Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Tyap Community Rapid Grant Proposal June 2023 (ID: 22194074)/Final Report

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Tyap Community Rapid Grant Proposal June 2023
Rapid Fund Final Report

Report Status: Under review

Due date: 2023-12-29T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Rapid Fund

Report type: Final

Application

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General information[edit]

  • Applicant username: Kambai Akau
  • Organization name: N/A
  • Amount awarded: 4993.9
  • Amount spent: 3790.97 USD, 3407900

Part 1: Project and impact[edit]

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

We had two events within the context of this very grant.

1. Editing together in Tyap, Romanian, and English (15 September - 1 December 2023): (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editing_together_in_Tyap,_Romanian,_and_English )

This collaborative joint editing between the Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova (WMROMD) User Group and the Tyap Wikimedians User Group (Tyap WUG) began on 15 September 2023. Initially, a list of 20 articles was prepared containing 10 articles on the Tyap side and 10 articles on the Romanian side. The overall idea was to improve the relevant articles in the English Wikipedia and translate the same into each other's language Wikipedia. Members of the Tyap WUG met in person in Kaduna, Nigeria, on 17 September to share ideas and kickstart the translation in the Tyap Wikipedia. An online Zoom meeting between members of both parties was held on 2 October to meet one another, to most, for the first time. This meeting was done as a presentation by Claudia Șerbănuță and Kambai Akau (please find the presentation slides file here). There were communications between the leaders of both teams on how to implement the project and promote the result of the pilot project almost monthly. To promote the result of the collaborative pilot project, it was agreed that the Tyap WUG members would visit the Romanian Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, to make a presentation on the Romanian National Day on 1 December, while the Romanian team would do the same on some other day. However, this did not materialize on the Tyap WUG side as expected, as an invitation was never received from the embassy. However, there are still chances that a response would be given on some other occasion. Earlier, a member of the Romanian side, Elena Ancu Damian, made a presentation on the pilot project at the County Library "I.A. Bassarabescu" Giurgiu, Romanian, on 22 November 2023. As of 1 December 2023, the number of articles translated on each side was at least 20. Although the official timeline for the duration of the project is over, editing still keeps counting, as there were articles created as a result of the project initially not included. A total of six editors from the Tyap WUG and three from WMROMD contributed.


2. Tyap Wikimedians Zaria Outreach (14-15, 21-22, and 28-29 October 2023): (https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Outreach )

This Wikimedia training and recruitment exercise was carried out at the NAERLS hall at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. It was done in collaboration with the Wikimedians of Nigeria User Group. This collaboration was aimed at retraining our existing organizers to be able to recruit new editors and train them on how to edit Wikimedia projects like Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. We had a training session with a representative of the Wikimedia Nigeria User Group, Ismail Atiba on 7-8 October 2023, with attendance by the president of Wikimedia Nigeria Kaduna Network, Dr. Ramatu Haliru, and a member of the Hausa Wikimedia User Group, Umar Askira, and the assistant chairman of the Tyap Language Development Board (TLDB). These people contributed to the team's spirit and knowledge. Ismail Atiba took the team on event tracking tools like the Outreach Dashboard and introduced Event Metrix and Video2Commons software to the team. On 14-15, 21-22, and 28-29 October 2023, the Tyap WUG team went all out to the university town of Zaria where the team was hosted by a university professor who became a Wikimedian during the event. There were also other staff and students from the university and other tertiary institutions nearby, who came to learn about editing Wikimedia projects. Among the approaches we used in this event which we have never done before was the introduction of posters (pasted in strategic locations), flyers, exercise books, and giving of customized T-shirts and caps to top male and female editors weekly, to motivate others to contribute and learn on their own. We also had our event live-streamed in parts or in full on our Facebook handle for the first time. This may not have been perfect, but through this, and communication on our Telegram and WhatsApp groups, the person who later emerged as the top overall editor happened to be someone who was not physically in attendance at the event. He participated online and did well. So, broadcasting our event online was quite an effective way of helping us achieve one of our goals of increasing the community. We were able tp have the targetted amount of participants present at the venue, among whom we were able to pick out four top contributors to give the responsibility of taking care of the hub we established later on 3 December 2023, in the town of Zaria.

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

• Project page on Meta-Wiki: EVENT 1 https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Editing_together_in_Tyap,_Romanian,_and_English

EVENT 2 https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Outreach

  • Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions (EVENT 2 ONLY)

Dashboard: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Tyap_Wikimedians_User_Group/Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Outreach_(14-29_October_2023) Event Metrix: https://eventmetrics.wmflabs.org/programs/879

  • Some photos or videos from your event

EVENT 1: Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Editing_Tyap_and_Romanian_Wikis_2023

EVENT 2: Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Outreach FACEBOOK: https://web.facebook.com/wikityap/


  • Important social media posts

EVENT 1


EVENT 2

  • Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects

EVENT 1

EVENT 2

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

EVENT 1

EVENT 2

OUTREACH FLYER (Outside): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Outreach_Flier_OUTSIDE.jpg OUTREACH FLYER (Inside): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Outreach_Flier_INSIDE.jpg EXERCISE BOOK (Front): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyap_Wiki_Zaria_Outreach_Exercise_BK_Front.jpg EXERCISE BOOK (Back): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tyap_Wiki_Zaria_Outreach_Exercise_BK_Back.jpg TOP EDITORS DOC: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12gRI6IGiWo3p6Iwl4R8v2I2_RP-blKVpH00XZuzcigw/edit

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 Strongly agree
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Neither agree nor disagree
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement Strongly agree
F. Other (optional) Encourage the promotion of Tyap language usage

Part 2: Learning[edit]

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: - We hope to learn how to track activities using the Wikimedia Outreach Dashboard for our activities.

  • How do we make the growth in the number of our community members commensurate with the number of edits per head?
  • How do we train our organizers so that they could as well be trainers in no distant time?

How do we maximize mutual gains during collaborations between participating user groups?

- We hope to learn how to track activities using the Wikimedia Outreach Dashboard for our activities. >> We had a learning session with a representative of Wikimedia Nigeria, as mentioned earlier. We had training on using the Wikimedia Outreach Dashboard, and the Event Metrix tool was also introduced to us. We used both tools for our second event in October and our Meetup and Wikidata 11th Birthday celebration in December. It is only the beginning of our utilization of these tools.

  • How do we make the growth in the number of our community members commensurate with the number of edits per head?

>> As we did during our second event in Zaria, there was a list of articles and entries to be created (please see: Tyap Wikipedia and Tyap Wiktionary) were created and each participant was assigned an article or entry to work on on per day. When done, such a person is free to assign him/herself another article to proceed. The assigning of articles and entries was not done on the Outreach Dashboard, but in the individual wikis to be edited. This was to enable the participants to get more familiar with editing on the wiki through tasks like the self-assigning of articles, before the actual editing. After the event in Zaria, with the availability of a hub, we are creating a list of articles and entries on the Outreach Dashboard and each participant would be assigned an article and/or an entry to work on for a week or month as the case may be, with an incentive for editing. This would run for the first three months (beginning from January 2024), so that new participants can acclimatize with editing on wiki and afterward, should be able to apply that knowledge in general editing on other sister projects. The most important thing is getting them started. When they begin and start to enjoy the knowledge and exposure they gain from editing on Wikimedia projects, a good number of participants should be able to become active contributors in the long run.

  • How do we train our organizers so that they could as well be trainers in no distant time?

>> Organizers are not all experienced in the same measure. Also, they do not all have the same level of internal drive to learn and become teachers someday. However, on a general note, organizers need to have occasional in-house pieces of training and training from Wikimedians coming from without. About the frequency, this could be locally set. Events like Wikimania, WikiIndaba, and other bigger gatherings where all affiliates could get admitted could be utilized to ensure this happens. Oftentimes, we don't get to see all affiliates admitted into such gatherings, but if there could be an "Affiliates only" kind of gathering whereby all affiliates could attend with a given number of event organizers per year, to learn in-person during practical learning sessions, that would go a long way in bridging the gap.

How do we maximize mutual gains during collaborations between participating user groups? >> From our experience during our two collaborative projects between September and November/December, we had two situations: >>> Beginning from the second, we had a situation in which the main gaining user group was the Tyap Wikimedians User Group, which had training for its organizers undertaken by a representative of the Wikimedia Nigeria User Group. However, even though the representative may have learned one thing or the other from the group he came to meet, the larger user group he represents has not much benefit from this. To maximize gains in such collaborations, there could be a return invitation from the other group so that a representative of the Tyap group can be present in an event to be hosted by the Nigerian group (i.e. if that is not already happening). >>> The first involved the Tyap Wikimedia User Group creating articles about the Romanian people and vice versa in each other's Wikipedia. That is an example of a direct mutual gain during collaboration. Increase such gains, user groups can opt to increase the length of their collaborative project and possibly have another project done together, and participating user groups can meet often or once in a while to discuss what is not working well through virtual meetings, and bring in new ideas to increase their gains. We don't want a situation where we keep doing things in the same manner and getting the same results, right? So, we innovate. New thinking has to come from various people to forge a way forward.

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)

Yeah!

During our collaborative pilot project with the WMROMD, we never anticipated how the project was going to be, since this is our very first collaborative project (on both sides). However, we had an initial plan of editing a small number of articles, maybe about 10-15 on both sides, but today, we have at least a combined article sum of 50 new articles created and some others created or improved as a result of those new articles. We didn't create an Outreach Dashboard for this apart from the Meta landing page, because we didn't deem it necessary to do. The fact that we had a successful project involving cultural exchange in terms of learning through translation, is good enough for us!

In our second event in Zaria, however, we had a good turnout of participants. Somedays, it would look like we wouldn't have enough participants, but before an hour or two, the hall is almost full. We also had in attendance, some non-native Tyap-speaking participants with varying knowledge of Tyap who came to learn and contribute the much as they could.

During our last week of the event, while traveling from Abuja to Zaria, on the 27 October 2023, right in the minibus, I was attacked by two thugs sitting with me for no reason with punches on my face en route to Zaria from Kaduna. I just finished speaking with one of the event organizers in Zaria who called to check on me. We spoke in Tyap and English. The use of Tyap could have possibly been a factor in igniting the attack. It could have been something else, but it happened as the driver drove into a filling station to refuel. I managed to alight from the minibus transporting us, and the filling station attendants came to ask what the problem was and one of the thugs jumped on one of the fellows and began throwing punches at him, too. I later learned from one of the filling station attendants that such are thieves who confuse their victims with such attacks to collect their belongings. I left the vehicle to get another to complete the journey since the driver didn't show any dissatisfaction with the contempt of the thugs. Instead, he wanted me to take another seat close to the thugs. I arrived at my destination with heavy jaws, but the event went well.

What I learned from this situation is to always take note of the passengers I travel with to avoid such occurrences. Another lesson I learned is that there has to be someone or people on the team able to do what I do in terms of presentation or answering questions from participants on editing so that when I am not available due to one reason or the other, there won't be any setback. This is where the training and retraining of organizers come in again.

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 communicate our learnings and results with our community members through our WhatsApp and Telegram social media handles. This includes what we have achieved and what we aim to achieve. These are received with varying emotions, as some might express joy and some show indifference to our activities, but we do what we do, anyway, and we keep moving.

Part 3: Metrics[edit]

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 60 82 TOOLS:

The MetaWiki landing pages have the list of attendees (at least, those who have registered accounts). We also have the same in the Outreach Dashboard and Event Metrix pages. In addition, we have an onsite attendance sheet to register all attendees who came to the event especially the one in Zaria.

COMMENTS:

  • During the September event (EVENT 1), we had three participants from WMROMD and seven from TWUG.
  • During the October event in Zaria (EVENT 2), we had 66 in-person attendees (including three participants from the Hausa Wikimedians User Group), and three online attendees, excluding seven organizers. We also had the vice chairman of the Tyap Language Development Board, the president of Wikimedia Nigeria Kaduna Network, and the trainer from Wikimedia Nigeria.
Number of editors 40 61 TOOLS:

Outreach Dashboard and Event Metrix pages. MetaWiki landing pages also have the same.

COMMENTS:

  • During the September event (EVENT 1), we had three editors from WMROMD and six editors (the seventh was not active) from TWUG.
  • During the October event in Zaria (EVENT 2), we had 50 editors present in person (one editor had two accounts opened), and two online editors (the third person registered in the Dashboard but didn't edit), excluding seven organizers.
Number of organizers 10 9 TOOL:

The MetaWiki project page is the major tool here.

COMMENTS: There were two leads, Claudia Serbanuta from WMROMD and Kambai Akau from TWUG. The WMROMD side had two other leads/editors, and the TWUG side had five other leads.

Wikimedia project Target Result - Number of created pages Result - Number of improved pages
Wikipedia 260 222 94
Wikimedia Commons 50 99 5
Wikidata 300 3 200
Wiktionary 150 152 3
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)

Yes

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)

As previously mentioned, the values displayed above may not be accurate. This is because the Outreach Dashboard and Event Metrics give different values, maybe due to inaccurate capturing of Tracked Namespaces or so.

Again, this is a two-event program that may involve editing an article created in the other event, thus making it a bit tricky to state an article under EVENT 1, 2, or both.

In the future, I hope to learn about how to accurately capture edits using a single more reliable tool. This tool could be made so accurate that it can track all edits by those listed as participants in an event no matter the wiki (so long as it is a Wikimedia Foundation project), and filter out items created not related to the event. This is just an imaginary wish cum suggestion to the Foundation. Also, I would be glad to learn about other tools already in existence which can be very helpful in helping me capture results more efficiently.

My team lacks the expertise to be able to adequately support data collection. The Foundation can also help out in supporting me with more training for the team.

Part 4: Financial reporting[edit]

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

3407900

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

3790.97

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)

In our initial budget, the certificates to be issued to the participants should have been in digital format only, but we had a rethink and made them in hard copies.

We also printed name tags for organizers and youth policy documents for participants and made extra copies of the exercise books and pens more than the initial budget to increase our outreach.

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 unspent amount of 43,100 (NGN).

We were supposed to have a visit to the Romanian embassy in Nigeria as a part of the promotion of our results from the collaboration with WMROMD, but it didn't work out.

Also, the amount set forth for the venue in our second event in October at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, was given to us for free, through the professor who was a co-organizer of the event, Prof. Thomas Bidoli. We only paid for the venue in Kaduna during the week of the training of organizers.

However, the balance doesn't tally with the combined amounts for the above items due to the inflation of the costs of goods and services in the country, leaving us no choice but to take from the available balance to balance up the extra amounts added on items or services like transportation.

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

A. Propose to use the underspent funds within this Fund period with PO approval

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

We had a new hub established at the university town of Zaria. We are currently setting up a structure for that hub, and we shall begin an edit-a-thon for the recruits in that zone which would span from 1 January to 31 March 2024. Please find the link to the page on MetaWiki here: https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Hub/Mini-projects. I plan to use the underspent funds to boost their editing morales by providing data to editors for those three weeks of editing if it is okay by the Foundation.

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

Yes Your response to the review feedback. 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)

I would like to state that the Wikimedia Foundation is doing well in terms of supporting us to grow our language by providing us with the financial and technical assistance to carry on.

However, I would also state that over here in Nigeria, at this moment, we struggle to balance our available resources with the rise of goods and services within short unpredictable time intervals. I would, hence, appeal that when funds are to be sent, the Foundation could look into funding affiliates in regions struggling with inflation like Nigeria in the US Dollar.

Also, the pictures taken during our events are still being uploaded. Again, the articles created in the Tyap Wikipedia and entries created in the Tyap Wiktionary are still being updated to make them more 'standard'.

Apart from the aforementioned, I have no more to say. Thanks.

Review notes[edit]

Review notes from Program Officer:

N/A

Applicant's response to the review feedback.

Greetings, Grant Admin.

After the events for which this grant proposal was made, "<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Rapid_Fund/Tyap_Community_Rapid_Grant_Proposal_June_2023_(ID:_22194074)/Final_Report">Tyap Community Rapid Grant Proposal June 2023</a>", we had a balance of 43,100 NGN remaining. This balance was added to the about  204,600 NGN remaining after the following event, "<a href="https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Rapid_Fund/Tyap_Community_Meetup_and_Wikidata%27s_11th_Birthday_Anniversary_Grant_Proposal_(ID:_22282315)/Final_Report">Tyap Community Meetup and Wikidata's 11th Birthday Anniversary</a>" and the total sum of 247,700 NGN was realized as a balance as of December 2023. However, after conceiving the idea of having a post-event edit-a-thon for the new hub we created in the university town of Zaria, I requested in this report to allow us to use the remaining funds to fund the edit-a-thon. 

Unfortunately, the program happened before we got a response to this report to authorize us to use the remaining funds. This was caused by the need to keep the new editors engaged. We lacked the financial power to motivate them and had to use the 247,700 NGN balance to fund that. Please find the link to the spending budget for the "Tyap Wikimedia Zaria Hub Editing" edit-a-thon organized by the Tyap Wikimedians Organisation between 2 January and 31 March 2024 here: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1voHVdzEaZScCfL3Y8_WISzmNbqAgjEEmRIkRYX-4ysE/edit#gid=0">https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1voHVdzEaZScCfL3Y8_WISzmNbqAgjEEmRIkRYX-4ysE/edit#gid=0</a> . Also find the link to the edit-a-thon page on Meta-Wiki here: <a href="https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Hub/Mini-projects/Tyap_Wikimedia_Zaria_Hub_Editing">https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tyap_Wikimedians_Zaria_Hub/Mini-projects/Tyap_Wikimedia_Zaria_Hub_Editing</a> .

I would like to confirm that we still have a balance of about 5,150 NGN left after the edit-a-thon ended on 31 March 2024. I request that it should be deducted from our next rapid grant proposal (https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Rapid_Fund/Atyapland_WikiOutreach_2024_(ID:_22586467) ) if it gets approved. 

Thanks and warm regards,

Levi

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