Grants talk:IEG/Mbazzi Village writes Wikipedia

Congratulations! Your proposal has been selected for an Individual Engagement Grant.

The committee has recommended this proposal and WMF has approved funding for the full amount of your request, $2880

Comments regarding this decision:
We look forward to partnering with Mbazzi Village and Wikimedia Sweden to pilot the first Wikipedia center, and to seeing if this approach is a viable one for helping Luganda Wikipedia grow.

Next steps:

1. You will be contacted to sign a grant agreement and setup a monthly check-in schedule.
2. Review the information for grantees.
3. Use the new buttons on your original proposal to create your project pages.
4. Start work on your project!

Questions? Contact us.

Deadline reminder

Hi Paul and all,

This is a really neat idea for a pilot to share knowledge from Mbazzi, thank you for starting this draft - I haven't heard of a Wikipedia center like this before and would be curious to know if anyone else has!

I've added a few more things to your infobox, including a way to specify who would be the grantees (responsible for handling the funds, reporting, etc), and who would be involved as a volunteer or advisor. Please move your participants into those areas as you see fit.

Just a reminder that the deadline to propose this grant for round 2 is coming up in a few days, on 30 September 2013. When you're ready, please update the infobox from DRAFT to status=PROPOSED.

Good luck finishing your proposal - I'm looking forward to seeing it in review! Cheers, Siko (WMF) (talk) 05:34, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Answer from Paul Kiguba:

The chairperson of Mbazzi farmer association, the project coordinator and the treasurer of the association will be in charge of handling the funds and reporting about the project progress in a timely manner. The project coordinator will feed the partners with all the necessary information before, during and after the project. The articles will be written by the farmers or villagers and experts on several issues in sustainable development. Advisors in the first phase will be two Swedish volunteers if we get funding for that from a swedish fund (Creative force) and the Luganda Department of Makerere University.

Questions about scope

I've also got a couple of questions about the scope, curious to know how/if you're thinking of the following:

• IEGs usually run for an initial 6 months, with the ability to be renewed for another 6 months if promise is demonstrated. Would something like this be worth attempting in a 6 month period, rather than the 12 you have currently scoped? If so, how might that change your budget?

Answer from Paul Kiguba: The project can start in six month but a 12 month funding will lay a firmer foundation for the future. The initial costs is the same if we start in six or twelve month. The only thing that change is the cost for the guard, the tutor and internet. We think that it is best the budget should remain in order to set a good start. A big part of the budget goes to infrastructural set up.

• Do you have any thoughts about what might happen to the center after the grant ends? Once the guard and tutor's salaries are no longer paid, do you think the center could still be maintained? Or, if successful, would you think of moving the equipment to a new village?

Answer from Paul Kiguba: In the process of the grant we shall co-opt three neighboring primary schools for long term partnership. Teachers and learners will use the center at a small fee. The center is planned to grow in to a prime center of sharing knowledge of sustainable development. The project coordinator who is also a rotarian will look for more partners, both local and international, for the project. The center will also address literacy and numeracy among the villagers. This will certainly attract more partners.

• We tend to be a bit cautious about granting equipment because of questions around use after the grant ends, and so forth. I wonder if another organization in Sweden or Uganda might be convinced to fund computers, internet access, etc., if WMF were to fund the human costs of such a pilot project?

Answer from Paul Kiguba: Swedish Wikimedia have telled us that they maybe can help us with equipment via "Engineers without borders. That is O.K. but can maybe delay the project and taxes for the equipment need to be in the grant.

Cheers! Siko (WMF) (talk) 13:51, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Existing Ugandan community?

I understand that the existing Lugandan Wikipedia community is quite small. But have any of the existing editors, inside or outside Uganda, been approached to act as additional mentors for the in-village tutor or students? It seems like a project along these lines could be best placed for success if there was some additional mentorship capacity online from even 1 or 2 other existing community members, to compliment the in-person support for these new Wikipedians. Siko (WMF) (talk) 18:29, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Answer from Paul Kiguba: We have contacted the luganda department at Makerere University, and they are willing to be mentors in the project. They will edit our articles.

Few concerns

Hello, Could you please add the Userpage links of the participants at the infobox and Participant(s) section. I don't see any community notification links to any Wikipedia, Mailing lists etc.? Could you also add the links where it is asked? And I'd like to see more information about Trainer(s); Names, experiences, and links to their previous works if any. Thanks. -- ɑηsuмaη «Talk» 09:38, 28 September 2013 (UTC)

Materials/Equipment

Hi all!

Just to let you know that we will withdraw this proposal as all we've applied for are material&equipment (apart from one salary) which we may find funding for elsewhere probably. So as no funding is given to almost all items we're asking funding for it doesn't make sense to have a proposal here. I'll see what Paul & Dan says as well and if they find that a proposal is still useful we might change it again but at the moment it seems unnecessary. --Sophie ♡ 11:43, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Apparently, changing our mind on this and applying for money for trainer & guard. Sorry about the confusion! :) --Sophie ♡ 11:50, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Eligibility confirmed, round 2 2013

This Individual Engagement Grant proposal is under review!

We've confirmed your proposal is eligible for round 2 review. Please feel free to ask questions here on the talk page and make changes to your proposal as discussions continue during this community comments period.

The committee's formal review for round 2 begins on 23 October 2013, and grants will be announced in December. See the schedule for more details.

Questions? Contact us.

Siko (WMF) (talk) 05:55, 4 October 2013 (UTC)

Community Notifications

Hi Paul and Dan,
Hi Jan and Sophie,
As you know, the IEG committee will begin their review of round 2 proposals on 23 October 2013. To expedite proposal review, I'm looking over the community notifications section of each eligible application. It looks like your proposal's Community Notifications section still needs a little additional documentation. If you have not yet posted a notice to community members on Luganga Wikipedia, please do. There may be community members there who will be happy to hear from you and excited about your proposal, and they may wish to to leave you feedback and possibly collaborate with you on the work. Thanks for doing this. It will help the committee can more easily follow up.
Best of luck! :)
Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 02:56, 20 October 2013 (UTC)

Aggregated feedback from the committee for Mbazzi Village writes Wikipedia

Scoring criteria (see the rubric for background)	Score 1=weakest 5=strongest
Potential for impact
(A) The project fits with the Wikimedia movement's strategic priorities	4.5
(B) The project has the potential to lead to significant online impact.	3.5
(C) The impact of the project can be sustained after the grant ends.	3.5
(D) The project has potential to be scaled or adapted for other languages or projects.	4
Ability to execute
(E) The project has demonstrated interest from a community it aims to serve.	3.5
(F) The project can be completed as scoped within 6 months with the requested funds.	3.5
(G) The budget is reasonable and an efficient use of funds.	4.5
(H) The individual(s) proposing the project have the required skills and experience needed to complete it.	4.5
Fostering innovation and learning
(I) The project has innovative potential to add new strategies and knowledge for solving important issues in the movement.	3.5
(J) The risk involved in the project's size and approach is appropriately balanced with its potential gain in terms of impact.	4
(K) The proposed measures of success are useful for evaluating whether or not the project was successful.	4
(L) The project supports or grows the diversity of the Wikimedia movement.	4.5
Comments from the committee: A very interesting project that could be adapted worldwide in other small language versions. The budget is quite small, but well-structured and has support and cooperation with Wikimedia Sweden. It’s important that the funds be well-tracked, reported, and disbursed. Important that the Trainers be qualified - we’d like to be sure of this. Addresses a critical underrepresentation in Africa, especially among active editors. E-learning centres are a proven model that has been used by other governments. Some focus needs to be given to the sustainability of the centre and how it would continue to operate once the grant ends.

Thank you for submitting this proposal. The committee is now deliberating based on these scoring results.

Funding decisions will be announced by December 16. — ΛΧΣ²¹ 00:24, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

Languages other than Luganda

Is there any prospect of this project affecting Ugandan languages other than Luganda and perhaps English? -- Daniel Mietchen (talk) 22:51, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

That is not really the plan as I understand it, but the project WMSE is doing in Uganda at the same time might contribute to the Swahili WP too (although that is not clear yet) and both these projects will have synergy effects on each other. --Jan Ainali (WMSE) (talk) 12:28, 12 December 2013 (UTC)

There is no Luganda editing community

A quick look at statistics reveals that there is no Luganda editing community. Let's stop pretending there is one; i.e. there is no one to notify, and there is no community to endorse this request. It should be judged on its merits as a proposal to edit in the inactive Luganda Wikipedia. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 01:15, 10 December 2013 (UTC)

I don't think anyone is asserting the contrary, although the questions about community are standard ones that get asked of everyone along the way. Rather, it's been judged on the merits of making a modest investment in trying something new :) Siko (WMF) (talk) 00:12, 17 December 2013 (UTC)