Grants:APG/Proposals/2013-2014 round1/Wikimedia Israel/Progress report form/Q2

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Purpose of the report[edit]

This form is for organizations receiving Annual Plan Grants to report on their results to date. For progress reports, the time period for this report will the first 6 months of each grant (e.g. 1 January - 30 June of the current year). For impact reports, the time period for this report will be the full 12 months of this grant, including the period already reported on in the progress report (e.g. 1 January - 31 December of the current year). This form includes four sections, addressing global metrics, program stories, financial information, and compliance. Please contact APG/FDC staff if you have questions about this form, or concerns submitting it by the deadline. After submitting the form, organizations will also meet with APG staff to discuss their progress.

Global metrics overview - all programs[edit]

We are trying to understand the overall outcomes of the work being funded across our grantees' programs. Please use the table below to let us know how your programs contributed to the Global Metrics. We understand not all Global Metrics will be relevant for all programs, so feel free to put "0" where necessary. For each program include the following table and

  1. Next to each required metric, list the outcome achieved for all of your programs included in your proposal.
  2. Where necessary, explain the context behind your outcome.
  3. In addition to the Global Metrics as measures of success for your programs, there is another table format in which you may report on any OTHER relevant measures of your programs success

For more information and a sample, see Global Metrics.

Overall[edit]

Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved
2. # of new editors
3. # of individuals involved
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects


Telling your program stories - all programs[edit]

Please tell the story of each of your programs included in your proposal. This is your chance to tell your story by using any additional metrics (beyond global metrics) that are relevant to your context, beyond the global metrics above. You should be reporting against the targets you set at the beginning of the year throughout the year. We have provided a template here below for you to report against your targets, but you are welcome to include this information in another way. Also, if you decided not to do a program that was included in your proposal or added a program not in the proposal, please explain this change. More resources for storytelling are at the end of this form. Here are some ways to tell your story.

  • We encourage you to share your successes and failures and what you are learning. Please also share why are these successes, failures, or learnings are important in your context. Reference learning patterns or other documentation.
  • Make clear connections between your offline activities and online results, as applicable. For example, explain how your education program activities is leading to quality content on Wikipedia.
  • We encourage you to tell your story in different ways by using videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g.), compelling quotes, and by linking directly to work you produce. You may highlight outcomes, learning, or metrics this way.
  • We encourage you to continue using dashboards, progress bars, and scorecards that you have used to illustrate your progress in the past, and to report consistently over time.
  • You are welcome to use the table below to report on any metrics or measures relevant to your program. These may or may not include the global metrics you put in the overview section above. You can also share your progress in another way if you do not find a table like this useful.
Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year (projected or actual) Comments
Example Example Example Example Example

Revenues received during this period (6 month for progress report, 12 months for impact report)[edit]

Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

Table 2 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

  • Please also include any in-kind contributions or resources that you have received in this revenues table. This might include donated office space, services, prizes, food, etc. If you are to provide a monetary equivalent (e.g. $500 for food from Organization X for service Y), please include it in this table. Otherwise, please highlight the contribution, as well as the name of the partner, in the notes section.
Revenue source Currency Anticipated Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Anticipated ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Explanation of variances from plan
A B C D E F G H I J K

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Spending during this period (6 month for progress report, 12 months for impact report)[edit]

Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

Table 3 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

(The "budgeted" amount is the total planned for the year as submitted in your proposal form or your revised plan, and the "cumulative" column refers to the total spent to date this year. The "percentage spent to date" is the ratio of the cumulative amount spent over the budgeted amount.)
Expense Currency Budgeted Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Budgeted ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Percentage spent to date Explanation of variances from plan
A B C D E F G H I J J2 K
TOTAL B C D E F G H I J J2 N/A

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Compliance[edit]

Is your organization compliant with the terms outlined in the grant agreement?[edit]

As required in the grant agreement, please report any deviations from your grant proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Grant funds as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

Signature[edit]

Once complete, please sign below with the usual four tildes.

Resources[edit]

Resources to plan for measurement[edit]

Resources for storytelling[edit]


Basic entity information[edit]

Table 1

Entity information Legal name of entity Wikimedia Israel
Entity's fiscal year (mm/dd–mm/dd) 1/1 - 12/31
12 month timeframe of funds awarded (mm/dd/yy-mm/dd/yy) 01/01/14 - 12/31/14
Contact information (primary) Primary contact name Itzik Edri
Primary contact position in entity Chairperson
Primary contact username itzike
Primary contact email itzik@wikimedia.org.il
Contact information (secondary) Secondary contact name Michal Lester
Secondary contact position in entity Executive Director
Secondary contact username Mlesterwml
Secondary contact email mlester@wikimedia.org.il


Overview of this quarter[edit]

The purpose of this section is to provide a brief overview of this report. Please use no more than 1-2 paragraphs to address the questions outlined below. You will have an opportunity to address these questions in detail elsewhere in this report.

CHANGES: Please describe how you changed your plans and budget based on the FDC allocation approved by the Board in December 2012, and your rationale for these changes. You can then use the changed plans and budget as the basis on which to report back on the first quarter.

  • There were no significant changes made in the 2nd quarter. Activities continued as planned and according to the annual work plan. Hiring a Community Coordinator has boosted activities with the Wikipedia community. The most challenging aspect of our work in this quarter was in the establishment of a community of MediaWiki developers.

HIGHLIGHTS: What were 1–2 important highlights of the past quarter? (These may include successes, challenges, lessons learned.)

  • The Wiki-Academy conference was held at the beginning of June, and was considered a great success. We were proud to host two international guests: David Weinberger, co-director of the Harvard Library Lab; and Jan-Bart de Vreede, Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. In lieu of de Vreede's visit, we met with Minister of Education Shai Piron, who issued a significant announcement promoting the use of Wikipedia in schools while promising to review a plan to instruct teachers and high-school students in the art writing and editing for Wikipedia.

WIKI-FOCUS: What Wikimedia projects was your entity focused on (e.g., Wiki Commons, French Wiktionary) this quarter?

  • Hebrew Wikipedia and Wiki Commons.

GROWTH: How did your entity grow over the past quarter vs. the previous quarter (e.g., Number of active editors reached/involved/added, number of articles created, number of events held, number of partipants reached through workshops)?

Lectures 12
No. of participants in the Lectures about 300
Workshops 14
No. of participants in the workshops about 300
No. of articles that were written or edited during the 2ns quarter (as part of programs) 149 new articles

44 significant expansions

72 new articles waiting for approval

No. of new editors 4
Community gatherings 4
Commons 324

Financial summary[edit]

The FDC requires information about how your entity received and spent money over the past year. The FDC distributes general funds, so your entity is not required to use funds exactly as outlined in the proposal. While line-item expenses will not be examined, the FDC and movement wants to understand why the entity spent money in the way it did. If variance in budgeted vs. actual is greater than 20%, please provide explanation in more detail. This helps the FDC understand the rationale behind any significant changes. Note that any changes from the Grant proposal, among other things, must be consistent with the WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, must be reported to WMF, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement. The WMF mission 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."

Revenues for this quarter[edit]

Provide exchange rate used:

  • 1$ = 3.6 NIS

Table 2 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

  • Please also include any in-kind contributions or resources that you have received in this revenues table. This might include donated office space, services, prizes, food, etc. If you are to provide a monetary equivalent (e.g. $500 for food from Organization X for service Y), please include it in this table. Otherwise, please highlight the contribution, as well as the name of the partner, in the notes section.
Revenue source Currency Anticipated Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Anticipated ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Explanation of variances from plan
Donations from individuals ILS 2000 700 720 1420 555 394 35%
Membership fees ILS 800 400 60 460 222 128 50%
Sponsors ILS 30000 0 0 0 8333 0 0
Funds ILS 90000 0 0 0 33333 0 0
Partnerships ILS 25200 0 8400 8400 7000 2333 33%
FDC ILS 709000 413583 0 413583 196944 114884 58%
Total ILS 857000 414683 9180 0 0 423863 24638 117740 48%
In kind donation and volunteers hours ILS 50000 11733 31567 43300 13888 12027 24%

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Spending during this quarter[edit]

Table 3 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

(The "budgeted" amount is the total planned for the year as submitted in your proposal form or your revised plan, and the "cumulative" column refers to the total spent to date this year. The "percentage spent to date" is the ratio of the cumulative amount spent over the budgeted amount.)
Expense Currency Budgeted Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Budgeted ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Percentage spent to date Explanation of variances from plan
Community ILS 56000 6406.9 3345 9752 15556 2709 17% -
Promoting free knowledge ILS 114400 2485 41882 44367 31778 123248 39% -
Global engagement ILS 40824 8147 15820 23967 11340 6657.5 59% -
Management and Administration ILS 228232 33601 39643 73244 63398 20345 32% -
staff ILS 438000 86670 102212 188882 121667 52467 43% -
TOTAL ILS 877456 137310 202902 340212 243738 94503 39%

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Progress toward this year's goals/objectives[edit]

This section addresses the impact of the programs / initiatives* and objectives your entity has implemented over the past quarter and the progress your entity is making toward meeting this year's goals. We understand that some metrics may not be applicable in this quarterly report, so please add metrics here if they are applicable.

*In the past, the FDC has used the term 'initiative', but we are using the term 'program.'

Program 1[edit]

Strengthening our existing volunteer base
What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.

1. Creating, developing and sustaining all communication channels between the Israeli chapter and the Wikipedia communities through:

  • Enabling and sustaining communication through diverse channels such as Wikipedia and Facebook.
  • Following-up on any correspondence between the community and the volunteers in Wikipedia and in Facebook, with the aim of keeping ourselves informed on community activities and to locate cases in which we can promote projects and assist the people involved.
  • Mapping lists of Wikipedians and Wikimedians.
  • Personally contacting Wikipedians and new editors in our editing workshops.
  • Creating a page for the chapter in the community Wiki space.
  • Sharing information about volunteer activities by posting updates on the international blog as well as the Israeli blog. Six posts are to be written by the end of 2014.
  • Sharing information about the chapter’s ongoing activities through and a bi-weekly email sent to all chapter members; and updates in the Village Pump, Message Board, our Facebook page and the chapter's website.

2. Developing and strengthening connections between additional Wiki initiatives. 3. Strengthening our current volunteer baseː

  • 12 community meetings that include:

- 2 edit-a-thons.

- 4 editing workshop sessions (with 10 editors at least).

- At least one face-to-face meeting with external expert lecturers.

- At least three gatherings organized by the community.

- Face-to-face meetings to discuss chapter activities in Wikipedia - as needed.

- Frequent community gatherings in the community area of the chapter’s office in Tel Aviv.


  • Recruiting inactive members back to the community as active editors/chapter members:

- Mapping a list made of 50 inactive Wikipedians, at least.

- Developing a work plan to reach them.

- Recruiting 10% of inactive members back to the community as active editors.


  • Recruiting volunteers to strengthen organizational infrastructure:

- Providing training tools and guidance to volunteers - at least 2 meetings for potential/current volunteers.

- Recruiting more than three new volunteers in accordance with the needs of the organization.


  • Encouraging new initiatives:

- Two-three new initiatives.

- Publishing calls for proposals for micro-grant applications in the community and amongst our partners.


  • Strengthening relations between the community (especially among active editors in the community) and the chapter:

- Integrating the WMIL portal in the community portal at the Hebrew Wikipedia.


  • Organizing Wikipedia's 13th birthday and Hebrew Wikipedia's 11th birthday events - 80 Wikipedians and guests are expected to attend each event.


  • Arranging meetings between the chairperson of the WMF (during his visit in Israel) and community members. 20 Wikipedians are expected to attend the meetings.


4. Assisting volunteers with issues of copyright.



Progress against these objectives (include metrics and # of volunteers/staff involved)?
Activities conducted.
  • Micro-grants:

Our micro-grant committee first convened last June. The committee was comprised of two members from the Board, two Wikipedia and Wikimedia community members, and the chapter's Activity Coordinator. We consider the participation of representatives from the community of editors as highly important. The committee was established with the aim of promoting the use of micro-grants to fund free content projects and programs by volunteers, and to recruit new activists. In May, We issued a site notice calling for new applications. Similar notices were posted on the chapter's website and social media channels. As a result, six new applications for grants were received. The first and most prominent among them was "Someone to Run With", a project grant application made by a professor and his students from Sapir College. As part of a course called “Sports as a Cultural Phenomenon", the students sought to develop a list of all non-existent Wikipedia entries and images in the field of sports in Israel, and then engage in writing articles about them. The application requested reimbursement for travel costs and access to archives. Their application was granted and a chapter volunteer was assigned to lecture, lead a Wikipedia editing workshop and facilitate the project. At the beginning of August, 25 Wikipedia articles written by 34 students will be moved to mainspace. Throughout the month of June, the committee reviewed five more micro-grant applications, approved two, rejected two and invited two more applicants to discuss different collaborations. Currently, we are in contact with the applicants whose micro-grants were approved to initiate collaborations. In our next report, we hope to update on the progress of these collaborations. As part of our efforts to promote new projects, we constantly update our volunteers about the resources they can use. We encourage them to use the community area in our offices in Tel Aviv for their meetings and help them to establish connections with potential collaborators outside the community; currently, we are considering the purchase of more equipment such as cameras and other visual aids to assist our volunteers in implementing future projects. Information about our resources and suggestions are posted on our chapter portal in Wikipedia, disseminated through our newsletters and brought up in personal meetings. Our message is: The chapter is here to assist you, just tell us what you need.

  • Community Coordinator:

In April, the Community Coordinator assumed her responsibilities (50% FTE). The new staff member was introduced to the volunteers through an email sent to our chapter members and in a formal announcement in the Village Pump. Our Community Coordinator is a veteran Wikipedian with in-depth knowledge of the community and its established procedures. To distinguish her work as a volunteer and her work as a staff member, a new Wikipedia account was opened for her, through which all chapter activities are conducted. This separation enables her to continue her work as a Wikipedian, voice her personal opinions and take part in relevant discussions regarding her activity as a Wikipedian, while still represent the chapter in her formal capacity as a Community Coordinator in a neutral fashion. It is evident that the community members were freed of their apprehensions on the subject, and that the relationship between the chapter and the volunteers has profited from her work.

  • Adjustment of the work plan:

As the Community Coordinator assumed her responsibilities, she met with Wikipedia activists and chapter members and got to know the playfield. During this process, new needs were discovered, and the work plan was adapted to meet them:

· Number of edit-a-thons was reduced from three to two. This change sprung from the realization that the nature of these meetings must change, and focus more on specific subjects rather than address general issues. To conduct the edit-a-thons in their new format, specific interest groups must be located within the community.

· Use of the community room: The chapter's offices have been opened for less than six months, and the volunteers are still largely unaware of the fact that they may use the community room in the premises. To make the room accessible, we have established Wednesday as an "open room" day, when volunteers can meet without having to book the room in advance. This process will take some time to assimilate, although a change is already visible. To encourage the use of the room, we have started to accumulate professional literature that may help the volunteers in updating Wikipedia articles.

  • Sustaining and improving relations with the community

· The Community Coordinator's user page and talk page are used for direct communication with Wikipedians in order to promote Wikimedia projects. The Community Coordinator has introduced herself through her user pages in several active projects, and added a link to her active user page in Wikipedia.

· 9 Wikipedians contacted the Community Coordinator through her talk page. In addition, she was tagged in five discussions in other Wikipedia pages. To make her work more efficient, she has listed useful links in her user page. For example, assistance directed to new editors, helpful pages directed to veteran editors, links to community activities, information about copyright issues and pages containing explanation and procedures regarding sensitive issues, such as writing articles about individuals and paid editing. This list is constantly updated according to experience gathered in the field.

· In the beginning of 2014, the Board decided to create a chapter portal in the community space on Wikipedia. One of the first tasks of the Community Coordinator, together with some volunteers, was to create the portal. This serves as another channel of communication between the community and the chapter. The page went live in May, and gained 196 unique visitors by the end of June. Six Wikipedians participated in its update.

· Chapter members are updated on activities and issues in a bi-weekly newsletter. Four such updates were sent by the end of June, generating a total of five comments from chapter members (including one volunteer who offered to assist in leading workshops). This update includes invitations for future events and updates on events that already took place, including two personal summaries from volunteers who attended different events. These emails also include updates on our international activity. For example, community-related projects implemented by major chapters during 2013 were summarized in Hebrew. In addition, a link to the Foundation's mailing list was added, to enable volunteers to get direct, in-depth updates on issues that interest them.

· Cooperative action to strengthen the Hebrew Wikipedia. In cooperation with chapter members, community members manage a Facebook page dedicated to Wikipedia. The goal of this page is to recruit active editors. A meeting was held to promote this issue, attended by four volunteers, the ED, the Chairperson of the Board and the chapter's spokesperson.

· Copyrights: the Community Coordinator is also responsible for assisting and supporting the volunteers on the issue of copyrights. When a Wikipedian encounters a copyright infringement (Wikipedia content in external websites without proper credit) he/she may apply for action in the Community Coordinator's talk page. Every such application is reviewed and when necessary, a formal request is sent for proper credit. Until now, two such requests were made and both were dealt with successfully. The first request was sent to an individual managing a travel website regarding an article he posted. The second request was sent to an NPO managing a website on heritage regarding the use of information and images from Hebrew Wikipedia on a military operation. In both of these cases, the parties were unaware that they should credit Wikipedia author/s for the content, apologies were made and cooperation was instant.

· Collaboration was established between the Community Coordinator and the volunteer in charge of the Greenhouse operation. Both have begun to work together in the 2nd quarter to assist people who have participated in editing workshops or have approached the Community Coordinator directly. Two new editors were referred to the volunteer.

Summary of applications and requests made to WMIL:

  • Number of applications made through the Community Coordinator's talk page: 9
  • Number of requests to deal with copyright infringements: 2
  • Personal instruction sessions: 15


  • Recruitment of volunteers to WMIL

To recruit new volunteers to Wikimedia Israel, we began to map our current volunteers in the active Wikipedia community and among our chapter members. This mapping enables us to gain a better knowledge of our activists, characterize every volunteer’s and editor’s activities and areas of interest, and discover who to approach and when for activities in the chapter. In this fashion, when a certain project or activity is planned, we can approach specific volunteers who are more likely to pitch in and help. We expect that such “tailor-made” requests for action will raise the level of response and cooperation of our volunteers. In addition, personal relationships can ensue among like-minded volunteers, leading to a better and stronger community. Moreover, this mapping helps us locate the kind of qualified volunteers we are currently lacking. For example, we learned that we need more volunteers who know how to instruct and facilitate workshops. Accordingly, in our bi-weekly email to chapter members we sometimes issue calls for proposals for volunteers, specifying our needs and the challenges we need to address. Currently, the mapping of all chapter volunteers has been finalized. During the next quarter, we plan to map active Wikipedians in the hope of recruiting them to active volunteer activities in the chapter. In this quarter, four veteran inactive volunteers were approached personally and recruited for ongoing activities in the chapter according to their areas of interest. Mapping of the Wikipedia community and the calls for proposals contributed greatly to our recruitment rate.

  • Community meetings:

· On May 7th a special meeting was held, which was attended by the team operating the Hebrew Wikipedia Facebook page. The discussion centered on strengthening cooperation between the chapter and the Hebrew Wikipedia editors in social media. The attendees agreed to collaborate in the publishing of planned events.

Wikipedian Meetup with Jan-Bart de Vreede, Israel 2014
Wikipedian Meetup with Jan-Bart de Vreede, Israel 2014

· As part of our Wiki-Academy conference, held on June 1st and attended by more than 100 Wikipedians, people in academia and journalists, we concluded the event by holding a special community meeting in our chapter offices in Tel Aviv. Present were Jan-Bart de Vreede, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees and more than 100 Wikipedia and Wikimedia volunteers. A lively, informal discussion ensued, focusing on the relationship between the chapter and the movement, deletion of images from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, education initiatives and more. The atmosphere was pleasant and relaxed. Following the meeting, a Wikipedia page in Hebrew was created to summarize its main points and decisions.

· As part of our efforts to establish a community of developers for MediaWiki in the Hebrew Wikipedia, we held a number of meetings comprising of volunteers specializing in software and development. The aim was to discuss our goals and the readiness for MediaWiki developers to organize a Hackathon.

· With the aim of creating a fixed curriculum for our editing workshops, we held a special meeting on June 12th and invited a professional in the field of instruction development and volunteers who are active in leading and facilitating workshops. We discussed challenges, models of effective instruction and ways to improve the existing curriculum. The meeting was attended by nine volunteers and staff members.

Elef Milim Project - Wikipedians in Sarona
Double bass sculpture, Ben Shemen Youth Village

· As part of our Thousand Words photography project, two photography tours were organized in the 2nd quarter. This project is led by a chapter volunteer and sponsored by public and cultural institutions in the form of free admissions to museums, cultural and touristic sites, etc., and a guide leading the tour – free of charge. One tour was conducted in Ben Shemen Youth Village with 8 Wikipedians, resulting in 75 images for Wikimedia Commons. The second tour was conducted in Sarona open-air commercial center in Tel Aviv with 37 Wikipedians, resulting in 67 images for Wikimedia Commons.

  • Relations with new communities:

Our Facebook page has an active group called Wiki Women. This group encourages women to edit articles in Wikipedia, focusing mainly on issues of feminism, Queer theory and gender. The ED, Community Coordinator and a number of Wikipedians have joined the group to post updates about the chapter's activities and to assist group members when necessary. The group manager has joined the chapter as a member. Collaboration with the Wikisourse language community was established after the Community Coordinator offered to assist in the organization of Wikitext’s 10th anniversary celebration. A meeting page was created to help plan the event and to gather all correspondence on the subject. 6 Wikisourse volunteers have edited the page after its creation.

  • Open office hours for new editors

Instigated by Wikipedians in Residence in the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, there is now a weekly open office hour to assist editors who participated in the library's editing workshops. In this quarter, two personal meetings were held, and four new editors were provided with personal tutoring sessions. This initiative was announced in the chapter's newsletter, and similar meetings will be held in the library of The University of Haifa University in the 3rd quarter. Tutoring sessions, led by a chapter volunteer, will be given to new editors and students participating in courses that demand writing for Wikipedia as a requirement.


What worked and what did not?
  • The community room in our offices in Tel Aviv is yet to be fully utilized. We continue to seek ways to encourage its use, such as our open published invitation to use the room every Wednesday.

Any additional details:


Program 2[edit]

Recruiting new volunteers
What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.
  • Developing guidance methods and tools for effective instruction, and assisting in the onboarding process of new editors.
  • Conducting lectures and facilitating workshops.
Progress against these objectives (include metrics and # of volunteers/staff involved)?
Activities conducted.
  • Training the trainers
Training the trainers - Wikimedia Israel Offices TLV

As part of our collaboration with Blackboard Inc., Mr Beni Labov, VP for projects and technology at Blackboard, attended one of our editing workshops to study and review our one-day workshop model. He then held discussions with the instructor and the volunteers to learn more about the underlying rationale of the model. On June 12th, we held a meeting in our chapter offices with 16 instructors and facilitators. The discussion focused on the structure of the workshop, what needs to be changed and what works, and it was decided that the introductory lecture must remain but will not exceed 90 minutes. In the practical section of the workshop, it was decided to divide the exercises into smaller sections. For example, the instructor teaches how to create something (a headline, for instance) and then the participants practice it. In the future, Wikipedia Israel will create short instructional videos to remind participants of practices learned. Blackboard Inc. will create lessons plans for future workshops.

  • Editing workshops held in the 2nd quarter

{{

Date Audience Location No. of participants Contributions
1.4 An editing workshop at the Tel Aviv University Library Tel Aviv 20 No information available
4.4 An editing workshop at the National Library in Jerusalem – open for the public Jerusalem 3 2 articles

5 expansions

9.4 An editing workshop for the Israeli Diplomatic Cadet Course Jerusalem 19 1 articles

3 expansions

2.5 An editing workshop at the National Library in Jerusalem – open for the public Jerusalem 32 5 articles

multiple expansions

20.5 An editing workshop for teachers of gifted students Petah Tikva 26 -
22.5 An editing workshop in the chapter's offices – open for the public Tel Aviv 14 2 expansions
10.6 An editing workshop at the National Library in Jerusalem – for senior citizens Jerusalem 50 No information available
13.6 An editing workshop at the National Library in Jerusalem Jerusalem 25 -
15.6 An editing workshop in the chapter's offices – open for the public Tel Aviv 8 A few expansions
24.6 An editing workshop for gifted students and their teachers at Leyada high school in Jerusalem Jerusalem 30 5 expansions

}}

In this quarter, we also held a workshop focusing on using MediaWiki's VisualEditor.

  • Personal tutoring in editing workshops

One of the challenges in building a support system for new editors is the limited time staffers and volunteers are able dedicate to personal tutoring sessions with the participants. Community volunteers report that the greatest challenge with new editors is the time spent on corrections and explanations. Editing workshops for groups enable us to equip new editors with basic tools and information and facilitate their work in Wikipedia. Nevertheless, it is often challenging to sustain their motivation for active editing after the workshop, and subsequent facilitation is needed.

To deal with this issue, we devised a work plan for facilitating new editors after their participation in our workshops, with the aim of sustaining and encouraging active editing for a prolonged period of time. This plan takes into consideration the need to match the integration of new editors into the community in lieu of our current resources; the working assumption is that gradual integration will lead to an increase in the number of volunteers, which will in turn contribute to an increased level of activity. We decided to continue to conduct two workshops per month, a number which will prevent the excess of new editors in the community. We decided to create mapping mechanisms to locate editors who show greater promise to be active over a prolonged period of time. This approach will ensue in a more efficient use of the community’s and chapter’s resources, and will result in a more successful integration of new editors into the community.

Another challenge we face is a sustained follow-up of the participants in the workshops. We invest a great amount of time in devising quantifying measures for the number of editors and articles written by workshop participants to gage the effectiveness of the workshops.

Stages in following-up on workshop participants:

1. Preparation: Prior to the workshop, we collect all relevant information about the participants – full name, Wikipedia user name and active email address. This is done so we can follow up on participants for the weeks and months to come after the workshop. Prior to the workshop, participants receive an email from the Activities Coordinator. This includes links to stubs, a “How To” section on opening a new username, as well as a request to gather information about an article he/she wishes to expand upon.

2. Mapping the participants’ activity: A week after the workshop, every participant receives an email from the Activities Coordinator with relevant links to the Greenhouse, help pages in Wikipedia, the reference desk, and the help page for Wiki syntax. In addition, participants are asked to fill a workshop evaluation form. We infer that a personal application, tailored to each participant’s contribution, is significant for establishing a positive relationship with the chapter. The average response rate is 5%. In this quarter, the Community Coordinator followed up on editors who expressed a readiness to write and edit articles, or expressed the need for assistance.

3. Assistance through email correspondence: One of the main challenges for new editors is the use of talk pages in Wikipedia. Providing them with assistance and guidance through email greatly facilitates their integration in the community, and serves as an interim solution until they acquire the necessary skills for communication with the community through talk pages. The first communication is made through emails, and the editors are then referred to help pages in Wikipedia for further guidance on using talk pages. Five new editors were assisted in this fashion.

4. Link to the Greenhouse: Editors who express interest in future editing work are directed to the Greenhouse for further assistance and follow up. In addition, they receive the contact details of a Wikipedian for prolonged assistance and facilitation when necessary. The Community Coordinator carefully tries to match between the user’s and the volunteer’s areas of interest.

5. Follow up: Three months after the workshop (or once per quarter) we follow up on each user’s contributions. In each of these follow-ups, special attention is given to exceptionally active editors, and we document new editors who have joined the Hebrew Wikipedia community.

An example of integrating between instruction done in Wikipedia and outside of Wikipedia: A teacher who participated in two editing workshops for teachers was approached by the Activities Coordinator after he began to write a draft article on Jewish art music. He was encouraged to continue his work so that the article can be moved to mainspace. The teacher responded by saying that his problem was not technical but rather related to the proper organization of the content. The coordinator continued to correspond with him, updated the Greenhouse manager, and referred the teacher to a Wikipedian specializing in media and copyright procedures. Both the Greenhouse Volunteers responsible and the Wikipedian approached the user on his talk page. As a result, the draft was greatly improved and will soon move to mainspace. As a result of the personal connection established with the Activities Coordinator, the same teacher then approached her again, asking for help in writing an article about Rosh Pina Stream, written and edited by a group of 14 students in fifth and sixth grades and their teacher. In this article’s talk page, the teacher responsible for the project described the process and the assistance she received from the teacher editor about rules of writing Wikipedia articles.

What worked and what did not?

Two major lessons were learned this quarter:

1. The effectiveness of one-day workshops is low. We will review their continuance after two quarters. Despite the limited amount of contributions they generate, they are nevertheless important for the volunteers who run and facilitate them and members of the general public who wish to attend them. At this stage, we are limiting one-day workshops to a monthly workshop in the chapter’s offices and a monthly workshop in the National Library in Jerusalem. Other resources are invested in collaborations with schools and academic institutions.

2. Editing workshops for senior citizens: This issue is still examined, but after having held two meetings in collaboration with the Ministry for Senior Citizens, we are reconsidering the collaboration and examining a three-session course designed especially for senior citizens who are computer literate. Previous workshops have produced no contributions, which has led us to conclude that this population requires personalized tutoring and a different mode of instruction. We hope to update on our progress in this issue in our next quarterly reports.

Any additional details:


Program 3[edit]

Organizational strengthening
What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.
  • Establishing a professional Wikimedia chapter in Israel that is able to work efficiently, create partnerships with other institutions and support and promote volunteers' work.
  • Hiring a Community Coordinator (50% FTE).
  • Developing at least three procedural guidelines to support volunteers in executing projects and initiatives.
  • Launching a three-year strategic plan.
Progress against these objectives (include metrics and # of volunteers/staff involved)?
Activities conducted.

Chen Spector, our Communities Coordinator, has begun her work with great enthusiasm. During the 2nd quarter, the Board and the ED began to study the issue of conflict of interest. First, we translated the British chapter’s Conflict of Interest Guide and the requirements by the Israeli Ministry of Justice. These requirements focus on the potential conflict of interest created when family members are active in the same NPO. The Board has decided to expand the Israeli procedural guidelines to include specific issues for the movement. This has yet to be completed. The chapter’s attorney has been assisting us with this project.

Launching a three-year strategic plan

WMIL has entered a three-year strategic planning phase. As part of this process, WMIL has a top level staff made up of an ED, two Board members, an experienced volunteer and an MBA student specializing in strategy. WMIL aims to expand the development of projects and initiatives that promote free content. In-depth interviews are conducted with WMIL various stakeholders: GLAM, academic institutions, the Ministry of Justice, Wikipedians, other chapters and WMF representatives and volunteers. This is followed up by comprehensive questionnaires which request feedback on projects that should be highlighted and enhanced. Finally, strategic planning processes that were initiated by various chapters and the WMF are analyzed. All of the above contribute towards learning about the different components crucial for the sustainability and future development of WMIL. Most interviews were held during the end of June, and most activities will be held in the 3rd quarter.

As part of the process, WMIL will hold three community meetings for brainstorming and discussion on the following dates: July 25th, August 1st and August 30th. We have created a page to document these meetings.


What worked and what did not?

Any additional details:

  • Activities are progressing as planned.


Program 4[edit]

Increasing the chapter’s resources

● Fundraising to the amount of $25,000. ● In-kind donations to the amount of $15,000.

What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.
Promotional material from Wikimedia Israel
Progress against these objectives (include metrics and # of volunteers/staff involved)?

During the 2nd quarter of 2014, WMIL submitted two applications for grants from two foundations. One was for supporting a program to promote the writing of articles in academic institutions. The second was for supporting a program for gifted students. Both applications were rejected. We have created an info page to describe the activities.

In-kind donations

In the second quarter we received donations totaling ILS 13,703. We received grants for non-profit advertising from Google (Google AdWords), hosting the Wikipedia Academy and community meetings, and free entry and tour guides to paid sites in the framework of A Thousand Words (a photo walk project). Additionally, our volunteers gave 455 hours of their time, spread over various projects, for an equivalent of ILS 17,864 (the monetary value of one volunteer hour is calculated based on the minimum wage in Israel).

What worked and what did not?
  • Fundraising is a long term, often complex process. We do not submit as many grant applications as we wished.

Any additional details:


Program 5[edit]

Creating long-term strategic partnerships
What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.
  • Developing and establishing collaborations with academic and cultural institutions.
  • Initiating a photography contest – “Wiki Loves Monuments”.
  • Developing collaborations with the free content community in Israel.
  • Developing a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Education.

What key activities and/or milestones are associated with this program?

Regarding cultural institutions:

  • Establishing partnerships with cultural institutions, as well as strengthening our existing collaborations with The National Library and others.
  • Building new models for partnerships with cultural institutions.

GLAM

The National Library of Israel (NL): The partnership with NLI is becoming strategic and more sustainable for both organizations, with NLI’s decision to appoint an in-house Wikimedian in Residence, Ms. Darya Ganor. Ms. Ganor takes place in most community events, and also in WMIL actions. Once a month NLI holds a wiki editing worhshop, which is held with help of both WMIL volunteers and NLI staff. Ms. Ganor started a great initative - she has weekly reception hours for workshop atendees. This initiative has been duplicated to WMIL’s Tel Aviv Offices, in order to support new editors, and will be duplicated to Haifa University in the near future. WMIL staff has direct and constant contact with NLI employees. NLI reports that, as a result of the mutual work, there is a 75% increase in traffic to NLI resources (website, services) from the Hebrew Wikipedia, compared to 2013. 37 portraits were uploaded to the “Schwadron Collection” category on Commons. 36 Images were uploaded to the “Ketubot” Collection. All images have been incorporated into appropriate Wikipedia articles. Comics & Cartoons Museum in Holon: During Q1 and Q2, we held a GLAM partnership with the Cartoons Museum of Holon, which included expanding articles about cartoonists and enriching the avilable materials by uploading to the Commons. Here is a summary of the activities conducted within the scope of this GLAM partnership:

Intro and general goals - ​The project, ​which began in February, included a 4-months wikipedian-in-resident program at the museum. During these 4 months, we aimed to -

  • Map what exists and what still needs to be done in the areas of Caricatures and Cartoons in Israel and outside of it on Hebrew wikipedia.
  • Initiate the expanding and writing of articles about important Israeli Caricaturists and Cartoonists from the old generation that less is known about.
  • Upload hi-res photos from the museum's collection under free license to WikiCommons.
  • Assist the museum in its endeavors to digitize its collection, so that the digital version could be released to wikicommons (specifically an important collection of daily caricatures by Israeli artist Ze'ev, which is highly significant to Israeli culture and is very difficult to find).
  • Build an infrastructure for the community to continue the work after 4 months.
  • Create a sustainable relationship with the museum and its contributors that will continue after the 4 months pilot is over.

Achievements during the second half of the project (till the end of May) -

  • 26 articles were expanded or written on He-wiki, including 1 in En-wiki (see list of articles below).
  • 234 photos of artistic works and documentary photographs, the majority of in high-resolution, were uploaded to WikiCommons.
  • 17 more pictures were uploaded to He-WIki (PD-Israel).
  • 3 of the photos were voted on by the community and chosen to be Featured Photo of the Day on He-Wiki's main page: 23/06, 24/07, 14/08.
  • Contacting 25 copyright holders in the hopes of convincing them to donate their material to wikipedia under free license. So far, 12 signed and donated and a few more are on the way.
  • Encouraging and assisting the museum in finding a donor that will digitize their collection. As soon as it is, the museum will share a significant portion of their collection with our community.
  • Continued collaborative efforts with the museum after the pilot project ended.

Unique Challenges / Obstacles -

  • Lack of infrastructure at the museum - most of the material (about 300,000 items) is not digitized, so we were unable to upload all the items the museum was and still is willing to donate during these 4 months. However, as mentioned above, the collaboration played an important part in finding pushing the museum to find a donor that will finance their collection, and as soon as the material is digitized, they will be uploaded to commons. First part is to be ready by the end of October.
  • Lack of interest from volunteers on He-wiki to participate and contribute to the project. Though the community found the material important, very few chose to actively participated in extending or writing articles.
  • Besides the very successful "behind the scenes" tour in the first part of the project, no other events took place during the pilot, unlike previous GLAM projects, which help at least one edit-a-thon and one workshop for newcomers from the public. Since there was little interest from the community, it was decided to conduct the edit-a-thon and workshop after the pilot is over,when we get a major photo donation from the museum.

We are not expanding our partnerships with cultural institutions at this time. In the 3rd quarter, we plan to examine, together with the National Library, the model of integration with educational plans and consider changing the structure of the workshops to enhance their effectiveness and the use of the library’s own resources.

Photography projects

  • “Wiki Loves Monuments” photography contest.
  • Pursuing at least one sponsor for this contest.
  • Establishing a new partnership.

As part of the recruitment of partners for the “Wikipedia loves heritage sites” photography contest, WMIL has contacted several organizations and government ministries.

In the beginning of the 4th quarter 2013, we started working on a new photography contest – “Wiki Loves Earth”, beginning with the search for partners. First, we approached government ministries, such as the Ministry of Environmental Protection, KKL and Israel Nature and Parks Authority. These bodies were non-responsive, and the volunteers showed little enthusiasm for the contest. We therefore decided to continue with the “Wiki Loves Monuments” format, and currently we are in contact with the Israel Antiquities Authority, a new partner for WMIL, which we also view as a potential partner beyond the current photography contest. In addition, we are in contact with the Digital Diplomacy Unit in the Foreign Ministry. We continue with our long-term partnership with the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites and we are renewing our partnership with the Israel Internet Association. We also hope to continue our partnership with the Galitz School for Photography.

Building a Community for MediaWiki Developers

  • Establishing a community of developers that will convene on a monthly basis
  • Organizing two Hackathons focused on the development of tools/extensions needed to further the movement’s and Hebrew Wikipedia’s goals, such as a Hebrew interface for existing tools, or specific developments needed to promote local GLAM partnerships.

Establishing a community of MediaWiki developers

According to the established work plan, we continued in our efforts to recruit MediaWiki developers for the Hebrew Wikipedia. In the last few months, we have conducted many meetings and discussions with volunteers who are knowledgeable in MediaWiki, with the aim of establishing a nucleus that will be able to run and produce another hackathon and to recruit new volunteers to the community of developers.

In the previous quarter, we asked our editors in the Hebrew Wikipedia community to raise requests, challenges and difficulties they face in the current infrastructure. Following their input, we held a meeting to discuss the requests made and the requirements necessary to develop said requests. Some specific problems came up that we knew could be addressed with the cooperation of our volunteers. In addition, we held discussions with Wikimedia activists knowledgeable in MediaWiki; unfortunately, we were not able to locate volunteers with enough know-how, ability and time to commit to such a project. We concluded that our staff members, if unaided by volunteers with know-how in the field, cannot build and sustain a community of Wiki developers. We decided, therefore, to postpone the project until such volunteers can be located and recruited.

In addition, we examined the possibility to collaborate with developers from the free content community in Israel (such as the Public Knowledge Workshop) but at this stage, there is not a project development that meets the needs of both organizations.

Summer Hackathon

As part of our efforts to recruit volunteers to our community of developers, we asked our volunteers to help organize another hackathon. In contrast to past hackathons, this time we asked them to devise a structured, goal-oriented plan, keeping in mind the products we want to generate from the hackathon. Due to their current overload, we could not locate enough volunteers with the professional know-how who can help to organize such an event.

At this time, one of our major challenges is to recruit volunteers with knowledge in different fields, and we expect that the mapping process of current Wikipedians will produce the desired results.

Ministry of Education

  • Building a long-term and stable cooperation with the Ministry of Education, with the following goals:

○ To promote Wikimedia projects in secondary schools and among gifted students.

○ To integrate Wikipedia as an instruction tool in the Israeli education system.

○ To help students and teachers contribute free knowledge, and write or edit at least 30 new articles.

Progress against these objectives (include metrics and # of volunteers/staff involved)?
Activities conducted.
The meeting between Minister of Education Shai Piron and Jan-Bart de Vreede, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.

One of the major events this quarter was the meeting between Minister of Education Shai Piron and Jan-Bart de Vreede, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Also present from the Ministry of education: Deputy Director for Pedagogic Affairs, Director for the Division for Gifted and Outstanding Students and the Director for Science and Technology Administration. The WMIL was represented by the ED and the Chairman of the Board. We presented our activities in the education system, Mr. Piron expressed his appreciation and we decided to integrate Wikipedia in future curricula planned by the Ministry. In the framework of this collaboration, teachers of history, geography and sciences will undergo professional education programs focused on using Wikipedia and writing and editing articles in Wikipedia. In the future, the Ministry of Education will consider the integration of Wikipedia related-writing and editing work as part of requirements for research and community work-related courses. After the meeting, we set up meetings with the Deputy Director for Pedagogic Affairs to promote the cooperation. The cooperation will begin with a 30-hours online professional course for teachers on the use of Wikipedia.

Gifted Students On May 20, we conducted a workshop for teachers of gifted students. This workshop is a result of our collaboration with the Division for Gifted and Outstanding Students at the Ministry of Education. 26 teachers took part in the workshop, which goal was to expose them to the varied instructional tools that Wikipedia can provide. No active editing was done, but four teachers contacted WMIL after the workshop, asking for assistance in planning Wikipedia-related projects with their students in the next school year. Three editing workshops for gifted students in a single school are scheduled for the next school year.

In addition, we have built a working model for other schools based on the experience of our volunteers in the field. After its completion, we asked several volunteers to review it and remark upon it, and then posted it on our WMIL page.

Be'er Sheva Education Project

Be'er Sheva Educational Initiative

Goals:

  • Expanding public discourse on free content and using Wikipedia as a tool to advance technological capabilities and enhance the level of interest among the city’s high school students.
  • Writing or editing 40 articles about the city of Be'er Sheva and its surrounding area.
  • Expanding the quantity of free content available about Be'er Sheva.

In the 2nd quarter, students from Be’er Sheva continued to work on the articles. By the end of the school year (end of July 2014) all students have completed the writing process. The two volunteers leading the project kept in constant touch with the students and their teachers.

At the end of the school year, a steering committee convened, comprised of representatives from the Department of Education in Be’er Sheva municipality, a representative from the Ministry of Education, WMIL ED, teachers, students and the Wikipedia volunteers who led the workshops. The activity was reviewed, and teachers and students shared their experiences. It was dedided that the project will continue in the next school year, and the articles will be expanded to include the Negev region as well. WMIL offered to conduct an edit-a-thon for students who stood out and excelled, in which veteran Wikipedians will help and encourage them to continue their work in Wikipedia. One of the most significant challenges of this project is the heavy burden on the volunteers leading the project. In order to help ease this burden, we will be trying to locate a student which participated in writing wiki articles as academic assignments, and provide a scholarship for him/her to be part of the project team next year.

Kfar Kama project

Kfar Kama project

Goals:

  • Familiarization with Wikipedia and its use.
  • Writing articles about the Circassian heritage for the Hebrew Wikipedia.
  • Writing articles about the Circassian heritage for the Circassian Wikipedia.

Our volunteers continued with the special project in Kfar Kama. We conducted two workshops for 9th grade students in the 2nd quarter. The students wrote one new article in Hebrew and nine short articles in Adyghe.

Editing workshops during the 1st quarter in high-schools and institutions of higher education:

{{

Who are the participants? Location No. of participants Contributions
Students in the School of Media Studies in the College of Management College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon Lezion 12 1 article, 10 significant expansions
An editing workshop for students Kfra Kama 9 9 articles in Adyghe, 1 article in Hebrew
An editing workshop for students Kfra Kama 9 -
An editing workshop for students taking the “Sports as a Cultural Phenomenon" course in Sapir college, “Someone to Run With” Project Sapir college 37 25 articles to be moved to mainspace in August 2014
An editing workshop for Computer Science students (see their Wikipedia project here) Israel Institute of Technology 21 20 articles were moved to mainspace
An editing workshop for law students (see their Wikipedia project here) Sha’arei Mishpat College 18 7 articles were moved to mainspace, 8 articles still in draft
An editing workshop for students in an introductory geomorphology course (see their Wikipedia project here) Ben Gurion University 25 9 articles were moved to mainspace
Students in Gender Studies Program and History in the faculty of humanities (see their Wikipedia project here) University of Haifa 31 23 articles were moved to mainspace, 8 articles still in draft
An editing workshop for exceptional students (see their Wikipedia project here) High schools in Be’er Sheva 250 3 articles were moved to mainspace, 31 articles in draft waiting for approval, 5 expansions
PhysiWiki – an article-writing contest on science 42 new articles, 4 expansions

}}

What worked and what did not?

Our activities during the school year (September 2013-July 2014) increased significantly. Our goals are to sustain our activity with these schools and institutions, recruit volunteers for similar activities in other schools, and develop the curriculum with the Pedagogic Division at the Ministry of Education. These goals present significant challenges, and we are excited to take them on.


Any additional details:

There were multiple mentions in the media following the announcement of our cooperation with the Ministry of Education:

· June 10th: Yael Braunovsky, Students in schools will write for Wikipedia, Israel Hayom website.

· June 10th: Shimon Cohen, New initiative: Teachers will be trained to write for Wikipedia, Channel 7 website.

· June 10th: Coming Soon: Israeli teachers will be trained to write for Wikipedia, The People website.

· June 10th: Lidar Grave-Lazi: Education Ministry and Wikipedia collaborate on write content for the internet site, Jerusalem Post website.

· June 10th: Yael Braunovsky and Israel Hayom staff, Public schools to integrate Wikipedia into curriculum, Israel Hayom website.

· June 10th: Israeli public schools seek to integrate Wikipedia into Curriculum, Wikimedia Foundation blog.

· June 11th: Israel looks to integrate Wikipedia into its curriculum, Shalom Life website.


Program 6[edit]

Strengthen public awareness of Wikimedia, its mission and the promotion of free content for all
What are the objectives of this program? Please include metrics.
  • Promoting and encouraging the gathering and distribution of free content to the public, with a focus on Israel and on content in Hebrew.
  • Wiki-Academy conference.
Progress against these objectives (include metrics and # of volunteers/staff involved)?
Activities conducted.

Writing contest for articles focused on physics In April and May 2014 we run our second PhysiWiki - an award-bearing contest for articles in the field of physics. The contest was arranged and organized by two Wikipedians seeking to expand the existing pool of articles in the field. It was sponsored by the Faculty of Engineering and the Department of Physics at Bar Ilan University, with the collaboration of WMIL and the Israel Physical Society. The panel of judges included students in doctorate programs, physics professors and Wikipedia community members. 64 people signed up for the contest, 44 of whom were new users. 35 new articles on physics were written, as well as seven biographies and four stubs, and images and illustrations were added to existing articles. In the closing ceremony at Bar Ilan University, Prof. Moti Segev, winner of the prestigious Israel Prize, lectured on the subject. See the contest page here.

Deletions of photos from Commons As there are some commons administrators opposing community decision, URAA affected files were being nominated for deletion over different grounds. Hebrew Wikipedia contributors are following the DR's and trying to save the files. The subject of Commons's role in the movement was extensively discussed on the movement's mailing lists. Following a deletion request for all images taken by Israel Defense Force, discussions are being made with IDF Spokesperson's Unit to clarify the licensing of the photos. A meeting is to be held after Operation Protective Edge is over. A meeting of Israeli volunteers and WMF representatives Anasuya and Garfield was held during their visit to Israel. In the meeting some suggestions where made of ways to regain trust and cooperation between the communities of Hebrew Wikipedia and Commons.

Wiki-Academy conference

Goals:

  • To expand public discourse on free content.
  • To promote public debate on the future of Wikipedia.
  • To increase awareness for the future of data consumption in the web, and the role of Wikipedia and the movement in it.
  • Participants:

○ Over 80 non-Wikipedian - individuals from the field of research and the academia, media specialists and journalists and members of the general public. ○ Over 30 Wikipedians.

  • More than five mentions in the media.

Summary of the conference as it was written by one of the Wikipedians (originally written in Hebrew):

Wikipedia Academy Israel 2014
Wikipedia Academy Israel 2014
Wikipedia Academy Israel 2014
Wikipedia Academy Israel 2014

Last Sunday, we had our sixth Wiki-Academy conference. It was held at IDC Herzlyia, and more than 100 people were present - Wikipedians and people who love Wikipedia.

Itzik Edri, Chairman and Spokesperson of Wikimedia Israel, presented a survey on attitudes of the Israeli public towards Wikipedia. Later, Prof. Sheizaf Rafaeli, Director of the Sagy Center for Internet Research at the University of Haifa, interviewed Jan-Bart de Vreede, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. de Vreede introduced his vision on the development of Wikipedia in the next few years as well as Wikipedia’s cultural roles. He also spoke about developing a Wiki-Children platform and a video platform for Wikipedia.

The day continued with a panel focusing on paid editing. The panel included Wikipedia editors, an attorney and a PR person, and the paid editing phenomenon was discussed by those who see it as greatly contributing to the progress of Wikipedia, as well as those who view it as a dangerous phenomenon.

David Weinberger, co-director of the Harvard Library Lab, spoke about the issue of documenting information without knowing its value in the future. According to him, this is an issue related to the tension between the “inclusive” school of thought and the “deleting” school of thought.

Michael Dale, Senior Director of Product with Kaltura, spoke about ways to promote the largest video platform in the world. Technical possibilities were discussed.

Lior Zalmanson spoke about the connection between commitment and paid writing in news websites.

During the conference, survey results about public awareness of Wikipedia and usage patterns were presented. To see the results in Hebrew, click here. To see the results in English, see here.

The conference gained multiple mentions in the media: · June 1st: Oded Yaron, 84% of Israelis trust Wikipedia, Haaretz online.

· June 1st: Yifat Gadot, 60% of Israelis use Wikipedia, News1 website.

· June 1st: Razi Barkai, An interview with Nimrod Rapaport and Hana Yariv on editing in Wikipedia (44:25 min.), Hayom Shehaya, GLZ radio station.

· June 1st: In contrast to the popular opinion: The public trusts Wikipedia, The People website.

· June 1st: 74% of internet users in Israel: Wikipedia has all the information we need, Nana10 website.

· June 2nd: Orli Harari, Survey: Most people trust Wikipedia, Channel 7 online.

· June 2nd: Navit Zummer, Israelis trust Wikipedia, Mamon economic supplement, Yedioth Ahronoth.

· June 2nd: Nissim Peretz, 84% of Israelis put their trust in Wikipedia, Kikar Hashabat online.

· June 2nd: Ilan Ben Tzion, Most Israelis use, rely on Wikipedia for online info, Start Up Israel online.

· June 3rd: Oded Yaron, Wikipedia in crisis: Who should be editing knowledge online, Haaretz online.

· June 9th: Exclusive interview with Jan-Bart de Vreede (in English), i24news website.

· June 9th: Exclusive interview with Jan-Bart de Vreede (in French), i24news website.


Strengthening of free content: The Public Knowledge Workshop and WMIL are in the process of building a long-term partnership. Many volunteers and activists work in both organizations. We are the two leading organizations in Israel in the field of free content. As part of our partnership, the workshop uses the chapter’s office space. EDs of both organizations’ have invited all EDs (all women) at like-minded organizations to create a forum for shared thinking and learning. The first meeting is scheduled for the 3rd quarter.

What worked and what did not?

Two important lessons were learned from the Wiki-Academy conference: First, more Wikipedians should engage in the organization of the event; second, more female lecturers must be invited to participate.

  • Activities are progressing as planned.

Any additional details:


Lessons learned[edit]

Lessons from this quarter[edit]

A key objective of the funding is to enable the movement as a whole to understand how to achieve shared goals better and faster. An important way of doing this is to identify lessons learned from entities who receive funds, and to share these lessons across the movement. The purpose of this section is to elicit some of these insights, which will be shared throughout the movement. Please answer the following questions in 1–2 paragraphs each.

What were your major accomplishments in the past quarter, and how did you help to achieve movement goals?

  • The meeting with the Minister of Education resulted in the development of a curriculum for teachers focused on the use of Wikipedia and editing in Wikipedia.

What factors (organizational, environmental) enabled your success?

  • Our activity in the schools and within the Ministry of Education has contributed to the system’s ability to collaborate in curriculum planning. Moreover, connections by WMIL volunteers, particularly the Chairperson of the Board, helped to arrange the meeting with senior representatives at the Ministry of Education.

What unanticipated challenges did you encounter and how did this affect what you were able to accomplish?

  • Building a community of MediaWiki developers in Israel will be a bigger challenge than previously anticipated.

What changes might you make in executing your initiatives into the next quarter?

  • Recruiting new volunteers for the chapter.
  • Allocating one volunteer for each school prior to the start of the school year. That volunteer will lead the activity throughout the year.
  • Re-thinking our editing workshops.


All media mentions regarding the Hebrew Wikipedia, the WMIL and the WMF are concentrated in this page.

Additional information[edit]

Provide any other relevant information that may be helpful or relevant for the FDC (e.g., links to any media coverage, blog posts, more detailed reports, more detailed financial information).

Compliance[edit]

Is your organization compliant with the terms outlined in the grant agreement?[edit]

As required in the grant agreement, please report any deviations from your grant proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

  • Yes

Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes

Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Grant funds as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes

Signature[edit]

Once complete, please sign below with the usual four tildes.


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