Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Atudu/Wiki Loves Butterfly - Phase VI/Final Report

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Final Learning Report

Report Status: Accepted

Due date: 2024-02-09T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund

Report type: Final

Application

This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the grantmaking web service of Wikimedia Foundation where the user has submitted their midpoint report. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.


General information[edit]

This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results.

  • Name of Organization: N/A
  • Title of Proposal: Atudu/Wiki Loves Butterfly - Phase VI
  • Amount awarded: 20847.75 USD, 1694000 INR
  • Amount spent: 18952.61 USD

Part 1 Understanding your work[edit]

1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.

As we have proposed about our activities and strategies in the Grant proposal of WLB phase VI,- our strong teamwork and bonding among our dedicated enthusiasts, amateur and professional photographers, lepidopterists, researchers etc. succeeded in making a balanced totality in different sectors of project work like field documentation, identification of species and subspecies, image uploading in Wikimedia Commons, article creation and development and page set up, social media handling, organizing photo walks and National level butterfly meets etc.

Our strong connection and collaboration with local enthusiasts, resource persons, forest authorities of different areas, special interest groups, like minded organizations and NGOs etc. has ensured the smooth running of the project to touch the mark of success.

A Eurema hecabe (Linnaeus, 1758) - Common Grass Yellow butterfly emerges from its pupal stage

Leadership quality development among team members residing in different zones has made the zonal documentation programs and zonal communication building easier as newly recruited members could stay in close touch of their respective zonal lead figures. At the same time the zonal leads have always maintained communication with the main project lead. This brought more impetus, more feasibility and better implementation of the project strategies.

Proper task allocation has not only endowed speed and perfection to protect work, but also never allowed any individual to be burdened with the load of tasks. Hence, every team member received a well supportive atmosphere to handle his /her specific responsibilities neatly and light heartedly.

Above all, the Wikimedia community fund has provided us with flexibilities to administer multi-team deployment in several hotspots at a time during a prospective butterfly season which has assured a better field documentation and more data collection for us. The affiliate support of West Bengal Wikimedians user Group in many ways has greatly helped us in maintaining the autonomous work flow of the project team.

Map
Footprint of Wiki Loves Butterfly in sixth phase

2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?

  • Although all the strategic plans or approaches undertaken by us wholesomely contributed in achieving the desired project goal, still I'd like to emphasize some strategies remaining highly effective and most poignant. Our multi-team deployment strategy at different venues at the same time during the prospective butterflying season played havoc. This not only ensured greater number of species and subspecies documentation, but also succeeded in spotting out the uncommon, rare and rarest butterfly species originating in respective butterflying zones of different areas at a time.
Phase VI- (monthly progress chart)
  • Next to say about our strategy of organizing a package of 5 photowalks including two school outreach programs in different zones during the most prospective butterflying month of September created a country wide sensation about WLB and Wikimedia movement among butterfly enthusiasts and common people. We particularly chose September because this very month all butterfly lovers celebrate the event of BBM all over the country. We remained joint organizers of the said event with other like minded organizations and NGOs and mixed our package of photowalks cum awareness building programs as well as WLB webinar with the very spirit of BBM.
Enthusiast students are busy in taking photographs of butterflies with their mobile phones at Sikkim
Group photo of photowalk 2023 at Susunia Hill, West Bengal.
Group photo of WLB photo-walk and school outreach programme 2023 at Kamlang Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh.
Group photo (Female Participants) of WLB photo-walk 2023 at Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, West Bengal.
  • Furthermore, the said photowalks led by our respective local members helped in building zonal leadership qualities among members as well as developed local community involvement and at the same time ensured possibilities of future supply line of field documentors cum wiki contributors in the project.
Graphical representation of existing member vs newly participating member in photo-walks.
Gender distribution of participants in photo-walks
  • Another is our task allocation scheme among team members which never allows any sector of the project to slow down and lag behind amidst immense project work pressure.
Diverse species with closest identity- Bhutanitis lidderdalii Atkinson, 1873 - Bhutan Glory (left) and Bhutanitis ludlowi Gabriel, 1942 - Mystical Bhutan Glory (right)

3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?

However well-devised your strategies may be, strategies devoid of innovative measures pays little. We devise our field strategies based on some thought up set of situation and weather probability to such and such venues according to seasonal specification, but we have to innovate and alter them frequently, sometimes even at the zero hour. Weather hazards remain our prime challenge in our field-trips which brought us newer scopes of innovations to handle out the hazards and secure better field results.

Usually in a long term project like ours, inexperienced newcomers are generally considered as back-benchers in matters of policy or strategy making and only work under senior leadership and supervision. In WLB, we do a bit differently though our newcomers are put under seniors to be hatched and mentored properly. But on some occasions, we put them in the forefront and test their leadership qualities to flash out during favorable situations. This works nicely and thus we have got some brilliant youngsters in the zonal leadership faculty who initially were enough shaky, but on getting ample scopes to unfurl them, they showcased hidden excellence and now our strong zonal leads. We imbibe leadership skills among budding wiki editors. Their expertise in some specific field has greatly blessed the project.

4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.

Our Wiki Loves Butterfly project runs under the supervision of West Bengal Wikimedians User Group and is an integral part of the said user group projects and activities. Our team members are all General Members of WBUG. Hence, all the User Group members are aware of our programs and activities. We have also been informed about our project in the mailing list also through relevant social media handlers. Furthermore, we are maintaining a regularized working relationship with our fiscal partner Kiwix with whom we shall be very glad to be engaged for our future phase of WLB project.

5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
Media Coverage:

6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups Neither agree nor disagree
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Strongly agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors Strongly agree
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Strongly agree
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. Strongly agree

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?

N/A

Part 2: Your main learning[edit]

8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Life cycle of Rathinda amor documented through WLB project.

Every phase of WLB opens up newer avenues and we gain new learnings. We have better dealings with and mentoring of school children in this phase. We had 2 outreach programs cum workshops with a good number of school children during 2 photo walks in Sikkim & Arunachal Pradesh in September, 2023. We have learnt better how to inspire, involve & mentor them about the butterfly world & Wikimedia movements & also to imbibe in them awareness of nature and butterfly conservation.

In this phase we started a documentation program in Odisha & documented a good number of spots in different districts. This opened up new learnings about the demography, forest types, species types, reserve forests, new local communities etc. This has brought newer experience & knowledge which will definitely help us & other interested communities to carry on better documentation in future in those zones.

9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?

In course of the implementation of our activities, no mentionable unexpected things took place as a result of our neatly devised & much thought up strategy framing policies, our strong network with local enthusiasts and forest authorities as well as our study of the remote to remotest places where we document.

10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?

Having been experienced with and gaining confidence from our learning, in the next phase we must try our level best to make our school & college student outreach & awareness program more extensive & more effective with related PPT presentations, educational videos, pamphlets etc. along with giving them exposure to practical field experience, holding seminars & workshops etc.

Field documentation programs in different districts of the State of Odisha shall definitely gain impetus in the forthcoming phase. Some of the still unexplored Reserve Forests, Wildlife Sanctuaries & waterfalls areas thereon shall be thoroughly documented. Local connection building, forest department contacts and collaboration as well as outreach targets shall be in our focus.

11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?

The unpredictable weather of far North-eastern states and the transportation hazards in some very remote forest zones have been with us throughout the last few years and hence they no longer appear unexpected or surprising to us. Rather we consider them as part & parcel of a field based project like ours & tried our level best to be matured with such hazards or challenges.

We always tried to frame one specific field strategy with plan A, B or C. When unexpected challenges like continuous downpour, landslide etc force us to our scheduled field documentation at a spot at the eleventh hour, we instantly shifted to plan B or C & sent our onset team or teams to another previously thought up prospective zones or spots ensuring smooth field activities. Hence our field days hardly go to ashtray.

12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
Diff Post:

Part 3: Metrics[edit]

13a. Open and additional metrics data

Open Metrics
Open Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of regular contributors N/A 15 16 Focused and balanced team work N/A
Number of Indian states covered N/A 8 7 Though we had plans to cover more numbers of states, severe weather calamities prevailing in peak seasons marred ours plans. N/A
Percentage of files used in different Wikimedia projects N/A 15 19 N/A https://glamtools.toolforge.org/glamorous.php?mode=category&doit=1&category=Images_from_Wiki_Loves_Butterfly
' N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
' N/A N/A N/A N/A
Additional Metrics
Additional Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities Old and new editors expected to continue to participate 30 35 N/A N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities 5 6 N/A N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability Wikimedia and non-wikimedia partners 3 8 Wikimedia and non-Wikimedia partners:
  1. West Bengal Wikimedians User Group
  2. Kamlang Tiger Reserve
  3. AMYAA
  4. Don Bosco School, Wakro
  5. Government Secondary School, Wakro
  6. Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Wakro
  7. Apna Vidya Bhavan, Wakro
  8. Society of North-Sikkim
 N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of activities developed Offline Activities
  • Fieldwork
    • West Bengal 20
    • North East India 12
    • Odisha 12
  • Photo-walk 4
  • National Butterfly meet 2
  • Team meet-up 2
  • Wikimedia workshop cum Edit-a-thon 2
  • Outreach Workshop with school children 2
 56 114 Offline Activities
  • Fieldwork
    • West Bengal 69
    • North East India 22
    • Odisha 5
  • Photo-walk 5
  • National Butterfly meet 1
  • Team meet-up (offline) 10
  • Wikimedia workshop cum Edit-a-thon 0
  • Outreach Workshop with school children 2
 N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

13b. Additional core metrics data.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants * New participants - 100
  • Returning participants - 100
 200 690 Total number of participants in
  • photowalks and school outreach programme - 264
  • The Power of People Citizen Science and Big Butterfly Month - India Month Data Insights (online session) - 50
  • Namdapha Butterfly Meet 2023 - 350
  • Field documentation - 26
Number of editors 40 97
Number of organizers Old and new organizers expected to continue to participate 5 8
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Wikimedia Commons N/A 4000 4199 Multi-team deployment in peak seasons originating a satisfied number images.
  • Quality images: 423
  • Valued images: 16
 N/A
Wikipedia * Number of new articles to be created - 150
  • Number of old articles to be developed - 50
 200 111 * Number of new articles to be created - 49
  • Number of old articles to be developed - 62
 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 N/A N/A N/A N/A

14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?

No

15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.

N/A

16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.


Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships[edit]

17. Organizational Capacity

Organizational capacity dimension
A. Financial capacity and management This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
B. Conflict management or transformation This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
D. Partnership building This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
E. Strategic planning This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
F. Program design, implementation, and management This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
J. Governance This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
K. Communications, marketing, and social media This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it
L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it
M. On-wiki technical skills This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
N. Accessing and using data This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
O. Evaluating and learning from our work This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it
N/A
N/A

17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Formal training provided by a Wikimedia Movement organizing group (i.e., Affiliates, Grantees, Regional or Thematic Hub, etc.), Peer to peer learning with other community members in community/ies of practice* (structured and continuous learning and sharing spaces)

17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Lack of volunteer time to participate in capacity building/training, Barriers to access training because of connectivity or equipment

18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?

The team requires support in future in two of its major plans. One of them is to publish multiple books based on the data and media files, which were generated through multiple years of the program and another one is to create a Wikibase instance of the entire program and store the data there.

19. Partnerships over the funding period.

Over the fund period...
A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) Strongly agree
B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree

19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest

19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Lack of staff to conduct outreach to new strategic partners

20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?

Our engagements with our previous partners have continued this year too, where we have provided non-financial support to them to organize their events where we have been one of the major stakeholders, Our partnerships with different schools, targeted to bring awareness about conservation of nature and free knowledge movement, were planned by taking students closer to the nature and give them first hand experience of the habitat of butterflies.

Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration[edit]

21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?

The WLB team has been contributing to the Wikimedia movement for the last 7 years and has gradually become an integrated part of the movement since then. The team members, whether amateur or professional photographers, have donated tens of thousands of photographs to Wikimedia Commons, which were reused on different Wikimedia projects for free knowledge. There had been numerous obstacles which they had to face, while contributing to the movement, but that did not stop them from continuing their work.

22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Somewhat increased

23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

The funding has provided the necessary resources to the team to plan and execute the project, which not only gave flexibility and confidence to the team, but also brought new volunteers, who can be forged into new leaders for the movement. The motivation and dedication of the team has always been higher, whether or not we do a funded project or not.

24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Stayed the same

25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

N/A

26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.

No, we are only focused with the Wikimedia mission of free and open knowledge.

Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration[edit]

We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.

27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?

Yes

27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?

We are part of the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group and our activities and updates are regularly shared in different meetings of the affiliate. We also share our future plans during the annual general meeting of the affiliate and receive feedback on our work and how the affiliate can support us.

28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?

We do this occasionally (less than once a month)

29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?

We share our learnings with other grantees of the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group during the affiliate meetings.

Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]

30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

18952.61

31. Local currency type

USD

32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

  • Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
  • Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yw5Ja95W4AxpvT3daIVeNBvmlalS7UsS/view?usp=sharing

33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.

Kiwix is the fiscal sponsor of this grant proposal

34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?


34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

N/A

34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

N/A

34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

N/A

35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?


As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?

Yes

37. 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 grant 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

38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.

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