Grants talk:PEG/WM ES/Wiki Loves Monuments Spain 2014

Tony1 comments and queries

Hi, thanks for the submission. The project start date was two weeks ago: could you please change this so that it's not retrospective? I suggest 1 October, or late September. Tony (talk) 03:52, 6 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi Tony. I changed the date to October 1st, but actually we started our work before. --Millars (talk) 23:46, 6 September 2014 (UTC)

Millars, thank you. Perhaps the fault lies with the application form which does state "This is the date you begin work on your project." Perhaps it should be "This is the date you would need to start spending any funding if the proposal is approved." Staff might be able to tell us whether that's actually what it means. I think the issue Polimerek and I are concerned about is undue pressure put on the grantmaking process when either (a) people spend money in the expectation of recompense (not the case here); and/or (b) the pressure put on reviewers and staff to approve a project because volunteer effort has already gone into starting it already.

Hi Tony, the language has been updated in the new grant submission form. You need to look at "edit source" under the probox for the detailed instructions. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 19:53, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

It's a small budget, and a worthy cause—I wouldn't mind if you asked for more, as long as it's not spent on the dreaded t-shirts. Better prizes? Cash? A few points:

The proposal mentions both the photo and the new writing contests, but doesn't present any details about the writing contest. What are the expectations, how will it be judged, and on what criteria (criteria are important).

Measures of success: great to have this numerical detail. May I ask whether your estimates are based on the three previous years of photo comps? There's no breakdown between photo and writing participant numbers.

You mention press coverage. Are you writing press releases, and if so, do you have someone to write and distribute them for maximum effect? This is a matter we might be able to help with, but my planned "Learning pattern" hasn't been started, and nor will be in Spanish (anyone care to volunteer to translate it?).

How to optimise the quality of photos (and article improvements/creations) is not mentioned in "Measures of success".

Activities: "Promote the contests online and offline" – seems vague.

No details of the jury: who will they be, and who will select them? The book (please, what is "Wikipedia de la A a la W"?) seems a bit flimsy as a gift for all that work (am I right? The prizes are confusing), and I'm disappointed that quite a lot of prizes will be just this book (shipping is 5 euros, cost of item is 12.5 euros? Hmmm.) And will you allow the first three winners to cash in their prize? Do you have a sponsorship deal for the prizes? That might allow you to boost their value and number.

Team: "and others" ... could you guess how many you need, and perhaps in (parentheses) after each person, the role?

Quality—a big issue, in my view. You write of improving quality, but no strategy for this is explained. Will you offer training for photographers and article writers? (Perhaps our related learning patterns need to be translated into Spanish? Could you tell us of any specific needs for more learning patterns that you might have?).

"improve the quality and increase the amount of articles about Spanish monuments in different languages in Wikipedia"—are you sure you want to commit to improving relevant articles on the Polish and Arabic Wikipedias? Could you be specific, noting the volunteer resources you have at hand in other languages? I have no problem if it's in Spanish alone—that is challenging enough.

Memo to staff: "Every year we learn something new and improve our skills and projects" is not useful for us. Can the new form encourage people to write less under "strategic priorities"?

What is WLPA? (we shouldn't have to ask!) Tony (talk) 13:48, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Yes. When we read “This is the date you begin work on your project." we shouldn't write October, because we started in June looking for a partner. There is another side, also the volunteers in WMES have a pressure working in a project, the problem here was that there were a deadline and we can't change it.

You can find information about the writting contest here User:B25es/Monuments of Spain Challenge. Some detail can be changed till October, but the main points are there. Like Umepedia, Catalan challenge and other. The contest is simple in structure, based on a KISS point system: You get points while improving articles, with the goal for each participant to gain as many points as possible. There will be not jury, only supervision.

Yes, the figures were estimated on the three previous years data and the trend for the photo contest. The figures for the writing contest were based on other previous similar contest on meta or Wikipedia.

You can find the press releases in our blog [1] This was send to near 800 different medias. By now, La Sexta (TV coverage), eldiario.es, El Periodico, rtve.es and others have written about the contest (near 50 mentions, but this would be at the report in case the gant will be aproved), and some relevant twitter accounts have mention it.

We accept all photos uploaded of listed monuments and with the code and a valid license, so we can't optimize the quality of the photos uploaded. The creation and the expansion of an article is the target in the writing contest, we are not looking for FA this year (but they would be welcome).

We have some offline activities this month, and there we can talk about both contests and invite people to participate in them. Online promotion is done via Twitter, Facebook, Blog, press release, mailing lists.

The jury was selected by myself. We plan to update the website with this information in a few days, but the jury is already selected. It's formed by Jm Valde (photographer), Carlos Delgado (wikipedian and commonist, also jury in 2012), Jacinto Heredia (expert in art and history, member of the jury in 2012 and 2013), Montse Sáez (wikipedian) and Fernando da Rosa (president of WMUY, photographer and wikipedian, and member of the jury of WLM Colombia 2012). Tony, the book is the only one about Wikipedia in Spanish. It's a way to give a gift and do outreach. As you can read, for the jury we'll give the book and a t-shirt. If you think it's flimsy we can increase the gifts, but I'm shocked because you propose it and then you seem against the expenses. The first three prizes are listed in the table. We have a sponsor for the first prize and an special one, best photo of a Parador (valued in 250 € each one), and another sponsor who will give some books to the winner of the best photo from St. James's Way in Aragon.

We don't have defined roles in the team, but it's true that each one works in one section. We don't need more people, but the others is because other WMES members did something.

If we get 10000 pictures, I'm sure the quality of the illustration of Wikipedia articles about monuments in Spain will be improved. As I said, we accept all images.

Of course, in Arabic, in Polish and every languages. We offer the opportunity. It's a contest, if someone wants to participe, it's great, if not, it's a pity. We didn't ask for volunteers before the contest. Why do you mention Spanish? Wikimedia Spain is not based on Spanish language, and in Spain 8 languages are spoken. We have members who speak different languages (I don't speak Spanish at home for example), but the contest is not for Spanish people or WMES members, it's for everyone.

WLPA is Wiki Loves Public Art.--Millars (talk) 17:04, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Millars, I see that the staff have approved funding. My best wishes for a great event. Please let us know in the report what your team thinks were the weaknesses and strengths of the event in terms of (1) output quality, and (2) organisation. Best. Tony (talk) 10:07, 11 September 2014 (UTC)

We'll try to show them at the report. Thank you. --Millars (talk) 19:23, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

Polimerek comments

The idea is absolutely OK, but the problem is that this project has just started in fact. The other thing is budget: If the tablet won't be bought the difference with amount is over 20% of the overall budget + there is also 15% for unforeseen expenses. So, it means that your budget can be changed by 35%. The general recommendations for GAC grants is that they can vary by maximum 10%. Polimerek (talk) 12:22, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

The project has started, of course. Where is the problem with that? If the tablet won't be bought, then there will be money to return to the WMF or to be relocated in a new grant. We asked to Alex Wang what to do with this item and her recomendation was to keep it in the budget. The 15% is for unforessen expenses or if an item cost more two months after the grant was aproved. We know that expenses over 10% more than planned must be aproved. One thing is ask for aproval for this 15% and other is ask for the aproval, for the money, and send it. The 20% of the tablet can't be used in other item than the tablet, so it doesn't affect the other items of the grant, if the tablet won't be bought, then, we don't use this amount. --Millars (talk) 16:14, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Well, normally, people apply for grants before the start of the project. Thank you for explanations regarding budget. If WMF is happy with such non-precise budget, so there is no problem... Polimerek (talk) 08:20, 20 September 2014 (UTC)

Hello Polimerek. I read now my answer and it sound a bit hard and non polite, so I'm sorry. I understand that the logical thing is asking for the grant before starting the project, but in this case that was not possible. We'll try to do it in the future. --Millars (talk) 19:22, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

Awards ceremony

Hello everybody. Last January Wikimedia Spain organized an awards ceremony for Wiki Loves Monuments 2014 in the Parador of Alcalá de Henares, former convent of Saint Thomas.. Paradores was a partner for WLM 2014 in Spain and also will be for Wiki Loves Earth in Spain and Portugal in 2015. We paid the ceremony with the funds we have from members fees. But there are funds remaining from this grant and we talked with Alex Wang and she said we can ask for it. This was the first ceremony we organized since 2011 and we took it as a prove for next events. Paradores let us the place for it and snacks, and we paid for a lunch, a hotel for one winner and travels for one winner and some volunteers to Alcalá de Henares. The total amount was 252,16 €. We have the invoices for the lunch, the hotel and train tickets, but not for car trips (we calculated them as 0,19 €/km as we do in every trips by car for volunteers). In that ceremony Diego Delso, the first winner, gave a talk about Wikimedia Commons (the same he gave during Wikimania London, and also he'll give it at Wikimania Mexico City). The event was attended by the winners of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th and special prize. You can find some pictures of the ceremony at this Wikimedia Commons category. So, we ask for paying that from funds remaining in this grant. Could it be possible? Thanks. --Millars (talk) 11:48, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

Hi Millars. Thank you for the explanation of this request. It is approved. In the future, you can request changes to the budget/activities on the discussion page of the grant. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:10, 27 April 2015 (UTC)

Thank you very much. We already know it for the future. --Millars (talk) 16:47, 27 April 2015 (UTC)