Hi all,
In the latest round of Individual Engagement Grants
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG>, 26 eligible proposals were
submitted for review. The committee recommended 7 projects be funded in
total, with 13 grantees selected to receive $98,271 overall, and WMF has
now approved all 7 grants. Here’s what we’re funding.[1]
1. *Art+Feminism Editathon training materials and network building*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Art%2BFeminism_Editathon_training_materials_and_network_building>:
This project will build on a series of successful 2014 edit-a-thons to
develop scalable online infrastructure, including training materials and a
network of facilitators, to support the expansion and sustainability of
the Art+Feminism movement, aimed at improving Wikipedia’s coverage of
notable women in history, art, and beyond.
2. *Automated Notability Detection*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Automated_Notability_Detection>:
This project aims to develop a classification algorithm that can assess
likeliness of notability (initially within English Wikipedia) and can be
used to support editors’ review of newly created articles.
3. *Digitization of Important Libraries Book Catalog in Andhra Pradesh
and Telangana*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Digitization_of_Important_Libraries_Book_Catalog_in_Andhra_Pradesh_and_Telangana>:
Through a partnership between the Telugu Wikipedia community and
brick-and-mortar libraries in India, this project will endeavour to
digitize five library catalogues of Telugu books in order to support Telugu
Wikipedians searching for verifiable sources for new article content.
4. *Fundación Joaquín Díaz*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Fundaci%C3%B3n_Joaqu%C3%ADn_D%C3%ADaz>:
This project will see 23,000 sound recordings from the ethnographic archive
of the Joaquín Díaz
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Fundaci%C3%B3n_Joaqu%C3%ADn_D%C3%ADaz>
Foundation in Urueña, Spain uploaded to Wikimedia Commons under a free
license, and could serve as a potential model for other institutional
collaborations.
5. *Revision scoring as a service*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Revision_scoring_as_a_service>:
The grantees of this project will develop machine classification for
assessing quality of contributions on multiple language Wikipedias
as a publicly
queryable API. This service will in turn support the development of new and
powerful tools to support editors beyond the English language Wikipedia
environment.
6. *WikiBrainTools*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/WikiBrainTools>: This
project seeks to democratize access to Wikipedia-based algorithms across
all Wikipedias, and allow Wikimedians to leverage the work of natural
language processing researchers to build smarter tools for Wikipedia. In
particular, WikiBrainTools will attempt to close the loop between
algorithmic researchers who mine Wikipedia to improve computer-derived
insight, Wikipedia developers who could be integrating algorithms into
their bots and tools, and Wikipedia researchers who could stand to benefit
from tools that improve pattern recognition.
7. *WikiProject X*
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/WikiProject_X>: This project
will explore and test design solutions for encouraging optimal
effectiveness and supporting sustainability and collaboration between
groups of contributors within a WikiProject on English Wikipedia.
Additionally, one project funded in the last IEG round, Women Scientists
Workshop Development
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG/Women_Scientists_Workshop_Development/Renewal>,
was also approved by WMF for another 6 months of renewed funding, to
experiment with scaling the model.
Congratulations to the successful grantees! We encourage you to participate
and follow their progress
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG#ieg-engaging> as they begin
work in the coming weeks.
You can also read more about this round in the IEG committee’s post on the
Wikimedia Foundation blog
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2014/12/05/ieg-selects-exciting-new-batch-of-experimental-projects-to-improve-wikipedia-wikisource-and-commons/>
.
To everyone who contributed to this round of grants with proposals, ideas,
feedback and suggestions: thank you! The next call for proposals opens on
March 2015 – we look forward to seeing more of your ideas and engagement
again soon.
Sincerely,
Harold Hidalgo
Individual Engagement Grants Committee
--
*Harold A. Hidalgo*
Novo Adagio Magazine