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Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Digitisation of early photographs of the terracotta temples of Bengal (ID: 22001418)/Final Report

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Rapid Fund Final Report

Report Status: Accepted

Due date: 2024-09-30T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Rapid Fund, 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

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  • Title of Proposal: Digitisation of early photographs of the terracotta temples of Bengal
  • Username of Applicant: AmitGuha
  • Name of Organization: N/A
  • Amount awarded: 3763.61
  • Amount spent: 4430 USD, 988 GBP

Part 1 Understanding your work

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

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

  • Project manager in the UK (Amit Guha) to manage digitisation activities in London
  • Project manager in India (Sujaan Mukherjee) to oversee metadata creation and setup of the online archive
  • Wide and continuous engagement with multiple people and organisations (CSSSC, AIIS, British Library, Wikimedia, WBUG, George Michell)
  • Working closely with Wikimedia project managers, user groups, and VRT agents
  • Using the Grants talk page to engage with Wikimedia and wider community
  • Regular posts and engagement on social media through influential handles and groups
  • Organising physical launch of the event and panel discussion

3. Please use this space to upload media and other files that help tell your story and impact.


Field to type in URLs.

Project story and impact outlined in this Google Slides presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vOThJdI9AdlF44JWHbuXyEzhk3mHtfO-

4. 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 Strongly agree
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Strongly agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors Not applicable to your fund
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Not applicable to your fund

5. 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?

  • The project brought in participants from important social research organisations in India: CSSSC Kolkata, and AIIS, Delhi. These organisations have not been involved in Wikimedia projects before.
  • The project created Wikimedia content related to important scholarly research done in the 1980s on the Architecture of Bengal. There is significant archives of such material in the UK and in India but this is the first initiative to make such material available to the wider community.

Part 2: Your main learning

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

  • Our learning objective was to create a process and framework for project owners and Indian and UK institutions to work together to create a to digitise and document archival material and make it publicly available.
  • We have learnt and documented multiple aspects of this process including obtaining the license to freely share images, methods of engaging and contracting with participants, technical aspects of digitisation, metadata frameworks, uploading content to Wikimedia, creating accessible archives, how to publicise via social media, and how to organise events to formally launch the archive.

7. 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?

  • Negative: Out of the 1250 slides we were planning to digitise, only 600 were of quality/content appropriate for digitisation. Learning: Where possible, physical content should be examined before start of the project to understand how much of it is suitable for digitisation.
  • Negative: After about 350 slides were digitised at the British Library, the project was stalled due to the British Library Cyberattack. After waiting for three months, we switched to a private digitisation company (Vintage Photo Labs). The attack and the search for a high-quality alternate set the project back by more than three months and caused us to go over-budget, as the research scholars doing the metadata work had to be retained. Learning: Provision alternate digitisation options before the start of the project.
  • Positive: AIIS (American Institute of Indian Studies) reached out to me early to ask for a copy of the digitised material for their archive. Subsequently, they also invited George Michell to speak in Kolkata on his work on Bengal that resulted in the photographs. This allowed us to organise a series of events around the launch of the archive in Kolkata. Learning: Announce the project early in social media.

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

We plan to use the framework created from this project to digitise a much larger and more important corpus of photographs of Bengal religious architecture, that is currently with the V&A Museum. These were taken by the scholar David McCutchion in the 1960s and 1970s.

9. Documentation of resources: Use this space to upload any documents that would be useful to share with others (e.g. communications material, training material, presentations).


Here is an additional field to type in URLs.

Part 3: Metrics

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10a. 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. Use the tables to report the result. Use the comments column to describe any aspects of this result that you find relevant. If the results were different from the initial target (goals) then you can explain why and what you learned from this. You can also provide any qualitative analysis regarding these results. In the last column please describe the tools and methodology used to collect this data and any difficulties you might have had.

Open Metrics Summary
Open Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Photos Digitised Count of photos digitised 1250 600 Of the remaining photographs 400 were damaged and 250 were of images not relevant to Bengal Architecture. N/A
Meta data created Count of photos for which complete meta-data created 1250 600 The remaining photographs were not digitised. N/A
Photos uploaded Count of photos uploaded to Wikimedia and institutional archives 1250 600 The remaining photographs were not digitised. N/A
External mentions Count of mentioned of the project and outputs in media articles and websites and social media feeds of partner institutions 10 20 More than 5 mentions by Bengal Heritage Foundation and CSSSC. Several mentions expected during and after the project launch in December 2024. Further mentions expected as part of photograph exhibitions in India and the UK.

https://x.com/AmitGuha2020/status/1684832168185384960

N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

10b. Core Metrics reporting

In your application, you defined targets for some core metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with each core metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in. Use the tables to report the result. Use the comments column to describe any aspects of this result that you find relevant. If the results were different from the initial target (goals) then you can explain why and what you learned from this. You can also provide any qualitative analysis regarding these results. In the last column please describe the tools and methodology used to collect this data and any difficulties you might have had. Note: a table will appear for each Wikimedia project content contribution you defined in your proposal.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants Number of people involved in digitisation, research, and meta-data creation 10 15 The project managers, four research scholars, and more than 10 scholars from the wider community were involved in creating and editing meta-data.
Number of editors Number of people actually uploading photos and meta-data onto Wikimedia, and editing Wikipedia pages 5 8 The project managers and the four research scholars were involved in creating content for the Wikipedia pages, members of the West Bengal User Group were involved in helping manage photo uploading to Wikimedia.
Number of organizers Number of people coordinating activities in the UK and in India 3 6 In addition to Sujaan and Amit, we had four members of CSSSC Kolkata and AIIS India coordinating metadata creation and launch event planning in India and the UK.
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Wikimedia Commons Photographs with meta-data uploaded 2000 600 Remaining photographs were not digitised due to quality or content. N/A
Wikipedia Images used in Wikipedia articles 50 100 We expect more than 100 images to be used in Wikipedia articles on the scholars and the architectural monuments and sites covered in the photographs. However, this will happen over a number of months or years rather than immediately. 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

12. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? This could include things like a lack of time or resources, or the expertise in your team to collect this data. It could also include difficulties with particular data collection tools.

No

12a. State what difficulties you had.

N/A

12b. 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?

N/A

13. Use this space to upload any documents and provide links to any tools you have used that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, program and event dashboard link, project page on Meta).


Here is an additional field to type in URLs.

N/A

14. Have you shared these results with other Wikimedian communities (either affiliates, user groups, volunteers, etc., different to yours)? This can include things such as data and direct outcomes, lessons you have learned, or information on how to run or recreate your programs.

Yes

14a. If yes or partially, please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how.

We intend to share the project journey, processes developed, partner organisations, digitisation methodologies, meta-data frameworks with the West Bengal User Group and with wider groups within and outside Wikimedia.

Part 4: Financial reporting and compliance

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15. & 14a. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

988 GBP

16. Please state the total amount spent in USD.

4430 USD

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

17a. Upload a financial report file.


17b. Please provide a link to your financial reporting document.

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.

17c. 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.

Additional funds (USD 680) were required due to the British Library Cyber attack:

  • Payment to CSSSC to cover the additiona three months of pay to research scholars engaged in meta-data creation
  • Payment to Vintage Photo labs to digitise the ~ 250 photographs (at a price higher than British Library)

These additional funds were paid personally by Amit Guha.

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

No

18a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

N/A

18b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

N/A

18c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

N/A

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

Yes

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

Yes

21. 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

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

NA

Other documents

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