Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Rural Youth-Led Protected Areas Engagement through Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons (ID: 23100241)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Luisfff2812
- 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.
Rural Youth-Led Protected Areas Engagement through Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2025-06-27 - 2025-10-31
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
Argentina
- 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)
The project focuses on bringing Wikimedia projects to young people from four rural full-time high schools in the Quebrada and Puna regions of the province of Jujuy, Argentina, empowering them to actively contribute to the Wikimedia movement. To achieve this, a four-month program will be developed that will transform the classrooms of four rural schools near protected areas of Jujuy into centers for the collaborative production of open content for the Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia projects. In this way, the project aims to address the following challenges and proposed solutions, prioritizing the training of rural youth as committed participants in the Wikimedia movement.
Gap 1: Digital exclusion and lack of access to Wikimedia tools for rural youth in Jujuy. In the province of Jujuy, youth in rural areas face limitations of intermittent connectivity in their homes and lack of knowledge of open platforms such as Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. This marginalizes them from contributing to global knowledge, perpetuating their role as passive consumers. In order to turn young people into active agents, the project will implement three face-to-face visits in each of the four selected schools in the towns of Purmamarca, Cusi Cusi, Casabindo and Susques, distributed in the Jujuy quebrada and puna. During these visits, young people will be introduced to Wikimedia projects, with emphasis on contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. The detail of each activity is described in section 7. In addition, digital exclusion will be addressed to involve rural youth outside the four selected schools by promoting the project on social media, where instructional videos for the contribution to the Wikimedia movement from a territorial perspective will be distributed. The purpose is to virtually reach more young people from rural communities.
Gap 2: Short-lived youth participation in Wikimedia initiatives. Most youth stop contributing after one-off activities, especially in rural contexts with limited access to active communities of editors. To generate lasting engagement and sense of community, the project will implement a proactive social media strategy. Project accounts will be created on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, where "Photo of the Day" (highlighting images uploaded to Commons) and "Enhanced Article of the Week" will be disseminated to recognize youth contributions. In parallel, a WhatsApp support group will be created as the main space for post-face-to-face support. To ensure the efficiency of both strategies, short instructional videos will be developed in vertical format, accessible even with limited connection. These actions will not only maintain interest, but will also build a digital community where young people feel part of a global movement.
Gap 3: Underrepresentation of Jujuy's protected areas in Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Protected areas in Jujuy are key to conserving biodiversity, preserving ancestral practices of rural communities, protecting watersheds, and mitigating climate change. However, they face threats from extractive activities of critical minerals and a public perception that underestimates their value. On Wikipedia, of Jujuy's 14 protected areas, 4 lack their own articles, which limits access to verifiable information about their key ecosystem services, their role as unique biocultural landscapes in the global south, and their global visibility. Existing articles present similar gaps: they omit key information on biodiversity, access or are outdated, short and with few references. This omission limits environmental education in surrounding communities and at the regional level. Added to this is the scarcity of open materials on Wikimedia Commons on the biodiversity of the 14 protected areas. Therefore, photographs will be released on Commons, the 4 missing Wikipedia articles will be created and the 10 existing ones will be improved. The young people from each school will elaborate a Wikipedia article on one of the protected areas in Jujuy that are not represented.
Gap 4: Disconnect between rural education and open technology. Traditional classrooms in rural schools in Jujuy have limited integration of digital tools in their curriculum, missing opportunities to form critical citizens in the digital age. To address this, teachers from participating schools will be invited to all project initiatives and will receive the same training in the use of and contribution to Wikimedia projects. This is fundamental for the long-term sustainability of the project, as educators will be able to integrate these tools into regular classes, transforming rural classrooms into platforms where local knowledge and open technology dialogue for the collaborative construction of open knowledge. In this way, they can generate content that transcends the borders of their rural communities and Jujuy.
- 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.
The project will be carried out over four months. During the first three months, a process of materials development and continuous training will be implemented, including face-to-face workshops and virtual collaborative activities with young people and educators from rural communities. In the last month, the person in charge of the proposal will monitor the trajectories through the digital channels used, the impact analysis and the Outreach Dashboard for the preparation of the final report. The stages are detailed below:
Organizational stage (from June 13):
With funding approval, the project's planned partner (Agencia Provincial de Promoción Científica de Jujuy) will contact through institutional channels the four selected schools in Purmamarca, Cusi Cusi, Casabindo and Susques (located near protected areas) to confirm the specific dates of the face-to-face trainings. The number of devices with internet connectivity available will be recorded, and if necessary, the project partner will provide portable netbooks, projectors and mobile routers, as in previous joint events. Through the planned partner, the IP will be requested to each school so that Luis Fernando Flores can start the Phabricator process for a smooth edit-a-thon performance. Communication channels will be established including social media (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook) and a WhatsApp group. The project's social media will be shared publicly so that anyone can follow its progress and impact on Wikimedia projects. Throughout the project, presence in audiovisual and written media might be managed to disseminate the initiative to the general public. Interactive presentations will be developed for all project meetings. Teaching materials adapted to the local context will also be created, especially for young people in areas with intermittent connectivity. This includes the production of 6 instructional videos on the use and contribution to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, which will be published first on Wikimedia Commons before any other social media.
Implementation of three monthly edit-a-thon trainings in each selected rural school (July, August, September):
Three face-to-face visits will be made to each school on a monthly basis for three months, focused on training young students from rural schools to contribute to the Wikimedia projects. As an additional key component, teachers will be trained as future facilitators to ensure the sustainability of the project. For this reason, there will be 20 places for young students (80%) and 4 places for rural educators (20%), for a total of 24 participants per school. Overall, the project will reach 96 participants among the four selected rural schools. All edit-a-thons will be monitored through an Outreach Dashboard created specifically for each school, allowing to visualize the contributions of each institutional group and make corrections in real time during and after the face-to-face events. Before the end of each face-to-face meeting, participants will receive an anonymous online survey to evaluate the quality of each activity. After each event, the results will be analyzed to measure the quality of the contributions, identify areas for improvement and evaluate participant retention. Throughout the project, a post-edit-a-thon follow-up will be maintained through the WhatsApp channel.
First Edit-a-thon-training: During the morning (9 a.m. to 12 noon) participants will be introduced to Wikimedia projects, with emphasis on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, highlighting the importance and local-global impact of protected areas in Jujuy. Participants will be guided through the creation of user accounts. Lunch will be shared during the afternoon, which is provided in the full-day high schools. In the afternoon (1 to 4 p.m.), as a practical activity, open licenses, search and responsible use of materials in Wikimedia Commons will be explained. In addition, a practical workshop will be conducted on techniques and best practices for capturing images with mobile devices, including the inclusion of geolocated metadata and technical descriptions for documenting the natural and cultural heritage of Jujuy. Participants will have one month to take photographs that will be released on Wikimedia Commons during the following meeting.
Second Edit-a-thon-training: During the morning (9 a.m. to 12 noon) participants will upload to Wikimedia Commons the images taken by the participants on environments and biodiversity in Jujuy, and categorize their own and other authors' materials on the platform. Lunch will be shared during the afternoon, which is provided by the full-day high schools. In the afternoon (1 to 4 p.m.), participants will be trained in Wikipedia editing, addressing its pillars, wikification processes and improvement of articles on protected areas and biodiversity in Jujuy. Editing on other topics of interest to participants such as music, dance or sports will also be encouraged. Additionally, educators and students will be assigned the research of protected areas of Jujuy not represented in Wikipedia in order to elaborate a Wikipedia article in the next meeting.
Third Edit-a-thon-training: In this final visit, the youth will work on improving existing articles on protected areas of Jujuy and create new articles for the four areas not currently represented in the encyclopedia. Throughout the day, in each of the four full-day rural schools, articles will be written about: (1) Barrancas Municipal Natural and Cultural Reserve (2) Xibi-Xibi River Municipal Natural Reserve (3) Municipal Ecological Reserve of Multiple Use Serranías del Sapla (4) Los Diques Provincial Natural Protected Area Additionally, improvements will be proposed in articles about rural localities of Jujuy, endemic and endangered species. Photographs released in Commons will be integrated into the corresponding Wikipedia articles.
During the four months of the project, the WhatsApp group will function as a technical support space, sharing short tutorials in vertical format accessible even with limited connections. A daily "Photo of the Day" will be posted on social media with images uploaded by young people to Commons, and a weekly "Improved Article of the Week" will be highlighted to recognize contributions from participants from both visited schools and those involved through social media. This approach seeks to maintain interest and foster an active community of young editors in isolated regions of the global south.
Monitoring and impact evaluation (October):
All materials developed (PowerPoint presentations and other resources) will be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. A public report will be produced evaluating key metrics such as number of images uploaded, categories created, images used in articles, articles created/improved, and participant retention. The report will include lessons learned, recommendations for future initiatives in rural settings and expanded through social media, as well as reflections on the impact of the project and strategies for its continuation through trained educators.
- 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.
Luis Fernando Flores
 | This user is a researcher. |
| iD |
Main Wikimedia User: Luis Fernando Flores LAB Wikimedia Secondary User: Luisfff2812
He is a researcher, teacher, outreach specialist, and global fellow in biotechnology in Argentina and abroad (Austria, Germany and Canada). His research focuses on resource recovery, biochemical and environmental engineering. He has authored chapters in academic books and peer-reviewed review articles. In the Wikimedia movement, he is a volunteer since 2023, actively participating in the organization of talks and edit-a-thons in provinces such as Jujuy and Río Negro, as well as virtual meetings. The target audience involved in his activities includes high school students, university students, teachers and researchers. For his leadership in organizing and facilitating edit-a-thon trainings, he was selected as a 2025 Fellow of the Wikimedia Youth Conference in Prague, Czech Republic (May 2025). This nomination reflects his commitment to engaging young people in the Wikimedia movement, particularly in disadvantaged rural areas of the global south.
Role in the project: Project manager and workshop leader. Organize meetings to confirm the Rapid Grant award with the planned partner. Design and deliver the theoretical and practical sessions, releasing the materials on Wikimedia Commons. Monitor in real time through the Outreach Dashboard to ensure the correct follow-up of the participants and provide accompaniment. Although rural schools have internet connectivity, to alleviate the limited connectivity of students at home, it will provide open tutorials and short videos at each edit-a-thon, via Bluetooth or USB sticks. Create anonymous satisfaction questionnaires and evaluate the data obtained. Document each edit-a-thon with photos and evaluate the quality of the content created or modified in the Wiki projects. Manage the WhatsApp support group for educators and students, and co-manage the project's social media to motivate new editors, providing additional resources if necessary. He/she will write the final report. Due to your multitasking role as the only youth Wikimedian involved, minimal financial compensation is requested for the detailed training responsibilities. In the budget, only the hours dedicated to the 12 full-time edit-a-thons are contemplated, not including project management and follow-up hours over the four months of implementation.
Provincial Agency for Scientific Promotion of Jujuy (scientific-logistical partner) It provides institutional endorsement for all activities and collaborates in the implementation of the project by linking with full-time rural high schools in the rural towns of Purmamarca, Cusi Cusi, Casabindo and Susques. In coordination with the schools, it will facilitate spaces with internet connectivity and provide equipment such as charging adapters and projectors free of charge, as in past joint events. It will support the issuance of certificates for teachers, students and the workshop leader. Will collaborate with its team of graphic designers, social media and institutional page to disseminate the proposal to the target audience and the general public. It will use its institutional social media during the months of project implementation to ensure visibility before, during and after each edit-a-thon. This institution has previously supported two edit-a-thones led by Luis Fernando Flores LAB and the implementation of the first Wikipedia workshop endorsed at university level in Jujuy, aimed at teachers, researchers and graduate students.
- 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)
Target participants and communities involved
The project targets 96 direct participants (80% students and 20% educators) from four rural schools in isolated localities of the Quebrada and Puna of Jujuy: Purmamarca, Cusi Cusi, Casabindo and Susques. These communities are located near protected areas of Jujuy and face challenges of connectivity, access to technology and participation in global digital open knowledge projects. Additionally, we seek to engage rural youth outside of the selected schools through digital strategies, broadening the impact through social media and accessible materials in contexts of limited connectivity. This represents the secondary target group and will be monitored by a separate Dashboard.
Pre-engagement strategies
In order to involve the participants from the participating rural institutions we will count with the collaboration of the scientific-logistic partner, the Provincial Agency for Scientific Promotion of Jujuy, which has a reach to all the educational institutions of the province of Jujuy, in order to implement the edit-a-thon trainings. It will disseminate the activities through institutional channels, and then provide the necessary equipment and institutional endorsement for the implementation of the edit-a-thons in the formal educational framework of full-time rural schools. The project will be disseminated through institutional social media, and traditional media when possible. At this stage, 6 instructional videos will also be developed and published on Wikimedia Commons before being published on other platforms, which will serve as support material for direct participants (visited schools) and indirect participants (social media audience).
Engagement strategies during
Throughout the project, the edit-a-thon trainings will be held weekly, preliminarily every Friday, visiting four schools during each month. The edit-a-thon trainings will be full-day, 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon (rural schools in Jujuy are full-day schools). While the rural schools provide lunch for their students, coffee breaks and refreshments during the breaks are budgeted for in this project. The three in-person edit-a-thons per school will integrate hands-on methodologies: Wikimedia account creation, mobile photography workshops, collaborative editing of articles, and releasing images on Commons. We will emphasize collaboration and knowledge sharing during the workshop, encouraging participants to share their ideas and questions, which will help generate a sense of community ownership of the project. In addition, there will be real-time monitoring of contributions on the Outreach Dashboard created for each participating rural school, with follow-up throughout the four months of the project. At the end of each face-to-face meeting, participants will be provided with an anonymous questionnaire to evaluate the quality of the activity, the tools incorporated and how they plan to use them in the future. The engagement with the contribution to the Wikimedia projects will also be promoted through the incentive of editing content related to the topics of interest of the participants, outside the axis of protected areas, environment and biodiversity. In this way they will be able to edit based on their own interests such as sports, music culture, etc.
Post-activity follow-up strategies
The first strategy is to carry out monthly activities in each selected rural educational institution. This is especially important for young people from rural regions of Jujuy, who often feel forgotten, so the project also aims at their inclusion. Thus, it is not just one visit, but three visits to foster collaborative work and a sense of community in rural schools to get involved in the global Wikimedia movement. The complementary strategy is the implementation of a WhatsApp group as a permanent space to resolve doubts, share brief tutorials in vertical format and announce upcoming activities and meetings. This group will be fundamental to achieve a more fluid and reliable approach and a sense of belonging. This will enhance the commitment of the participants before, during and after the activities. The project's social media will continue to highlight achievements and connect participants with the global Wikimedia community, even after the edit-a-thons are over. Social media will also be used to share progress, generate interaction and encourage participation (e.g., "photo of the day" to highlight images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, and weekly recognition of improved articles, which will maintain motivation and visibility of contributions made by rural school youth. On the other hand, under the project's educator-based sustainability strategy, educator contributions to Wikimedia projects will be closely monitored because of their potential to give continuity to the work with the community beyond this one-time project in the long term. It is expected that educators will be able to integrate Wikimedia tools into their regular classes, ensuring long-term sustainability of the project through curricular activities that encourage collaborative editing in other subjects.
With all these actions, we seek not only to strengthen its link with the natural and cultural heritage and generate content on protected areas of Jujuy on Wikimedia, but also to contribute to creating a rural educational community in the global south that is active and committed to the production and circulation of open knowledge.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
Yes
- 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.
We will promote the active involvement of youth in the decision-making processes of the project, ensuring that their opinions are integrated and valued within a collaborative environment based on safety and mutual respect. We guarantee a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for the participation of adolescent high school students, in strict compliance with National Law 26.061 on the Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents (https://www.argentina.gob.ar/normativa/nacional/ley-26061-110778) and Provincial Law No. 6294 on the Comprehensive Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents of Jujuy (https://boletinoficial.jujuy.gob.ar/?p=247223). Our measures include: Informed consent: Written authorization will be required from participants and their families where applicable, detailing the scope and objectives of the project. In addition, an accessible summary of the Wikimedia Foundation Youth Safety Policy, available at https://www.floreslab.online/micromanía/youthsafety, will be presented at the beginning of each event and its key guidelines will be explained to ensure understanding and active adherence. Protection of personal data: All information shared by youth will be handled confidentially, using anonymous surveys whenever possible. Discrimination-free spaces: We will implement the Wikimedia Foundation's Universal Code of Conduct and the Friendly Spaces Policy, promoting an environment free of violence, harassment or practices that violate rights. To evaluate the effectiveness of these measures, anonymous satisfaction surveys will be applied at the end of each activity, focusing on: perception of safety, comfort during the sessions and clarity of the established rules. The results will be analyzed to identify improvements and strengthen protocols for future initiatives with rural youth.
- 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.
My first approach to the Wikimedia movement was thanks to the local chapter in 2023, where, due to my role as head of the Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology Club, I led the organization of the first edit-a-thon in the city of Villa Regina, Rio Negro, Argentina. Then, in 2024, I led more edit-a-thons focused on youth until, at the end of that year, I relocated to Jujuy, my hometown. You can visit the events organized at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Luis_Fernando_Flores_LAB
In November, through a call for the heads of Science Clubs of Jujuy, I met the Provincial Agency for Scientific Promotion of Jujuy. In that conference I participated exposing the activities we were doing in the Agricultural and Environmental Biotechnology Club to involve young people from high-schools in the Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons projects. From that moment on, they provided me with continuous support in a variety of activities, such as endorsement and institutional support for my volunteer work as a trainer, in the form of venues, loan of equipment (computers, microphones and projectors), facilitation of graphic design, among other logistics. We highlight two main activities of previous collaboration to contribute to the Wikimedia movement:
(1) Conduction of two Experimental Biology Edit-a-thons: Two editions aimed at young people, with the support of the Experimental Biology Society. Photo of the organizational meeting: https://www.facebook.com/AgenciaCTI.Jujuy/posts/pfbid0SwAEDdRQQab2qgifCzqqV1JGBGRNBq8RPSifoEv4JB4xzzsUy3wLModmewQf2Uckl Flyers and promotion of the edit-a-thons: https://www.facebook.com/AgenciaCTI.Jujuy/posts/pfbid0dDzagSgqngTjk6dkvjwETaSDSjUZyGGcAqAvAJgsyDx6GLVdnMNn9mikx5A1qxs3l Photographs of the edit-a-thon: https://www.facebook.com/AgenciaCTI.Jujuy/posts/pfbid0bCGJajShAPZ96cPhC1viYDvYnXWzvvdaea2j7vDvi2iY9R1pmfNENfwtave11j92l
(2) First Wikipedia workshop at the University of Jujuy: In addition to high-school youth, the local science agency has also supported me in developing Wikipedia training at the university level, training students, teachers and researchers. In April of this year, we started a virtual workshop on academic writing and Wikipedia article development aimed at researchers, teachers and university students, institutionally endorsed by the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the National University of Jujuy. Flyers and promotion of the virtual workshop at: https://www.facebook.com/AgenciaCTI.Jujuy/posts/pfbid0nJpftstYQGjJq4uKdpvZGaYXzRhWhw78hc79hMhZyXa76ubNrUcQYM5rEVHJHQWGl
In this context, this project has emerged from the first edit-a-thon we organized in February, after several face-to-face meetings to discuss the need to implement this project in rural regions, which, due to the distances from urban centers, are the most disadvantaged to bring training and capacity building. We discussed the digital exclusion of youth and the underrepresentation of the natural heritage of Jujuy in open and accessible platforms such as Wikimedia projects. In particular, we selected rural schools that have Science Clubs or wish to form new clubs. We are interested in developing digital science clubs that can contribute to Wikimedia projects. Through these conversations, we also adjusted the methodology to broaden the impact on other rural youth. While four rural schools will receive face-to-face training visits, we seek to virtually reach more rural schools and communities through the social media strategy. Therefore, we decided to implement tutorials to facilitate editing from cell phones in contexts where there is a lack of access to computers. This is how we came up with the idea of developing tutorials in vertical format for WhatsApp (the most used channel in rural communities). Regarding the engagement gap, we also found as a solution the promotion of editing on topics of interest to participants (music, dance, sports, etc.) along with environmental issues that are the focus of the proposal. With this proposal, we seek to expand access to digital tools to contribute to open knowledge and to consolidate a community of young editors from underrepresented regions of the global south.
Our history of collaboration and the combination of these previous experiences allows us to sustain a collaborative approach, both with rural communities and other relevant stakeholders (educational institutions), ensuring the relevance and continuity of the initiative. We plan to continue the conversation on Wikimedia projects by creating a project page once the grant is approved, where the community of editors from Jujuy and beyond can follow the progress of the project, contribute ideas and participate in the creation of content related to protected areas and the use of Wikimedia projects in rural contexts.
On a personal level, this proposal is part of the action plan of Luis Fernando Flores (26 years old) to attract young people to the Wikimedia movement, who has been selected as a Fellow of the Wikimedia Youth Conference 2025 in Prague, Czech Republic (https://meta.Wikimedia.org/wiki/Youth_Conference_2025). In this way, we hope to implement this project, which includes the development of sustained activities, with frequent training and constant follow-up, with the aim of consolidating a group of young Wikimedians in rural schools in northern Argentina.
- 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)
Age (recency)
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Education
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Geographic
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
As mentioned, this proposal is based on previous experiences, dialogues and diagnoses and on the need to involve rural youth in the Wikimedia movement. After leading several edit-a-thons with young people in Argentina, particularly in the provinces of Rio Negro (southern Argentina) and Jujuy (northern Argentina), I have observed two discouraging phenomena. On the one hand, the lack of action towards editing after having created an account. On the other hand, the editors' lack of permanence in post-meeting editing. That is why this project integrates monthly visits accompanied by follow-up via WhatsApp, and the use of social media to disseminate instructions and highlight the contributions of rural youth to Wikimedia projects. In order to project a potential network of young Wikimedians in the province of Jujuy, we are concerned with answering the following questions throughout the project:
1. Effectiveness of the face-to-face methodology and follow-up:
Do three monthly visits to each rural school improve editing skills versus single event models? Which activities generate better results (e.g., photo workshops) and which can be improved (e.g., theory sessions)?
How many youth continue to contribute to Wikimedia projects during the month between edit-a-thons?
What is the effect of post-edit-a-thon follow-up (WhatsApp group, virtual consultations) on generating a sense of regional community? Do participants feel part of a wider network?
Is a steady flow maintained or do they rely on external reminders?
2. Mobile strategies and retention of young publishers: What types of content are most accessible and attractive to new publishers? Does the combination of environmental (protected areas) and cultural (music, dance) themes increase the likelihood that they will continue to contribute? How do participants balance their personal interest with the main focus of the project? Does the use of vertical format tutorials for WhatsApp and the prioritization of mobile editing increase the participation of rural youth with limited connectivity? What percentage of post-workshop contributions are made from mobile devices?
3. Impact of social media and accompaniment: How are instructional materials received on social media? Are tutorials in vertical format understood and applied without face-to-face assistance? What are the positive/negative effects of using social media with instructional materials to call for editing? Do they generate information overload or democratize access? Do campaigns like "Photo of the Week" or "Improved Article" on Instagram/TikTok motivate youth to continue editing? Do they make an effective call to action (e.g., "Edit this article!")? Is it really motivating for young people to have social media highlight their contributions?
4. Quality, relevance and perception of the content: How effective are images uploaded to Commons in improving public understanding of environmental conservation? Are they used in local educational campaigns or appear in the media? Does the project strengthen territorial pride, and do the testimonies reflect a greater appreciation of their natural/cultural heritage? How many people from outside the project visit the improved items? Does the traffic reflect interest in the protected areas and biodiversity of Jujuy? How have rural youth's perspectives on Wikipedia changed after participating? Do they now perceive it as a valid tool to document their reality?
5. Barriers, motivations and sustainability: What are the barriers in rural communities: lack of time, lack of technical knowledge, or distrust of open platforms? Are they receiving the necessary support? Does the WhatsApp group resolve technical doubts in a timely manner?
6. Role of teachers and decentralization of knowledge: Do teachers report being able to integrate Wikimedia projects into their classes? Is there a perceived change in the modes of participation among participating rural institutions? How do the contributions of rural schools compare with urban schools in terms of quality and originality? Do the proposed solutions provide new ideas for decentralizing knowledge construction?
7. Identity impact and youth leadership: Does the proposal help to consolidate local leadership and how is it evidenced (e.g., young people who organize mini-edit-a-thons on their own initiative)? How have teachers' perspectives changed as future facilitators? Do they integrate open knowledge into their daily lives (e.g., use Commons for classes)?
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 96 | We estimate a number of 96 participants, since we will work with four groups of approximately 20 young students and 4 educators. |
| Number of editors | 50 | Current and new editors are included, considering young people and teachers from rural schools, members of the planned partner and the facilitator as editors. |
| Number of organizers | 5 | Includes the person in charge of the proposal and the workshop leader, and partners. |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 40 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 300 |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
Our main metric of intervention focuses on Wikimedia Commons, as the project prioritizes enhancing the presence of the natural and cultural heritage of protected areas from a youth perspective through photographs. These contributions will include quality images taken by youth during the first month of the project, capturing landscapes, local biodiversity and ancestral cultural practices linked to these rural territories. Each image will incorporate detailed metadata when possible (geolocation, technical descriptions in Spanish) and will be categorized under specific thematic tags. We will create categories and categorize the photographs generated in the project, as well as uncategorized materials in Commons. This material will not only enrich the free multimedia repository, but will also serve as a key resource for illustrating Wikipedia articles, ensuring that the natural heritage of Jujuy is globally accessible.
On Wikipedia, the project will create 4 articles and improve 10 articles on protected areas. In addition, students will be encouraged to improve 10 articles on biodiversity and local culture. Additionally, young people will be encouraged to edit articles on cultural topics of their interest (music, dances, sports, etc.), with an estimated 16 improved articles.
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
Yes
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Categories | Categories created | 16 |
| Photographs included in Wikipedia | Number of photographs released on Wikimedia Commons by project participants and included in relevant WIkipedia articles. | 10 |
| Participating High Schools | Number of regional high schools where educators and students work/study. | 4 |
| Engaged teachers | Teachers who express their intention to continue using Wikimedia projects in their classrooms. | 4 |
| External communications | Presentations at academic conferences and/or talks, media interviews to tell about the experience of involving rural youth in Wikimedia projects. | 2 |
- 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)
To comprehensively assess project impact, we will use specific tools aligned with each type of metric:
Registration and follow-up of participants: Google Forms for initial signups and Wikimedia username collection. Physical/digital attendance sheets for each edit-a-thon, verifying active participation by school.
Quality and perception of activities: Anonymous online surveys (Google Forms) post-event, evaluating satisfaction, usefulness of the training and comfort.
Quantifiable contributions to Wikimedia projects: Outreach Dashboard, creating one per school to monitor in real time editions, articles created/improved, images uploaded to Commons and comparative metrics between participating rural institutions. A specific outreach dashboard will also be created for external participants who join the project through social media. Manual counting in Wikimedia Commons by specific categories.
Outreach and community engagement: Social media analytics (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook) to measure followers, interactions (engagement), post reach (e.g. "Photo of the day") and conversions (external users who requested to join the social media dashboard) WhatsApp group statistics: frequency of consultations, use of tutorials and retention of participants.
Sustainability and replication: Monthly tracking of teachers' contributions through their Wikipedia/Commons user histories.
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EegbrfZloBPLrf4xWqBOHeZLjHEEy_G-hNtGA64adiw/edit?usp=sharing
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
3277867.2 ARS
- 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.
2797.35 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).