Grants talk:Programs/Organizer Lab/Editatona território corpo-terra

Committee Feedback

Hello @CalliandraDysantha, thank you for your grant application, your project proposal is very clear on the goals and what the project seeks to achieve. We are also excited about the scope of work to be done under this project and your approach to recording learnings from the project

General observations:

The project proposal captures clear knowledge equity goals that build on new ways of organizing beyond competitions. The outcomes are broad and the applicant needs to clearly articulate the potential scope of topics and process for acquiring these topic areas at the intersection of race and gender.

The grantee has done well to scope a good team but needs to clarify expectations from WMF and its proposed partners to ensure this engagement is as expected by all parties.

This project seeks a trans-regional (cross-continental) impact, we are particularly curious about the potential growth of the project in Africa.

Reservations:

We are not quite clear what the roles of some of the partners are or where they have gotten to in terms of negotiating such partnerships, considering that partnerships can take a bit of time to secure.

The cost seems a bit high and heavily weighted on personnel activities, especially for an online event/project.

What we would like the grantee to improve:

• Can you explain at what stages you are with these partnerships or the level of negotiation that has been done with them?
  • We would like you to be clear on the expectations or the roles of these partners, especially the roles of the WMF in this project.
  • We would require you to meet with the WMF's partnership managers to discuss the potential of work and opportunities for this project. You can reach out to fnarteywikimedia.org to schedule a meeting with the appropriate partnership manager.

NB: Please make indicated changes to your application on the Wikimedia Foundation Grantee Portal (Fluxx). Log in to the Grantee Portal and you will see your application in the 'Proposals need attention' section. Edit and re-submit your proposal by March 02, 2023. FNartey (WMF) (talk) 22:01, 24 February 2023 (UTC)

Reply

Hello @FNartey (WMF), The following answer to the feedback was formulated by @CalliandraDysantha and @Anita Braga, signer and co-signer of the grant proposal. We divided the answer in three main topics, and made the viable arrangements on the budget. We will reach you to schedule a meeting for further clarification, if needed.

Partners’ standing

As for the proposed partners, none of them are new partnerships for us. The partner’s role would be voluntary communication assistance, meaning the promotion of the events in their established channels and network. Both partners are aware of their proposed role on this project, and are excited about it.

As stated on our proposal, Niboe is a multilingual platform for the social communication of knowledge, in which CalliandraDysantha is a member. The Niboe team is based in different South American countries and has a clear commitment to Knowledge Equity.

BANTUMEN is a digital platform promoting the black culture of the global Portuguese-speaking community. They are a current partner for the annual plan implementation of WELx, the user group Anita Braga is part of.

We understand your concern on the matter. It would be a risk if the partnerships were to be established with these partners for the first time. However, as stated above, there are already current connections and joint projects in place, which would make this an addition and reinforcement of the partners’ relations.

Personnel activities cost

The personnel cost is due to the conscious choice of recognizing underrepresented communities’ work. We believe that, to effectively bring a decolonial approach to the table, we need to recognize and overcome the challenges to women, people of color, and Global Southerners to solely perform voluntary work on Wikimedia campaigns and events. Their work needs to be fairly traded. It is important to mention that we proposed an hourly rate of pay (for the co-coordinators) similar to those of WMF staff.

As for the speakers fee, we aimed for a considerably lower rate ($250 per event) than those standard for anglophone speakers; which is around $500 for cases of neophytes being contracted by non-profit organizations (according to various sources, including The Speaker Lab). So, even though we are considering part of the speaking participation as voluntary, we would be unfair (not to mention, colonialist) of our part to expect free labor.

Even though it’s an online project, it involves diverse and various types of events, be it for wiki training, as for securing the speakers and supporting the online ongoing editing activities, with an overall duration of 6 months. We added to the budget a timeline table of the amount and duration of work and activities, for better clarification. However, giving your feedback, we reduced the budget, by slightly adjusting the proposed activities, thus reducing the overall time of one of the co-coordinators, as well as the number of speakers.

We believe that the weight on personnel activities is viable when we excluded other types of costs, such as travel logistics and merchandise. As we planned online activities engaged on environment awareness and climate action, it was vital to have no costs with airplane travels and product shipping.

In conclusion, our budget is human-oriented, trying to fairly recognize the time invested by co-organizers and speakers. In result, we hope to secure well organized activities and high-level round tables, enabling a good community outreach and event conduction. Our plan is to secure great participation of our communities, which be also recognized by awards (consumption vouchers).

Expectations from WMF

Please clarify which expectations from WMF would you refer to. Where in our proposal did we assume we would expect WMF to assume roles on the project. We are not sure to have understood your question.

Thank you,
❋CalliandraDysantha (✉︎) 20:05, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

Request

Hello @CAlmog (WMF) and @FNartey (WMF),
I kindly request a deadline extension for the report submission from 15 September 2023 to 15 October 2023. Would it be possible?
An extension is needed in order to ensure a great quality for the report.
Thank you,
❋CalliandraDysantha (✉︎) 17:49, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

Hello CalliandraDysantha, as communicated via email your request is approved. Thank you!FNartey (WMF) (talk) 18:16, 6 September 2023 (UTC)