Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/WikiWelcome in Tulsa (ID: 23480513)
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Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
AirEdits
- Organization
Dreamland
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
N/A
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
WikiWelcome in Tulsa
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2026-05-01 - 2026-06-01
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
United States of America
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Not applicable
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
Despite its immense popularity as a global top seven website, the inner workings of Wikipedia still remain opaque and mysterious to the public. They are unaware that Wikipedia is editable by anyone, and that the editorial work is driven by a worldwide volunteer community (versus paid individuals). Additionally, the gender gap on Wikipedia is vast: only 20% of biographies represent women on the site, and only 16% of all editors are women.
Secondarily, Wikimedia affiliates and user groups in the United States have been most robust on the coasts, with strong presence in Indianapolis and a new user group in Chicago in the midwest. With this, we would like to deepen the presence of Wikipedia in the Plains states, starting with Tulsa in Oklahoma.
Why Tulsa? Tulsa has a rich diverse history and is home of two relatively new and enthusiastic Wikimedians, who have good network into the local GLAM community. Organizations like the Center for Public Secrets are bringing journalists, researchers, and historians together for inventive programming and insights into the unique and diverse makings of Oklahoma, Indian Territory, and efforts to create an all Black state. We'd love to work with this community and ride the momentum of the nationally broadcasted show "The Lowdown" which is a spirited take on the Center for Public Secrets' late founder Lee Roy Chapman. The Oklahoma Pop Culture Museum is similarly focused on Oklahoma history through the lens of the creative contributions to pop culture by Oklahomans and would be another great partner as the museum begins public programming before its grand opening. Also included would be the Gilcrease Museum which has a focus on it's Indigenous collections and is located in the historic Black community of Tulsa while also being located within the boundaries of Cherokee and Osage lands. All the above would be great partners in facilitating an enthusiastic and inspired group of Tulsans that could help build our collective understanding of our unique history while becoming equally motivated Wiki contributors.
Tulsa is the home of the Greenwood District, “Black Wall Street,” one of the most prosperous African American communities in the early 20th century, before it was destroyed by the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. While awareness has grown (in part because of popular culture and Wikipedia), Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons still lack depth on many individuals, businesses, and cultural life from this era.
In terms of Native American history and culture, Tulsa lies within the jurisdiction of several tribal nations, including Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, Osage, making it a natural focal point to grow out WikiIndigenous efforts. It has historically been a struggle to get some of indigenous material and culture onto Wikipedia, given the emphasis on multiple reliable sources, a tension that was brought up during spirited discussions during WikiConference North America 2025. This could be an effort to see if we can make inroads.
After the experience of a WikiCurious event and being involved with the Wikihaus WikiPortraits studio at SXSW Austin in March 2025, Kolby Webster and Kirby Taylor of Tulsa went back to lay the groundwork for a wiki event in Tulsa. While Wikimedia NYC’s schedule is full for the remainder of the year, they gave their blessing for a WikiCurious-type (which we will brand WikiWelcome) in Tulsa. They have also offered to supplement the budget if we find our event grows beyond the scale of a Rapid Grant.
Through our outreach in Tulsa in partnership with [Dreamland?], we aim to bring awareness to Wikipedia, its community and processes generally, as well as highlighting gender gaps and lack of indigenous material
While we think that this is a great way to do “top of funnel” recruiting for the Wikicurious and to demystify Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. In the long term, we don’t emphasize it as a huge engagement editor recruitment pipeline. However we do see it as a way to generate inquiries for more Wikimedia trainings in the film community around the United States while building on the shared concerns within the film community and the Wikipedia community regarding equitable gender representation.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
We would want to do a large introduction session to Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and maybe Wikidata, with food. Then a few weeks after, we would want to do a smaller session of hard-core folks who have follow questions.
The introduction is
- Introduction to the concepts of Wikipedia in a large lecture format, with some introduction to Wikimedia Commons and a small mention of Wikidata
- We also want to get one-on-one or one-on-small group teaching to focus on encouraging and assisting new users to create accounts on Wikipedia and walking participants through making minor edits on Tulsa-related topics.
- Introduction of idea ongoing Wikipedia Intensive Training with Jamie Flood.
- Connecting the mission of Wikipedia to the lack of documentation of Oklahoma history and contemporaries with a focus on Black and Indigenous contributions to Wikipedia as well as more broadly incorporatiing more creatives in the state to Wikipedia.
- We will use connections to the organizations we will be using as venues to begin a dialogue about bringing the collections of these museums to the public through Wikipedia as well. These span Oklahoma creatives of all backgrounds, Black and Indigenous historical places and figures, and notable histories that have mostly been forgotten to time and due to our state's reputation as a 'flyover' state.
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
- Kolby Webster (User:AirEdits)
ORGANIZER Kolby Webster is a Tulsa native that connects and creates through art, community, and policy to demystify transforming our built environment and social fabric. He works across journalism, film, facilitation, and urban design to help organize community members around the transformation of their environment towards a more human scale, sustainable, equitable, and accessible standard. He is the co-founder of Dreamland Tulsa, an initiative to rebuild the historic Black owned theater in the historic community of Black Wall Street in Greenwood, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- Kirby Taylor (User:Zhrimp)
ORGANIZER Kirby Taylor is Tulsa based marketing and design professional building brands across industries. Her expertise has built brands for multiple restaurant concepts, chefs, and burgeoning home chefs, retail fronts, and numerous personal brands. She designs menus, social media strategies, brand guidelines, and creative directs photoshoots and a number of her own brands. She is also a Muscogee Nation tribal citizen documenting and platforming Indigenous creatives and industry leaders across the state.
- Jamie Flood (JamieF). In her professional role, Jamie has served as a Wikipedian-in-Residence at the U.S. National Agricultural Library and as an assistant professor and scholarly communications librarian at Butler University. She has trained and facilitated events at Universities across the United States, and has experience working with historically marginalized communities. She has worked with Montana Stars University Library, University of Illinois Libraries, and currently consults at Indiana University Indianapolis. Her work focuses on enhancing Wikipedia’s coverage of topics related to agriculture, rural sociology, and underrepresented groups in science and history . Beyond her editing contributions, Jamie is actively involved in organizing and leading Wikipedia editing events and workshops, including the WikiConference North American 2024 and 2025, aiming to bridge content gaps , promote knowledge equity within the Wikimedia community, and encouraging more women to edit.
- Kevin Payravi (User:SuperHamster): Kevin is a cofounder of WikiPortraits, which has onboarded more than 100 active new contributors to Wikimedia Commons. He has contributed to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites since 2007, and is currently a co-organizer of WikiConference North America and Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States. He also serves on the Board of Wikimedia DC.
- Jennifer 8. Lee (en:User:Jenny8lee): Jenny is a co-founder of WikiPortraits, an adviser to the Wikimedia NYC, a founder of WikiCred project, film producer. She knows all the people involved and think Tulsa is a great place to have an event.
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
We will have an Eventbrite or Lu.ma that has people who RSVP and we will use those emails to follow up with people afterwards to help build a community.
The main target populations for this project:
- Journalists
- Historians
- Artists
We will be working with local journalists, historians, and artists who are already working across these disciplines to more deeply understand and contribute to Tulsa’s history and future. As Tulsa’s history is rich with exceptional achievements and dire traumatic events in the Black, Indigenous, Vietnamese, and Hmoung communities we expect to work with a diverse group of people who are already committed to good research practices who could use a nexus for building community around journalism, history, and art.
Our hosting organization, Dreamland, is a primarily Black and Indigenous led arts organization dedicated to sparking community imagination through art and centering diverse perspectives to develop a deeper sense of place in our community and the future and lands we share. In looking forward to facilitating a Wiki welcome event we have been having informal one on ones or house meetings with likely participants which includes members of the above communities as well as students from local universities. To follow up the event we will incorporate informal editathons as post screening events which will follow our usual programming or attend others’ events to be a wiki presence for their work too- maintaining a working relationship around the process and our goals in the above subjects. Ultimately we hope to create a formal group of Wikipedians that continue this work and can be present across mediums, subjects, and identities that could benefit from making a deeper understanding of their work an active and visible presence alongside it.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
Our organizers are active GLAM community members in the Tulsa community. Kolby is a working journalist that often works with historians and covers the arts or is working in museums. Many relationships have been built across this work and between the both of our organizers we have been having one on one conversations with many community members and collaborators about the possibilities of wiki related infrastructure and connections in our community.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Culture, heritage or GLAM
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
We hope to see if these Wikipedia trainings can at least bring more people to the top of the funnel to learn about Wikipedia in the Tulsa area. We would like there to be a critical mass of Wikipedians in Tulsa, enough so that they create a local users group in the next 18 months.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 40 | 35-50 new Wikipedia accounts created with their first edits.
4-5 people who go through the Wikimedia Intensive Training |
| Number of editors | 4 | 4 Senior Editors |
| Number of organizers | 2 | Kolby Ari
Kirby Tayor |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 100 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 20 |
| Wikidata | 10 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | 10 |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
N/A
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
Relying on our senior editors to facilitate on wiki tracking of metrics and goals.
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
5000 USD
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
5000 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).