Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Editing Wikipedia Together - online free course for volunteers invested in community development and open access /Final Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 2023-07-01T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Wikimedia Community 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]
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: Wikimedians of Romania and Moldova User Group
- Title of Proposal: Editing Wikipedia Together - online free course for volunteers invested in community development and open access
- Amount awarded: 17100 USD, 76320 RON
- Amount spent: 60184.05 RON
Part 1 Understanding your work[edit]
1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
The project created content for new online trainings, for learning materials and created opportunities for the community of editors to meet and grow. We developed the materials for 3 online Courses (Levels: Beginner, Medium and Advanced). Course 1 and 2 were piloted, updated based on feedback, and offered again. Course 3 was organized in February and March and included a two days face-to-face session on March 17-19. We contributed to the development of the community of Wikipedia editors on four avenues: (1) Offering new courses: 49 participants in our courses with 16 of them registering also in the last course - the most technical & difficult. (2) Creating opportunities for people to contribute in Campaigns: annuals like Wiki Loves Romania 2022, 1lib1ref 2023 and CEE Spring 2023 and new campaign Wikimartisor (that encourages people to contribute to existing articles or create new articles about women from Romania and Moldova). New editors volunteered to include Romania among the first communities that participated in #everybookitsreader campaign. (3) Reaching out to Interested partners:ApTI- Association for Technology and Internet, Training Caffe, "Ioan Slavici" University of Timisoara, Lucian Blaga University Library in Sibiu, Media Wise NGO, Europe Direct Vâlcea, Giurgiu County Library and Ialomița County Library. (4) Online community discussions on Zoom. We had 6 community sessions that are regular monthly meetings with editors from the community. And also monthly online meetings with librarians from Bibliotecarii ❤️ Wikipedia Facebook page. A communication specialist that helped us create an online campaign on Facebook. From January until June 2023 on Wikipedia Română Facebook page we had 51 new followers and 3.072 new visits. The 40 posts created were grouped in 3 types of campaigns (Edit, Discover, Enjoy). The numbers for the Facebook organic campaign were: 14.304 Reach; 1.797 Interactions; 147 Link clicks (on the Wikipedia pages promoted).
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
Setting the learning structure to three different levels makes the learning process more clear for new editors and they appreciate better understanding the sequences. When attracting new editors there is little talk about the time investment needed to learn, so a more structured presentation on three levels is helpful. Discussing the difference between learning how to edit on Wikipedia and creating a new article has helped the team clarify the steps needed to become an experienced editor. Presenting about how to become a new editor to various audiences (meetings with NGOs and then hosting a workshop for them) is proving to be helpful for us to better understand the motivation of new editors. It also helped us clarify a message that is connecting Wikipedia editing with developing media and digital skills. In March 2023 we organized the first physical community event in the past couple of years. We invited more experienced editors and relatively new ones but only new editors responded to our call. Even though the more experienced editors did not participate in the meeting we felt it was worth thinking about future community events where we could meet editors from both Romania and Moldova. The location needs to be easily accessible and to provide good experiences for participants. Reaching out to NGOs and new organizations to talk about editing Wikipedia was an overall positive experience. The fact that we have introductory courses is a very good door opening strategy to discuss with new partners. We looked for formal but also non-formal education organizations and we are already discussing new activities in the future where we will promote created content.
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?
Until this year we did not have a clear program for people who would be interested in becoming Wikipedia editors together with other people interested in the same thing. The onboarding for new editors was usually a very lonely process that provided resources, but few opportunities to interact in constructive ways with experienced editors. The fact that we have three courses to offer at three different levels of expertise allows us to offer them as resources for other organizations interested in developing media and information literacy. We will explore this opportunity more next year.
The project, materials, and opportunities created were presented at the Romanian Public Library Conference: Green and Digital Libraries in Târgu Jiu, in October 2022. While this was a professional conference the fact that we already have a number of librarians editing Wikipedia was attractive for other librarians and now the professional group is growing and has 2 new volunteers willing to organize future events.
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
We informed the community of editors about the project in the Cafenea/Community and reached out to a couple of individual editors to see how we can plan for future training/learning opportunities in 2023. As part of the project we created periodical online meetings for the members of the community to discuss various topics. Participation in these meetings varied from 5 to 16 per meeting.
We used the Facebook group “Bibliotecarii ❤️Wikipedia” to promote the courses but also discuss any topics of interest to librarians. The group has 39 new participants (since sept 2022) and provides support for junior editors.
Claudia Serbanuta presented about librarians editing Wikipedia at the National Conference of public librarians în Târgu Jiu, in October 2022. There Elena Damian, a librarian from Giurgiu County Library, found out about the courses offered and not only took the courses but organized a number of events in her library. She also became a volunteer in our project as she facilitated a workshop for librarians from Ialomița County Library and presented them the courses developed by WMROMD.
We reached out to NGOs that have thematic interest related to Wikipedia’s core values like the power of the Internet and digital rights. We had 2 workshops with interns of ApTi and an editing event where they translated 3 articles. We convinced Media Wise to add editing on Wikipedia in their Media Literacy courses. Looking for NGOs invested in lifelong learning and development of digital skills we reached out to Leaders Foundation and we are planning some training sessions for Fall of 2023.
We reached out to three universities in Timisoara, Sibiu, and Bucharest. We had positive responses but the calendar of our courses and students’ classes did not align. We organized a session with librarians from Lucian Blaga University. This session allowed us to start a conversation about what are the informational needs of students that can be addressed through working on Wikipedia
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.
- Stats courses Editing Wikipedia Together
Story of impact https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TTi2odruPjU5DBdvbyJB50Lgd77hcWAgN26x5qI6NYY/edit?usp=sharing
- Pictures from Brasov \workshop https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Editing_together_workshop_(Bra%C8%99ov,_2023)
- Pictures from workshops https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:WMROMD_activities_2023
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 | Strongly agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Strongly agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Neither agree nor disagree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Neither agree nor disagree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Strongly 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?
Reaching out to librarians from rural communities and encouraging them to bring information about their community online was one goal of our project. We managed to bring to our introductory course a decent number of participants; however, their number decreased for the second and then third course. While we expected the number to drop by the end of the courses, we did not anticipate that they would be interested in the more advanced course. 2 rural librarians were enrolled in the third course, the most advanced one. None of them however participated in the face to face meeting due to personal reasons. Their interest working on Wikipedia is real; however, very few of them had the time to invest in learning how to edit. This is also connected with their level of digital literacy and their willingness to also work on developing their digital skills.
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?
Resources documenting small communities:- Local libraries have local bibliographies and monographies for their communities but are not used when thinking about editing articles about their communities. They are using other resources and rural librarians have been stating that they will use InterLibrary Loan to get books that they need for editing articles. New question: What are the digital literacy levels on which rural librarians operate and how can Wikipedia editing help develop these skills? Technical hurdles: - takes them a lot of time to figure out what were the 3 pages they needed to locate (user homepage, course page and discussion page of the course); Automatic count of notes is confusing to them; reference tool - takes some serious practice to be able to understand it Communication good practices:
- We need a communication plan to be able to communicate effectively with the Wikipedia community of editors.
- Open events might attract people to learn about Wikipedia but when they realize the amount of time and effort that needs to be put into this they get discouraged.
- Regular online community meetings – when non-confrontational – can help Wikipedia editors support each other. (In six meetings we had no significant conflict between editors; however, past conflicts have been mentioned and their effect of distrust in the community continues to be felt)
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
When we were planning the face to face meeting in Brasov, at the end of third course, we extensively discussed its format. There were two different opinions: one was that we will not have numerous participants because experienced editors will not come and one that experienced participants will attend our workshop. While we reached out to experienced participants to join the workshop only one came (one that is a member also of our user group). A few of them stated personal reasons for not being able to join, while some did not reply at all. The surprising part for the organizing team was that new editors decided to join and, even though for some of them the technical topics covered by the workshop were difficult, they participated and asked questions. Surprising for us was also the fact that two new editors from Moldova joined our workshop and were willing to travel to Romania to participate in it.
At the workshop in Brasov we had more women than men as participants. This was even more surprising because the course was quite technical and the participants were new editors. This was clearly an effort on behalf of participants. Based on the feedback they appreciated meeting face to face and being able to ask any question they wanted.
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?
Having participants from both Romania and Moldova in a common event was a really rich experience. Participants appreciated this opportunity and we are thinking about organizing more common events in the future. This requires more planning and organizing time than national events but we will aim at doing this in the future. A first step in this direction is the fact that for 2023-2024 we submitted one common grant for all activities that will take place in Romania and Moldova.
We want to make the process of reaching out to NGOs also effective in promoting our resources. The NGOs that are providing trainings for various communities can include in their resources our courses and in partnership with them we can organize workshops and trainings for their public (which is usually one interested in lifelong learning and opportunities to grow).
Regarding librarians we will continue to involve them in #1lib1ref campaign and for next year we budgeted resources and awards to motivate them. This will help us reach a larger number of librarians and based on their expressed interest we can invite them to learn more by using our courses.
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)?
More than half or the Romanian population does not have basic digital skills. The Romanian language Wikipedia project developed for twenty years based on the work of thousands of volunteers. These two statements seem to describe parallel realities: one of struggling to adapt to the digital realities and opportunities of our society and one of early adopters of digital opportunities and innovations. However, they represent the same reality where Wikipedia represents a learning space for everyone. Here people from all walks of life (including underserved rural areas) put in efforts to not only write content but also learn about this unique digital project, developing their skills and understanding of the connected digital reality of our times.
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.
Communication materials https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bHif5yIteJr7_P3xJ_mNTd6JyMphmayj
Part 3: Metrics[edit]
13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| References used | What references new editors use | 30 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Categories and subcategoris of topics | List with most popular categories (and subcategories) of topics introduced by participants | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Help resources | Identify the resources used by participants to find their way back into editing. | 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 | 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 | New participants
20 taking the course 1 20 participating in workshops 20 participating in competitions Returning participants 10 taking course 2 and 3 10 participating in workshops |
100 | 167 | Courses 49
WikiLoves Romania 4 ApT1 7 Media Wise 10 Slobozia 13 Sibiu 18 Valcea 25 With 87 of them being new participants in the Wikipedia workshops. |
Courses: https://eventmetrics.wmflabs.org/programs/777
WLRO: https://eventmetrics.wmflabs.org/programs/656/events/2744 ApTI/workshops: observations from meeting Media Wise https://eventmetrics.wmflabs.org/programs/835 Slobozia - List with participants Sibiu - List with participants Valcea - Observation and partial list of participants |
| Number of editors | 15 - participating in course 2 and 3
2 - participating in workshops 20 - participating in competitions |
37 | 135 | Courses 60
Competitions 42 Events with NGOs (ApT1, MediaWise) 16 Events to promote Courses 17 |
Courses: https://eventmetrics.wmflabs.org/programs/777
Competitions: https://eventmetrics.wmflabs.org/programs/656/events/2744 and https://hashtags.wmcloud.org/?query=wikimartisor&project=ro.wikipedia.org&startdate=2023-03-01&enddate=2023-03-14&search_type=or&user= Events with NGOs and workshops https://eventmetrics.wmflabs.org/programs/835 , List with participants or observations from meetings |
| Number of organizers | Volunteers helping with courses - 4
Volunteer organizers of promotion workshops - 5 Volunteer communication advisors - 2 |
11 | 13 | 2 Wikimartisor
4 Wiki Loves RO 1 communication 1 ApTI meeting 1 Slobozia 1 Sibiu 3 Valcea 3 @Valcea |
Emails |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 30 new articles
50 articles improved On Wikidata 150 edits 10 new entries |
240 | 1266 | Pages created 108
Pages improved 1158 Uploaded files 762 Wikidata items created 10 Wikidata items improved 155 |
https://eventmetrics.wmflabs.org/programs/777
https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WMROMD/Concursuri/Wikim%C4%83r%C8%9Bi%C8%99or_2023 |
| 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 |
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.
- Online community meetings https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:%C3%8Ent%C3%A2lniri/Online
Folders with documents https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nVVeEttAVdvGXHDTyxuo6M64jN3SO9yE
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 has grown but it should be further developed |
| C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| 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 is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| J. Governance | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| K. Communications, marketing, and social media | This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| 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 is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| 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 | This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| 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, Other
17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of staff time to participate in capacity building/training, Lack of volunteer time to participate in capacity building/training, Lack of a need or interest in building these capacities
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
N/A
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 | Strongly 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.
Board members’ outreach, Staff hired through the fund
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of staff to conduct outreach to new strategic partners, Lack of staff capacity to respond to partners interested in working with us
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
There are possible partners that are interested in finding common objectives and working with us. Timing of future collaborations is important and, at the same time, quite difficult. We will try to diversify the members of our team so that our shared calendar can be more flexible and we could accommodate various calendars of programs of our partners.
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?
WMROMD feels part of the Wikimedia movement. However a group of experienced editors are not open to be part of a global movement and that makes WMROMD efforts harder to communicate and be inclusive.
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.
N/A
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.
N/A
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.
N/A
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?
No
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
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?
N/A
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance[edit]
30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
60184.05
31. Local currency type
RON
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/1i1fCTGGAIHyfQlq7_F3EC3z0tthiel-9GYN6o9dkfx0/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.
16,136 RON We planned for many face to face events and we budgeted in a way that would allow us to organize them anywhere in Romania and Moldova - if we found local partners.We organized the scheduled events however participants came from places than were (mostly) close to Bucharest. And people came with public transportation or shared rides so costs of transportation was lower than planned.
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future grant request with PO approval
34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
We are just starting the new Fund period. Once we divide these new tasks we will come back with a plan for activities to use the remaining fund.
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.