Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/2024 Wikipedia events in various regions of Japan by User:海獺 （Racco） (ID: 22439569)

Follow-up questions on your grant application from the ESEAP Funds Committee and Programme Officer

Hello @海獺,

Hope you are well. Thank you for putting in a grant application. These are consolidated inputs from the review of your grant application. The following points are for your further response:

Feedback on value/impact of the proposal and proposal viability

1) Potentially a good outreach effort

2) The proposal is too general in improving the editors in Japan. The applicant did not give the current problems in Japanese Wikimedia projects and why she/he wants to solve these problems.

Feedback on implementation team

3) Yes. The applicant have the experience (technical / organizing) capacity to implement this project

4) Based on edit count he is technically capable and he had completed a grant report : https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Rapid_Fund/Training%2BEditathon_in_Fukuoka,_Japan_2022_(ID:_21866695)/Final_Report

Feedback on community engagement

5) From the application, it is not clear if there has been sufficient engagement of community members through the endorsement and feedback process.

6) The applicant provided representations indicating that this was unnecessary. But this is actually necessary, especially since community members can often provide many constructive suggestions and even actually participate in the applicant's work.

Feedback on proposed budget

7) There is high cost of living in Japan so budget is adequate. It is though unclear if this will be done all by himself or of he will form a team once budget is downloaded. It seems it will be performed by himself alone.

8) I have no idea why the applicant needs to travel a lot of places to attract new editors.

9) The proposed budget adequately reflect the investment needed to achieve the proposed goals. With partnership to some Education Sector and Library, it’s good investment.

Feedback on learning and metrics

10) Applicants need to more clearly define the results they hope to achieve, and this can be helped by adding qualitative indicators

General questions, observations, recommendations to consider

11) Please consider having a small team to support your work so that it is less tiring for yourself.

12) Do you have a plan to document your work? It's good to inspire other Wikipedians to join your efforts. For example, you can share your learnings through the Diff blog and you can write in Japanese too. [1]https://diff.wikimedia.org/ or attend Wiki Conferences to share your learnings.

13) Consider providing more details on the problems that the application wants to solve

14) Are there other experienced Wikimedians who might assist?

15) Applicants should seek inputs from the community and, where possible, the participation of other community members will be more conducive to the success of the project. In addition to quantitative indicators, qualitative indicators also need to be added to evaluate the effectiveness of the project.

Thank you.

Regards, Jacqueline on behalf of the ESEAP Funds Committee JChen (WMF) (talk) 05:49, 23 May 2024 (UTC)

Hello Jacqueline,

It is possible that my understanding of the English language is incorrect, but I will respond in good faith.

First of all, I am not the organizer of each event myself, and my grant money will be used to pay for transportation and lodging to the location where the event will be held. Therefore, there are many areas where detailed plans have not been finalized at this time.

• 1) Potentially a good outreach effort

Events planned at this time include

3 WikiGap, 7 public library events, and 4 school events.

The WikiGaps will highlight women who have been buried in the history of the area, help bridge the gender gap and promote understanding of Wikipedia, and give them hands-on experience editing Wikipedia.

In public libraries, the program also aims to promote the use of libraries by having community members edit Wikipedia on subjects related to local history.

The school event introduces the structure, editing, and management philosophy of Wikipedia, and reaches out to young people regarding the reception and transmission of information and Internet literacy.

I believe that these events and activities are beneficial to Wikipedia and to the participants.

• 2) The proposal is too general in improving the editors in Japan. The applicant did not give the current problems in Japanese Wikimedia projects and why she/he wants to solve these problems.

Currently, we feel that there is a bias in the genres covered in the articles of the Japanese version of Wikipedia.

The Japanese language is mostly a language used by Japanese people in the region of Japan, which creates regional peculiarities. Taking advantage of this particularity, I believe that the Japanese version of Wikipedia can be expected to expand in terms of genre by first writing about one's surroundings in Wikipedia, and by editing Wikipedia as an opportunity to encourage people to think about bridging the gender gap in the region.

In addition, Japan has a high percentage of young people in possession of digital tools, and there are many reports of troubles related to online communication. There are also cases where people are exposed to danger.

I think that editing Wikipedia, its structure, and philosophy will provide a good opportunity to learn about the responsibilities and dangers of information dissemination, and the ability to discern information reception.

I am designing the event to achieve these things.

• 5) From the application, it is not clear if there has been sufficient engagement of community members through the endorsement and feedback process.
• 6) The applicant provided representations indicating that this was unnecessary. But this is actually necessary, especially since community members can often provide many constructive suggestions and even actually participate in the applicant's work.

Regarding the budget, I have had a lot of advice from both YShibata and JNakayama-WMF regarding the endorsement and feedback process.

This year I have 17 events scheduled in 6 different regions. Since these organizers are different from each other, the current grant application takes little account of costs related to the content of the events (e.g., venue, administrative, communication, etc.). Most of the costs will be for travel and lodging.

This cost is reasonable considering the recent appreciation of the yen and the possibility of a range due to the rising cost of accommodations, and is not far off from the amount that will actually be spent in the future.

Last year, I was able to add one more event because we were able to run less than the amount we applied for because we used our precious grant money in the most economical way possible.

I have shared these matters with them and have allowed them access to the spreadsheet.

• 7) There is high cost of living in Japan so budget is adequate. It is though unclear if this will be done all by himself or of he will form a team once budget is downloaded. It seems it will be performed by himself alone.

This budget is mostly for my travel and lodging expenses. If the event requires the support of other Wikipedians, or if the organizers are unable to cover the costs of the venue, the budget will be adjusted within the grant budget.

Therefore, for this grant application, there is no team at this time, and I will report the amount of money spent per event later.

• 8) I have no idea why the applicant needs to travel a lot of places to attract new editors.

The amount I am applying for at this time is mostly for my own travel and lodging expenses. As plans for the event become more concrete, if I need the support of other Wikipedians, I will adjust the amount within the budget I have applied for accordingly.

There is a demand for Wikipedia-based workshops, lectures, and editathons in various parts of Japan, but not many Wikipedians are willing to lead them. We have received requests from event organizers in various locations asking if we could come, even though we don't have much of a budget, and we have responded that we could hold such events if GRANT could cover the travel and lodging expense

I answered about several of them.

If you have any other questions that need to be answered, please let me know. 海獺　(Racco) (talk) 00:57, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

I am pleased to endorse the applicant, Racco. I have had opportunities to visit two venues: one 1200km away (near my mother's house) from Tokyo and another 300km away (near my husband's workplace).

Although the Tokyo metropolitan area has made significant progress in Wiki projects, many places still need to catch up. For over 10 or 15 years, the applicant has dedicated his life to allowing people in inconvenient places to begin editing Wikipedia.

If the venue is in a school, he has added time for parents in the evening.

This application aligns perfectly with the Wikimedia Movement and will have significant impacts. YShibata (talk) 09:47, 24 May 2024 (UTC)

To bring knowledge infrastructure into geographically underrepresented areas

I support Racco's outreach activities. When I read this application, I was impressed by the variety of outreach locations.

Japan has about 14,000 islands, and 73 - 75% of the country is mountainous. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E5%9C%B0%E7%90%86

Also, because of the long period of feudalism, local lords encouraged their people to produce their own products. In the past, our ancestors said that there were more than 60 countries within Japan.

In other words, Japan's territory is geographically divided by mountains and sea. And in each region, the ancient lords and peoples developed their own unique cultures.

On the other hand, this diversity is being lost in modern Japan.

In modern Japan, there are two large metropolitan areas: the capital area centered on Tokyo, and the Kansai area centered on Kyoto and Osaka.

I was used to seeing libraries in Tokyo. I once had the opportunity to live in a city of about 1.5 million people in the Kansai region, and I was disappointed by the poor collection of the libraries there. From Tokyo's perspective, a city of 1.5 million people seems to have inadequate cultural infrastructure. The gap between small towns and big cities will become even larger. I think Racco's plan is to bring the knowledge infrastructure of Wikipedia into geographically underrepresented areas. Kizhiya (talk) 08:10, 26 May 2024 (UTC)

Your grant application has been approved

Hello @海獺

Thank you for your detailed responses to the follow-ups questions.

Congratulations! Your grant application has been approved in the amount of JPY 670,000 from 27 May 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Let’s continue having regular conversations over the course of your grant implementation. Please let me know if you require support in any way or would like to share your experiences with a wider community through the Let's Connect Programme or at ESEAP community meetings.

Note on grant funding amount

In your award letter/email, you may observe that the USD equivalent may be different from that floating exchange rate on Oanda. This is because (at the moment) we apply a pre-set exchange rate for each grant as determined by the WMF Finance team. That said, I've published on meta the approved amount in your local currency and we can use that as a common reference point.

We know even the best thought through plans may change.

In the event that there are changes to your implementation schedule, you can reach out to request for a grant extension (i.e. extend end date). Similarly, if there is a surplus budget or changes to your planned budget, you can reach out to me about reallocation (via email and on this talkpage). There is also the option to have the unspent funds deducted against a future grant. More details here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Return_unused_funds_to_WMF

Additional resources which may be useful

• The reporting requirements and templates for the grant can be found here. All reports are to be completed and submitted via Fluxx.
• Timelines for reporting can be found in your grant agreement or on Fluxx.
• Instructions for post award: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Processing/Grantee_Portal/Post_award
• Documenting project expenses: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Documenting_project_expenses

Recommendations

• We encourage you to publish a Diff blog (in Japanese) about your hard work, if time permits. Translation of your post to other languages can be made available if needed.

We thank you for your participation in the grant application process and hope to continue to journey with you as you embark on this project. Good luck!

Regards, Jacqueline on behalf of the ESEAP Funds Committee JChen (WMF) (talk) 05:18, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

ありがとうございます！ 海獺　(Racco) (talk) 05:34, 27 May 2024 (UTC)