Grants:PEG/Ada Initiative, Inc./AdaCamp DC Funding

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Funded
This submission to the Wikimedia Foundation Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2011-12. This is a grant to an organization.

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Legal name of organization or individual requesting this grant
Ada Initiative, Inc.
For organizations: Are you a for-profit entity? No.
For organizations: If non-profit (US) or equivalent (outside the US) status is available in your country, do you have or are you pursuing such status (please be specific): Ada Initiative is a 501(c)(3) that has been granted tax-exempt status by the IRS.
For individual applicants: Please note that if your request is accepted you will be required to provide documentation verifying your full legal name and address.
Grant contact name
Valerie Aurora
Grant contact username or email
valerie@adainitiative.org
Grant contact title (position)
Executive Director
Project lead name
Valerie Aurora
Project lead username or email
valerie@adainitiative.org
Project lead title (position), if any
Executive Director
Full project name
AdaCamp DC
Amount requested in USD or local currency (USD will be assumed if no other currency is specified)
$10,000
Provisional target start date
July 10, 2012
Provisional completion date
July 11, 2012

Budget breakdown[edit]

Sponsorship of $10,000 from Wikimedia would allow AdaCamp DC to fund travel and accommodation grants for people who could not otherwise afford to attend and cover at least part of food costs. Budget:

  • Travel and accommodation grants for up to 10 attendees (up to a maximum of $500 each): $5000
  • Food/catering for lunch, snacks, coffee/tea for 200 people for 2 days: $5000

It is possible that some sponsor may donate part or all of the food costs directly. If that is the case, we would spend the remaining funds on one or more of the following:

  • Additional (national) travel grants
  • International travel grants: approximately $2000 per person
  • Travel costs for organizers (Mary Gardiner's travel costs already covered by Wikimania, travel adheres to Wikimana policy)
  • On-site childcare for up to 10 children: $1400
  • Event insurance if not provided by venue (still checking): $1000
  • Furniture rental: $600
  • Event organizer services: $600

Note

  • Minimum number of travel grants awarded will be ten $500 grants, aiming for more
  • Number of participants (approximate): 150-200
  • All expenses above are approximate
  • The venue is provided free of charge through Social Code

Project goal[edit]

The primary goal of AdaCamp is to increase women's participation and status in Wikimedia projects, open source software, open data, open government, fan/remix culture, and similar fields. This year the focus is on Wikimedia projects, due to our co-location with Wikimania 2012.

Attendance is by invitation and attendees are selected from qualified applicants through an open invitation process. Attendance is open to people of all genders. The goals of AdaCamp DC are to bring people in open technology and open culture fields together to build community, discuss issues women have in common across open technology and culture fields, and find ways to address them. AdaCamp DC and the mission of The Ada Initiative encompasses Wikimedia and related projects.

The Ada Initiative is a non-profit organization founded in February 2011 to increase the participation and status of women in open technology and culture communities, including open source, free culture, Wikipedia and other open knowledge communities, open government, remix culture and others. Founders Valerie Aurora and Mary Gardiner each have over a decade of experience in both open technology and advocacy for women. Mary Gardiner will be giving the opening keynote at Wikimania 2012. Our board of advisors includes Wikimedia experts Sarah Stierch and Sue Gardner.

Project scope and list of activities[edit]

AdaCamp DC will be a 150-200 person unconference in Washington, D.C. on July 10-11, 2012, at the Washington Post Building, and will be co-located with Wikimania 2012. AdaCamp is an Ada Initiative event focused on increasing women’s participation in open technology and culture. AdaCamp brings together people to build community, discuss issues women have in common across open technology and culture fields, and find ways to address them. Open technology and culture includes open source software, Wikipedia and other wiki projects, open data, open government, fan/remix culture, open libraries, and more.

Attendees will propose and decide on the topics to be discussed during AdaCamp. Due to the high proportion of Wikimedia contributors attending, we expect Wikimedia projects to be a popular session topic. AdaCamp attendees are strongly encouraged to document the results of sessions on public wikis under a CC-by-SA license, as was the case with the first AdaCamp in January 2012.

Non-financial requirements[edit]

None

Fit to strategy[edit]

AdaCamp DC will increase the number of contributors to Wikimedia projects and the quality of that content, by bringing together experts in Wikimedia projects and experts in women in open tech/culture to brainstorm, create new strategies, and share best practices from other communities that are facing the same issues. One of the goals of this conference is to find ways to close both the Wikimedia contributor gender gap as well as the gap in coverage of topics perceived as female. For example, potential sessions might include: "Improving coverage of women scientists on Wikipedia" and "Retaining female Wikipedia editors." (AdaCamp DC is an unconference, so sessions are proposed by attendees, who will include a large number of Wikimedia contributors.)

Since AdaCamp DC is co-located with Wikimania, this is a unique opportunity to bring together expert Wikimedia contributors with people who have successfully increased the percentage of women in their open tech/culture community, such as Dreamwidth and Archive of Our Own, two majority female open source and open data communities. Out of the first 100 applications, 38 were from people who participate in Wikimedia projects. It is also a unique opportunity to draw more women into actively participating in Wikimedia projects, especially women who are tech-savvy, comfortable working in an open community, and experts in increasing gender diversity.

We expect that many of the people who are awarded travel grants funded by this grant will also attend Wikimania. These Wikimedia community members, many of whom are women, would be unable to attend Wikimania otherwise. This grant will help increase the diversity of Wikimania directly, as well as indirectly by educating Wikimedia community members.

This will be the second Adacamp. AdaCamp Melbourne was held in January 2012. Thirty-three attendees produced or improved several documents during the conference, all publicly available and licensed CC-by-SA. Session topics included success stories of open tech/culture communities with majority female participation, the open libraries movement, and improving parent- and child-friendliness at conferences, hackerspaces, and other events. With AdaCamp DC boasting a much larger attendance and a longer program than AdaCamp Melbourne, the reach of Ada Initiative in the open technology community will greatly increase. The topics and issues covered will become richer and denser. The organizers and attendees will make connections with tech savvy women who can be potential advocates for Ada Initiative and women in open source. Our experience with AdaCamp DC will allow Ada Initiative to more firmly cement its future direction.

AdaCamp DC will bring together individuals from around the world with a passion for open source culture and content, including projects that fall under the wing and mission of the Wikimedia Foundation. "The mission of the Wikimedia Foundation is to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.[1]" By sponsoring AdaCamp DC, the Wikimedia Foundation will not only allow a broader group of like-minded individuals to learn more about WMF's mission, but, it will also support that mission through engaging and developing relationships, projects, and content related to open source education and culture.

Other benefits[edit]

Sponsorship of AdaCamp will send the following messages:

  • Wikimedia Foundation is interested in improving women's participation in Wikimedia projects
  • Wikimedia Foundation as an employer welcomes and supports women employees
  • Increase number of open tech/culture savvy women and feminists who apply for Wikimedia jobs

Measures of success[edit]

  • Number of AdaCamp attendees who also attend Wikimania
  • Number of travel grants to AdaCamp attendees who also attend Wikimania
  • Wiki-based documentation produced by AdaCamp attendees
  • Post-AdaCamp survey to measure change in attitude toward Wikimedia projects among attendees
  • Number of AdaCamp attendees who join Wikiproject Feminism, Gender Gap mailing list, or other groups

Team members (optional)[edit]

Valerie Aurora, Executive Director
Mary Gardiner, Director of Operations and Research