Project grants/Uicipèid (Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia) workshop

Basic information

Project details

Full project name

Wikipedia – Workshop Ciamar a sgrìobhas mi airson Uicipèid

See our website: http://www.schottisch-gaelisch.de/Start_-_Dachaigh.html

Project start date (include month, day, and year)

29.6.2014

Project completion date (include month, day, and year)

29.6.2014

Please describe the project in 1–2 sentences

Getting new editors involved in the Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia

Amount requested

250 euros

Project lead details

Are you an individual or an organisation?

Individual

Are you currently a member of Wikimedia UK?

Have just joined

Project lead name

w:gd:Cleachdaiche:Sionnach

Project lead username or email

w:gd:Cleachdaiche:Sionnach

Project description

Please describe what the project will entail, in as much detail as you feel appropriate.

In Deutsches Zentrum für Gälische Sprache und Kultur (German Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture), students have already written WP appropriate texts in Scots-Gaelic language. However, the threshold fears are too high and the WP skills are too low to contribute these texts to WP at all.

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

Project goal

Introduce new users to the Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia (Uicipèid)

Create new articles during the workshop

In the long run hopefully to get new users involved in WP:gd (a really small community which really needs more users)

Measures of success

Please provide a list of measurable criteria that will be used to determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed.

Measures of success

Number of new articles (But we have to be careful with this goal as well as according to my experience it takes hours for a new user unfamiliar to Wikipedia to create even a small article. I already conducted a workshop in collaboration with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (University of the Highlands and Islands) in 2012)

Budget and resources

Project budget breakdown

250 euros for room rent including tea, coffee and a snack at lunchtime

Non-financial assistance requested

N/A

Impact and benefits

How will this project support Wikimedia UK's Outcomes, charitable objects and vision, values and mission?

Encouraging new contributors to build up a community for the Scottish Gaelic Wikipedia

Adding to the diversity of open knowledge.

• G1.1 The quantity of open knowledge continues to increase (e.g. editathon/training session to add content)
• G1.2 The quality of open knowledge continues to improve (e.g. breadth of coverage increased through addition of new articles)
• G2a Develop, involve and engage WMUK volunteers (e.g. enable volunteer to run event)
• G5 Develop, support, and engage with other Wikimedia and open knowledge communities (e.g. training session for new contributors)

Discussion

Please offer any comments here. Thanks -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 12:13, 11 June 2014 (BST)

"German Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture" gosh - who knew! This is interesting! So, the project sounds good and the cost not too high. I don't think it's outside something we should support, but it would be good to know if you've contacted WMDE. This is partly because I don't want us to step on their toes, but also they might be able to offer local support (perhaps they have contacts who can offer a free meeting space, for example). I'm going to add some specific goals from our strategy (see here), the office can liaise about what information (usernames, etc.) are useful. Finally, it'd be useful to know roughly how many participants you're anticipating, I guess if you already have a set of articles ready to go, it'd be good to know how many (or/and if the topics are of particular interest!). Thanks! Sjgknight (talk) 12:35, 11 June 2014 (BST)

Thank you for your application; this looks like a great idea to me. Helping British minority languages is an area which WMUK can and should cover in their activities. €250 euros converts to around £200 which seems reasonable to me, though I agree with Sjgknight that it would be good to have more information on the planned number of participants and the topics of interest. I also agree that liaising with WMDE is a good idea, even if it's us which provides the funding. Finally, I would add that it would be helpful to have a full breakdown of the costs which add up to €250 euros, primarily for interest and to be clear on where the money is going. CT Cooper · talk 15:54, 11 June 2014 (BST)

I'll try to answer the questions:

-...it would be good to know if you've contacted WMDE: I already did one workshop with the help from WMDE (results can be seen here, but to get some funding it was a combined workshop for WP:de and WP:gd. This time I would like to concentrate on the Uicipeid only, otherwise the people get mixed up. I'll contact WMDE for the UMTS-Sticks again, I' m sure they will provide them again.

-...how many participants you're anticipating: Right now I'll have 5 participants, which would probably be enought for me. As from earlier workshops that I have done I know they all will need individual help, which is very time consuming, as they will all have different problems. So far none of them has any wiki experience.

-...topics of interest: We did some "famous" Scottish people, such as John Muir, Thomas Telford or Charles Rennie Mackintosh in clas and just don' t won' t to throw the results in the rubbish bin:-). But I don't know exactly how many we have and how long they are. For me the main point about doing this workshop is to show them that there is a Wiki in Gaelic and that they are able to contribute to it.

-...full breakdown of the costs which add up to €250 euros: 150€ for room rent, 90€ for tea, coffee and a snack at lunchtime (that was according to what WMDE funded us last time.) 10 € for creating Scottish Gaelic cheatsheats.

-...who can offer a free meeting space: I would like to do it in the "German Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture", as there is a small, but really good library about Scottish related themes as well as many books up to academic level written in Gaelic.

I'll hope, I didn't miss anything, if there are any further questions, just let me know. --Sionnach (talk) 18:31, 11 June 2014 (BST)

Thank you for your quick response. Five people with little or no wiki experience can be more than enough for one person to handle, so that's a good number to work with. In terms of costs, 150€ to fund room rent for an entire day is reasonable. 90€ for drinks and a snack for six people (including yourself), meaning 15€ per person, is not mega cheap, but it's tolerable in my opinion. Overall, I'm happy to give this request my support. CT Cooper · talk 23:52, 13 June 2014 (BST)

Approval

Sionnach, I'm happy to say that this application has now been approved on the basis that Wikimedia UK will be noted as a partner supporting the event, and copied into any report you will be producing afterwards ntoing how the event went, how many people supported, what articles was edited, etc. Hope the event goes well. I will work out payment with you by email. -- Katie Chan (WMUK) (talk) 12:06, 17 June 2014 (BST)

Thanks a lot for approval!--Sionnach (talk) 19:46, 17 June 2014 (BST)

Completion

Is your project completed?

YES

Have you submitted all receipts for any expenses paid?

Yes.

Activities and lessons learned

This section describes what the grantee did, and what the grantee learned from implementing the project. This section should be useful to others implementing similar projects and is an opportunity for the grantee to reflect on the project's performance.

Activities

Provide a brief list of activities performed to complete this project, and descriptions of these activities. This section should also include links to pictures, blog posts, or videos from the project or event if appropriate.

Create account, why, WP rules about ANON, set up user page talk about userpage, + discussion page

Created their first article: layout, Links , Picture, category, link with Wikidata, create redirect,

The use of {{obair}} (Inuse in gd) and creating an subpage where they can work on later on for their next article

Pictures from the workshop: [1][2][3] [4]

I added a note on our project page w:gd:Uicipeid:Pròiseact nan Oileanach with a link to this page and an thank you note to Wikimedia UK.

Lessons learned

What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects? Consider the following questions and respond with 1 - 2 sentences.

What went well?

Personally: This time I was much more aware how how difficult it is for a newbie to create a new article with a halfway decent layout. Don’t expect the digital native!

The lunch break in our room was just perfect, because even during the break people went back to their laptops, and added a note, another sentence, another link. In my opinion a lunch break outside would have taken much away from the drive they had to keep working.

What did not go well?

Some technical problems with the sticks, but we solved that during the day. At the end of the day they very pretty tired, so much new stuff.

What would you do differently if you plan a similar project in the future?

Sorry, not quite sure. May be do a 2 day workshop to give us some extra time.

Expected outcomes

This section should reference the expected outcomes and measures of success described in the approved grant submission.

Provide the expected outcomes here.

4 new users (one had to cancel due to sickness). Altogether we created 8 articles between 500 bites and 5000 bites, one article got expanded for about 7000 bites.

Uploded 4 pictures to commons

Did you achieve the expected outcomes? How do you know the outcome was achieved?

Compared to my last workshop we created more and larger articles.

Impact

This section ties this project to Wikimedia UK's broader goals, and shows what the project accomplished.

What impact did this project have on WMUK's mission and the strategic goals?

Training session for new contributors to add content and new articles

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to the office? Answer "Yes" or "No".

Yes.

Final comments

Include any final comments you may have.

In my opinion it was a fantastic workshop, with everyone really engaged. They even cut down the lunch break to just 30 minutes and stayed an hour longer because they had so many questions.

On behalf of a minority language most of them didn’t even know that there is such a thing as a Scottisch Gaelic Wikipedia. There aren’t many situations where people can actually use the language they learned. This is a great chance for them. After the workshop, when they had a look around on some other articles in WP:gd (sadly quite a lot are in a bad shape) I heard comments like: "Hey, I know now, how to improve that,.. I think I will try in the next days….". I did my very best that this will happen, but only the future can show.

One important result for me is: I’m just wondering if you ever did inform the Wikipedias of the smaller languages in UK like Scots, Scots Gaelic, Manx, Cornish and perhaps Irish Gaelic about the possibility to run a workshop, or to get grants to improve their work. On behalf of the Scots Gaelic Wikipedia hardly anyone is busy on WP:en and we certainly don’t know about the things that are going on behind the namespace. If it wouldn’t have been through my contact with the Welsh Wikipedia, I would have never known.

If you have any further question, just let me know.--Sionnach (talk) 21:54, 29 June 2014 (BST)

Thank you for your report. I'm pleased the event was a success. I agree with your comment that there is a need to raise greater awareness about grants in general, and that in particular, there is little connection between minority language Wikipedias and Wikimedia UK. How to go about tackling this though might be a harder question to answer. CT Cooper · talk 13:41, 30 June 2014 (BST)

...tackling connection between minority language Wikipedias and Wikimedia UK: I wonder if there ever had been a workshop etc for the Scots, Manx, Cornish and perhaps Irish Gaelic Wikipedia. Otherwise you could perhaps start with leaving a note on their community page about the possibility of getting help and grants from Wikimedia UK and maybe linking to this (or any other page, maybe something from the Welsh communitiy?) as an example, how this could be done.--Sionnach (talk) 21:45, 5 July 2014 (BST)

I like this idea and in fact was talking to someone about something similar recently, although that was about reaching out to other particular Wiki Projects of interest. An attractive template note might be a good thing to setup with a customisable message and links to what we can (and have) supported, maybe why a community is of particular interest to us, and what we can give (grants, support in kind, support in application for external grants, etc.). @Katie Chan (WMUK): do we have anything like that? Maybe a draft and/or note on watercooler would bring ideas, I'm sure it's not a new proposal :-). Sjgknight (talk) 10:25, 6 July 2014 (BST)