Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Wikimedian in Residence - G.K. Rijeka 2020

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Comments from I JethroBT (WMF)[edit]

Hi Kristian_Benić, and thanks for your proposal for these Wikimedia in Residence activities in Croatia. Here are my comments and questions:

  • There are conflicts in your proposal between your notice (NOTICE: All activities during pandemic will be exclusively online.) and your planned activities including planning offline events, scanning, bringing Wikimedians on-site to work with staff on content creation and improvements, and organizing communal edit-a-thons in Rijeka and Croatia. We will need some clarification from you that addresses this conflict, otherwise we will not be able to fund your proposal at this time. Unfortunately, we are unable to fund proposals that depend on any offline activities in the future, as there is too much uncertainty in predicting the future risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic at this time. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 15:33, 29 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    • Thank you for the feedback! Correct - we will indeed Plan events, including online and offline ones, but will not execute offline activities, until the ban is suspended. Instead of offline events we will do activities online. Scanning will be done individually by people who are able to do this on their own.Kristian Benić (talk) 06:05, 30 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
      • @Kristian Benić: Thank you. For clarity, can you specify what events / activities from the Project Plan section are possible to do online and which you will be waiting to conduct offline? Could you also let us know the username of the Wikimedia educator named in the proposal (M. Bozicevic)? I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:23, 18 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
        • Hi @I JethroBT (WMF): actually I suggested Miran Bozicevic, as he was a former colleague at Multimedia Institute in Zagreb who informed, educated and researched Wikipedia in mid 2000s in Zagreb, but he is now living, teaching and researching in USA and will only advise remotely/online (until better times to vacate back in home country). This is his better known research paper and he goes by ~Miranche --Zblace (talk) 05:40, 19 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
        • @I JethroBT (WMF): On the other topic - All of 3 meetings, 1 workshop, 1 public event, 1 Edit-a-thon and 1 scanning activity can be done online or with a single person at the time (like scanning). --Zblace (talk) 05:45, 19 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
        • @I JethroBT (WMF): Indeed. There is no reason not to do it online, it is just that situation in Croatia (and immediate region) is much better than in most EU and radically better than in USA, so our preference is to do at least one activity in person - even if it is outdoor (distanced) photo walk as an in-person community building activity. --Kristian Benić (talk) 06:29, 19 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
          • @Zblace and Kristian Benić: Thank you for these clarifications. I understand that your preference would be to conduct one in-person activity if possible, and that the Croatian government has eased on social distancing measures. While we have been funding photo competitions where participants can go out to take pictures individually in some communities, we have not yet been funding group outings for photowalks, even when social distancing is observed. Risks around COVID-19 resurfacing as social distancing policies are relaxed are also a concern. I will therefore request you 1) refrain from these activities at the start of your grant, but that it may be possible to conduct them later on in the grant period, and 2) that you contact with us regarding when you would like schedule this group outing with us at rapidgrants(_AT_)wikimedia.org for confirmation. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 16:53, 22 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
          • @I JethroBT (WMF): Thank you for your trust. Yes we will keep in

touch! --Kristian Benić (talk) 16:32, 24 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]