Grants:Conference/BWUG/Wikipedia+Education Conference 2019 Donostia/Report

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Report accepted
This report for a Conference Grant approved in FY 2019 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.


Group photo

Wikimedia+Education Conference took place in Donostia, on 5-7 April 2019, and welcomed 120 attendees from both the Wikimedia and the education community: volunteers, program managers, educators, teachers and researchers. The first edition of this new format was the first conference built by and for the education enthusiasts in our movement (and Wikimedia enthusiasts in education), to encourage the community to meet, share knowledge around Wikimeda, and collaborate in new and innovative projects in the future. This conference was organized by Basque Wikimedians User Group, with the help of ten volunteers from the community. The sessions, keynotes, talks, workshops and overall participation was satisfactory, and the main goals were met.


Why this Wikimedia+Education Conference[edit]

Basque Wikimedians User Group with Katherine Maher at the opening ceremony

Basque Wikimedians User Group is developing a long range education program, centered in the creation by university students of high quality content needed in secondary schools. Our education program wants to create an ecosystem with involvement of institutions, professors, education professionals, students, schools and wikimedians. When we started this project we thought that a Wikimedia Conference centered on education would be a good idea. There are different conferences in our movement, some of them global, other regional, and a few centered on specific topics; education is one of our movements' most important working area, but there wasn't any specific-thematic conference on this.

As we had funding from the Basque Government, we proposed the education team at the WMF to host this very first Conference on Education. Our main goals where knowing each other, learning good practices and hearing about innovative projects; but we also wanted to further strength our ecosystem, to show that there is a worldwide effort in the same direction and how education and Wikimedia are intermingled and will be further tied in the future.

Our funding from the Basque Government started in 2017 and was planned in to finish in 2019. We also wanted to show how we are going in the right direction, so we can get more funding for the next years. Basque Government's implication was also key for us in this conference.

Goals[edit]

In this Conference we had an international program committee, who worked on the topics provided by individual submissions with the guidance of the Community input. We also wanted to have a good local irnput, as we saw that creating better links in our daily work would boost our final ecosystem-creation goal.

Strategic discussions[edit]

From the Community input we saw that the two main goals related to the strategic discussion were this[1]:

  • Share knowledge and best practices (how to build "trust relationship" with new partners/teachers and how to improve trust in Wikipedia)
  • Know why few participants continue editing and find out how to get them to keep editing
Chatting with african Wikimedians panel.

Most of the program was proposed by the community, and the program committee decided according to this input. There weren't lots of submissions centered on this topics, but some of them were specific and we included them. Also, many of the local and national programs touched this topics.

As we wanted to have also more in-deep strategic discussions, we managed to have a discussion on Sunday morning, organized by the Education Team; furthermore, we filled some gaps with deep strategy topics such as UN's goals or a couple of panels about emerging communities and their challenges.

We also had some academic-like presentations on students' editions, trying to understand how we can keep them editing. The poster sessions also had a couple of posters on how to build trust on Wikimedia.

The local input

We have been working with the Ikastola movement in order to create a didactic unit for secondary school teachers about Wikipedia. They presented the result for the very fist time in our Conference, but they also announced that they would create a specific text-book for students to learn how to use Wikimedia, that would be the other side of the didactic unit.

Since then, we have launched a pilot program in a High School, to create something like a WikiCamp, that would be the basis for next years work.

You can read the document in Commons.

Capacity development[edit]

From the Community input we saw that the two main goals related to capacity building were this:

  • Knowledge of the Wiki+Edu movement, team building and improving communication channels for the community (create a helpdesk).
  • Project management
Wikimedians from Argentina sharing their experiences.

One of the side-presentations done by the WMF in this Conference was the Education Greenhouse, a project that wants to cover capacity development for new communities and individuals. The presentation of the Greenhouse was a last minute request, but the project was well received and we found a couple of suitable slots in the program.

One of the key topics on presentations were national or university level projects, and how to manage them. This topic was widely mentioned in many of the presentations.

The creation of a Wikimedia+Education Telegram group has widely contributed to a better communication between education enthusiasts and program managers. It should be interesting to make this Telegram group wider and easier to find and use.

The local input

Wikimedia is a multilingual project, and we wanted to reflect that in the Conference. That's why we provided, for the first time in this kind of conferences, simultaneous translation between English and Basque and between Basque and Spanish into English. Local community and international guests could have a better understanding of the projects in this way.

Working groups[edit]

From the Community input we saw that the two main goals related to working groups were this:

  • Program and event Dashboard
  • Better share of documentation and best practices - Communication channels
Learning how to use PetScan

We tried to provide some interesting workshops to make our work easier. "Program and event Dashboard" was one of the highlights for many, as the crowded room showed, but there are more tools the community wanted to show and learn, like PetScan or our sister projects.

There wasn't any significant advance on the second goal (documentation sharing), so this topic should be reshaped in the future by the education team at the WMF.

Tweets

@airem_ainegue[2]
Fueron tres días hermosos en los cuales compartimos y escuchamos proyectos sobre educación, conocimiento colaborativo y la importancia de compartir información
@mathdenel[3]
Thank you to all volunteers and staff @euwikipedia for this event. Great logistics and presentations from people over the word. Returning to France with ideas and people to call
@ismisemeg[4]
Bhain mé an-taitneamh as ceardlann a mhúineadh le linn #EduWiki2019 Thanks to everyone who made the Petscan workshop an enjoyable success
@marianarra_[5]
"For some languages in India, there are not many resources in that language that we can use as a primary source. And there aren't many young people interested in transcribing to increase accessibility" @Saileshpat #EduWiki2019

Community building[edit]

From the Community input we saw that the two main goals related to community building were this:

  • Community building: meeting people, learning about new projects, sharing your talents, and having fun
  • Capacity building: learning skills that will help your community achieve its goals
Mentimeter in-situ answers.

The best part of the conferences usually happens in the interaction between presenters and during social events. New projects, sharing ideas and better contacts are done in this moments. That's why we had some spaces and moments to facilitate this goal. We think that the interactions were good, and all the highlights we recorded in video show that the diversity of topics and views presented was high.

If we check the answers given in Mentimeter, we see that lot of participants are talking about learning new projects, sharing and mixing and about the diversity within our movement.

The overall evaluation made in Mentimeter also shows that social events were highly evaluated, and the program overall was also very well received.

Children as readers[edit]

Koldo Biguri presenting what Txikipedia is.

Our user group has developed , the very first children encyclopedia inside a Wikipedia. We think that this project can be interesting for other language communities, and that is deeply tied to the education community. That's why we had the goal to promote a discussion about this topic.

  • Starting a discussion about Children Encyclopedias and the relation with our movement.

We had a presentation and a keynote style panel about this issue. Vikidia, Klexikon, WikiMini and Txikipedia were discussed, and the topic got some interesting inputs. There is a possibility that Txikipedia model of tab based Encyclopedia will also move to other Wikipedias, and there was interest from the Italian community.

Tweets

@giovanna_ranci[6]
#txikipedia l'enciclopedia in lingua basca per i bambini è integrata direttamente in #Wikipedia basca: basta un click per passare facilmente da una versione all'altra. Questo sì che è facilitare l'accesso alla conoscenza!
@ELiberaScio[7]
Ziko Van Dijk, esperantisto, nun prezentas #KLexikon, kiu centriĝas en infanoj #EduWiki2019 #esperanto #ActiveLerning
@WikimediaDE[8]
@Klexikon erzählt auf der #EduWiki2019 über die Herausforderungen und Chancen der kleinen Schwester der #Wikipedia °dt
@ElSaBornFrEE[9]
Children time - la hora y los niños - haurren ordua #ActiveLearning #EduWiki2019

Next steps[edit]

Please share a brief update about the status projects, important discussions and/or capacity building that took place at the event.

Activities during the conference 2 months after the conference 6 months after the conference
Strategic Discussions:

Were any significant issues your community discussed at the conference?

  • Many presentations covered the topic.
  • Strategy discussion on Sunday
  • Katherine Maher's keynote on Wikimedia and Education interdependencies.
  • Children's encyclopedias: children as new readers.
Taking into account what we have seen in Congress, we will define our strategy.


Constant conversations with participants. "Telegram Group"

Capacity Development: Please list capacity building sessions or workshops.
  • A room was devoted to workshops, specially crowded with Program & Events Dashboard and PetScan (around 30 people).
  • A local discussion about what we are doing in schools.
Survey participants 2 months after event -- are they developing the skills they learned? Survey participants 6 months after event -- how many people have used the skills they learned?
Projects or Working Groups:

What are the most important projects that were started or improved during the conference?

  • Education Greenhouse was presented.
  • Mutual article creation project between Wales and Arabic Wikipedia
Constant conversations with participants to know how their projects are going on. Provide an update on projects that were started, or changes that were made as a result of work done at the conference.

Learning[edit]

Conferences and events do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

  • What worked well at the event?
    • The program and logistics went well, and we had few problems here.
    • Some presentations couldn't be done because of last-minute issues (mostly visas) and other Wikimedians helped us with this, filling the gaps seamlessly.
    • Food and social events were also well coordinated, and time schedule was nearly perfect.
  • What did not work so well?
    • The communication with WMF's education team wasn't good. We expected a cooperative work, as we thought that the conference was a joint effort, but we found too late that this schema wasn't shared on the other side.
    • The program committee worked fine, but some of the proposed members didn't give answers to our questions, so it was hard to go on.
    • One of our social events was related to cider-culture, an alcoholic drink. We prepared halal food, but we didn't realize that the alcoholic environment wasn't suitable for a halal dinner.
    • We waited too much for some visas, so at the end it was quite difficult to re-allocate funds to give some more scholarships to people who was in the waiting-line for them.
    • Local people was invited, but some of them didn't show up, and some others were only there for a morning or some sessions.
  • What would you do differently next time?
    • We would have a clear position on what is WMF giving and what we could expect, so we could better organize the issues and works ahead.
    • Local invitations should be confirmed, so we could allocate more space according to real numbers.
    • We would have put a deadline to obtain the visa, to be able to offer that scholarship to another one after that date.

Financial documentation[edit]

This section describes the grant's use of funds

Budget table
CATEGORY DESCRIPTION UNIT COST EWKE WMF ACTUAL EXPENSES NOTES
Location Venue 3 days +

Friday night

1.500€

1.853$

1.500€

1.853$

0,00€

0,00$

Free of charge
Equipment 3 days 3.000€

3.708$

3.000€

3.708$

10.132,31€

12.523,53$

Decoration, lighting, sound and simultaneous translation equipment
Human resources 3 days 2.000€

2.472$

2.000€

2.472$

3.827,95€

4.731,35$

2 Technicians during the whole conference and 2 translators
SUBTOTAL 6.500,00€

8.034,00€

13.960,26€

17.254,88$

The budget has undergone an important variation due to the introduction of Simultaneous Tanslation service This translation service has cost 7.224.63€.
Food Friday lunch 70 participants 1.000€

1.236$

1.000€

1.236$

114,18€

141,13$

Snacks were served at the opening of the photography exhibition at the university.
Friday dinner 100 participants 2.000€

2.472$

2.000€

2.472$

1.306,80€

1.615,20$

At the Town Hall.
Saturday dinner

Sagardotegia

100 participants 4.000€

4.944$

4.000€

4.944$

3.876,33€

4.791,14$

Cider House dinner and 2 buses
Saturday lunch 100 participants 1.500€

1.853$

1.500€

1.853$

8.110,65€

10.024,76$

Lunches, coffe breaks and snacks at Tabakalera were invoiced together. We opted for local and sustainable food, taking into account all the different dietary habits.
Sunday lunch 100 participants 1.500€

1.853$

1.500€

1.853$

Coffe breaks 100 participants 4.000€

4.944$

4.000€

4.944$

SUBTOTAL 14.000,00€

17.304,00$

13.407,96€

16.572,24$

The budget has not undergone a great deal of variation. Some sections have been cheaper and others more expensive but have compensated each other.
Speakers

10

Travel Flights 8.000€

9.888$

8.000€

9.888$

899,84€

1.112,20$

Flights and expenses related to travel.

The flight was relatively cheap because our keynote was already in Europe the week before the conference.

Accommodation 2 nights

10 Ind. Rooms

2.500€

3.086$

2.500€

3.086$

839,00€

1.037,00$

Accommodation for 4 nights
SUBTOTAL 10.500,00€

12.978,00$

1.738,84€

2.149,21$

At the time of making the budget we took into account that we would have about 5 people that we would bring to the conference as speakers. We have only had one keynote, the other one was payed by the WMF and most of the other speakers were schoalship recipients. This is the section that has undergone the most change.
Merchandise T-shirts, badges, notebooks, pens 100 participants 2.000€

2.472$

2.000€

2.472$

2.486,91€

3.073,82$

Close to the budgeted total.
Material needed for the conferece 0,00€

0,00$

2.080,77€

2.571,83$

WikiLoves photography exhibition , the posters from the poster session, time markers, post its, posters, adapters, office supplies, etc.
SUBTOTAL 2.000,00€

2.472,00$

4.567,68€

5.645,65$

At the time of making the budget was not taken into account the various materials that were needed for the proper functioning of the entire congress, neither the exhibition. Those are theexpenses that have changed this section.
Personnel Organizer 6 months 25.000€

30.900$

25.000€

30.900$

25.000,00€

30.900,00$

Full time for half a year
Administration 6 months 20.000€

24.720$

20.000€

24.720$

20.000,00€

24.720,00$

Full time for half a year
Helper 0,00€

0,00$

9.000,00€

11.124,00$

Part time for half a year
SUBTOTAL 45.000,00€

55.620,00$

54.000,00€

66.744,00$

A part-time person, which was not expected, was hired to help us with communnication and any other needs we might have.
Communication Promotion 2 months 4.000€

4.944$

4.000€

4.944$

5.130,40€

6.341,17$

Video production
Documentation 3 days 3.000€

3.708$

3.000€

3.708$

1.452,00€

1.794,67$

Photographer + photo album at Commons
SUBTOTAL 7.000,00€

8.652,00$

6.582,40€

8.135,85$

The budget has remained almost unchanged. The difference may be in the division of budget items but much of the work done in this area has been both promotional and documentary.
Scholarships

(international)

Flights Flights

60 people

36.000€

44.496$

36.000€

44.496$

25.817,25€

31.910,12$

49 Scholarships. Flights, visa expenses, transport and travel expeses.
Transport Airport 1.000€

1.236$

1.000€

1.236$

Accommodation 2 nights

30 rooms

7.500€

9.259$

7.500€

9.259$

11.296,80€

13.962,84$

30 Rooms for 3 or 2 nights + Accommodation before the conference for attendees comming from Berlin
SUBTOTAL 44.500,00€

55.002,00$

37.114,05€

45.872,97$

It can be seen that less has been spent on this item than budgeted. This is, in large part, because some attendees came from Berlin (Wikimedia Summitt) and their flights cost us around 100€ when they should exceed 1000€.
Scholarships

(local)

Trasport+accomm

(if any)

40 people 1.000€

1.236$

1.000€

1.236$

0,00€

0,00$

No expenses related to local scholarships
SUBTOTAL 1.000,00€

1.236,00$

0,00€

0,00$

No expenses related to local scholarships, we gave free entrace to most of them but no expenses were payed.
Social Events Drink tickets 0,00€

0,00$

250,00€

309,00$

100 Drink tickets for friday and saturday night
KORRIKA! 0,00€

0,00$

710,00€

877,56$

We bought a kilometer, the necessary material and a bus was organized to go to Uztaritz.
SUBTOTAL 0,00€

0,00$

960,00€

1.186,56$

We opted for two different social events that were not taken into account in the budget.
Others Others 0,00€

0,00$

330,12€

408,03$

Different expenses related to the congress but which do not fit into any of the sections
SUBTOTAL 0,00€

0,00$

330,12€

408,03$

These are expenses that have been made during the conference in a non-organized and improvised way to solve different problems.
TOTAL 130.500€

161.298$

132.661,31€

163.969,38$

Difference between estimation and real cost: 2.161,31€
EWKE Grant EWKE Grant
75.500€

93.318$

55.000€

67.980$

77.661,31€

95.989,38$

55.000€

67.980$

If we take into account the initial budget and the final expenditure, it can be seen that there has not been much variation. In fact, if we take into account the 1.070,00€ that have been obtained from the sale of tickets, the cost of the congress has been only one thousand euros higher than budgeted.

However, the biggest change has been in the budget sections. As it has been mentioned in both sections, the sections of speakers and scholarships have had a lower expenditure than budgeted. Bearing in mind that it was these sections that were going to be covered by the scholarship, if we had not reused the money in other sections, we would have remaining moeny and the Basque Wikimedians User Group would have had to bear an extra cost of around 16.000 €.

For this reason, the expenses covered by the grant have been reallocated until the entire amount is reached. In this way, both the Basque Wikimedians User Group and the Wikimedia Foundation have contributed to this congress the money foreseen in the budget.

Summary of funding

Total project budget (from your approved grant submission):

130.500,00€

Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission):

55.000,00€

Total amount spent on this project (this total should be the total calculated from the table above):

132.661,31€

Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project:

55.000,00€

Are there additional sources of revenue that funded any part of this project? List them here.

Ticket sales: 1.070,00€
Remaining funds

Are there any grant funds remaining?

NO

Please list the total amount (specify currency) remaining here. (This is the amount you did not use, or the amount you still have after completing your grant.)

There are no grant funds remaining.

Anything else[edit]

Is there anything else you want to share about the conference or event?

Notes[edit]