Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/2024 Venice Film Festival WikiPortraits Initiative and Venice Biennale (ID: 22732659)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
saraa.kom
- 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)
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
2024 Venice Film Festival WikiPortraits Initiative and Venice Biennale
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2024-09-30 - 2024-11-30
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Italy
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Not applicable
- 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)
Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects prioritize and require using freely-licensed images. This presents a challenge when it comes to photos of notable people, because most published photos of notable people are press images with full copyright and non-permissive licenses. This results in a significant number of biographies with poor quality or no photos. This challenge is quite notable in itself, having been covered by various publications including the New York Times in their 2009 article, "Wikipedia May Be a Font of Facts, but It’s a Desert for Photos". While that article was written almost a decade ago, the problem persists, so much so that @badwikiphotos is an account on Instagram. The English Wikipedia category, "Wikipedia requested images of people", has over 5,000 articles in it.
An effective way to gather freely-licensed photos of notable figures at-scale is to go to where they are. Gage Skidmore is particularly notable for publishing freely-licensed photos of celebrities at pop culture conventions and political events. German Wikipedia has been covering the Berlin Film Festival with its Berlinale-Projekt since 2017.
Indeed, our SXSW WikiPortraits Rapid Grant project added photos that were added to 73 wikis and were collectively viewed up to 14 million times in April 2024 and 7 million in May 2024. Our early self-financed Sundance 2024 WikiPortraits project adds an additional 500,000 or so views per month.
And at Cannes, we sent a team of four photographers and 2 organizers, and were able to get photos of George Lucas, Meryl Streep, Lily Gladstone, Emma Stone, and Francis Ford Coppola, among others. Venice Film Festival is similar in celebrity wattage, and also in bringing in films from the Global South.
With this grant request, we will be subsidizing experienced photographers who want to attend the Venice Film Festival in 2024, sometimes because they are working for other entities. Their subsidies will reflect the quality and volume of photos they upload to Wikimedia Commons under WikiPortraits.
WikiPortraits will attempt to help with press credentialing,m through issuing signed letters. WikiPortraits can also help them gain similar access to notable individuals by trying to schedule with publicists during press availability time. We were able to get some of these slots at Cannes, but they were very competitive, and we realized we need lead time to coordinate.
Separately, good quality pictures of art exhibits are hard to come by. We would like to take this opportunity while we are in Venice to ask them to take pictures of the 2024 Venice Biennale, whose theme “Foreigners Everywhere” features many indigenous, refugee and Global South artists.
- 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.
We will help photographers obtain press credentials for the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and then subsidize their travel if they agree to upload photos to Wikimedia Commons. The subsidies will reflect the quality and volume of photos. For the first time, WikiPortraits will be coordinating with international photographers, specifically from Wikimedia Deutscheland.
We will also ask one of our photographers to go take photos of the art works at the Venice Biennale. However, because of underlying copyright issues, we will instruct them to take wide views that are not focused on specific pieces of art.
Please note that WikiPortraits had previously included Venice Film Festival in an earlier WikiPortraits proposal if there had been enough budget (for example if we had not been able to get sufficient press access at Cannes). But we were able to get press opportunities at Cannes and used the entire Rapid Grant (and then some!) to send a large team. So we are applying fresh.
- 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. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
- Sara Komatsu (user:Saraa.kom). Helps with the logistics of credentialing and coordinating with press and artists. Sara has handled logistics for WikiPortraits at Cannes, Toronto, and SXSW film festivals so far. Remote. PAID.
- Harald Krichel (user:Harald Krichel): Harald has been an active Wikipedian since 2003, and has served as a member of the board at Wikimedia Deutschland. He has photographed the Berlin Film Festival for the last 6 years, and has attended other festivals in music or books such as the Frankfurt Book Fair, SWR3 New Pop Baden-Baden, Moers Festival, and the Rudolstadt Festival. PHOTOGRAPHER. VOLUNTEER.
- Veronica Bruno (User:Vbrunophoto): Veronica is an active contributor to WikiPortraits, covering events professionally for outlets, but then sharing some of her photos on Wikimedia Commons. She has covered SXSW 2024, where some of her photos are among the highest monthly viewed, some between one and two million for peak months, and the Tribeca Festival 2024. PHOTOGRAPHER. VOLUNTEER.
- Ariela Ortiz (User:Arielaortizb): Ariela is an Orlando-based multimedia artist who initially designed the WikiPortraits logo as well as numerous design assets for the project for use at SXSW. She was born in Costa Rica and speaks fluent Spanish. She has shot photos for Wikiportraits at SXSW 2024 and Cannes 2024. She has also worked on the extensive list of the more than 300 artists in the main exhibit of the Venice Biennale. PHOTOGRAPHER. VOLUNTEER
- Jennifer 8. Lee (en:User:Jenny8lee): Jenny is a co-founder of WikiPortraits, an adviser to the Wikimedia NYC, a founder of WikiCred project, a film producer, and an adviser to SXSW Interactive. She has deep experience with the film festivals, including Venice, Sundance and Cannes in part because she was a reporter at The New York Times. She is a volunteer for this project, but will help coordinate the logistics and the press credentials. LOGISTICS. VOLUNTEER
- 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)
There are two main target populations for this project:
Notable individuals who have Wikipedia articles, particularly ones lacking a photo or need a better photo. If we get press credentials, we will be able to cover the red carpet and the press conferences, which have notable numbers of celebrities from around the world given Venice’s global reach. Venice also pulls in some directors from the Global South, and just being featured at Venice helps filmmakers achieve notability. As a result, this project can help us obtain portraits of notable individuals from backgrounds that are commonly under-represented on Wikipedia. Editors of individual biography pages across all languages who are looking for photos of the subjects. Our WikiPortraits SXSW photos were used on more than 70 different wikis with an estimated 4-14 million monthly views across all of them.ñ, and our Cannes 2024 were issued in 50 wikis with approximate 5 million monthly codes. These include ruwiki, hewiki, rowiki, nowiki, ukwiki, elwiki, viwiki, dewiki, itwiki, svwiki, kowiki, zhwiki, jawiki, arwiki, and arzwiki among many others.
If we take individual portrait style photos (in addition to the red carpet photos), we capture contact information through a release form powered by Harbour, and can follow-up with information about the results of this project. For individuals with Wikipedia articles, we can inform them if and when their biography has been updated with their new portrait.
- 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.
Given that WikiPortraits’ SXSW 2024 photos were added on over 70 different language wikis work up to 14 million monthly views and Cannes 2024 were added to 50 wikis with 5 million monthly views, we feel there is strong community demand for what WikiPortraits is adding.
WikiPortraits has a presence on the Wikimedia Commons, at Commons:WikiPortraits. We have also created a meta page to catalog related efforts called Wiki Covers Events and to share best practices. Among notable related efforts are the German Berlinale-Projekt.
Wiki Covers Events + the WikiPortraits initiative has also been discussed within the GLAM Global Telegram group, which has over 200 community members.
Our origin story, for background: The WikiPortraits idea was originally the brainchild of Andrew Lih, a past Wikimedian Laureate, who presented on a Wikimedia panel at SXSW 2023 with WMF CEO Maryana Iskander. Andrew has done similar self-funded photography efforts and book festivals and comicons and saw the potential of SXSW for doing that on a larger scale. He has socialized this WikiPortraits idea in the GLAM Telegram group, as well as on Meta Wiki. Jenny also discussed the idea at 2024 Wikimania in Singapore with Frank Schulenberg, who is the secretary of the Commons Photographers Users Group. He was so enthused that he decided to self-finance a trip to the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and obtained an assignment letter from Nadee Gunasena at the WMF, which was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival press office by Jennifer. This then led to our SXSW 2024 WikiPortraits project, which had its photos incorporated into 57 different wikis. Then, we went to Cannes, and now we are planning efforts in Toronto.
- 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)
Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 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)
Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background
- 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
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
This project, in conjunction with our work at Sundance, SXSW, and Cannes 2024, helps to build a repeatable and scalable template for experienced Wikimedia Commons photographers to get press credentials at well-established cultural events. Our intent with this is to continue to elevate the Wikipedia presence at global-level events such as Cannes, the Venice Film Festivals, and the Berlin Film Festival (covered by Wikimedia Deutschland since 2017). We are still learning which international cultural events have credentialing offices which are receptive to Wikimedia photographers with an assignment letter. Secondly, we are learning different funding models to get more professional-quality Creative Commons-licensed portraits onto WikiCommons. Our rapid grant for SXSW covered only one-third of the total cost of the 10-day project, with the rest coming from private donors and sponsors. With this rapid grant, we are still testing the blend between self-financed and wholly paid for WikiPortraits festival coverage — partially subsidized/reimbursed trips in exchange for uploading photos to Wikimedia Commons. We did a micro-version of this for Tribeca 2024 and SXSW 2024, where a photographer who was already on assignment at SXSW and Tribeca was willing to add her celebrity photos to WikiCommons in exchange for subsidized housing. We believe there are a number of professional level photographers, both already active on Wikimedia Commons and ones that could be recruited, who would donate their time and pay for part of their own travel if they can get credentialed access from big film festivals. They do this in part so they can build their portfolios and also because they have other clients.
Historically, volunteer Wikimedian photographers are not plugged into the media infrastructure that is built around credentials because there is no “editor in chief” or “assignment editor” at Wikipedia. WikiPortraits helps fill this gap since we can have an assignment editor. . Given the support from the letters and the high metrics Wikimedia Commons photos can generate, we hope that the credentialing decision makers of these global caliber events will become more receptive to having Wikimedia photographers participate, as it only serves to amplify the cultural impact of their events across the many language wikis.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 100 | 100 targets, at least 25 have Wikipedia pages that are in need of a photo and at least 20 who could use an updated photo. |
| Number of editors | 5 | We have 2-3 photographers and 2 remote data upload and logistics people. |
| Number of organizers | 2 | 2 Jennifer Lee and Sara Komatsu (remote)
2-3 on the ground photographers who will be organizing amongst themselves |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 100 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 100 |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
100+ photos of people uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, which will be used in different language wikis. 50 photos of work by artists from around the world at the Venice Biennale, with an emphasis on indigenous artists.
- 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)
We would utilize a tool like BaGLAMa to measure how many pageviews our portraits receive over time through their inclusion on Wikipedia articles and other Wikimedia projects.
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
5000 USD
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
5000 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).