Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/WikiKaamatan 2024 (ID: 22458324)

Follow-up Questions from ESEAP Regional Funds Committee and Programme Officer

Hello @Jjurieee,

Thank you for your interest in the rapid fund programme. Your grant application has moved from the grant eligibility phase to grant review phase and it is undergoing the review process.

Would you be able to provide responses to the following questions? Thank you and looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards, Jacqueline on behalf of the ESEAP Funds Committee

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1) Would you be able to share a list of the key activities/ events you will be organising during the project and the proposed dates for these events? The timeline document currently maps the processes.

2) Would you be able to share your team's past experience in managing budget (similar to the grant request) and what type of support you may require from Wikimedia Community Usergroup Malaysia in grant or project management?

3) Could you provide more context on why your team is interest in preserving the Kadazandusun culture? How are you invested in the community?

Thank you. JChen (WMF) (talk) 09:27, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Hi Jacqueline, sorry for the delay but yes of course.

Here are all the answer for the questions required;

1. We made the timeline document with the activities that will be held on the proposed date that you can find in the link below.

[1]Timeline document with the key activities during the proposed dates for the event.

2. Our team's past experience with managing budget can be seen in the link below:

WikiBudaya 2023: Budgeting

As for the WCUGM we require their support in the grant and project management to:

• Assist in providing a more thorough clarification.

As a club officially established in 2023 with a membership of 35 individuals, we acknowledge that not all of us possess a deep understanding of the Wikimedia platform. Consequently, when faced with inquiries from visitors seeking detailed information about this volunteer movement, we may inadvertently provide incorrect explanations. Therefore, having the support of Wikimedia Community Usergroup Malaysia is crucial. Their expertise allows us to communicate information with precision and clarity, ensuring that there are no misunderstandings and that everyone gains a thorough understanding. Also, for the grant we need their consult in how to adjust the budgetting carefully for each programme that will be held.

• Provide assistance in addressing any conflicts that occur during the program.

During the two-day program, we'll introduce visitors to two projects: WikiCommon and Wiktionary. To manage this, we've devised an area division plan for each member group. For example, some members will be stationed in the KDCA Hall to document events and contribute to the Wikimedia Commons project. Others will be outside the Hall, either manning the booth or moving around to introduce visitors to Wikimedia, encouraging participation, and boosting edits on Wikimedia. However, we're concerned about potential conflicts among members due to our assigned roles. With WCUGM present, we believe the likelihood of this problem arising can be reduced. They can help to monitor members' activities and provide advice, helping to prevent conflicts.

• Monitor the smoothness of the program

Additionally, the WCUGM will oversee the program's smooth operation by monitoring contributions and information submitted to WikiCommon and Wiktionary platforms. This monitoring aims to ensure that the information entered is accurate and of high quality. WCUGM will serve as an immediate feedback provider, correcting any mistakes to ensure that the conveyed information meets the contribution targets set, which are 300 pages for Wiktionary and 500 uploads for Wikimedia Commons.

3. My team are deeply commited in preserving the Kadazandusun culture with the platform of Wikimedia because of the reason stated below:

As we know, the Kadazandusun language is one of the languages that faces many challenges in dignifying its language. The community knows this, especially by its own people, but significant efforts to dignify it are not very noticeable. Therefore, with the organization of this WikiKaamatan, it is hoped that the challenges faced can be overcome as best as possible. For clearer knowledge, the challenges faced by the Kadazandusun language ethnic group to keep this language from becoming outdated are as below.

The current generation is not good at speaking the Kadazandusun language. This is because the primary language used in speech is another language, which is not the Kadazandusun language. For example, the Kadazandusun community now uses Malay more in their daily speech even with their own people. As a result, the expansion of vocabulary in the Kadazandusun language could not happen because it was overwhelmed by the use of other languages. With the implementation of this WikiKaamatan, the Kadazandusun language can be introduced to others, especially for those who want to learn this language through the explanation of the facilitator on duty.

Lack of reference sources related to Kadazandusun culture. This is because all the knowledge related to the Kadazandusun language culture in the past was not recorded, recorded and documented so that the original knowledge at that time could not be passed down to the present generation. For example, traditional Kadazandusun poems that were given orally by experienced elders in the past are not inherited by the present generation because there is no solid evidence of the existence of the poem. Therefore, with the implementation of this WikiKaamaatan, it helps to some extent in delivering authentic information to the public based on the evidence that has been collected.

The attitude to learn the Kadazandusun language is taken for granted and not taken care of by the surrounding community including the Kadazandusun people themselves. We can see this in the younger generations of today where they do not care about the Kadazandusun language which is becoming extinct over time. For example, many Kadazandusun primary and secondary school students are not interested in taking the Kadazandusun language subject because it is difficult to learn. As a result, they cannot develop their knowledge about the Kadazandusun Language.

The parents themselves do not apply the Kadazandusun culture to their children from an early age. Parents nowadays tend to set aside the importance of Kadazandusun’s culture due to the modernization eras. They are afraid that their children may lag behind and by that they started to insert the current culture in the children’s life so that they can compete with others. In fact, this may cause their children to not be able to recognize their own tradition in detail.  For example the mother tongue, traditional attire, traditional food and many more. So this WikiKaamatan movement highlights the introduction of Kadazandusun’s culture to the young people present on the day, so that they know the real color of their own culture and raises the feeling of wanting to deepen the culture.

The Kadazandusun community itself does not care about the continuity of the heritage of the Kadazandusun ancestors from early on. In this point, it leads to the attitude of the Kadazandusun community itself. The point is that, although there are many other ways that can be taken to overcome every challenge to keep this language from dying out, the effort is still not enough if the community itself does not inspire its own people. For example, the community prefers to glorify the musical arts of other races such as the K-Pop world compared to Kadazandusun's own musical arts such as "Tongkungon" and also "Sompoton". As a result, the preservation of Kadazandusun's cultural uniqueness will be increasingly marginalized, thus increasing the risk of being forgotten until extinction. Therefore, it is hoped that the organization of this WikiKaamatan can open the minds of the people who see it to be equally aware of the importance of preserving the uniqueness obtained by the Kadazandusun ethnic group in Sabah.

In conclusion, through all these challenges, it can be clearly seen how important it is to keep this language from being lost to time. Among the most significant reasons in ensuring the preservation of the Kadazandusun Language is continuing the cultural heritage of Kadazandusun up to the global level, improve Kadazandusun language proficiency and ensure that the culture of the Kadazandusun language, which has various unique features, does not disappear over time.

To prove how invested are we in the community can be seen through the programme that we have held before where we held various programme such as:

• Wiktionary Workshop for Kadazandusun Language 2022: Have the opportunity to contribute 1730 Kadazandusun language vocabulary in Wiktionary Malaysia and able to launch a club named Kent Wiki Club at the Malaysian Institute of Teacher Education, Kent Campus, Tuaran that turns out the first wiki club in Malaysia.
• WikiGap 2023: 163 new women articles created in Kadazandusun Wikipedia Incubator.
• WikiBudaya 2023:Documented about cultural images to contribute to Wikimedia Commons for the first time round as Kent Wiiki Club and this rapid grant application will be bigger than this previous event and planned thoroughly.
• Wikimania 2023: Discovered how wikimedia is the best medium to preserve Kadazandusun Language and introduce it globally through Wikimedia platform by learning from the sharing and topics during Wikimania in Singapore. The conferences really opened the eye of the cub members on the full insight how we can continue preserving the Kadazandusun language.
• Wiki Ke Sekolah 2023: Documented the traditions and cultures of the community of the Kampung Bundu Tuhan and inserted to Wikimedia Commons and DTP incubator. Also, held a Wiktionary training with the primary school in SK. Bundu Tuhan and able to contribute more than 200 new words in Kadazandusun.

Jjurieee (talk) 15:44, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

Hello @Jjurieee,

Thank you for taking time to respond in detailed to the questions.

Here are some training resources which you may find useful as you continue to explore and grow within the Wikimedia movement.

[2]https://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/Training

If you require any support during your grant implementation phase, please feel free to reach out.

All the best!

Thank you.

Regards,

Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 00:56, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

Your grant application has been approved

Thank you for your comprehensive response to the follow-ups questions.

Congratulations! Your grant application has been approved in the amount of MYR 8,653 from 1 April 2024 to 5 June 2024. I have also added a budget line of 10% contingency for your grant.

Let’s continue having regular conversations over the course of your grant implementation. Please let me know if you require support in any way or would like to share your experiences with a wider community through the Let's Connect Programme or at ESEAP community meetings.

The reporting requirements and templates for the grant can be found here. Timelines for reporting can be found in your grant agreement or on Fluxx. All reports are to be completed and submitted via Fluxx.

We thank you for your participation in the grant application process and hope to continue to journey with you as you embark on this project.

Regards, Jacqueline on behalf of the ESEAP Funds Committee JChen (WMF) (talk) 01:04, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

Thank you so much Jacqueline!

Thats a very great news. I'll let my team know about this and continue to work on the process. Jjurieee (talk) 01:39, 4 March 2024 (UTC)