You can also provide any qualitative analysis regarding these results. In the last column please describe the tools and methodology used to collect this data and any difficulties you might have had.
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Participants | Including experienced editors | 30 | 39 | N/A | N/A |
| Wikimedia Commons uploads | Number of audio name pronunciation files to be uploaded to Commons | 1000 | 1608 | Some of the uploaded audio did not meet the standards we had set out to work with and had to be re-recorded | Commons Categories |
| Wikipedia Articles linked with audio | N/A | 800 | 1356 | N/A | Names list on spreadsheet |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
10b. Core Metrics reporting
In your application, you defined targets for some core metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with each core metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in. Use the tables to report the result. Use the comments column to describe any aspects of this result that you find relevant. If the results were different from the initial target (goals) then you can explain why and what you learned from this. You can also provide any qualitative analysis regarding these results. In the last column please describe the tools and methodology used to collect this data and any difficulties you might have had. Note: a table will appear for each Wikimedia project content contribution you defined in your proposal.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 30 | 39 | |||
| Number of editors | 30 | 34 | |||
| Number of organizers |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikimedia Commons | Audio recordings of names using Spell4Wiki | 1000 | 1608 | Audio pronunciations uploaded to Wikimedia Commons | N/A |
| Wikipedia | Wikipedia articles that will have audio names linked to it | 800 | 1356 | Live Wikipedia articles linked with correspod | 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 |
12. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? This could include things like a lack of time or resources, or the expertise in your team to collect this data. It could also include difficulties with particular data collection tools.
Yes
12a. State what difficulties you had.
For a project like this, i think 1 month reporting time was too short. Cleaning up took a bulk of the project time.
12b. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges?
N/A
13. Use this space to upload any documents and provide links to any tools you have used that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, program and event dashboard link, project page on Meta).
Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A
14. Have you shared these results with other Wikimedian communities (either affiliates, user groups, volunteers, etc., different to yours)? This can include things such as data and direct outcomes, lessons you have learned, or information on how to run or recreate your programs.
No
14a. If yes or partially, please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how.
Part 4: Financial reporting and compliance edit
15. & 14a. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
1141850 NGN
16. Please state the total amount spent in USD.
2730 USD
17. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
17a. Upload a financial report file.
17b. Please provide a link to your financial reporting document.
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.
17c. 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
18. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
18a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
18b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
18c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
19. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
20. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
21. 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
22. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.
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