Grants talk:PEG/Alexandre Hannud Abdo - Grupo de Trabalho em Ciência Aberta/Encontro de Acadêmicos pelo Conhecimento Livre

Scope

The budget and idea is clear. The question is if the general "open science" conference is within scope of WMF. Judging from rough google translation of the program, the conference is mainly about open access in science, free licenses in general and various tools for scientist willing to publish in OA model. Wikipedia and Wikimedia related stuff is rather a minor, secondary theme of the conference... Polimerek (talk) 09:43, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Hi Polimerek! I think translating the program does not do justice to it, since it is mostly written in generic terms towards scientists. Also the translation doesn't seem to get the idea through, as OA is just one of the many topics.

In more detail, as I tried to convey in the grant request, we're going to talk extensively about - and in the workshops learn the practice of - the use of Wikipedia in classrooms (in the open educational resources section), about the use of Wikiversity in research and with classrooms (in both the wikiresearch and open educational resourcess sections), about free licenses and their importance to science and education (in both the the open access and the tools section), and about massive collaboration in the production of knowledge (in both the wikiresearch and citizen cyberscience section). So just there we have four issues that are at the core of the Wikimedia movement and will be extensively debated through most of the sections. Plus in the opendata section we'll talk about wikidata and in the tools section we'll talk about free software.

And perhaps just as important, we're making an effort to bring together scientists countrywide who have autonomy in their research and influence in their universities, that already have affinity and in most cases already make some contribution to the free knowledge movement, many within the wikimedia projects. These people have been working mostly in isolation, specially those outside the main city centers, and by bringing them together we'll spur a new kind of force that can greatly enhance the use and production of free knowledge, and the incorporation of the projects of the wikimedia movement - and what I see as much more important its values - in Brazilian universities and research centers.

As I contacted these people, individually, they all got excited about this idea, and it's precisely the deep cultural change Wikimedia projects benefit from. On top of that, if the WMF supports the meeting financially, it sends a really good signal that increases the chances they'll decide to include Wikimedia projects in efforts they'll chose to promote. In any case, we really want these people to feel they're a part of the Wikimedia movement.

Afterthought:

Finally, but this should not matter to our present discussion, for which what I said above should suffice, I'd like to say that open science, unlike other movements which we've discussed here like creative commons, is itself at the very core of wikimedia's mission. We should contribute, of course, not by funding science projects themselves, but funding the transition towards open through outreach and learning. Every research journal that moves to a free license is material that can be immediately incorporated by Wikimedia projects. Every scientist that decides to use free knowledge in their classes will inevitably be using Wikipedia as a resource and spurring contributions or at least valuable material to be incorporated, and will be opening doors for Wikimedia's university programs. Every bit of collaborative culture in science indirectly but greatly contributes to our goal of making scientists understand and contribute to the Wikimedia movement. As does every research project that works openly, and even better if it uses Wikiversity or shows us how this project should improve to become attractive, or opens its data, which in time might become, if useful, source material for wikidata.

To make a parallel which I find to be eye opening, when we work with GLAM, and fund this work, we're more than satisfied if those institutions adopt free licenses and formats so we can import their material. We mostly use the Wikimedia projects as a showcase, not as a workplace for them. Then we try to talk them about displaying or linking to the Wikimedia projects. By comparisson, practically any work that goes by the name Open Science already does that, and often more.

Thanks for you thoughts Polimerek, it was good to see the need to clarify it, and anyone else for reading this, it was a pretty long reply... sorry.

--Solstag (talk) 15:56, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Measures

Hello there :) The measures of success are unfortunately hardly "measurable" ;). Could you add to: "Number of people who participate in the meeting. Number of people who participate in the workshop. Number of institutions represented in each." an actual number? You mention elsewhere that 21 people have committed to this event, maybe use that as a basis for giving an actual forecast of what could be a good measure of success. Also, the third part "Number of institutions represented in each" is not clear. What does each refer to? I thank you for clarifying these points. On the point raised by Tomasz, I tend to think that anything going towards making more material readily available for Wikimedia Projects, and serving our goal of making free knowledge available to all actually serves our goals in the long run, so is a fit to the mission. notafish }<';> 13:12, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

Hello! Thanks notafish, you are right there were no targets. I think I meant measurable in the sense that I could put them into comparable values, but I forgot to provide goals. I fixed it now, thanks a lot and for your considerations. =) --Solstag (talk) 19:09, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Thank you. Have you sorted out the "second project lead" person? (it still stands as "or" in your proposal? Just for the sake of completion ;). On the whole anyway, I feel this could be an interesting project. notafish }<';> 13:38, 4 May 2013 (UTC)

Also, since you state that impact on Wikiversity is "certain", would it not make sense to include one or more metrics of actual contributions to Wikiversity by participants in the event, measured 3 to 6 months after the event? Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 23:31, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Asaf, regarding wikiversity impact, I have added a new measurable and targets. Thanks for that. And I'm glad to let y'all know that two research groups I've been reaching out to regarding this working group and meeting have already started Wikiversity adoption (gpopai with a research project for undergrads and atopos with research organization and some material) =D --Solstag (talk) 19:09, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

Please confirm project start date

There are 2 project start dates listed on this grant submission: 7 June 2013 and 10 May 2013. Please confirm the correct project start date and update the grant submission accordingly. Thank you! Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 20:21, 7 May 2013 (UTC)

Done, it changed and I obviously did not notice the form has this listed twice! Thanks, --Solstag (talk) 21:20, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Solstag! And, yes, this is a mistake on the form that we've since corrected :) Cheers, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 17:36, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Request changes to project budget

Posters

The pretty poster we are printing.

Hi, I tried to find the button to request changes to this project budget, as explained here, but I couldn't. Then I'm making the request here.

I'd like to know if it is possible to reallocate part of this fund, that won't be used, to print banners posters to spread around some universities, mainly University of São Paulo. Is that possible?

The price would be about U$ 120-150 for that. Thanks! --Tom (talk) 20:17, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for making your request here, Tom. We will need a revised project budget so we have an idea of what part of the budget the unused funds are coming from. See, http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Index/Request_changes_to_project_budget. Thanks again, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 20:28, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

They're coming from the travel budget (see what I mention in section 'Hotel' below), should I update the table now or as soon as this is accepted? --Solstag (talk) 20:31, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

The posters cost was 215 BRL (~ 100 USD), less the initial estimate above. I told it was for a not for profit and the girl made a smaller price. The printed posters were wonderful and useful, people liked it a lot. --Tom (talk) 23:07, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Hotel

It seems we won't be needing all the resources we requested for transportation, as some people managed to be funded by their own institutions and one had to cancel. Besides the posters mentioned above, which is a small amount, we'd like to use the exceeding resources from this item to reimburse people who will pay for accommodations themselves. Thank you, --Solstag (talk) 20:31, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Typo

There was a typo in the budget, the item is "Equipment services". It states a total cost smaller than the the cost per unit. Fixing this would increment the total budget by 150 BRL (~75 USD). Instead of incrementing it, we'd be fine with just relocating from the funds for travel - which we already know are above our expenses - for this purpose. Thanks again, --Solstag (talk) 20:57, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Catering

We ended up having one additional meal on Saturday night, so participants wouldn't leave the event hungry. I'd like to know if it's all right if we cover for that with the leftover budget from Friday's meals. KTX, --Solstag (talk) 23:02, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

Approved

The above requests are approved. Asaf Bartov (WMF Grants) talk 19:51, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Website for the event and reaching out

Hi, just to keep you up to date, you can check the website we have created for the event:

• http://www.cienciaaberta.net/

and we are reaching out to several places, like the OKF Brasil website and other places with people we want to engage. We will report everything later, but just letting you know. :) --Tom (talk) 21:01, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the update, Tom! Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 17:43, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

The site was prepared for the event and now we are updating it. --Tom (talk) 17:52, 14 June 2013 (UTC)