Grants:PEG/WM US-NYC/Wiki-Conference New York 1/Report

Report accepted by default (before January 2012)

This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2009-10 was submitted prior to the creation of the grant report acceptance templates in December 2011 - January 2012, and may therefore be considered accepted by default. For the purposes of determining eligibility, this report is considered complete and accepted until otherwise noted.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:PEG/WM US-NYC/Wiki-Conference New York 1.

This grant report may be moved to "Incomplete" or "Under review" at any time if additional information is requested.
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Project Goal:

Description of actual activities:

w:Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Wiki-Conference/2009 was a two-day conference held over the weekend of July 25-26 2009, at NYU Law School.

What lessons were learned that could help others succeed in similar projects?

The "modified unconference" format worked surprisingly well:

http://www.stuartgeiger.com/wordpress/wikis/2009/09/07/wikiconference-new-york-an-open-unconference/

This same format has also been taken up as a model by the 'West Coast Wikiconference':

http://2011.westcoastwikicon.org/

Walking to Central Park for a Sunday afternoon picnic unfortunately did not work so well, and we will not again make our wikiconference plans so dependent on the weather.

What impact did the project have on WMF mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?

We had over 100 attendees, a fairly large percentage of whom actually made a presentation of some sort. The breakdown was about 3/4 Wikimedians, and 1/4 non-Wikimedians (or rather, aspirant Wikimedians), most of the latter being affiliated with academia or educational non-profits.

While most participants were from the Northeast US, we had several from the US South, a couple from the US West Coast, and one each from Brazil, Canada and the Netherlands.

We had a markedly increased diversity among the non-Wikimedians (or rather, aspirant Wikimedians), especially as regards gender and age.

Detail of expenditures:

$750 reimbursement to Matt Bisanz for lunch, dinner

$250 reimbursement to Sam Klein for breakfast, supplies

Amount underspent in US Dollars:

$0

Will you be requesting re-allocation of remaining grant funding?

None remaining.