Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/WikiPortraits Design and Translations 2024 (ID: 22593768)
This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the grantmaking web service of Wikimedia Foundation where the user has submitted their application. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.
Applicant Details edit
- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
SuperHamster
- Organization
N/A
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
I'm a board member or president of a Wikimedia Affiliate or mission-allied organization., I'm a group leader of a Wikimedia User Group (submitted to the Affiliation Committee).
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
I am on the Board of Directors for Wikimedia District of Columbia, as well as a roup leader for the Ohio Wikimedians User Group. This project is being organized outside of the scope and purview of these groups, as part of the WikiPortraits initiative.
Main Proposal edit
- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
WikiPortraits Design and Translations 2024
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2024-05-26 - 2024-06-30
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
International (more than one country across continents or regions) The WikiPortraits Initiative has plans to potentially be present at the Cannes Film Festival in France, the Venice Film Festival in Italy, the Toronto Film Festival in Canada, and the Telluride Film Festival in the United States. This is in addition to our work earlier this year in the United States (Sundance Film Festival and South by Southwest), and preexisting similar initiatives done by German Wikipedia.
Our images from South by Southwest 2024 were added to over 50 language versions of Wikipedia, showing the demand for high-quality, freely-licensed images of notable individuals across many languages. We also have potential to expand to host portrait studios and attend events in other countries as our organizing team grows, and as we start collaborating with local chapters and individuals. We have, for example, received inbound interest from a Wikimedian and photographer in India who would like to participate. We would like to engage South Korean Wikipedians to cover the Busan International Film Festival, where photos have been relatively scant despite being the most prominent international film festival in Asia. We'd also like to engage Indian Wikipedians to cover the Jaipur Literary Festival, which has grown from being a small 100-person event in 2006 to an event of global consequence attracting tens of thousands of people.
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Other (please specify) WikiPortraits
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects prioritize and require using freely-licensed images. This presents a challenge when it comes to photos of notable people, because most published photos of notable people are press images with full copyright and non-permissive licenses. This results in a significant number of biographies with poor quality or no photos. This challenge is quite notable in itself, having been covered by various publications including the New York Times in their 2009 article, "Wikipedia May Be a Font of Facts, but It’s a Desert for Photos". While that article was written almost a decade ago, the problem persists, so much so that @badwikiphotos is an account on Instagram. The English Wikipedia category, "Wikipedia requested images of people", has over 5,000 articles in it.
An effective way to gather freely-licensed photos of notable figures at-scale is to go to where they are. Gage Skidmore is particularly notable for publishing freely-licensed photos of celebrities at pop culture conventions and political events. German Wikipedia has been covering the Berlin Film Festival with its Berlinale-Projekt since 2017.
The WikiPortraits initiative was created to organize and standardize obtaining credentials to photograph notable individuals at events, as well as setting up portrait studios for the public (with the goal of also attracting notable individuals) when there is budget and room. This initiative started in the United States with our SXSW WikiPortraits Rapid Grant project, which resulted in photos that were added to over 50 language versions of Wikipedia and are due to be collectively viewed an estimated 4 million times in the first month since the conference. Our early self-financed Sundance 2024 WikiPortraits project adds an additional 500,000 or so views per month.
For this grant request, we plan to prepare to go international by funding design and translation efforts. These efforts will help us catalyze WikiPortraits initiatives in multiple countries, as well as create materials and branding that can be used by other Wikimedians and movement affiliates around the world who want to host their own local WikiPortraits activities.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
To enable our WikiPortraits initiative and goals globally, we are requesting funding for the following:
- Update and translate our banners into multiple languages, likely starting with Spanish and German, where we have translators.
- We have potential to collaborate with Wikimedians and groups within Germany and Spanish-speaking countries.
*Adapt the WikiPortraits logo for other written languages such as Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic.
- Create standardized and shareable table tent templates, in different paper sizes.
- Create standardized and shareable QR code templates, including in different paper sizes.
- Create standardized and shareable business card templates, in different standard sizes.
- Create standardized and shareable one-page report templates (like our SXSW 2024 report, but better).
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
Our main volunteer organizers for this project include:
- Kevin Payravi (User:SuperHamster) (grantee): Kevin has contributed to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites since 2007, and is currently a co-organizer of WikiConference North America and Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States. He also serves on the Board of Wikimedia DC and is an organizer for the Ohio Wikimedians. Kevin helped organize the precursor portrait studio at Sundance Film Festival, and helped organize and photograph the WikiPortraits studio at South by Southwest 2024.
- Jennifer 8. Lee (User:en:User:Jenny8lee): Jenny is a co-organizer of WikiConference North American 2019, an adviser to the Wikimedia NYC, a founder of WikiCred project, film producer, and an adviser to SXSW Interactive. She has organized over a dozen large scale events at SXSW including the Awesomest Journalism Party Ever over 10 times, initiating the SXSW journalism and media track in 2011, hosting film parties. She helped coordinate a similar initiative at the Sundance Film Festival. She is a volunteer for this project, but will help coordinate the logistics and the press credentials.
- Andrew Lih (User:Fuzheado): Lih is 2021 Wikimedia Laureate, an internationally-renowned Wikipedia expert, author, professor, GLAMs activist, and long-time Wikimedia contributor, including on Wikimedia Commons photography.
- Ariela Ortiz (User:Arielaortizb): An Orlando-based multimedia artist who initially designed the WikiPortraits logo as well as numerous design assets for the project. Her work ranges from digital and traditional art to photography and graphic design. She loves movies and is a passionate Letterboxd fan. She was born in Costa Rica and speaks fluent Spanish.
- Frank “Fritz” Schulenburg (User:Frank Schulenburg): An award-winning photographer for Wikipedia. He has taken photos on five continents, has traveled to more than thirty countries and has lived in three. Schulenburg’s work appeared in the Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, Forbes, Business Insider, The Weather Channel, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, and many others. Air France has been using one of Schulenburg’s photos on its in-flight entertainment systems for flights to San Francisco. In 2023, Schulenburg had his first solo museum exhibition. In 2024, he became the first Wikipedia photographer to get press credentials for the Sundance Film Festival.
We also have additional organizers (including photographers, editors, and designers) listed at WikiPortraits.org.
- 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? (required)
The main target of the WikiPortraits Design Internationalization initiative are the Wikimedia affiliates, groups, and individuals we will be working with in the future to bring the WikiPortraits initiatives to new events and venues.
Our other targets are notable individuals who have Wikipedia articles, particularly ones lacking a photo or need a better photo taken. Our photobooth event also allows us to do local Wikipedia outreach and public education with participants.
Our third group of targets are editors who work on biographies of notable individuals. We hope that the imprimatur of “WikiPortraits” categorization gives editors the confidence that they will get professional-grade photos that are worthy of adding to Wikipedia articles. Indeed, our SXSW images were added to over 50 language versions of Wikipedia, with no promotion on our party, showing the eagerness of editors to add Creative Commons-licensed images.
We have already received, unprompted, interest in WikiPortraits activities from individuals in Germany and India. With this grant, we will be reaching out to Wikimedia affiliates and individuals (particularly those active on Wikimedia Commons and public outreach) to identify our top opportunities for collaboration, which will determine the translations we do for this grant.
The main output of WikiPortraits activities are photos to the Wikimedia Commons, along with adding those photos to Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items (and potentially creating new Wikipedia/Wikidata pages on notable subjects). All these contributions are tracked through categories, and tools like GLAMorgan help us track views and impact.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
Given that WikiPortraits’ SXSW 2024 photos were added on over 50 different language versions of Wikipedia, with a collective estimated 4 million monthly views, we feel there is strong community demand for what WikiPortraits brings to the table.
WikiPortraits has a presence on the Wikimedia Commons, at Commons:WikiPortraits. We have also created a meta page to catalog related efforts called Wiki Covers Events and to share best practices. Among notable related efforts are the German Berlinale-Projekt.
Wiki Covers Events + the WikiPortraits initiative has also been discussed within the GLAM Global Telegram group, which has over 200 community members.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Language
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Culture, heritage or GLAM
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Geographic
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Innovate in Free Knowledge
Learning and metrics edit
- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
With this proposal, in addition to our design and translation outputs, we'll be learning about which communities we can start working with to bring the WikiPortraits initiative to new events and communities.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 500 | This is a broad estimate of the number of people who will come through WikiPortraits studio booths, enabled and improved by this grant. Our South by Southwest 2024 WikiPortraits portrait studio saw over 300 people come through for portraits (while also teaching them about free licensing and the Wikimedia Commons). If we extrapolate this to several more events enabled by this design and translation project, we can expect many hundreds more to participate in WikiPortraits events. |
| Number of editors | 3 | We only expect a few individuals to edit Wikimedia projects for this proposal (e.g. uploading the design templates and files to the Wikimedia Commons). |
| Number of organizers | 5 | We have 5 primary organizers listed above, in addition to a broader team that can provide support. |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |
| Wikimedia Commons | 50 |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
Estimated number of media and design files of WikiPortraits materials that we will be uploading to the Wikimedia Commons
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
We will use Wikimedia Commons categorization and structured data to organize our work.
Financial proposal edit
- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
3000 USD
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
3000 USD
- 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).