Small Grant, Big Impact! A Book Grant for Wikipedia Editors in Indonesia

Every month, Wikimedia Indonesia opens a book grant (Hibah Buku) for Wikipedia contributors in Indonesia. As the name suggests, editors can request several books from Wikimedia Indonesia, and we gave the books in exchange for article improvements on Wikipedia in Indonesian and local languages. The Book Grant program started in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic occurred. As Wikimedia Indonesia halted every offline event, we transitioned to an online program to better accommodate the volunteers during those difficult times. Volunteers appreciate the book grant, so we continued this program after the pandemic ended. 

Overview

We set a minimum of 100 edits in the last 30 days as a prerequisite for contributors who want to apply. This requirement is to deter newcomers and relatively unknown participants, who may be more likely not to comply with the commitment to improving articles. Applicants may request several non-fiction books to be used as a reference or an inspiration for editing articles on 18 Wikipedias in Indonesia and more on Wikimedia Incubator. At first, we had a total book price cap of Rp150.000 (US$10) and only allowed physical copies to be bought, with shipping costs covered by Wikimedia Indonesia. Recently, we have permitted e-books to be purchased, and the price cap has increased to Rp250.000 ($16) for physical books and Rp300.000 ($20) for e-books.

If their requests are approved, the grantees are committed to improving or creating articles on Wikipedia, adding 30.000 to 45.000 bytes. They will be given two months to read and contribute to Wikipedia. The grantees freely contribute to one article or several articles. We check their contributions regularly using Outreach. After they finish their duty, they may request books again in the next period.

Facts and Findings

Since the beginning, more than 350 volunteers have benefited from The Book Grant (including grantees who received grants multiple times). For the 2023-2024 fiscal year alone, 107 grantees created 271 articles and improved 440 articles. 

Sometimes, there are non-compliant grantees in each period. Although we don’t have mechanisms for the contributors other than blocking them in the next grant period, the number of non-compliant grantees is relatively insignificant. Volunteers joining our community are less likely to be non-compliant, as they want to apply in another period and must finish their previous obligations.

One of our interesting findings is that most grantees request social sciences (history, culture, geography) and religion books. For instance, during the August-September 2024 period, 11 of 15 grantees requested those books. On the other hand, only a few grantees requested STEM or medical books. There are two main reasons why STEM or medical books are less requested. First, Indonesian contributors are interested in social sciences or religious topics. These topics have lower entry barriers and are more accessible to the general public, unlike STEM or medical themes, which need several prerequisites for better understanding. Second, STEM or medical books are costly. The minimum price is Rp500.000 ($32) or more, and our price caps can’t cover these books. 

Even the grantees may make minor edits to several articles; sometimes, they make significant changes to a few articles. Some examples are an article about kerosene lamps that expanded into a start-class article or a Singapore article on Minangkabau Wikipedia, which added nearly 40.000 bytes after The Book Grant.