User:Pavan (CIS-A2K)/WP 2019-2020

Overview

Programmatic activities in Telugu Wikimedia projects were under Focus language area for CIS-A2K right from it's inception. A2K worked on Content development, Quality improvement, Leadership Building, Expansion of user base, and bulding partnerships in this area of work for 5+ years. A2K and Telugu Wikimedia community gained lot of learnings and best practices developed in this process. Based on feedback recieved from and consultation happened with Telugu Wikipedia Users, A2K identified that Expanding user base is the biggest challenge that need to be addressed to sustain programmatic work happened in terms of Quality and content. Even though one of the experienced editor User:Arjunaraoc attributed low participation to general trend of Telugu as a language and suggested that systemic issue will not be resolved by programmatic efforts, there are others like User:Rajasekhar1961 and User:Pranaryraj1985 suggested interest from Telangana government to collaborate and enthusiasm from Telangana people can be capitalized in order to expand user base. Users like User:Chaduvari, and User:Ramesam54 identified improving user base could be the best service to community and can sustain current growth in improved quality and content. In order to complete handing over sustainable practices to the project community and take learnings and best practices for the benefit of remaining communities, A2K would like to narrow down its focus on two aspects this year - "Expanding user base" and "Building sustainable partnerships". A2K will be more invested in creating resources, adaptable methedology, and invested movement leaders to bring and retain editors and taking partnerships forward.

Skill Building

Wikipedia introduction sessions in Telangana districts

When?: During August-December 2019; Where?: Warangal, Khammam, Nizamabad and Nalgonda, Number of participants: 100+ Newly registered in total

Brief description:: In collaboration with Digital media wing of IT & Communications department, Telangana government A2K will conduct basic-introduction level workshops to enthusiasts in Cities and towns of Telangana.
History: A2K is collaborating with both Digital Media wing of IT & Communications department and Language & Cultural department of Telangana Government. These partnerships supported conducting Telugu Wikipedia activities in Hyderabad and also funded a major conference around Telugu Wikipedia apart from their content donation support.
Why: Departments of Telangana Government were keen in collaborating with A2K in improving locally relevent content about Telangana in languages like Telugu, Urdu, and Hindi. According to Wikipedians like User:Rajasekhar1961 and User:Pranayraj1985 this partnership along with interest among Telangana society to improve content about thier History and culture should be capitalized inorder to expand user base in Telugu Wikipedia
How:

• Conducting Wikipedia-introduction sessions in Warangal, Khammam, Nizamabad, and Nalgonda in collaboration and utilizing support from Digital media wing of Telangana Government.
• Collaborating with local cultural organizations and writers' associations to conduct the event.
• Following-up interested Newbies from these sessions by inviting them to online sessions which will continue for at least 4 sessions.

Target:

• 100+ Newly registered users is the major target of these sessions.
• Note: Targets of this session are tied with the other activity "Sessions to Newbies of Wikipedia and Wikisource" while 100 plus Newly registered users in this session will result 50+ New Wikimedians' participation in "Sessions to Newbies of Wikipedia and Wikisource".

Sessions to Newbies of Wikipedia and Wikisource

When?: A weekend and weekday for alternative months; Where?: Online, Number of participants: 30 New wikipedians

Brief description:: Online sessoins for Newbies who will be recruited in offline sessions in Telangana cities and by the efforts of community leaders.
History: An Effort to engage Newbies for long-time and improve retention happened under the name of "Wiki-adoption Project" in Telugu Wikipedia. Despite repeated attempts, the project did not kick off. Based on the experience in earlier attempt, Online sessions for Newbies were designed.
Why: Improving retention and expanding userbase is the major aspect to address according Telugu wikimedians like User:Chaduvari, User:Rajasekhar1961, and User:Ramesam54. These sessions will provide an opportunity to have a continous engagement with New Wikimedians introduced by offline events and other efforts. Making experienced Wikipedians to co-host these sessions will help improving ties between Experienced and emerging community members and also builds capacity in community to sustain this effort.
How:

• Major triaing was done by A2K other than sessions where existing community members took interest to train Newbies.
• Volunteers who joined the project recently by an offwiki activity or online engagement can take part.
  
• Experienced editors will co-host these sessions based on their interest and expertise. Quality improvement session participants will also be directed towards co-hosting these sessions.

Target: Targets are:

• Recruiting minimum of 30 New wikipedians and 20 New wikisource volunteers upon which 50% will be retained for minimum of 3 months and 100 edits.
• Involving 4 Wikipedians in these sessions as co-hosts or hosts to ensure sustainability of effort.

Leadership Building

Wikipedia Quality improvement sessions

When?: For 4 alternative weekends during October-November 2019 and April-May 2020; Where?: Online, Number of participants: 8-10 Experienced Wikipedians

Brief description:: Wikipedia Quality improvement sessions are online sessions for existing Wikipedians who would like to learn more about intermediate to advanced aspects of Wikipedia and will be able to help newbies to
History: CIS-A2K conducted such session during February-March 2019 for Telugu Wikipedians.
Why: This intended to support "Wiki adoption project" where existing Wikipedians would help Newbies on a regular basis and also to improve capacity in existing Wikipedians to participate in Good article process introduced in Telugu Wikipedia. Eventhough these sessions contribute to building skill among community members major expectation from this event is that Interested Wikipedians who would like to groom Newbies will be trained on various necessary aspects.
How:

• These sessions happens for two months period with a class every alternative Sunday; These sessions happens twice during next year.
• Topics of this includes intermediate to advanced level Wikipedia and Wikisource editing including aspects like Copyrights and licenses.
• Participants can sign-up On-wiki, unless proved disruptive to the whole process No one with at least 200 edits and expressed interest will be excluded from this program.
• Whole schedule and syllabus will be On-wiki. Every session will have a task followed by, which will be given to participants.
  

What part of this program will remain the same and why?: Main structure of this program will remains the same. Because, unlike similar offline event, this helps participants engage in this activity for a prolanged period at their ease. This ensures more participation, better retention and higher impact programmatically.
What part of this program will change and why?: A2K will record these sessions make appropriate editing to respect participants' privacy and publish on Commons as resources. Target: Targets of this activity:

• 8-10 experienced wikipedians will be trained on intermediate to advanced level aspects.
• At least 4 of them will become co-hosts of Online sessions for Newbies.

Wikipedia Resource Center

Brief description: Creating resources, both video and text, to teach Telugu Wikipedia and Wikisource. These separate topics on several aspects of projects can be connected together to make several cources like Licenses of Wikipedia, Resources and Citations, Interaction on-wiki, etc.,
History: In collaboration with other Telugu Wikipedians, CIS-A2K working on an extensive list of topcis that are relevent to skill building in Telugu Wikipedia. These topics will be categorized into Beginner, Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 to get clear understanding of how and where to use the resources in actual Skill building. Some of these resources will be created during Program year 2018-2019 and remaining will be created and utilized in next program year.
Why: Creating movement resources will help community to sustain efforts to train and retain Newbies.
How:

• Based on the list of topics that are being catagorized (Beginner, L1, L2, and L3) during current program year, A2K will continue and finish creating resources for these topics.
• A2K will conduct an exersise to create several on-wiki cources like Licenses of Wikipedia, Resources and Citations, Interaction on-wiki, etc.,
• A2K will organize a session for community leaders and interested trainers on how can they use resources and co-host online sessions to Newbies. This session also serves to build leadership among community members especially in retaining New volunteers.

Target: Targets are:

• Creating resource material for 60+ topics listed here.
• Creating 5 cources on "Telugu Wikipedia editing for beginners", "Wikipedia, Licenses, and Copyrights", "Citating resources", and "How to interact on-wiki" using above topics.

Partnerships

Brief description: A2K would collaborate with IT & Communications (Digital Media wing), Language & Culture Departments of Telangana Government and CALTS of University of Hyderabad in our mission to expand Wikipedia user base with citizens who contribute to production of knowledge in Telugu and finding out ways to effectively enforce policies of Telugu Wikipedia through Institutional partners who are willing to partner in building Open and democratic platforms of Knowledge.
History: In collaboration with A2K between 2016-2018, IT & Communications (Digital Media wing), Language & Culture Departments of Telangana Government A2K co-organized two major conferences, could release content into free licenses, and got space to conduct several events as in-kind. Regarding CALTS, A2K tried to work with team who built language support system based on NLP systems for Telugu, Hindi and Urdu which didn't materialize but started discussions with other departments in the center. Currently, A2K is going to conduct a workshop for CALTS students which is aimed to build sustained support for Telugu Wikipedia from Applied linguistics students and experts.
Why: To build sustainable partnerships focused on expansion of user base and improving support to Telugu Wikipedia from experts.
How:

• In collaboration with IT & Communications department and Language & Cultural department, A2K will conduct workshops accross Telangana and also be part of workshops Digital media wing is conducting to journalists on fake news.
• Roll out workshops for interested students who are working in Applied linguistics in University of Hyderabad.
• Collaborate with Prof. Garapati Uma Maheswararao and Prof. Rajya Rama, who are professors in applied linguistics to conduct Intensive personalized wikipedia sessions about translation to Telugu Wikipedians who are in need in UoH.
  

Target: Targets are:

• Around 25 Research scholors and post-graduate students from UoH becomes Telugu Wikipedians.
• Intensive personalized wikipedia sessions on language, translation and evaluation in encyclopedic style in Telugu for 5 interested Wikipedians by linguists.

Metrics

Table 3

Shared metrics

1. Participants: The number of people who attend your events, programs or activities, either in person or virtually. This definition does not include people organizing activities, social media followers, donors, or others not participating directly.
2. Newly registered: The number of participants that create new accounts on a Wikimedia project. These include users who register up to two weeks before the start of the event.
3. Content pages: A content page is an article on Wikipedia, an item on Wikidata, a content page on Wikisource, an entry on Wiktionary, and a media file on Commons, etc. This metric captures the total number of content pages created or improved across all Wikimedia projects.

Grantee-defined metrics

1. Footprint tracker: CIS-A2K team would like to continue withe the "Footprint tracker" metric. This metric is useful to understand active Wiki-communities, locations with frequent Wiki-engagements, and identify institutional partners for supporting active Wiki-communities. It helped CIS-A2K understand its reach over current plan period, and address concerns of not engaging non-FLA communities.
   This metric will track the number of outreach events that are organised by Indic Wikimedians with our support. This metric will be able to provide insights to support Wikimedia projects by local bodies and interest shown by communities. Further this metric will help in devising efficient follow-up mechanisms and will avoid 'reinventing the wheel' regarding social events and needs assessment. A2K team would only count one footprint per city per project irrespective of the frequency of follow-up event or multiple venues for the event. This metric would utilise the geograpical distribution of Wikimedians in India and also provide an excellent opportunity for participants of TTT to expand the reach of Wikimedia projects in their communities.
2. :

Program	Participants	Newly registered	Content pages	'Footprint tracker'	' '
Skill building	105	50	1000	6
Partnerships Development	35	25	300	1
Leadership Development	10		200
TOTAL FOR ALL PROGRAMS	150	85	1500	7

Table 3 notes: