Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Publishing CHwB Albania cultural heritage related archives to the commons 2023. (ID: 22159991)
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Applicant Details[edit]
- Please provide your main Wikimedia Username.
irdiism
- Please provide the Usernames of people related to this proposal.
Username: SoniaBudini and Leeturtle
- Organization
N/A
- Are you a member of any Wikimedia affiliate or group, including informal groups like Wiki Fan Clubs, emerging language communities, not recognized Wikimedia groups etc.? Please list them all.
Yes, we are members of Wikimedia Community User Group Albania
Grant Proposal[edit]
- M. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
Publishing CHwB Albania cultural heritage related archives to the commons 2023.
- Q. Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries? (optional)
Local
- Q2. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
- R. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has.
- 1. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important.
Our project aims to add content from a local NGO that is focused on cultural heritage preservation in Albania to the commons. More specifically, it is focused on publishing their archives (focused on cultural heritage buildings in Albania) in platforms such as SQ Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. This project helps to preserve local cultural heritage that might otherwise be lost or forgotten in internal archives of this NGO. It also promotes greater understanding of the importance of digital commons to an audience (Cultural Heritage Without Borders Albania in this case) that has not been exposed to it before. By making this content freely accessible on the commons, we are promoting greater equality and accessibility of information from local actors that are not aware of these notions.
One of the main challenges we are trying to solve is the accessibility of multimedia materials from the wider audience and sharing local cultural heritage content on the Commons. Many NGOs have limited resources and may not have the technical expertise or funding to share their content widely on platforms such as Wikimedia Commons or Wikidata. By partnering with these organizations and providing them with the resources and support they need to share their archives on the commons, we can help to overcome this challenge and increase the availability of important cultural heritage information in Albania.
We strongly believe that by working together with local organizations focused on cultural heritage, we will not expose Wikimedia subprojects to a new audience, but will also enrich SQ Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata and expose these archives to a wider audience.
- 2. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.
Our main approach to achieving our project objectives is to partner with a local NGO that has archives of cultural heritage and provide them with the resources and support they need to share their content on the commons. We believe that this approach will be effective for several reasons.
First, by working with Cultural Heritage without Borders, we can ensure that the content we are sharing is authentic and representative of the cultural heritage of the region. This is important because it helps to avoid issues of cultural appropriation or misrepresentation that can arise when content is shared without proper context or understanding.
Second, by providing support and resources to these organizations, we can help them overcome technical and financial barriers to sharing their content on the commons. This includes providing training and technical support for digitizing and uploading their archives, as well as funding to cover any associated costs.
Third, by partnering with local CHwB, we can build relationships and networks within the local community that can help to promote the importance of preserving and sharing cultural heritage in Albania. This can help to foster greater appreciation and understanding of diverse cultures within the local community, and can also lead to increased engagement and support for the commons and Wikimedia related projects.
We believe that our approach will be effective because it is based on our knowledge as wikimedians and our research in the field of cultural heritage preservation and sharing. For example, studies have shown that working with local communities and organizations is an effective way to ensure that cultural heritage is preserved and shared in a sustainable and meaningful way. Additionally, by leveraging the power of the commons and Wikimedia related projects, we can ensure that the content we are sharing is accessible to a wide audience and can be used for a variety of educational and research purposes.
- 3. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?
As part of our approaches and strategies to add the archive of Cultural Heritage Without Borders (NGO) in the commons through Wikimedia related projects, we will be developing and delivering several key activities:
Partnership Development: We will work on developing partnerships with NGOs that have archives of cultural heritage content in Albania. This will involve reaching out to NGOs, building relationships, and providing them with the resources and support they need to share their archives on the commons.
Capacity Building: To ensure that NGOs have the technical expertise to share their archives on the commons, we will provide capacity-building activities such as online training events for new editors, tutorials on how to upload content, and technical support to ensure that the content is properly uploaded.
Content Curation: We will curate the content shared by NGOs to ensure that it is relevant and of high quality. This will involve reviewing the content uploaded by NGOs and providing feedback to ensure that it meets our standards.
Outreach and Promotion: We will actively promote the content on the commons to reach a wider audience, including through social media campaigns, outreach to relevant groups, and events. This will help to increase the visibility of the content and promote greater understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures.
We have chosen these activities because they directly support our strategies and address the challenges we have identified in accessing and sharing local cultural heritage content. We believe that by building partnerships, providing capacity building, curating content, and promoting the content, we can overcome these challenges and make a positive impact on the world. We also believe that these activities will be effective because they have been successful in similar projects in the past, and are supported by research and evidence in the field of cultural heritage preservation and sharing.
- 4. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign or event? If so, please select the relevant campaign below. If so, please select all the relevant campaigns from the list below. If "other", please state which.
Not applicable
- 5. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
All our team members for this project are part of Wikimedia Community User Group Albania. Some of the members of our user group have previous experience with rapid grants and collaborations with institutions in Albania. In addition, the team is quite diverse in terms of skills. From architects, to community builders and long-time Wikimedians, we strongly believe that our team will be able to deliver a solid project. More specifically:
Sonia Budini: Project manager for the project - will make sure to document the events, draft the MoU, communicate with mentors, promote the events in social media, report to Wikimedia Foundation about the grant, collaborate with the financial officer to log in the receipts for the report.
Irdi Ismaili: Support team for the project manager and also will focus on documenting the outcomes of the activities
Kristi Cunga: Graphic designer for: merch materials (design and printing overview), visuals for promoting the events on our communication channels. In addition, Kristi will work on preparing the content for social media, newsletter and share the activities to related forum(s).
Redon Skikuli: mentor of the activities including intro to Wikimedia Projects to CHWB staff and also newcomers that will join the events and want to contribute.
- 6. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
Geography, Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 6.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.
Our proposal aims to work towards addressing the content geography gap by adding archives of cultural heritage from local NGOs in Albania to the commons through Wikimedia-related projects. By doing so, we aim to promote the sharing of knowledge and information about the rich cultural history of different regions and increase the availability of important cultural heritage information from a region that may not have been widely represented before.
- 7. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.
Culture, heritage or GLAM
- 8. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities?
Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background
- 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?
The target participants of our project are cultural heritage experts and individuals interested in learning about the cultural heritage of Albania and contributions to the commons. We will engage participants before and during the activities through a variety of means, including online and offline outreach, social media campaigns and newsletters. We will also host events, such as edit-a-thons and workshops, to provide opportunities for participants to learn more about the project and contribute to the commons.
To retain participants after the activities, we will prepare a guide and guidelines (tutorial) which will make it easier for CHwB members to continue contributing in Sq Wikipedia after the project is finished. This will ensure that our project is sustainable not only in short term (during the grant proposal) but also after the project is finished. Community support after the project is finished will also be offered through our online forums where members of CHwB can ask for support. This communication channel has quite a lot of people that are active frequently that will ensure that questions from CHwB members will answer accordingly. Finally, we will work to recognize and celebrate the contributions of participants through awards, public recognition, and other forms of acknowledgement.
- 10. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants?
We'll implement a Friendly Space Policy promoting respect, inclusivity, and non-discrimination. All participants, especially women, low income students and other underrepresented groups, will be informed and the policy will be enforced throughout our activities.Our team will receive training on recognizing/addressing discrimination/harassment. We'll provide a confidential reporting system for incidents and take prompt action to address them.
- 11. Please tell us about how you have let your Wikimedia communities know about the planned activities and this proposal. Use this space to describe the processes you carried out to make the community more involved in planning this proposal. Please link the on-wiki community discussion(s) around the proposals.
As a user group we have regular meetings at Open Labs Hackerspace, with active members of the community. During these meetings we discuss and plan ahead all the activities and the ways we can collaborate with GLAM collaborations and institutions. In many of these meetings this organisation, CHwB, was mentioned for a collaborator because it has a lot of archives that would add value to SQ Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. The fact that they are focused on cultural heritage in Albania was mentioned frequently during our members meetings which led our team members to start to establish communication with them. Different team members have different team roles in planning the projects, the activities and the collaboration with institutions. The same team members have the same or similar roles in the implementation of this project as well.
- 12. Are you aware of other Rapid Fund proposals in your local group, community, or region that are being submitted and that align with your proposed project?
No
If yes:
- 12.1 Did you explore the possibility of doing a joint proposal with other leaders in your group?
- N/A
- 12.2 How will this joint proposal allow you to have better results?
- N/A
- 13. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedia partners to implement this proposal? Required.
Yes
- 13.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.
As of right now CHwB had an large unutilised archive of cultural heritage multimedia material that is unused outside of the organisation. By collaborating with our user group CHwB will make the archive of cultural heritage sites of Albania available in open access and published in a permissive license. In addition they will also learn though our workshops how to continue contributing also after the project is finished. Last but not least the CHwB team will learn also about notions like free cultural licenses, the importance of projects like SQ Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons.
Last but not least CHwB will promote the project further through their communication channels including but not limited to their social media profiles. from cooperating with us will learn how to make their archives.
- 14. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of THREE options that most apply.
Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]
- 15. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?
With this proposal we aim to learn how to further collaborate with GLAM institutions and organisations that are open to publish their work in the commons, but are not aware of the importance, the available tools and the support network available in Albania about this topic. This will also improve our outreach abilities towards these GLAM groups in Albania.
By the end of the project we will have answers to the following questions:
- What is the optimal number of hours/sessions when organising this type of workshops for GLAM institutions?
- How many work hours did we invest in post session mentorships?
- Was our approach with this NGO efficient and what can we improve when initiating new cooperations?
- 16. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following spaces provided.
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia articles | We are planing to create or edit at least 100 articles. | 100 |
| Wikimedia Commons | We are planning to upload at least 250 files in the commons including videos, photos or audio or improve existing ones. | 250 |
| Wikidata | Wikidata items that will be created and/or edited | 150 |
| Workshops | We will organise at least 5 workshops. | 5 |
| Mentors | We will have at least 4 mentors that will share their knowledge with the participants. | 4 |
- 17. Core quantitative metrics.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | We expect to have at least 10 participants for each of the workshops we will conduct. | 50 |
| Number of editors | During the workshops we will train the participants how to edit and we expect at least half of them to be editors. | 25 |
| Number of organizers | We will have at least 4 organisers that will work on: workshops, design, finance and outreach efforts. | 4 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | We are planing to create or edit at least 100 articles. | 100 |
| Wikimedia Commons | We are planning to upload at least 250 files in the commons including videos, photos or audio or improve existing ones. | 250 |
| Wikidata | Wikidata items that will be created and/or edited | 150 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 17.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.
- 18. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support.
We’ll use Glamourus and Outreach Dashboard for following the new participants and new editors. We haven't used these tools before and we expect a learning curve from the people involving planning the activities and hosting them. We already asked support from CEE Hub team about this. In addition we will monitor Social Media outreach before, during, and after each event.
Financial Proposal[edit]
- 19. & 19.1 What is the amount you are requesting from Wikimedia Foundation? Please provide this amount in your local currency.
555000 ALL
- 19.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
5000 USD
- 20. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.
- 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).