Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Wikicredibility Initiative:Wikimedians Strengthening Knowledge and News Credibility on the Internet/Midpoint Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 2022-12-15T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Wikimedia Alliances Fund
Report type: Midterm
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General information[edit]
This form is for organizations receiving Wikimedia Community Funds (General Support) or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their mid-term learning and results. See the Wikimedia Alliances Fund application if you want to review the initial proposal.
- 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: 7589.76 USD
Part 1 Understanding your work[edit]
1. Briefly describe how your strategies and activities proposed were implemented and if any changes to what was proposed are worth highlighting?
- The objectives of WikiCred are to support the establishment and use of new and existing credibility tools and practices that strengthen Wikimedia and its communities. To accomplish these objectives, proposed strategies included:
1) supporting Wikimedia organizers and trainers through activity-specific microgrants targeted at Wikimedians and credibility-focused allies and 2) organizing a series of opportunities where credibility focused Wikimedians will share their work.
WikiCred received 52 eligible applications for microgrants. Applications were reviewed and scored by a group consisting of Wikimedians, experienced editors, representatives from chapter affiliates, and credibility enthusiasts. As of January 2023, WikiCred will fund 15 projects.
WikiCred will continue to support tools, graphs, and metrics to assess the reliability of sources and media domains referenced in Wikipedia articles and aggregated in lists throughout several Wikiprojects.
WikiCred will also continue its focus on building a more robust knowledge infrastructure on specific health topics such as reproductive health by funding the proposal, Mapping and Bridging the Knowledge Gaps Related to Women’s Health on Wikipedia, a project that will support WikiProject Women's Health.
A number of applicants sought support for election-based projects. One such project is Can I Trust My Politician?. This project will allow for Wikipedia’s own structured data system to improve the interoperability/transferability of fact-checks and credible information about politicians, their statements, and positions into Wikipedia articles.
WikiCred will also fund a number of smaller projects from motivated individuals and organizations that intend to improve credibility around elections. As this was a common theme, WikiCred staff members plan to connect like-minded applicants in order to encourage greater impact.
The scheduling of workshops will begin once all micro-grants recipients have been contacted.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you feel are being effective in achieving your goals?
- Engaging with existing communities within Wikimedia as well external ones with similar goals proved to be effective. For example, by promoting WikiCred opportunities at the Truth and Trust Online conference, a non-Wikimedia conference, as well as actively posting on the Misinfcon blog, we were able to highlight commonalities between credibility organizations and Wikimedia. This led to a number of new applicants as compared to the previous WikiCred cycle.
3. What challenges or obstacles have you encountered so far?
- As with any grant period, funders often learn what works and what doesn’t. While the WikiCred team experienced some technical issues during this year’s application process, we were able to address issues quickly and also start developing solutions for the next grant cycle. Furthermore, we plan to gather data from potential applicants before the next grant cycle begins in order to improve lines of communication. We plan to do this by creating a pre-project interest form that will grow our database of potential partners and allow us to reach applicants more effectively.
4. Please describe how different communities are participating and being informed about your work.
- WikiCred's call for proposals launched on Meta in the Fall of 2022 and was promoted via Wikimedia-l, Telegram channels, the Truth and Trust Online conference, newsletters (MisinfoCon), email campaigns and person-to-person outreach initiatives.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiCred/2022_CFP https://truthandtrustonline.com/ https://misinfocon.com/wikicred/home
5. Please share reflections on how your efforts are helping to engage participants and/or build content, particularly for underrepresented groups.
- WikiCred applications were received from applicants based in Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, Niger, Ghana, Israel, Ethiopia, South Africa, The United States of America, The United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Italy, and India.
Though not all applicants were seeking funding for work on a local level, many applicants were in fact seeking funds to help combat misinformation related to their particular countries or regions. Based on their own analyses, there is work to be done regionally and nationally in the fields of politics, health, and climate change. With WikiCred's microgrants as well as the opportunity to present their projects to others, WikiCred is helping to close content gaps and amplify voices.
6. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What have you learned so far about these areas during this period?
- We had hoped to learn these best ways to engage diverse communities on the topic of credibility and reliable information as well as how we can engage credibility-focused individuals both inside and outside of Wikimedia.
We have learned that the best way to engage diverse communities is to listen to their needs, especially when determining what forms of credible information is missing within their fields.
When engaging volunteers and professionals outside of Wikimedia projects, we have found that it is best to focus on common goals as well as how end projects can strengthen Wikimedia and vice versa.
7. What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your work?
- WikiCred intends to fund 15 projects.
WikiCred will continue to support grantees in completing their projects and expanding the reach of their new tools, research, and outputs.
The MisinfoCon blog editorial team will provide space within the MisinfoCon newsletter for grantees to share updates with various communities.
Grantees will also participate in a regularly scheduled workshops that join together credibility experts, technologists, and the Wiki community.
Part 2: Metrics[edit]
8a. 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 | 0 | ||
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 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 |
8b. 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 | 15 | The workshops/symposia at which successful applicants will present their projects will begin in February. Attendance at these events will be best reported in the final report. With that in mind, at least 15 individuals representing grantees and their affiliates will attend. This is in addition to those attending from our credibility-focused organizations. | General attendance. |
| 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 | 0 | Microgrant recipients will engage directly with constituents and track participation. Projects and initiatives are just beginning.
Many microgrant recipients are building tools and launching initiatives that will help editors and those who care about credibility within Wikimedia projects. Editor numbers can really only be tracked for the few event-type microgrant organizations. They will be shared in the final report. |
Midterm reports from micro-grant recipients. Due March 2023. |
| 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 | 15 | WikiCred intends to fund 15 projects (individuals and organizations), with potentially two additional projects by May 2023. While WikiCred did receive 52 micro-grant applications, many were not in-line with the goals of WikiCred.
The initial goal was to fund 25-30 projects. We did not reach this number as there were not 25-30 projects that both aligned properly and demonstrated adequate capacity. The projects that are being funded, however, will have significant impact. Awardees include:
|
Tallying and assessing applications. |
| 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 | 200 | While this is best measured in the final report, we can share that
Wikipedia:Knowledge gaps in women's health, a micro-grant recipient, has already begun and has been able to produce 200 articles in Malayalam WIkipedia. |
Fountain in toolforge. |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 0 | Wikimedia Commons. The subproject, including Project Korikath, will be focused on Commons and aim to add 5,000 images. Again, this is best reported in the final report. | Categories |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 0 | WikiData. Iffy.News will improve searchibility within WikiData for 2,000 news outlets. | General tally. |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
9. Are you having any difficulties collecting data to measure your results?
- We are not having trouble addressing metrics. Our timeline, however, is such that the majority of measurable data will emerge before the end of the cycle for inclusion in the final report.
10. Are you collaborating and sharing learning with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
- Yes
10a. Please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how?
- Yes. Wikimedia DC is a consultant on this project. In addition, every WikiCred partner (applicant) is a Wikimedian and many are active in WikiProjects like WikiProject Climate Change and Wikiproject Med.
11. Documentation of your work process, story, and impact.
- Below there is a section to upload files, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g. communications materials, blog posts, compelling quotes, social media posts, etc.). This can be anything that would be useful to understand and show your learning and results to date (e.g., training material, dashboards, presentations, communications material, training material, etc).
- Below is an additional field to type in link URLs.
https://misinfocon.com/wikicred-announces-launch-of-2022-grant-cycle-48b5751fac14
Part 3: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]
12. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
- 7589.76
13. Local currency type
- USD
14. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Provide links to your financial reporting documents.
This link shows other expenses from WikiCred along with expenses incurred and covered by WMF funds. The majority of our WMF grant funds will be used in the latter part of the cycle.
15. Based on your implementation and learning to date, do you have any plans to make changes to the budget spending?
- No
15a. Please provide an explanation on how you hope to adjust this.
- N/A
16. We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on how the experience of being a grantee has been so far.
- Not at this time. Thank you.