Grants talk:PEG/WM AM/WikiConference Yerevan 2013/Report

I have some questions.

1. During the conference, the translator ( first editor of Armenian Wikipedia) announced, that the amount of money that we have to pay for her work, she donates to Wikimedia Armenia: US$ 400. We can leave this sum into account of Wikimedia Armenia or not.--SusikMkr (talk) 10:58, 30 November 2013 (UTC)
2. In Grant submission we planned

• to print brochures, but we were late with translation, eventually now we finished,
• to invite experienced wikimedian in GLAM and QRpedia in order to have round table with GLAM authorities, now we and ministry of Culture have matured for this event.
• In addition now we are working with senior classes of schools and we are going to encourage the students with the prizes and with the certificates.

Since all these bullets either are in Grant or are related to conference activities, I wonder, could we like to organize this now by using the remaining funds.--SusikMkr (talk) 10:41, 1 December 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for this report

Dear Wikimedia Armenia team:

Thanks for submitting your report on time! We are happy to see you plan to adopt the pre-conference, conference, and post-conference mode of planning for future projects. That is a valuable lesson learned.

We have a few questions about your report. We are looking forward to hearing your answers on this.

1. We have noticed that the activities section of you report is incomplete. Besides the participants names and links, we need you to also provide a detailed list of activities performed to complete this project, descriptions of these activities, and the amount of time spent on each activity. For your reference, please see: Grants:WM_RS/Wikimedia_CEE_Conference_2012/Report#Activities
2. We have noticed you have not copied the budgeted total into the budget table, as requested. Please make sure you add this to the budget table. It makes comparison difficult for us. Additionally, the budget table is also missing some of the original budget items (e.g. "Cultural program"). Please make sure to replace the current budget table with a table that matches the original grant budget table, adding actual amounts spent, and commenting on any variance greater than %10. (e.g. why 50 more T-shirts were made, exceeding the amount budgeted for them).
3. This report mentions an agreement with the Ministry of Culture to start a GLAM project with at least three museums. Could you please add more details regarding this agreement? When will it be effective? Is there any concrete activities making sure this partnership will move forward?
4. Please provide additional information regarding the National Library collaboration. It was not clear how and in which capacity the library employees are going to work with WM AM in Wikipedia and Wikisource projects.
5. On a similar note, please tell us more about the collaboration with the American University of Armenia (AUA). What exactly this project consists of?

Finally, we would like to congratulate you on the clear improvements in Armenian Wikipedia statistics. We are pleased to see the results of your efforts.

Best regards,

Adele Vrana (WMF) talk 20:43, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for updating the report to address #1 and #2 above. Please answer the remaining questions when you're able. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 19:51, 6 December 2013 (UTC)

1. Done.
2. Done.
3. We met the vice minister of Culture Samuelyan Arev and agreed verbal to have meeting experienced wikimedian in GLAM from foreign country, may be Andy Mabbett, and with GLAM representatives. We have organized workshops in "Erebuni" museum, but not satisfied in result. Just now (on fb)vice minister have agreed to organize meeting with GLAM representatives in second part of the January. So if it is possible to have GLAM trainer during this time, it will be great.
4. National library also is under rule of Ministry of Culture, but we have organized there opening and closing ceremony of Wiki loves monuments and now we have exhibition of best photos there. National library of Armenia have digitized many books and agree to place them in Wikisource, also they have collected information about Armenian writers, scientists,..., two of employees of National Library could do these works.
5. We started the collaboration with the laboratory of Armenian Bibliographies of AUA.

http://www.digilib.am/digilib/ They have huge collection of Armenian Bibliographies from all over the world and agree to give for free (LCC) and moreover we are going to help them to become Wikipedia editor, to create Wikipedia articles from this content. In addition we have agreement with Thomas Samuelyan, Dean of the College of Humanities of AUA to organize translation courses on Wikipedia articles. For this we have to develop detailed project.

Tony1 comments

Thanks for the report.

I'm surprised you don't list under "Lessons learned" that a thorough investigation of potential clashes with other events should be undertaken before deciding on a date.

Do you have a link to the press release? (Press mentions are listed and linked, but not your press release. And the first link is not to a press mention, BTW.)

"What went well" is mostly about what didn't go well.

"About 30% of the content of Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia (SAE) is now imported in Armenian Wikipedia. We distribute this work among high schools."—Unclear what you mean. Distributed hard copy? If so, why? Is the Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia relatively free of POV? When you say "the results are great", do you mean the high-school students just type in the SAE text, raw?

I'm unsure how to interpret this claim: "Now all media praise Wikimedia Armenia. ..." What ... all the time? Radio, TV, print?

"Now every day we have invitation to organize series of workshops."—I'm used to taking textual meaning seriously. Do you mean 365 days a year????

We funded a printed conference program, but there's no mention of the conference schudule, what actually happened.

I think you mean "no good without evil", not the reverse. The statement appears twice. I'd like more substance instead.

Tony (talk) 22:25, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Hello Tony1.

Happy New Year. Thanks for questions.

I think there is some misunderstanding because of my poor English. Particularly related to the phrase: "No evil without good". There are alternative translations: "Every cloud has a silver lining", "A blessing in disguise".

• I'm surprised you don't list under "Lessons learned" that a thorough investigation of potential clashes with other events should be undertaken before deciding on a date.

You are absolutely right, that we had to investigate the potential clashes with other events. I already added "lesson learned".

• "About 30% of the content of Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia (SAE) is now imported in Armenian Wikipedia. We distribute this work among high schools."—Unclear what you mean. Distributed hard copy? If so, why? Is the Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia relatively free of POV? When you say "the results are great", do you mean the high-school students just type in the SAE text, raw?

No, high school students created wikipedia articles from the content of SAE.

13 volums of Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia were scanned and digitized and replaced in wikisource by our active wikipedians: Now we transform the content from Wikisource into Wikipedia articles by help of high school students. Here is Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia: [1] How looks a volume in wikisource: [2]

how looks a casual page in wikisource: [3] Here is the page for high schools [4] In each high school we collect groops 5 students in each and give them task to create 100 articles, then second 100, … Here is an example of page for a groop. [5] Each groop has to create at first 100 wikipedia article from the content of wikisource: to wikificate, to actualize, to add pictures and so on. We,ll present our educational projects in in details at Wikimedia conference.

• I'm unsure how to interpret this claim: "Now all media praise Wikimedia Armenia. ..." What ... all the time? Radio, TV, print?

I’m used to set maximal goals, and do my best to achieve them. All our events and achievements are advertised on media: TV, Radio and newspaper, now twice a month.

• "Now every day we have invitation to organize series of workshops."—I'm used to taking textual meaning seriously. Do you mean 365 days a year????

To be precise, approximately once a week we have workshop in one high school or university. Every Saturday we have open workshop in our office.

• We funded a printed conference program, but there's no mention of the conference schedule, what actually happened.

Please, here you are:

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConference_Yerevan_2013/Schedule --SusikMkr (talk) 11:32, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Just an addition about using Soviet encyclopedia content: Yes, there is POV and there is a lot of dated information there. But we filter the articles topics. For instance, we don't encourage students to use and article about any political ideology, like Marxism or Democracy. On the other hand, we encourage the students to track any POV and dated information and adjust or remove them, which we think is a very effective way for newbies to learn about Wikipedia policies regarding Neutral POV, Verifiability etc. In addition we also double check the articles that are created by students using Soviet encyclopedia content. --vacio 11:51, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Reallocation

Thank you for your clarifying responses to the above comments. Before we can formally accept the report, we will need more details on the reallocation of remaining funds.

Guidelines for requesting the reallocation of grant funds can be found here: request for reallocation. While your remaining amount ($510) is above $500, you may still follow the reallocation guidelines. Most importantly, we will need to see a budget with line items for each of the proposed tasks.

Additionally, the remaining funds (US$2,097) from your previous grant, Grants:PEG/Susanna_Mkrtchyan/Wiki_conference, were not deducted from the 2013 grant as planned. We apologize for this and will need you to return these remaining funds. Please follow the instructions for returning funds here returning unused funds.

Please visit the 2012 report talk page for more information: Grants_talk:PEG/Susanna_Mkrtchyan/Wiki_conference/Report.

If you have any questions, please let me know! AWang (WMF) (talk) 21:19, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

Dear All,

here are two variants for reallocation of 510 US$.

• As I mentioned above, we have collaboration with high schools. During collaboration, once in two months, we have meetings in schools with students. In order to encourage students, we are going to give presents to very active wiki editors. We are thinking about Wikicups with Wikipedia and WM AM logos, we had ordered such wikicups for active participants during "Wiki loves monuments.

The price for a cup is 4,5 US$. So with 510 US$ we can order 113 cups.

• We are going to organize collaboration with high schools in regions too.

With 510 US$ we can organize two times workshop in three regional high schools.--SusikMkr (talk) 16:59, 26 January 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Susanna, and thank you for these details. Are you able to provide a start date and a completion date for each of these activities? We will need that before we can consider either option. Thank you! Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 23:02, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Hello Winifred.

Since we have goal to make high school students educated and motivated on wiki and we have success, therefor we will work with high schools all time.

• We have to order all 113 wiki cups as soon as possible.

Two schools have successfully ended this stage and next week we will have meeting with students . 34 students are very active. They created 1428 articles. In this stage we need 34 cups, for active students. We are working with 5 schools and will review the results of collaboration in May and we'll give wiki cups presents to students of these schools in May. Since we are going motivate as many schools as possible. This education project we will continue long time.

• We planned to have workshops in mathematician high school in Gyumry and Vanadzor in February and March, and in one high school in Goris in March, this activity we started in February and ended in March and very hope to continue.

--SusikMkr (talk) 18:53, 1 February 2014 (UTC)

Thank you Susanna: Do you think you would be able to submit a brief report about these activities by 31 May 2014 if the reallocation request is approved? It sounds like the main part of your activities involving grant funds will be complete by that date. Thank you, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 22:46, 4 February 2014 (UTC)

Dear Winifred,

thank you for your help. We already ordered wiki cups and today we'll receive 135 cups instead of 113. We'll use these cups during the many school events for encouraging students. It will take time. In my opinion we don't need to wait all those events to make decision with this report. --SusikMkr (talk) 07:58, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Thank you Susanna for clarifying the reallocation request. The request for reallocating $510 USD to purchase wikicups is approved. As agreed, you will need to submit a brief reallocation report by 31 December 2014 detailing how the wikicups were given out and to whom. You are also retaining the $2,097 remaining from your previous grant for up to 21 days while you draft your next request. We expect this proposal by 28 February 2014. Please let me know if you have any questions. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 17:33, 18 February 2014 (UTC)

Dear Alex, as our Wikipedia Education program has a great success and we have many editors from different high schools (AYB, Physmath, Evrika, Photon) who are active, the majority of the cups with certificates were given to them till May during different events as presents and a couple of cups remained in Wikimedia Armenia office for every day use of students and other editors who actively participate in edit-a-thons organized in WM AM.--Lilitik22 (talk) 12:15, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Hi Lilitik22. Thank you for the update. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 20:21, 10 December 2014 (UTC)

Report Accepted

This report is accepted. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 17:45, 18 February 2014 (UTC)