Grants:Project/Rapid/TRahman/Administrative expenses for Wikimedia community in Bangladesh/Report

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Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2018-19 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Goals[edit]

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Yes. The main goal of this grant was the sustainability of the Wikimedia community in Bangladesh and to provide administrative support to operate within the legal framework of the government.

Outcome[edit]

The grant is not for organizing events or contest as we normally do rather it was an administrative and technical grant thus providing numbers to the outcome will be hard.

Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
Legal sustainability of the Wikimedia Bangladesh We've submitted our legal documents to the RJSCF and waiting for the final papers from the govt. organization After the local registration there are legal necessities for each non-profit organization to submit yearly reports to the RJSCF (Joint Stock Companies of Bangladesh). Since we incorporated, we hadn't have the resources to do that (E.g. paying the fees and other legal resources). Now, we've hired a local law farm for that purpose and we've finished the process.
Technical/online resources registered two domain under .বাংলা domain name and created a space for our community news magazine, Wikibarta. We've launched a new community run Wikimedia related magazine under our new technical resources and we are now able to serve the local volunteers with website space. When .bangla (.বাংলা) domain (domain name in Bengali character) was introduce for the first time, we registered two domain in Bengali character under Wikimedia and Wikimedia to protect the brand in Bangladesh. Now we have the capabilities to provide safe technical environment for our community members to use our blog, wikibarta site and the community members are regularly using them for their outreach purposes.
growth of the community There are 7 local communities under Wikimedia Bangladesh and we are able to initially form 3 more in the remote district in Bangladesh. Local communities are like user group under Wikimedia Bangladesh. They organize local events and promote Wikimedia projects locally (e.g. events like Bangla Wikipedia promotion where they gather in different cities of Bangladesh to observe International Mother Language Day. Wikipedians are normally stand in a public place with banners asking passersby to contribute to the Bangla Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects).
Increase of total number of wiki events We've seen that under those new communities, the number of offline events increased. Events like meetups, offline collaborations and workshops. There were 13 meetups, 5 photowalks in different parts of Bangladesh in 2018. There were also a number of workshops including one which was organized in a border town in Bangladesh.

Learning[edit]

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

  • What worked well?
During the registration of Wikipedia domain in Bengali, there was a trend in Bangladesh about it and we got a number of coverage from the press and we were applauded by the community members for doing so.
  • What did not work so well?
Since this was an administrative grant and a reimbursement, the hard part for the volunteer to spend the money from their own pocket. So, the timeline to complete the project have been fluctuated.
  • What would you do differently next time?
We will try to finish the legal processing timely to avoid late fees and bureaucracy given that we will have the proper funding on time.

Grant funds spent[edit]

Sl.No Item Quantity Rate Total (USD) Notes
BDT subtotal: 164,935.60
USD subtotal: 1,946.24 (BDT 1 = USD 0.0118)
EUR subtotal: 1,725.15 (1 USD = EUR 0.8864)
1 Mobile portable router 1 4980 BDT 58.76 USD (4980 BDT)
2 Premium DNS Hosting (2 years) 1 88 USD per year 176 USD
3 SSL Certificate (2 years) 1 54 USD per year 108 USD
4 Web hosting from SiteGround (3 years) 1 548.80 USD
5 Antispam Plugin (2 years) 1 30 USD
6 Membership management web extension 1 80 USD
7 Domain: উইকিমিডিয়া.বাংলা (10 years) 1 (4375 BDT) Discount offer
8 Domain: উইকিপিডিয়া.বাংলা (2 years) 1 (2000 BDT) 800 BDT per year + service charge
9 Domain: wikimedia.org.bd (2 years) 1 (3250 BDT) 800 BDT per year+service charge + late fee
10 Domain: wikipedia.org.bd (2 years) 1 (2000 BDT)
11 Domains total in USD 137.18 USD
12 legal necessities update with on RJSCF 684.40 USD (58000 BDT)
13 leaflets+pad+money receipts+visiting cards 123.90 USD (10500 BDT)

Remaining funds[edit]

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

No

Anything else[edit]

Anything else you want to share about your project?