Community Resources and Partnerships/India Rapid Project/Wiki Exploration Program 2026-27
Applicant
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Amitabha Gupta
- Organization
N/A
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
N/A
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
N/A
Project
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Wiki Exploration Program 2026-27
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-01-16 - 2027-01-15
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
India
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Other (please specify) Wiki Exploration Program, Promotion of the Program with a documentary film.
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
Wiki Exploration is an initiative by the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group aimed at photo documenting archaeological and built heritage sites across various regions of West Bengal, India — including those in remote areas — in a cost-effective, phased manner. Currently, the project has expanded into other states as well.
Under this grant proposal we intend to document built heritage sites located in Hooghly and Purulia district of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.
The main challenge to photo document these heritage sites are that they are not covered well in Wikimedia Commons because some of them are located in remote part of India. Even the UNESCO heritage sites and renowned palaces and temples located in prominent locations are not systematically documented on Wikimedia Commons.
The documentary film will vastly help promotion of the program.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
1. Field Documentation
The project activities will have five phases for documenting built heritages which are either undocumented or poorly documented or unsystematically documented in Wikimedia Commons.
A. Wiki Explores Purulia (District of West Bengal) - Phase II ,(Field work between January - March 2026, 3 days)
B'''. Wiki Explores Hooghly (District of West Bengal) - Phase II (Field work between January - March 2026, 5 days)
C. Wiki Explores Odisha - Phase I (Field work in September-November 2026, 07 days)
D. Wiki Explores Madhya Pradesh - Phase I ( Field work in September-November 2026, 17 days)
During the 14 days of January 2026, we will do our background research to cover the places which our team will visit in the field trips as mentioned in the time line above. During the field trip, a small team of professional photographers, mobile reel makers and possibly a drone operator will assemble to document the heritage sites. The media files will be uploaded in Wikimedia Commons subsequently during the grant period. We are keeping about 45 days gap between last field work and completion day of Project, so that we have enough time for uploading photos in the last phase.
We conduct informal workshops for the participants as well as with prospective contributors for better understanding of documentation procedures of built heritage sites.
2 Documentary Film on Wiki Exploration Program
Wiki Exploration Program has been going on for quite a number of years with a very small team. We have completed successfully over 30 exploration projects now, but very little has been to promote this unique program. We wish to come up with a small low budgeted documentary film on Wiki Exploration Program based on existing video footages and some more video footages which we will shoot with professional videographers during the grant period and then take help of professional editors to complete the film.3. Workshop for prospective volunteers for Wiki Exploration Projects
Wiki Exploration Project team consists of only a few members. To increase number of volunteers in this project, a detailed workshop will be arranged.
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc.
My team members are as follows :
- Amitabha Gupta - Program Lead, Photographer, Video Reel Maker (Volunteer)
- Anjan Kumar Kundu - Photographer, Video Reel Maker (Volunteer)
- Herpking - Photographer, Video Reel Maker (Volunteer)
- Arijul83 - Photographer(Volunteer)
- Sudipta Maulik - Photographer, Drone Operator (Volunteer)
- Devasish Nandy - Advisor, Heritage Enthusiast, Expert in Hindu Iconography
- Banani Bhattacharya - Advisor, Archeologist, Expert in Hindu and Islamic Iconography
- West Bengal Wikimedians User Group - Background and Technical Support
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
My target participants are photographers and heritage community of Wikimedia Commons as well as Independent heritage and culture researchers. We engage them during background research and execution part of the project and share my learnings with them in the form of blogs, reports, newspaper articles and presentation during and after completion of project. We will try to onboard potential contributors for such projects in future through our training workshops. This year we have an archeologist and a well known heritage enthusiast in our team as well.
- 9.1. If your project includes in-person activities, are there any international participants travelling to India for them? (required)
- No
- 9.1.1. List all countries of participation. (required)
- 9.2. Will the project be transferring funds to any international participants? (required)
- No
- 9.2.1. List all international participants receiving funding and their countries. (required)
N/A
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
- No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
I have placed a list of possible heritage sites which we will document in this four phases to West Bengal Wikimedians User Group here.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Other Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context)
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Culture, heritage or GLAM
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Not applicable
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Innovate in Free Knowledge
Metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
With every Wiki exploration project I and my team members develop a better understanding on field documentation, photographic technique and optimal use of drone. We will also have better knowledge about current conditions of the heritage sites. This year we are arranging of regular backup of images after each day of photo documentation.
For the first time, we propose to come up with a documentary film on Wiki Exploration Project which is going to be a big learning lesson for me. I have directed before fellow Wikimedians for drone shot as well as video shots. In my younger days when I was in service, I had directed a full fledged Corporate film for my employer organization.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 10 | |
| Number of editors | 5 | |
| Number of organizers | 1 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |
| Wikimedia Commons | 12000 |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
N/A
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
I will not require any specific tool to measure my metrics
Budget
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in Indian Rupees. (required)
442848 INR
- 22.1. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD. (required)
5000 USD
- By submitting this proposal request you agree with the Institutional Partner Privacy Policy, Application Privacy Statements, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
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