Community Resources and Partnerships/India General Support Project/Extension of Enhancing Indic Oral Culture on Wikimedia projects in 2025/Final Report
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Part 1: Understanding your work
[edit]Per the recent update on the Wikimedia Foundation Affiliates Strategy process, Wikimedia Affiliates that are General Support Project applicants will fulfill their affiliate reporting requirements through their final project report.
If you are a Wikimedia Affiliate, you will use this form for your affiliate reporting and to address the affiliate health criteria. You do not need to submit a separate report to AffCom. Follow the guidance to report on how you met the corresponding affiliate health criteria.
If you are not a Wikimedia Affiliate, aligning your responses with the affiliate criteria is optional and not required.
1. Please share to what extent your programs, approaches, and strategies contributed to addressing the challenges you shared in your proposal. If they did not contribute as you believed they would, please share what obstacles you faced and what, if anything, you learned from them? (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 1.) to address Affiliate Health Criterion 1.1 (Goal delivery). Describe how you actively delivered on mission goals, e.g. content creation.
As the emphasis of this extension was on expanding on the impact of the cultural content documented and levereging on the community built, it was decided that this phase be dedicated to integration of the content recorded, community building, collaboration to improve transcription, and academic collaboration.
We exceeded our integration goals. We had planned to integrate at least 50% of the content into Wikimedia platforms, but ultimately integrated 163 files (65%) across projects. This included:
- 35 Wikisource transcription pages
- 57 Wikidata items created or improved
- 71 Wikipedia articles created or enhanced with media
This ensured that the recordings were embedded into articles, lexemes, and structured data where they can be reused and built upon. Find details of embedded files here- [1]
Community building was another key focus of this project. We organized two 1.5-day meetups in Bangalore and Delhi that brought participants together to share skills, collaborate across languages, and strengthen peer support. These in-person sessions helped improve confidence among newer contributors and strengthened long-term engagement. Find event details here- [2]. For clarity, only the second meetup, held in Delhi with JNU as venue was organized as a part of the extension phase. The previous meetup held in Bangalore was organized as a part of the EIOC project (July 2024-June 2025).
To strengthen the academic and long-term value of the work, we partnered with a scholar of South Asian studies (Dr Fauzia Farooqui- lecturer, South Asian Studies, Princeton University) who serves as an academic advisor for evaluating and contextualizing the recordings. We are also exploring how the created materials can be reused in academic research and publications.
This collaboration also resulted in a 1.5 day meetup at JNU in Delhi (13th and 14th December- [3]). Dr Fauzia provided a venue at the university for both days and also assisted with some logistics.
On the technical side, we began collaborating with developers to design a transcription tool that will enable easier uploads and transcription directly on Commons ([4]). We also created tutorial videos ([5])and documentation so that future contributors can continue oral culture documentation beyond this project.
Challenges and learnings:Field-based audio-visual documentation required more time and coordination than anticipated, which slightly reduced the number of outputs. We also learned that new contributors benefit from sustained mentorship when editing Wikimedia projects. To make the videos more engaging, we plan to support creation of a select number of performance videos over mostly oral history videos with little background stimuli. Increasing hands-on guidance and peer support helped improve both confidence and integration rates.
Overall, the project showed that combining training, community-building, and intentional inclusion of new language communities can meaningfully expand linguistic representation on Wikimedia. The strategies we used not only produced content but also strengthened a growing network of contributors committed to documenting oral culture.
2. Is there a plan to build on the key successes you had? If yes, please describe the plan and if no, please share the limitations to do so. For instance, did the activities lead to any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future? (required)
Firstly, are strengthening content quality and usability. Learning that field recordings require technical and editorial support, we are introducing videography workshops, providing better equipment, conducting sample reviews, and collaborating with an academic advisor to guide what material is most valuable for long-term research and educational reuse. This ensures that the content created is not only documented but also research-ready and widely reusable.
Secondly, we are expanding partnerships that emerged organically from earlier work. Our formal collaboration with Dr. Fauzia Farooqui and the Taaoos Chaman Project will support evaluation, research use, and participant guidance. We are also continuing partnerships with language justice organizations and developer communities to enhance training and technical tools.
Thirdly, we are continuing and advancing tool development. Based on participants’ feedback that transcription and uploads are time-intensive, we are discussing improving machine-aided transcription tools, integrating transcription directly into Commons, and exploring easier file conversion workflows. These improvements aim to reduce barriers and increase volunteer-led integration.
Finally, community sustainability has emerged as a new priority. We are working toward formalizing a user group, offering mentorship, organizing regular workshops and meetups, and supporting participants to share their work publicly. The goal is for the community to eventually operate independently and continue documentation efforts beyond the life of the grant.
3. Please provide a link to reports that detail the activities that took place in the last year. This can include an annual report, Meta pages, and websites. If there are no links available, briefly describe the implemented activities and programs below or upload any files. (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 3.) to address Affiliate Health Criteria 2.1 (Affiliate health & resilience), 4.1 (Internal engagement), 4.2 (Community connection), and 4.3 (Partnerships and collaboration):
- Describe your activities engaging new users, new members for your decision-making body(ies), and developing leaders and organizers (2.1).
- Describe your activities creating or hosting spaces to encourage greater collaboration and engagement among your members (4.1).
- Describe how you engage with the contributing community that you serve and/or support (4.2).
- Describe your partnerships with other affiliates or with non-Wikimedia entities (4.3).
Please find details of the project activities on its Meta page here- [6]
4. Are you interested in sharing what you achieved or learned this year with the wider community through different peer learning programs (e.g. Let's Connect program, Diff)? (optional)
Yes, this storytelling article has shared about the impact of the project via Diff- [7]
5. Did you collect feedback from your community or target groups on how the activities implemented impacted them? If yes, please attach/provide information on the results (e.g. community surveys, stories, impact booklets/reports, interviews with partner institutions, etc). Did you collect other impact-specific data? (required)
For affiliates, the response to Question 5. also partially addresses Affiliate Health Criteria 4.1 (Internal Engagement), 4.2 (Community Connection), or 4.3 (Partnerships & collaboration), where applicable.
Please find links to stories on the field work and overall process of oral culture documentation and digitization shared by them post dedicated training on storytelling.
6. During the fund period, did your efforts do any of the following? (required):
For affiliates, the response to Question 6. also partially addresses Affiliate Health Criterion 2.2 (Diversity balance).
- 6.1 Bring in participants from the following groups: women, indigenous groups , young people, speakers of minority languages, underrepresented geographical regions (ESEAP, LATAM, SSA, MENA, SA)
- 6.2 Develop content about the following underrepresented topics or groups of people: women, speakers of minority languages, underrepresented geographical regions (ESEAP, LATAM, SSA, MENA, SA)
- 6.3 Support the retention of: Editors, Organizers, Partnerships
7. What, if any, effective tactics or approaches can you share that worked well when dealing with the programs under points 6.1-6.3 that you selected? (optional)
We were mindful of engaging and selecting female participants and tried to follow DEI principles at all phases of the project, from participant selection to field work, to providing extra support non-English speakers and low digital knowledge. The project itself is built upon the principle of representation of low-support languages, which also targets the speakers of the languages by supporting them in documenting and representing their language.
To ensure retention of minority-language speakers, we provided them separate training in Hindi whenever required.
The content itself, oral culture is practiced mostly by women who are usually default guardians of community knowledge like folk songs and oral history. An instance of the same is a Mising folk song about menarche, revealing this particular community's stance towards young women's health and societal standing- [14]
8. If you developed partnerships, which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors (optional):
Permanent staff outreach, Partners proactive interest
Part 2: Metrics
[edit]| Metrics name | Target | Result | Comments and tools used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | N/A | ||
| Number of all editors | N/A | ||
| Number of new editors | N/A | ||
| Number of retained editors | N/A | ||
| Number of all organizers | N/A | ||
| Number of new organizers | N/A |
| Wikimedia project | Target - Number of created pages | Target - Number of improved pages | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 10 | 61 | ||
| Wikimedia Commons | 23 | 0 | ||
| Wikidata | 48 | 10 | ||
| Wiktionary | ||||
| Wikisource | 37 | 0 | ||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||||
| Translatewiki | ||||
| MediaWiki | ||||
| Wikiquote | ||||
| Wikivoyage | ||||
| Wikibooks | ||||
| Wikiversity | ||||
| Wikinews | ||||
| Wikispecies | ||||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
11. Did you set other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required): No
11.1. Other Metrics.
In your application, you outlined some other open metrics that you would like to measure. Please fill out the achieved results for each of the open metrics you defined.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Part 3: Skill Development / Capacity Building
[edit]12. Reflecting on your programmatic (external) and organizational (internal) work, did your project support you to undergo any skill development that made a difference to your success? If yes, what skill was developed, and how did it lead to success? (e.g. received coaching on public speaking, attended training on nonviolent communication, hosted professional development conversations on leadership, learned and used a new tool for project management, etc.)? Can you share any materials? (required)
For affiliates, use this space (Question 12.) to address Affiliate Health Criteria 2.2 (Diversity balance) and 3.1 (Diverse, Skilled, and Accountable Leadership):
- Describe actions taken to prioritize gender balance in affiliate leadership, as well as any areas of diversity relevant to your affiliate's context (2.2).
- Describe the management, financial, or other leadership skills of your affiliate leaders. If you have a succession plan, please include it here (3.1).
- Describe any training or skill development (as outlined in the question above) (3.1).
- Incorporate into the annual report a disclosure of conflict of interests (if any) from the leadership (3.1).
I undertook project management courses to better implement the project. Mentoring and supervising the project coordinator was also a welcome skill-building opportunity.
13. What is one capacity/skill area that you would like to focus on for the next year? And how do you plan to achieve this capacity? (required)
Better long-term partnership building and outreach
14. If you have additional information or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. Use the space below to upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your report.
For affiliates, also use this section (Question 14) to fulfill the Affiliate Health Criteria requirements.
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for affiliate governance, including affiliate leadership and membership with a breakdown of the demographics; how elections are conducted; how conflicts of interest are declared; and how decisions are made and communicated (2.2, 2.3, 3.1).
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for activities incorporating, promoting awareness about, or enforcing the Universal Code of Conduct in your affiliate's activities (3.3).
- Describe and link to any public-facing documentation for internal membership engagement, such as notes from your regular meetings and how you communicate to or involve your membership (4.1).
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]For affiliates, also use this section (Part 4: Financial reporting) to address Affiliate Health Criterion 3.2 (Financial & Legal Compliance).
| Description | Planned / received budget for this category () | Amount spent () |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel costs | 0 | 470000 |
| Operational costs | 0 | 470000 |
| Programmatic costs | 0 | 524417 |
| Total General Support Fund | 1095287.52 | 994417 |
| Other revenue | ||
| Remaining funds from General Support Fund | N/A |
15. Please state the total amount spent from this fund in Indian Rupees. (required)
994417 INR
16. Please provide an overview of the amount spent from this fund in the following budget categories in Indian Rupees. (required)
- Operational costs: 470000 INR
- Programmatic costs: 470000 INR
- Staff and contractor costs: 524417 INR
17. Did you have any other revenue sources (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required): No
- 17.1. Provide the total amount received from other revenue sources in Indian Rupees. (required): INR
- 17.2. Provide the total amount spent from other revenue sources in Indian Rupees. (required): INR
18. Provide a financial report document which will provide the details of funds received and spent in Indian Rupees. (required)
We recommend you upload the final financial report that was signed by a registered chartered accountant. The same report that you submitted to the institutional partner.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
18.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
N/A
19. Do you have any unspent funds from this project?: No
20. Final confirmations (required)
- 20.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement? You must be in compliance with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the project agreement. In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the Wikimedia Foundation mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
- 20.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the project agreement?
- Yes
- 20.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the project agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
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