Grants talk:PEG/7amleh/Workshops to promote Palestinian participation on Wikipedia

A decision has been made on this grant. Comments are still welcome on this page.

GAC members decisions

GAC members who support this request

1. In my opinion the relation costs/benefits is adequate. But see my comment. --Ilario (talk) 22:50, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

GAC members who abstain from voting/comment

1. --DerekvG (talk) 16:09, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

GAC comments

How do you want to select 15 people for workshop for trainers? Also, how do you want to select 4 out of those 15 to be scholars? A kind of exam or contest? And finally - after selection those 4 - how do you want to screen the effectiveness of their workshops? What if they appear ineffective? Polimerek (talk) 22:58, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Since we have changed the scale of the project, please see the revised grant request.

The cost of the trainer has to be reduced in my opinion. 1000$ is too high considering that the cost of travel is in another item. Is this a salary or something similar? --Ilario (talk) 22:54, 7 April 2016 (UTC)

Community comments

Tony1

1. 7amleh and colleagues, thanks. Promoting growth in Arabic-language participation is a high priority for the WMF. Good questions by the WMF below (one of which I was about to ask myself).
2. I like the emphasis on teaching people how to create balanced content.
3. I presume the training will be on Visual Editor.
4. US$13,000 is $130 per new editor. That seems rather expensive—the more so given the question as to whether you will actually achieve that goal of 100 editors, and how long they will stay active (what is your measure of active?).
5. As you point out under "Risks", it's the first time for such a large scale. I wonder whether it might be wise to conduct a short series of smaller, more thematically focused sessions first. That might show how a more ambitious program could be optimised in quality and impact.
6. Maybe I didn't read the page closely enough: who will be your ?four trainers?
7. US$60 seems a lot per person for transport. Could we see a breakdown, to identify where the expensive routes are?
8. Where will you advertise?
9. What are the "Communications" costs?
10. Most importantly, I see no details about the workshops themselves. What durations are planned? What themes and in what order are planned? What teaching techniques will be employed (e.g. demonstration on large screen -> individual exercises -> discussion of results --> etc? Tony (talk) 13:24, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Since we have changed the scale of the project, please see the request.

As for comment 8, we plan on advertising online and through social media. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by 7amleh (talk) 15:18, 10 March 2016 (UTC)

As for comment 10, a typical workshop will begin with a lecture on the history of Wikipedia, and a comparison between Arabic Wikipedia and other language versions of the encyclopedia. The purpose of this exercise is to show the stark difference in content between Arabic and some of the other major world languages. This in turn should highlight the urgency of increased contribution in order to enrich the Arabic content, and provide the motivation for doing so. Next, a brief overview of the pillars of Wikipedia and the fundamentals of editing, sourcing, attribution and other policies will be discussed. A discussion about the neutral point of view and its relevance in the Palestinian context will be offered next. Finally, the technical workshop will commence, by guiding the students through account creation, switching on visual editor, and the basics of using visual editor. The students will be given time to practice those skills in the first session, and given a homework assignment. In the second and subsequent sessions, assignments will be discussed, and iterations of editing the same article will be executed, in order for the students to feel what it is like to edit "in the wild", and what concerns newcomers have. Class time will be used to discuss the editing experience, answering questions, and coming up with solutions in a friendly setting.

WMF comments

Dear 7amleh, Farah, and Maisara, thanks for putting together this request. I have a few clarifying questions that come to mind after reading it through.

1. Outcomes from your previous events/workshops? Thank you for providing descriptions of your previous activities. This is great context. I especially like seeing how your organization is linked with members of the Arabic Wikimedia community, both locally and regionally. I am curious, however, if you tracked any outcomes from these events. It looks like a lot of experts shared their experience and even instructed attendees on how to edit. Do you know if any new users (or existing users) made any contributions to Wikimedia projects as a result (edits to Wikipedia, uploads to Commons, etc)?
2. Optimistic measures of success? My second question is somewhat related to the first. Based on your previous examples of activities, it looks like you have experience organizing events and connecting people. I do wonder, however, if 100 new Palestinian editors is an achievable goal. It sounds ambitious to me, which is admirable, but I would rather see you setting achievable goals. I would also like to know more about how you intend to measure editor retention -- will it be continued editing after 3 months, 6 months, etc? I have similar concerns for the high threshold of content to be added.
3. Cost context? Since you have organized plenty of events in the past for different audiences in different locations, I know you have a good sense for the cost of your proposed series of workshops. In order to share some of this context, would you be able to give some estimates about what it took to put on your previous events (cost to you as an organization or estimates of in-kind support from partner organizations, individuals)?

My comments are intended to provoke some discussion. I am not part of the Community Resources team so I have no say in the final grant approval. I feel some additional details or context would strengthen your application, or reassessing your initial program scale/size. I'm sure my colleagues will also chime in with more specific questions as they are able. Please ping me if I can be of any use going forward. Tighe Flanagan (WMF) (talk) 21:50, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you Tighe Flanagan (WMF), Polimerek and Tony1 for your thoughtful questions and suggestions on this proposal, we look forward to reading the responses to these questions. On January 13th, I notified the requestor by email that we would consider funding a scaled-back version of the project described in the proposal with just one trainer as a pilot so they can get a better idea of whether this approach to promoting Palestinian participation on Wikipedia is effective. It would be helpful to hear from 7amleh, Farah, and Maisara to find out whether they are considering making the changes that have been suggested. Cheers, --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 01:01, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Since we have changed the scale of the project, please see the revised request.

Hi 7amleh, Farah, and Maisara. We would like to support the project you have proposed, however, we will not be able to provide funding for a scholarship for the trainer. I realize I told you that we could consider it during a phone call, but a member of the grant review committee has suggested that we only cover the cost of transportation. In fact, the PEG funding guidelines stipulate that paid work should not replace volunteer activity. Leading workshops (that are funded through PEG) is almost always done on a volunteer basis. Will you be able to do the project without providing a scholarship to the trainer?--KHarold (WMF) (talk) 18:23, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

7amleh's comments

Dear KHarold (WMF), thank you for your comments. We are very grateful for your generous support and are excited to move forward with this project. Concerning the funding for the trainer's scholarship, we will be using other resources to cover it. All best, -- 7amleh