Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Jordanian Digital Arabic Content Association annual program

Proposal Feedback and Invite for Comments & 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 strength and importance of your work and contribution on education in the region and specifically in Jordan.
• We would like to understand your vision and ultimate goal [ the bigger challenge ] your efforts are seeking to achieve.
• It was great learning about the intention and plan of working with universities as a partner and to also support in the establishment of Wiki Clubs that will facilitate the implementation of your program.
  • We however were keen to learn more about the focus on 2 universities and not more especially given your past experience in this focus area.
  • We are keen to learn your thoughts on leveraging Wikiversity to support this initiative?
  • We see Wiki data as an opportunity and especially because you want to translate articles. There are tools to use in Wiki data that can be used to support the medical focused work for instance.
• We find the metrics low and see an opportunity to be more ambitious especially given the scope of the project and the resources requested.
• In reviewing the personnel plan, we see the coordinator will work 12hrs / week for a period of 6 months and wondering what will happen in the other 6 months. Or will there be focus on another project component?
• Additionally please share with us the rationale for the costs and especially for the administrative costs against the scope of the project.
• We see a number of your projects having a priziing component - please share more on this approach in relation to the objectives and the sustainability plan as well.
• Would you share more on the role of the executive board ? And Who will do what in terms of roles and responsibilities and can this be clearly indicated in the budget as well. Additionally, would you share more on the rationale for the paid role costs in relation to program costs and how those roles will be selected.
• Based on the history of the project, we know a key partner and to some extent implementor involved the Wikimedians of the Levant and are concerned about possible overlap. Would you say more on this and can we get confirmation from the user group as well on the same as well.
• We are seeking clarification on the Almohtawa Alarabi Alraqami Organization vs Digital Arabic Content Association . While one may be a transliteration of the other, would you kindly confirm?
  • Would you also share recent activities of the organization - the links of the work done are from a while past.

Reply: @DSaroyan (WMF): Thank you very much and we truly appreciate your feedback.

• Our vision in JDACA is to enrich Arabic content on wikipedia especially Jordanian content through the establishment of Wiki clubs in universities and schools. Our ultimate goal is to reach to have one wikiclub in every university and school in Jordan and to enrich content related to Jordan on wikiprojects. In the past, our work used to be with my Alma university mainly because I know the people there and they are keen to facilitate out work there. But as I stated before our goal is to reach to every university in Jordan nevertheless as long as this is our first grant proposal and we want to be realistic rather than optimistic we want to focus on only 2 universities so we did assessment on the most cooperative universities and we have one governmental university and one private university.
• Thank you very much for bringing the idea of wikiversity to our project. We discussed this suggestion internally and we think it would be very good idea in the future but at this point of time we want to make sure that the universities we are working with are familiar with Wikipedia ecosystem at the first stage then we will ask them to add their resources to wikiversity as a second phase that will be definitely on our future plan.

• Regarding wikidata we agree with you that wikidata is a good opportunity and can be leveraged to improve Arabic Content and we are planning to collaborate with the new initiative entitled "Arabic wikidata community" (link). We discussed the metrics internally and we think that the numbers can be increased in terms of participants especially we are targeting 2 universities and 4 schools. Also, number of photos could be increased. We forgot to add wikidata metrics but we are expecting to add at least 1000 entries to wikidata and 100 pages to Wikisource.

• Regarding the number of articles on Arabic Wikipedia we think 800 articles is a realistic number but we will do our encourage contributors to exceed that number. Actually there was a mistake in replying to the question related to the personal plan on Fluxx and we apologize for this but if you check the details of the activity on the spreadsheet you'll find that we have a coordinator for 12 months. The first 6 months will focus on universities and the second 6 months will be for schools. Each activity has a detailed section in the spreadsheet. If one of the activities is not clear please let me know so that I can explain it.

• Regarding administrative fees we included only two items which are accounting & auding as 350JD/month and contingency which is 5 percent of the total budget.

As we deal with participants who contribute to Wikimedia projects for the first time, we found according to experience in jordan that prizing component is a very good encouragement and motivation method for newbies. But as we know this encouragement could be the start point to recruit them and retain them in the movement.

• According to our bylaws the board will be on supervision role for both volunteers and coordinator and overseeing their activities and for the coordinator they will be hired after a public announcement and won't be a member of the board to avoid conflict of interest.

• The association was established and working since the end of 2020 up to now with no overlap with the Wikimanians of Levant in the past 3 years. Secondly, Wikimedians of Levant could be a good collaborator and open to work with them if they have projects in the scope. As far as we know there is planned activities by Wikimedians of Levant targeting the same universities and schools we are working on. Please feel free to contact Wikimedians of Levant for more details.

Lastly, I confirm that Almohtawa Alarabi Alraqami Organization is a transliteration of Digital Arabic Content Association and I'll be providing you with our annual report that contains our activities by tomorrow. Best---Avicenno (talk) 19:05, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Expert Reviewer Feedback

Overall Feedback and Recommendations: I acknowledge your commendable consideration of aligning your proposal to meet the movement strategy recommendations and initiatives as well as your quest to ensure knowledge equity and community involvement to fostering community engagement and knowledge equity within the Jordan region to improve content on the Arabic Wikipedia and its sisters project.

However I will like you to address some specific questions and give recommendation on some aspect of the proposal that are quite unclear below;

Although Knowledge equity dimension is appropriately considered in your activities and target groups I am quite unclear as to how you will define content equity for the Education programs you intend to carry out and what target groups/participants would be involved in your GLAM programs as contained in the timeline sheet here;https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RQH5WutywzbdxTBaz0bl310562xn55xQtGYiIzDMcro/edit#gid=0

If I understand correctly your program will involve 5 new organisers and I was wondering if this will involve some of the participants/volunteers joining the program? Apart from involving the participants in the implementation process have you consider involving them in the planning ? I think this is useful to assesses the program's capacity building, sustainability, community engagement, diversity and inclusion efforts, and overall efficiency. I belief this would help determine if participants transitioning into organizer roles is a strategic approach for long-term program success. Reply Employing these activities will provide more exposure to our organization which will attract more volunteers to our organization and we think the best way to motivate and involve them in our activities is assigning organizational tasks to them.We involved only the current members in the planning process.---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Also considering the no. of participants (300) involved in this program what measures have you consider to help maintain or improve the community health, safety, and inclusivity for all the categories of participants? Reply:Regarding providing safety to participants we will implement Universal code of conduct, Child protection policy and wikimedia friendly space policy as most of the founders of our association are from medical background so they will follow up the activities and they are open to receive any complaints or questions---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Given that you have previously/currently organised education programs in the Hashemite University, what feedback or recommendations collected from the participants will help improve your programs or can be built upon in the next strategy or proposed program planning. Reply: From our experience in education program at Hashemite University. It's important to recruit students at their early stages of academic life because as they progress toward graduation they will be occupied by study burden. In addition, we found that students from scientific studies are more interested in our activities than those from Humanities studies students because of the quality of graduates coming from the high schools as the top ranked students usually go to scientific faculties in Jordan. Keeping in touch and creating support groups for the newbies help making them stick around and have organizational roles in the coming semesters will assure they have the motivation to improve their skills---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Your programs (Education and GLAM) are clearly spelt out, however what is quite unclear is the strategies, and activities that you will be developing to achieve them specifically the GLAM project. Reply:Regarding GLAM project it is confined to editing contest especially during Asian Month and by the way two members of our association will attend GLAM conference in Uruguay which help to bring about GLAM skills that will improve our activities.---23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Given that you have carried out similiar activities before, what specific contributions would be made by participants in the various programs identified to avoid duplication of efforts/ overlap with other similar projects and other communities’ activities? Reply:During COVID-19 pandemic we lost the direct contact with students in campus. Most of our campus ambassadors and web ambassadors were graduated. So we want to rebuild out network and team members in order to recruit youth power from the first year students to add momentum and to assure the sustainability of our activities. We also announce our activities on wiki so that community will be involved with the process and even to avoid two editors working on the same article we have on-wiki and off-wiki article booking system which are correlated to save the efforts of volunteers.---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

In your program activity timeline, you identified Wikidata training and Wikisource training, but there are no metrics to measure the impact of this training on your participants. Could you please elaborate on how you intend to evaluate the effectiveness of this training, especially if participants won't be directly improving content on these projects? Reply:The purpose of wikidata and Wikisource training is to improve skills of our members in order to contribute to these projects. We expect around 20 people to attend these trainings and to add more Arabic content. We forgot to add the kpi for those two projects as we mentioned above and it's explained there.---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Additionally, since this project will involve only 10 to 15 organizers, it's crucial to consider strategies to prevent burnout for both organizers and the larger group of 300 participants. Can you outline your plans for preventing burnout and ensuring the well-being of all participants?

Reply:Thank you very much for raising this as the well being of our members is very important to us. One of the reason of including in the grant a budget for to hire a skilled coordinator for our 2 educations programs is to facilitate the work of volunteers and make sure they won't suffer from a burn out. Regular meetings will be held in order to make sure that all members are fine. Besides this and according to our capacity the association will provide transportation support for volunteers to make sure the don't pay from their own pockets (not included in our grant proposal).---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Furthermore, to ensure that organizers effectively and efficiently carry out their assigned tasks, it would be beneficial to clearly assign roles and responsibilities to the team. Could you provide more details on how you plan to define and communicate these roles and responsibilities within your organizing team to optimize project management and coordination?

Reply: As we usually do in education program we distribute roles in an organizational manner in that we will have 2 cambus ambassadors for the Universities and 4 ambassadors for schools. At the sub-level we will have ambassador for every faculty/department and school grades as well as web ambassadors for online support.----Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Strengths of the proposal

In my view, the overall strengths of the proposal include:

• Clear Alignment with Wikimedia's Values: The proposal demonstrates a strong alignment with Wikimedia's values, particularly in its commitment to knowledge equity, community involvement, and capacity building.

• Engagement of Diverse Audiences: The proposal aims to engage a wide range of audiences, including students, teachers, senior citizens, and professionals, which contributes to diversity and inclusivity within the Wikimedia movement.

• Strong Focus on Education: The proposal's emphasis on education programs, including training sessions and curriculum development, highlights its dedication to improving Wikipedia's educational impact.

• Clarity in Activities and Alignment with 2030 Movement Strategy: The proposal presents clear and well-defined activities that align with the 2030 Movement Strategy Recommendations, ensuring transparency and accountability.

• Partnerships and Synergies: The established partnerships with educational institutions and schools, along with plans to expand them, indicate the potential for scaling up the program's impact and creating synergies with various stakeholders.

• Commitment to WikiProjects: The inclusion of WikiProjects, such as Wikidata and Wikisource training, demonstrates a broader commitment to Wikimedia projects beyond Wikipedia.

More questions:

• Community Engagement: How do you plan to actively engage the Wikimedia community in your programs and activities beyond the participants? Are there any specific strategies in place for soliciting feedback, involving volunteers in decision-making, or fostering a sense of ownership within the community? Reply: We intend to provide educational materials in Arabic for training Wikipedia editors as well as a documentation of the projects governance to ensure the reproducibility of the training across Middle East and North Africa. We will be doing a survey of the participants of the project as well as the Wikimedia Community to identify the advantages and limitations of the Project and the Resources we will be providing after the Project. Beyond this, we will call people to adjust the Resources we are providing based on their experience inside the Wikimedia Community.---Avicenno (talk) 17:11, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
• Measuring Impact: In addition to tracking metrics related to content creation and participation, what measures do you plan to use to assess the broader impact of your programs on the Wikimedia movement and the 300 participants such as the development of local Wikimedia communities or the improvement of knowledge equity? Reply:other than using event and program dashboard we will create educational materials and manuals that will be beneficial for local Wikimedia communities. The newcomers that will be recruited through our activities can join and be integrated actively in local Wikimedia communities and attend conferences depending on their experiences built by our capacity building programs.
• Long-Term Sustainability: What steps are you taking to ensure the long-term sustainability of your programs beyond the grant period? Are there plans for financial sustainability, leadership continuity, and ongoing support for volunteers? Reply: I'd like to use COVID-19 pandemic period as role model to answer this question. There was no finicial support at that time but we were able to keep in touch with volunteers throughout our Facebook groups and support chat groups on social networks. We made MOU with the national volunteering platform "NAHNO" to provide participants with credible certificates of participation in our activities documenting the number of credit hours that helped them apply for higher education grants in Jordan as a motivation during difficult conditions. We were able to adopt alternative solutions in the extraordinary environments so I believe we can maintain our volunteers as much as possible.---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
• Knowledge Transfer: How do you intend to transfer the knowledge and experience gained through your programs to other Wikimedia affiliates or communities in Jordan that might be interested in similar initiatives? Do you have mechanisms in place for sharing best practices and lessons learned? Reply: included in the answer of community engagement question. And I just wanted to add that we have YouTube videos on our channel that provide educational materials to volunteers on public domain.---Avicenno (talk) 17:11, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
• Content Quality and Reliability: Beyond fact-checking, what strategies do you have to improve the overall quality and reliability of Arabic content on Wikimedia projects? How do you plan to encourage volunteers to adhere to Wikipedia's content guidelines and standards? Reply we will insist to our volunteers to stick to Wikipedia politics and to abide by it's guidelines especially those related with neutrality and citation. But in general we will encourage them to avoid controversial topics such as political and religious matters. We will adopt assessment system for articles and editing contess to ensure quality and reliability----23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
• Community Diversity: How do you intend to foster diversity and inclusivity within your community of participants and volunteers? Are there targeted outreach efforts or initiatives to ensure a wide range of perspectives and backgrounds are represented? Reply:We will ensure that the educational content added or edited on Wikipedia is fair, diverse, and representative of different perspectives, cultures, and knowledge sources as the environment we operating on i.e University is diverse and have students from different backgrounds, different geographic locations, different ethnic groups, different genders with our focus on bridging gender gap it is worthy to mention that most of our members and volunteers are female students which enrich our experience.---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
• Partnership Development: Are there plans to explore new partnerships or collaborations beyond the ones mentioned in the proposal? How do you identify and approach potential partners, especially those who can support your goals in education and knowledge equity? Reply Our Project can be scalable to involve more universities. However, we need work of making this edition a success so that we can use its impact to convince other universities to collaborate with us. As well, this Project can also be applied to other types of institutions such as non-profit organizations working on open culture and knowledge. These organizations can be easily identified based on the Jordanian Directory of Non-Profit Organizations. However, once again, we cannot collaborate with them without showing them the efficiency of the Project in the Practice.---Avicenno (talk) 17:11, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
• Knowledge Transfer to Offline Spaces: Given your focus on education, do you have strategies for transferring knowledge from online Wikimedia projects to offline educational spaces, such as schools and universities, where the impact can be even more significant? Reply:We look forward to transfer several soft skills from the Wikimedia space to the higher education community in Jordan. One of the main skills we like to share is the collection and citation of evidence to provide an overview about a given topic. This is one of the main features of Wikipedia editing and it can be very useful to enhance research training and course assignments in universities. Another soft skill that will be useful to share is the collaborative editing of Wikipedia that can be adapted to introduce peer assessment as an effective method for course evaluation and learning.

According to our experience, the impact of the Project is higher when it aims STEM and medical students who need to acquire the principles of evidence-based practice to succeed in their careers. However, we look forward to including university students beyond these fields, particularly in Arts and Humanities. There is a significant lack of the coverage of Arabic Cultural Heritage. Our Project aims to bridge this significant gap.---Avicenno (talk) 17:11, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

• Monitoring and Evaluation: How will you ensure ongoing monitoring and evaluation of your programs to make real-time adjustments and improvements as needed? What mechanisms are in place for feedback collection and analysis? Reply:The answer is the same as the first and the second question.--Avicenno (talk) 17:11, 7 November 2023 (UTC)
• Overcoming Challenges: What contingency plans do you have in case you encounter unexpected challenges or obstacles during program implementation? How agile is your approach to adapting to changing circumstances? Reply:If we will face matters during program implementation or during the sessions, the Board of the Project will meet and collaboratively discuss problems and solve them. The organizers facing the problem will also try to troubleshoot the matter and communicate with partner universities to solve it if applicable. After the problem is solved, the situation will be shared with all the Organizers of the Project so that it can be prevented in the future.---Avicenno (talk) 17:11, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

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) 08:38, 25 October 2023 (UTC)

@VThamaini (WMF): Done. Regarding our activities in the last years I'll send our annual reports by email to the grant team. Best---Avicenno (talk) 23:32, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for taking time to diligently respond the questions and comments shared. We aim to share feedback on the final funding outcomes by the end of the next week. When you get a chance please add here the past annual reports of your programs. VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 10:28, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much. The annual reports were sent by email. Best Avicenno (talk) 18:04, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

General Support Fund Approved at 14,180.00 JOD

Dear Jordanian Digital Arabic Content Association,

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 14,180.00 JOD for a grant period of 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024.

Here are a few points to note;

• As mentioned in the feedback and now here, we see the value in developing a clear expansion plan beyond the two universities and not have it arbitrary.
• We see a need to review the coordinators role - scope and resources allocated to the role.
• We look forward to seeing more engagement of the project with the community more. There is an opportunity for people to learn about your work and practices that can be shared.
• While you mentioned that there is no overlap with the Wikimedians of the Levant, it is our hope that you find an opportunity to work together to support each others efforts.

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. VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 11:48, 15 December 2023 (UTC)