Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/GOIF 2024 Annual Grant

Proposal Feedback and Invite for Response

Thank you for submitting your application. After the review process please find the feedback - comments and questions below for your response;

• We recognize the improvement of the application as a returning grantee partner. We see this is a continuation of your work and there is continued diversity in your target audience.
• Would you share on how you will go about the Supreme Court project and especially on how you plan to gain access to the documentation needed for digitization.

Supreme Court cases in Ghana are public records (as supported by the 1992 constitution of Ghana Article 126(3)) that are available in various domains such as the internet (https://ghalii.org/, https://lawsghana.com/ etc.), public libraries (Ghana School of Law library, Balme Library etc.) and the Public Records and Archives Department (PRAAD). Our approach to accessing these cases will be will be multifaceted. We will utilise the aforementioned domains as they have helped us to curate over 1000 Supreme Court of Ghana Cases so far.

• Kindly review your meta page to update it with information that would allow a community member to learn more about you, your team and the work and the impact achieved this far.

See here

• On the budget;
  • We see line items on competitions and contents [ twice] and no information was shared on the same in the application. Kindly have a look.

That is an accurate observation. Thank you for bringing our attention to that. The two contests that did not appear in our application were contests the contests in the Twi Wikipedia Health Articles Enhancement (Twi translatathon) and the Twi Community Editing Meetups and Contests programmes. The Twi Wikipedia Health Articles Enhancement (Twi translatathon) programme will involve curation and uploads of curated content that will be uploaded through a contest. The Twi Community Editing Meetups and Contests programmes will include contests that are aimed at increasing and improving content on Twi Wikipedia.

• • We recognice that GOI do not have a strategic plan and are keen to learn what is providing direction to the work you are doing . Additionally, we are interested in learning how you are participating in the Movement Charter discussions

Our Mission as Global Open Initiative is to empower Ghanaian youth through volunteering, providing opportunities for them to contribute to open-source projects like Wikipedia while gaining valuable skills and experiences.

At the Global Open Initiative Foundation, our direction is influenced by our commitment to growth in every project we undertake and, in the long run contributing towards the sustainability of the movement as well as achieving our mission, which is to empower Ghanaian youth through volunteering, providing opportunities for them to contribute to open-source projects like Wikipedia while gaining valuable skills and experiences. In view of this, after each project, we analyse pathways of growth that can enhance the capabilities of our participants, improve and create content, and establish partnerships.

Regarding our participation in the Movement Charter discussions, we have a representative from our community who has been invited to join the monthly charter meetings as an advisor. We also engage in discussions at the community and team levels to address governance and administration matters involving stakeholders in the Wikimedia movement.

• On metrics;
  • In the metrics concerning the number of participants, publishers and organisers, you say that there will be 350 participants in total for a number of publishers that is 400. How is it then that the number of publishers is greater than the total number of participants, knowing that the number of organisers (30) added to the number of participants (350) only makes 380 people in total? Could you please clarify this for us?

That was a mistake, the total number of participants should be 400 rather and the number of editors/publishers at 350.

• • How can we verify the actual retention of the 200 publishers you say you retained? Would you have any tools that would show us this?

We will use feedbacks with questions relating to their engagements with Wikipedia and its sister projects. We will also track their edits using the outreach dashboard. We will also explore the use of tools such as Paws to track edits after our workshops to ascertain retention rates.

• • Also did not mention the number of contributions during the implementation of the program.

We stated in the grant that we will be creating 1,100 pages on Wikipedia and editing or improving 2000 pages on Wikipedia. We will also be contributing 600 files to Wikimedia Commons through our programmes, creating 3,500 items on Wikidata, and editing or improving 500 Wikidata items.

Below is a breakdown of the metrics based on the programmes:

Program	Wikipedia (new)	Wikipedia (to be edited)	Wikidata (new)	Wikidata (to be edited)	Wikimedia Commons
GOIF and Partners (Nubuke, Ghana Library Authority, and CSIR) Workshop and Editathon Series			2500
Twi Wikipedia Health Articles Enhancement	400	50
Documentation of Fabric Weaving Types in Ghana		50			600
Wiki clubs Ghana	500	1300	1000	500
Nzema Workshops and contests	100
Twi Community Editing Meetups and Contests	100	600
Total	1100	2000	3500	500	600

• • What are the strategies you are putting in place to support editor retention.

We have been ensuring editor retention in myriad ways. We pay attention to feedback forms that we share with our participants after programmes and try to identify areas for improvement through the feedback forms. We also offer opportunities for our community members to help in the organisation of our programmes. This helps our community members actively participate in our activities. Moreover, through our contests and workshops, we offer prizes and support in the form of transportation and internet support to encourage our community members. Finally, through our biweekly meetings with our community members and team members, we discuss and address challenges that are faced by our community members and team members, especially problems that cause them to want to leave. Through these ways, we have been ensuring editor retention and believe this will continually help with our editor retention.

• • Additionally, we are curious to know if you are planning to measure anything else to support you in assessing the progress of the impact of your work.

We intend to use the metrics we stated but we are open to ideas and suggestions.

• • Please confirm on the roles that are compensated and how others are supported especially noting that they have not been included in the budget.

We have three paid roles for the project. The project manager, a project lead for the Wiki clubs project and the project lead for our Twi programmes. Team members are supported through the amount stipulated in “Team Management”.

Expert reviewer - GLAM

Program 1 : Ghana Library Authority Wikisource and Wikidata Program:

In Ghana, the copyright protection is 70 years after the death of the last surviving copyright holder. It will be important to establish which books they are planning to upload that are free of copyright. Perhaps a first approach would be to model data about Ghanaian authors (as they will do with artists) which will later on model data about their Copr. status. Querying for Ghanaian authors that are potentially free of Copr (>70 years dead) now gives very 2 results (one of them a German priest who was born in Ghana, another a US-author who was perhaps born in Ghana): https://w.wiki/7eGc

Program 2 : Democratising Access to Supreme Court Cases through Wikidata:

Wikidata elements of this project, like Q7518015 contain interesting information about the judges who participated and the date. However, since no link to a catalog or the complete text is included I wonder what type of queries they're up to develop to democratize knowledge through these cases. Perhaps partnering with a Librarians from the Association of African Law Library and Information Professionals

In order to ensure “increasing connection and collaboration with other librarians through workshops and engagement with the Wiki Librarians user group” it would be interesting to understand better how are the workshops planned, that is, if there has been a needs’ assessment survey to ensure the Wikimedia workshops are not adding work but actually enhancing/facilitating librarians’ work.

Program 3 : Twi Wikipedia Health Articles Enhancement The "Drugs and Diseases (Twi Translatathon) for Our Twi Community" project Perhaps a good opportunity to use the University of Ghana Digital Collections (UGSpace) (i.e. endemic diseases covered in the articles they hold: https://w.wiki/7eL7) Also all articles in AJOL, published in Ghana, related to diseases: https://w.wiki/7eQ8

Last but not least, if Mint’s Twi translation (under “Akan”) could be helpful: https://translate.wmcloud.org/

We highly recommend you get in touch with the regional program officer to support you in understanding the questions raised or if you find it useful to meet with the committee as well, please let them know and they can organize a conversation meeting.

Thank you, and we look forward to receiving your responses to support us in the next steps. On behalf of the MEA Regional Committee and Staff - VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 12:13, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

General Support Funding approved at 910,070.00 GHS

Dear Global Open Initiative,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The MEA Regional Committee and Staff have thoroughly reviewed, discussed and deliberated upon your application and made the decision to fund you at the 910,070.00 GHS for the grant period 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024.

Here are a few points to note;

• We continue to see the progress you have made in having consistent programming and direction in your work.
• We see the group being ready to pursue the development of a strategic plan that will inform future work and direction of the organization.

We also see an opportunity for you to consider multi-year funding in the next round.

• We look forward to learning more about the Supreme Court Case and health article projects and their outcomes.

We hope to continue having regular conversations over the course of your grant implementation. Do set up a regular schedule to connect with your MEA Programme Officer based on your needs.

The reporting requirements for the grant will shared in your grant agreement and on Fluxx. All reports are to be completed and submitted via Fluxx.

Once again, Congratulations! We thank you for your participation in the grant application process and hope to continue to journey with you as you embark on a new year of project implementation. Azogbonon (talk) 11:53, 15 December 2023 (UTC)