Microgrants/KFC

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Overview

KFC is a leading fried chicken led fast food chain. I am responsible for getting the KFC Wikipedia page to GA status. I am trying to get it to FA status, but leading on to my second FA review now, I realise that my lack of first rate sources is holding the article back. I have exhausted all the articles and books available freely on Google Books, Amazon preview, LexusNexus, Jstor, Project Muse, online newspaper archives (FT, NYT, Economist, Times, Guardian), Questia, HighBeam etc. I need to buy some books. These books all very niche, and are not available in my local university libraries, let alone civic libraries. I know that the British Library has copies of the books I want, but as I live in a rural area in the North of England, travelling there and back would use up the best part of a day (at least 9 hours in total if the traffic was fair). I could ask Wikimedia to fund my stay in a cheap hotel overnight, as well as pay my travelling costs, but as Wikimedia will remain the owner of the books that they fund, I think that to purchase the books is the more economical and sensible option.Farrtj (talk) 12:00, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Budget

I am asking for £69.63 in order to purchase the following books from Amazon UK and Abebooks:

  • Secret Recipe: Why KFC Is Still Cookin' After 50 Years, Bob Darden [1]
  • KFC In China, Warren Liu [2]
  • Taking People With You, David Novak [3]
  • Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, Josh Ozersky [4]
  • Life As I Have Known It, Colonel Sanders [5]
  • Master of the Big Board, William Carey [6]
  • Dave's Way, Dave Thomas [7]

I use Abebooks for all of them as it is cheaper, except for the David Novak one, which was only published in 2012, and is just as cheap from Amazon UK.Farrtj (talk) 12:00, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Timeline

These are big books, but I am a fast reader! I would estimate that I would need no more than 3 months, if circumstance prevail, to update the KFC page with information from the books. Then maybe a further 3 months in order to update related pages.Farrtj (talk) 12:00, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Expected outcomes

The microgrant would allow me to improve the KFC page exponentially, which it dearly needs if it is to reach FA status. The books would also include other information, particularly on leading KFC figures (on Colonel Sanders, David Novak and Jack C Massey) which I could use to improve their individual pages.Farrtj (talk) 12:00, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Who I am

My name is User:Farrtj. I have been a Wikipedia editor by name for 6 years now (I edited anonymously before that). I have 12 GAs to my credit. I am based in the North East of England, near Darlington. I have never applied for a microgrant before (so hello, here I am!). I am a leading contributor to Wikiproject Beer. My interests lie in brewing, local history and big business, particularly restaurants.Farrtj (talk) 12:00, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Discussion

I have to ask (due diligence etc in the light of paid editing): do you have any conflicts of interest you should declare here? For example, are you being paid by anyone to create/promote the article? Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 17:20, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Ah yes, very good question. I can state categorically now that I have never been employed by Yum! Brands (the parent company of KFC). I am not employed by anyone who is working for them. I am not related to anyone who works for KFC or Yum! Brands. Whilst I believe the KFC article represents a neutral stance, there is in the article full and due mention of criticisms of the company by the animal rights group PETA as well as Greenpeace.Farrtj (talk) 12:00, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Hey User:Farrtj, good to see another micro-grant application underway! You need to be a member in order to apply - if you're not it's only £5 to join and you can do so online here - if that's a problem, let us know and we'll see what we can do? Katherine Bavage (WMUK) (talk) 11:54, 12 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi Farrtj, I'm sure the chapter can support you. Could you let me know which University libraries are most convenient for you, and if you have asked the librarian if they might be interested in buying in some of these contemporary business books? In my experience they can be quite interested in helping with project needs. I'm probing this a little, as, compared to other topics such as WWII, I doubt that there would be much point in keeping these books in the London office once you have finished using them, so these probably should be seen as a one-use purchase. Thanks -- (talk) 12:24, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

The University of York library would be most convenient, but it's a 2 hour 20 minutes round trip for me, with the cheapest option being car, which would have £22 worth of fuel expenses. And I think the librarian would probably suggest an inter-library loan, which they would probably charge me for postage. And I would only be able to use the book in the library as only students can take books away with them, and I'm not a student. So if I ordered two books, I'd probably have to make two separate trips, AND pay the postage costs.... it would be cheaper to just buy the books from Amazon! Farrtj (talk) 15:10, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
Thanks for the explanation. -- (talk) 17:43, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
I'd say (and, for the record, I have no official capacity whatsoever, so this is just my personal opinion) there's nothing wrong with buying a pile of books that would only be used once. We're not talking about large amounts of money, and having the books available in the WMUK office would mean that anybody who was interested could check the sources for the article, so we would eb preserving source material for Wikipedia articles, which is a useful thing in itself. In my humble opinion. Harry Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts? 18:02, 22 March 2013 (UTC)
I'm not implying otherwise. In this instance I'd rather the books were just retained in good faith by the editor most committed, rather than eating up storage in the office. We can always keep a log on-wiki of who has what, if anyone wanted to borrow them (unlikely for this narrow topic), they could be passed on directly, depending on the volunteer needs. Thanks -- (talk) 18:12, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Many thanks Farrtj for taking the time to put together this very interesting microgrant application. I'm happy to approve it. Please liaise with Richard about the purchase of the books - they can either be purchased by WMUK and posted to you, or you can purchase them directly and claim back the cost of purchasing them. Thanks. Mike Peel (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the good news! I look forward to reading them.Farrtj (talk) 10:38, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
OK, they're on their way! However, some might take 30 or so days to get here from the US. Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 12:36, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Report All the books arrived promptly. I have read them all now, and added all the relevant information to the KFC article, which I will nominate for FA status when my already pending FA nomination has been dealt with. You can see the difference the books made between here: [8] and here: [9]. The book sources add more gravitas to the article as well. The project is not complete yet, as I intend to expand the Colonel Sanders page as well.Farrtj (talk) 20:05, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Note for those reading: diff. Richard Symonds (WMUK) (talk) 12:44, 16 April 2013 (UTC)

Status update So there is now a GA listed spin off page called History of KFC. I am trying to get that to FA status, and it is currently undergoing peer review towards this goal. Boosted the Colonel Sanders page to B grade. Still working on the main KFC article, trying to get it to FA. I still regularly consult the books. Although I already had some of the information from online sources, a published book is obviously a much higher quality source than a newspaper source, so I have been able to improve the quality of my references. 81.154.157.42 12:11, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

History of KFC is within a hair's breadth of promotion to FA status. KFC is listed as a Good Article. List of Countries with KFC franchises is now B grade. I have created new pages such as KFC in China, KFC in South Africa, KFC in Japan, KFC advertising and KFC Original Recipe. 86.185.194.128 13:12, 16 December 2014 (GMT)

Hi Farrtj I see that you are still working on KFC related articles but the main one has achieved GA status was wondering if this grant request needs closing. Cheers, Karla Marte(WMUK) (talk) 14:56, 31 August 2016 (BST)