This is all extremely helpful information. I am grateful for the with you have done and I think this is an excellent project.
On Fri, Aug 18, 2023, 6:41 AM Biyanto <biyanto.re...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > My name is Biyanto Rebin, and I am one of the community members who is > part of the Knowledge Equity Fund Committee. I joined the Equity Fund > Committee last year because I believe that our movement needs support from > other groups and organizations who are working on free knowledge to make > sure that we can address knowledge equity, which is stated in the movement > strategy. > > The grants support those groups that are being left behind or > under-resourced, as we believe that supporting those particular entities > will increase the quality of knowledge overall and contents on the > Wikimedia projects in the future. > > It is not true that these grants are completely unrelated to Wikimedia or > the Wikimedia projects. From the beginning, the Knowledge Equity Fund was > designed as an experiment: a pilot fund to improve the pool of knowledge > resources on underrepresented topics that can then be used to strengthen > content on the Wikimedia projects. Because it is a pilot project with a > limited pool of funds, our intention is to experiment with different > approaches, and see where we can learn what works. The size of the initial > Equity Fund, $4.5 million, was from the Foundation’s 2019-2020 fiscal year > operating budget, when the Foundation had a budget underrun > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Equity_Fund/Frequently_asked_questions/en#11._Where_did_the_funding_for_the_Equity_Fund_come_from?> > due to COVID-19 and set aside funds for this pilot. No new funds from the > Foundation’s revenue have been added to the Fund, and it is not meant to > replace or compete with the other and larger grant programs > <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Start> for community members and > Wikimedia groups. > > I understand it is frustrating that we cannot yet measure impact directly > to the Wikimedia projects. This is an area that we hope to improve in this > new round, and to do so we are connecting each of our new grantees directly > with groups in the Wikimedia movement. We believe that we cannot build > stronger projects without building and strengthening alliances with other > institutions working to create knowledge. > > One example I can explain using my local context is with Indonesian > Wikipedia, and how we are connecting them with two of our new grantees: > AMAN <https://aman.or.id/> and Project Multatuli > <https://projectmultatuli.org/en>. I am coming from Indonesia where > indigenous topics are still marginalized issues and they are left behind. > Sure, there has been some improvement for the last decade, but it is not > enough. AMAN has an initiative to build an Indigenous Peoples Glossary, so > Indonesian people in general can benefit from this resource. As indigenous > peoples are marginalized, sometimes we still use some insensitive words > toward them, and even some Indonesian Wikipedia articles still use these > words. We cannot rely solely on resources that are coming from outside of > indigenous people realm to define who they are, what we should call them. > By having this initiative, we firmly believe our community can later use > the Indigenous Peoples Glossary as one of useful resources for Indonesian > indigenous people related topics. Project Multatuli is a non-profit > journalism organization working with indigenous women topics for this grant > and they also can collaborate to empower more indigenous people as citizen > journalists. > > I’m also sharing details about the relationships that we’re building in > the movement with some of our other new grantee. > > Black Cultural Archives <https://blackculturalarchives.org/>: Given BCA’s > focus, we have connected them with Wikimedia UK, Wiki Library User Group > and Whose Knowledge to help them better understand how to connect their > work and archives with the Wikimedia projects. > > Create Caribbean Research Institute <https://createcaribbean.org/create/>: > As the first digital humanities centre in the Caribbean, Create Caribbean > has natural alignment with Wiki Cari UG, as well as Noircir, Whose > Knowledge, Projet:Université de Guyane, and WikiMujeres. We also plan to > connect them to present or speak at Wiki Con North America. > > Criola <https://criola.org.br/> > > Criola is a civil society organization dedicated to advocating for the > rights of Black women in Brazilian society. We have connected them with Whose > Knowledge, WikiMujeres, Mujeres (mulheres) latino americanas in Wikimedia, > and we will be connecting them with Mais_Teoria_da_Historia Na Brasil. > > Data for Black Lives <https://d4bl.org/> > > Given D4BL’s focus in the US, we have connected them with AfroCROWD and > Black Lunch Table. > > Filipino American National Historical Society > <http://fanhs-national.org/filam/>: FANHS is focused on Filipino American > heritage, and as members of the diaspora we are connecting them with the > PhilWiki Community, Wiki Advocates of Philippines and Wiki Libraries User > Group. > > If you have other ideas for how we can improve, please reach out and let > us know. Our email is equityf...@wikimedia.org. > > Best, > > Biyanto Rebin > > (committee member, Knowledge Equity Fund) > > On Fri, 18 Aug 2023 at 09:01, Samuel Klein <meta...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> ++. Anything we can learn + apply from Outreachy (and their own >> community of mentors, alums, and practitioners!) would be wonderful. >> Their impact per unit of funding seems, at very casual inspection, well >> ahead of all comparable initiatives. And we could even fund them directly, >> who have often helped us in turn. ;) >> >> On Fri, Aug 18, 2023 at 12:13 AM Erik Moeller <eloque...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> >>> On Wed, Aug 16, 2023 at 10:23 PM Steven Walling >>> <steven.wall...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> > With the money allocated to Knowledge Equity in the last couple years, >>> we could have hired >>> > at least a couple more software engineers to do work like fulfill >>> community wishlist requests. >>> >>> I disagree with that framing. Wikimedia Foundation, even with reduced >>> fundraising goals, is a very well-endowed organization that can easily >>> shift more of its existing effort towards community wishlist requests. >>> _All_ areas in which it spends money are deserving of healthy >>> scrutiny, not just this new program. I feel it's best to evaluate this >>> program on its own merits -- and to make a separate argument regarding >>> the community wishlist & prioritization of software engineering >>> ventures. >>> >>> To me, the question with these grants is whether there's a plausible >>> theory of change that ties them back to the Wikimedia mission and >>> movement. I share some skepticism about broad objectives around >>> "improving quality of sources about X" without any _obvious and >>> direct_ connection to the movement's work (i.e. concrete commitments >>> about licensing and availability of information, or collaboration with >>> Wikimedians). The Borealis Journalism Fund grant report [1] explicitly >>> states: >>> >>> # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages: 0 >>> # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects: 0 >>> Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects: 0 >>> >>> (There are qualifiers in the report, but frankly, they're not very >>> plausible ones.) >>> >>> I see a lot of value in WMF having new connections with these grantees >>> -- these are organizations Wikimedia _should_ have a relationship >>> with. But do we best accomplish that by directly funding their >>> operations? This statement from the latest announcement stands out to >>> me: >>> >>> > The Equity Fund Committee [...] have also connected each of these >>> grantees with regional >>> > and relevant partners in the Wikimedia movement, including local and >>> established >>> > movement affiliates who can support knowledge equity work and help >>> grantees learn about >>> > how to connect back to the work of free knowledge on the Wikimedia >>> projects. >>> >>> That's great, and I look forward to hearing what comes from these >>> connections. I do worry a bit about slipping into a transactional >>> framework -- "we give you support for your core mission, and to >>> maintain good relations with us, you have some meetings with friendly >>> Wikimedians in your area". Many grant-giving organizations tend to >>> adopt transactional frameworks, sometimes overtly, sometimes without >>> even realizing it. In the worst case, the grantee experiences it as a >>> chore -- a checklist item to complete to apply for the next round of >>> funding. Not saying that's where this program is at, just that it's >>> something I would suggest watching out for. >>> >>> Personally, I see potential in the direction of well-scoped >>> fellowships/residencies/internships paid by WMF, where both parties >>> understand fully that engagement with the Wikimedia movement is part >>> of what they're signing up for. There are pitfalls here as well: >>> avoiding paid editing; making sure that the fellows themselves are >>> diverse, etc. But these issues seem "closer to the metal" of >>> Wikimedia's work, i.e. "the right kinds of of problems". >>> >>> There's a lot of institutional history to look back on & learn from, >>> from GLAM residencies to WMF's internal fellowship program which you, >>> Steven, went through so many years ago. I'd also encourage a close >>> look at Outreachy, who have done amazing work getting diverse new >>> contributors to join open source & open science projects. And that may >>> be what you mean with "try less controversial methods to improve >>> knowledge equity", but I feel this should be entirely about >>> effectiveness and mission alignment, not about avoiding controversy. >>> >>> In general, I'd love to hear more from both the staff and community >>> members on the committee how they came to their funding decisions >>> (i.e. what set the successful grantees apart from the unsuccessful >>> ones, and what theory of change animated the decisions), and where >>> they'd like to see the program go in future. >>> >>> Warmly, >>> Erik >>> >>> [1] >>> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Knowledge_Equity_Fund_%28Round_1%29_-_Borealis_philanthropy_report.pdf >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines >>> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >>> Public archives at >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/6654SWPDLQMI5SLKSWMSJB5YNIBOGTEC/ >>> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org >> >> >> >> -- >> Samuel Klein @metasj w:user:sj +1 617 529 4266 >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines >> at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l >> Public archives at >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/PTGVB6RTZG26QNYNU3ONZJBFH4WUVKDO/ >> To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org, guidelines > at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org/message/6EFDUNY4PT33Y4ME6DKW2F46ZFFFALKU/ > To unsubscribe send an email to wikimedia-l-le...@lists.wikimedia.org
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