Grants:Project/Rapid/Krishna Chaitanya Velaga/VVIT Edit-a-thon 2017 Part 2/Report

Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2017-18 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

About

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This edit-a-thon was primarily conducted to recruit editors more editors from the institute: Vasireddy Venkatadri Institute of Technology, and to serve as a follow-up to VIVA-VVIT Edit-a-thon conducted in August & September 2017. The whole thing was basically done to form a club in college; VVIT WikiConnect. The participants were introduced to English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, in two different sessions, the first one was conducted on 23 November 2017, and the second one on 25 November 2017. The sessions were mentored by me (Krishna Chaitanya Velaga), and Yohann Thomas.

Goals

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Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Yes, the project did meet its goals, detailed comparison between the target and achieved outcomes is explained in the following sections. Yes, I'm happy with the way the project progressed.

Outcome

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Please report on your original project targets.

  • Source:
 
Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
40 editors 33 editors Some of the registered students didn't turn up to unexpected academic constraints.
120 articles created/improved 113 articles created/improved As we had 7 editors less than expected, we're not able to achieve it upto the point. But we're close enough.
40 images 47 images As we asked the participants to bring images on prior hand, we did good enough in this aspect.


Learning

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Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

  • What worked well?
  • The session on both days went well. The participants were enthusiastic, and even more amused to know how Wikipedia works. In the first session, the participants were introduced to English Wikipedia; policies, guidelines, Markup etc. In the second session, the participants were introduced to Wikimedia Commons on how to upload to images, and add them to relevant articles. They're also explained about various licenses that are used on Commons.
  • Having a trainer helped a lot in the second session of the workshop. The participants were excited to learn how files are hosted on Wikimedia Commons, and add them to articles.
  • Printing WIKI Guides, helped them to understand more about Wikipedia, and serve as a ready reference in case if they want to brush their knowledge in future. The guides printed were Editing Wikipedia brochure EN.pdf.
  • Due the workshop, the some of old editors from VIVA VVIT Edit-a-thon learned more skills to contribute to Wikipedia, and it also provide a good boost to the Wiki Club that has been formed in college; VVIT WikiConnect. We hope to meet regularly on weekly or bi-weekly basis, and also have a detailed annual plan to make Wikimedia movement an integral part of the college.
  • After the workshop, we met the management; they were very much interested to continue this, and are even willing to implement an education program once they become autonomous, which is likely to happen in the coming one of two years.
  • What did not work so well?
  • Initially we had enough registrations, but as the college was on semester break holidays, some of the participants didn't turn up. However, that didn't effect much.
  • One of the participant tried to create/edit page of other user, in their user space. This was considered to be as sockpupperty, and IP was blocked, which ceased the activity for sometime. However with the help of IRC channel, and administrators noticeboard of English Wikipedia, the issue was soon resolved. This issue can be referred here.
  • What would you do differently next time?
  • Next time, I would allow more registrations than the target, expecting 20% drop rate. So that we could have required count of participants.
  • I would inform the participants about the sockpuppetry policy before the workshop starts, so that such blocks could be avoided.

Finances

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Grant funds spent

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Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

S.No Description Amount
1 Trainers' expenditure
(Travel, food, accommodation etc.)
₹12,216.50
2 Logistics
(Stationary, Wikipedia Guides printing etc.)
₹8,945.00
3 Gift vouchers to top performers ₹5,000
4 Unaccountable expenses ₹1,000
Total ₹27,161.50

Remaining funds

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The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of 4,838.50 INR were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/Rapid/Krishna Chaitanya Velaga/OpenCon 2018 New Delhi.

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

S.No Description Amount
1 Total grant received ₹32,000.00
2 Total expenditure ₹27,161.50
3 Leftover funds ₹4,838.50

Anything else

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Anything else you want to share about your project?

We've collected responses from the participants about how the workshop went, and their experience. Some of them are listed below:
  • I used to think that only we can get information from Wikipedia, but after attending the workshop I came to know that I can even edit and contribute to it.
    User:Yamini Biruduraju
  • The workshop threw light on the things which we hadn't known before. It was a great experience attending the workshop and yes, I can edit!
    User:Aparna. Akilla
  • I had a great time in the work shop. I learnt many things which I never heard about. I hope there would be more Wikipedia workshops in future. I felt it would be beneficial if the span of work shop is increased.
    User:Teju kamisetty
  • I have attended the first edit-a-thon too. But as I didn't have a clear image on what I need to edit, I wasn't able to contribute more. This time, I understood a bit more on how to edit on Wikipedia and was clear with the domain. And yeah, I look on to contribute more on Wikipedia now!
    User:SuswethaK
  • I could finally understand how to edit. I always thought it was very difficult but this Edit-a-thon made me understand that editing Wikipedia wasn't a Rocket science. Earlier I was always scared to do anything on any article because of the rules. After attending this workshop I've got a gist of how to edit. I feel I can start exploring it myself. Now I have enough confidence to click that edit button, phew! The first day of the workshop went well. Nearing the end where the technical part lay, I felt was rushed up a little. I thought the pace till then was fine but my fellow participants told me that they felt it was too fast and they couldn't catch up as they were sitting away from the speaker. The second day went good. We were explained how to upload pictures and we learnt a lot of stuff about copyrights (otherwise we'd be in a great problem!). We were given time to edit and I did edit few articles. I chose an article on a place (Khajjiar) to edit. I found myself learning new things while gathering information for this one article it was an amazing experience for me. Now I know quite a lot about Khajjiar will definitely visit the place.
    User:Khandker Ameena
  • I really enjoyed the workshop. Honestly I didn't have any idea that Wikipedia is crowd funded and was being edited by volunteers. I feel Wikipedia is the noblest idea I have ever experienced. Two day workshop was bliss and it totally changed my perception about authenticity. Though I am active on social media since two years, I never had the thought of authentication. This workshop made difference and I am thankful towards everyone who had put their efforts in the event. I am looking forward for more and more such events related to Wikimedia too.
    User:Manya s
  • It's a good experience. After the workshop I came to know that Wikipedia pages can be edited and volunteers write the articles. Learned different rules and I am very happy that I did my first edit and there is much more to do.
    User:Spandana kurnella
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