Grants talk:TPS/Kevin Gorman/DC PR Summit

Are you familiar with the academic research on PR community views of Wikipedia? I have reviewed a related paper in one of the recent Wikipedia Research Newsletter issues if you are not. (Please ping me on en wiki if you reply here, thanks). --Piotrus (talk) 00:24, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi Piotrus - I'm familiar with the survey that was in the WRN, as well as the previous stuff that the PRSA etc have put out. I think it's rather significant that two thirds of even PR practitioners themselves were unfamiliar with even the idea of the brightline rule - one of the things I'm hoping will come out of this is broader awareness in the PR industry of our expected practices. IME in talking with PR practitioners and with people who have used the services of groups like Wiki-PR, most of them have been genuinely unfamiliar with the fact that covert paid editing is frowned upon. I met up earlier this week with a communications specialist from a major university who had in complete good faith written a biography in her free time of a professor in her department who had just received a significant political appointment. It wasn't a perfect article, but for someone new to Wikipedia, was significantly better than average. She had disclosed her affiliation on her userpage and submitted the draft through AfC (where it was accepted) and then gotten completely confused and bewildered when someone noticed her affiliation on her userpage and became upset with her. She had energetically not meant to do anything wrong, and had just assumed that was an appropriate pathway. (Obviously corporate PR is different than academic communications, but the degree of ignorance of our practices, IME, often similar.) Kevin (talk) 00:42, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Thanks, Kevin. I am not sure if this is the best place to put it, but you have my support for this grant. I might quibble over accomodation if not for your injury (otherwise I'd suggest go with Couchsurfing or such). I hope you'll be able to write an interesting report in the aftermath, perhaps something for the Singpost? Good luck, --Piotrus (talk) 00:56, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Normally there's no way I'd make a request to stay at a place as expensive as the Donovan, but by the time of the event, there's a non-zero chance that I'll actually be in a wheelchair for it. (Luckily, by complete coincidence, the place is wheelchair accesible.) Currently, even walking a single city block is both painful and long - although I'm confident I can handle it (I've flown with this injury already,) I'm actually even not really looking forward to amount of distance the airports would require. Unfortunately, multiple x-rays and an MRI still haven't figured out exactly what soft tissue I screwed up. Thanks for your support; if you'd like, there's a place to add endorsements on the main page. I'll certainly be looking to write up the most detailed report I can post-meeting. Confidentiality concerns will limit some of what I say, but in speaking with the organizers I've been ensured that I'll be able to write up an interesting, detailed summary. (The Chatham House Rule is a common rule among communities of practice - info that gives away the affiliations of participants or speakers can't be disclosed without their consent, to ensure that everyone feels comfortable speaking frankly.) Kevin (talk) 01:14, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Questions about your budget

Dear Kevin:

Thank you for this request! We have some questions about your budget, to help us review the request:

1. Please state what city you will be flying from, so that we may better understand the context of the US$315 air estimate.
2. We are not sure how you have calculated the per diem rates here. The rate for meals and incidentals listed on the GSA website for DC at this time of year is US$71, and so 75% of that rate would be US$53.25 per day. For how many days / meals are you requesting per diem? It may help us if you were to break that down.
3. Given your foot injury, we understand why public transit may not be an option for you on this trip; however have you also looked into less expensive travel options from the hotel to the airport, such as a shared airport shuttle? This is an option in many US cities.

Thank you, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 01:33, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

• Hi Winifred - I'll adjust the numbers tomorrow morning; you're right that I goofed on a couple things. The idea of using an airport shuttle didn't occur to me - supershuttle's quote currently adjusts that down to $70 roundtrip. The number is likely to be $0 - I'm expecting to get picked up from the airport by friends or family, but haven't been able to confirm either yet, so I included it to be on the conservative side. I'll break down the per diem tomorrow and adjust it downward as I slightly goofed on it as well. The two shifts should change the highend from $825 to slightly under $700. Sorry for the errors on the initial go-around; I've seen a specialist since my initial post and, now have an appropriate mobility setup and have thus gone from way too many pain meds to far fewer (and ideally none by the date of the conference.) Kevin (talk) 06:30, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Hi Winifred - sadly, due to time constraints, please consider this grant request withdrawn if no action is taken on it in the next 48 hours. (I understand this was a late request, and that the TPS committee normally only meets on Thursdays, but sadly with no action on the first Thursday the second will be too far.) Best, Kevin (talk) 03:29, 3 February 2014 (UTC)

Request not funded

Dear Kevin:

Thank you for this thoughtful request, for your detailed responses to our questions, and for your contributions to English Wikipedia. We appreciate the potential significance of this event; however, the committee has decided not to fund this request based on the following decision-making criteria, which are explained on the Travel and Participation Support page.

Level of participation & Investment: We understand that several English Wikipedians who are local to the East Coast will also attend this meeting, and expect they are sufficiently able to represent Wikipedia perspectives at the meeting. Under these circumstances, we do not see that the added benefit gained by funding this request is enough to justify the expense of funding the long-distance travel of another attendee.

We understand this news may be disappointing, but we encourage you to submit requests for your participation in future events and thank you for your interest in this program and your contributions to the movement.

Best regards, Winifred Olliff (Grants Administrator) talk 18:23, 3 February 2014 (UTC)