Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Wikicredibility Initiative:Wikimedians Strengthening Knowledge and News Credibility on the Internet/Final Report
Report Status: Under review
Due date: 2023-06-30T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Wikimedia Alliances Fund
Report type: Final
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General information[edit]
This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results. See the midpoint report if you want to review the midpoint results.
- Name of Organization: Hacks Hackers, Inc.
- Title of Proposal: Wikicredibility Initiative:Wikimedians Strengthening Knowledge and News Credibility on the Internet
- Amount awarded: 100000 USD, 100000 USD
- Amount spent: 100000 USD
Part 1 Understanding your work[edit]
1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
- The WikiCredibility Initiative supported and amplified credibility-focused, Wikimedian-led projects, initiatives, and programs by facilitating microgrants, promotional opportunities, and community-building forums.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
- Hack/Hackers contracted with chapter affiliate, Wikimedia DC, to implement the goals of the WikiCred program. Tapping into the existing network of this chapter proved to be an effective strategy as it helped to establish connections within the community.
3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?
- WikiCred is not a rigid program, meaning that participating individuals and organizations were able to explore their ideas without restrictions as long as their projects improved credibility within Wikimedia or used Wikimedia to improve credibility within external projects. Allowing flexibility while simultaneously ensuring program alignment is not a common approach.
By helping participants to connect with individuals or organizations during community forums, WikiCred ensures long-term reach beyond the timeline of its own funding cycle.
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
- Participants, which consisted of individuals and organizations, blogged about their work on Misinfocon.com, a project of H/H's Credibility Coalition. The blog was shared widely through Credibility Coalition's channels which consists of journalists and anti-misinformation professionals. As of June 2023, about half of all participants have presented in Credibility Coalition's live community forums with the remaining half presenting in late summer.
5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- WikiCred Misinfocon posts - 10 as of 6/2023
https://misinfocon.com/wikicred/home
6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. | Agree |
7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?
- WikiCred served a global audience and helped to boost credibility across Wikimedia projects. Programs, projects, and initiatives took place in over five countries and helped to support work in regions outside of the US.
Part 2: Your main learning[edit]
8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
- As stated in our midterm report, we have found it best to allow participants to define their own needs within their communities or target audiences. These findings remained relevant and consistent in the latter part of the program
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
- There are a number of commonly recognized problems with similar solutions being sought across multiple organizations. For example. the gender gap as it relates to information about women's health and wellness, was an area that was prioritized by two WikiCred participants. Election misinformation in Africa was the theme of at least four WikiCred programs. It was surprising how many individual and organizational participants were doing the same work, sometimes in the same regions, yet they were unaware of these commonalities.
10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?
- Redundancies among various projects could be remedied by encouraging more collaboration and less siloed work. We are considering ways to group similar project together for greater impact.
11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?
- Netha Hussain, 2021 Wikipedian of the Year, launched the project titled Mapping and bridging the knowledge gaps related to women’s health on Wikipedia, as part of her work with WikiCred. She assessed Wikis for content gaps across women's health globally and created a central page with specific action items and resources that can be used to generate this missing content. The volume of work she accomplished was impressive and will continue to to benefit other projects and initiatives.
12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- WikiCred is designed to empower individuals and organizations to address needs within their own communities. Participants who took part in WikiCred employed their own organizational devices. Therefore, the best tool for us to share would be the main WikiCred page used to promote the program.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCred
Part 3: Metrics[edit]
13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
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| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
13b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | We aim to have several workshops organized through several Wikipedia chapters, communities and partner organizations. We want these workshops, webinars to be engaging for all participants and we believe 20-30 is an ideal number of participants for an engaging conversation, asking good questions and answers.
Since the workshops will target different communities. 20-30 is the number of new participants. Hacks/Hackers has ties and contacts with participants who attended more than 10 webinars on the topic of credibility and wikimedia projects, knowledge gaps and integrity that we can pull from as well as other cross-discipline audiences. |
20 | 75 | Meeting stats:
We've had 5 presentation meetups so far, so that's about~75 attendees in total, with probably 100 by the end of the series in July CredCo Newsletter: There have been 6 newsletters devoted to WikiCred Readership is about 600 The MisinfoCon newsletter has also sent out links to individual stories Article views: According to Medium, there have been 3,400 views of WikiCred articles over the past 90 days (since we started publishing WikiCred blog posts) |
Zoom attendance and clicks |
| Number of editors | One project of WikiCred added 15 new editors to the platforms who each created a page for a local newspaper from their hometown or of interest in the Northwest of the United States.
We aim to continue to increase the number of new editors who will engage with this projects' conversations on credibility and reliable information and sources with improved citations, new multimedia content. |
50 | 50 | WikiCred-supported 16 projects, programs, and initiatives, seven of which were content-driven. Other projects related to reliable sourcing. One project, Wikipedia:Knowledge gaps in women's health, tracked the contributions on nine editors who created over 2,000 new articles in Malayalam Wikipedia. | Anecdotal evidence from organizers of WikiCred-supported programs. Fountain tool: https://fountain.toolforge.org/editathons/womens-health |
| Number of organizers | We aim to continue to engage with the organizers from the WikiCredibility Initiative first campaign and open up a process of open collaborations for organizers within the Wikimedia movement. In 2020, we engaged and funded the projects of a total of 24 organizers.
We aim to achieve a comparable number of 25-30. |
30 | 25 | WikiCred supported 16 projects, most of which were led by parties of 2-3 people. | Anecdotal. |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Wikipedia, WikiCommons, Wikidata, Wikisource.
In 2020, WikiCred supports WPWP and Wiki Loves Africa as an incentive to improve content usage on Igbo, Swahili, Yoruba, Luganda, Hausa, Shona, Amharic, Lingala and Afrikaans. The overall campaign garnered more than 90,000 edits. In 2020, we supported a campaign to improve articles about black-owned newspapers in the USA and the Caribbean as a means to contribute to the authenticity of news and information sourcing from community newspapers. In 2020, we supported the wikiproject the Vaccine Safety project by curating information portals, content and articles that also need to be improved. In 2021, we supported the photo campaign for the Arabic language Wikipedia. We aim to continue to identify larger themes of interest and improve and create new content in the topics of climate science, health and thematical areas that contribute to increased trust in media institutions and the journalism ecosystem |
100 | 2000 | WikiProject: Women’s Health via Dr. Netha Hussain's Wikipedia:Knowledge gaps in women's health. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Knowledge_gaps_in_women%27s_health | Fountain tool |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 0 | Wikiproject Climate Change via Climate Steps' Increasing research + output of credible information on climate change action. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/?curid=12068099
Work is ongoing. Quantitative metrics forthcoming. |
N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?
- No
15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.
- WikiCred is able to track its own reach in terms of how many people engage through WikiCred-hosted community forums, events and blog posts. The supported projects, programs, and initiatives, however, track their own metrics. For this reason, reporting on adjacent metrics is difficult. In the future, we hope to develop a way to track these metrics as well.
16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
- N/A
Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships[edit]
17. Organizational Capacity
| A. Financial capacity and management | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| B. Conflict management or transformation | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| D. Partnership building | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| E. Strategic planning | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| F. Program design, implementation, and management | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| J. Governance | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| K. Communications, marketing, and social media | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| M. On-wiki technical skills | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| N. Accessing and using data | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| O. Evaluating and learning from our work | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders | |
| N/A | |
| N/A |
17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Peer to peer learning with other community members in conferences/events, Peer to peer learning with other community members in community/ies of practice* (structured and continuous learning and sharing spaces), Peer to peer learning with other community members (but that is not continuous or structured), Using capacity building/training resources onlinee from sources OUTSIDE the Wikimedia Movement, Using capacity building/training resources online from sources WITHIN the Wikimedia Movement
17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Other
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
- WikiCred is unique as it exists within the highly-functioning Hacks/Hackers with assistance from an established Wikimedia chapter. Connecting with a chapter that long-standing, existing relationships has grown capacity and reach greatly.
19. Partnerships over the funding period.
| A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) | Strongly agree |
| B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups | Strongly agree |
| C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Permanent staff outreach, Board members’ outreach, Staff hired through the fund, Volunteers from our communities, Partners proactive interest
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Other
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
- When cultivating partners, it's best to prioritize making connections with those who fully understand and value your own goals while identifying with yours as well. Alignment is important.
Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration[edit]
21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?
- This has not been particularly challenging in our case. We have found our goal of improving credibility online to align well with the those of active, engaged Wikimedians. Prior to launching WikiCred, Hack Hackers supported a Wikimedia North America Conference. This helped us to establish connections and build trust.
22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
- Increased significantly
23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
- WikiCred is a project of Hacks/Hackers. H/H initially co-hosted Wikiconference North American in 2019. Since then, it has continued to connect with Wikimedia communities resulting in collaborative efforts to improve credibility. In 2023, WikiCred applied to be an official Wikimedia affiliate.
24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
- Increased significantly
25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
- WikiCred has diversified funding sources to support its work. The additional work involved in soliciting sourcss of support outside of WMF indicates organizational investment.
26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.
- WikiCred naturally aligned with the Feminist movement and Climate Justice this cycle. It also supported a number of projects that aimed to improve accurate information surrounding elections and health. Due to its credibility focus, WikiCred will continue to align with the areas in question as these typically attract mis- and disinformation campaigns.
Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration[edit]
We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.
27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
- Yes
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
- WikiCred partnered with a representative from Wikimedia DC. WMDC is one of only two regional chapter affiliates in the US.
WMDC has shared news of WikiCred within it's affiliate network by posting on community channels like Wikimedia-l as well as reporting at conferences and community forums.
28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?
- We do this occasionally (less than once a month)
29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?
- This is mostly accomplished using the Misinfocon blog and the CredCo monthly community forum. WMDC also supports this by sharing results at Wikimedia meetups.
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]
30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
- 100000
31. Local currency type
- USD
32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.
- N/A
34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
- N/A
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
- N/A
34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
- N/A
35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund 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.
36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
- Yes
37. 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 Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
- Yes
38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.