Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Levant strategic plan for calendar year 2022-2023

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statusFunded
Wikimedia Levant strategic plan for calendar year 2022-2023
start date2022-07-012022-08-01T00:00:00Z
end date2023-06-302023-12-31T00:00:00Z
budget (local currency)32950 JOD
amount requested (USD)32950 USD
amount recommended (USD)34390.87
grant typeWikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)
funding regionMENA
decision fiscal year2021-22
funding program roundRound 1
applicant and people related to proposaluser:براء

User:Abbad (WMF)

User:Sandra Hanbo
organization (if applicable)Wikimedians of the Levant User Group
Midpoint Learning Report 
Final Learning Report

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Applicant details[edit]

Wikimedia username(s):

user:براء

User:Abbad (WMF) User:Sandra Hanbo

Organization:

Wikimedians of the Levant User Group

G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?

Applied previously and did receive a grant

H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?

No

H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?

N/A

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

Yes

M1. Fiscal organization name.

Jordan Open Source Association

Additional information[edit]

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

Jordan

S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:

Regional

S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria

T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)

https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaLevant

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

Yes

M1. Fiscal organization name.

Jordan Open Source Association

Proposal[edit]

1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?

The mission of wikimedia levant is to to promote Wikimedia projects and other projects of free content and access to knowledge in Levant Region (Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria).Organizing activities, gatherings, workshops and different projects for contributors of the mentioned countries so it saves efforts and cost. In order to aspire to support access to free knowledge within and about the region of the levant.

2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?

Each of the Levant countries has a few contributors and this makes it difficult to establish individual groups.The noticeable similarities of the Levant countries in terms of language, history, culture, geography and lifestyle. Users and contributors of these countries share similar interests, challenges, needs and they participate in the same Wikipedias and projects. Hence, it would be great if their efforts were unified under one group through which challenges could be overcome, needs fulfilled and projects and interests better organized. Through this proposal we hope to unify the work needed to participate successfully in different projects (e.g. Wiki Loves Monuments) in terms of performing the official tasks, providing guidance, boosting participation, deriving local contests, sharing experience and ideas, etc. Promoting and developing the content related to Levant countries specifically and the Arab World generally in different languages. To coordinate the work and consultation related to participation in the international events such as Wikimania and regional events such as WikiArabia. Unifying the efforts of the contributors under one umbrella, especially those with technical skills. gathering the Arab contributors of the Levant countries in one group. Establishing a base and a reference for all Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese in Wikipedia and all other Wikimedia projects. Organizing activities, gatherings, workshops, and different projects for contributors of the mentioned countries saves efforts and cost. Gathering the contributors who live abroad and have them put some focus and effort in enhancing the Arabic content, especially what's related to the Levant and Developing a performance plan for new members.

3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

Community Outreach: we should make sure to know what is important to them and what will make them proud. This program will include a number of activities such as social media, Introductory video and Printing. We hope to Reaching at least 4,300 followers on Facebook, 2,300 followers on Twitter and 1,000 total views on the videos Capacity and community development:This program will include a number of activities such as training workshops for all new members with less than one hundred edits and Monthly, regular online meetings for all user group members and held a small conference for Levantine members (May will be online) We hope to Reach: 5 new members, 3 new member training workshops, 20 members trained in basic skills, 8 in advanced editing skills and 5 unique members organizing activities. Support Wikimedia Projects content: To improve and expand Wikimedia projects, thus sticking to our primary goal of improving content and impact. We hope to Improve Arabic Wikipedia content related to the Levant region and Improve Arabic Wikipedia content related to the Arabic Language,Increase quality of articles, Motivate members to participate in editing campaigns and stay as active editors. This program will include a number of activities such as: Arabic Wikipedia Anniversary workshop Wikipedia 21 books support content 2 Competition We hope to Reach: Total number of workshops: 4 Total number of participants: 60 Number of articles to improve: 150 Number of articles to create: 150 Long-term contributors to recruit: 6 Number of competitions to organize: 2 Number of photos to upload: 100 Percentage of photos to be used in Wikimedia projects: At least 10% Total number of participants in the editing and photography competitions: 50 Partnerships in education and GLAM: To create long-term partnerships and outreach that support us in achieving our key mission and enhancing the rest of our goals altogether. We hope to Increase student awareness of Wikipedia policies. Build sustainable partnerships with educational institutions and Protect the cultural heritage and preserve the particularly sensitive cultural memory in the Levant region. This program will include a number of activities such as: wikipedia Education program We hope to reach: Number of participants in program: 25 Number of newly registered users during program: 25 Number of content pages to be created and improved during program: 80 Number of pictures to be uploaded (optional): 80

4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

Train regular members to equip advanced editing skills. Raise awareness of the mission and work of Wikimedia Levant. Improve Arabic Wikipedia content and wikidata related to Levant region.Increase the amount of visual and written content on Wikimedia projects that are related to the culture, society, topography and cities of the Levant. Add more images about the local natural heritage,scenic landscape in the Levant region. Build sustainable partnerships with educational institutions.

5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?      

No

5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?

N/A

6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.

We are looking to have 20 new members to our community, adding more than 1 MB to Arabic Wikipedia and uploading more than 100 Pictures on Wikimedia commons.

Timeline: In last Quarter of 2022: Working on Wikidata + having 5 New members to our user group, Working on articles on Arabic Wikipedia related to the Levant kitchen. In First Quarter of 2023: Having a personal meeting for WMLevant user group in Amman as a main goal for this guarter, having 10 new members to our usergroup, Working on Wikimedia Commons as a main project. Second Quarter of 2023: Celebrating Wikipedia anniversary by having regional meeting, adding High ammount of data to Arabic wikipedia by hosting an educational programs, and doing agreements and workshop with the Levantine community (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan)

7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

The team represents members of our affiliate and all of them are volunteers, you can see here (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_the_Levant/Membership), CEO: Sandra Hanbo

8. 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.

Content Gender gap, Geography, Language, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context), Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial

8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.

The Wikimedians of the levant are interested in joint work between males and females and supporting girls to organize programs of interest to their goals, such as the oriental cuisine program, which will be held this quarter of the year. Plus, adding more about females to Wikimedia projects. The user group is also interested in highlighting and achieving social justice among all parties in the group. The group is also mainly interested in human rights and their support and participates annually by editing dozens of articles and adding dozens of photos to raise awareness of the importance of these rights in the society around us.

9. 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.

Education, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Advocacy, Human Rights, Climate Change and sustainability, Diversity

10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Not applicable

11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?

We set a requirement to become a member of wikimedia levant, to follow a workshop to obtain skills and understand principles of editing in Wikimedia projects. We don’t have prior experiences with wikimedia to participate. We hope to gather the Arab contributors of the Levant countries (Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon) and growth in these areas’, also the contributors who live abroad and have them put some focus and efforts in enhancing the Arabic content, especially what's related to the Levant. We will coordinate some activities like workshops for beginners, intermediate and advanced participants.

Our strategies to retain participants after your proposal is implemented:

1. Show appreciation for participants.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you might be surprised how often it’s overlooked. taking a few extra moments to show appreciation to people for participating – letting them know how important and impactful their contribution to meaningful research actually is – makes them more likely to take part again.

2. Develop relationships with participants.
3. Increase communication.

For most of us, knowing what to expect makes any experience more pleasant. When you communicate frequently and with transparency to your participants.

Communication can even be automated. Sending emails, newsletters, etc. are all simple and efficient ways to keep channels of communication open.

4.When participants leave, find out why.

When someone declines to engage, it’s a good idea to see if you can find out why. It’s really just an extension of your efforts to let people know they’re appreciated. By taking the time to ask what you could have done differently, you communicate that you genuinely value the participant’s opinion. You just may find that you can win him or her back by simply taking the time to listen.

12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?

concerns the quality of the relationships between editors and students. Feeling safe to express their own thoughts is more productive for learning. the motivation that supports the individual and development as much as their task performance. leaders should demand high standards of work and behavior from all students.

13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?

Yes

13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.

We have published about this proposal by mailing list of our affiliate, and we sent to all members privately for Suggested activities and challenges. Also, There is a special group for our group on Facebook, and we published the reports on the meta page. These are our social media accounts where we have also published information: Facebook, Twitter.

14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?

Yes

14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

N/A

15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?

We have multiple programs we work on it in our community. Educational Program in Palestine: We are looking forward having 30 new members to be introduced and worked in Arabic Wikipedia, in Articles related to their specialization like Medicine, Informatics, Engineering, and Law. We are hoping to add around 100 KB to Arabic Wikipedia and improve the related Work in Arabic in Wikidata. Our fund in this program is to print, rent and have essentials to make this work done. Also We are concetrating more on WikiData to improve its content, and in this field we requested a grant to buy books to support our work to be reliable and cited correctly.

16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.

There are multiple risks that could affect our mission, First of them is the security work as some of our user group members live in risky zones such as Syria and Palestine, so we always consider their safety in the first place. Secondly, sending grants to Palestinians is also difficult and affects our work, plus being forbidden to Syrian people.
From another point of view, not everybody in our community is able to have his own technical device, and that is what would sometimes affect the efficiency of the work of our members. We look forward to improving Wikipedia and wiki projects on Mobile phones as it will also increase the efficiency of editing to Wikimedia projects.

17. 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.

Improve User Experience, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Innovate in Free Knowledge

18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.  

Yes
https://www.canva.com/design/DAFQ4LE3coc/H5M3HsCHiJj9QYs8e3P6YQ/view?utm_content=DAFQ4LE3coc&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]

19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

How Will We Know our Activities Were Successful? By measuring the mission goals, whether it achieved it or not, and trying to find the reaction in the society.

How can we Ensure the continuity of members and motivate them? By encourage the users to add to Wikimedia, and having workshops to work as a group where they learn and educate each other.

2. Always having the doors open for members suggestion to feel themselves welcomed in the group.
3. Always track the group members and discuss the improvent in the monthly usergroup meetings.
4. Help the people to feel the group as it is confortable place to stay volunteer and share knowledge

What are the strategies that can help to make a new member as leader of the future?

1. Help the people to feel the group as it is confortable place to stay volunteer and share knowledge
2. Always having the doors open for members suggestion to feel themselves welcomed in the group.
3. Try to make the falses they make a positive points in the future.
4. Attend sessions to learn about Leadership.
5. Try to lead a comptition and workshops with other experienced members to learn from each other

How can we support wikimedia sisters projects?

1. Our usergroup is very rich with members who are experienced in life and Wikipedias projects, plus having a contractors in our communities, That what we find out it is important to improve Wikimedia and it projects.
2. Organizing and Participating in Conferences and Campaigns related by Wikimedia projects.

20. 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 space provided.

Main Metrics Description Target
Arabic Wikipedia Articles Related to Middle eastern Kitchen: 20 - Articles Related to Medicine: 20, Articles Related to Engineering: 20. Articles related to Levant History: 20, Featured Articles: 5

Comptitions: 500 Article Articles in different topics: 100

785
Wikidata The number of Elements added or edited to wiki data 1000
WikiCommons Number of Pictures added or Arabic translated to Wikimedia commons. 200
New members Number of new members from Educational program: 10, Number of new members from Social media: 10, New members from different way:5 25
Number of organizers N/A 20

Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.

Additional Metrics Description Target
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities We hope to have >100 members active in WM projects after Educational programs, sharing booklets and doing comptitions. 100
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A 20
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A 5
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors We will send the participants feedback after organizing it. 200
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A 8000
Number of activities developed N/A 6
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A

21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target
Number of participants The number of participants in all activities: 100 as new participants. 100
Number of editors The number of editors in all activities: 36 36
Number of organizers The number of organizers in all activities: 8

Our target that 3 will be a new organizers

8
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target
Wikipedia 150 new articles created and 50 improved for all activities 200
Wikimedia Commons 100 images uploaded to wikimedia commons 100
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A

21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

N/A

22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?

We will be using google forms, interviews, feedback surveys, informal meetings… we also are open to any support or suggestions from the Foundation. and also Quarry and Bots

Financial Proposal[edit]

23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.

32950 JOD

23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

32950 USD

23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YlmvUUC7W0E2CQ3130NI9RprAJinxQnRDOOCXWM48bY/edit?usp=sharing

23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.

N/A

Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.

Other public document(s):

Final Message[edit]

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes


Feedback[edit]