Grants talk:Project/Rapid/PH-WC/Bikol Wikipedia Quiz 2020

No clear evidence of how targets have an impact on the project goals

For a few years now, PhilWiki has run various contests of all sorts (Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Takes Rinconada, etc.) and the bulk of the budget for these contests are spent on prizes similar to this current grant request. However, unlike the Wiki Loves X contests which does increase free and open content on Commons, there is no clear evidence that having 100 participants and 1000 viewers for this proposed quiz can directly translate "to encourage teachers to utilize Wikipedia as an open, accessible and reliable source of information". In my opinion, the WMF Education Team's ongoing Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom project in the Philippines is a demonstrably better use of the movement's resources because it directly trains teachers in actually using Wikipedia in the classroom. Also, I question the inclusion of 2 sizeable budget entries, each around 10% of the total budget, ("Anniversary Meet-up" and "Wiki Loves Monuments PH Top 10 prizes") that do not even directly relate to the proposed quiz/contest. —seav (talk) 05:02, 12 November 2020 (UTC)

Hi Eugene. Thank you for your feedback on this project. PhilWiki Community has run Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Earth which are national photography contests under a broader international competition while Wiki Takes Rinconada was implemented pre-PhilWiki Community and it received some pessimistic comments from some Wikipedians. But like any other contests, prizes are a big factor in producing quality contributions as well as a big number of participants. The inaugural Wiki Loves Earth PH in 2018 had 2,174 images (it is still the national record) contributed by 26 old contributors and 164 new contributors, 100 of which (or 4.6% distinct images) were used in Wikipedia articles when the report was finalized. In 2019, it had less than 1,000 images (one of which placed 6th in the international round) contributed by a total number of 131 contributors, and currently 143 (16% of total images, a national record high) are now in use. This year, despite the community quarantine in the Philippines the two month-long contest had total of 988 images were collected from 232 (91% of which are new contributors, a national record high) and so far 65 (6% of total images) are now being used in Wikipedia articles. In Wiki Loves Monuments PH held in 2018, the month-long contest had a total of 1,711 images were contributed by 81 contributors excluding at least 26 photo walk participants held in Naga City, Camarines Sur, Albay, Quezon City, and in Cavite province conducted by a 7-man team led by a Wiki Loves Earth PH 2018 participant who is now part of PhilWiki Community. A total of 92 (5% of the total images) were used in Wikipedia articles when the report was finalized. The Wiki Loves Monuments 2019 in the Philippines did not receive funding from the rapid grants however the contest had already been announced publicly so it was still implemented. The central notice banner announcing the contest still encouraged 327 image contributions from 27 contributors (one image was recognized honorable mention or 17th Place in the international round). Similarly, this year's edition, the contest was still implemented without any certainty of support from the rapid grants. It amassed 107 images from 12 contributors and the top ten photographs shall win a PHP1,000 worth of gift certificate each as announced. It can be concluded that the prizes have correlation with the number of participants. Wiki Loves Monuments PH on Facebook currently has 812 followers, Wiki Loves Earth Philippines with 2,338 followers, Bikol Wikipedia with 1,394 followers, and PhilWiki Community with 600 followers. Livestreaming of the Quiz shall appear on these pages and with sponsored advertisements, followers in these pages are expected to increase as well. While I agree with your opinion that WMF Education Team's ongoing Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom project in the Philippines is a demonstrably better use of the movement's resources because it directly trains teachers in actually using Wikipedia in the classroom the proposed project is an advocacy program which is about engagements in promoting Wikipedia thru traditional and social media to reach a wider audience and create interest among its target audience. Among PhilWiki Community's strategies is to engage in various activities for the promotion of free knowledge using different platforms including the social media. As part of its inclusive and pluralistic focus, the organization is currently presiding over various advocacy programs which are aimed at reaching out to marginalized groups in the Philippines. We are excited with the outcome of the pilot project of the partnership of WMF Education Team and the user group and enthusiastic in conducting the said project ourselves in the future. The affiliate organization has not applied yet for a Simple Annual Plan Grant which would include budget for its operational expenses. As a legal non-profit company, we also need to comply with our obligations such as filling quarterly report at Bureau of Internal Revenue, hence the inclusion of the PHP 2,922.48 percentage tax (3% of the grant) and PHP 2,000 bookkeeping fee. The budget for the Anniversary Meet-up is for an offline meet-and-great with old and new members of the community, while the budget for the Wiki Loves Monuments PH Top 10 prizes is to support the organization's incurred expense due to the implementation of the projects which proposal had been withdrawn due to lack of comments from the community and grants team. If these items get an approval, the anniversary meet-up will be a joint celebration. --Filipinayzd (talk) 08:44, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

Hi Irvin. With all due respect, the numerous statistics you have mentioned do not really address my main concern. Let me try to rephrase it. One of your stated project goals is "To encourage teachers to utilize Wikipedia...". And in the Impact subsection, you mention "100 total registrants" and "1000 viewers". But if you read the grant template's note, it says: "How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals?" I don't see how X number of registrants and Y number of viewers (regardless of what X and Y are) directly leads to the project goal of encouraging teachers to use Wikipedia.

Second, if you want to request money from the WMF in order to achieve some project goals then all of the expenses ought to be directly tied into achieving those goals. Percentage tax and bookkeeping fees are admin expenses and do not really directly contribute to those project goals ("engaging teachers" + "encouraging teachers" + "celebrating 13th year"). Your stated main project aim is to hold a quiz show. The WLM prizes are not related to this quiz show: you are requesting money to spend on an unrelated other activity/project.

BTW, "contingency" means unexpected project expenses as you have already written. The percentage tax and the bookkeeping fee are admin expenses and not project expenses. Moreover, these two admin expenses are not unexpected expenses (you ought to already know in advance that you would need to pay for them). As known admin expenses, these shouldn't be lumped together into the contingency budget item which are for unexpected project expenses. (To explain further and give an example, look at WMF's Charity Navigator Financial Performance Metrics: "Program Expenses" are classified differently from "Administrative Expenses".) —seav (talk) 18:11, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

The mechanics in II. REGISTRATION.: says "Participants must accomplish a Google form and answer a qualifying quiz which they must then submit within the schedule. Only the top two (2) scorers from each cluster shall participate in the Semi-Finals." The teacher-registrants will answer a questionaire, tentatively, wih a 100-point score, that will test their skills in answering trivial questions on history, cutllture and general knowledge under time pressure. The questions can be answered correctly even by a primary grade level learner (does Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? ring a bell?) since the question will be based in Department of Education (DepEd) Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies) textbook for Grade 3 - Bikol (in the Central Bikol language) published in 2016. Some of its contents were from Bikol Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. In the 2nd edition now labelled as "Araling Panlipunan for Grade 3 - Bicol" (meaning the region, not the language), the attributions to Wikipedia articles utilized in the textbook were deliberately removed and altered with other sources eventhough the contents taken from Bikol Wikipedia still remain, or were translated to Tagalog/Filipino. While the images taken from Wikimedia Commons have proper attribution. I suspect, the editors and reviewers are not aware that Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons are sister projects (with the latter being perceived as the reliable one or is has something to do with the M) perhaps they do know, and as long as the content is not from/attributed from Wikipedia they will use the information. At Wikimedia Summit 2018, I had a chance to share this with Zachary. This is the reason why I do not support the rebranding of Wikimedia. Now, the teacher-participants, which according to the mechanics in I. PARTICIPANTS. are "public school/state colleges and universities teachers in the Bicol Region.", and not just those who are teaching the Social Studies subject in Grade 3. They may answer the questions using their stock knowledge or forced to find the answer on the internet, which definitely will bring them to Wikipedia pages. 🤣 In IV. QUALIFYING ROUND. "To qualify in the Bikol Wikipedia Quiz, a participant must complete his or her respective Google form then submit it within the schedule." Three (3) hours is the alloted time for accomplishing the registration form and the quiz. The qualifying round will be announced weeks earlier the schedule to hype the competition. While the 3-hour period is long enough for a teacher-participant to register and finish the quiz, this also gives others ample time to participate, consult Wikipedia and/or the textbook. The 3-hour period also limits the number of entrants since basically any teacher from DepEd Region 5 (Bicol) can join yet only twelve (12) can take part in the quiz show. Further, in case of a tie, the participant who has submitted the form first shall be given preference. In III. CLUSTERS. "Participants are clustered by congressional districts, cities and/or provinces to give a fair chance to bigger schools divisions (schools divisions are by city and province)". Qualified participants will be notified and they must attend an orientation, which will also include presentation on the how Wikipedia works and how they can become a contributor on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

If there is other way to measure the Impact of the project aside from the "100 total registrants" and "1000 viewers", I would gladly change it. Also, I tried to specify the additional organizing expenses in the budget like this based on your comment, Eugene. However, I will just leave the Wiki Loves Monuments PH prizes there for now, for the grants team to consider.

Project budget table

No.	Item	Quantity	Description	Total (PHP)	Total (USD)	Notes
1	Social media promotion	1		PHP 5,000.00	USD 103.46	Sponsored posts to reach wider audience
2	Prizes	6	varies	PHP 44,000	USD 910.48	1st prize: Gift Certificate - PHP 20,000.00 (USD 413.86) 2nd prize: Gift Certificate - PHP 10,000.00 (USD 206.93) 3rd prize: Gift Certificate - PHP 5,000.00 (USD 103.46) 3 Finalists: Gift Certificate - PHP 3,000.00 (USD 62.08)
3	Streamyard subscription	1	2 months	PHP 2,416.30	USD 50.00	Streamyard subscription
4	Internet	5	internet data	PHP 5,000.00	USD 103.46	Livestreaming and promotion of activities
5	Wikipedia pens	10	packs	PHP 10,000.00	USD 206.93	Wikipedia merchandize (shipping fee and delivery charge included) for the winners, and jury members, and future outreach giveaways
6	Anniversary Meet-up	15	attendees	PHP 10,000.00	USD 206.93	Food and drinks
7	Wiki Loves Monuments PH Top 10 prizes	10	winners	PHP 10,000.00	USD 206.93	Gift certificates for Wiki Loves Monuments PH 2020
8	Organizing	1	project	PHP 5,000.00	USD 103.46	Percentage tax and bookkeeping fee (not the project's financial report by the proponent)
9	Contingency			PHP 5,000.00	USD 103.46	Unexpected expenses
Total: PHP 97,416.30 (USD 1,995.12)

--Filipinayzd (talk) 18:43, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

Comments from I JethroBT (WMF)

@Filipinayzd: I wanted to comment on the exchange above as well as provide my own feedback and requests for the proposal:

• I question the assertion that But like any other contests, prizes are a big factor in producing quality contributions as well as a big number of participants. Earlier this year, the central organizing team for Wiki Loves Monuments reported on movement-wide surveys sent to organizers and participants in those competitions. One finding they reported on was that the availability or value of prizes was, in fact, one of the least important factors associated with interest in participating in those events, even from professionals. Instead, participants were motivated to participate in these competitions by more intrinsic factors, for instance because they wanted to document important places in their community or contribute their own works to a free, public knowledge resource. This is not to say that prizes are unimportant or that they do not support interest/enthusiasm, but that based on these findings, successful contests do not hinge on the availability of numerous or expensive prizes. Furthermore, Rapid Grants is not practically able to grow competitions in this

Hi I JethroBT (WMF). My basis for saying that prizes are a big factor is our own experience. In WLE PH 2018 report, "Exciting prizes could motivate more participants to join." In WLM PH 2018 report, we also learned that "Although gadgets are cool as prizes, cash prizes is more appealing to the participants and is easy to transfer to the winners thru bank account. We will consider having trophies made of metal instead of a fragile material." While in Bikol Wikipedia 10, in my report I said "Rewards and freebies definitely attract attendees and motivate participants to achieve a target." We had initiaves which did not go well such as this and this even if we offered the following as rewards: "sarong diksyunaryo ni [one dictionary of] Jerry Adrados asin makakaatendir sa [and one ticket to] Tertulia y Historia lecture-dinner sa Hunyo 30 [on June 30]. An masurunod na bulan maglalangkaw an halaga alagad pwedeng ibang mga bagay naman an papremyo [in the succeeding months, the value of prizes shall become higher which is different from the prizes previously given]" or even a "sertipiko nin pagmidbid [certificate of recognition], limited edition kan [of] anniversary tshirt, asin [and] journal. Maliban sa mga nasambit [Aside from the said prizes], maako man nin [winners shall also get an] Offline Wikipedia USB Drive". --Filipinayzd (talk) 13:48, 26 November 2020 (UTC)

• I agree with seav's assessment that the proposed participation measures do not correspond to the stated goal to encourage educators to use Wikipedia projects. Yes, this is an appropriate celebratory event and one that invites teachers to participate in a substantive and fun way. However, the extent of encouraging the use of Wikipedia is narrow in that it is only being done in the context of the quiz itself, and the associated orientation. There is no substantive work proposed here to support or evaluate teachers' attitudes and interest in using Wikipedia beyond the quiz itself. To remedy this, I would suggest preparing guidance for teachers to integrate Wikimdia projects into classroom activities or exercises and also prepare a brief survey to evaluate these very questions to participating teachers. For example, questions you could consider asking include:
  • Having now completed the orientation and quiz, how likely do you think you will use Bikol Wikipedia (or other Wikimedia project) for personal use? (Very unlikely, Unlikely, Likely, Very likely)
  • How likely do you think you will use Bikol Wikipedia in your classroom or in preparing your curriculum?
    • What is one idea you have for using Bikol Wikipedia in your classroom? (open-ended)

In any case, follow-up is needed with your participants to gauge the impact of the event on their intentions or willingness to use the Wikimedia projects you encourage through this event. I would like an initial plan around this follow-up in the proposal before we provide a funding decision.

These kind of inputs are helpful to us or to anyone who would like to conduct the same project. We can then measure the impact thru a survey. Thank you. Indeed follow-up is very important that is why if possible, we should have regular offline and online activities so the participants' interest is sustained. For example, in the 2018 WikiTutorial and Monthly Meetups report, we mentioned that PhilWiki Community has never been as vibrant as before. Due to the series of activities, we had from November 2018 to June 2019, its members, who mostly participants came from past activities, got involved in building the capacity of the group. They have conducted their own projects, became members of the group, and went on to become part of the Wikimedia movement. [What would you do differently next time?] "Although it is [easier] said than done, do follow-up activities..." One follow-up monthly activity for the Quiz participants is Wikipedia Philippine Month. PH-WC also has targets in 2021 under Education namely: "to have at least 10 teachers involved in editing activity participated by teachers and students during the year; to introduce Wikipedia as a learning tool and platform in 3 schools, educational institutions, or academic communities (e.g. Reading Wikipedia at Home, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom); to organize an advocacy program in 3 schools through the teachers engaged in the projects (e.g. Wiki Camp, Bikol Wikipedia Day); to increase the number of content provided within the activities in education, creating at least 500 articles." I should have mentioned it in the proposal. -Filipinayzd (talk) 13:48, 26 November 2020 (UTC)

• Regarding the proposed budget:
  • We will not able to support the Wiki Loves Monuments PH Top 10 prizes line item, so I am requesting that these be removed for us to proceed with the proposal. I understand that you elected to run this event earlier in the year, but we cannot fund events retroactively. This policy is primarily because, in these cases, we have no opportunity to review or provide feedback on the proposed work. In the future, please do not run events with the expectation that we will be able to send funding after-the-fact. We were not able to respond to the earlier proposal in part due to some circumstances with the user group's board at the time that we have already discussed privately.
  • The Anniversary Meet-up is not clearly related to the proposed program, so I am requesting that this be removed from the budget as well. Rapid Grants cannot fund multiple, independent projects in a single Rapid Grant proposal. Rapid Grants is designed for discrete projects, for which there can be multiple events, but each need to be closely related to one another in scope and purpose. There are a few reasons for this, but one important one is that as proposals become more complex with multiple events, so too does the work of reviewing, and we are not resourced to be able to quickly review more complex grants with independent events.
  • We will be able to support operational expenses you have named in the Organizing fees item line. We recognize that affiliates across the movement incur certain fees and taxes to maintain organizational status in many places, and providing this funding is fundamental in order to sustain needs such as around planning and recognition from movement affiliates.

I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 09:47, 26 November 2020 (UTC)

Requesting a separate grant for an anniversary meet-up could be done next time. We deemed that is acceptable to include this in the proposal as the project is a celebration of the Bikol Wikipedia's 13th year. I will update the proposed budget including the removal of Wiki Loves Monuments PH prizes and the dates of activities. Thanks. --Filipinayzd (talk) 13:48, 26 November 2020 (UTC)