Talk:Community Resources and Partnerships/India Rapid Project/Digitizing and Disseminating Cultural Heritage - a Pilot

Follow up on the project proposal

Hi @Pavanaja,

Hope you are well. Thank you for applying for rapid fund application. Before reaching a final decision, I have below clarifying questions related to the submitted project proposal:

1. How will you prioritize which cultural materials to digitize and upload first, given the extensive collection with PSSK? Also, can you quantify types of content you’d be degitizing and uploading in this pilot?

2. You’ve mentioned that the cultural materials documented through this project are of great importance to society. Could you elaborate on how the project will ensure that this value translates into tangible benefits for the wider community and how you plan to make these benefits inclusive and sustainable?

3. I believe traveling monthly to Udupi to physically bring back content to Bengaluru for upload seems too intensive and sometime may be inefficient. Would you consider involving community volunteers for tech support to assist in uploads, edit-a-thons, or metadata verification to reduce staff workload and build volunteer capacity?

4. Do you know who the Resource Person 1 and 2 will be? Will they be part of the user group?

5. How many new or improved articles in Kannada and Tulu are expected as a result of the edit-a-thon? Will there be new participants too? If yes, how are you planning to engage them in the content upload process?

6. If this pilot is successful, what would a scaled-up version look like? Do you intend to apply for a General Support Fund or other larger grant?

7. In your proposal, staff-related costs represent a significant portion of the overall budget and this might need a rework. Could you clarify how these costs were determined? Additionally, can you elaborate on how volunteer contributions are integrated into the project, and why certain roles were assigned as paid staff rather than volunteer-led?

Kindly share your response by Sunday, June 1. Looking forward to your response.

Thanks, Praveen PDas (WMF) (talk) 17:18, 27 May 2025 (UTC)

Response to the queries

Q1. Prioritization Criteria:

We will prioritize content based on:

Rarity and risk of deterioration – Materials in analog format (e.g., cassettes, manuscripts) that are at risk of decay.

Underrepresentation on Wikimedia platforms – Cultural forms with little or no representation on Commons/Wikipedia (e.g., Bhuta rituals, Tulu oral epics).

Legal clarity and immediate readiness – Materials for which copyright clearance and technical preparedness are already in place.

Diversity of format and theme – A representative sample covering video, audio, image, and document formats, as well as various cultural practices.

Quantifiable Outputs in Pilot:

Content Type Estimated Quantity (Pilot)
Audio Files (MP3) 300 files (folk music, Tulu oral narratives)
Video Files (MP4) 400 files (Yakshagana, Puppetry, Rituals)
Images (JPG/PNG) 300 (Murals, instruments, events)

Q2. Benefits to the community that are tangible:

Open Access: Content uploaded to Wikimedia Commons is made publicly available everywhere, removing financial and geographic restrictions.

Language Empowerment: Contributing to or editing Tulu and Kannada Wikipedia articles encourages the digital representation of under-represented languages.

Cultural Education: Teachers and students can utilise this content to create learning resources and curricula.

Creative Reuse: For cultural productions, documentaries, and narratives, artists and filmmakers can repurpose rare audio and video.

Measures for Inclusivity:

Local languages will be used for editathons and community events.

Participatory documentation is ensured through the involvement of local practitioners and folk scholars.

Multilingual metadata will be applied to the content to facilitate wider access.

Sustainability Measures:

Partnerships with local organizations and institutions (e.g., PSSK, Govt Women's College).

Use of open licensing

Q3. Yes, I completely agree that it's critical to empower volunteers. I do intend to engage volunteers in the following ways, even though the initial content handover necessitates a safe and confirmed physical transfer because of the analogue nature and fragility of some materials:

Support for Uploads: After initial piloting, trained volunteers may help with uploads.

Metadata Enrichment: Local language descriptions and translations of content can be provided by volunteers.

Edit-a-thon Facilitation: New editors will be mentored and events will be co-led by local Wikipedians.

I require a controlled and quality-assured process for this pilot. Volunteer participation will steadily rise, particularly in the areas of uploads, article production, and metadata.

I do have stable broadband connection at my house. I will be using this connection for uploading the content. I have not billed for this.

Q4. Yes, both Resource Persons have been identified.

Resource Person 1 is a media archivist who has previously worked with cultural documentation. They are an active associate of the Karavali Wikimedians User Group.

Resource Person 2 has prior experience working with digital audio/video editing and archiving. They are an active associate of the Karavali Wikimedians User Group.

Q5. Expected Outputs:

20–30 new/improved Wikipedia articles in Kannada and Tulu.

Topics include: Yakshagana variants, Bhuta traditions, Puppetry, and biographies of key cultural figures.

New Participants:

I aim to onboard 15–20 new editors, including students.

Engagement Strategy:

The participants will be trained in Wikipedia editing. Resource persons will facilitate the training.

Peer mentorship by experienced Wikipedians.

Participants will be recognised with certificates.

Q6. Yes, I plan to scale up based on pilot learnings.

A scaled-up version will include:

Digitization of contents available at PSSK.

Community digitization drives across coastal Karnataka.

Multilingual metadata.

Collaborations with academic institutions for research integration.

A full-time coordinator and a resource persons.

Integration of machine-readable metadata and structured data on Commons and Wikidata.

Future Funding Plan:

I intend to apply for a General Support Fund Grant.

I may also explore partnering with academic organizations.

Q7. Cost Justification:

The cultural materials are delicate and require specialized handling and domain expertise.

Staff roles (Program Manager, Advisor, Resource Persons) were assigned based on:

Need for consistent, accountable performance over 3–4 months.

Required technical and scholarly expertise in digitization, metadata, and heritage.

Time-intensive travel and coordination tasks (e.g., Udupi-Bengaluru trips, physical handling of tapes and manuscripts).

Payments are modest and benchmarked to local nonprofit compensation norms.

Volunteer Integration:

Volunteers will assist in:

Metadata tagging and categorization.

Article writing during and post-editathons.

We’re budgeting to build initial infrastructure and capacity, after which more roles will transition to the community.

This hybrid model of paid core staff + volunteer network ensures both quality assurance and community empowerment.

I hope I have sincerely addressed the queries. If you need more clarifications, please revert.-Pavanaja (talk) 15:36, 31 May 2025 (UTC)

Your project application is approved

Hi @Pavanaja,

I appreciate your response to the questions. We have completed the review of your application and the response you had shared to the questions we had asked. We are pleased to inform you that your request has been approved for the amount of ₹2,72,250.

Please note:

1. Given the nature of the Rapid project fund and this project being in the pilot phase, and in alignment with the volunteer spirit of the Wikimedia movement, we highly recommend the reduction of staff costs to reflect ₹17,000 (~200 USD) per month.
2. After careful review, we feel that one paid resource person should be sufficient for this phase. We kindly suggest limiting the paid engagement accordingly, with compensation capped at ₹17,000 (~USD 200) per month. It would also be inspiring to see more volunteers contributing to the project.

Please be sure to document your achievements and learning in the final report so others can benefit from your experience. We’re excited to see how this project unfolds and look forward to its future growth, potentially through the General Support Fund.

Wishing you all the best!

Thanks, Praveen PDas (WMF) (talk) 19:02, 6 June 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for supporting the project, albeit reducing the budget drastically. Since you have reduced the paid resource person from two to one, the deliverables will proportionately reduce. I have to provide with the modified budget also. Where do I make these modifications? In the grant application Meta page or in Fluxx?--Pavanaja (talk) 10:18, 1 July 2025 (UTC)

Dear Pavanaja,

Please feel free to share the updated deliverables with us. Thanks PDas (WMF) (talk) 08:22, 3 July 2025 (UTC)

I have updated the metrics with updated deliverables. I have also created modified budget sheet and linked. Please check. Thanks.-Pavanaja (talk) 11:29, 4 July 2025 (UTC)

Dear @Pavanaja,

The project extension is provided till 30th November 2025 as per the request. The final report submission date would be 31st December 2025. Thanks! PDas (WMF) (talk) 10:43, 12 November 2025 (UTC)