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Thanks for bringing value back to the Wikimedia movement by sharing in this report. Everything you learned during your project is useful knowledge to offer future Wikimedians planning similar work.
In this first section you are asked to reflect on your initial goals and the impact the event had on your community. Remember there is no right or wrong answer. Even if your goals have changed over time, or the impact was different than what you expected. Feel free to share your long or short answer - we are happy to hear whatever you have to share.
Did your event have any impact that you did not expect, positive or negative?
There was much greater interest in the conference than we expected from the ESEAP community as well as other regional communities, special interest groups and WMF staff. This was ultimately a positive for the conference itself as we had a very high level of interest and engagement however it did put a strain on the COT, the WMAU committee and staff and the budget.
Please tell us about the top 2-3 innovative (new to you and your community) or things you tried this conference.
Videos via Zoom - the Zoom option allowed some hybrid, and provided good quality videos. The decision to stream all presentations on Zoom from one main conference room (Kangaroo room) helped to plan, manage and obtain good quality live streaming and recordings to be available on Wikimedia Australia's YouTube for all communities to access. Additionally, once uploaded to YouTube then translation can be automatically applied.
Adjacent to academic conference - the decision to run the ESEAP regional conference consecutively with the WOW (Worlds of Wikimedia) academic conference was a very innovative move that generated a lot of interest and increase in attendance both locally and from the ESEAP region. The conferences complimented each other well, and allowed for greater sharing of knowledge, ideas and networking.
Translation - we tried using a free, app-based option. Due to time and budget constraints we were not able to arrange for people to be Translators. However after some research and exploration we trialed the Microsoft Translate web-app which appeared to offer good live online translation, as well as offering nearly all the languages we required for our ESEAP region. It wasn't successful due to technical issues when presenter changes stopped the translation. We would only consider it again for smaller meetings, but not large scale conferences.
Were there any significant changes from the initial grant proposal?
Wikimedians enjoying the view on the harbour cruise at ESEAP 2022
Most items were relatively close to the budgeted amounts with the main budget issues related to items that were not considered as part of the initial budget, but added during planning. These include:
Social event - Harbour cruise was not considered in early planning but we included it based on delegate expectations, and the focus on ‘connecting’. This turned out to be a highlight of the weekend.
AV and streaming - we wrongly assumed the AV included in the original venue quote would be sufficient. Additional requirements were very expensive, mainly due to hiring AV assistance over a weekend which increased pay rates. We resolved this by doing most of the AV and IT support ourselves, rather than pay additional.
Travel - was higher than budgeted but not entirely unexpected given the difficulty with visas (which turned out worse than expected)
Live translation - was not budgeted for
Event management - company costs were much higher than expected or budgeted for and therefore we could only afford to pay for a travel company to deal with flights. There was difficulty finding a conference organiser who would do the full conference at an affordable rate - 10% of total event cost being the preferred model which would have amounted to AUD $25,000 (way over the AUD$10,000 budgeted) so we were not able to hire a full event management service. Maxim's agreed to our preferred per head option, which was $160 per head for travel and accommodation.
What do you think will be the long term impact of this conference?
Many new connections and relationships have been established as a result of this conference:
ESEAP Hub Interim Committee - A key aim of the conference was to make the next move towards an ESEAP Regional hub. This was achieved very effectively with three sessions mapped out across the conference to review what a hub would look like and for the community to discuss and agree on an interim steering group. This group, which has representatives from across the region has had its first meeting and plans to develop guidelines for an ongoing hub and a staff member in time for Wikimania 2023.
Greater collaboration across the region - With so many young delegates who were attending their first Wikimedia and/or ESEAP conference there was great enthusiasm and excitement to engage and learn. Many networking opportunities in person have created significant increases in contact between delegates, affiliates and chapters. With Wikimania 2023 in Singapore in July and Wikidata con 2023 in Taiwan in October there will be many opportunities to now follow up on projects and ideas with new friends from across the region.
Forms response chart. Question title: Have you attended an ESEAP Conference before?. Number of responses: 53 responses.
New affiliate and organisation partnerships - The conference provided an opportunity for affiliates committee members and staff and WMF staff to meet and share knowledge and ideas which will be further developed.
Do your best to estimate the number of attendees in your event that have never attended any Wikimedia event before. How were you able to support and engage this group?
Two thirds (70%) had not attended an ESEAP conference previously. New participants were acknowledged and welcomed at the opening event and given they were a majority were able to be supported. All participants were very engaged and enthusiastic.
Forms response chart. Question title: What is your age?. Number of responses: 48 responses.
We also had a good diversity of ages.
Do your best to estimate the number of participants who have been involved in Wikimedia activities for more than 5 years. How were you able to support and engage this group?
Over half of the evaluation respondents have been editing for more than 5 years. The conference provided them with an opportunity to engage with friends and contributors from across the region and also learn new skills and share their knowledge.
Conferences and events do not always go according to plan! Please use this section considering the perspective of what future event organizers within our movement organizing a similar style conference can learn. Make sure to include lessons around work with external/ internal partners; your communication efforts; your work with the community and volunteers etc.
What would you do differently next time and why? Please share with us if there's anything you wouldn't do or something future organizers should avoid.
Ensure the scholarship team has crystal clear policies in place BEFORE granting scholarships, and gets agreement of scholars up front about exactly what the scholarship covers, including how many/which nights accommodation (based on travel times), what will be reimbursed, plus a clear process for any additional stays or accompanying persons.
Allow more time for processing and approval of Visa applications, which then results in more time to book travel and accommodation earlier. This would reduce stress on conference organisers and participants including planning presenters for the program, as well as ensuring better value travel and accommodation costs resulting in less impact on the overall budget.
Confirm the program earlier and ensure all presentations were completed and supplied before the conference. This assists in planning for all conference aspects, as well as giving AV and tech support plenty of time to prepare for smooth running of the slide decks and demos.
Was there any non-financial support that the Wikimedia Foundation could have provided that would have better supported you in achieving your goals?
Having access to an online published checklist or handbook prior to doing the budget would have been helpful. Questions we now know we should have asked:
What health and health insurance was available from WMF and what information we needed to give delegates about this.
How to train Awareness & Safety representatives (we eventually received a really helpful suite of documents from Wikimedia Deutschland).
Support the visa, travel and accommodation processing and booking process.
Support with Translation (both in-person and technical options).
What would you recommend on a local and/or regional level as the best next step to leverage your success and momentum? (Please consider potential new allies and partners; internal wiki collaborations; future projects etc. We don't expect you to necessarily do those, we are only looking for more ideas from your own perspective.)
Wikimedians from Taiwan and New Zealand meet at ESEAP 2022
There are a number of strategies and steps in place:
Continue to develop and build an ESEAP Hub model through the Interim Hub Committee and regular consultation with the chapters, user groups and affiliates.
Promote relationship-building between chapters, affiliates and user groups who are undertaking similar projects or challenges.
Encourage chapters, user groups and affiliates to present their papers at other ESEAP country online meet-ups (eg, Bali Lontar project could be presented online at New Zealand meetup, etc).
Encourage delegates to translate presentations and post on the meta-wiki as part of their learnings post-conference.
Follow-up on the projects and tools presented (Web2Cit, Census tool, Bali Lontar project, Pasifika Arts Wikiproject, etc) at regular intervals and feature them in WMAU or ESEAP communications (newsletters, social media, meetings, etc) to inform on progress and uptake.
Sharing of learning and education resources from across the region focusing on edit-a-thons, training editors, and running events to encourage new editors and members.
Does your organizing team / affiliate / user group have any plans to follow up with your attendees in the future or support efforts related to the outcomes of this conference within your community?
The following opportunities are continuing and being actively progressed:
Regular ESEAP meetings
Interim ESEAP Hub Steering committee meetings (in the lead up to Wikimania 2023)
Conference requests for regional/global conferences
Wikimania 2023 ESEAP Hub session (15 or 16 August 2023)
Please add any 3 operational recommendations for future events organizers.
Do fun stuff that shows the human side of people - singing, dancing and sharing language and culture. This is what really helps people connect.
The “pre-conference conference” - an online information session that ran 10 days before the conference was essential and gave delegates opportunities to ask questions, receive current information and be better informed for travel. This worked very well in avoiding some travel issues, and additionally created options for most delegates to connect and communicate before the conference.
Plan plenty of time for finding and testing translation options - whether using technical solutions or real people to undertake in-person or online. All delegates must be able to engage, contribute and have the best experience. Translation can’t be left undecided or organised at the last minute. Some languages are not available in translation software which is skewed to European languages, so some regional languages and dialects don’t have good coverage, if any at all. Select and test solutions well before the event.
Allow more time for processing and approval of Visa applications, which then results in more time to book travel and accommodation earlier. This would reduce stress on conference organisers from all aspects including planning presenters for the program, as well as ensuring better value travel and accommodation costs resulting in less impact on the overall budget.
The programs consist of 20 sessions combination of submission and invitation, which increased by 30% from the 2018 conference, 14 sessions. The technology sessions are new programs for this year's conference with platform discussions/workshops including Commons, Wikidata, Wikisource, Web2Cit, and the new project by WMF "WikiStories".
5 communal/non-submissions were added to the program. Instead of visiting an art performance like the 2018 conference, "Kecak Dance", the performer comes from the participant themselves from 5 different countries (Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, and Indonesia). The participant also had a Sydney Dinner Cruise, to Darling Harbour which is one of the icons of the city.
Speakers and moderators distribution by country + WMF
54 Wikimedians participated in the program. This number consists of 39 Speakers, 12 Moderators, and 3 did both. More than 50% of total attendees participated in the programs from 11 different countries + WMF. Even though missed 3 countries (Japan, Timor Leste, and China), 3 countries didn't participate before joining the program (Australia, Vietnam, and Myanmar).
The ESEAP tote bag and giftsA Koala was given to all participants with their ESEAP tote bag with a pen, chocolates, and program.
This section describes the grant's use of funds
Budget table
Please list all project expenses in a table here, with descriptions. Review the instructions here. These expenses should be listed in the same format as the budget table in your approved submission so that anyone reading this report may be able to easily compare budgeted vs. actual expenses.
Nr.
Item description
Budget
Final cost
Currency
Notes
A
A1
Venue hire UTS quote room hire 3 rooms x 2 days
6705
7205
AUD
A2
Catering lunch, morning and afternoon tea
17000
16500
AUD
A3
Catering opening event
5000
7200
AUD
A5
AV and streaming
4,087.57
AUD
A6
Translation
A7
Welcome to Country
635
AUD
A8
Health & Safety
328.55
AUD
A9
Catering
8729
AUD
A10
Catering WoW conference
3300
AUD
A11
Catering Wikimania CoT
3250
AUD
B
TRAVEL
B1
Airfares
90000
110,989.44
AUD
B2
Transfer to and from airport
3000
1,493.80
AUD
B3
Travel insurance
6000
1,432.10
AUD
B4
Visa application fees
8700
4,767.31
AUD
B5
Accommodation
72000
74,548.00
AUD
B6
Accommodation Wikimania CoT
8800
AUD
C
MARKETING AND PROMOTION
C1
Print materials
2000
1,592.8
AUD
C2
Presenter gifts
770.0
AUD
D
CONSULTANTS
D1
Event manager
10000
1,951.21
AUD
D2
Travel consultant
5000
7,040.0
AUD
D3
Host/facilitator for 2 days
800
AUD
E
CONTINGENCY
E1
Contingency
22620
AUD
TOTAL
248,825
264,619.83
AUD
All speakers received a gift water bottle covered with Australian Indigenous artwork
If you have any tips or insights on creating a budget or allocating funds, please feel welcome to share!
Summary of funding
Total project budget (from your approved grant submission): AUD $226,205
Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission): AUD $248,825
Total amount spent on this project (this total should be the total calculated from the table above): AUD $264,619.83
Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project: AUD $248,634.83
Are there additional sources of revenue that funded any part of this project? List them here.
Wikimania Core Organising Team - AUD $12,050
Wikimedia Australia - $3,935
Wikimedia Australia in kind staff time for 3 months
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.)
Optional - Event Evaluation Toolkit - In this page you can find a list of basic questions that the Wikimedia Foundation uses to evaluate large movement events like Wikimania and other regional and thematic events. Feel free to use any part of these questionnaires to evaluate your own event. You will find: Registration Questions; Post-event questions for participants and Follow-up questions for participants.
The conference evaluation survey was shared with participants on the final afternoon of the conference and further reminders were provided in the week or two after the conference.
In total there were 53 responses to the conference evaluation - around half of the participants.
The vast majority (89%) of participants were editors - creating, contributing or editing content on Wikimedia platforms and nearly two thirds (59%) were involved in organising Wikimedia projects. Just under half (42%) represented an affiliate. A small percentage (11%) worked for pay or participated in some other way.
Respondents came from 14 different countries and spoke at least 17 languages: English, Indonesian, Korean, Mandarin, Thai, Cantonese, Minangkabau, Malay, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Filipino, Bikol, Tagalog, Spanish, Persian, Vietnamese.
Forms response chart. Question title: Scholarships and Affiliate registration Do you agree or disagree. Number of responses: n/a
A majority of respondents found the application process was easy to understand and complete.
Forms response chart. Question title: Conference environment. Do you agree or disagree
A vast majority found the conference venue was accessible and the majority found that language was accessible and they felt safe, respected and comfortable. The general view was that the venue was convenient to the hotel and that “It was a great space that worked well for this event.”
Forms response chart. Question title: Conference content. Do you agree or disagree
Most respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the content was interesting for them, was appropriate for my skill and experience level and that they learned new skills.
Topics of most interests were: the ESEAP Hub, Wikidata, Wikisource
Many people also appreciated connecting with each other.
Comments
The collaboration between ESEAP stakeholders on key issues and projects presented was the highlight of the event.
“Discovering the vibrant and active Wiki communities of the Asian region.”
“Seeing how indigenous people around the world were finding ways to contribute to Wiki projects, especially Wikisource”
The most popular sessions included the opening event, the dinner cruise, lightning talks, and many specific sessions.
The welcome, when more and more people came up to welcome us all in their own language
My favourite sessions are lightning talks and panels, such as affiliate leadership development, language diversity, education, and tools. I believe experiences from another country will widen my perspectives.
World cafe, hubs & Wikimania. Wikisource is one topic that didn't get much spotlight before became the star of the conference
The Dzongkha Wikipedia initiative by Bunty Avieson and Lontar manuscript preservation project by the Indonesian community (Balinese) are some of the inspiring projects for me.
It was a really great diversity of content from across the region which brought together some really interesting perspectives on how Wikimedia projects operate.
I loved it when the speakers from Taiwan spoke in their preferred language and provided English translations on their slides. It worked well and felt appropriate to the conference's diversity and love of languages
In 12 years of attending various offline movement events, this is the first time I heard so many languages being spoken during the panel or session. It feels nice to celebrate the language diversity. While some people might feel frustrated to hear that, it is a good start for better inclusivity in the region.
I want to appreciate the programming of this conference, because the arranged sessions are varied but still provide me enough flexibility to mingle with fellow participants. This makes the learning atmosphere conducive and relaxed, which is very important for me when attending a conference
Discussions and sharing of ideas at ESEAP 2022. The coloured notes on the back wall were filled with ideas from across the ESEAP communities.
Suggestions for the program included
I think there should be more workshops and trainings
I wonder if the presentation pages on Meta couldn't perhaps benefit from being a bit more detailed (or link to more detail). Being able to prepare for presentations by reading about them helps, especially when English is maybe not the speaker's first language.
I hope the conference will be regular each year. ESEAP deserves the same treatment other regional collaboratives are getting in terms of getting budgetary allocation and technical support it gets from the foundation.
The best content was developed in conversations between sessions, so some sort of "speed dating" or meeting time built in, instead of short tea breaks, would have been good. For example, the exercise with post-it notes identified many interesting topics to pursue, but these were then ignored for the remainder of the weekend!
Follow up activities and Connecting with community[edit]
Forms response chart. Question title: Connecting with community.
Most people Strongly agreed or agreed that they connected with people they don’t usually see and made new connections. Collaboration was more mixed however over 50% strongly agreed or agreed that collaboration happened.
Forms response chart. Question title: What will you do as a result of attending the conference
Follow up activities mentioned include: Meetups, community meetings, editathons, events, editing and technical improvement, knowledge sharing, social media sharing.
Comments
Online national meetup, city in person meet up and briefing session at work
We can fine tune the support we provide in Movement Comms and in return better learn from the leaders and contributors in the region that we now know better.
i will share what i learn to community that i manage on our monthly meeting
Connect with local GLAM institutions to see how we can work together
I apply by facilitate discussions on hubs and advance it to have a permanent structure & statutes in place. And also make Wikimania 2023 the with the best user experience.
Incorporate tools into my editing on-wiki, discuss at monthly meetings
Mostly about running events like that (smaller scale though)
Continuing to use new tools and skills in my own editing, plus teaching others at work and in our user group and at future wiki edit a thons
Suggestions for community connection and improvements
Respondents noted that many countries were missing from the conference including Japan, the Pacific, Mongolia, Timor Leste, PNG, Brunei, Indigenous Australians, some other South East Asian countries. And those who couldn’t get visas. There was concern to make sure ESEAP tries to include everyone.
A Wikisource workshop where editors transcribed an entire book
Comments
More hands on sessions and workshops,
More social time
More translation and more multilingual presentations
Wikimedia Hackathons have a tradition for lightning talks where people line up and have 1 minute or something to say what they're working on. It's speedy and fun and doesn't require any preparation. Might be interesting to try something like that? But no, everything was great, really!
I would like to hear more about research on and about Wikimedia and especially related to the region. I also wish we could have had a few more people from other regions - just to hear about how they are doing their collaborations eg Africa hub, CEE, India, latin america etc. But I know this was out of scope.
More science & biodiversity stuff
Maybe more opportunities for non-English speakers to contribute in their native languages somehow
Merchandise like stickers were brought and shared by people from their local communitiesGreat hosting overall. Food was good. Hosts were friendly.
Thank you so much for this wonderful event that brings me an overall view about what people are doing on the wiki to contribute to the global knowledge.
The event was very inspiring for many of us. People were very friendly and supportive. The event was also organised in a timely manner.
The Sydney Harbour Cruise will be a hard act to follow :-)
Thank you very much for the organizers. I didn't take my meds to Australia but I suffered no panic attacks! I was in such a warm and safe environment. Thank you also for making the participants come and leave at comfortable flights time and day. Good pick on the hotel and the venue (next to each other, close to the CBD).
Best thing about conferences, especially in the movement, is meeting others and making connections outside of the sessions. There was a really friendly and collaborative vibe, and no trust and safety issues that I was aware of.
Wikimedia Australia and the core organising team did a fantastic job organising a warm, inclusive, interesting event. Congratulations!
Thank you for the inspiring conference. I want to go to Wikimania next year now :)
ESEAP is a regional collaborative composed of nationalities & Wikimedia affiliates of Indonesia, Taiwan, Australia, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. Membership also includes nationalities and informal communities of Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Timor Leste and Pacific island nations FS Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The original proposal was a 50-60 place affiliate stream to bring affiliate and regional leaders and organisers together to develop ESEAP Hub proposal. At the urging of the community and broader voices, this was increased to 100 places - determined by venue, the timeframe for organising travel etc, and our ability to manage as this was our first conference in Australia. We were keen not to overload the conference with native English speakers and thus overshadow the significant language diversity in our region.
Evaluation showed ESEAP conference delegates came from 14 different countries and spoke at least 17 languages: English, Indonesian, Korean, Mandarin, Thai, Cantonese, Minangkabau, Malay, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Filipino, Bikol, Tagalog, Spanish, Persian and Vietnamese.
Notes from the Conversation Cafe are gathered together
Our opening session had everyone at ESEAP answer a series of questions around challenges and lessons learned across their communities.
Responses to the conversation cafe questions organised into broad themes by Amanda Lawrence at the end of the conference - not all responses included. Further thematic analysis could be done as this is just a quick first run through.
What are some of the most important things that you and/or your community have learned that you would like to share with others?
ESEAP connection
Collaboration with other editors across nation and language boundaries is very productive and a lot of fun
Translating property labels in wikidata i important
ESEAP is a region with a great community, diversity and lots of potential for growth (overall)
Wikimedia
Wikimedia works because it is decentralised and open
Engagement
Engaging young community through wiki (long-term) competition can hatch new members of community/organisation
Meet ups are important
Online meetings have greater coverage and are flexible
Meeting regularly a month is a good thing!
Having a place paid for by wikimedia for volunteers to gather
Social media to socialise the movement
Communication is really important - we have to break barriers, collaborate with other members, be involved more to know more
Community consensus is important so that everyone can agree with a discussion or policy
Training
Step by step tutorials
Making trainings shorter, to the points, keeping it simple
Wikisource is a great on-boarding platform
Pay people for training
Open refine skills allow wikidata to collect higher volumes of data
Partnerships
Making partners (NGO’s, private orgs, government) realise that working with us is high value because we help solve knowledge problems in the global village
Wikisource working with public libraries
Content
Localised audiovisual materials
Mother tongues are crucial in the development of wikipedia
Not much info about Cambodia on wikipedia - there is opportunity
Can bring new life to old things. Manuscripts can be digitalised in Bali
Interest of youth in wikipedia editing in pop culture/entertainment, but not in academic context
Plan to nominate users who live outside of Thailand to be admin against threat in my country (at least two users)
Capacity building
Having paid staff in chapter
Start small and follow-up is very important
Even if trainers don’t keep editing, there is a better understanding of projects/literacy. Need different measures
Foundation grants support growth and staff capacity in Aus
Prioritising where your efforts and resources go
Good documentation of working knowledge
Wikimedia understanding
Explaining rules, concepts, principles and dynamics the wikimedia projects to newbies
Tech and policy issues
It’s decentralised - no one can control everything
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