Grants:Project/CS&S/Structured Data on Wikimedia Commons functionalities in OpenRefine/Finances


Budget edit

Below is your approved budget. Please use this table to keep track of actual funds spent for each line item and list the difference from the approved budget at the end of the grant period.

Expense Approved amount Actual funds spent Difference
Product Manager $26,800.00 ($20,000.00 during original grant application, $6,800.00 for extension) $26,727.31 $72.69
OpenRefine developer $62,400.00 ($42,000.00 during original grant application, $20,400.00 for extension) $67,640.00 -$5,240.00
Wikimedia developer $16,000.00 (during original grant application) $16,000.00 $0,00
Additional developer honoraria $4,500.00 (during original grant application) $4,048.04 $451.96
Technical mentorship $5,280.00 (for extension) $5,320.00 -$40.00
Design $10,560.00 (for extension) $6,400.00 $4,160.00
Meeting costs $1,500.00 (during original grant application) $1,663.91 -$163.91
Wire fees $900.00 ($500.00 during original grant application, $400.00 for extension) $140.70 $759.30
Project leadership, administration, accounting, strategic support $22,577.64 ($14,911.76 during original grant application, $7,665.88 for extension) $22,577.68 -$0.04
Total $150,517.64 ($99,411.76 during original grant application, $51,105.88 for extension) $150,517.64 $0.00


Request changes edit

We understand that sometimes plans change. Please use this button to request approval for changes to your grant’s budget while your project is in progress. Any variation of 20% or more to any line item in your budget must be approved by staff here before you make the change (for projects with budgets of $15,000 or more, the accepted variance is 10%).


Budget change request (requested end December 2021) edit

We would like to extend the duration of our project by four months, i.e. until the end of October 2022, and request additional funding for two positions (design research and technical mentorship). This time and budget extension will be put towards:

  • Additional development time for the Wikimedia Commons extension to OpenRefine (4 months: July-October 2022)
    • Within the current grant, we have time and financial room to develop the basic framework for a Wikimedia Commons extension for OpenRefine, including the feature that allows end users to load Wikimedia Commons categories as an input format in OpenRefine. In order to make this feature sufficiently flexible and user-friendly, though, some additional development time will be welcome.
    • With four additional months of development time (July-October 2022), we can additionally deploy a second Commons-specific feature before the end of October 2022. In the table below (click 'Expand' to see the full contents) you can see the features we are currently considering; a final decision will be made based on continued design research and testing.
Workflow step If the user has ... installed, they are able to ... OpenRefine without Commons extension (via this grant) OpenRefine with Commons extension - beta version (via this grant; mid 2022) OpenRefine with Commons extension - v1.0 release (2023-ish?) Remarks
01 🌟 Project creation Let OpenRefine import a data sheet (any OR-supported format) with file paths from Wikimedia Commons   Yes   Yes   Yes
02 🚿 Data cleaning Clean and improve a spreadsheet or dataset with file metadata   Yes   Yes   Yes
03 🔃 Reconciliation / recon Reconcile data columns with Wikidata   Yes   Yes   Yes Using the Wikimedia Commons Reconciliation Service.
03 🔃 Reconciliation / recon Reconcile Commons file names with M-ids   Yes   Yes   Yes Using the Wikimedia Commons Reconciliation Service.
03 🔃 Reconciliation / recon Reconcile M-ids with Commons file names   Yes   Yes   Yes Using the Wikimedia Commons Reconciliation Service.
04 ➡️ Reconciliation / data extension Retrieve Wikitext (as one big blob) from existing Commons files which are reconciled in OpenRefine   Yes   Yes   Yes
04 ➡️ Reconciliation / data extension Retrieve structured data (including captions) from existing Commons files which are reconciled in OpenRefine   Yes   Yes   Yes
06 ✍️ Editing schema preparation Create an editing schema in OpenRefine that structures edits to files on Wikimedia Commons   Yes   Yes   Yes
06 ✍️ Editing schema preparation Create an editing schema in OpenRefine that structures edits to Wikidata items   Yes   Yes   Yes Is currently already supported in OpenRefine; user will be able to switch between (batch) editing Wikidata and Commons.
07 👀 Check/preview/test upload See an example preview of the structured data that will be (batch) edited to existing Commons files   Yes   Yes   Yes
07 👀 Check/preview/test upload See an example preview of the Wikitext (generated) infobox of files edited in batch   Yes   Yes   Yes
08 💿 Batch SDC edit Add structured data to existing files on Wikimedia Commons   Yes   Yes   Yes
11 🤦‍♂️ Fix errors Undo batch SDC edits to existing files   Yes   Yes   Yes Using the EditGroups tool.
11 🤦‍♂️ Fix errors Delete batch uploads   Yes   Yes   Yes Using the EditGroups tool.
12 ✅ Report after upload Download dataset with modified or uploaded file links from Commons, with their file names, M-ids, and metadata   Yes   Yes   Yes
01 🌟 Project creation Provide OpenRefine with one or multiple Wikimedia Commons categories; OpenRefine then loads the (reconciled) file paths of all the files in these categories   No   Yes   Yes
10 🔺 Upload files Upload new files to Wikimedia Commons   No   Yes   Yes We may also decide to implement file upload in OpenRefine itself. It will certainly be possible as part of the Commons extension.
04 ➡️ Reconciliation / data extension Retrieve Wikitext, split and cleaned per parameter and template, from existing Commons files which are reconciled in OpenRefine   No   Possibly?   Yes
07 👀 Check/preview/test upload See an example preview of the structured data that will be (batch) added to newly uploaded Commons files   No   Possibly?   Yes
07 👀 Check/preview/test upload See an example preview of the Wikitext (generated) infobox of files uploaded in batch   No   Possibly?   Yes
02 🚿 Data cleaning Directly see thumbnails of media files while cleaning and editing their metadata   No   No   Yes OpenRefine is very data-centric and does not natively support (direct) preview of thumbnails of files in its data operation screen. In a next version of the Commons extension we can, for instance, introduce a media-centric editing and viewing screen that allows end users to batch edit metadata of media files in a more visually oriented way.
05 📌 Metadata mapping Map the user's dataset with a preset template / checklist of fields from Wikimedia Commons (e.g. Artwork, Book, Map...)   No   No   Yes
01 🌟 Project creation IIIF support (retrieve and process images/files hosted on a IIIF service)   No   No   Possibly? We're aware of this potential use case; it can be developed after deployment of core functionalities and after more research.
09 📚 Batch Wikitext edit Edit Wikitext of existing Commons files   No   No   Possibly? Wikimedia Commons editing and upload functionalities in OpenRefine focus on Structured Data first and foremost.
10 🔺 Upload files Upload new files to an arbitrary Wikibase   No   No   Possibly? We're aware of this potential use case; it can be developed after deployment of core functionalities and after more research. Members of the Wikibase stakeholder group have already indicated interest.
  • Additional funding for product management (4 months: July-October 2022)
  • Additional design research and UX design support (8 months: March-October 2022)
    • Continuation of design research and wireframing for media file upload
    • UX/UI design support for improvements to OpenRefine’s native dialog windows
    • New UI design for the new screens/features in the Wikimedia Commons extension (mentioned above)
  • Technical mentorship (8 months: March-October 2022)
    • Until now, Antonin Delpeuch has provided technical mentorship to this project in his volunteer capacity. He advises the team during 2-3 team meetings per week, and in addition to that also checks in with our developers on a very regular basis and performs code review. It would be great if he can be remunerated for some of his time!

A draft budget for this extension is available in this Google Sheet.

Rationale edit

We have started drafting our grant's midpoint report (which is due on January 14, 2022). In this report, we explain the rationale behind this requested budget change and time extension in the sections What are the challenges and Next steps and opportunities.

Follow-up question edit

Hello SFauconnier, thank you for submitting this request, and apologies for the delayed response (I was out on medical leave in December and early January and so we are just catching up to your request). I have a quick question for you. The draft budget for the extension you submitted is for additional funding, correct? In other words, it would bring your total award to $150,517.88, including the initially approved amount ($99,412) as well as the current extension request ($51,105.88)? I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly to inform the conversations I'll have with our team director about your request. I'm trying to figure out if and how we could do this. We are currently in a somewhat in-between spot in regard to funding options. Project Grants is now closed, insofar as we are no longer awarding any additional grant funding, just closing out with existing grantees (even if Project Grants was open, however, we did not award large monetary extensions generally speaking, because we didn't have a good setup for the committee to review them outside the round). In the future, software grants will be reviewed through the Technology Fund, but the program has not been launched yet. So, I will need to figure out if and how we can review your request. I will try to find a way, if I can.

I will follow up soon.

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 00:41, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Hello Marti (WMF), thank you for responding. I'm sorry to hear that you've been on medical leave... I really hope your break has been restorative and that you feel better! To answer your question: yes, indeed, the draft budget we are submitting is for additional funding and would bring our total grant amount to $150,517.88, including the initially approved amount ($99,412) as well as the current extension request ($51,105.88) (exactly as you say). I understand the complexities of such an in-between situation and, if it helps, will be very happy to engage in any further conversations about this request of ours! All the best, SFauconnier (talk) 09:55, 21 January 2022 (UTC)

Approved edit

Hello SFauconnier, I am happy to notify you that your request has been approved for an addiitional $51,105.88, and our grants administrator will be reaching out to you shortly with next steps.

For the sake of public documentation, I am noting here that we did not normally review large extension requests via the budget change request feature in Project Grants, but we are making an exception in this case because the normal channels for continued funding through Project Grants are no longer operative with the program being discontinued. Also, the new Technology Fund through which software funds will be reviewed in the future has not yet launched. We do not want to stall this strategically important project, so we are approving the additional funding request here.

Let us know if you have any questions. Marti (WMF) (talk) 21:45, 11 February 2022 (UTC)

Thank you very much, Marti (WMF)! We are absolutely delighted to hear this, and we will use the extra time and funds with great care and consideration. I will reach out to Jtud (WMF) for all practicalities. Much appreciated!! SFauconnier (talk) 08:50, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

End-of-project (September 2022) budget adjustments: design/development and travel costs edit

Budget change request edit

  1. Original UX design budget as part of our project extension (July-October 2022) was USD 10,560. We would like to reduce our final design spending to USD 6,400 and use the remaining USD 4,160 for software development on OpenRefine's side.
  2. Original budget for wire fees was USD 900 (USD 500 as part of our first grant application, USD 400 as part of the July-October extension). We would like to use around USD 700 of this budget line for travel costs and some software development as well.

Rationale edit

Now that the end of this project is near, we are looking at our remaining budget and investigating how we can most effectively spend it so that Wikimedians will get the most 'bang for their bucks' (i.e. useful and stable features!). We would like to suggest the following budget changes:

  1. Move some UX design budget to OpenRefine software development. Our UX designer Lozana Rossenova has worked quickly and efficiently; per today, she has produced clear and actionable wireframes and user research which provide sufficient input for current and near-future development of Wikimedia Commons features in OpenRefine (including some new features which we can not implement during this current grant anymore, but which we want to place on the roadmap for future development cycles). We'd like to reduce Lozana's time on the project during the last months, in which she will do one final round of user testing. We want to redirect the budget that is saved in that way (USD 4,160) towards additional hours for Antonin Delpeuch, who will use this time for additional feature implementation and debugging. Specifically, Antonin will implement file thumbnails and the import of new schema templates (allowing Wikimedians to build their own data templates/schemas and import them for use when they upload files to Wikimedia Commons into OpenRefine)
  2. We have vastly overestimated the budget that would be needed for international money transfer fees (wire fees). We would like to redirect a large part of this budget line towards two purposes:
    1. Some travel costs. Our team has held a planning-focused in-person team meeting in April 2022 in Ghent, Belgium (partly covered by this grant, partly by another (non-Wikimedia) OpenRefine grant). In addition, Sandra has attended the European GLAMwiki coordinators meeting in Prague (14-16 September 2022) where she demo-ed OpenRefine to 30 European GLAMwiki coordinators. Both trips together exceed our originally planned travel budget a bit.
    2. And some more development time for Antonin Delpeuch, allowing us to pay him up to USD 4,600.

In order to verify some of the above numbers, feel free to check the spending spreadsheet I am maintaining for this project.

I hope this request makes sense! Please reach out if more clarification is needed. SFauconnier (talk) 11:16, 16 September 2022 (UTC)

Approved edit

I'm approving this budget change request. It makes good sense to redirect funds to debugging and additional features. I do want to add a note that in general, it is a requirement of our programs that budget change requests should be submitted and approved in advance of the proposed work to which funds will be redirected. In other words, we don't typically approve requests for funds that were already spent in the past, but only for work that is planned in the future. In this case, since you have an underspend, it makes sense to redirect it to another area of the work where there was an overspend related to scheduled work (with respect to travel), and I am happy to approve this request. However, for the sake of clarity, I just want to record that budget change requests should _generally_ be submitted before the funds are spent.

Warm regards,

--Marti (WMF) (talk) 18:44, 18 October 2022 (UTC)