Grants talk:Project/Rapid/CC Venezuela + WHO Editathon to improve health knowledge

Comments from DSaroyan (WMF)

Hello @BrandonChap and Creative Commons Venezuela, thanks again for submitting this Rapid Grant request. We are glad that you are planning to run an editathon to improve health-related knowledge on Spanish and English Wikipedias. Really excited about your great initiative! I have a few questions after reviewing your grant application:

---

• You mentioned that you have experienced Wikimedians who would support the organizers and other participants in training on Wikipedia. Could you please add their usernames to the proposal page? We need to make sure that you have experienced Wikimedians in the team in order to move forward with this grant request.

R= Yes. We want to express that we have been in productive conversations with the Wikimedia Venezuela Chapter, particularly with @Oscar ., who is part of the group's leadership (He is also a member of the CC Venezuela chapter). He and his team have vast experience executing this kind of event, and his support is precious for us. Also, we came with the idea of applying for this grant, thanks to the kind advice of @Astinson_(WMF). He was very supportive to understand our idea and be a contact point with other Wikipedia experts. In this case, he helped us to connect with @Netha_Hussain. I don't need to say that Netha is an incredible contributor to Wikipedia, particularly the subjects related to medicine and human health. We all had video and phone calls (with Arturo) to explain the idea, gather feedback and evaluate the support possibilities. They were very receptive to the idea and to help in the design and the execution of the event. Please, let me explicitly say that this is not to say “they will help us 100% sure” because we don't want to put them in the spotlight here. But, I (Arturo) had the huge opportunity to have their support with the idea and to be part of the event in some way or another. Including the design of the tasks so as to have a successful event. We hope this explanation is clear, but please, let us know if you need more details. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Artfisic (talk)

---

• How will WHO experts and postgraduate students support participants in editing content? I'm asking this because editing health-related topics on English and Spanish Wikipedias may be difficult for newcomers.

R= Besides the advice and guidance of the Wikipedia friends, we are calling for the participation of experts and nutrition and medicine graduate students (from Cornell University in the USA), thanks to the fact that some members of the people we are collaborating with are WHO members and faculty members there (this is also in place already). They would support us by reviewing our editions, checking the content for correction or improvement based on their recommendations. Some of them maybe will not edit directly in Wikipedia, but we will do so to the extent of their indications. It is * imperative* for us to mention that some of the main objectives (and the key reason for this editathon) are updating references to more up-to-date reports and publications. It is there where expert knowledge will be essential also. We are working on getting it on board.— The preceding unsigned comment was added by Artfisic (talk)

---

• Do you have a project page created on any of Wikimedia projects? Additionally, how do you plan to track the participants' contributions? Please consider using the Outreach Dashboard to track the contributions of the participants.

R= We don’t have a project page yet; we honestly did not want to spam the site until we are sure our idea has the potential to be there :) saying that, Netha and Astinson gave us a set of very useful references and how/where to create those. Also, on how to create and present specific tasks, so editors know where to find ideas and concrete jobs based on their individual Wikipedia editor's experiences. . We pretend to track the participants’ contributions through their usernames at the "View History" tab of the entries submitted for modification or improvement. Also, all the events will be monitored using asynchronous communications channels (we already have a dedicated Discord server). Finally, because the event will have a registration, we will be aware of the participants' Wikipedia username. . Thanks for the advice about the usage of the Outreach Dashboard: we are already looking into the documentation (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Programs_%26_Events_Dashboard), and we will proceed to add it to our toolbox for this event :)— The preceding unsigned comment was added by Artfisic (talk)

---

• How many prizes do you plan to offer? Please confirm that you won’t offer cash prizes because cash prizes for contests or other competition winners are ineligible expenses.

R= We confirm we will *not* offer cash prizes. Instead, we would like to play with two (2) ways to keep the spirit and participation during the event: The first will be small lotteries during the event (i.e. not based on performance or achievements) to have some plays during “virtual” coffee breaks. The second, and also based on expert recommendations, was to assign some prizes based on performance and achievements: they will be related to the jobs we will have already defined, and, of course, any outperformance editor(s) that we may have. Something of the form: prizes will be given for outstanding participation from, on the one hand, the point of view of the quantity and quality of editions by the editors, and on the other, the good evaluation (attention and optimisation) of the experts and students. Such prizes will be awarded in the form of e-credits in some form, for courses, certifications, computer equipment (e.g. a good keyboard and mouse,...) and certificates for remarkable involvement. . Because our participants are distributed in the Americas and working remotely, we will find e-products that can reach those, even in the most challenging places, like in Venezuela.— The preceding unsigned comment was added by Artfisic (talk)

---

• Do you plan to provide internet support to contest participants?

R= Yes! We plan to do that. To give you some context, just around 35% of the population in Venezuela have fixed internet access. The vast majority of this percentage have it through a single national state-owned company. Unfortunately, it is very limited. However, other companies have much better speed conditions, still, at much higher rates. So to carry out this type of event successfully, you have to pay "temporary rates" in places that hire these companies for optimal Internet service. We plan to give access to a good service to people that apply for it in our registration form. Also, for the organisers in Venezuela, we also require this kind of “boost” internet service, so we know first hand how to get it. Please, let us know if you need more details in this regard. . Thank you so much for the review and the discussion; you have no idea how much we have learned so far.— The preceding unsigned comment was added by Artfisic (talk)

---

Thanks again and looking forward to hearing from you soon. Best regards, DSaroyan (WMF) (talk) 12:45, 1 September 2021 (UTC)

Re: Endorsements

We at Wikimedia Venezuela have been following the conversations and are excited to participate in this event (which we hope will be the first of many). As part of the collaboration agreement we will be helping with the creation of the coordination pages in the wiki in English and Spanish, the creation of the dashboard of the event and the facilitation of the days of the event together with NoonIcarus. I remain tuned to any additional questions, --Oscar_. (talk) 14:06, 23 September 2021 (UTC)