Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Atudu/Wiki Loves Butterfly - Phase VII & Phase VIII

Travel photography grants

In general I think WMF should not be funding travel and photography, unless the travel has a potential of influencing a large number of people and is a one-time finite-length activity or if the photography or imaging is of an exceptionally valuable format - such as a complete 3D microCT model of a human that would help all medical articles.

• Certain kinds of work do not lend themselves to a project mode with finite time-lines - locating taxa which occur sparsely in time and space does not allow for finite length projects (the fact that this project is dragging on with increasing funds usage can also be seen in the light of a story well-known to Indian lepidopterists that in the history of Indian lepidoptera, every author who tried to create a comprehensive catalogue the butterflies of India died before it could be completed ... more generally almost no faunal or floral cataloguing is ever 100% complete
• I am sure photographers in every geography can directly donate images as and when they find interesting subjects. It is anway happening all the time.
• There are numerous other projects producing a lot of images but very little content - ie even with the photos, only stub entries could be created - see iNaturalist which has enough images now that Wikipedia is not able to make use of. Plenty of projects producing images of butterflies of India on Facebook, iNaturalist and places like iFoundButterflies. Also worth examining the work being done on several of the Facebook groups dealing with the butterflies of India - https://www.ifoundbutterflies.org/ - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=333
• It helps a lot more to influence the people who have already taken thousands of photographs on Facebook and other places into donating images. Perhaps by writing amazing featured articles and asking potential image donors for specific illustrative images to go with the text.
  • Note that entire NGOs are now contributing specialist content via projects as part of ongoing research - Some of us have directly or indirectly influenced organizations that we know and there have been fantastic outcomes - the NGO Nature Conservation Foundation for instance has put together a plan and have promoted the idea that their scientists should continuously contribute to Wikimedia Commons - see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:WikiProject_Nature_and_conservation_in_India

(Please note that I was not in great support even in the last edition of this project for the same reasons) - Shyamal (talk) 10:44, 14 October 2023 (UTC)

Proposal Feedback and Invite for Response

Thank you for submitting your application. After the review process please find the feedback - comments and questions below for your response;

• We see you continuing with your previous work and also recognize now that Wiki Loves Butterflies is now established in North East India and are keen to learn if there is a plan to implement the project in other regions of India.
• We are keen to learn what you see as the the gap year over year for the period you have implemented the project that inform continuous improvement and focus of the project.
• We are keen to also learn on how you are continuously informing and sharing with volunteer community on the value of the project to create opportunities for more people seeing opportunities to participate.
• We see an opportunity to open up your project to new audiences/knowledge fields including those related to citation and  especially for existing articles. What are your thoughts on this?Additionally, what is the plan of re-use of the outputs of the project.
• We are curious to learn on what partners you can work with to advance your work and who can benefit from your work and in a sustainable manner. For instance natural reserves.
• We are keen to understand your skills share and transfer plan? How is this happening beyond people of common interest?  We see an opportunity for other people interested on the subject matter having a path on learning about the program, and could benefit from your learnings and resources on how to operationalize the project.  

We highly recommend you get in touch with the regional program officer to support you in understanding the questions raised or if you find it useful to meet with the committee as well, please let them know and they can organize a conversation meeting.

Thank you and we look forward to receiving your responses to support us in the next steps. On behalf of the South Asia Regional Committee and Staff - VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 13:43, 31 October 2023 (UTC)

Thank you @VThamaini (WMF): for the fruitful conversation in the meeting. I am trying to give reply according to my best knowledge.

• With due respect to your valuable suggestion, I, on behalf of Wiki Loves Butterfly Project team management, would like to affirm that apart from our vivid butterfly documentation of the areas of West Bengal and the North East India areas, in the current phase, we have already included and largely documented in respect of butterfly and their life cycle, behavioral patterns and other important related matters in a new area of Odisha, in Eastern India. This year we have also visited Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh on own expenses to check the possibilities of expanding the project. We always believe in taking time, proper R & D and pilot projects before going to the main project.
• The most important gap which we have experienced is the lack of awareness among the general audience about the presence of several Wikimedia sister projects and the knowledge about how they are edited. Regarding content gap, we are still finding butterfly taxons from West Bengal and the north eastern part of India, the photographs of which are still not available on Wikimedia Commons for their live specimens. And thus our project is still bringing back valued images of those butterflies.
• We have published blogs on Diff regarding various aspects of our project. We are also planning to start a regular monthly online learning clinic at a specific time for the next few years, where the volunteers can join the call to interact with us related to the learning experiences of our team members with regards to the planning and execution of our program. We will request to include us in the Let’s Connect program, so that volunteers can interact with us there too.
• We are always interested in bringing researchers and experts on the field into our advisory team to bring more qualitative value to the project. We have built rapport with a few experts on the subject already in these last few years, who have provided extremely valuable suggestions whenever we needed. Regarding reuse of our project output, we have started working on publishing books about our work in different zones. The first book is already on the way of its making and more shall come in this upcoming phase.
• The WLB team is in collaboration with the noteworthy organizations and NGOs of the country working with butterflies, nature and wildlife. With all of them the WLB team organizes the countrywide celebration of Big Butterfly Month in September every year. We are also in collaboration with a wide spectrum of partners like the renowned scientific organizations of the country as well as the forest departments of different areas with whom we organize in a body the national level butterfly meets in different zones. Next year, we are also planning for a formal collaboration with the Butterfly Society of Dzongu, with whom we will focus on the state of Sikkim.
• We do have an active social media handling team continually informing, sharing and mentoring our (WLB) project and plannings and learnings to related special interest groups all over the country. To say in this context, like the previous year, this year too, we have co-organized the country-wide celebration of the Big Butterfly Month (BBM) in the month of September. As part of that, we have organized 5 successful butterfly photowalks in different areas of West Bengal and North East Indian states.

Moreover, we have already targeted a new audience i.e. the school children in the ongoing phase. We have started organizing a photowalk and workshop on the subject of butterflies and nature involving school children, mentoring and tutoring them about the world of butterflies and the ways and means of Wikimedia movements. In the proposed next phase, we shall try our level best to organize more such programs.

Thank you.Atudu (talk) 21:32, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

General Support Fund Approved at 23,193 USD

Dear Wiki Loves Butterfly,

Thank you for submitting your application seeking General Support Funds - Wikimedia Community Fund. The South Asia Regional Committee and Staff reviewed, discussed and deliberated upon your application and made the decision to fund you at 23,193 USD inclusive of fiscal partner fees  for the grant period 1st January 2024 to 31st December 2024.

Here are a few points to note:

• We are keen on seeing in this phase of implementation efforts that you include other Indic communities in the project. There are many formats in which this can take place, including open conversation / sharing online spaces, amongst others.
• We continue to see the opportunity of Wiki Loves Butterfly having a clear community engagement plan to continuously showcase the impact the project has and invite opportunities for value-add through collaboration.
• We hope to see this year, efforts to ensure sustainable ownership of the project by other relevant stakeholders, including those you have been working with.
• Share a plan on how you assess content gaps and your approach to addressing them using your model. - before implementing the new grant, share with the committee on the talk page - for community visibility.
• What is the current contribution of the experts so far, and what are the gaps you see in their contribution that could be supported, and what is the plan for closing/supporting them?
• We see a need to Include experienced experts who are Wikimedians in the team and hope this can be the case for this phase of implementation.
• We look forward to learning about the progress you make in our mid-year conversation.

We hope to continue having regular conversations over the course of your grant implementation. Do set up a regular schedule to connect with your South Asia  Programme Officer based on your needs.

The reporting requirements for the grant will shared in your grant agreement and on Fluxx. All reports are to be completed and submitted via Fluxx.

Once again, Congratulations! We thank you for your participation in the grant application process and hope to continue to journey with you as you embark on a new year of project implementation. VThamaini (WMF) (talk) 11:59, 15 December 2023 (UTC)