Grants:Project/Rapid/Mujeebcpy/Wikidata Birthday 6th Celebrations in Kerala/Report

Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2018-19 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.


Goals edit

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

yes, We are happy about the whole project. We met the main goals of the project and considered as a success. We faced several hurdles to organize various events and to find a venue and all. But the response from institutions was great. The project went well however, the real impact of training can be visible after 3 to 6 months, depending upon the followup plans. But we made some impact on the training itself.

Outcome edit

Please report on your original project targets.


Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
10 training programs 16 training programs we got tremendous response from various educational institutions across Kerala in a short period. even though we postponed the whole project two times due to various reasons we managed to conduct 15 programmes and one exhibition.
500 participants 572 participant we got very good response from students. We are forced to restrict the registrations to the availability of the computers at workshops.
6 organizers 10 organizers Various People joined from different organizations the core team to organize workshops at different places.
No Initial Taget of Women Participation 3 Talks for Women only Team. As a part of encouraging more women to become Wikipedia editors we organized 3 programmes for Girl students in different colleges. Also we put special effort to be atleast 20% women participation in all workshops.
100 New editors 216 New editors. On all workshops we are trying to create a new account for each participant. But IP block and Action throttling filters are limit us from more.


Learning edit

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 workshops are undergone without date clash and we managed to answer all the requests got from various educational institutions. Some workshops are planned very quickly (within 2-3 days) but all the events happened well.
  • We got good computer facility and internet at full-day events. We used the computer lab at the institution so every participant got a computer to take account and practice editing. We got decent internet facility even at remote places like Idukki. So our hands-on sessions have happened without many problems.
  • As an outcome of the workshop, we got a lot of new users onboard. We trained them how to edit Wikimedia projects. They started editing after the workshop. Menter them and make good contributors are the next challenge.
  • What did not work so well?
  • We postponed the project two times due to various reasons. at first, we didn't get the confirmation about the fund so we almost dropped the project and the original plan was to conduct events to celebrate Wikidata birthday. When we got confirmation about the funds there was a series of strikes in Kerala. After that, there were examinations in all colleges. So the original event schedule was set at the end of the grant period. And most events happened after the expected time.
  • We got stumbles with the IP filter in Wikipedia. We have one IP for the whole college and only 4 accounts can be registered from that. Also in Wikidata, we experienced a lot of action throttled errors for all the new users. These things reduced the number of edits. So we demonstrated how to create an account and how to edit using a projector.
  • There were some internet issues and lack of availability of computers at institutions where the labs are not available. So we are restricted to do demo only session.
  • Editing Wikidata from mobile phones is a painful thing. We are forced to do that in most events. Because everybody got a smartphone and an internet connection. And students are using laptop rare. Also, editing Wikipedia from mobile phones is not a welcoming experience.
  • Uploading photos using the Commons Android app fails most of the time. So demonstrating that also made a lot of problems.
  • What would you do differently next time?
  • Next Time we will focus on targeted subjects so that we can demonstrate the editing and make contributions more easy. Also, a series of workshops at an institution will help mentor new editors and make them good contributors. Also, we will plan some online events so new editors can join in and practice what they have learned.

Finances edit

Grant funds spent edit

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

# Category Description Cost (INR) Cost (USD)
1 Event Food Tea/Snacks/Lunch for participants in various events 36165 509.06
2 T-Shirts T-Shirts for organizers (10 T-shirts) 5490 77.137245
3 Stickers Wikipedia/Wikidata stickers for participants (5 Batch stickers) 5999 84.44
4 Flex Printing Flex used for event advertizement 500 7.02525
5 Standy Printing Standy of Wikimedia projects used in workshops 743 10.4395215
6 RP Food Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner for resource persons 13476 189.69
7 Accomodation Stay at Hotel for resource persons 1867 26.2322835
8 Transportation Petrol used in the car to travel 5900 83.05
9 Toll Toll for the car at National Highway tollbooths 200 2.8101
10 Power box A power distribution box used in workshops 400 5.6202
Grand Total 70740 995.74

Total project budget: 963.083 $ (USD)

Total amount requested from WMF: 963.083 $ (USD)

Total amount received from WMF: 963.083 $ (USD)

Total amount spent on the project: 995.74 $ (USD)

29.141 USD is raised from organizers at different venue. There is no fund remaining after this workshop series. Some assets like Standy, Poster, Exhibition, Power Box are kept with Wikimedians of Kerala for future use.

Remaining funds edit

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

No We don't have any funds remaining.


Anything else edit

Anything else you want to share about your project?

We documented all the events on meta under Wikimedians of Kerala User Group Events. We collected usernames created at events as much as possible to follow them. Mujeeb Rahman, Ranjithsiji, Ambady Anand S, Kannan VM, Hacksk are formed the core team to do the workshops and other people joined this team to make things happen.

We had two types of events in this series. A Talk/Demo session and Full day workshops.

Talk/Demo Session edit

In these kind of events all the participants don't have computers and internet connection. So we are introducing Wikipedia, Commons and other Wikimedia projects in one hour then a one or one and half hour demonstration about how the editing works and various aspects of the projects. Some participants tried to create an account and we can't cover all the participants. We will try to do followup events so that everybody can get an account and edit.

List of Demonstration are given below.

No Date Place Type Participants
1 14th January Government Higher Secondary School, Mathirappilly Demonstration 36
2 14th January Kodungallur Kunjikuttan Thampuran Memorial Government College, Pullut Demonstration 26
3 14th January Block Resource Centre, Kodungallur Demonstration 45
4 16th January Women's Polytechnic College, Nedupuzha Demonstration 28
5 29th January Government Higher Secondary School, Chowara Demonstration 36
6 4th February Eranad Knowledge City, Manjeri Demonstration 34
7 8th February Govt Engineering College Palakkad, Sreekrishnapuram Demonstration 44
8 15th Februay Ahalia School of Engineering and Technology, Palakkad Demonstration 64
9 17th February College of Engineering, Karunagappally Demonstration 28

Full day Workshop edit

Full day workshops are done in computer facilities. So that we can assure that every participant must get a computer and a good internet connection to work on the project. We are taken a small introductory session about Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects and then the whole day is for hands-on editing session. We demonstrated Wikidata query service and given some questions to do some query. We introduced Wikidata Lexemes and the scope of the project. In workshops, we get more editors and we have more time to clear the hurdles in editing or adding content.

No Date Place Type Participants New Users Edit Count
1 26th January Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Kodungallur Workshop 22 11 [1] 54
2 7th February St. Joseph's College of Engineering and Technology, Palai Workshop 24 20[2] 112
3 8th February Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady Workshop 24 23[3] 12
4 13th February Government Engineering College, Thrissur Workshop 64 64[4] 148
5 14th February Farook College, Kozhikkode Workshop 23 23[5] 148
6 16th February Government Engineering College, Idukki Workshop 74 74 [6] 266

Government Boys Higher Secondary School, Kodungallur

Government Engineering College, Thrissur

Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady

St. Joseph's College of Engineering and Technology, Palai

Farook College, Kozhikkode

Government Engineering College, Idukki

Exhibition and Stall edit

We created a Wikimedia projects exhibition based on the slides prepared by User:Akhilan[7]. We displayed those slides at BRC Kodungallur, SJCET Pala, CUSAT Ernakulam. This exhibition was effective to communicate with students who are not participating in the sessions.

We created a Wikimedia stall at Cochin University of Science and Technology at Dhishna, the Tech fest of Cochin University of Science and Technology on 2nd February 2019. This helped us to meet more students at the university and to talk about Wikimedia projects. We are planning some follow up events at the university to reach them.

References edit