Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Boosting the Korean Wikimedia Community and Diversifying Editors and Contents on Wikimedia Movement/Final Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 2023-04-30T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Wikimedia Community 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: Wikimedia Korea
- Title of Proposal: Boosting the Korean Wikimedia Community and Diversifying Editors and Contents on Wikimedia Movement
- Amount awarded: 64156.86 USD, 77400000 KRW
- Amount spent: 73433348 KRW
Part 1 Understanding your work[edit]
1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
- Our proposed activities were mainly implemented by building partnerships and supporting volunteers. We cooperated with a neurodiversity advocacy group and we could improve autism-related contents. We also taught Wikipedia-editing to teenagers from low-income families in cooperation with a youth support organization. We financially supported voluntary offline meetups and online editathons. We boosted volunteers' contribution and improved content on Korean Wikisource by awarding volunteer hours.
We also hosted some online editathons and offline events to reduce Wikipedia's systemic bias. For example, we hold Wiki Loves Pride editathon to improve LGBTQ-related contents. We ran Wikitambang photowalk to collect pictures of local monuments.
Originally, we planed many offline events to boost volunteers' offline actitivies and improve LGBTQ-related contents. However, we had to cancel the events because Covid-19 outbreak didn't end last year.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
- We awarded volunteer hours to encourage participant in our activities, and we think this approach was very effective. For example, we could gather volunteers and digitize Old Hangul documents on Korean Wikisource through the approach. We also encouraged teenager volunteers to contribute to Wikimedia Commons by awarding volunteer hours.
Building partnerships was successful to improve Wikipedia's content diversity. We established a partnership with a neurodiversity advocacy group, and we could improve autism-related contents in cooperation with the group.
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?
- Korean sister projects are much less active than Korean Wikipedia. We run a consecutive project to activate Korean Wikisource. We planed an activity to type Old Hangul documents on the project regularly. We gathered volunteers, and award volunteer hours through a government-run platform. This approach was Korea-specific, and very successful to activate and improve the sister project.
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
- We mainly used our partners' network to reach out to non-Wikimedia communities. Last year, we built partnerhships with Seoul Youth Center and Three Ocean. Seoul Youth Center helped us to reach out to teenagers from low-income families. We introduced the teenagers how to edit Wikipedia articles and upload photos on Wikimedia Commons. Three Ocean introduced nuerodiversity advocates. They helped us list up autism-related articles and translate article titles.
We usually use site notice or central notice to promote our activities throughout the Wikimedia projects. We also advertise the activities though Kakao Talk group chats and our social media accounts.
After we finished our projects, we regularly published our news letters.
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.
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 | Neither agree nor disagree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | 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?
- To bring in underrepresented groups, building partnership is very important, because we cannot easily reach out to them just through Wikimedia projects. For example, autistic people is very few on Wikimedia project, so we build a partnership with a neurodiversity advocacy group. We also used our partner's network to reach out to teenagers from low-income families.
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?
- We think that awarding volunteer hours is the best method to encourage participants. We could successfully gather volunteers through this approach, because Korean schools and universities asked students to earn volunteer hours yearly.
We learnt that we need to host educational events or award volunteer hours to invite teenagers to our offline events, because their parents allow them to participate in only educational events or volunteer activities. We developed Youth Wikitambang photo walk and awarded volunteer hours to teenager participants.
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
- When we submitted our application, we expected that the Covid-19 outbreak would end last year. Unfortunately, the outbreak continued, and we needed to cancel our offline events. As a result, our plan to boost voluntary offline activities failed.
Originally, we planed to hosted some events to improve LGBTQ contents. For example, we hosted a photo contest to collect LGBTQ photos. However, there was no participants in the event. We realized that we needed other strategy and approach.
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?
- We realized that we need to listen to users' opinion. We held some offline events to listen to teenage users, and we could learn that their parents' perspective on Wikimedia movement, and reflect their opinion when we planed our activities.
We learnt we need to consider Korean-specific situations when we plan LGBTQ-related activities. When we planned Wiki Loves Pride photo contest, we expected many photographers to submit their photos, because we hosted some photo contests successfully. However, Korean photographers were not interested in taking photos of LGBTQ events, because Korea is still a conservative society.
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)?
- South Korea is still a conservative society, and Korean people are not interested in sexual minorities. Last year, we hosted a photo contest to collect photos about sexual minority rights. Unfortunately, queer festivals was shortened, and no participant submitted photos. We realized we needed other approach to collect contents related to sexual minorities
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.
- N/A
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 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 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 | 4 | 2 | We built partnerships with a teenager support organization and neurodiversity advocacy group. Originally, we planed to cooperated with schools and sexual minority groups, but we couldn't achieve it, because the Covid-19 outbreak didn't completely end in Korea. | manual |
| 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 | The number of women, Youth or LGBT participants | 85 | 14 | We planed to host events for women, teenagers and LGBT people, but we needed to cancel our plans because events including queer festivals was canceled in Korea. We could just host events for teenager users. | manual |
| 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 | Volunteer hours we will commit to volunteers | 350 | 560 | More volunteer hours were awarded than we expected, because Wikisource editors enthusiastically improved articles. | manual |
13b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 350 | 214 | Participants in our events were less than we expected. We expected that we would support numerous offline events when we planned. Unfortunately, We just supported just one voluntary offline meetup due to Covid-19 outbreak. | manual | |
| Number of editors | 230 | 161 | manual | ||
| Number of organizers | 10 | 4 | manual |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Wikipedia pages created or improved | 300 | 719 | 719 articles were created or improved. Results are more successful than we expected. Participants in photowalk events also edited Korean Wikipedia articles, and edit-a-thons were also successful. | manual |
| Wikimedia Commons | images and videos uploaded | 120 | 406 | More images was uploaded than we planed. We hosted photowalks for teenage users, and this events contributed to more uploaded images. | manual |
| Wikisource | Wikisource pages created or improved | 30 | 29 | N/A | manual |
| Wikidata | Wikidata entries created or improved | 200 | 0 | 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.
- N/A
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 capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| B. Conflict management or transformation | This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) | This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| D. Partnership building | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| E. Strategic planning | This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| F. Program design, implementation, and management | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| 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 capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| 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, 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.
- Lack of awareness of capacity building needs, Lack of training that fits contextual needs and interests, Lack of financial resources
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
- Last year, we set up strategic plans for the first time. We collected strategic plans of other groups, and reviewed them. Based on them, we finally established our long-term goal and strategic plans. It was very helpful, when we planned next year's activities, and our application become more organized.
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) | Agree |
| B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups | 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, Staff hired through the fund, Volunteers from our communities
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
- Lack of interest from partners, Difficulties specific to our context that hindered partnerships, Lack of knowledge or capacities to reach out to strategic partners
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
- To build a partnership, we need to find a common goal, and share each other's skills. For example, Three Ocean wanted to promote the neurodiversity movement, but they didn't have a platform. On the other hand, we wanted to improve autism-related articles, but we didn't have a professional knowledge about the disorder. We agree that we needed to promote the movement through Korean Wikipedia. The organization helped us to list articles to be improved, and translate article titles.
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?
- The sense of belonging to Wikimedia movement was built by collaborating with other affiliates and sharing experiences with them. We sent some members to ESEAP conference hosted in Sydney and gave some presentation to share our experience and activities. We also invited staff members from Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Deutschland to our annual conference. They explained about their strategies and experiences to Korean Wikimedians.
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?
- Somewhat increased
23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
- During about two years, we couldn't participate in in-person international events and we had less opportunities to collaborate with other affiliates due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Our group members attended ESEAP conference last year, and shared our experiences with other Wikimedians from other Asian regions. We participated to organizing a hub for ESEAP regions.
24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
- Somewhat increased
25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.
- Before two years ago we didn't talk about our long-term plan, and we just plan short-term activities. However, We set up our long-term goal last year. We collected other groups goals and strategies, and discuss over what we needed to promote the Wikimedia movement.
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.
- Last year, our activities were inspired by neurodiversity movement, and sexual minority movement, and climate movement. We improved neurodiversity-related articles on Korean Wikipedia in collaboration with a neurodiversity advocacy group. We participated in Wiki Loves Pride campaign, and hosted a edit-a-thon and photo contest to improve contents related to sexual minorities. Lastly, we supported a edit-a-thon to promote climate change issue.
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?
- We interviewed participants in ESEAP conference hosted in Sydney last year. The interviewees were our members, and they shared their learning with community members through our news letter. One of them shared the results on Movement Strategy Forum. Here are links to their interviews and presentation summary.
https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/위키백과:KIWI/2023년_1호/대외협력 https://forum.movement-strategy.org/t/overview-of-presentation-from-eseap-conf-2022-affiliate-panel-discussion-wikimedia-korea/2300
28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?
- We do this rarely (less than twice a year)
29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?
- We just shared our learning by publishing reports and presenting our learning in international events. We attended ESEAP conference last year, and shared our learning and activities. A director of our group posted a summary of our presentation on Movement Strategy Forum.
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]
30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
- 73433348
31. Local currency type
- KRW
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.
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FqybG-x-utSpJXGSTa1LydmDV7dc5WqknRHdFnMe4BY/edit?usp=sharing
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.
- 3,966,652 won was unspent. We had to cancel offline events and failed to build partnerships due to Covid-19 outbreak. Instead, we spend the remaining funds for our annual conference.
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
- C. I am planning to send them back to the WMF
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.