Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/3rd Wikimedia Technology Summit (WTS 2024)/Final Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 31 January 2025
Funding program: Conference Fund
Report type: Final
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[edit]- Title of proposal: 3rd Wikimedia Technology Summit (WTS 2024)
- Username of applicant: Kasyap
- Name of organization: N/A
- Amount awarded: 112002.35
- Amount spent: 81583.5 USD, 7065711.81 INR
Part 1: Understanding your work
[edit]1. Did your event have any impact that you did not expect, positive or negative?
The Wikipedia Technology Summit proved to be an outstanding event, bringing together an impressive array of attendees. Wikipedia representatives from various Indian states, Wiki Tech developers, students, and dedicated open-source volunteers all converged to exchange their unique perspectives. This summit not only fostered collaboration but also acted as a catalyst for the advancement of WikiTech, particularly in the realm of Indian languages, showcasing the power of collective efforts. The involvement of AI for Bharat, a leading AI initiative, further enriched the discussions and outcomes of the summit. Also, the support from CIS, Microsoft, BITS Pilani, SRM university, Wikimedia Language Technologies team and Sweccha is highly appreciated in sharing the latest in language technologies especially for under-represented languages. By leveraging cutting-edge AI research and technologies, participants explored novel solution and the participation of IIIT-H faculty members, and domain experts played a crucial role in the success of WTS 2024. Their expertise in areas like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing brought valuable insights and innovative approaches. The event fostered a collaborative environment where participants from diverse backgrounds – researchers, developers, community members, and representatives from the Wikimedia Foundation – shared knowledge, exchanged ideas, and worked together towards common goals. This continuity ensured that the momentum and progress achieved in previous years were carried forward.
2. What do you think will be the long term impact of this conference?
This WTS 2024 long-term impact is poised to align seamlessly with Wikipedia's Vision 2030. Going forward, we anticipate witnessing the influence of innovative technological information creation methods, including AI, bots, and big data. The utilization of technology for content writing on Wikipedia articles will also evolve, and its application is expected to expand across other sister projects. The gathering proved invaluable in shaping Wikipedia's future trajectory, ensuring that its technical foundation remains firmly rooted in its core values and foundational principles.. There can be multiple ways to describe the long term impact. a) Networking space b) Attracting volunteer developers c) Global contribution towards tech policy and product design from Indic developers d) Participate and collaborate in the larger open knowledge movement projects
3. Would you say that your work improved participants’ ability to apply new skills and knowledge?
Yes
3a. If yes, please describe how and why you think this was successful. Please describe why you think this is the case.
The third Wikimedia Technology Summit in 2024 was a great opportunity for people to learn and improve their skills. With workshops, talks, and group work, attendees learned about new technologies and the best ways to work on Wikimedia projects. This helped them to contribute more effectively. Two key technologies discussed at the summit were Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs). These are really important and will have a big impact on how knowledge is created and managed. The summit helped connect the dots for participants and speakers, making sure Wikimedia developers and tech contributors were aware of the bigger conversations and developments in this field.
4. Please use this space to upload media and other files that help tell your story and impact. You can also provide links to them.
Field to type in URLs.
Press Coverage: https://www.iiit.ac.in/wikimedia-technology-summit-2024/
5. 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.
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
6. 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.
- WTS 2024 Evaluation (Responses) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Du2-RQQhESGlItOIHM-WUHX_BrhaFbwxqwupd9aOGnQ/edit?usp=sharing
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?
Wikimedia ecosystem faces a peculiar problem in the Indian context. While there is a lot of interest in developing technology and considerable energy around the Open Source development as well, this does not translate into interest or commitment towards Wikimedia ecosystem. WTS aims to bridge this gap and generate enthusiasm towards contributing to the Wikimedia projects. Many underrepresented languages, social/civil society organisations were active participants at WTS (Boli Cheto, VGLUG) these organisations serve some of the most underrepresented languages on the internet and underrepresented communities on developer ecosystem. These groups were invited specifically to showcase their work and expand their network in order to deepen their impact.
Part 2: Your main learning
[edit]8. Were there any major challenges or things you found difficult that you would like to share? What would you do differently next time?
We faced challenges in meeting the needs of participants from indigenous communities. Conducting our summit in English may have limited participation and engagement for those not fully proficient in the language. Additionally, we anticipated a strong turnout from Wiki students, but university exams prevented many of them despite their Wikipedia training from attending the summit. In our future programs, we will try to address the unique needs of minority and less-resourced languages by providing support and resources directly in their native languages. We plan to organize a series of small pre-events and micro-gatherings with key community groups, ensuring their active participation and involvement. Furthermore, we strive to include members from these language communities not only on the main management committee but also as integral parts of the Summit itself. This approach aims to make the event more inclusive and accessible to these communities. To facilitate communication, we intend to utilize the emerging Wikimedia MinT Machine translation tool for our student participants. Also, to increase student participation we are planning to schedule the next summit during the winter or summer vacations to accommodate the participants' availability and ensure their active engagement.
9. Was there any non-financial support that the Wikimedia Foundation could have provided that would have better supported you in achieving your goals?
We want to thank the Wikimedia Foundation team for their great support and leadership. Their sessions on Wikipedia's technology and how it all works together were really helpful and gave participants a lot of useful information.
The technical experts from non-English Wikipedia communities shared their knowledge and came up with new ways to solve problems Wikimedia projects face. To make sure everyone can use Wikipedia's tools and techniques, it is important that these experts have resources and materials in their own languages. This will help community members use the tools in their native languages.
We ask the Wikimedia Foundation to give more support and resources to these technical experts. By doing this, they can better serve their language communities, breaking down language barriers and making Wikipedia more accessible to all.
10. What would you recommend on a local and/or regional level as the best next step to leverage your success and momentum?
Recognizing the need for continued community engagement to strengthen Wiki Tech capabilities, we are shifting our focus from hosting a large-scale 4th Wikimedia Technology Summit (WTS 2025) to conducting a series of targeted activities with smaller groups. This approach will allow us to prioritize research, promote the value of volunteering, and increase the accessibility of Wikipedia resources for diverse technical communities. We encourage technical students to showcase their Wikipedia-based academic projects within their college language communities. Furthermore, interested groups can organize workshops focusing not only on article writing but also on Wikidata and other Wikipedia projects to foster free knowledge creation. While Wiki technology can present challenges, by learning and adopting key techniques, aspiring Wikipedians can significantly enhance their effectiveness and contribute more meaningfully to the Wikipedia community and its mission of knowledge dissemination.
11. Please add any 3 operational recommendations for future events organizers.
1) It is very effective to organize event venue, accommodation and meals in one premise. 2) When organizing student events, it is essential to consider exam schedules and varied student goals. 3) A help desk should be available for those needing support beyond online guides and resources, as personal assistance is essential for a deeper understanding, especially for individuals keen on technical topics but they may not have technical expertise.
Part 3: Metrics
[edit]12. Open Metrics reporting
In your application, you defined some open metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with your metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in.
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participants | Percentage of first-time participants in a Wikimedia Technology event. | 80 | 84 | We have received 75 responses through evaluation forms. Of this 73.3 % mentioned that they are attending for the 1st time. | WTS 2024 Evaluation form and Participation list was used to collect the data. |
| Participants | The number of different Wikimedia communities participating in the event. | 16 | 20 | WTS 24 saw an increase in participation from different communities including language communities, queer communities and technical communities. It was a meeting of the minds of people with passion who believe in the free knowledge movement representing different language communities such as Telugu, Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada, Tulu, Tamil, Malayalam, Sindhi, Bengali, Santali, Kolami, Gondi, Lambada, Odia, Marathi, Gujrati, Konkani and Angika. | WTS 2024 Scholarship form and Participation list was used to collect the data. |
| Alliances | The number of new partnerships or concrete projects that result after the event. | 3 | 3 | Open Source Developers Group (OSDG) at IIIT Hyderabad, Sweccha Hyderabad and Boli Cheto Foundation. | Mini hackathon, Lightning talks and Community Development programmes. |
| Engagement | Percentage of people willing to keep participating in the Wikimedia Technology ecosystem. | 100 | 113 | WTS 2024 saw contributors coming from underrepresented communities and minority languages who needed guidance. There were also many young technical contributors who showed enthusiasm to learn new in the field. At the same time, there were experts from Wiki Developers community and experienced technical contributors. WTS 2024 was a forum where people who shared technological insights to people who needed access to technical knowledge. This way the participants, both new and experienced, will contribute towards the development of the Wikimedia Technology ecosystem. However, we would need to track participant activities in the Phabricator and other Wiki Tech platforms. | Outreach dashboard and evaluation form. |
| Outcomes | The number of specialized Training resources for Wikipedia Developers. | 1 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
13. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?
No
13a. 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. Also mention why you felt you had to change some metrics.
N/A
14. Please indicate if you applied any of the following survey and registration tools. Please select all that apply.
1. Standard Registration Form, 2. Post-event participant survey
14a. Please share the result(s) with us, provide the link(s) or summarize the main result(s) and insight(s) from them.
N/A
14b. If you used other forms, please share them with us, as these forms might be useful for others to use.
Part 4: Financial reporting and compliance
[edit]15. & 16. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
7065711.81 INR
17. Please state the total amount spent in USD.
81583.5 USD
18. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
Upload a financial report file.
Please provide a link to your financial reporting document.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uA0G5Y4eZEfWo4qEPNaa0yHPt0pl2CvFefxENBFjsmY/edit?usp=sharing
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.
19. 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.
N/A
20. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
Yes
20a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
We currently have a remaining balance of ₹838588 from the WTS 2024 funds. This surplus is primarily due to the absence of any major unforeseen expenditures. Additionally, the event's relocation to a hotel near the IIIT Campus resulted in cost savings.
A contributing factor to the remaining balance is the lower-than-anticipated participation of local students in the Mini Hackathon. This was largely due to scheduling conflicts with university examinations which has rescheduled.
20b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future request with PO approval
20c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
We propose a pilot project titled Incubating Digital Voices: Launching Core Wikimedia Sister Projects for Indian Indigenous Languages (Leveraging WTS Insights).
Through this initiative, we aim to bridge gaps and empower indigenous communities in India by integrating them into Wikimedia projects. This effort could set a precedent for digital language preservation and community empowerment on a broader scale.
21. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
22. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
23. 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.
No
24. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.
India doesn't directly comply with the entire U.S. Internal Revenue Code