Grants talk:Project/Rapid/UG AZ/WikiCamp Azerbaijan 2017
Comments from I JethroBT (WMF)
editHi Wertuose, and thanks for your proposal for your WikiCamp event. I visited Wikimedia Armenia earlier this year, where this event format has enjoyed a lot of success, so it's great to see you implementing it in Azerbaijani communities. Here are my comments/questions:
- To clarify, this is the first WikiCamp in Azerbaijan?
- I'd like to hear more detail around the planning of this two-day event. Is this event taking place in Baku / Ilisu or both of these locations? What are the specific venues for the camp, and what accommodations will be arranged? In terms of the online editathons using Skype or other services, what kind of connectivity is available in the locality for the WikiCamp?
- It sounds like the theme for the event is open-ended, so participants can work on any topic area they would like. That said, what sort of topics might be useful for participants to improve on az.wikipedia? What topics for articles or images might you suggest to participants if they are not sure what to work on?
- I'd recommend requesting some Wikimedia swag for participants at the event-- this kind be provided for free with this Rapid Grant if you are interested and need some. Read over the page and let us know if you are interested!
Please respond to these questions when you are able, and let me know if I can clarify any of my comments or questions. Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:42, 12 July 2017 (UTC)
- Hi I JethroBT (WMF). Thank you for comments and questions. Here are our answers:
- This is the first WikiCamp and the first grant proposal to be organized in Azerbaijan by Azerbaijani Wikipedians. And it is also going to be the first such a big wiki event in our country.
- We plan to organize it in a village named Ilisu, which is 330 km far from the capital Baku. This village is encircled by forests and mountains, historical and natural reserves. There are many recreation centers in/around the village and we arranged one of them, named "Ulu" with beautiful view and 4 hectars of territory, which has conference hall with auxiliary rooms and cottages for 240 persons. Internet connection in the hotel is Wi-Fi with speed of 100 Mbit/s. And 3G mobile internet system is also works well in the village and around.
- Users will be asked first to create few articles about the Ilisu's natural and historical sites. But the main theme of the event will depend on the thematic month theme in az-wiki. In August it's Transportation. We organize thematic months every month since October, 2014.
- Thank you for reminding about the Wikimedia swag. We have some Wikimedia merchandise for winners of thematic months which we received before, but they are not enough for all WikiCamp participants. We need more to please all participants and guests.
And please don't hesitate to ask about any point of this grant proposal. Thanks.--Wertuose (talk) 13:05, 14 July 2017 (UTC)
Grant withdrawn
editHi Wertuose. We sincerely apologize for not understanding the compliance issues for funding in Azerbaijan before approving this grant. This was the first grant proposal received from Azerbaijan and we did not catch the issues during our eligibility process. We understand the timing of this withdraw is particularly challenging as you've already organized the camp and will move forward without support from WMF.
As we communicated via email, NGOs in Azerbaijan face difficulties in registering grants, donations and service contracts from foreign donors. Only foreign donors that have an office in Azerbaijan, signed an agreement with Ministry of Justice and have Ministry of Finance’s opinion on financial-economic convenience of a grant can give grants to NGOs in Azerbaijan. Since WMF does not have a local office in the country, we are unable to fulfill this requirement and to safely send funds while complying with Azerbaijani law.
WMF will soon be participating in a project that will explore how to best approach funding in countries in similar situations, where NGOs and international civil society organizations have been limited from resourcing individuals. We are very disappointed this is the current situation and apologize again for the timing of this decision. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 20:17, 9 August 2017 (UTC)