Grants:Project/WM ZA/Joburgpedia Digitization 2016/Timeline


Timeline for WM ZA edit

Timeline Date
Project kick-off Meeting with stakeholders 28 January 2017
Selection of Scanners Feb - April 2017
Scanning of images May - July 2017
Uploading of images July - August 2017
Edit-A-Thon 1: SAHA Offices + Spring History Schools Project September 2017
Edit-A-Thon 1: SAHA Offices + Spring History Schools Project September 2017
Project Close & Reporting October 2017


Monthly updates edit

Please prepare a brief project update each month, in a format of your choice, to share progress and learnings with the community along the way. Submit the link below as you complete each update.

January edit

15 January 2017 edit

We held a brainstorming meeting with Gille, in order to map out timelines for the project as well as rope in stakeholders for the following project aspects:

  • SAHA contact person - Geraldine & Catherine
  • Imacon Scanning contact person - Darren

We decided that the Project Theme should be around strong rural women. Gille suggested that the Driefontein Project can be a starting point.

28 January 2017 edit

We held a Project Kick-off meeting at SAHA offices with Geraldine and Catherine from SAHA. We got to know each other as well as workout basic timelines and to-do list going forward.

Since Gille and Catherine had worked together before, they proposed that the range of the images to be digitized can be within the following range:

  1. Rural Women Movement.
  2. Period of 1990 to 1995 mostly, with any earlier images included.
  3. Focus on Mokgopa Driefontein Story which is now being incorporated into national schools curricullum.

Catherine offered to dicuss with CEO of ConHill Heritage section a possibility to use their computer lab for the edit-a-thons. More information will be provided later but it is viable to tie in with Spring History Schools Project and History Teachers, there are about 15 to 25 teachers expected this year.

Gille indicated that she will be in Europe between Mid-March to Mid-May 2017, so the scanning activities will have to begin then. She requested that an External Hard Drive be made available for her to save images as she does the scanning. Logistics of couriering images down to Darren in Durban will also have to be figured out.

It was agreed that Gille will select images to be organised or finalised in a group setting.


February 2017 edit

We finally managed to buy a 1TB external drive for Gille so she can start organising existing digitized images that she has.

We hit a snag with the scanning company, their Scanner broke down and they can nolonger provide their services. We are looking for alternatives, however they are all very expensive at the moment. Gille will source more suppliers when she returns.


April - May 2017 edit

The project is practically on hold as Gille is away and Dumi still sorting out funding disbursement from WMF.

Gille managed to get in touch with Lightfarm, a scanning company based in Braamfontein. They can do Imacon Scans at an hourly rate of R500 an hour. We would have to do atleast 9 scans an hour in order to achive the budget unit cost per scan.


June 2017 edit

2 June 2017: edit

Gille has tried out the scanning facility at Light Farm. She managed to do 4 scans in an hour, she is confident that once she gets the hang of the Machine, she can scan about 9 images within an hour. She will check the quality and then decide on way forward as well as a time frames to achieve the 300 images.


July 2017 edit


August 2017 edit


September 2017 edit


October 2017 edit


Is your final report due but you need more time?



Extension request edit

New end date edit

  • 30 March 2018

Rationale edit

  • 285 images have been scanned and retouched. The cost of scanning kept increasing, so we decided that Gille can use her old scanner and take her time in scanning and we can reimburse her for the effort on the rate we have budgeted for. This is why we took so long to complete this stage.
  • We are in talks with SAHA (Under new management) to host and exhibit the images as well as conduct an edit-a-thon. We are also talking to Wits University Oral History department as well as their Archives section as back-up plan should we have continued difficulties with SAHA. This is why we need the time extension as both institution will be closing in the next 2 weeks for the December period. -- Thuvack (talk) 20:52, 21 November 2017 (UTC)
Hi Thuvack. Thank you for the update. The extension request is approved. The new project end date is 30 March 2018 and the final report is due 29 April 2018. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 17:43, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Changing end date back to December 31, 2017 edit

Hi Bobbyshabangu. As discussed, we are changing the end date for this grant back to December 31, 2017 so that we can close the grant and WMZA will be eligible for a Simple Annual Plan. The remainder of the activities on this grant will be funded through the contingency line item of the SAPG. Please post an update on the project, including what has been spent, as of December 31st. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 23:08, 19 December 2017 (UTC)