Grants:Project/MSIG/NANöR/Skill Development Needs Assessment For Arabic Wikipedia and Arabic Wikisource
statusFunded
NANöR/Skill Development Needs Assessment For Arabic Wikipedia and Arabic Wikisource
There are issues hindering the growth of Arabic language wikiprojects. We need to learn more about the skills and capacity gaps that can help us address them.
targetArabic Wikipedia and Arabic Wikisource communities
start date15 August
start year2022
end date15 March
end year2023
budget (USD)7245 USD
grant typeIndividual
Applications are not required to be in English. Please complete the application in your preferred language.
Project Goal edit
What will be the outputs of your project and how will those outputs contribute to advancing a specific Movement Strategy Initiative
- Defining and identifying the existing and required skills for two Arabic language project communities: Wikipedia and Wikisource. The goal is to further understand the gaps in those projects, and to find ways to address them.
- Attempting to develop a general vision for future solutions that would benefit the Arab community in developing its skills to enrich the content, manage volunteer efforts, facilitate the means of editingencourage communication and conflict-resolution, and provide recommendations for improving technical skill infrastructure.
- What specific Movement Strategy Initiative does your project focus on and why? Please select one of the initiatives described here
- 31. Global approach for local skill development - gathering data, matching peers, mentorship, recognition.
Project Background edit
- When do you intend to begin this project and when will it be completed?
- Start date: 15 January 2022 End date: 15 July 2022
- Where will your project activities be happening?
- The project will take place online:
- Materials Needed
- Research plans, reports, drafts, and other materials will be created on Google Docs/Sheets.
- We will distribute questionnaires using google forms. We will use Zoomapp for interviews.
- Report Analysis will be conducted through direct graphs extracted from Forms, and when needed, we will use diagrams from google sheets.
- The final report will be typed and shared on Arabic Wikimedia and Wikisource.
- Are you collaborating with other communities or affiliates on this project? Please provide details of how partners intend to work together to achieve the project goal.
- What specific challenge will your project be aiming to solve? And what opportunities do you plan to take advantage of to solve the problem?
- The challenges that this project aims to address:
- Skill gaps: There are issues hindering the growth of Arabic language wikiprojects. We need to learn more about the skills and capacity gaps that can help us address them. Some of the major problems that we are already aware of:
- In Wikisource, contributors lack the skills to use the OCR processing with Arabic-language texts, including its linguistic rules, terminology, calligraphy, etc.
- In Wikipedia, new contributors suffer from a poor background in editing and writing, resulting in many issues with their contributions.
- In both projects, contributors lack a skill set needed across Wikimedia projects (for example photo licensing, uploading and editing on Wikimedia Commons, etc.).
- Conflict: The community is suffering from many conflicts and internal issues, which make it difficult to focus on the development of wikiprojects. Unfortunately, we lack the necessary skills and ability to resolve those conflicts and focus on productive work.
- Does this project aim to apply one of the examples shared in the call for grants and if so which one?
- N/A: This, itself, is an example.
Opportunity
- Potential for collaboration and co-work: The Arabic community is one of the quickly-growing ones, and has a strong potential to bridge the missing skills through collaboration, co-working and overcoming conflicts. Those are some of the aspects that we will seek to better understand and find ways to improve.
- Volunteer management: The Arabic community members work in individual silos. There is a great potential for more group collaborations and activities that help arrive quickly towards common goals and results, avoiding duplicate work and creating a sense of true community.
Project Activities edit
- What specific activities will be carried out during this project? Please describe the specific activities that will be carried out during this project.
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- Identifying the audience: We will first agree on the exact group of volunteers who we want to target.
- Collecting data: Collecting the already-available data (e.g. on talk pages of newcomer helpers, village pump, social media, etc.) to define the problems of the community. This task will be separately conducted on:
Arabic Wikipedia Arabic Wikisource
- Designing surveys for community skills: We will design two surveys, informed by the data that we have collected (step 2). The surveys will be designed to be both a needs assessment, to define what are the skills that the community lacks, and a skill survey, to also define what are the skills that the community has.
- Translations: The survey will be translated into the local language and distributed among community members. A budget will also be allocated for translations to some of the closely-connected and marginalized languages, whose communities may be interested and are likely to need support.
- Survey distribution: The survey will be distributed as much as possible among the community, through channels that include: The Village Pump, talk pages, social media. We will announce it and collectively fill it during community meetings, and will also conduct 1:1 interviews where we verbally collect the answers (for those who prefer it). We hope to receive diverse responses in terms of: newcomers, admins, editors, technical contributors, women contributors and others. Data will also be extracted from existing archives and rich past knowledge, especially the extensive materials from the Arabic Wikiedia’s Help Team Q&As, etc.
- Analyzing data and defining needs: A data expert or organizers will conduct a qualitative analysis of the collected data, in order to come up with the results that define the community needs and gaps in terms of skills.
- Prioritizing: Once the needs have been identified, we will conduct a general meeting with the community and a follow-up discussion on Wikipedia to agree on the priorities. The priorities will be added to our final report, and we hope to use them to request a future grant in “track 3: create and deliver”.
- How do you intend to keep communities updated on the progress and outcomes of the project? Please add the names or usernames of these individuals responsible for updating the community
- Grant request:
- Grant Request Updates: After receiving the grant approval, We will be sharing the steps of the application and process for others to benefit from. Also, I will ensure that my updates are linked to the original grant page to help everyone learn from other previous grants and examples.
- Knowledge and Findings Share: Finally, We will prepare a PowerPoint presentation related to the report and its findings to share it internally within the community, post about it on my social media and other Wikimedia groups and telegram groups, record a video presentation, and share it on the report’s outcome on youtube for all the community to see.
- Who will be responsible for delivering on this project and what are their roles and responsibilities?
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- Outreach: Announcing the project and grant process, distributing surveys for data collection.
- Facilitating: Facilitating the verbal 1:1 interviews and the community meetings.
- Logistics: we will be leading on this, for collecting survey responses, translation and data analysis:
- Survey design: Carefully designing the questionnaires to collect the relevant data. This step could require the collaboration of the data analyst, or data analysis training for the project organizers.
- Writing reports: The final information will be compiled by us.
- Translation: Translation to English.
Additional information edit
- If your activities include community discussions, what is your plan for ensuring that the conversations are productive? Provide a link to a Friendly Space Policy or UCoC that will be implemented to support these discussions.
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- Although we are volunteers, we have experienced facilitators who can help provide the needed support.
- The Wikimedia Foundation’s friendly space policy will be applied.
- If your activities include in-person events or activities, you will need to complete the steps outlined in the Risk Assessment protocol. Please provide a link to your completed copy of the risk assessment tool.
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- We may request any tools that the data analyst may request from us to perform their job.
- We have allocated the budget for a single standard-priced business tool with a subscription for 3 month. The budget will be kept flexible, though.
- If your activities include the use of paid online tools, please describe what tools these are and how you intend to use them.
- Do your activities include the translation of materials, and if so, in what languages will the translation be done? Please include details of those responsible for making the translations.
- Are there any other details you would like to share? Consider providing rationale, research or community discussion outputs, and any other similar information, that will give more context on your proposed project.
Outcomes edit
After your activities are complete, we would like to understand the draft implementation plan for your community. You will be required to prepare a document detailing this plan around a movement strategy initiative. This report can be prepared through Meta-wiki using the Share your results button on this page. The report can be prepared in your language, and is not required to be written in English.
In this report, you will be asked to:
- Provide a link to the draft implementation plan document or Wikimedia page
- Describe what activities supported the development of the plan
- Describe how and where you have communicated your plan to relevant communities.
- Report on how your funding was spent
Your draft implementation plan document should address the following questions clearly:
- What movement strategy initiative or goal are you addressing?
- What activities will you be doing to address that initiative?
- What do you expect will happen as a result of your activities? How do those outcomes address the movement strategy initiative?
- How will you measure or evaluate your activities? What tools or methods will you use to evaluate your activities?
To create a draft implementation plan, we recommend the use of a logic model, which will help you and your team think about goals, activities, outcomes, and other factors in an organized way. Please refer the following resources to develop a logic model:
- Overview of logic models on Meta-wiki
- Example logic models for reference for other movement activities (such as partnerships and edit-a-thons)
- Blank logic model template on Google Drive
Please confirm below that you will be able to prepare a draft implementation plan document by the end of your grant:
- ...
Optionally, you are welcome to include other information you'd like to share around participation and representation in your activities. Please include any additional outcomes you would like to report on below:
Budget edit
How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!
- Research: 1800 USD (120 hours, at a rate of 15 USD/hour)
- 120 hours to plan the process, prepare the survey questions, distribute the survey and collect the responses from the Village pump, talk pages and social channels, as well as from :historical knowledge resources (e.g. Help Team archives).
- Interviews: 1600 USD (80 hours, at a rate of 20 USD/hour)
- 80 hours to conduct interviews with 25 people, including preparation time, transcription and data collection afterwards.
- Data Analysis and report writing: 3000 USD (120 hours, at a rate of 25 USD/hour)
- 120 hours to clean up, categorize and analyze the data. Two separate reports will be produced for Wikipedia and Wikisource skill gaps.
- Translation: 800 USD
- 35-40 pages, or about 10,000 words.
- Online tools or services : 45 USD
- Zoom subscription for 3 months.
- Coordination (coordinator work to manage or support multiple workflows to prepare for meeting):
- Data (internet or mobile costs for organizers or participants to access or participate in activities):
- Venue or space for meeting (costs of renting a physical meeting space):
- Transportation costs (costs of supporting organizers or participants to attend the meeting):
- Meals (costs related to refreshments, lunches, or other meals during in-person activities):
- Other:
TOTAL AMOUNT REQUESTED USD: 7245 USD
Completing your application edit
Once you have completed the application, please do the following:
- Change the application status from
status=drafttostatus=proposedin the {{Probox}} template. - Contact strategy2030
wikimedia.org to confirm your submission, as well as to request any support around your application.
Endorsements edit
An endorsement from community members (especially from outside your community) will be part of the considerations when reviewing your application. Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!