Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Catalyzing Africa's knowledge creation ecosystem through AfroCuration-Building the connective tissue between the WikiMovement and cultural and creative organizations
- Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Catalyzing Africa's knowledge creation ecosystem through AfroCuration-Building the connective tissue between the WikiMovement and cultural and creative organizations
- Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Catalyzing Africa's knowledge creation ecosystem through AfroCuration-Building the connective tissue between the WikiMovement and cultural and creative organizations/fr
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Applicant information[edit]
A. Organization type
- Mission-aligned organization
B. Organization name
- Moleskine Foundation Inc
E. Do you have an account on a Wikimedia project?
- Yes
E1. Please provide the main Wikimedia Username (required) and Usernames of people related to this proposal.
- Papa Baiden
Tochiprecious
G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?
- Applied previously and did receive a grant
H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?
- Yes
- H1. Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
- Moleskine Foundation Inc. was legally registered in 2019. Wikimedia Foundation remains the only organization that provides grant funding through the Moleskine Foundation Inc.
- H2. Please state the size of these grants from the following options.
- Between 5,000-50,000 USD
- H3. What type of organization (s) did you receive grants from?
- International NGO
- H4. What percentage of your program budget do other funders contribute to?
- Between 30 and 75%
1. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
1a. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
2. Are you legally registered?
- Yes
3. What type of organization are you?
- Non profit organisation
4. What is your organization or group's mission and how does it align with the Wikimedia movement?
- The Moleskine Foundation pursues a mission of ‘Creativity for Social Change’. We provide unconventional educational tools and cultural experiences to unlock the creative potential of young people to transform themselves and their communities. Through a 5 year partnership with Wikimedia Foundation, we are building the connective tissue between the Wikimedia movement and cultural organizations to highlight African voices and experiences.
5. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)
- Website: https://moleskinefoundation.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moleskinefoundation Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moleskinefoundation/ inkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/moleskinefoundation/ Medium: https://medium.com/@moleskinefoundation Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3LpiJVTHpLNT1cKweD7T0l
Grant proposal[edit]
6. Please state the title of your proposal.
- Catalyzing Africa's knowledge creation ecosystem through AfroCuration: Building the connective tissue between the WikiMovement and cultural and creative organizations
9. Where will this proposal be implemented?
- Mozambique
10. Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries?
- Regional
10a. If you have answered international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
- This project will engage Moleskine Foundation's existing network of cultural partners. Although not GLAM classified, they provide an untapped resource to develop the WikiMovement. Leveraging the AfroCuration format, we aim to connect, train and support Wikimedia affiliates and cultural and creative organizations under the umbrella of Creativity for Social change paradigm. Leveraging the AfroCuration format, we will engage underrepresented youth and highlight cultural narratives.
10b. Are there any specific sub-regions or areas where your proposal will be implemented?
- Southern Africa:
Mozambique - we want to return to the Nampula region of Mozambique, and identify new editors, re-engage previous editors and build deeper connections with the local university. South Africa - Using the network of cultural partners in Johannesburg, we will continue to deepen youth capacity to build knowledge and skills training. East Africa: Tanzania - Wikimedia Tanzania’s Wikifor Universities project is aligned with our direction for embedding AfroCuration in institutions. Translating the AfroCuration toolkit in Swahili will allow it to be understood by a wider audience. West Africa: Ghana - Our cultural partner network is growing in this region, as is our existing relationship with the Wikipedia community. Building on these relationships will allow to reach more underrepresented communities we now have access to. Senegal - our cultural partner who’s well established has indicated great interest collaborating with our format and Wiki communities.
11. What is the challenge or problem you are addressing and why is this important?
- The African continent, its people, and its languages are underrepresented in global digital knowledge networks. Stats.wikipedia.org indicates that available content about Africa and created by Africans is limited. Elevating and including African voices in knowledge based platforms is critical to countering biases and expand the diversity of voices and perspectives. Working at the intersection of culture, open source knowledge and activism, the Moleskine Foundation approach seeks to drive greater relevance of Wikipedia to Africa, youth, and underserved communities.
The proposed project seeks to increase available content about Africa on the Wikipedia platform, to enhance knowledge and accessibility to content about the continent and available in African languages. Through this approach we will contribute to building a movement of critical thinkers and content producers to counter biases about Africa and activate change within the communities of the knowledge producers. Wikimedian communities are best placed to lead knowledge creation activities. As a cultural organization, the learnings gained from working alongside the Wikipedia movement indicate that new approaches to engage new audiences can contribute to greater results. Particularly, leading with culture, creativity and activism can attract and inspire new users into the movement, and greater synergy is needed to align the technical expertise of Wikimedians with the subject matter expertise provided by creative and cultural organizations. As these organizations fall outside of GLAM, they have not been effectively engaged in the community. Moleskine Foundation has a strong track record of convening these two sectors, and have distilled our methodology into a toolkit that is widely available. While the results indicate that whilst our AfroCuration events prove to be effective in connecting cultural organizations and Wikimedian communities, they also outlined the following areas of improvement. Without a tested program methodology stakeholders are unlikely to collaborate. Participant management and recruitment are crucial to driving results. Although they operate in similar spaces (e.g. education, knowledge management, and culture) collaborations between Wikimedia communities and cultural organizations have been limited as a result of low awareness and familiarity of overlapping missions, lack of a format that effectively leverages their unique strengths, and GLAM requirements that restrict engagement among new stakeholders. Building on the momentum, networks and trust build with communities in which the Moleskine Foundation works, the proposed project offers a new approach to generating more diverse and inclusive perspectives.
12. What is the main objective of your proposal? Please state why you think partnering with Wikimedia Movement helps to achieve this objective?
- The objective of the project is to connect Wikipedia communities with cultural organizations to contribute to the development of more diverse and inclusive Wikimedia platform. Through trainings constituencies will develop the capacity to generate more open knowledge content about African culture, communities and people while also expanding content in African languages. This approach will increase the relevancy of Wikipedia to underserved African communities and youth.
13. Describe your main strategies to achieve this objective?
- This project aims to facilitate collaborative partnerships between Wikimedia chapters and C&C organizations to advance more culturally relevant African content production that increases the engagement of young African language speakers. The project will engage following strategies the humanities, culture, art, and creative sectors with a strong focus on women and under represented groups through the following strategies.
The Moleskine Foundation Wikimedian in Residence will deliver trainings to (5x) communities formed by the Wikimedian community and a cultural partner. The training will deploy the WAE program format to organize AfroCuration events that will enable collaborations among community members. We will also share our new approach for aligning this work with our organisational mission. Ideate effective approaches to embed the AfroCuration format in the programming of engaged institutions. We will engage a design thinking expert to organize and lead a workshop that will engage the representatives of 5 Wikipedia chapters and their respective cultural partners, the MSKF team and Wikipedian in Residence to explore and co-create strategies for integrating WAE into the programming of engaged institutions. Emergent ideas will inform planning at the implementation stage. The AfroCuration toolkit shall be the North star to guide Wikimedia communities implementing AfroCuraiton with their chosen creative and cultural organisation. The guide explains the methodology and provides other resources to enable the independent organization and production of events and encouraging collective buy-in and autonomy. This project will build on 2021 partners and networks.
14. Are you running any in-person events or activities?
15. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified content knowledge gaps?
- Content Gender gap, Age (regency) , Geography, Language, Sexual Orientation, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
16. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or thematic focus.
- Education, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Diversity
17. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select all categories that apply.
- Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation, Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language, Socioeconomic status, Age, Digital Access
18. Please tell us more about your target participants.
- Moleskine Foundation has a strategic focus on supporting, inspiring and encouraging youth between the ages of 16-27 who are from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds. These youth often have a proximity to arts and culture, are intellectually curious and willing to discover and work on themselves (in a self-awareness context).
Requirements to participation include African language abilities, African or African-diaspora heritage identifying, and age between 16-27. Participants will be recruited from the constituency of cultural partner’s engaged in the program to ensure interest in the curatorial theme and cultural element. A proximity to arts and culture, is believed to increase the probability of engaging intellectually curious people that opt-in to the program by choice. Specific thematic materials also enhances participation from underrepresented communities, as was the case back in previous events such as AfroCuration in December 2019 at Constitution Hill, in collaboration with Afropunk. Afropunk have strong and clear values surrounding gender and sexual orientation, which pulling in members of a much needed and underrepresented community as participants. They were interested in our theme which was “Writing Black Women into history”. We plan to employ these dynamics to attract participants to AfroCuration events. The aforementioned workshop between Wikipedians and Cultural organizations is also a core component to developing a strategy that articulates a sustainable model for integrating WAE into institutional programming strategies. This approach seeks to ensure the sustainable and active engagement of participants, and promote retention for the long-term.
19. Do you have plans to work with other Wikimedia communities, groups or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?
- Yes
19a. If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.
- Wikimedia communities in Tanzania, Nigeria, Mozambique, Brazil, Portugal and the Arabic user group have informed the design of the project along with key learnings gained through current programming efforts organized alongside the Wikimedia communities with which we engaged and helped to create such as the Mozambican community.
Initial efforts to engage the Arabic community have been positively received. There is strong indication that Wiki communities are willing to support our work and are ready to collaborate with our format, which will be further strengthened by intercultural experiences. Whilst there will be an organic continuation of the relationship with Wikimedia South Africa, Twi Community and Tanzania, we will need to respect and engage in a proper procedure of approaching the Wikipedian communities so as to have an audience with the community leaders and get their buy-in.
19b. If no, please tell us the reasons why it has not been possible to make these connections.
- N/A
20. Will you be working with other external non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?
- Yes
20a. If yes, please describe these partnerships.
- Moleskine Foundation’s diverse and expansive network of cultural partners is a critical asset for delivering this work and we will leverage these partnerships to provide resource support, assets and the local networks and expertise that are critical to the success of the project.
Our partnership with the African-based publishing company, Ethale Publishing, was instrumental to delivering the first AfroCuration in Mozambique during the 2021/22 event series supported by the WikiMedia Foundation. The success of this partnership results from the companies local network and presence and commitment to provide support to trainings that will help to capacitate and engage knowledge content producers. Moleskine Foundation maintains a longstanding strategic partnership with Constitution Hill Trust, a cultural organization that serves as a living memory of South Africa’s transition to democracy and a place where a shared heritage and common future, founded on South Africa’s constitutional values, is celebrated. The organization served as the first home of AfroCuration and will continue to serve as a venue for hosting the format in their community. Kër Thiossane is a longstanding Moleskine Foundation’ partner with hands-on experience in organizing WAE programming events. They have expressed interest in organizing a WAE program in Senegal that will engage community members working at the intersection of tech, culture, and the arts. The Moleskine Foundation’s Creativity Pioneers Support Fund recipient Oroko Radio is a not-for-profit independent internet radio station based in Accra, Ghana. As a recipient of the Fund, Oroko is engaged in our global partner network. Oroko has a wide audience reach that will be leveraged for attracting content producers in Ghana. Fondazione Aurora is a non-profit organization committed to scaling African social impact enterprises, and a longstanding strategic partner with strong local ties and community relationships. They provide strategic funding support to initiatives that further innovative and economic development opportunities in Africa and have committed funding to support AfroCuration events. Funding from this grant will be applied to the project to support project implementation costs.
20a. If yes, indicate sharing of resources from these partners (in kind support, grants, donations, payments).
- The cultural organizations engaged in the project will provide event space, share assets related to the program along with access to their content, networks, and contacts within the communities in which they operate. Additional support to be provided by partners will include in-kind assets, financial resources, localized knowledge and expertise, access to cultural content and operational support related to human resources and project management.
21. Please tell us how your organization is structured.
- Moleskine Foundation Inc. is a tax-exempt organization, Section 501 ( c) (3).
The Foundation exclusively pursues purposes of social solidarity, of promotion and development of the right to education, to formation and to access to information. In particular, the Foundation plans, implements and promotes programs for Quality Education, that is fair and inclusive, aimed to encourage critical thinking, experience and creative action, continuing education. The governing structure of the Foundation is comprised of the Board of Directors (Board); the Council of Wise Men; the Steering Committee; and the Officers. The Board approves the goals and the programs of the Foundation and have the control and general management of the property, affairs and business of the Foundation. The day-to-day management of the Foundation is guided under the leadership of a CEO and dedicated team with expertise in an unconventional range of competences. We also rely on an external international network of prominent intellectuals and researchers. The current team is comprised of a Head of Marketing and Communications, Director of Programs, Director of Partnerships, Collections and General Services Manager, WikiAfrica Education Programs Manager and Communications and Content Manager. The team members that will be directly involved in the work proposed within this fund include the CEO, Director of Programs, the WikiAfrica Education Programs Manager and the Communications and Content Manager.
22. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
- The Foundation currently has the team in place needed to implement this proposal. These include:
1)Tochi Precious Friday, the Wikimedian in Residence at Moleskine Foundation and co-founder of the Igbo Wikimedians user group: providing Wikipedia platform expertise, community building and organising skills, and a wide network in the Wikimedia movement. Provider of centralised training. 2) Fari Sow, MSKF comms specialist that will support branding visibility and the development of communication materials. 3) Papa Baiden, WikiAfrica Education Program Manager: providing advice and guidance on project partnerships, day-to-day task supervision of the project and monthly reviews, providing budget framework and allocations. 4) Elena Korzhenevich, Program Director for WikiAfrica Education: Overseeing all project activities and providing strategic guidance. 5) Adama Sanneh, MSKF CEO and Head of Programs, supporting program and organisational development and expansion.
23. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]
24. What do you hope to learn from this proposal?
- Through this work, we intend to learn the most effective approaches to connect Wiki communities and cultural organizations and encourage cultural organizations to embed the AfroCuration format in their programming in such a way that it becomes sustainable by continuous support from Wikimedia communities and ongoing effort from cultural organizations.
Whilst we are confident that our proven methodology, experiences, collaborative and participatory approaches and broad network, evidence our ability to convene and engage key, relevant stakeholders to deliver this plan, we also remain cognizant of the limits of our knowledge. To that end, our approach involves processes to co-create the answer we seek through collaborative brainstorming and design-thinking methodologies. Aligning cultural partners and Wikipedians from the same community can birth unexpected innovative approaches and cross contaminations between various disciplines, to liberate unique and relevant content and knowledge on Wikipedia. We have already seen results from AfroCuration collaborations. We aim to further these results through a systemised methodology and by uniting communities from various African regions for richer and more diverse exchanges. For example, a recent collaboration with a cultural partner (Politecnico University) introduced the curatorial topic of Africa centered design and architecture into the University’s curriculum and 175 articles on the topic by the community in Tanzania.
Core Metrics[edit]
25. Enter a description of the metric and a number in the target field. If the metric does not apply to you, enter N/A for not applicable.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | Through this program we will target cultural organisations that utilize our resources and training and that adapt the WAE approach towards engaging youth as part of their educational offer.
Target participants are youths from underserved communities as well as the organizations that seek to engage this group. Targeted youth are aged 16-27 demonstrating intellectual curiosity and change making attitude. Additionally, returning editors from Wikipedia communities previously engaged in WAE and AfroCuration events will also be targeted. Target: In number write the total number of participants: New participants: 200 Returning participants: 100 |
300 |
| Number of editors | Young people from underserved communities from the constituents of cultural partners aged 16-27 demonstrating intellectual curiosity and change making attitude. Additionally returning editors from Wikipedia communities previously engaged.
New editors: 200 Returning editors: 100 |
300 |
| Number of organizers | Beginning with a paid WiR role to deliver main trainings of partners. One main organiser for each Wiki community we intend to engage with (5) should be present at this training to learn about the strategy of collaboration with the cultural organizations. They will organise their communities and also must develop direct relationship with the cultural organization. Thereafter, we will attract and maintain a team of local volunteers (within community of the main organisers) to support implementation of each event within the series of activity. When online, we imagine this would benefit greatly from the presence of previous volunteers from our AfroCuration events. | 15 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | We will encourage all participants to create at least one new Wikipedia article as part of the project (1x300 = 300), Additionally, we will encourage and guide the participants on how to edit and improve other wikipedia pages (100). | 400 |
| Wikidata | Editors with previous experience will be asked to make at least one Wiki Data item related to their article (100). | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
25a. If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation. (optional)
- Through this program we will target cultural organisations that utilize our resources and training and that adapt the WAE approach towards engaging youth as part of their educational offer.
Target participants are youths from underserved communities as well as the organizations that seek to engage this group. Targeted youth are aged 16-27 demonstrating intellectual curiosity and change making attitude. Additionally, returning editors from Wikipedia communities previously engaged in WAE and AfroCuration events will also be targeted. Ultimately we anticipate that at least 2 cultural organizations will integrate AfroCuration into their yearly program schedule. Specifically this project seeks the following: Cultural Organisation staff: 20 (4*5 = 20) New participants: 200 Returning participants: 100 Cultural Organisations:2
26. What other information will you be collecting to learn about the impact of your work? (optional)
- of cultural organization adopting WAE?
- of wikimedia comms and cultural organization multiyear partnership (or something like that)
- of editors coming from undeserved backgrounds
Regular tracking on comms metrics
27. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
- The tools to be used to measure each metric selected include, outreach dashboards, Stats,wikipedia.org. Additionally the adoption of AfroCuration events will be measured through the number of partnership agreements in place.
28. How do you hope to share these results so that others can learn from them?
- Share results on social media, Develop learning material for other users, Share it on Meta-Wiki
Financial Proposal[edit]
29. What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency.
- 87000 USD
30. What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- 87000 USD
31. & 32. Please provide a budget for the amount of funding requested.
- We have prepared a detailed budget to describe the related expenses required for program delivery and uploaded the budget here.
33. What do you do to make sure there is a good management of funds?
- The Foundation has a management system and supporting checks and balances in place to ensure effective stewardship of funds. Budget expenditures are reviewed by the program team and controller to manage project related cash flows. Expenditures are authorized by senior members of the team to provide oversight. Monthly budget tracking supports the financial monitoring of expenditures.
34. How will you contribute towards creating a supportive environment for participants using the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy?
- To contribute towards creating a supportive environment for participants, guidelines/policies will be developed to account for local and cultural contexta, while maintaining the criteria listed in the UCoC as a minimum standard.
35. Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Other public document(s):
Final message[edit]
By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
36. We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- Yes
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- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.
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