Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Celtic Knot Wikipedia Conference 2019

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Application kept in draft[edit]

Thank you for submitting this new rapid grant request. I am leaving it as draft for the time being because it needs a few adjustments:

  1. Please note that the maximum grant amount for rapid grants is $2,000 USD. Please adjust your budget so that it does not exceed that amount. To calculate the sum in GBP, please use the Oanda currency converter[2] or let us know which currency converter you used.
  2. In the "Resources" section, please provide a detailed budget explaining how you would spend the grant funds to support travel for conference attendees, i.e. how many people would these funds support and what would they pay for (transportation, lodging, food, other?).
  3. If you have a Wiki user ID please add it to the application in the box on the right.

Many thanks, LSmith (WMF) (talk) 16:41, 18 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from WMF[edit]

Hello, Lethwas Uskis. Thank you for submitting your grant application and for your patience with our delayed review process. We have gone through your grant request and we have the following questions:

  1. Could you please elaborate on how you are plugged into the Wikimedia community since you yourself don't have a contribution record across the different Wiki projects?
  2. How are you reaching out to experienced Wikimedians for this initiative?
  3. What plan do you have in place to evaluate scholarship requests?

Regards, MMontes (WMF) (talk) 15:42, 15 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

1. I attended the first two Celtic Knot Wikimedia conferences in Edinburgh in 2017 and Aberystywth in 2018, and was encouraged by Jason Evans and Robin Owain to host the third Celtic Knot Conference in Cornwall in 2019, and Jason has helped in the preparation of the event and in its promotion.

Richard Nevell, Lea Lacroix and Daria Cybulska are providing advice on preparing the programme for the event. One of the aims in coming to Cornwall was to stimulate more Wikimedia activity in Cornwall and in Cornish, and to enable Cornish people to do this by holding workshops as part of the conference to share skills of those in more active communities. We see this as an enabling event, to enable a smaller language community to see and use the opportunities of Wikimedia, and to encourage a similar process with other small language communities (as I was in the workshop on Sami language Wiki at the 2017 conference).

2. I shall be including two existing Cornish language Wikipedia editors in the event, but I am focussing on showing non-users the opportunities and giving them the skills to start using Wikimedia in their projects. I have invited Delyth Prys and Dewi Jones from Bangor University to speak at the event - I met them through the 2017 Celtic Knot Wiki Conference, and they are helping us develop our online Cornish dictionary including use of Wikidata.

I have also contacted Vicky Jenner, the Wikimedian at the Penryn Campus of Exeter University and Falmouth University. We aim to hold an editathon in June (English and Cornish). My focus is Cornish language but Vicky will be using the Editathon and the Celtic Knot conference to promote use of Wikimedia generally at the campus and across Cornwall.

3. Scholarship requests will be assessed on the basis of a) presenting a talk/workshop that adds to the programme, b) additional travel costs by virtue of travelling from outside the UK, and c) no alternative institutional or company funding available. Expenses will only paid on receipt of evidence of travel cost etc, such as copy of ticket.

I acknowledge that we have a very low level of Wiki activity in Cornish/Cornwall but this is partly due to lack of knowledge of the opportunities of Wikimedia and how to use Wikimedia to its full potential. Having attended the previous two conferences, I have seen how other mid-sized languages are using Wikimedia and would like to bring that energy and expertise to Cornwall, and present it in a way that is useful to other small language communities.

Hello, Lethwas Uskis; thank you for your responses to my questions above. As a follow up, I want to request that you kindly link to the usernames of all the individuals you've added above. Whereas we understand that the spirit of this initiative is to ignite Wiki activity in communities where it is not yet happening, undertaking initiatives like this poses both logistics and technical challenges, and we want to ensure that the people who participate have experience both in hosting events and on Wikimedia projects themselves. Regards, MMontes (WMF) (talk) 15:39, 28 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]


Hi I'm not sure of all of their user names, but I've provided links to those I know and email contacts for the others, for now, while I find out their user names:

Jason Evans, National Wikimedia for the National Library of Wales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jason.nlw

Dr. Richard Nevell, Project Coordinator, Wikimedia UK richard.nevell@wikimedia.org.uk (User:Richard Nevell and User:Richard Nevell (WMUK))

Daria Cybulska, Wikimedia UK daria.cybulska@wikimedia.org.uk (User:Daria Cybulska (WMUK))

Léa Lacroix, WikiData Team lea.lacroix@wikimedia.de

Robin Owain, Wales Manager, Wikimedia UK (User:Robin_Owain_(WMUK) and User:Llywelyn2000)

Vicky Jenner, Digital Research Mentor, University of Exeter vj225@exeter.ac.uk http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/history/research/centres/ics/staff/jenner/


Here are three of the usernames: Jason Evans: Jason.nlw

Victoria Jenner: Victoria-Tess Jenner

Lea Lacroix: Lea Lacroix (WMDE)

Richard Nevell User name for work is Richard Nevell (WMUK) Username outside of work is Richard Nevell - active on the English and Welsh Wikipedias, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons.

Further comments from WMF[edit]

Hello, Lethwas Uskis; we are getting ready to approve your grant request. Please update the start and end dates on your grant, bearing in mind that your grant can only cover approved expenses taking place on or after the project start date. Regards, MMontes (WMF) (talk) 19:13, 31 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]


Project start date is 3 June 2019 Project end date is 26 July 2019

The event itself is on 4 and 5 July, so the project start is for detailed development and preparation, including confirming speakers from Europe and Africa. The project end date is to allow for processing of claims.

Grant request approved[edit]

Hello, Lethwas Uskis; thank you for your grant request and for the work you do for the Wiki movement. We are accepting your grant request and we are looking forward to finding out how this convening goes. Regards, MMontes (WMF) (talk) 16:37, 6 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]