Grants talk:IdeaLab/Organise expeditions in Africa and Asia to collect "forgotten" knowledges and take photos

What project?

What project would the information gathered be stored in? This would almost all be original research, so not suitable for Wikipedia. · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 05:03, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

WMF "Organizing"

Hi @Tsaag Valren:: the WMF doesn't organize project content creation projects like you describe. Rather, we can fund or support projects through our grants programs and programs team, which help volunteers or Affiliates run activities. Do you think you could refine your idea to be more specific on what kind of information you would like to see collected? And is there a community that you could engage to support that activitiy? For example, we know the Wiki Loves Africa campaign has been really effective at documenting cultural heritage in Africa, because it creates a collaboration across multiple affiliates and volunteers in the African community. Astinson (WMF) (talk) 14:35, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

OR...

How about we give new wikipedians in Africa itself who are closer to those communities a chance; you can train them online and work with them to organize those trips for them in order to gain whatever specific knowledge that you all are interested in. I believe that serves the objective far better in the long run (teach a man to fish on that island that you wanted to casually fish at and you'll see that fish for a lifetime!). Not as sexy as a safari in Africa for foreigners but...I think it's more aligned with what donors gave money to Wikimedia for. Sorry. Calexit (talk) 01:44, 3 February 2017 (UTC) Of course the same goes for Asia. The idea is local or closer communities should be given priority. Calexit (talk) 01:49, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

No reason why the two can't be combined. A physical expedition by suitably skilled Wikimedians could recruit a bunch of locals to assist with all aspects of gathering and processing data, so when they leave there is a core group of competent locals to carry on the good work. It may look a bit colonialist at first glance, but it does not have to be that way. Leading by example is what we should be aiming for. · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 07:46, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

I agree with Peter. Project doesn't need to ship teams of people around the globe, rather create small teams of locals from Africa, Asia and Middle East with the purpose of doing small expeditions to capture photos, sounds and video and gather information from reliable sources that are otherwise inaccessible. It could maybe fund some non local people who are experienced to lead these expeditions. Ataalik (talk) 13:21, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Original research

I like the idea in some ways. Personally, I often contribute more to Wikipedia when planning/taking/returning from travels. However, there's an issue. Photographs, videos and sound recordings are in some ways primary documentation and thus exempt, however there is a reason why Wikipedia discourages so-called 'original research'... it's too hard to verify. In addition, there are entire academic fields (eg. social anthropology and cultural anthropology) that are dedicated to this kind of research. Normal people without a background in this field cannot perform these functions reliably and accurately. Pratyeka (talk) 11:12, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

Comment

Much as I like this idea & could endorse it because so many cultures in Africa are based on orally transmitted knowledge, the problem I have with this proposal is that Africa (like Asia) comprises many cultures. Which ones would be targeted or given priority? Moreover, reaching some of these cultures is potentially dangerous: there are parts of Ethiopia where visitors are required to hire armed guards -- often members of the military -- for protection. There is a lot of planning & contingencies that would be required to usefully access many locations. (This reminds me, I need to go thru the photographs my father took when he visited Sudan in the late 1970s & upload the more interesting ones to commons. That would yield a lot of benefits with a minimum of danger or expense.) -- Llywrch (talk) 04:18, 11 February 2017 (UTC)