Community Resources and Partnerships/India Rapid Project/Digitizing and Disseminating Cultural Heritage - a Pilot/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
1. Signing a MoU between Karavali Wikimedians User Group and Prachya Sanchaya Samshodhana Kendra (PSSK) regarding releasing the content in CC-By-SA. MoU signed.
2. Releasing the content in CC-By-SA.
3. Collecting materials from PSSK
4. Editing/cleaning the content
5. Digitizing/converting the material into open format compatible with Wikimedia Commons
6. Uploading the content to Wikimedia Commons
Steps 1 and 2 are one time activity. Steps 3 to 6 were repeated over the duration of the project. There are micro-steps in these major steps, viz, travel of the program manager to Udupi, sitting of program manager with and vetting of the final content by Advisor for the project, transfer of the content to the program manager, bringing the content from Udupi to Bengaluru, and finally, uploading the content using the broadband Internet. This was done successfully.
7. Two Editathons conducted at Dr. G. Shankar Women's College to add articles to Kannada and Tulu Wikipedias related to Cultural Heritage. 23 girl students participated and added 23 articles to Kannada Wikipedia.
2.1. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
Editathon photos in Commons -
Media uploaded in Commons -
2.2. Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
Kannada Wikipedia training videos -
Kannada Wikipedia tutorial file -
Tutorial video on how to use content translation tool in Kannada Wikipedia -
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Neither agree nor disagree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Neither agree nor disagree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below: From this pilot project, we primarily hope to learn:
Community Engagement Effectiveness: What are the most effective outreach and engagement strategies for diverse cultural stakeholders in coastal Karnataka to contribute digital heritage to Wikimedia Commons
Content Suitability & Impact: What types of audio and video content from this region are most readily contributed and have the highest potential for reuse and impact on Wikimedia projects (e.g., Wikipedia articles, educational resources)?
Technical Workflow Efficiency: What are the most efficient and user-friendly workflows for digitizing, licensing, and uploading audio and video content from this community to Wikimedia Commons, considering varying technical skills?
Metadata Quality & Discoverability: What methods best encourage participants to provide rich and accurate metadata in local languages, and how does this impact the discoverability and usability of the content on Wikimedia Commons?
Sustainability & Scalability: What are the key factors and community relationships that indicate the potential for long-term engagement and scaling this model for other cultural heritage digitization efforts in the region?
1. Community Engagement Effectiveness
- What was learned: We learned that reaching out through existing local networks (like the Karavali Wikimedians and PSSK) is more effective than general public announcements. Personal meetings with elders and scholars helped build the trust necessary to release content under open licenses. We found that explaining "global reach" and "cultural preservation" resonated more with stakeholders than the technicalities of CC-By-SA.
- Future use: In the next phase, we will prioritize "Trust-building workshops" early in the project cycle to address intellectual property concerns before the digitization begins.
2. Content Suitability & Impact
- What was learned: Rare images saw immediate interest. We found that content related to folk rituals had the highest potential for creating new articles on Tulu and Kannada Wikipedias.
- Future use: We will focus our selection criteria on "at-risk" media and those with high educational value for regional Wikipedia articles.
3. Technical Workflow Efficiency
- What was learned: We realized that while the Advisor (Prof. Krishnaiah) provided invaluable content vetting, the digitization process (editing/cleaning) took longer than anticipated due to the age and format of the source materials.
- Future use: We hope to decentralize some of the cleaning/editing by providing basic technical training to more local volunteers, reducing the technical load on the Program Manager.
4. Sustainability & Scalability
- What was learned: The pilot confirmed that there is a massive volume of heritage material (like the 15,000 pages of Dasa Sahitya) that cannot be handled by a small team alone. The relationship with PSSK is a strong foundation, but institutionalizing the MoU was the key factor for long-term sustainability.
- Future use: Based on this pilot, we intend to scale this into a multi-year project, potentially seeking a "General Support" grant or a larger partnership to bring in more dedicated scanners and resource persons.
Summary of Future Use
The primary takeaway from this pilot is that the human element (vetting and trust) is as important as the technical element (digitization). In the future, we will use these learnings to streamline our travel and vetting schedule, create more robust metadata guidelines, and build a stronger case for a full-scale digitization center in the Karavali region.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
- Positive Surprise: The enthusiasm from local scholars and the community was higher than anticipated. We found that providing a digital platform for "low-resource" languages like Tulu and Kannada created a strong sense of pride.
- Challenges: We encountered minor technical hurdles regarding the physical state of older media, which required more specialized restoration time than planned. Additionally, aligning the schedules of expert advisors for the vetting process was more complex than expected.
Learning: These experiences taught us the importance of building "buffer time" into the digitization workflow. We also learned that cultural vetting is a delicate, time-consuming process that cannot be rushed if we want to ensure high-quality, authentic metadata. These insights will help us create a more robust and realistic timeline for the full-scale project.
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
To ensure the insights from this pilot benefit the wider movement, I plan to share our results through the following channels:
- On-Wiki Documentation: A detailed summary of the project’s outcomes, including links to the uploaded media and new articles, will be posted on the project’s Meta-Wiki and Karavali Wikimedians User Group pages. I have already created a project page in Meta for this purpose - [8]
- Community Meetups: I will deliver a presentation at our upcoming local community meetup, focusing on the technical workflows and community engagement strategies that worked best.
- Social Media & Newsletters: We will highlight key "finds" and success stories on social media platforms to raise awareness about cultural heritage digitization.
- Peer Knowledge Sharing: I have already begun sharing informal updates during our monthly user group meetings, and I intend to document the "lessons learned" in a brief report for other GLAM practitioners in the India region.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 30 | 33 | Physical counting of participants, community members and resource persons who participated in the editathons and the whole project. |
| Number of editors | 25 | 25 | 23 new editors, 2 resource persons |
| Number of organizers | 2 | 2 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 20 | 23 | 5 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 1000 | 429 | 0 |
| Wikidata | 20 | 23 | 0 |
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
No
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. State the total amount spent in your Indian Rupees. (required)
280229
11. State the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
3116.82
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Provide the link to the financial report https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SqxU1zUtNGphQDzZS2Xo9idGNB5IX2WH/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116079844053267131885&rtpof=true&sd=true
12.1. 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)
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the project? (required)
No
13.1. Amount of unspent funds.
N/A
13.2. Explain the reason for unspent funds.
N/A
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14. Are you in compliance with all applicable terms, laws and regulations as outlined in the project agreement? Yes
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)
In my original application I had mentioned the deliverable as 1000 for Commons. But there was a drastic cut in the sanctioned amount. Accordingly I reduced the deliverable for Commons to 600. But the Fluxx still has old 1000 as deliverable. Please make a note of this.