Project grants/Pi bot

Basic information

Project Title (If applicable)

Upgrading Pi bot to a Raspberry Pi 4

Proposed by

User:Mike Peel

Are you currently a member of Wikimedia UK?

Yes

Project description

Briefly describe the issue or problem that motivates this application. What needs are you meeting?

meta:User:Pi bot currently runs on a Raspberry Pi 3B that I bought around 2016. This has served well for the last 4.8 million edits, but unfortunately it now regularly has problems with overheating. It is also limited to 1GB of RAM, which means that more memory-intensive codes have to be run on other computers.

Describe project activities. What will you use the funding to do?

Pi bot runs a number of bot scripts to support Wikidata, Commons, and the English and French Wikipedias. A full list is at meta:User:Pi bot, and all of the code is publicly available via the links on that page. Some of the highlights are:

• Adding sitelinks from Wikidata to Commons
• Deployment of the Wikidata Infobox on Commons
• Creating new items for articles about people from enwp and frwp
• Searching for available Cochrane Review updates
• General Wikidata maintenance

A new Pi would run these scripts, and also allow more to be developed over the next few years.

The budget is as follows:

Description	Cost
Raspberry Pi 4 8GB	£74
32GB microSD card	£9
Power supply (EU)	£8
Heatsink case	£12
HDMI cable	£5
Total	£108
Postage to Tenerife	Unknown

It might be easiest if the equipment can be bought directly by WMUK and then posted to me, but I can also buy them through Amazon.es and claim back for the money if needed - this might save some money with government taxes since Tenerife is outside of the EU customs zone.

Describe your plan for evaluating this project. How will you measure success? What types of things will you measure (e.g. content, participants)?

Ongoing editing by Pi bot. Edit counts can be reported periodically.

Identify key people involved in this project. How will or could the wider Wikimedian community be involved?

I run the bot. I also regularly engage with other community members to improve existing tasks, and to add new ones.

If applicable, identify partnering organisations for this project (not essential)

Possibly the Raspberry Pi Foundation could be approached to donate the equipment rather than purchasing it.

If you feel that there is more information that could be for example resources needed, how successes can be measured, and how it fits in with the aims of Wikimedia and Wikimedia UK. Please note that these answers don't have to be definite now, and can be expanded on in conversation with the programme team.

What targets have you set? What will you measure?

Edits per month/year can be tracked

What contribution will the project make to our strategic goals?

Increased access to knowledge on the Wikimedia projects

Who will be recording/measuring the project metrics, and writing up a project report?

I will do this.

What staff support is being requested?

Only the purchase and postage of the computer equipment.

How can you get other volunteers involved? What roles could they have?

N/A

What meeting or other space is needed?

N/A

Are other resources needed (such as computers, books, camera equipment, food, contacts, infrastructure)? How will they be sourced?

N/A

If any partner organisations have been identified, have they been contacted and are they committed?

N/A

Does this project require more extensive funding? What would any WMUK funds be used for?

The funding would be used to purchase computer equipment

Are external funds needed that we can apply for? If so where will they be sought?

N/A

Are there any resources that you can contribute? Such as equipment.

I will supply the electricity, internet connection, and operation.

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