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Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/DCW October 2024 - March 2025 Strategic Activity Plan (ID: 22747478)/Final Report

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Deoband Community Wikimedia User Group Aafi (DCW)
DCW October 2024 - March 2025 Strategic Activity Plan
01 October 2024 - 30 April 2025
Report ID: 11456
Report status: Under review
Report due date: 30 May 2025
Grant ID: G-RF-2407-16429
Amount funded: 410000 INR, 4899.5 USD
Amount spent: 410272.89 INR
Rapid Fund Final Report

Application type: Standard application

Part 1: Project and impact

1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)

As outlined in our October 2024 - March 2025 activity plan, we implemented a series of activities during this period. These include regular workshops, conversation hours, learning sessions, focusing on the overall growth of the DCW and sustainability of Wiki Clubs.

Conversation Hours

During the period, we successfully hosted six editions of the DCW Conversation Hour, focusing one a wide range of impactful topics such as Sustaining Open Knowledge Initiatives, Wikipedia and AI: Ethical Boundaries in LLM Training, Bridging Pedagogy and Innovation, Archives to Access: Understanding Wikisource, Bridging GLAM and Wiki: The Khalili Perspective and Wikimedia Alliances Fund: Lessons & Learnings.

Our guests included Stacy Burnett, a Senior Product Manager at ITHAKA, the parent company of the digital library JSTOR; Dr Matthew Vetter, Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania; Dr Swati Chawla, Associate Professor and Assistant Director of the Centre for Learning and Innovative Pedagogies at OP Jindal Global University; Satdeep Gill, Program Officer at Wikimedia Foundation; Dr Martin Poulter, Wikimedian-at-Residence, Khalili Foundation; and Jacqueline Chen, Senior Program officer, Wikimedia Foundation. To promote our interest in supporting the student community, we have had several students host these important conversations. We have also produced recordings of these hours for wider public benefit.

Wiki Clubs

  • Members of Wiki Club Jamia on Wikidata Anniversary celebration
    Members of Wiki Club Jamia on Wikidata Anniversary celebration
  • Wikidata Cake of Wiki Club AMU
    Wikidata Cake of Wiki Club AMU
  • Members of Wiki Club AMU on Wikidata Anniversary celebration
    Members of Wiki Club AMU on Wikidata Anniversary celebration

Our Wiki Clubs participated in Wikidata Sprint 2024, organised from 29 to 31 October 2024. All clubs rotationally organised open-air discussions as a part of Mehfil-e-Wiki. In January 2025, Wiki Club AMU, organised Wiki Clicks AMU, an open photography contest on Wikimedia Commons, which helped bring about 13 new contributors and 97 images on Wikimedia Commons. Humaira Ali and Bloomingbibliophile from Wiki Club Jamia were awarded full scholarships to attend She Leads Bootcamp by CIS-A2K, though only one of them was able to attend, while Numis Zuhair and Khaatir, both associated with the Wiki Club Deoband, received scholarships to attend Train the Train 2024 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Heritage Lens

Main article: Heritage Lens/Iteration 5
  • Mohammad Habib Hall Masjid in AMU
    Mohammad Habib Hall Masjid in AMU
  • A closer view of AMU's Centenary Gate
    A closer view of AMU's Centenary Gate
  • An old heritage house in Aligarh
    An old heritage house in Aligarh
  • Theology Department, Aligarh Muslim University
    Theology Department, Aligarh Muslim University

We conducted the 5th iteration of Heritage Lens from 21 to 28 February 2025, focusing on Aligarh. This iteration contributed about 69 images on Wikimedia Commons.

Workshops and other meetups

From 1 October 2024 to 30 April 2025 (grant period), we organised a series of impactful workshops and meetups. These 1include:

Train a Wikipedian

Main article: Deoband Community Wikimedia/Events/Train a Wikipedian

In early 2025, we reconstructed Train a Wikipedian (TaW), once a very basic training program by CIS-A2K, and transformed it into a complete residential leadership development program. We invited over 18 Wikimedians, and facilitated discussions on cognitive skills, digital public goods, academic rigor, academic lonliness, getting started with Wikimedia projects, knowledge activism and systemic biases in open knowledge spaces. We envision TaW to help develop sustainable leadership of our community in the open knowledge ecosystem, particularly in the Wikimedia world and move a step further than addressing content and knowledge gaps on the Wikimedia projects. This helps in strengthen under-represented communities and emerging changemakers to actively participate in open spaces. Through leadership training, practical guidance, and exposure to the ecosystem, we see TaW as a holistic program, which effectively engages its participants in a critical and collaborative environment, make informed decisions, and drive positive change within their communities. We consider TaW as the most successful approach towards inculcating leadership ethics and criticality among our community members.

2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)

Share links to:

  • Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
  • Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
  • Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.

You can also share links to:

  • Important social media posts
  • Surveys and their results
  • Infographics and sound files
  • Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects

Our 2024 activity report includes an overview of activities carried out between October and December 2024 term, which were primarily supported by this grant. The rest of the overview will be available on the activity report for year 2025. The following are certain resources that we have utilised and produced during this activity period:

Available Conversation Hour recordings

Train a Wikipedian, February 2025

  • Digital Public Goods, addressed by Manavpreet Kaur, where she explores why Wikipedia matters as a DPG for communities like DCW.
  • Students and the Wikimedia Ecosystem, addressed by LiAnna Davis, sharing about educational initiatives of Wiki Edu Foundation, and exploring how students associated with the DCW Programs could utilise Wikipedia for their academic growth.
  • Self, Community and Knowledge, addressed by Tanveer Hasan, he discusses the importance of skills and curiosity in learning and personal development, emphasising that skills require patience and practice, while curiosity forms the foundation of deeper understanding. He also highlights the need to go beyond just acquiring skills and to ask questions about the why behind things. He encouraged the cohort to engage with the Wikimedia movement by asking questions and seeking to understand the underlying principles. He also focuses on issues such as Imposter Syndrome, Knowledge Activism and Systemic Change Through Individual Will. In this address, Tanveer highlights how systemic change occurs through three stages: beginning with an individual's strong will and dedication to an idea, and then supported by a committed community, and finally recognised by the broader system (such as academics or researchers)

Content, Media and Else

  • In the tranquil corners of Aligarh Muslim University, nature weaves its own story by Mawiya Shaheen
    In the tranquil corners of Aligarh Muslim University, nature weaves its own story by Mawiya Shaheen
  • A greenish view of the AMU's VM Hall by Shahrukhansari17
    A greenish view of the AMU's VM Hall by Shahrukhansari17
  • Glory to Ruins - Story of a lonely jeep in Sir Syed House AMU by Brainwavewizard
    Glory to Ruins - Story of a lonely jeep in Sir Syed House AMU by Brainwavewizard

During this period, our community members have created about 104 articles on Wikipedia, while making impactful edits on about 934 articles. More than 300 images have been uploaded on Wikimedia Commons, and about 244 Wikidata items improved. We are glad to share three major impactful stories:

Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)

For example:

  • Training materials and guides
  • Presentations and slides
  • Work processes and plans
  • Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others

Movement Strategy Recommendations such as Invest in Skills and Leadership Development and Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt, alongside our own strategic direction, and the learnings from our Leadership Development and Skills Infrastructure Plan have been substantially beneficial. The activities have been guided by the term's activity plan. Following are some presentations and resources that have been utilised/created/used:

3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Strongly agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups Agree
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors Agree
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Strongly agree
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement Strongly agree
F. Other (optional)

Part 2: Learning

4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)

You can recall these learning questions below: Our focus is on discovering ways to enhance our support for Wiki Clubs that we have helped establish, enabling the continuation of their efforts in advancing Wikimedia's goals and establishing its presence in educational institutions across India. We also aspire to contribute to the documentation of knowledge related to global Muslim academia.

Through these pre-defined learning questions, we have come across different approaches to help our Wiki Clubs grow sustainably, which we have been consistently doing in the form of our basic sustainability guide for Wiki Clubs. Through these learnings, we have tried to provide spaces and offered support to establish structured organising teams across our Wiki Clubs. We have also learned through Wiki Clicks AMU about how selective and targeted organising of on-wiki competitions could be beneficial for us. Subsequently, given our principle of "Evaluate, Iterate and Adapt", we have already incorporated these learnings into our upcoming activity plans as usual.

5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)

Although most of our experiences have been net-positive, we came across two unexpected negative situations during this period. The first that we were not able to conduct "Highway Heritage", the 5th Iteration of Heritage Lens, in its selected location, and had to suddently shift it to Aligarh. The underlying reasons of this challenge were particularly related to weather. We also fell short of financial resources while we were working to organise Train-a-Wikipedian. We have learned to be strategically mindful when budgeting for programs like TaW, and to consider weather issues before planning for any offline events. Immediate support from Praveen Das and Rachit Sharma to overcome our financial crisis was most surprising to us. Surprises like this make a difference and make our movement better.

6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)

We remain guided by our principles of Evaluation, Iteration, and Adaptation, and have already incorporated these learnings into our activities. In August 2025, we look forward to sharing our learnings and impactful stories with the global community at Wikimania, in Nairobi. Our subsequent activity plan for April - December 2025 is based on these learnings. Additionally, Mehfil-e-Wiki and DCW Progress Prism are our formal spaces for sharing our learnings with our community members.

Part 3: Metrics

7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)

In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.

Target Results Comments and tools used
Number of participants 50 45
Number of editors 30 40
Number of organizers 10 15
Wikimedia project Target Result - Number of created pages Result - Number of improved pages
Wikipedia 100 104 934
Wikimedia Commons 200 303 800
Wikidata 100 14 244
Wiktionary
Wikisource
Wikimedia Incubator
Translatewiki
MediaWiki
Wikiquote
Wikivoyage
Wikibooks
Wikiversity
Wikinews
Wikispecies
Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia

8. Other Metrics results.

In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.

Other Metrics name Metrics Description Target Result Tools and comments

9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)

No

9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)

Part 4: Financial reporting

[edit]

10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)

410272.89

11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)

4801.7

12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)

Upload the financial report

12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)


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

Yes

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

We have an underspent of INR 30.11 available in our account. We previously had about 545 INR but received a credit interest from the bank on 31 March, allowing us to utilise some resources for volunteer internet support. A few other charges were levied by the bank for not maintaining monthly average balance (MAB) - since no activity can be supported with this meagre amount, this remains not utilised.

13.2. 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

13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

We are hoping to use this together with our upcoming grant (May-October 2025), once our resources are released. Unless otherwise charged by the bank itself.

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

Yes

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

Yes

14.3. 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

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


Review notes

[edit]

Review notes from Program Officer:

N/A

Applicant's response to the review feedback.

N/A

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