Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Growing the wiki spirit in Turkey, 2023/Final Report
Report Status: Under review
Due date: 2024-07-30T00:00:00Z
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.
- Name of Organization: Dijital Bilgi Derneği
- Title of Proposal: Growing the wiki spirit in Turkey, 2023
- Amount awarded: 63550 USD, 1203600 TRY
- Amount spent: 63900 USD
Part 1 Understanding your work
[edit]1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
1. For Students Edit Wikimedia projects we implemented 21 Education activities in 17 institutions at 5 cities. We could present Wikimedia projects in universities at Tokat and Adana for the first time. Two new Wikipedia student clubs were founded; we met with members of current Wikipedia student clubs and those students preparing to build their clubs in other universities at a two-day very motivating event Arhavi, a small town by Black Sea.
2 .For Grow The Content Program we had 6 thematic edit-a-thons with partners. CEE Spring and WLE contests were completed as planned. In the program the theme on which most content was produced was museums. Therefore, we prepared a document on how to create WP articles about museums.
3. We held 19 online and 2 in-person community meetings for the Stronger Community Program. We celebrated Wikipedia's Birthday at our own office for the first time with 20 volunteers from Istanbul. We saw that making activities at our place could effectively create a sense of belonging. At the beginning, our plan was making more in-person community meetings during the year. We belive we can achieve this next year because now we started to use an office.
4. We supported participation in Wikimania and CEE Meetings for collaboration with Global Movement Progam. Wikimania and CEE Meetings had a record number of participants from Türkiye (5 &6). Secondly, The Turkic Wikimedia Conference was held in Istanbul. The last years' experiences helped the organization team a lot in dealing with last-minute problems.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
One of the most important event of this term was the Arhavi camp. Cooperating with Wikimedia Georgia, we organized a WikiCamp for a very diverse group of university students from Wikipedia clubs in Türkiye, younger students of the high school hosting the event, their teachers, a small number of invited academicians, and high school students from Georgia. Organizing such an event in a small, modest town was a good approach. Our event was not lost in the noise of a metropolis, it was regarded as a significant event for the town and created enthusiasm for local teachers, and administrators. The diversity of the participants helped everyone play many roles (learner, teacher, facilitator, translator, presenter ...) when needed increasing opportunities for improving their skills. Therefore for organisers of such camp we advise the following:
- Consider organizing your event at a slient, small town rather than in a big metropolis.
- Prefer a place where you have at least one active group member is living and could help organizers.
- Make sure at least one organizer go to the town earlier and pay visit to partners, local authorities.
- Consider making pre-conference events or trainings for local people) (One day before the conference, we had a beginner-level presentation for the students-teachers of the school hosting the event. This increased their participation in the conference and help to work with more experienced wikimedians.
- If possible do not let anyone passively follow the sessions, assign everyone some tasks in the organisation, and get them prepared to take responsibility in organizing future events.
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?
This year we had multiple student groups consisting of new beginners and willing to work on improving the museum articles. However, the quality of the edits was very low and we addressed this situation by producing a document about how to create Museum Articles in Turkish WP. The document explained what type of information about a museum is relevant for an encyclopedia, under which categories could a museum be added, which infobox could be used, and what sorts of expressions or wording are more relevant. This inspired the team to create more documents on several topics in the future. Providing such a very specific guide to beginners who are willing to work on a topic could be an innovation
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
We co-organized our edit-a-thon activities with partner organizations and shared the task of bringing different communities with them. We ask two things from partners; bringing expert people or volunteers interested in the topic; and arranging a venue suitable for the participants; we organize the rest. While partners announce the event using their communication channels to bring expert knowledge on different fields; we announce it in community meetings, telegram groups and meta-pages to bring Wikimedians who might be interested. This strategy brings more diversity than we could provide by using only our channels. One observation we can share is that people are more motivated when there is a selection process and they are being selected and invited.
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.
- This post is from "Earthquake and Cultural Heritage Edit-a-tho"n where participants made wikidata and Wikipedia entries about cultural heritage in earthquake-hit area: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4KmIwMoJGu
This post includes photos from Art&Feminisim Event in Istanbul https://www.instagram.com/p/C4VqS5fI8bq/?img_index=1
This is from Wikipedia Day celebration in the new office place : https://www.instagram.com/p/C2LQAC0s9ty
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 | Neither agree nor disagree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Neither agree nor disagree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. | Strongly 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?
For the first time, we worked with handicapped people during the edit-a-thon series called “Accessible Museums” at Ankara. This was an event where participants contributed to Wikimedia projects by creating museum articles and adding information about the accessibility of the museums. We had blind and visually impaired participants. This event allowed us to bring handicapped participants and encouraged them to build content. We saw that due to some technical problems, blind users can not create a Wikimedia account without help.
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 we planned, this year had the opportunity to learn about forming and working with Wikipedia Student clubs at universities. Two new clubs are formed at Bilgi University and METU Cyprus, are founded and there are preparations for new ones at three universities. During the year we learned that starting a Wikipedia Student Club is easier when at least one active Wikipedian from the university takes place in the process. We learned that students from different universities inspire each other so it is essential to support them in communicating and coming together. Wiki Camp Arhavi brought students together and provided an opportunity for student club leaders not only to learn more about Wikimedia projects but also learn about how to present Wikimedia projects and teach editing to beginners (students of Arhavi Highschool). We learned that our affiliate’s role should be providing such opportunities where student clubs learn to organize and teach.
Our plan was reaching some education institutions in earthquake hid-area. We held wiki editing activities in 5 different cities; one of them was a city in earthquake-hit area. However, we did not have an opportunity to learn much about which type of wiki activities would be useful for supporting education institutions that have to move to remote education as was the case during the earthquake. Our education activities were held in the second term where the schools moved to in-person education and we concentrated on current needs.
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
During the project year, we had good partnerships and activities at some high schools and thought organizing a wiki camp for high school students and their teachers would accelerate the Wikipedia Education program at the high school level. However, we faced great difficulty in getting the required permissions from the Ministry of Education. Therefore, we invited the event some university students from Wikipedia Student Clubs instead of bringing high school students. Wikimedia Georgia joined the event with a group of high school students. The students and teachers of the local school hosted the event and some local people joined. At the end, we had a very diverse group consisting of different age groups, different experience levels at Wikimedia projects, and even from two different countries! At first, the organization team was worried about how to make a program useful for everyone. We prepared a very rich program, including a very basic level introductions to Wikipedia and Wikidata, a discussion on AI, an introduction to other open projects such as Openstreet Map, many small games, and hands-on editing sessions. Those who are familiar with the topic in any session helped other learners and therefore learned something about how to share their skills. At the end, everyone was learning something at every minute.
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?
After this experience, we do not plan making a camp for high schools but we would like to do wiki camp for representatives of Wikipedia student clubs at universities. We saw that such activity could bue used not only for building wiki skills of contributors but also for building their organisation skills. In next events ,we could give more responsibility to the students in presenting or supporting sessions, organizing games, etc. as well as in planning. They may carry those experiences into the activities they organize in their universities.
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)?
There was an unforgettable moment for the team at Arhavi Camp. When we asked participants to evaluate the day, the youngest participant gave a very simple and touchy response: "It was the best day of my life". This was very unexpected. It is very difficult to hear such comments from children in Metropol life; they have lots of things offered and it is very difficult to get their attention and please. We saw that in small towns like Arhavi, the activities we prepared and the knowledge shared might be regarded as very valuable for participants. Having such a comment moved the organization team very much and motivated a lot.
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.
- Guide for creating Museum Articles at TR WP (in Turksh)
Vikipedi 201 Video Series prepared by a member with the participation of many members: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-kmz74nfL20igDNDpzbUdX5cwBolS7cn
Part 3: Metrics
[edit]13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wiki Club | Number of Wiki Club Activities organized with Wikipedia Clubs | 4 | 3 | Joined Bilgi University Wikipedia Club Japan-Türkiye Friendship Edit-a-thon
Presented at Communication Faculy event invited by Medipol University Wikipedia Student Club. Met with representatives from 4 Wikipedia Student Clubs at Arhavi Camo. |
N/A |
| Wiki Assignment types | Number of different types of wiki assignment activiies | 3 | 3 | In two universities, the assignment was developing a social responsibility project using Wikimedia projects.
In the art history and archeology departments of two universities, wiki assignment required contributing Wikipedia articles about the topic of the course At one university the wiki assignment was contributing to wikipedia articles about cinema and bringing the perspective of audience and venue-centered approach. |
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 | Participants who continue to participate in WMTR projects since last year. | 400 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | Organizers of WMTR activities who continue to participate after activities.Partn | 5 | 4 | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | Partners of thematic-edit-a thon + partners of Education activities + GLAM institution partners | 12 | 24 | 6 Thematic edit-a-thon partners + 16 Education activitesi. partner +2 Glam institution patner | 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 | followers at Twitter + followers at instagram | 5000 | 5280 | 3734 Twitter followers
1546 Instagram followers |
N/A |
| Number of activities developed | Biweekly community meetings + Thematic-edit-athons + Wikidata birthday event + writing contests + editing contests + talks at partner organisations + presentations/trainings at educational institutions | 44 | 58 | 21 biweekli meetins + 8 Edit-a-thon + 1 Birthday event + 1 editing contest +7 talks at partner institutions + 20 presentations ant educationai instuitions | 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 | 700 | This is approximate number of participants of those events : edit-a-thons, activities at education institutions and Turkic conference. We don't know exact numbers of the participants at most events but we write an activity report and write down approximate number; and the rest is the sum of those numbers. | |||
| Number of editors | 450 | Approximately 150 editors edited Wikimedia projects during edit-a-thons + education activities; 302 people uploaded photos during WLE | |||
| Number of organizers | 70 | 10 from the community 60 from other organisations. |
| Wikimedia Project | 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 |
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 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 has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| E. Strategic planning | This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| F. Program design, implementation, and management | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| 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 is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| O. Evaluating and learning from our work | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| 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.
Formal training provided by a Wikimedia Movement organizing group (i.e., Affiliates, Grantees, Regional or Thematic Hub, etc.), Peer to peer learning with other community members in conferences/events, Peer to peer learning with other community members (but that is not continuous or structured)
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 knowledge of available capacity building opportunities, Lack of training that fits contextual needs and interests
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 | 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, Board members’ outreach, 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
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
Building partnerships takes time. There are many potential partners that Wikimedians can imagine several areas of cooperation, great activities, and mutual benefits. However, it is not easy to have those potential partners see them as clearly as Wikmedians do since usually the functioning of Wikimedia projects is not understood well by others. Most of the time their perspective about partnership is limited as getting help improving the Wikipedia article about their organization. Just keep calling, visiting, participating in their events, and giving small talks and presentations in those. The initial small projects grow and come to the level Wikimedians can imagine. Such continuous effort might not be provided by volunteers, the efferts of paid staff is essential for building the relations.
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?
Getting our community members informed and seeing them engaged in different types of activities and events in the free knowledge movement in addition to their editing contributions;
Having more community members join discussions about the Wikimedia Movement's strategy and governance;
Having more community members present in regional and global Wikimedia events; building relations with others.
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.
In this period, our organization hosted a regional conference where we hosted wikimedians from 10 countries. This experience increased the organization's sense of belonging to the larger Movement.
24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?
Stayed the same
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?
Yes
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
We share results and learnings at Cee Newletter, Education Newsletter, Diff posts. Our members give presentations/talks at Wikimedia events and conferences.
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?
N/A
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance
[edit]30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
63900
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.
The social security expenses were reduced due to the Early Retirement Law which the paid staff could. There was an additional activity (Arhavi Camp) added to the activities. The participants' travel expenses were added to the travel expenses budget item; therefore, this item has increased.
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.