Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia User Group Nigeria/Wiki Loves Monuments 2016 in Nigeria

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Hi Olaniyan_Olushola. Thank you for this grant request and your efforts to organize WLM in Nigeria! We are excited to support this activity, but have a few questions before we can move forward with approving the request.

  1. Do you know how many official monuments there are in Nigeria? Or in the city where most of the photowalks will take place? This will give us better context for assessing your measures of success. You've set goals of 1,000 photos and 13 monuments. That is approximately 77 photos/monument, which seems quite high. It's most important to get quality photos, not a lot of photos.
    Thank you for seeking more clarification on our request. There are 63 officially declare National monuments by National Commission for Museum and Monuments in Nigeria (NCMM). These monuments span across the 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria. The photo walks will take place in South-west Nigeria and there are 13 monuments in this zone located in Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Ondo state.Our opinion on the 1000 images is based on the fact that each photographer may take many shots in different direction for each of the mentioned monument. We will appreciate your suggestion in this regard. Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 20:40, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Please provide more details for the budget line items. For example, how many people do you expect to attend the photo uploading workshops and photowalks? What are the expenses included in these activities?
    More details on the budget breakdown has been provided in our proposal. Thank you . Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 20:40, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Here are some good resources on planning a photo competition, including learning patterns on improving building photography and photographing your local buildings, and a photo contest toolkit.

Looking forward to your responses. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 18:35, 8 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for pointing us to these resources, they will be very useful for this project.Warm Regards. Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 20:40, 12 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Olaniyan Olushola . Thank you for the responses. We have a few follow-up questions.
  1. Please confirm that there will be 4 photowalks with two people per walk. That is what we understand from the budget breakdown. These photowalks will cover the 13 monuments that are located in the Lagos area.
    Thank you Alex Wang (WMF) for this reply to our request There will be 4 photowalks, 2 coordinators and 2 community members. The 13 monuments are not located in Lagos State alone. The 13 monuments spanned across 4 states in Nigeria comprising Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Ondo states Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 11:45, 1 September 2016 (UTC).[reply]
  1. It sounds like you plan to cover 13 monuments with the photowalks, and your metric for the number of monuments covered is also (at least) 13. What is your best guess at a more ambitious target considering your outreach efforts and hope that other people with participate beyond just those that attend the photowalks? 2,000 USD for number of people/photos proposed is quite a lot so we would like to understand how conservative you are being with your measures of success.
    Our best guess at a more ambitious target is 40 contestants. Considering our outreach efforts, we could have more contestants but if at least 40 people participates (at a more ambitious target) there is tendency that each participants will upload at least 2 photos per monuments to common. This means that at least 1040 (40x2x13) photos would be uploaded to common for the 13 monuments. We have reconsidered the metrics and set a goal of 500 photos. We proposed that at least 25 people will participates in the contest. If 25 people participates in the contest, there is tendency that each participants will upload at least 2 photos per monuments to common, which means 650 photos (25x2x13) would be uploaded to Common. We understand that not all the participant will visit the 13 monuments, hence we have proposed at least 500 photos for the 13 monuments.
  1. As I mentioned above, 77 photos/monument is a lot of photos even if you photograph all of the details and angles. I would reconsider this metric.
    We have reconsidered the metrics and set a goal of 500 photos. We proposed that at least 25 people will participates in the contest. If 25 people participates in the contest, there is tendency that each participants will upload at least 2 photos per monuments to common, which means at least 50 photos/monuments and for 13 monuments, 650 photos (25x2x13) would be uploaded to Common. We understand that not all the participant will visit the 13 monuments, hence we have proposed at least 500 photos for the 13 monuments Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 11:45, 1 September 2016 (UTC).[reply]
  1. What type of follow-up do you plan to do with participants after the contest?
    The follow up we plan to give the participants are more of guidance and encouragement to continue to contribute their "own work" to Wikimedia Common. In a telephone conversation, some of the participant have shown their willingness to continue to contribute provided we will teach them how to freely license their work to Common. The workshop under the contest will take care of this and we will continue to mentor them thereafter.Also, majority of the confirmed photographers are from associations therefore our plans is to establish a very strong relationship with them through their executive as a way of future works with them. We are also not ruling out possible future event where we can also access the activities of these group of people , a very good instance is the Annual Wiki Loves Africa. Which is also a photography event.Olaniyan Olushola (talk) 11:45, 1 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Comments on approval[edit]

Hi Olaniyan_Olushola. Thank you for your detailed responses above and for reconsidering some of your goals and metrics. We realize this is the first time for the user group to organize a contest like this and it is an experiment! Hopefully there will be some good lessons learned for developing more photo projects in the future. Developing partnerships with photography associations is a great way to increase the quality of submissions and get more folks involved in other contests, like Wiki Loves Africa. Training for them and follow-up will definitely be important. Good luck and looking forward to hearing how it goes! Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 17:23, 2 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]