Grants:Project/WikiInAfrica/WikiFundi/Final

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Report accepted
This report for a Project Grant approved in FY 2017-18 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/WikiInAfrica/WikiFundi.
  • You may still review or add to the discussion about this report on its talk page.
  • You are welcome to email projectgrants(_AT_)wikimedia.org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.


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Welcome to this project's final report! This report shares the outcomes, impact and learnings from the grantee's project.

Part 1: The Project[edit]

Summary[edit]

In a few short sentences, give the main highlights of what happened with your project. Please include a few key outcomes or learnings from your project in bullet points, for readers who may not make it all the way through your report.

  • This project grant application was to ensure that the WikiFundi technical plateform achieves its potential as an effective tool to encourage new communities to contribute and thus get new voices, knowledges and perspectives heard on Wikipedia. The primary goal was to fix bugs and improve software features and delivery. The goal was basically achieved.

Project Goals[edit]

Please copy and paste the project goals from your proposal page. Under each goal, write at least three sentences about how you met that goal over the course of the project. Alternatively, if your goals changed, you may describe the change, list your new goals and explain how you met them, instead.

This project grant application was to ensure that WikiFundi achieves its potential as an effective tool to encourage new communities to contribute and thus get new voices, knowledges and perspectives heard on Wikipedia. This further development and scaling of WikiFundi was achieve the following objectives:

Fix existing bugs and make coding improvements that have been reported by the current users

The bugs have been fixed and many coding improvements implemented See on GitHub. The only elements not fixed either concerned issues with MediaWiki itself (and were beyond our scope but reported on fabricator) or improvements to bring to the Kiwix engine (also recorded for futur Kiwix improvement). This part of the project was completed with lot's of satisfaction.

Increasing the outreach, educational and training resources that are available on the platform

The big decision made whilst the project was ongoing was to actually release 5 different packages, providing wikifundi/its resources alone (in English, or in French, or both languages) or WikiFundi with numerous additional offline resources (English only, or French only). Whilst this make it a bit more complicated to communicate about, it provides many benefits. The main one was a huge decrease of software size (and hence easier download and less expensive SD cards to host it). To provide figures... in 2017, WikiFundi release was 196 GB and thus required 200 GB SD cards. This year, the lightest versions of the release are 15 GB and hence we recommend using a 24 GB card. The heaviest, which contains more resources than last year, can fit on a 120 GB.
New resources were added to the different packages

Increase the training experience of the users by adding interactive tutorials in English and French

We initially thought of providing on wiki tutorials. It proved to be... very complicated to implement (conceptually and technically) due to the offline specificities. We re-oriented this through 1) the simplification of the interface/navigation to make it more user-friendly and 2) by adding really cool set-up videos in French, English and Arabic (see on WikiAfrica youtube channel).

Meet with and develop a dissemination strategy with relevant partners working in the field of offline access to open source resources

This proved to be a complicated part... but a huge step forward was made in the creation of the Wikimedians offline Usergroup. Additional discussions did happen with various potential partners (during Wikimania Cap Town for example), some talks might lead somewhere at some point (eg, Libraries without borders) and we shall in any cases continue this conversation.
It should be pointed out that the technical development of WikiFundi proved to be more expensive than initially thought, and the additional funding necessary to pay the dev was found from Orange Foundation. Also, Orange Foundation has renewed its interest in the use of the tool through the second occurence of the WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique, which will take place in January/February 2019. This writing challenge proposes the use of WikiFundi by the kids of primary schools in 7 French speaking African countries to write content on Vikidia. As part of the contest, 2 training events took place in Tunis and Senegal in November 2018, which presentation and training to WikiFundi installed on Orange kits.
Last, we have set up a simple acquisition method for those who wish to actually buy the whole package (software+hardware+goodies). Obviously, the tool can also be retrieved for free and we made sure technical documentation be available to help.

Increase the communication reach and scope

What was initially planned was basically implemented: update of website (two languages), press releases (two languages), wide communication within the Wikimedia world and on social media.
WikiFundi was also presented during Wikimania, WikiConvention francophone, WikiIndaba 2018, a few local workshops and training sessions, and shall be presented during WikiIndaba when it happens, as well as possibly during WikiArabia... Still pending are a blog post on the Wikimedia Foundation website and a push on Facebook/Twitter with an explainer video.

Explore future improvements to the software

We believe the main improvement to the software at this point is likely to be the work done on async-wikis. This is under discussion amongst a few members of the newly-born offline Usergroup.
The other direction might be use of less expensive hardware, such as those used by WikiMed.

Project Impact[edit]

Important: The Wikimedia Foundation is no longer collecting Global Metrics for Project Grants. We are currently updating our pages to remove legacy references, but please ignore any that you encounter until we finish.

Targets[edit]

  1. In the first column of the table below, please copy and paste the measures you selected to help you evaluate your project's success (see the Project Impact section of your proposal). Please use one row for each measure. If you set a numeric target for the measure, please include the number.
  2. In the second column, describe your project's actual results. If you set a numeric target for the measure, please report numerically in this column. Otherwise, write a brief sentence summarizing your output or outcome for this measure.
  3. In the third column, you have the option to provide further explanation as needed. You may also add additional explanation below this table.
Planned measure of success
(include numeric target, if applicable) 		Actual result Explanation
Listed and fixed all bugs and made considerable improvements to the software Done
Released of version 2.0 of WikiFundi with updated documentation and an updated user guide Done
Released an explainer video Done
Acquired WikiFundi high satisfaction as to user experience (from feedback surveys with partners and users relating to WikiFundi V2 and its resources) partly done Software was just released... so no time really to implement a wide survey. But initial feedback from those who downloaded it/tested it was positive.
Attain higher viewership analytics of website and social media platforms unknown information not collected
International and continental media coverage of the project unknown information not collected
Successfully engaged a growing audience through a social media campaign unknown social media campaign not done (yet ?)
A number of new partners, hosting platforms and interested groups positive new version on Orange networks, Internet in the Box, Networks such as Michael Graff ones
Enthusiastic response and keen interest from the community and partners rather positive overall


Story[edit]

WikiFundi was the focus of a lightning talk. Here, Georges, Nfana and Florence posing with the posters)
Florence and Katherine Mayer (director of Wikimedia Foundation) at Wikimania Cap Town during the poster session
Picture taken during the Senegal training session for WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique, project using WikiFundi
Florence and Sophie of Les sans pagEs Med, presenting WikiFundi during Open Bidouille Camp in Aix-en-Provence. Back to the basics...

Looking back over your whole project, what did you achieve? Tell us the story of your achievements, your results, your outcomes. Focus on inspiring moments, tough challenges, interesting antecdotes or anything that highlights the outcomes of your project. Imagine that you are sharing with a friend about the achievements that matter most to you in your project.

  • This should not be a list of what you did. You will be asked to provide that later in the Methods and Activities section.
  • Consider your original goals as you write your project's story, but don't let them limit you. Your project may have important outcomes you weren't expecting. Please focus on the impact that you believe matters most.

I am happy with what has been produced (the software) and also happy the project is over :)

In retrospect, I realize that my initial timeframe was terribly optimistic (initially planned 6 months, turned out to be rather 11...). This was due for several reasons, in particular the fact that it turned out complicated to get a developer work on the project. I tried to get the African Wikimedian Devs involved in the project, but to my regrets, no one seemed to be interested or available to work on this project, in spite of it being mostly in support of that continent (this was discussed during WikiIndaba with Felix and Alangi, but did not bring in any dev). We could not find a Wikimedian to do it at first. Eventually, a friend in Lille suggested a contact, who agreed to work on it, but this is when the initial budget did not follow... (a non wikimedian in a developed country is more expensive). After his own job was finished, an old-time Wikimedian thankfully picked up the project to help on its last bug fixing and polishing weeks. So it turned out very well, but the first few months were a bit challenging for those tech reasons. I was clearly too optimist in my time frame. Well... now I know.

Some of my original plans did not turn out to be so easy to implement, or so useful. So we replaced them by other outputs which seemed more appropriate in the end (for example, the tutorials as I imagined them turned out to be to be wrong solutions, and were replaced by 4 hardware presentation videos in 4 languages). But eh... what is a project without a bit of flexibility ? I thought it turned out to be a super cool replacement and am glad it was done.

I wish I had spent more time trying to talk to potential partners; But at the same time... it was very difficult to invite a potential partner to adopt a tool, *before* the tool is actually available. Other partners were stuck into... restructuring, job position changes, holidays, other more urgent situations to deal with. So some contacts were put on hold and some must be reactivated. I expect this is not a closed story. I also sent several requests to attend some non wikimedian conferences to present the project and its educational uses. Two were turned down. Some are pending (such as participation to CC Summit). One happened (the local tech fair). One will happen (Ludovia, an education con in Switzerland in Spring).

Last, communication, at the time I am writing this report, is still pretty much in infancy. This has probably been my highest frustration during this project.

Survey(s)[edit]

If you used surveys to evaluate the success of your project, please provide a link(s) in this section, then briefly summarize your survey results in your own words. Include three interesting outputs or outcomes that the survey revealed.

We did not implement a survey.

Methods and activities[edit]

Please provide a list of the main methods and activities through which you completed your project.

  • Archive the V1 project on the Wikipedia page
  • Establish the list of bugs to fix, features to add, elements of improvement to plan
  • Then worked with Emmanuel from Kiwix on the tech roadmap.
  • Looked for someone to implement the tech part. Support him and communicate with Emmanuel
  • Worked on updating all the wiki pages to introduce on wikifundi, updating resources as well
  • Blog post on WMF
  • Release of a beta version for Wikimania;
  • Various presentations of the tool (eg, poster session at Wikimania. eg, lightning talks at WikiConference francophone and WikiIndaba. eg, tech fair at Open Bidouille Camp Aix en Provence. eg, training in Senegal and Tunisia)
  • Debugging, debugging, debugging... and fixing !
  • Creation of communication elements (in particular 5 videos to present hardware shoot during WikiIndaba2018)
  • Creation of the UserGuide, French and English
  • Various communication activities :
    • it was announced in Wiki in Africa newsletter in French (700 people) : 32% open rate
    • Announced in a Wiki in Africa Newsletter in English (1200 people): 22% open rate
    • a specific announcement to EN friends and partners (197) : 47% open rate
    • a specific announcement FR EN friends and partners (158) : 32% open rate
    • a specific announcement to offline friends and partners (44) : 34% open rate
    • + mailing lists such as Wikimedia-l, plus press releases in French (422) and English (284)
    • social media announcements (twitter and on Facebook https://tinyurl.com/y8ymrxwy )
  • Press releases in French and in English in December with an underwelming response rate...
  • maintain presence in the wikimedia offline community (offline list, offline Usergroup, async online meetings)
  • Successfully negotiating additional funding to pay the extra tech costs to Kiwix
  • Full update of the WikiFundi website, with new pages describing the project, explaining set-up, and free download/purchase propositions
  • Creation of the explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-_tisPvSk&feature=youtu.be

What is on a soon/perhaps/maybe/ongoing/future list

  • Purchase of WikiFundi leaflets (Florence recently used up the last ones she had) + printing of stickers (same...), and WikiFundi hats : will be done in January
  • Social media campaign:
  • Blog post on WMF was submitted to the WMF com team.

Project resources[edit]

UserGuide V2 - October 2018
Leaflet presenting WikiFundi at release. WikiFundi was first released early 2017
WikiFundi poster released during Wikimania 2018 for the launch of V2

Please provide links to all public, online documents and other artifacts that you created during the course of this project. Even if you have linked to them elsewhere in this report, this section serves as a centralized archive for everything you created during your project. Examples include: meeting notes, participant lists, photos or graphics uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, template messages sent to participants, wiki pages, social media (Facebook groups, Twitter accounts), datasets, surveys, questionnaires, code repositories... If possible, include a brief summary with each link.

Learning[edit]

The best thing about trying something new is that you learn from it. We want to follow in your footsteps and learn along with you, and we want to know that you took enough risks in your project to have learned something really interesting! Think about what recommendations you have for others who may follow in your footsteps, and use the below sections to describe what worked and what didn’t.

What worked well[edit]

What did you try that was successful and you'd recommend others do? To help spread successful strategies so that they can be of use to others in the movement, rather than writing lots of text here, we'd like you to share your finding in the form of a link to a learning pattern.

  • There was a lot of interest and desire to support. I appreciated for example, upon asking Georges, Erina, Samir, Afek and Zach to shoot impromptu videos during WikiIndaba 2018, that they agreed and spend over an hour on this. This was pleasant :)

What didn’t work[edit]

What did you try that you learned didn't work? What would you think about doing differently in the future? Please list these as short bullet points.

  • I did not implement that project in 6 months as planned. In the future ? Be more realistic
  • I was too optimistic with regards to developer budget. It cost way more than budgeted. In the future ? Realize that developers may be the only ones paid at normal prizes in the community sphere, because there is much demand and not a lot of offer. So be more realistic...

Other recommendations[edit]

If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please list them here.

  • I am glad the WMF got to support the Kiwix team. They were extremely useful in providing the tech-part of the project management. This is a practical good move and support to the community.

Next steps and opportunities[edit]

Screenshot from the INethi Network Master plan Project provided by Michaël Graff in November 2018.
Call poster for the WikiChallenge Ecoles d'Afrique, an education project using WikiFundi

Are there opportunities for future growth of this project, or new areas you have uncovered in the course of this grant that could be fruitful for more exploration (either by yourself, or others)? What ideas or suggestions do you have for future projects based on the work you’ve completed? Please list these as short bullet points.

  • I think and I hope others will work on an async approach (automated retrieval of content produced). [2], [3]
  • I do intend continuing on the communication and looking for partners for that tool. That's an ongoing process.
  • I might further explore the practical and cheap box currently used by James (he should test if WikiFundi could operate on those. It is not certain it can. We demonstrated that WikiFundi does not work on some less powerful Raspberries).
  • Most opportunities are in using the tool, with partners help.

Part 2: The Grant[edit]

Finances[edit]

Actual spending[edit]

Please copy and paste the completed table from your project finances page. Check that you’ve listed the actual expenditures compared with what was originally planned. If there are differences between the planned and actual use of funds, please use the column provided to explain them.

Link to the GoogleDoc with details : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1f9GkK2MkkhCGxgR-8eyu-3zejLMp2IOFlVY5x54WAPM/edit?usp=sharing

Budget notes

1. Full technical cost for WikiFundi dev that we had to pay to Kiwix was $9237, which is WAY more than originally planned (3000 dollars). This is due to several reasons, but in particular the fact that we had to ask help from an non-wikimedian developer, which on top of that was French (we hoped for Africans...). So, there was over 6000 dollars to find...
I reallocated the funds planned for tech support for tutorials to the tech development (1000 dollars), which I tried to manage alone... spend quite some time on those, and finally drop them as it revealed seriously more complicated than initially thought.
Then I found somewhere else about 1950 CHF to pay Kiwix (through another project funded by Orange Foundation). The rest was covered by contingency and cutting on some other expenses.

2. We still have leaflets and stickers to print... we'll figure it out...

3. Keeping track of expenses in 4 different currencies that oscillate widely is... complicated. The budget and grant was in dollars. Kiwix payments were in CHF. Florence invoices in euros. The rest in rands. Those 4 currencies fluctuated a lot in 2018. For example, just considering the payements done to Kiwix. Initially, it was supposed to cost 7000 euros. But it was invoiced in Swiss francs (8400 CHF) to the account in rands. With the fluctuations, we estimate that in the end, the cost of development was 9237,17 dollars. Crazy. And headache warrantied.

Ultimately, I truly consider that the actual spending is the one in rands.

Total budgeted : 23500 dollars
Estimate of total spent in dollars : $26,300

Total rands received in the bank : 316,000 rands
Total expenses so far : 340 000 rands, which include

  • Total expenses of the project supported by Wiki in Africa: 311,001 rands, to which we do intend to add some additional expenses in January for leaflets and stickers
  • Total expenses of the project paid by Ynternet.org in Swiss francs: 1950 CHF

In short... we went over budget due to the tech being so expensive, but we managed to save the day by 1) cutting on some of the other expenses and 2) finding some additional funding elsewhere.

Expense Approved amount Actual funds spent Difference
Project management 7200 7321
Communications management 2000 2000
Explainer video 1000 1004,08
Technical development 3000 9237,17 See budget notes below.
Tutorials 1000 0 was used to cover Kiwix payements
User and comms design 700 240
Social media 500 480,02
Translation 500 88,54
Website improvements 400 612
resources 1000 1000
Tutorials adaptation and development 2000 2140,29 was used to explore that option, then to shoot videos...
Partners meeting travel 800 352
Marketing materials printed 200 67 we are out of budget really. But we are also out of leaflets and stickers. So we will probably do some more printing in 2019 anyway...
SD cards 900 1063,11
Raspberries PI3 450 0
Shipping 300 0
transfer and currency 400 209,90 159,20 documented as of early December. Since then, 3 more wire transfer have been done, so really value is around 200.
Contingency 1150 417,31 portable hard drive (wikifundi is very space consuming); video tripod; Adobe Elements. Parking. The rest is used to cover Kiwix payements
Total 23,500 26,302


Remaining funds[edit]

Do you have any unspent funds from the grant?

Please answer yes or no. If yes, list the amount you did not use and explain why.

  • no

If you have unspent funds, they must be returned to WMF. Please see the instructions for returning unspent funds and indicate here if this is still in progress, or if this is already completed:

Documentation[edit]

Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grantsadmin(_AT_)wikimedia.org, according to the guidelines here?

Please answer yes or no. If no, include an explanation.

Confirmation of project status[edit]

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?

Please answer yes or no.

  • yes

Is your project completed?

Please answer yes or no.

  • yes

Grantee reflection[edit]

We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on what this project has meant to you, or how the experience of being a grantee has gone overall. Is there something that surprised you, or that you particularly enjoyed, or that you’ll do differently going forward as a result of the Project Grant experience? Please share it here!


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