Grants talk:PEG/WikiBilim/Turkic speaking wikimedians conference/Report

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Please complete this form[edit]

Hi, Rauank and Ashina: please complete this form in its entirety so that we can begin to review and accept your report. It was due on 21 July or 3 months after your projected completion date, which was extended to 21 April 2012. Please contact grants@wikimedia.org with any questions about completing your report. Wolliff (talk) 17:49, 26 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Questions and suggestions[edit]

Thank you for submitting this report! Please take some time to review the questions and suggestions below. Wolliff (talk) 18:41, 20 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Questions about Lessons Learned[edit]

Would you mind elaborating a little on the "Lessons Learned" mentioned here?

Participant selection: We experienced some difficulties in selecting the participants to TWC. There are several reasons of that. First, the most of Turkic speaking wikimedia communities are not very active and there no feedback to the invitation. Second, Wkimedia communities could select available person for participation, others cancelled their participation very close to the event. We could't rebook that tickets again. Due to late confirmation we could get flight tickets more expensive that we planned. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ashina (talk)

How would you prevent this difficulty if you were organizing future conferences or how would you recommend that others work to avoid or plan for this situation more effectively?

I think that best way of solving this problem will be define special criteria or make some guide from experienced parties (e.g. selection, communication etc). We communicated with bureaucrats and admins, post our invitation to Talk page on Main page. However this information was not enough as it caused discussion on Turkish Wikipedia. Another way of selecting participants in our region I suggest to submit short essay or statement related to Wikimedia and free knowledge. It is also important to have more people from academia or NGOs. Select people only by contribution of candidate is not enough. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ashina (talk)

It seems like you learned some valuable lessons about planning future events within the region, including setting realistic expectations about the level or participation you might expect from both Wikimedia communities and from local cultural centers, and also about some of the challenges you might face in terms of interest in deeper technical topics and in terms of a language barrier. When planning similar events in the same region, how do you think communication across languages would be improved? Would you mind offering some details about how you utilized volunteer or paid translators in this event or how you otherwise addressed language barriers, and what recommendations you might have for future event organizers in this area?

As it was mentioned before Turkic Wikimedia Conference experienced several difficulties. Turkic speaking people are not speaking in common one language. More people would not like to provide such kind of conference in Russian language because of political or cultural reasons. In order to keep balance I can suggest invite more people who speaks in English and conduct conference mainly in English. Or provide meeting more locally. — The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ashina (talk)

Links to Media Coverage[edit]

If you have links to some of the media coverage of the event, you should add some highlights to this report.

Following up[edit]

I hope you will be able to update this report within several months in order to reflect additional information you have gathered about your project's impact, especially the "rise in the growth rate of other Turkic editing communities". Wolliff (talk) 18:41, 20 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Report accepted[edit]

Thank you for the thoughtful responses and for adding the links we've requested. This report is now accepted. Please do follow up in a few months to add additional information about your project's impact and what you've learned. We will also have an answer for you soon regarding your request for reallocation of the remaining USD 471. Sincerely, Wolliff (talk) 15:38, 31 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Reallocation[edit]

We seem to have lost track of the reallocation request for a few months, and I apologize for that.

We are willing to consider it now, if you could provide a little more information on how you intend to spend the $470 towards acquiring media for Commons. Please describe your plan, so we can make a decision. Thanks! Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 20:11, 31 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Please return unused funds to WMF[edit]

Hello! Unfortunately, you never got back to us with details about this reallocation. Please return these unused funds to WMF according to the instructions here: Grants:Index/Return_unused_funds_to_WMF. Regards, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 23:05, 20 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I should apologize for not answering your request on Meta. I am apologize I didn’t see that request before.

Regarding the reallocation we are agreed with the Ministry of Culture to start working within GLAM initiative and to upload media files to the Commons. That works is going on. Therefore we contacted to voxpopuli.kz with the proposal to donate some pictures under the free licenses.

Also we are working with the Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools to involve them in writing articles in Wikipedia and upload high quality media files. We do not using any trademarks and logos of Wikimedia, as there was not any answer to our request to extend the license agreement.

It is planned that around 10 students will visit Wikimania in Hong Kong this summer. The main purpose is to promote Wikipedia and other Wikiprojects among schools and universities. If it will be acceptable we would like to use these funds to conduct workshop for students and professionals to use Commons? If there will be decision to return them we will ready to proceed. --Ashina (talk) 03:58, 21 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for responding, Ashina! We do appreciate it. Regarding the request for reallocation, please follow the instructions here so that we may review and review it: Grants:Index/Request reallocation. Let us know if you have any questions about how to submit, and please Email us at grants at wikimedia dot org once it's complete so that we can be sure to review it quickly.
Do you still need help with the licensing agreement? If so, I can follow up with our team to help you get an answer.
Regards, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 00:30, 2 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Hello, Ashina! Are you currently working on putting together the reallocation request? We haven't received anything yet. Thanks, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 20:47, 9 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Report incomplete[edit]

This grantee has not responded to requests regarding returning or reallocating the unused funds from this grant, and so this report can no longer be considered complete. It will be considered complete once the funds have been returned to WMF or otherwise used for approved purposes. Best regards, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 00:44, 4 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Report complete[edit]

Grantee has returned the remaining funds. This report is complete. Thank you! Jtud (WMF) (talk) 15:58, 11 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Expensive[edit]

12 k$ in travel etc. for a locally targeted conference seems quite a waste. Did it reach any mainstream media outlet? Your links even include forums and facebook so I doubt that's really media coverage. --Nemo 10:05, 26 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

+1. Could we have an update on the one measure of success we're all hoping for, which is the only one marked "not achieved" Specifically: "rise in the growth rate of other Turkic editing communities following the event (six months after the event; a year after the event)" —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Tony1 (talk)