Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Philippine Local Laws and Ordinances Digitization Project (ID: 22025708)

Follow-up questions for grant application

Hello @Lady01v,

Thank you for putting in an application for the rapid fund grant. It was so lovely to meet you and to learn about your project. These are further questions, we'll love to have your responses to:

1) Local context: Based on your knowledge or research, currently how do people access information about local law and ordinances in the Pangasinan community? Could you provide 1-2 examples of local law and ordinances that the Pangasinan community has limited knowledge, yet it's important to know?

2) Accessibility and awareness of this project/ local law and ordinances: We read that you will be working closely with media partners to increase visibility of the project to the Pangasinan community. These publicity will be one-off and events specific. If the Pangasinan community, law enforcement agencies etc would like to find out more about the project or access useful links related to this project, how do plan to make these accessible? For example set up a wiki project page that is added to your Philippine Women Wikimedian (Babaylan PH)?

3) Learning and evaluation: The learning and evaluation questions that you suggested are very well tailored for the project: a) Will more local government units upload their own laws once this project is launched or its Phase 1 finished? b) Will it benefit more people in terms of accessibility, ease of reference and use if these local laws can be found on Wikipedia? c) Will it add credibility and trust for Wikipedia and its community in Pangasinan since the project is a partnership between the government and the WMF thru its volunteers in the Pangasinan community? d) Will it encourage more volunteers to join our pipeline projects for Pangasinan Wikipedia?

For (a) and (d), how do you plan to track or measure these? And at what point do you do it? For example 3 month after the project? 6 months after the project?

Specific to main open metrics, do you have any thoughts on how to track citizen feedback to measure use of access?

Here's an example of how Auckland War Memorial Museum presents their statistics on their website and H-GAPS that uses mass views

4) Could you provide a timeline and tentative schedule for your project?

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.

Regards, Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 08:51, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

Your grant application has been approved

Hello @Lady01v,

Thank you for putting in an application on behalf Philippine Women Wikimedian (Babaylan PH) community. Your grant application has been approved in the amount of USD 4,960 from 8 Feb 2023 to 30 Apr 2023.

Do take time to respond to the questions above, when you can.

Good luck for your project and please feel free to reach out if you need any further support. Thank you.

Regards, Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 08:58, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you very much for your trust in us @JChen (WMF). We are inspired to execute this project to the best of our abilities. Lady01v (talk) 16:25, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

Hi Jacqueline,

Thank you for the additional questions for clarification. Here are the supplementary answers :

1 ) Local context:

On a day to day basis, when a local law has been passed and approved, a copy of which will be published in a local newspaper. But as we observe over the years, not only in Pangasinan but the rest of the world, newspaper readership is declining year after year and digital technology is disrupting every traditional industry and process. Another method people learn about local laws is when a copy is posted on the bulletin board in the municipal hall. And how many people now access a bulletin board for information? The answer is 'it rarely happens.'

Two good examples are the LOCAL REVENUE CODE - it is the updated local taxation laws , its implementing rules and regulations, and guidelines where adjusted fees for specific government services availed by its citizens are codified and posted for compliance and reference. This is very timely because most towns and cities updated their local revenue code in attempt to raise revenues to fund various government service after the pandemic lockdowns eased up and the economy is getting back in a new and better normal.

Another example is the local ENVIRONMENT CODE - every town and city is mandated by law to protect and preserve its environment and engage its people to do the same. But each town or city is unique. With this codified law on Wikipedia, more and more people will be able to get updated information regarding each town’s allowable acts or practices and prohibitory laws. It is also beneficial to tourists for them to be able to access information about their visited town’s environmental laws to promote mutual respect, avoid violations and penalties and enjoy their stay in the place.

2) Accessibility and awareness of this project/local laws and ordinances:

Yes, to ensure success of this project, it is imperative to include the Fourth Estate or the media in this project. The media event will include participation from the various stakeholders such as representatives from local government partners, the media ( digital and traditional ), judiciary, law enforcement, the legal profession and other non government organizations to inform them about the project. The Local Laws and Ordinances, the event and necessary links shall be posted on a Wikipage not only in Babaylan, but also in the Pangasinan Wiki as we intend to deepen and increase articles for the Pangasinan Wikipedia. We are also contemplating on putting up a website for all of our wiki-related projects so people may use it as reference to proceed to the project pages.

3) Learning and evaluation:

1. We are making  it a part of the terms and conditions of our partnership agreement that local governments will upload it themselves whenever they have new laws because we will also teach them how to do it on their own.

1. Since Wikipedia is on the top of the most searched website of the world, it will be very helpful if people can find their local laws on its pages. We can never go wrong if these codes, laws, rules and issuances can also be found in Wikipedia. We are bridging the knowledge gap and this project contributes to minimising that gap for people who want to access their local laws online. Where else can they find it best aside from Wikipedia?
2. The answer to this question is a resounding yes. The local laws are credible in themselves. They have this inherent power in their own wordings and text. Getting them found on Wikipedia will add that sort of respect, credibility and integrity to it even though they were placed there by Pangasinan volunteers.

1. That is the very reason why we chose this project. It gives you that pride and purpose to be able to see your local laws and ordinances in the pages of one of the world’s most searched websites, Wikipedia. It is  more fulfilling to join the community of volunteers doing worthwhile, useful and impactful projects for the community. We believe that by starting out with this project, we will be expanding our volunteer and partner base with more members, more supporters and more significant projects in the near future due to fact that it makes someone feel good to contribute time, skills and resources in projects that are carefully thought of and worthwhile to do for the benefit of a greater number of beneficiaries.  

For  the tracking, we will evaluate the progress of the project every six ( 6 ) months as part of our agreement with the local government units. We will also post the updated increase on the project page every six months. Since this is Phase 1, we also aim to regularly update the numbers for other towns and cities to see because the long-term plan for this project is to be scaled up not only in Pangasinan but any territory that has a local law to digitalize.

As to other tools, we will work with our technical community members on how we can track visits and usage of the materials or information we uploaded after the project.

I hope this helps, again thank your for your questions.

Regards,

Lady01v (talk) 14:48, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

Next Steps - Implementation and Reporting

Hello @Lady01v,

Thank you for your responses. And congratulations once again with your grant application and approval.

Let’s continue having regular conversations over the course of your grant implementation. Do reach out based on your needs.

The reporting requirements for the grant can be found here and templates are available here. Timelines for reporting can be found in your grant agreement or on Fluxx. All reports are to be completed and submitted via Fluxx.

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 project.

Regards, Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 02:41, 6 January 2023 (UTC)