Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Creating A Unified Editing Community at Montana State University (ID: 22396092)/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
In January 2024, we held the first unified editing event at Montana State University Library. Over the past few years, there has been interest in Wikipedia in several areas on campus, and in the surrounding area. Jamie met Mel Pomeroy, an archivist at MSU Library, through the Tribal College Librarian Institute (TCLI) where they began collaborating to bring the campus editing community together through an all-day training event. At the event, we offered a student panel about health care access and education, a local clinic called Bridger Care volunteered to attend and share about student resources, Jamie's colleagues from NAL joined to speak about nutrition programs and SNAP for college students in need, Jamie offered in-depth Wikipedia editing training, and Jamie and Dominic were able to work one-on-one with attendees throughout the day as they made their first edits, and had discussions with more experienced editors who hadn't been able to interact with experienced editors/trainers before. The Rapid Grant enabled us to travel to MSU to be able to attend the event in-person and do outreach with students the day before. Over 50 people attended the event throughout the day - both in-person and remotely as we prioritized the event being hybrid for maximum impact. We had 15 new editors join in during the day, editing 16 articles, adding 33 references, and creating two new articles. We felt like the format worked well, having an open-door policy that allowed people to come and go as they wished - we had several people who joined us multiple times throughout the day, and the amount of editing completed would not have been possible without trained editors on site, as we were able to work through unique problems, and offer encouragement as new editors worked on their edits. Editing around health information can be particularly prickly on Wikipedia, and having trained editors on site was important to ease anxiety and keep folks on task.
2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
Dashboard link: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Montana_State_University_Library/Health_Equity_Barriers_historically_underserved_communities_face Wikipedia event page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/MSU/Health_Equity Photos: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jamie_%26_Mel_MSU.jpg ; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSU_Wikipedia_Editing_Sign.jpg ; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSU_Health_Equity_Event.jpg
Calendar at MSU (with graphic used): https://www.montana.edu/calendar/events/48691 The event was shared across several platforms by Jamie and MSU. Here is an example:
Edited Content: Article created: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Braveman Additional edits: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Montana_State_University_Library/Health_Equity_Barriers_historically_underserved_communities_face/articles/edited?
Article a student wrote about the event: https://www.msuexponent.com/featured/msu-library-and-disc-advocate-for-health-equity/article_2f8bea12-c119-11ee-8b12-03a028d7fb0b.html
Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
Training Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15cnCIUhUDCFC2JTlu6hlDOz_zfnNiiv7/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103204431945530227106&rtpof=true&sd=true (Please note you will need to download to view)
Writing a new article handout: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:What_the_wiki%3F!_Writing_a_new_article.pdf
Wikipedia Editing Basics handout: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_Editing_Basics.pdf
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| 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 | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Strongly agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Strongly agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Strongly agree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below: I hope to document this process (and it's outcomes) in order to tweak and recreate similar, successful undertakings and for others to use as a guide for similar events/projects. I hope to connect with the target students and build/maintain relationships around editing and content so we can increase coverage on Wikipedia and maintain/encourage active editors from a variety of backgrounds.
Mel and I have created a planning template that we used for this event, and have successfully shared and used during events that have come afterwards. We had another edit-a-thon in 2025 which received financial support from several of the colleges on campus, at least 6 editors that attended in 2024 returned in 2025. Mel has expanded Wikipedia offerings through the library and does monthly Wiki-hours for those interested. Jamie and Mel supported a fisheries class in Fall 2024 building on interest from this initial event. In particular, we have targeted under-represented editors, mainly women, but also people of color and have focused on increasing coverage on Wikipedia of influential women from Montana. All returning editors have been women.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
The political climate in Montana changed rapidly during the planning of this event, and we had to pivot around the language and advertising that we did for the event. Moving forward I think being really thoughtful about the language being used about an event is important - especially taking into consideration any social and political upheaval happening at the state or federal level. The focus should be on knowledge/knowledge acquisition and should avoid inflammatory language. That being said, our intention for this event was to be very inclusive, and create safe space so we verbally reached out to many students and organizations letting them know our intentions, and explaining why we used more-vague terminology than we wanted to. Despite our concerns, everything ran smoothly and we had a variety of students in attendance.
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
Mel and Jamie went on to present about the event at the Tribal College Librarian Institute. In addition to our presentation, we offered a tour of the archives and held a #1lib1ref session with all the librarians in attendance. We proposed a talk for Wikipedia + Libraries but were ultimately not invited to attend/present. Mel and Jamie will be presenting about this event, and the events of 2025 at WCNA 2025 and Jamie will be chatting more about it during GLAM WikiCon 2025.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 50 | 51 | Mel had a manual clicker to track attendees as they came in the room/came online. We did NOT recount folks who left and came back. |
| Number of editors | 60 | 42 | We had 16 new editors, we had fewer experienced editors join than we intended. We had about 26 experienced editors between in-person and virtual (mostly virtual).
New editors were tracked on dashboard: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Montana_State_University_Library/Health_Equity_Barriers_historically_underserved_communities_face Looking back - we should have had everyone sign in so we can better capture outcomes. |
| Number of organizers | 6 | 5 | Emily unfortunately was sick that day and unable to attend. But the other organizers were there the whole time. Emily still contributed to planning. |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 30 | 2 | 48 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 20 | 1 | 0 |
| Wikidata | 20 | ||
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
No
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
1374
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
1374
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Provide the link to the financial report
- please note the financial report shows a total slightly over the grant amount - this was covered personally.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KDYJ7XA5xQI7cdPOa1g60N0BVyoPmhXIdJa2eRQtJQI/edit?usp=sharing
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
We had some additional funds that we contributed to snacks for the event.
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. 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
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)
A note shared from Mel:
To the Wikimedia Foundation
I wanted to express my gratitude for approving the Rapid Fund grant that allowed Jamie Flood and Dominic Byrd-McDevitt to assist us with the recent Montana State University Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. MSU has not hosted an edit-a-thon since about 2019, and since that time, we seem to have lost touch with the local Wikimedian community. Since Montana is a more remote state, it can be more difficult to connect with experienced Wikimedians than in more densely populated areas like the east coast, mid-west, and west coast. While we have a number of faculty, staff, and students doing some editing on Wikipedia, we didn’t have any contacts with experience training large groups, or setting up event pages until we met Jamie. Jamie was instrumental in the planning process, and ensuring we had event pages set up on Wikipedia to track event engagement.
On the day of the event, it was incredibly helpful to have Jamie and Dominic here at MSU. While I know it is possible to lead a remote event, we had much more engagement with the editing process having Jamie and Dominic in the room with us. The event was hybrid, so some participants continued to engage via zoom, but we had many more moments of spontaneous teaching and instruction by having experienced editors in the room with us. Some of the attendees were MSU Library faculty and staff who were very new to editing, and after Jamie’s instruction, and with added support of having both Jamie and Dominic nearby, they were editing confidently and enthusiastically by the end of the event.
We believe this event's success has laid the groundwork for hosting an annual event, and that is largely due to having experienced editors like Jamie and Dominic to lead us.
Mel Pomeroy (she/her)
Curator, Archives and Special Collections
Montana State University Library
melissa.pomeroy@montana.edu
(406) 994-4034
Review notes
[edit]Review notes from Program Officer:
N/A
Applicant's response to the review feedback.
N/A