Grants:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia South Africa/2019
- Application or grant stage: grant in progress
- Applicant or grantee: applicant
- Amount requested: R225,280.00(US$15,242.22)
- Amount granted: R225,280.00(US$15,242.22)
- Funding period: 1 July 2019 - 30 June 2020
- Recommended application date: 1 April 2019 (draft)
- Midpoint report due: 15 January 2020
- Final report due: 30 July 2020
Please link to or provide your annual program plan and annual budget here, and add your targets to the grants metrics worksheet.
Application[edit]
Background[edit]
These two requests are required of first-time applicants. In future years, you can use reports to substitute for these requirements.
- Link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements in the past year.
- Here is a link to the report delivered at the Wikimedia ZA Annual General meeting to chapter members on activities for 2018. Since the vast bulk of WMZA chapter funding came from the 2018 grant budget this report exenstively coveres activies funded by that grant in addition to other act ivies funded from other sources (donations, membership dues, Wikimania 2018 grant).
- Link to one learning story you have created or contributed to, that demonstrates how your organization documents and applies learning.
- {{{learningstoryapp}}}
- The single largest learning from 2018 we had, and this issue came up repeatedly in during the chapter AGM, is that we can not maintain our current level of momentum on volunteers alone. We as a chapter have reached a point now where we need to hire staff members. This will allow the chapter to have the time and human-hours necessary to invest in partnership building and outreach in addition to completing important administrative tasks that are currently being done haphazardly and at the convenience of volunteers handing the tasks.
Link to these documents, for the upcoming funding period, only if you have them.
- Link to your organization's staffing plan, for the upcoming funding period. Staffing Plan for 2019
- Link to your annual plan, for the upcoming funding period. Annual plan 2019
- Link to your strategic plan, which includes the upcoming funding period. Strategic Plan 2019
Please add your grants metrics to this sheet. Note that requirements for shared metrics have changed for grants starting 1 January 2017 or later. Grants with start dates before 1 January 2017 should still use the old Global Metrics.
Programs[edit]
- Please see Annual Plan 2019 for a matrix of programs to be implemented and their goals.
Wikimedia ZA has only two programs for 2019. Namely Outreach and Chapter Support. Each program is made up of multiple projects. The Outreach program is focused on expanding public awareness of, and interaction with, the chapter and other free knowledge projects. By expanding awareness and increasing interactions with people outside of the free knowledge movement it is envisioned that both support for the chapter the movement will grow. This growth is envisioned to come in the form of increased chapter membership and content on free knowledge projects such as Wikipedia. The Chapter Support program is focused on activities that will strengthen the South African chapter in particular and other regional user groups in Africa generally (and as a secondary objective). These include activities that grow chapter membership, make it easier for chapter members to support/contribute to free knowledge projects such as Wikipedia or Commons, the functioning of the chapter and its expanding chapter capacity.
A key objective for the chapter in 2019 to leverage our hosting of Wikimania 2018 in South Africa to better meet the goals of both programs. 2019 is envisioned as a critical year for the chapter due to the need to follow up on the success of hosting Wikimania 2018.
Currently the chapter has maximised its capacity to implement program projects given its exclusive reliance on volunteers and total absence of any paid positions. This has been identified by the chapter in 2018 as a key limitation. This has been somewhat mitigated in 2018 by the outsourcing of bookkeeping activities to Copia, a private bookkeeping service, so as to ensure proper financial tracking over all chapter activities.
Outreach
Our outreach program as gained more traction since hosting Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town. We now have more partners and increased public awareness of the chapter, its purpose, goals, and works. An important objective for the chapter is to leverage the awareness generated from hosting Wikimania 2018 to further expand our outreach capabilities, impact and partners. The increase in chapter partners from 2018 includes The University of Cape Town, Moleskine Foundation, Code4Africa, ReCreate South Africa, and Orms Photographic Warehouse. In 2019 the chapter plans to expand this to include Rhodes University, Cape Town TV, SouthSouthNorth, and the Puku Foundation.
Strength #1 - More experienced chapter and chapter members:
- In the past 8 years, since the chapters founding in 2012, Wikimedia South Africa has gained practices, statistical data, cases, experienced volunteers, and teaching materials. 2017 was an important year for the chapter in getting motivated volunteers in preparation for Wikimania 2018 whilst 2018 was an important year in training and mobilizing those volunteers. This has made us more confident in both maintaining, and expanding, the number of our partners as well as further increasing the profile of the chapter.
Strength #2 - More highly motivated volunteers:
- The hosting of Wikimania 2018 has greatly motivated and mobilized South African chapter members to volunteer in organising and hosting chapter events and programs. This has expanded the chapters capacity.
Strength #3 - More opportunities in South Africa:
- Hosting Wikimania 2018 has produced a noticeable increase in excitement and interest by partner organisations to work with the chapter. This has resulted in more opportunities to implement outreach projects.
Challenge #1 - Lack capacity:
- The key limiting constraint for the chapter is a lack of chapter capacity due to our exclusive reliance on volunteers. As such we will need to be selective about which projects to implement in 2019, which to reject, and which to move to 2020.
Challenge #2 - Lack of a detailed long term strategy:
- The program lacks a detailed long term strategy thereby impacting planning and implementation. More importantly chapter members are not fully aware of this programs goals and basic strategy. This means that beyond basic objectives such as "increased chapter membership" or "improved free knowledge content" this little understanding of how to achieve these goals or what/if there are other more meaningful goals to be pursued. It has also resulted in limited connections and overall integration of all of the projects programs.
Challenge #3 - Geography:
- South Africa is a relatively large with a chapter that is spread between two urban areas at opposite ends of the country. Currently most chapter members are based in or around the City of Cape Town or the Johannesburg. This means that most events happen in these two urban areas. It also makes coordination between chapter volunteers located in these two cities more difficult. Finding a way to better coordinate and communicate between those located in the two cities is important and also highlights the need for travel between the two points to better bridge this gap. This problem also highlights a bigger problem of over centralising activities in or around only two urban centers to the neglect of the rest of the country. As such efforts and resources need to be made aviable for travel to projects located outside of the two aforementioned cities.
Strategy
- Implementation of the following projects:
- African Language Outreach
- Afrikaans Writing Competition
- KwaZulu Natal activation
- Wiki Loves Africa 2019: South Africa
- General Outreach
SMART goals
Please see the matrix on WMZA's annual plan 2019.
Chapter Support
This program exists to support local editors to contribute to Wikimedia projects and participate in broader community. Since hosting Wikimania 2018 the chapter has experienced a significant growth in chapter membership. In order to keep and further grow chapter membership we will need to provide members with support services and further grow our ability to implement administrative tasks.
The hiring of a bookkeeping service in 2018 has greatly increased the chapters financial capabilities whilst reducing pressure on volunteers who previously did this task. The chapter recognises the importance of this service and will continue to utilize these bookkeeping services so as to ensure financial accountability and tracking.
In 2018 the chapter experimented with hiring a secretary service to provide part time support services for chapter members. This included setting up and managing a micro-donations system, communicating with chapter members, and managing the chapter membership roster. The chapter is interested in continuing this service in 2019 in lue of any hired staff to manage these important day-to-day chapter functions.
Strength #1 - Enhanced financial abilities:
- With the utilization of a bookkeeping service (Copia) and the establishment of a treasury committee (made up of three board members) the chapter now has a robust financial management system in place. Thereby allowing for the effective distribution of funds in a more accountable, transparent, and organised manner.
Strength #2 - Strong community:
- Wikimania 2018 has greatly strengthened the free knowledge community in South Africa. Community members have a clear sense of purpose (sum of human knowledge for everyone for free) with a clear understanding of our core goals. The chapter estimates that around 10% of all Wikipedia editors in South Africa are now chapter members. Additionally the chapter has a better understanding of the free knowledge community generally and there is healthy cooperative relationship between community members. The chapter intends to further strengthen this culture of friendly community cooperation between members whilst also growing the community generally. And specifically grow the community, the chapter and the chapter board in a way that better reflects the demographics of South Africa. The number of people volunteering to run or participate in chapter activities has greatly increased.
Strength #3 - Good partners:
- Over the years the chapter has developed a network of partner organisations to help achieve chapter goals. This includes the chapter relationship with ReCreate South Africa as part of the chapter's effort at Copyright legal reform, the relationship with the University of Cape Town and library networks to help grow free media content on Wikipedia, and with other organisations to improve language outreach. However more work needs to be done in this area to strengthen relationships and grow new ones.
Challenge #1 - Lack of capacity:
- The key limiting constraint for the chapter is a lack of chapter capacity due to our exclusive reliance on volunteers. As such we will need to be selective about which community support projects to implement in 2019, which to reject, and which to move to 2020. We are also considering further using a remote secretary service to provide core administrative services to chapter members.
Challenge #2 - Lack of diversity:
- Currently chapter membership, board membership, and the overall profile of free knowledge participant volunteers (such as Wikipedia editors) does not reflect the demographics of South Africa. There is a distinct lack of female and non-binary community members as well as black community members. In addition to growing the community generally the chapter needs to grow the number of black and female community members specifically.
Challenge #3 - Geography:
- Providing support to a chapter that is based across the country and coordinating volunteers primarily located in two different cities is a challenge. This is partly offset by the centralisation of chapter members in Cape Town and Johannesburg however the distance between the two cities is quite large which can made logistics difficult and expensive.
Strategy
Chapter support efforts help with promoting the following goals:
- WMZA Corporate maturity
- Wikimania 2019 Scholarships
- Copyright advocacy support*
- Cape Town TV Hackathon event
- * These actions include public copyright reform advocacy and knowledge sharing about the movement broadly. Copyright reform will create a friendlier local atmosphere for local editors making it easier for them to contribute to Wikipedia. Initiating activities such as writing competitions and de-stubathons will increase South African related content and/or support local language Wikipedias. No Wikimedia Foundation grant funding will go to this activity.
SMART goals
Please see the matrix on WMZA's annual plan 2019.
Staff[edit]
Wikimedia ZA currently has no staff or any plans to hire staff in 2019.
Budget and resource plan[edit]
Please see budget and resource plan for detailed information.
Mid-term Report[edit]
This mid-term report includes an interium report that covers the six month period between the end of the 2018 grant in December 2018 and the begining of the 2019 grant period starting in July 2019.
Below is a table summarizing the impact of chapter projects for the whole calandar year of 2019 taken from the Wikimedia ZA campaign dashboard.
| Participants | Articles edited | Articles created | Uploads to Commons |
| 349 | 14,600 | 772 | 1,070 |
A full report on event activities throughout the 2019 calandar year can be seen at the 2019 Activity Report prepared for the Wikimedia ZA Annaul General Meeting (AGM) and presented to the chapter on the 15 December 2019. Items in this report are also included in the AGM report.
Interium report[edit]
This report covers the period between January 2019 and the end of June 2019. In this period between grant cycles the chapter recieved permission to use unspent funds from the 2018 grant cycle to run chapter activities.
| January | February | March | April | May | June | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audit fees | - | 1,400.00 | 17,135.00 | - | - | - | 18,535.00 |
| Accounting fees | 1,771.00 | 3,542.00 | 2,975.28 | 1,992.38 | 2,656.50 | 2,877.88 | 15,815.04 |
| Bank charges | 83.30 | 138.07 | 135.32 | 134.66 | 100.66 | 107.63 | 699.64 |
| Community support | - | - | - | - | 449.90 | - | 449.90 |
| Afrikaans Writing competition | 1,921.08 | - | - | - | - | - | 1,921.08 |
| Travel & Accomodation | 2,420.00 | - | - | - | - | - | 2,420.00 |
| Receptionist services | - | 2,500.00 | - | - | - | - | 2,500.00 |
| Events & Meetings | - | - | 1,608.35 | - | - | - | 1,608.35 |
| Total expenses | 6,195.38 | 7,580.07 | 21,853.95 | 2,127.04 | 3,207.06 | 2,985.51 | 43,949.01 |
Results[edit]
Projects and results the chapter achieved during the interium period. Many of these can also be seen in the poster summary displayed at Wikimania 2019 and seen in this report n the right.
Whose Knowledge
- WMZA Event organiser: Bobbyshabangu and Stefanie Kastner from Goethe Institut, Johannesburg
Building from the discussions that took place at the Decolonizing the Internet conference organised by Whose Knowledge in Cape town in 2018, we've continued and partnered with the Goethe Institut in Johannesburg to organise meet-ups and professional meetings where we spoke about the knowledge of marginalized communities who are mostly from Global South on the internet and how best can the Goethe Institut support WMZA's efforts and the community.
Some of these conversations can be found in this link.City of Johannesburg Public Library Edit-a-thon
- WMZA Event organiser: Bobbyshabangu
- WikiAfrica Education initiative teaches South African students to decolonise the internet with Wikipedia (29 January 2019), WMF
- Moleskin primary education outreach
WMZA Event organiser: bobbyshabangu
We've partnered with the Johannesburg city library and organized an edit-a-thon where we raised awereness about Wikimedia and taught book club members how to edit on Wikipedia. Activity report can be found on the link here.
Organised by the Moleskin Foundation to promote primary education in South Africa and with the support of Wikimedia South Africa an event was held in Johannesburg. The event involved school children learning about and editing Wikipedia. Wikimedia ZA volunteer editors taught teachers and students how to edit Wikipedia and gave information on the pressing need for more indigenous South African language editors to edit local language Wikipedias in South Africa. This was seen by the chapter as an important basic education outreach activity that also had positive although relatively small content impacts on Wikipedia. This event did not incur any financial costs to the chapter.Afrikaans Writing competition
WMZA Event organiser: Dumbassman
Strategic impact type: Chapter support
UCT History workshop
WMZA Event organiser: Discott
Strategic impact type: Outreach
Wiki Loves Africa in South Africa
WMZA Event organiser: A3 Baard
Strategic impact type: Outreach
Wikimedia ZA hosted the South African component of Wiki Loves Africa. The photographic competition encouraging people to submit photographs for use on Wikipedia on African related subjects. The competition ran from 1 February 2019 until 15 March 2019 and received 435 photographic submissionsfrom 132 participants. The top 10 were selected and submitted to the International Jury to participate in the broader Wiki Loves Africa competition.
Wikipedia Design support
WMZA Event organiser: Discott
Strategic impact type: Outreach
Half-year report[edit]
This seciton deals with the time period of 1 July 2019 to 31 December 2019, or the period immidately following the period covered in the above Interium Report.
Results[edit]
Copyright Advocacy
- WMZA Event organiser: Discott
Wikimedia ZAFirst eight months of 2019Wikimedia ZA has been involved in a long term ongoing effort to get Freedom of Panorama and Fair Use adopted into South African law since 2014. The current bill now passed by parliament has both provisions. So as to help support the bill Wikimedia ZA organised a panel discussion on March 19 with copyright experts and groups impacted by copyright legislation.
Our copyright advocacy continues with calls to the president of South Africa to sign the Copyright Amendment Bill into law. As part of our efforts Discott attended the Wikimedia Workshop on Public Policy in Madrid, Spain on the 6 & 7 June 2019. This has also included giving two radio interviews, organising press and panel discussion events. Although this element of the chapter's activities are done on an entirely volunteer basis and no grant funding has been used for this activity the chapter still feels the need to report it as an important and ongoing chapter event.
Discott also helped host the advocacy space at Wikimania 2019 and hosted two workshops on Practical aspects of legislative advocacy and What we are advocating for and why.AfroCuration project
- WMZA Event organiser: Bobbyshabangu
School Librarians Conference
Wikimedia ZA gave a number of presentations on to South African librarians at the South African School Librarians' Conference on July 1 at Rhodes University in Makhanda (Grahamstown) so as to inform and encourage greater participation in the free knowledge movement. Additional presentations were given across the town to a number of other educational organisations.
Climate Change workshop
- WMZA Event volunteers: Discott, Michaelgraaf, YaguraStation
From August 6-8 Wikimedia ZA in partnership with climate change NGO South South North hosted the first African Climate Change workshop. The event involved climate change scientists from across Africa being introduced and trained to edit Wikipedia so as to improve the number and quality of climate change related articles on Wikipedia, with particular a focus on African subjects. Over 240 edits on 54 article pages were made in the 3 days of the event by 40 first time editors. An African Climate Change task-force was created on English Wikipedia to continue this work by participants in the future.
Wikimania 2019 scholarships
- WMZA Event organiser: bobbyshabangu
2030 Strategy Salons
- WMZA Event organisers: A3 Baard and bobbyshabangu
As part of Wikimedia ZA's engagment with the Wikimedia Foundation's 2030 strategy process we have run a number of strategy salon's in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The focus has been to get feedback and local insight for the 2030 strategy design process on the topics of Diversity and Capacity Building. A report of these Strategy workshops can be found here.
UNDP Wikipedian in Residence
- WMZA Event organiser: Discott
Finanicals[edit]
| 07/19/19 | 08/19/19 | 09/19/19 | 10/19/19 | 11/19/19 | YTD | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catering | R950.00 | - | - | - | R4,400.00 | R5,350.00 |
| University outreach | R7,320.43 | - | - | - | - | R7,320.43 |
| Wikipedia events & meetups | R2,080.00 | - | - | - | - | R2,080.00 |
| Wikimania 2019 scholarships | R37,025.56 | - | R8,914.94 | - | - | R45,940.50 |
| Website | R299.97 | - | - | R2,581.20 | - | R2,881.17 |
| Annual General Meeting | - | - | - | - | R10,291.61 | R10,291.61 |
| Banking & Postal | R320.05 | R400.16 | R415.64 | R322.23 | R298.29 | R1,756.37 |
| Bookkeeper | R2,656.50 | R2,656.50 | - | R1,771.00 | R1,992.38 | R9,076.38 |
| Total expenses | 50,652.51 | 3,056.66 | 9,330.58 | 4,674.43 | 16,982.28 | 84,696.46 |
| Amount of grant funding remaining as of 11/19/19 | R82,323.79 |
End of year report[edit]
This section covers the last half of the 2019/20 WMZA grant cycle covering the period 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2020. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic and resulting social distancing requirements WMZA was unable to implement many of our planned projects during this time frame. The South African government implemented a strict national lockdown starting in March 2020 and continuing until past the end of the 2019/20 grant cycle. This was further enforced as a policy when the Wikimedia Foundation announced on the 12 March 2020 that "All offline (in-person) public events funded by Wikimedia Foundation grants must be cancelled or postponed until further notice". This is why face-to-face chapter activities were stopped and associated grant funds not spent.
Below is a screenshot of the Wikimedia ZA dashboard summarising the impact of chapter events by 10 August 2020.
Digital chapter meetups
- WMZA Event organiser: Greenman
Rebranding strategy session
- WMZA Event participant: A3 Baard
Wikimedia South Africa participated in the 2030 movement brand project workshop in Oslo, Norway in January 2020. Chapter board member A3 Baard was selected to represent the chapter during this important event.
Wissen Wissen project
- WMZA Event organiser: Bobbyshabangu
Our activities in the past 6 months have been in partnership with the Goethe Institut office in South Africa. Along with Whose Knowledge, we’ve conceptualised a project titled “Wissen Wissen” and organised 4 virtual edit workshops under the theme “Decolonize The Internet” where we’ve asked participants to choose names of notable African women who played a leading role in the fields of art, science, academia, government, politics as well as notable organisations formed by African women. The idea is to introduce different communities affiliated to the Goethe Institut onto Wikipedia and its sister projects, activate and retain new users, increase Wikipedia topics about African women and increase African content on small South African language Wikipedias. The next steps is to organise a writing competition where participants will be encouraged to take part but open the competition to everyone. Prizes will include a laptop, tablet and book vouchers. Impact so far:
- 1st editathon was held on 30 May with 18 participants
- 2nd ediathon was held on 6 June with 9 participants
- 3rd editathon was held on 20 June with 11 participants
- 4th editathon was held on 27 June with 15 participants.
Copyright Advocacy
- WMZA Event organiser: Discott
Financials[edit]
Wikimedia ZA income statement for the period ending June 2020 courtesy of the chapter's book keepers at Copia.
| Expenses | Jul 2019 | Aug 2019 | Sep 2019 | Oct 2019 | Nov 2019 | Dec
2019 |
Jan
2020 |
Feb 2020 | Mar
2020 |
Apr 2020 | May
2020 |
Jun 2020 | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catering | R950.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R4,400.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R5,350.00 |
| Rhodes University outreach / Grahamstown | R7,320.43 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R7,320.43 |
| Puku primary school project | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R2,500.00 | R420.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R2,920.00 |
| Wikipedia events & chapter meetups (6 ev | R2,080.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R2,080.00 |
| Wikimania 2019 scholarships (2 people) | R37,025.56 | R0.00 | R8,914.94 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R2,579.62 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R48,520.12 |
| Website | R299.97 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R2,581.20 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R99.99 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R99.99 | R0.00 | R3,081.15 |
| Annual General Meeting | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R10,291.61 | R8,820.50 | R3,217.07 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R0.00 | R22,329.18 |
| Banking and postal costs | R320.05 | R400.16 | R415.64 | R322.23 | R298.29 | R356.47 | R386.34 | R376.88 | R372.26 | R252.24 | R331.98 | R336.17 | R4,168.71 |
| Bookkeeper | R2,656.50 | R2,656.50 | R1,771.00 | R1,992.38 | R1,549.63 | R1,650.25 | R2,824.28 | R1,972.25 | R1,296.62 | R18,369.41 | |||
| Total expenses | R50,652.51 | R3,056.66 | R9,330.58 | R4,674.43 | R16,982.28 | R13,306.22 | R7,853.65 | R796.88 | R372.26 | R3,076.52 | R2,404.22 | R1,632.79 | R114,139.00 |