Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Wikiresidence Africa Villa Karo

Comments by User:I JethroBT (WMF)

Hi Kulttuurinavigaattori, thanks for your proposal to conduct a Wikiresidence program at Villa Karo as a part of your residence grant with them. Judging from your request, it sounds like you are in Cotonou already, so I hope you are settling in. Having looked over their website, Villa Karo seems well-placed to create connections between the Finnish and Wikimedians in Western Africa. Could you provide a little more detail on how you plan to recruit volunteers? What resources are available in Villa Karo to support this outreach? Also, just to confirm, it looks you are not requesting funding for translation and internet expenses, as these do not factor into your budget. Is that correct? Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 00:04, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

Hi I JethroBT, I am in Helsinki Finland. My plan is to start the project here and move to Villa Karo in Benin in December 4th and stay there until January 19th. The Villa Karo organization has office in Helsinki, where I have actually already trained their two workers. We plan to organize Wikipedia/Wikimedia editing events starting August in Finland. In Villa Karo, vicinity an Benin I will organize Wikipedia editing workshops.

I think WikiFundi and Wikipack Africa would be the main tools to use. My experience is that many people who are not familiar with computing hesitate in editing Wikipedia (sometimes they say that perhaps they "break" the Wikipedia). Offline editing provides a more comfortable and stable environment for this.

I have started to gather a network of volunteers interested in this project, including activist and user groups in Africa. I visited Wikimedia Africa meeting in Wikimedia Conference in Berlin in April and have contacted Wikimedia User group person in Nigeria. The Villa Karo organization in Benin has many resources for this, including a library and visitors center. I plan to invite people to Wikipedia editing events, visit schools and institutions and provide personal help. I am not requesting funding for translation etc. since they don´t fit the budget of this application. I think they are needed, though, but I need to see how they can be funded. I personally contribute as a volunteer in this project.--Heikkikastemaa (talk) 11:13, 3 June 2017 (UTC)

@Heikkikastemaa: Thanks for this context, Heikki. I have a few other questions about the content building aspect of your project: Have you been able to talk with your network of volunteers or the user groups you've met about what content areas would be best to work on in this project? If so, what content areas have you identified so far? If not, how do you plan to do so?

I also have two other recommendations:

• Another community to reach out to would be the WikiIndaba organizers and conference participants. Benin specifically was not represented at the conference, but I am sure they can provide some help regarding regarding logistics, connectivity, event participation, what skills might be most useful to teach at workshops, etc.
• Depending on participation, Yoruba Wikipedia might also be a good focus in terms of project targets, and I suspect there are content gaps around topics related to Benin.

Thanks, I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:07, 5 June 2017 (UTC)

Hi, I have not specified the content areas, since the project has not actually started yet. I am going to gather notes about these as soon as the network of specialists evolves. Perhaps a redlist type approach - a multi language and multi Wikipedia red-bluelist? - would be good starting point here. Yes, I took notes on some of Accra WikiIndaba conference lectures, they were very useful. I must study further about topics of Benin. There does not seem to be very much Wiki-activity, but I talked to Villa Karo office people in Helsinki and they suggested contacting some persons and institutions there that are potential. Thanks for your ideas!--Heikkikastemaa (talk) 07:33, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

@Heikkikastemaa: Thanks for clarifying that. I'm glad you have planned some discussions around what content areas you will be focusing on. Normally, we get requests that already have some general ideas around the topic areas specified. You do have a good amount of time before your trip, so I would recommend following-up with the individuals and institutions that Villa Karo recommended to see what priorities they might have before your departure in December. It's pretty normal for content areas to change or shift somewhat during a longer project, but it's useful to have a starting place for content areas before the project begins.

All that said, I've approved your grant request and will be in touch over e-mail to coordinate the administrative portions of the grant. Thanks for your work and for your prompt responses. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:23, 9 June 2017 (UTC)