Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Enriching Commons and Wikimedia Projects with Sports and Athlete Photography (ID: 23942721)
Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Zafer (talk • accounts • contributions • edit count)
- 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)
N/A
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. [TITLE] Title of your proposal.
Enriching Commons and Wikimedia Projects with Sports and Athlete Photography
- 2 - 3. [FROM - TO] Proposed start and end dates for the grant proposal. (required)
2026-09-15 - 2027-01-31
- 4. [AREA OF IMPLEMENTATION] Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Turkey
- 5. [TARGET GROUP] 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)
My target community is the global community, with a focus on Commons and Wikidata, which are global in nature. I myself will be the main actor in all the works, without involving communities or individuals in it, since my work will consist of taking images, uploading them to Commons and making changes to Wikidata and Wikipedia, mainly.
- 6. [TOPIC/ AREA OF EXPERTISE] What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change, as well as the main approaches to achieve it. (required)
Sports-related articles on Wikimedia projects often lack sufficient visual documentation and images. While football articles are generally well illustrated, many other sports, including basketball, remain significantly underrepresented. This gap is even more visible in the case of Turkey.
For more than two years, I have been working to fix this issue. With accreditation from a local Turkish basketball club, I have photographed basketball matches and produced high-quality images of athletes for use on Wikimedia projects. So far, I have uploaded more than 29,000 images from national- and European-level basketball events.
I now plan to expand this work to the regional level by documenting local basketball matches, athletes, and clubs that currently have little or no visual representation on Wikimedia Commons and related projects.
The project will help improve the visual quality of sports content, increase representation of underdocumented athletes and local sports communities, and encourage new contributors to engage with Wikimedia through a topic they care about.
- 7. [HOW / ACTIVITIES] What are the planned activities? (required)
My main activities will focus on documenting basketball matches in Turkey during the first half of the 2026–2027 season and uploading these materials to the Wikimedia projects:
1) I will attend national basketball matches and take pictures of the matches, athletes, coaches, and other relevant figures connected to the games. This will include capturing high-quality action shots, portraits, and images to enhance the visual representation of basketball-related articles.
2) I will edit and prepare the images for uploading. This will include basic post-processing such as cropping, color correction, metadata review, and quality control. After this, I will upload the images to Wikimedia Commons with accurate descriptions and categories.
3) I will integrate the uploaded images into Wikimedia projects. I will add relevant images to Wikidata items and use them in Wikipedia articles where appropriate, especially for athletes, coaches, and clubs. This will help improve the quality of sports-related content on Wikimedia projects.
- 8. [METRICS] What are your Wikimedia targets in numbers (metrics) for your project? Set Wikimedia metrics for your proposal. (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 1 | Just me as a photographer |
| Number of editors | 1 | Again me |
| Number of organizers | 1 | Just me |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 700 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 6000 |
| Wikidata | 400 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
All these numbers are based on the evaluation of my previous work. Thus, in 2024-25, I uploaded over 15,227 photos to Commons. 4,799 pages on 119 wikis use my images. By May of 2026, my photos had received 5,270,336 views.
For the 2025-26 season, uploaded over 14,190 files to Commons. 3,150 pages on 92 wikis use those files. By May of 2026, my photos had received 2,053,930 views.
- 9. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
Yes
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of events | Number of matches where I will take photos | 40 |
| Number of edits | Number of edits in Wikimedia projects | 8000 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 10. [TOOLS] What tools will you use to measure each target (metrics) mentioned? (required)
I mainly use this tool to evaluate my work - https://glamtools.toolforge.org/glamorgan.html. It gives me concrete numbers by which I evaluate the impact of my work.
- 11. [TEAM] Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required)
At this stage, I will be the only person responsible for implementing the project. I will manage the main activities, including attending games, taking photographs, editing and uploading images to Wikimedia Commons, and adding them to relevant Wikimedia projects such as Wikidata and Wikipedia.
In the future, I hope to involve other editors and share my experience and skills with them.
- 12. [LEARNING LESSON] What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
Through this project, I hope to learn how to document sports events more effectively for Wikimedia projects, especially in areas where visual content is currently limited. I want to improve my skills in sports photography and the quality of images.
I also hope to better understand how sports-related images can create value across Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia and Wikidata. By adding images to articles and Wikidata items, I expect to learn more about how visual content improves the quality and accessibility.
Overall, I hope this project will help me develop my skills and content of Wikimedia projects.
- 13. [BUDGET] Upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y_Vm6JVb-EZsAc6BvwXL5ENKLAUwoT7jT5_IxXxrM1w/edit?usp=sharing
- 14 - 14.1. [AMOUNT] What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
231762 TRY
- 14.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 700 and 5,000 USD. (required)
4987.35 USD
- 15. [BUDGET EXPLANATION] Please explain the units used in your budget in a few sentences, so we can better understand your proposed budget per unit and per amount. (required)
My budget will primarily be used to rent professional cameras and lenses for them, which I do not have. The main part of the budget will also be used for transportation (from my home to the sports arenas) and food during these visits. A small amount will be used for internet connection costs and project administration.
- 16. [REGIONAL COLLABORATION] Did you notify the existing affiliate in your region? Are you going to collaborate with them? (required)
Since my application isn't tied to a specific region and doesn't affect the work of any particular community, affiliate, or project in a specific language, there's no need to inform any specific communities. My project is connected to global Wikimedia projects like Commons and Wikidata (where I'm an admin).
- 17. [SUSTAINABILITY] Did you think about the sustainability of this project? If yes, can you explain why you believe in that and which activities can continue regardless of the funding? (required)
Yes, I have considered the sustainability of this project. I believe the project can be sustainable because it builds on work that I have already been doing voluntarily for more than two years. I already have experience photographing basketball games, editing the images, uploading them to Wikimedia Commons, and using them on Wikimedia projects. The funding would help me expand the work, especially by covering the costs of attending more games and documenting basketball on a broader scale, but the core activity and motivation already exist.
Several parts of the project can continue even without funding, but of course, funding will help with this more.
So, I see the project as a long-term effort rather than a one-time activity. Funding would increase the scale and speed of the work.
- 18. [REPLICABILITY] Did you think that this project could be replicated in other communities? If yes, please explain further why your project will be good for other communities? (required)
I'm confident that my experience will help other communities and encourage them to do similar work locally or globally. I actively share my experience with the regional community and hope to continue doing so.
You can check out my presentations on this topic at the CEE Meeting:
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_CEE_Meeting_2026/Submissions/Photos_taken_at_matches
- 19. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 19.1. 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
- 20. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign below. (required)
Not applicable
- 20.1. Specify the campaign name. (required)
- 21. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Other
- By submitting your proposal/funding request you confirm that you have read and agree to the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy, and the Universal Code of Conduct.
I/we confirm: 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).
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