IIITH-OKI/Advance Train The Trainer 2025/Expression of Interest/Submitted/Tulspal
Basic Information
[edit]Wikimedia Username
[edit]Wikimedia Project(s) you primarily contribute to
[edit]- Wikidata
- Punjabi Wikipedia
- Wikimedia Commons
- Punjabi Wikisource
Active in Wikimedia since (Year)
[edit]- I have been an active contributor to Wikimedia Projects since 2022. I have been consistently active since then and have not taken any significant Wiki breaks.
Your Affiliate or Community Group (if any):
[edit]- Punjabi Wikimedian User group 2022 - present
Languages you work with (on-wiki or off-wiki):
[edit]- Punjabi: Native proficiency (used for contributing to Punjabi Wikipedia and for community engagement with the Punjabi Wikimedians User Group)
- English: Professional working proficiency (used for technical communication, attending conferences, and contributing to projects like Wikidata).
Have you participated in any Train the Trainer or similar Wikimedia training before? If yes, please mention the name of the event along with the year in which you participated
[edit]No, I have not participated in a formal Train the Trainer program before. The Advance Train the Trainer 2025 would be my first, and I am very eager to start my formal training journey with this opportunity.
Are you currently involved in any leadership, facilitation, or mentoring roles within the Wikimedia movement? If yes, briefly describe the imitative and your involvement in it
[edit]Yes, I have been actively growing into leadership and facilitation roles within the community. I took a leading role in organizing the Wikidata Birthday Meetup 2024 in collaboration with senior members of the Punjabi Wikimedians. My most significant facilitation experience has been serving as an assistant trainer for the Wikidata Training Sessions for the Santali Community, where I helped instruct new editors online. I have also delivered informal demonstration trainings for my local user group. These experiences have been invaluable, and I have also learned a great deal from challenges. During one of my early demonstrations, I learned the importance of structure and preparation by observing a senior facilitator, Satdeep. This experience was incredibly motivating and is the primary reason I am so eager to develop my skills further through a formal program like the ATTT.
Track Preference
[edit]Your preferred track during the workshop
[edit]- Track 1: Evaluation, Impact, and Data Storytelling
Which track are you most interested in and why?
[edit]I have chosen this track because it directly aligns with my professional skills as a data analyst and my goal of using data to tell compelling stories about the impact of Wikimedia's community programs.
Tell us about one Wikimedia program, campaign, or initiative you’ve contributed to in a leadership role
[edit]The initiative where I contributed in a leadership role was the "Wikidata Twelfth Birthday, 2024" event, which I organized and facilitated for the Punjabi Wikimedian User Group. As a primary organizer, I was responsible for onboarding new editors by providing a hands-on demonstration of Wikidata basics and guiding participants through the editing process. I used the Outreach Dashboard to manage the campaign, where we successfully edited over 1,000 items. This experience in direct facilitation and training was incredibly rewarding and is a key reason I am eager to build upon my skills in this program. link: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/users/Tulspal.
What skills or knowledge do you hope to gain from this training?
[edit]- Through this training, I hope to gain the specific skills needed to effectively measure and communicate the success of our community projects.
- My primary goal is to learn how to build a complete program evaluation. I want to move beyond simply collecting data to understanding how to structure it, analyze it for meaningful insights, and present it in a compelling way. Specifically, I want to master the art of data storytelling—transforming numbers and edits into a clear narrative that shows the true impact of our work.
This will be invaluable for my future contributions. I plan to use these skills to create "Impact Reports" for projects within the Punjabi Wikimedians User Group, helping us make better strategic decisions and showcase our successes. Ultimately, I want to be able to teach these evaluation skills to other members of my community.
Based on your selected track, what is one challenge you have encountered in either evaluating Wikimedia programs or designing impactful projects? Please share your experience relevant to your chosen track.
[edit]- The most significant challenge I have encountered, which is directly relevant to the "Evaluation, Impact, and Data Storytelling" track, is moving from basic metrics to a meaningful story.
During the Wikidata Birthday Meetup 2024 that I helped organize, we successfully tracked our progress on the Outreach Dashboard. We could easily see basic metrics like our total number of edits, which was over 1,000. While this number showed we were active, it failed to tell the real story of our impact. My learning moment came when I tried to explain the event's success to others. Simply saying "we made 1,000 edits" didn't communicate the value of what we did. Did we improve important items? Did we onboard new, long-term editors? Did we close a specific content gap? The raw number didn't answer these crucial questions. This experience highlighted a major gap in my skills. I realized that collecting data is only the first step. The real challenge, and the area where I want to grow, is in analyzing that data to create a compelling narrative that truly communicates the impact and value of our work. This is exactly what I hope to learn in Track 1.
How do you plan to apply what you learn after the event?
[edit]My immediate plan is to apply these new skills directly within my home community, the Punjabi Wikimedians User Group. I will volunteer to lead the evaluation efforts for our future projects. My goal is to use the frameworks from Track 1 to create clear, data-driven "Impact Snapshots" that demonstrate our value and help us make smarter strategic decisions. Building on that experience, my long-term vision is to develop and lead a new workshop specifically for university students in Punjab. This workshop will have two goals: first, to teach them how to contribute to data-rich projects like Wikidata, and second, to empower them with the data storytelling skills I gain from this program.
(Optional) Are you open to mentorship (either receiving or offering it)?
[edit]Yes, I am enthusiastic about both. I am eager to receive mentorship to guide my growth as a trainer and community leader, and I am also very willing to offer mentorship to newer contributors, especially those starting their journey on Wikidata.