Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Tech
The Rapid Fund program provides grants to small software development projects that support movement goals and community needs. The General Support Fund program supports applications that include funding for software development (technical) projects. This page provides guidance for software development projects in both funding programs.
Application process
[edit]Rapid Fund
[edit]Projects must follow the general process and eligibility requirements for Rapid Fund. When applying, select "Tech project" as the project type on the Rapid Fund form. Complete the form following these guidelines. Rapid Fund tech projects will be reviewed by Wikimedia Foundation staff from the Community Resources team and the Product and Technology department. Applications that closely align with the ongoing work at the Wikimedia Foundation may take longer to review, as they require more internal coordination.
General Support Fund
[edit]You can expect to follow the same General Support Fund process as usual, although the Wikimedia Foundation’s Product and Technology department will help Program Officers of Community Resources team to review applications that include tech projects.
We are experimenting by building on the existing General Support Fund application process. In the application form, there is a question asking about the categories of planned programs or activities (Question 9). Please select "Technology (software development)" and follow the instructions by completing a few additional questions. Provide the requested information for each technical project in your annual plan separately. Respond to the questions asked, include the current status of the projects and any relevant links to full technical plans if applicable.
General Support Funds Proposals that are primarily focused on large-scale software development are not eligible for review. To be eligible for General Support funding, software projects must both align with WMF priorities (including the Community Wishlist), clearly meet a local need, and align with the applicant’s overall goals and strategy. Applicants that propose a number of technical projects in their application might be asked to narrow their focus and select one main project to focus on. Proposals must include both: 1) a detailed implementation plan and 2) clear maintenance plan beyond the life of the grant.
Implementation
[edit]Rapid Fund and General Support Fund technical projects should focus on a specific technical component, such as an on-wiki gadget or a tool on Toolforge. Remember that improving existing code or translating an existing tool can be as impactful as creating something new. We will not fund projects that depend on review from Wikimedia Foundation engineering, such as creating a MediaWiki extension or changing MediaWiki's core code. Projects aimed at improving third-party tools must demonstrate clear and direct impact to Wikimedia projects. Focus your project on an achievable goal that takes into account factors such as available capacity for development and maintenance in the short and long term and that is not resource dependent with clear pathways for volunteer engagement.
Demand, community, and impact
[edit]Before you apply, discuss your project on-wiki with the relevant Wikimedia communities. If projects are likely to require significant community consultation, this consultation should have occurred prior to submitting the project proposal. Projects must show that they meet community needs and align with your team’s overall goals. To demonstrate community demand, we recommend starting with a real community-specific problem and providing a high-impact solution. Identifying these problems involves relying on surveys, listening sessions, direct outreach, and analysis of data (such as usage patterns, access barriers, and technical constraints) that are appropriate for local contexts and challenges and that, in combination, build signals of demand. Other sources of demand information include Phabricator, the Community Wishlist, and so on. Applications for technical projects must demonstrate clear demand signals from the local community.
To receive funding, the project must also demonstrate alignment with WMF priorities, including those expressed by the Wikimedia community through the Wishlist.
Security and safety
[edit]Projects must follow the Wikimedia Foundation privacy policy, security guidelines for developers, and API usage guidelines. Projects hosted on Wikimedia Toolforge or Cloud Services must follow the Cloud Services terms of use. On-wiki gadgets must follow any local wiki policies for user scripts and gadgets. Projects must not require a security review from the Wikimedia Foundation's Security team.
Code license
[edit]All project code must be licensed under an open-source license approved by the Open Source Initiative. On-wiki code must follow the local wiki's licensing policy.
We encourage all applicants to use either Gerrit or Gitlab as their code repositories. Links to those repositories will be required as part of project reporting.
Documentation
[edit]Projects must include a documentation plan. For resources to help you write documentation, see the documentation toolkit.
Implementation Plan
[edit]Projects must include a detailed implementation plan with clear timelines and milestones, as well as a plan for tracking progress. Once funded, we recommend using Wikimedia Phabricator for project tracking.
Maintenance
[edit]Projects must include a plan for maintaining their code in the long term without relying on additional Wikimedia Foundation funding resources. If applicants are unable to demonstrate a clear maintenance plan, the project will not be funded.
Staffing
[edit]Applicants must show that they have the skills and experience to complete the project. Include each contributor’s Wikimedia username and Phabricator handle in the application and when relevant, their username in code repositories (Gerrit, Gitlab etc.). Applicants must also demonstrate sufficient staffing to meet the project outcomes.
Budget
[edit]Projects should be cost-effective and aligned with local costs and rates. The budget breakdown should list all personnel costs, including the number of hours and hourly rate for each role.
Examples of funded applications
[edit]General Support Fund
[edit]Rapid Fund
[edit]Funded projects
[edit]Not funded projects
[edit]- Development of an external spellchecker without clear impact on Wikimedia projects and demand from the Wikimedia community.
- Development of a new iOS app.
- Maintaining a tool or application with proven impact whose maintenance requirements exceed the scope of the Rapid Fund.
See also
[edit]- MediaWiki development guidelines
- MediaWiki technical community communication guidelines
- Developing successful tools on Toolforge
- Toolhub – explore existing tools
- Codex – Wikimedia’s user interface design system
- Community Wishlist – requested developments
The Community Resources team at Wikimedia Foundation supports the Wikimedia Foundation Funds. We offer funding opportunities, guidance, and other resources to the Wikimedia Movement.