Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/WCNA/WikiConference North America 2023/Final Report
Report Status: Under review
Due date: 2024-01-31T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Conference Fund
Report type: Final
This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the grantmaking web service of Wikimedia Foundation where the user has submitted their midpoint report. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.General information[edit]
- Title of proposal: WCNA/WikiConference North America 2023
- Username of applicant: Louis Germain (WMCA)
- Name of organization: N/A
- Amount awarded: 109152.28
- Amount spent: 142636 USD, 191337.32 CAD
Part 1: Understanding your work[edit]
1. Did your event have any impact that you did not expect, positive or negative?
The Wikiconference in Toronto strengthened ties between Wikimedians. Participants from Mexico, Canada and the United States came together to exchange ideas and forge new relationships. It strengthen the sense of community among Wikimedia volunteers, stakeholders, and enthusiasts and there were there new connections and collaborations that were formed. It was the perfect opportunity to bring participants together to continue discussions on the creation of a North American hub. Finally, a few collaboration opportunities emerged during the event, enhancing the reach and impact of Wikimedia projects (for example, between people or between people and institutions).
2. What do you think will be the long term impact of this conference?
Strengthened relationships and a sense of unity among Wikimedia volunteers may persist beyond the conference, fostering increased collaboration and joint initiatives. This could lead to more effective and sustained community engagement. If the conference stimulates ongoing enthusiasm for content creation and editing, the Wikimedia projects may experience a long-term increase in the quantity and quality of contributed content. Successful partnerships formed during the conference with cultural and educational institutions can lead to sustained collaborations, bringing in new contributors, resources, and visibility for Wikimedia projects. And finally, the discussions about creating a North American hub result in concrete plans and actions, and will point to a more coordinated effort in the region, enhancing the efficiency of Wikimedia-related activities.
3. Would you say that your work improved participants’ ability to apply new skills and knowledge?
Yes
3a. If yes, please describe how and why you think this was successful. Please describe why you think this is the case.
The conference inspires innovative approaches to addressing community issues and fosters a culture of problem-solving and it would lead to a more adaptable and resilient Wikimedia community in the long term. In the end, it will contribute to increased awareness of Wikimedia projects and attract new volunteers, thereby expanding and diversifying the community in the long term.
4. Please use this space to upload media and other files that help tell your story and impact. You can also provide links to them.
Field to type in URLs.
N/A
5. 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 | |
| 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 | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Strongly agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Strongly agree |
6. 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
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?
We organized the WikiWomen lunch, bringing together female contributors to discuss and exchange views on issues that concern them.
Part 2: Your main learning[edit]
8. Were there any major challenges or things you found difficult that you would like to share? What would you do differently next time?
On the negative side, we were the victim of a bomb threat directed against us. We had to reschedule part of the conference, but in the end all went well. People stayed calm and quiet, no one panicked. We managed the situation as best we could, notifying the library, the police and the Foundation.
9. Was there any non-financial support that the Wikimedia Foundation could have provided that would have better supported you in achieving your goals?
No, all went well.
10. What would you recommend on a local and/or regional level as the best next step to leverage your success and momentum?
Leveraging the success and momentum of WikiConference North America on a local and regional level requires strategic planning and community engagement. The fact that there are discussions about a North American hub is good in itself. The hub could ensure that the momentum is maintained, and initiatives discussed during the conference are implemented. We should also place a strong emphasis on diversity and inclusion initiatives. Ensure that events and activities are accessible to a broad range of participants. Actively seek input from underrepresented groups to make the community more inclusive.
11. Please add any 3 operational recommendations for future events organizers.
Work with a travel agency to transport scholarship holders.
Part 3: Metrics[edit]
12. Open Metrics reporting
In your application, you defined some open metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with your metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in.
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Content knowledge gap | As it is one of our main objectives, we have an interest to know how many participants still engage and contribute to content knowledge gap activities after the event. We hope that working groups and community building will promote the contributions to high impact topics. After the event, our goal is to see 80% of contributors to be interested and to contribute about these subjects. What did they learn and how can they apply what they have learned? | 80 | N/A | We will send a survey in the next few weeks and this is something we will ask. | Survey |
| Indigenous people and partners | We would like to see more indigenous people from all across North America to participate in our convention. First question to know is how many people from First Nations will be there. Then, we plan to work with them and their respective communities to establish a partnership with the objective to support the creation, development and growth of Wikimedia projects in Indigenous languages. The Wikipedia in Atikamekw is a good example of what we could do with other indigenous communities. That's hard to determinate a target as we don't know how many Indigenous people will be there, but our intention is to forge two partnerships in the short-middle term. | 2 | 1 | We invited a few number of Indigenous communities to join us, but only one gave a positive answer. Five people from the Atikamekw community participated in the conference. | Registration list |
| Mobilized institutions | As stated above, we want to mobilize institutions (GLAM, Universities, Goverment, etc.) and support them so they can contribute to free knowledge and the Wikimedia projects, especially regarding knowledge inequity. In its Strategy 2030, the Wikimedia Movement aims to identify high-impact topics with the aim of improving coverage of priority topics, identified collectively, that have an impact on the world and can improve people's lives. We think institutions can help us with that.
After the event, we are interested to know how many of the institutions present to the convention keep contributing to Wikimedia. How our convention did influence them to keep working on our projects ? |
N/A | N/A | We will send a survey in the next few weeks and this is something we will ask. | Survey |
| wikimedians vs non-wikimedians | We want to know how many non-wikimedians are participants and how many start contributing after the convention. What activities influence them to participate in the movement, what did they learn and why did they decide to get involved? Starting from there, we will collect some information that could help us to encourage new people to contribute. | N/A | N/A | We hadn't planned any specific sessions for newcomers, but we should have. | N/A |
| Gender | We know that only 18% of the content in all Wikimedia projects, including biographies on Wikipedia, are of women. Further, only 15% of Wikimedia contributors are women. We intend to implement strategies to encourage women's participation at the convention: communications, special dedicated activities, panels, etc. And what about non-binaries ? Are they represented ?
We would like to know how many women, men and non-binaries have registered so that we can improve our strategies for the next convention. |
N/A | N/A | We will send a survey in the next few weeks and this is something we will ask.
We got a few comments about diversity and we should try to encourage women participation next year. |
N/A |
13. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?
Yes
13a. 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. Also mention why you felt you had to change some metrics.
N/A
14. Here are the templates of registration and survey tools that the Wikimedia Foundation has developed so that you can use in your conference fund work.
1. Standard Registration Form, 2. Post-event participant survey
14a. Please share the result(s) with us, provide the link(s) or summarize the main result(s) and insight(s) from them.
We will send the survey in the next few weeks.
14b. If you used other forms, please share them with us, as these forms might be useful for others to use.
Part 4: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]
15. & 16. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
191337.32 CAD
17. Please state the total amount spent in USD.
142636 USD
18. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
Upload a financial report file.
Please provide a link to your financial reporting document.
N/A
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.
19. 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
20. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
20a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
20b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
20c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
21. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
No
22. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
23. 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
24. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.
In order to balance the budget for the Toronto WikiConference, we need additional funding from the Foundation. The amount requested is US$10,666. The main reason for this deficit is the underestimation of audio-visual costs. The costs associated with this budget item were three times higher than anticipated. We were obliged to work with the Toronto Public Library's audiovisual team, and it was not possible for us to work with any other company. This explains, in part, the very high costs.