Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wikipedia Gender Gap Engagement SXSW Conference 2025 (ID: 22762790)
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 application. 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.
Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
KellyDoyle
- Organization
N/A
- 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.
Wikipedia Gender Gap Engagement SXSW Conference 2025
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2025-01-01 - 2025-03-21
- 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 five 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 19% of biographies represent women on the site, and only 16% of all editors are women.
Through our outreach at the upcoming SXSW Conference in March 2025, we aim to bring awareness to Wikipedia, its community and processes generally, but the gender gaps on Wikipedia more specifically are the area of focus for this engagement. The convergence of the film, music, and technology industries that occur at this conference can help us not only to raise awareness, but mobilize new advocates and editors around the gender gaps on Wikipedia. We will also simultaneously be building on the Wikimedia outreach at previous SXSW Conferences in 2023 and 2024.
Two Wikipedians with extensive gender gap experience will host a number of sessions at our event space throughout the duration of the Conference, Kelly Doyle Kim and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight. Building upon activities in a space adjacent to the SXSW Wikiportraits Studio held in Austin, Texas last year, we would like to develop a series of gender gap specific public engagements for Wikipedia around SXSW. This would include a public space where attendees can come in for one on one or small group explanations about Wikipedia and its gender gaps; large format Wikipedia gender gap presentations or sessions, a Wikipedia primer specific to the gender gap in film, music, and technology topics as well as biographies (for speakers); in a space adjacent to WikiPortraits perhaps during a party where we can take headshots so people understand the concept of Wikipedia Commons.
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 while building on the shared concerns within the film, music, and tech communities 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.
These would include:
- Organizing a variety of sessions and trainings related to the gender gap on Wikipedia during SXSW
- Session include introduction to the concepts of Wikipedia and the gender gap in a public space during most days of SXSW, where people are always free to wander in between set hours (ex, 10am to 6pm) to learn about Wikipedia. Introduction to the gender gap community of Wikipedia in addition (ex, WikiProject Women in Red)
- Our goal is one-on-one or one-on-small group teaching as well as larger 101 type sessions/presentations that center on the gender gap
- Focus on encouraging and assisting new users to create accounts on Wikipedia and walking participants through making minor edits on SXSW topics such as film, music, and speakers
- Promoting sessions in relevant channels, chats, social media, and targeted outreach
- 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.
- Kelly Doyle Kim ([[user:Kelly Doyle)): will be organizing and facilitating the sessions at SXSW pertaining to the gender gap on Wikipedia. Most recently, she was the Open Knowledge Coordinator for the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, where she stewarded the addition of over 1.2 million new words about American women to Wikipedia through her public programs and training sessions. Kelly has worked in the open access and cultural heritage space for over a decade, exclusively focusing on the gender gap on open sites like Wikipedia.
- Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (User:rosiestep): will be assisting Kelly with leading gender gap sessions. She is a Visiting Scholar at Northeastern University (Boston), where her work focuses on pre-20th-century English language women writers and their works. She has created more than 5,000 new Wikipedia articles, including more than 2,200 women’s biographies. Rosie is the co-founder of an international Wikipedia community, Women in Red, that focuses on improving the representation gender gap across 33 language Wikipedias. In 2016, she was honored as Wikipedian of the Year, and Women in Red was shortlisted for the ITU/UN Women GEMTECH award. In 2018, Rosie was knighted in part because of her Wikipedia achievements and activism. She is a member of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Board of Trustees
- Kevin Payravi (User:SuperHamster): will assist with logistics, organizing, promotion, photography, and helping to document the events. 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): will assist with logistics, organizing, and promotion. She is a co-founder of WikiPortraits, an adviser to the Wikimedia NYC, a founder of WikiCred project, film producer, and an adviser to SXSW Interactive. She has been to the SXSW 13 times. She is a volunteer for this project, but will help coordinate the logistics of the space and marketing.
- 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.
The main target populations for this project:
- SXSW attendees, which number 50,000 over the span of 10 days.
- SXSW speakers who might be notable enough to have bios.
- Women and women identifying attendees of SXSW and local Austin people.
- 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.
Will be sharing the proposal with WikiProject Women in Red, the Wikipedian in Residence Exchange Network (WREN), and the Wikimedia GLAM community.
We did a Wikiportraits studio in 2024 at SXSW which drew in over 200 people in person and had over 1000 people who RSVPed. While they were waiting, we were able to expose them to concepts of Wikipedia, including Wikipedia Commons. Kelly participated in a panel at SXSW 2023 about Wikipedia and the gender gap, and we would be building on that engagement, outreach, and audience as well.
- 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)
Content Gender gap
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Gender and diversity
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Gender Identity
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Innovate in Free Knowledge
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. We would like to see if these gender specific sessions allow us to have higher attendance by women and women identifying individuals at our events and what communication strategy works best to achieve that. Additionally, we will be encouraging and helping attendees to create new Wikipedia accounts and making small contributions, we’ll be eager to hear feedback about the process of creating accounts in this type of setting where mobile editing may be the primary option and incorporating that into future sessions and training guidelines.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 200 | |
| Number of editors | 100 | |
| Number of organizers | 4 |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 100 |
| Wikimedia Commons | |
| Wikidata | |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Articles edited | 100 articles that have been lightly updated by new editors in guidance. | 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)
Program and Events Dashboard, Eventbrite or Lu.ma for registration
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).