Grants:Project/Rapid/Global Open Initiative/Community and Team Engagement

Briefly explain what are you trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant. Example goals include, "recruit new editors", "add high-quality content", or "train existing editors on a specific skill".

Among the challenges the Wikimedia community in Ghana faces are the dwindling levels of participation in two fronts; in Wikimedia programming/organizational activities, and actual contributor (editing) activities. Both are directly related to the well-known time constraints that volunteers complain they do not have; and the lack of infrastructure (laptops/computers) that volunteers often do not possess. For those volunteers who sometimes struggle to overcome these two limiting factors, a third challenge they face is the cost of traveling to be present at team meetups (or community editathons), and the cost of internet data bundle for some of these meetings that are occasionally organized online. As we have successfully experimented in the past, whereby team meetings and community meetups alternate every other week (see), we see potential in moving both team meetings and community engagement activities online at everyone's convenience, and in the process, provide support for volunteers and community leaders to defray their cost of internet connectivity. Our goals are to:

Organize bi-weekly online team meetings
Organize bi-weekly community online meetups to
- Recruit new editors
- Train existing editors on on-wiki editing skills

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing?

This project is intended to expand Wikimedia community engagement in Ghana for a duration of one (1) year.

A. Organize bi-weekly online team meetings

Every other week on Sunday, the Global Open Initiative team and some members of the board will meet online to discuss

ongoing projects
future developments, and
support for volunteers.

This part of our project also includes the

One-on-one's that the executive director has with individual team members, and
Executive director / Board meetings

B. Organize bi-weekly community online meetups

Every other week on Sunday, the Global Open Initiative community will meet online to participate in a community activity. As this is an online event, it will be open to everyone in Ghana and beyond. It will be an opportunity for people to come in and freely share ideas and learn something new about the Wikimedia projects and how to contribute to it. These community meetups:

Will be used in gauging the pulse of the community and build a trusting atmosphere where people can feel included
Will become an avenue to recruit new Wikimedia contributors
Where people can learn to edit, ask questions and get answers to their on-wiki challenges
Will become quick sessions where experienced community members can demonstrate Wikimedia tools, gadget, and scripts that make it easier (or allows people) to contribute content to Wikimedia
Will become avenues where workshop training will take place
Will become social grounds for Wikimedians to meet and get to know each other beyond their Wikipedia usernames
Will allow us to forge alliances with mission allied organization who'll regularly be invited to talk to the Wikimedia community and discover more ways the Wikimedia movement can collaborate and work more closely with them

How will you let others in your community know about your project (please provide links to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions)? Why are you targeting a specific audience?

Notifications will be posted on:

Wikimedia Ghana Usergroup mailing list
Global open Initiative Social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Telegram
Wikimedians of Africa mailing list

What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

Team meetings

We would hold 25 team meetings every other week for 1 year, comprising at least 8 team members and project leaders
We would document our successes/failures/challenges and share our learnings in the past year in a report on Wikimedia Commons

Community meetups

All community meetups will be streamed on the Global Open Initiative YouTube Channel or Facebook Live
Community meetups with elements of training in them will be uploaded on the Global Open Initiative Wikimedia Commons category
Created a virtual avenue to welcome new users, and in the process, expand Wikimedia outreach in West Africa via our community-hours online events

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:

Number of total participants at community meetings: 250
Number of total participants at team meetings: 125
Number of new users engaged/recruited into Wikimedia movement: 50
Number of training videos (tutorials) uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 20

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is the organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

Item	Details	Unit	Number of Events	Quantity per Event	Total GhS
Team meetings	Data for participants; 25 total meetings for 8 expected participants per meeting	15	25	8	3000
Community meetings	Data for participants; 25 total meetings for 20 expected participants per meeting	15	25	20	7500
Zoom annual subscription at 15USD per month	Zoom will allow us record and stream session to Facebook or YouTube simultaneously	85.9575		12	1043.91
	Total GHS				11543.91
	Total USD (Oanda Exchange, 7 June 2020)				1990.50

The project will be steered by the Executive Director with support from the Global Open Initiative core team and members of the board. The meeting arrangements also will include volunteers as a means to mentor them to take up leadership roles in the group.

Zita Ursula Zage - ED and main focal point
Sadik Shahadu - Project Manager
Harriet Henry Bayel - Communications
Emmanuel Yeboah - Trainer
Mustapha Olasunkanmi - Social Media / Graphics Designer
Franklin Oduro - Support (Trainer)
Terese Baidoo - Support
Gabriel Amuzu - Support (Wikimedia Commons upload)
Gereon Kalkuhl - Advisor
Greg McVerry - Advisor
Mohammed Sadat Abdulai - Advisor

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense:

Endorsements

Support Kinvidia (talk) 11:09, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
Strong support In times like this, there should definitely be an alternative. Covid-19 has ruined all of our offline activities. Its time to go virtual. I fully endorse this project. Shahadusadik (talk) 11:38, 8 June 2020 (UTC)

Strong support I fully endorse this project. nana yaa series (talk) 11:45, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
I fully support and endorse this project. 154.160.7.242 12:49, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
Strong support I fully support this endorsement DaSupremo (talk) 13:13, 8 June 2020 (UTC)"
Strong support I fully endorse this projectAdongo1 (talk) 13:49, 8 June 2020 (UTC)"
Strong support I endorse this project. Sunkanmi12 (talk) 14:08, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
Strong support I fully endorse this project. Warmglow (talk) 15:18, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
Strong support I fully support this project.Jemima2019 (talk) 23:49, 8 June 2020 (UTC)
Strong support I fully endorse this projectMukaram123 (talk)

Strong support I endorse this project. piousmaiden (talk) 1:20, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
Strong support I fully endorse this projecOladipupo193 (talk) 13:33, 10 June 2020 (UTC)