Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Armenia General Support Fund/2023-2024

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki
statusFunded
Wikimedia Armenia General Support Fund/2023-2024
start date2023-07-012023-07-01T00:00:00Z
end date2024-12-312024-06-30T00:00:00Z
budget (local currency)88429668 AMD
amount requested (USD)229092 USD
amount recommended (USD)146692
grant typeWikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)
funding regionCEECA
decision fiscal year2022-23
funding program roundRound 2
applicant and people related to proposalM.D. Shahinyan Beko
organization (if applicable)Wikimedia Armenia

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Applicant details[edit]

Wikimedia username(s):

M.D. Shahinyan

Beko

Organization:

Wikimedia Armenia

G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?

Applied previously and did receive a grant

H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?

Yes

H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Armenian General Benevolent Union: AGBU Yerevan Municipality Ministry of Education of the RA

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Additional information[edit]

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

Armenia

S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:

Local

S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)

am.wikimedia.org

facebook.com/WikimediaArmenia

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Proposal[edit]

1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?

Wikimedia Armenia has been operating for more than nine years, and its vision is to make free information and knowledge accessible to everyone regardless of age, background, or social status. This is the overall aim and goal that is carried out by putting forward various strategic goals and taking tangible steps toward them, and this proposal is one of them. Considering the fact that Wikimedia Armenia technically did not operate throughout 2022 because of the suspension (even though community members voluntarily implemented various projects), WM AM has a strong work history with very efficient and outstanding programs and projects which became popular in the world and were localized by other wiki communities (Wikiclubs, Wikicamps). The current proposal is basically the continuation of WM AM’s previous work, which turned out to be quite productive. Due to the strategic goals defined in WM AM’s strategies, which will further be discussed in another section, Wikimedia Armenia was able to:

1. integrate teenagers and the youth of rural areas in creating content on Wikipedia and having access to it
2. motivate various specialists to contribute their knowledge to Armenian Wikipedia (e.g. doctors, medical students, economists, historians, academics, librarians, etc.)
3. provide a platform for teachers to self-educate and update their knowledge and improve the content on Wikipedia
4. design a space where teachers and school students can work together by using Wikipedia as a tool for innovative education and as a reflection of the concept of “learning-by-doing”
5. include very precious information and content preserved in GLAM institutions in Wikimedia projects making them available and accessible to everyone
6. create “the coolest projects” of Wikiclubs and Wikicamps which both aim at encouraging the creation of free content and provide a space for teenagers and the youth to express themselves, to self-educate, work collaboratively, and put the grounds of a stronger and sustainable wiki community in Armenia.

The outcomes of WM AM’s previous work are much more than the above-mentioned list: it empowered a lot of people, both teenagers, and adults. Through its quality-centered projects, WM AM was able to create trustworthy, reliable, checked, and proofread content on Armenian Wikipedia; two of these projects are “One Thousand Vital Articles” and “One Thousand Vital Medical Articles.” Considering the above-mentioned, Wikimedia Armenia’s current proposal is based on the strong belief that previous strategies proved quite effective and need to be developed and improved further. This proposal will be a chance for WM AM to correct its previous mistakes and reform its approaches toward the community and its members. In essence, the proposal is the direct continuation of once very productive strategies supplemented with new and innovative practices and lessons learned from the errors and gaps that came up previously; e.g., due to COVID-19, we understood that there is no necessity for some projects to be carried out offline, they are more effective when they are online, or we saw that just creating content is not enough, our community needs to be well-informed and experienced in new and old Wiki tools. Moreover, considering the fact that we have discussed the 2030 Movement Strategy with our community members many times, we see the necessity of incorporating it into our strategy. In short, this proposal will enable us to address those mentioned above and revitalize Wikimedia Armenia’s activity.

2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?

Wikimedia Armenia has gone through a difficult time during the past two years (2021-2022) and it made us contemplate about the challenges that we faced and the need to redress the gaps we had. Here are some of the challenges we are trying to solve through this proposal:

1. Support the continuity of the Wikimedia movement in Armenia:

This is one of the biggest challenges that we have faced during the past two years. Firstly, Wikimedia Armenia’s activities were canceled temporarily and then the overall activity of WM AM was suspended, we had a crisis within the movement. It was quite difficult and challenging to keep the movement as active and functional and the community as engaged as before because of the lack of projects, events, competitions, etc., and overall Wikimedia Armenia’s inability to support the community because of its suspension.

2. Increased community engagement in the creation of open knowledge:

Wikimedia Armenia has always engaged the wiki community in creating free and open knowledge. The challenge we need to solve is to increase community engagement to such a degree that in the case of 2021-2022 circumstances we do not face the community disengagement levels we had. Moreover, we should keep the consistency of the events and projects that contribute to the community engagement process, meaning that the continuity of important projects is vital.

3. Transparency, communication, and improvement of governance practices:

The 2021-2022 situation showed that transparency of activities and transparency in governance and communication is crucial. This is one of the most important changes that Wikimedia Armenia will try to bring about with this proposal - transparency of activities, transparency in governance, and transparency in various internal and external procedures and communication. As a continuation of the previous point, WMAM pays and will continue to pay very close attention to improving governance practices. A new Board was elected and amendments were made to the Charter with close cooperation and communication with AffCom and according to their recommendations other changes were made (details in the link provided in question 3). In order to avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding, the new Board has implemented a new practice of meeting the President and the staff once in two weeks and the members of the organization every month.

4. Awareness raising:

Wikimedia Armenia has been active for more than nine years, however, the information about its activities, its projects, and overall the Wikimedia movement has never been communicated and publicized properly. As a result, a very limited fraction of the population knows about the Wikimedia movement, the open knowledge sources, and the opportunities that they create.

5. Financial sustainability:

Wikimedia Armenia has some donors and partners, however, for large and far-reaching projects, it mainly depends on the Wikimedia Foundation. In order to reach financial sustainability, WMAM will concentrate on diversifying its financial resources.

6. Alignment with Wikimedia 2030 strategy:

Wikimedia Armenia has its long-term strategic goals, however, Wikimedia 2030 strategic recommendations should also be incorporated into these strategies firstly to make Wikimedia Armenia a part of the global Wikimedia movement and secondly to contribute to the implementation of the 2030 strategy through address some of the challenges.

7. Revitalization of Wikimedia projects:

There is a huge knowledge gap that needs to be addressed properly by engaging a network of specialists and committed editors. Furthermore, in some cases, Wikimedia projects are not the primary source of receiving trustworthy and up-to-date information. This proposal is aimed at solving this challenge.

3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

Wikimedia Armenia has a long history of developing strategies for identifying the direction of work it visualizes for the expansion of the wiki movement in Armenia. The current proposal is aimed at continuing the successful strategy that Wikimedia Armenia has defined previously with more innovative activities. The non-exhaustive results and lessons learned from this past strategy are discussed in the answer to the first question. Not to be repetitive, please refer to the first question. Coming to the strategies, we have defined five strategic goals which are discussed in detail in our 2023-2026 Strategy (am.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ռազմավարություն). In order to make changes in “Transparency, communication, and improvement of governance practices” discussed in question 2 WMAM decided to adopt the following approaches: 1․ Every month, the Board organizes a meeting with the members of WMAM by sending an invitation form which the members can fill out by mentioning whether they will participate online or offline, what questions they would like to discuss, what problems they see that need to be solved, etc. The purpose of these meetings is to provide a safe space for members to express their ideas and concerns and receive answers to their questions, thus, making them more informed and more engaged in WMAM activities and making everything more transparent and explicit for everyone. 2․ In order to avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding, the new Board has implemented a new practice of meeting the staff once every two weeks. Due to these meetings, the Board gets to know the problems the President and the staff have, the direction they are going towards, and the progress of the projects. On the other hand, the President understands what the members and the Board’s expectations are, how they picture the wiki movement, and what concerns the members have overall. This means that the Board serves as a communication channel between the members and the President and always keeps everyone informed about everything concerning the organization. This also creates a trustful environment within the organization. For reaching financial sustainability, Wikimedia Armenia is planning to contact organizations, funds, institutions, etc. which share similar ideas on free knowledge, have close objectives and goals and cooperate with them. In order to diversify its financial resources, WMAM is also planning to find other grants which can reduce the financial burden. Finally and most importantly, it should be mentioned that Wikimedia Armenia with tight cooperation and guidance of AffCom went through a process of changes striving for solving the governance issues the organization had. The information on these changes and the approaches taken to make these changes are available here (meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Notice_on_the_status_of_Wikimedia_Armenia/en).

4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

Here are some of the core activities of each strategic goal defined in Wikimedia Armenia’s strategy:

1. To bring wiki-projects and tools used for education, teaching, and learning to all regions of Armenia: to schools, organizations, and every individual.

a) Teachers’ Wikipedia training - teachers have become an integral part of the Armenian wiki community as they stand very close to educational institutions by becoming an important target group for introducing wiki projects and tools to these institutions. b) Training of Coaches - in order to expand the Wikimedia movement to all regions and make it accessible for everyone, experts on Wikimedia projects and tools are necessary. This activity is aimed at preparing people with deep knowledge of Wikimedia projects and all important tools and who can teach others more than just editing Wikipedia. c) Collaborations with different universities - universities are an important target for the implementation of this strategic goal as they represent a group that can improve Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects based on their area of expertise. Being close to this or that discipline, they have knowledge that they can share with others by creating articles.

2. Increase the number of actively involved and contributing members and volunteers of Wikimedia Armenia.

a) Community meetup-discussions - the purpose of these meetup-discussions is to provide a space for community members, volunteers and members of organizations to discuss issues concerning Wikipedia and the development of other Wikimedia projects, to contemplate on possible ways of expanding and revitalizing the wiki movement in Armenia. These meetups also aim at giving a chance to the community to raise questions and receive answers providing more transparency within the community.

3. Develop new ideas and projects to sustain and expand wiki movement in Armenia,

a) Wikicamps - these are one of the most important activities organized by Wikimedia Armenia because they bring together the best and most dedicated editors/contributors together in one place for a week providing them an opportunity to get to know each other, to be in a space where everyone’s goal is to improve Wikimedia projects and create free knowledge. Considering the age groups and backgrounds of Wikicamp participants, camps gather school and university students and people up to 35 years of age together who represent various regions - urban and rural settlements - of Armenia. b) Wikiclubs - this is one of the most important initiatives which creates a network of volunteers all around Armenia ensuring the expansion of the wiki movement from one side and empowering the youth and teens living in rural areas and regions from the other side.

4. Promote knowledge and innovation exchange through collaboration, joint projects and representation.

a) Collaborations with GLAM institutions, various professional groups, and environmental organizations with the goal of creating free knowledge by using their valuable and trustworthy sources.

5. Risk assessment and overcoming.

a) Fundraising/financial sustainability - this proposal greatly concentrates on financial sustainability considering this a crucial issue that should be addressed in order to expand and sustain the wiki movement in Armenia. b) Increase transparency and exclude governance issues - develop communication practices (some are already being used) that will ensure transparency within the organization. In order to exclude any governance issues constant communication between the President of the organization and the Board from one side and the Board and the members and community from the other side (for more information refer to questions 2 & 3) is introduced and this practice will continue and will be developed further during this proposal.

5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?      

No

5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?

N/A

6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.

7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

Key Staff

1. President (full-time) - Arshak Shahenyan
2. Quality Program Coordinator (full time) - Mher Bekaryan
3. Event manager (full-time) - Davit Sargsyan
4. Education and Community Program Coordinator (full-time) - Artashes Tadevosyan
5. Communication and Social Media Coordinator (vacant) - Job Description (Develop social media strategy, develop engaging content on WMAM’s social media pages, assist in the creation and editing of written, video, and photo content, support the expansion of the wiki community through social media tools)

Other

1. Accounting (outsource) - “T ACCOUNT” LLC
2. Consultant (contract) - Mari Avetisyan
3. Cleaner - Luiza Podosyan
4. Contractor for Wikicamps (contract) - 4 contractors for each Wikicamp
5. Contractor for teachers’ training (contract) - 1 per training
6. Volunteers for Wikicamps (volunteer) - On average 15 per camp
7. Volunteers for teachers’ training (volunteer) - 6 per training

8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Age (regency) , Geography, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context)

8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.


9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.

Education, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Climate Change and sustainability

10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Geographic , Socioeconomic status, Age

11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?

Wikimedia Armenia has several strategies for engaging particularly, but not exclusively, non-Wikimedian participants. Some of the main strategies are:

1. Events and projects that are specifically designed for non-Wikimedians - WM AM organized and will continue to organize specific events and projects for those who are interested in becoming a part of the wiki community. This has been one of the most important strategies for engaging newcomers. For example, the recent 2023 Winter Youth Wiki Gathering was based on this strategy which resulted in 99 registered participants out of which 75 were newcomers. This shows how wiki events and activities are widely popular and desired in Armenia. Unfortunately, because of a lack of financial means, 23 out of 75 newcomers were given the chance to participate in the gathering. Hopefully, due to this proposal, we will be able to create more opportunities for people who are interested in the wiki movement.
2. Awareness-raising campaigns in schools, universities, etc. - WM AM pays special attention to awareness raising which is one of the ways of informing the people about the importance and opportunity of contributing to Wikimedia projects.
3. Workshops/training - Along with the awareness raising, there are workshops that aim at providing a space for newcomers who would like to know more about Wikimedia projects and the movement as a whole. Many non-Wikimedian groups requested us to organize special workshops for them and introduce them to Wikimedia projects and Wikipedia tools. Currently, we have adopted the “first learning, then contributing” approach, according to which before large projects, newcomers pass a special training and then start contributing during the project. This ensures high quality, saves time, and is proven to be effective.

Almost ten years of experience indicates that in order to retain participants it is necessary to organize meetups, events, edit-a-thons, discussions, etc. so that participants will continue to be engaged and not feel left out. Moreover, besides the above-mentioned, our strategy of creating a platform for our contributors and providing them with an opportunity to become more than just an editor, e.g. mentor or trainer, proved to be highly effective even after specific projects ended. As a result, for example, some of our teacher contributors were suggested to become trainers after the “Wikipedia training for teachers” program for our future projects.

12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?

In 2021, two employees of WMAM began translating the Universal Code of Conduct; however, the latest changes were not translated and are not available to the majority of the community because of the language. So, one of the first steps will be translating the changes and sharing and informing the Armenian wiki community about it. Especially before and during events intended for a large number of participants, the UCOC should be introduced and strictly followed in order to create a safer and more inclusive space for everyone. Regarding the Friendly Space Policy, it was not translated, so this should also be an important part of this proposal. Thus, for WMAM’s future activities, the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy should be promoted so that everyone could be informed that in case of any kind of abuse or harassment, they can contact the staff or organizers of the activities. More attention should be paid to virtual/online harassment, abuse, and hounding on Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. Especially newcomers may face certain unfriendly attitudes from experienced editors who may delete their articles or write rude things on contributor’s pages instead of helping and guiding them politely. Also, there may be cases when some editors may harass others across projects. To avoid such things and to provide a safe and friendly space for everyone, the role of administrators and active contributors is vital who can uncover such issues and address them. WMAM has introduced a new practice in order to avoid possible hounding and harassment of newcomers by suggesting special training to newcomers.

13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?

Yes

13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.

One of the ways of informing the community about this proposal is by talking about it during various events. For instance, during the 2023 Winter Youth Wiki Gathering we organized a community discussion during which the participants expressed their ideas around the proposal, what events and activities they would like to see in this proposal, what is their vision for the development and further expansion of the Wikimedia movement in Armenia. Their suggestions and ideas also had an influence on this proposal. As it was an offline discussion, here is the link to the pictures.(drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MpyFIlNnUERxvR6YVT_giTnAvQbpqhcQ?usp=share_link)

14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?

Yes

14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

Wikimedia Armenia has always put emphasis on finding partners for different projects. These partnerships are important because, from one side, they enable Wikimedia Armenia to expand the network of connections and involve more stakeholders which sometimes introduces new target groups. On the other hand, WMAM has partner organizations that contribute in different ways to smooth the organization and implementation of various projects and events. Some of the partners provide informational resources, and important content materials, others provide in-kind support or small payments. In 2023-2024, WMAM is planning to pay much more attention to creating a bigger network of partners and donors through various methods and approaches. Currently, some of Wikimedia Armenia’s partner organizations are the following:

1. Central Bank of the RA - Monetary gifts + other gifts
2. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Armenia, Caucasus Nature Fund, Yerevan Botanical Garden, GIZ - Gifts + tours
3. “Internet Society” NGO - Monetary gifts + other gifts
4. “Office of Financial System Mediator” Foundation - Financial literacy and awareness-raising training (during wiki camps)
5. Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia - Awareness-raising training (during wiki camps)
6. Museums - Content, information materials, sources, in some cases small gifts
7. National Library of Armenia - Content, information materials, sources
8. “VEGA” Company, "VAGA PHARM" Co.Ltd, "ARNDANE" LLC - Donations to Wikiclubs

15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?

The most important way of sustaining the work carried out in this proposal is developing a plan for financial sustainability through finding donor organizations, initiating fundraising campaigns, and applying for different grants. Even during the 2021-2022 period when Wikimedia Armenia had no financial support for project implementation, various projects, edit-a-thons, and workshops which were organized with the help of some volunteers and partner organizations, enabled Wikimedia Armenia to sustain its work. Meanwhile, in order to expand the work that we are planning to carry out with this proposal, just the help of volunteers and partners will not be enough, so we are going to pay special attention to diversifying our financial resources. At the same time, our work can always be expanded and sustained through collaborations: various institutions, universities, and organizations contact us in order to start collaborations. For the sake of justice, it should also be mentioned that the activities and events organized by WMAM has always been of great interest to a lot of people. Just a single example of this year’s Winter Youth Wiki Gathering is enough - after a long break, 99 people were interested in this activity and registered (the result exceeded our previous outcomes 1.4 times - 35 participants created 170 articles, in a total of 5,463,166 bytes). Considering this, we are sure that even after the proposal, WMAM’s work will progress steadily.

16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.

1. Political instability (external)

As this is an external risk, WMAM can only remain neutral and try to keep Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects out of becoming a platform for political fights or a tool in anyone’s hands.

2. Pandemics (external)

As the 2020-2021 experience showed, pandemics and similar risks also need to be considered. In this case, WMAM will very swiftly adapt to the situation, change its work mode accordingly, and put everyone’s safety and security first by adopting certain rules and regulations.

3. Little community engagement (internal)

Awareness raising, community meet-ups, and events will ensure community engagement.

4. Many newcomers (internal)

To address this risk, WMAM is working on creating a network of coaches and trainers who will be contacted immediately in order to train and teach newcomers.

5. Many activities and not enough staff (internal)

There may be times when the staff will not be enough to organize and implement many activities. The risk can be addressed by engaging more volunteers, community, and organization members in assisting and supporting the staff.

6. Financial instability (internal)

Financial instability can be addressed by fundraising campaigns, applying for different grants, collaborating with various organizations, and revitalizing our donations page (which was inactive in 2020-2022).

7. Governance issues (internal)

To mitigate this problem, Wikimedia Armenia has already implemented a lot of steps discussed in this proposal, however, in order to avoid such issues in the future, transparency and constant communication with all stakeholders should be at the center of attention. Moreover, regulations and procedures should be developed (which are also included in this proposal), which will prevent any body/unit of the organization from unilaterally making decisions.

17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.  

Yes
https://am.wikimedia.org/wiki/%D5%8C%D5%A1%D5%A6%D5%B4%D5%A1%D5%BE%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%A9%D5%B5%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%B6

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]

19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

Here are some learning questions which we would like to have answered during this proposal. The questions are divided into two parts - questions regarding the events and projects of Wikimedia Armenia and questions about internal organizational issues:

1. Do more offline events support the continuity of the Wikimedia movement in Armenia?

a) Which part of the community is engaged through offline events?

2. Do training for newcomers before large projects ensure the necessary quality of created/improved articles?

a) What do the newcomers think about this practice?

3. Do teachers continue contributing after their training?
4. Do teachers incorporate Wikipedia into their lessons after the training?
5. Do the Coaches training overall provide the necessary number of qualified coaches for training newcomers?
6. Are GLAM institutions open to collaborations or they are wary of sharing their sources with us? Is there any other approach that can make them more confident in cooperating with Wikimedia Armenia?
7. Do our partnerships with universities and specialists positively impact the content quality of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects? Are universities more open to further engagement (making Wikipedia a part of the university curriculum) with Wikimedia Armenia after our collaborations?
8. Do our awareness-raising campaigns target the right groups and engage more diverse audiences in the wiki movement?


Internal organizational learning questions:

1. Were we able to provide transparency and open communication with our community members through discussions and meet-ups?
2. Do our newly introduced remedial practices help to solve governance issues and misunderstandings within the community?
3. Do the regular meetings between the Board and members of WMAM and meetings between the Board and the staff ensure the uninterrupted flow of information among the organization units?
4. Does our community feel engaged and involved in the decision-making process concerning the development of the Wikimedia movement in Armenia?
5. Were we able to reach some level of financial sustainability?

20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.

Main Metrics Description Target
Wikicamps We want to organize more Wikicamps as they prove to be very efficient in engaging more people and keeping them interested in continuing their contributions (the most active and qualified editors are chosen to participate in Wikicamps).

We are planning to receive feedback from participants through surveys to understand what is the actual impact of the camps on the participants and what can be done better.

6
Newcomers’, Teachers’ and Coaches’ training 1. Before the start of each project, newcomers will pass special training to be ready to efficiently contribute to projects. In this case, we also plan to have a survey questionnaire.

We want to prepare coaches that will be qualified to train the newcomers.

2. In the case of Coaches' training, a focus group discussion may be carried out to measure the effectiveness of this training.
3. Teachers, being an important target group in the Armenian wiki movement, will continue to be introduced to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects through special training.

In the case of teachers’ training, a survey and in-depth interview may be carried out to find out the needs of teachers, the impact of the training, and their approach to integrating Wiki projects into their daily classes.

19
Community engagement We hope to increase transparency and improve communication and trust within the community and organization through more community meet-ups, discussions, and organization members’ monthly meetings. 16
GLAM collaborations We want to start collaborations with more diverse GLAM institutions and increase the number of such collaborations. 3
Partnerships with universities/educational organizations We envisage increasing the number of partnerships with different universities and specialists in different fields.

Surveys, and newsletter articles written by the participants about the impact of the partnership on their professional skills (previously we had such experience with the students of Brusov State University).

4

Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.

Additional Metrics Description Target
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A N/A
Number of activities developed N/A N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A

21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target
Number of participants The cumulative number of participants in different projects/events - 2400

Number of newly registered participants per project/event - 520

2920
Number of editors This is the number of editors excluded the staff, organizers, or volunteers. 2000
Number of organizers This is the number of people people who actually organize the events/projects/edit-a-thons, etc. and those who assist in organizing. 50
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target
Wikipedia This number includes the number of created and improved articles. 10000
Wikimedia Commons This number includes the number of uploaded media files. 45000
Wikidata This number includes created items on Wikidata. 10000
N/A Other Wiki Projects 6000
N/A N/A N/A

21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.


22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?

Core metrics

1. Number of participants per project/event
2. Number of editors
3. Number of newly registered participants per project/event

Evaluation tools for 1,2,3 mainly depend on the project or event, we use different tools: a) Program and Events Dashboard, b) Wiki Loves Competitions Tools c) Event Metrics d) In some cases, we count manually by using the event/project registration excel tables, or event/project wiki page registration.

e.g, in the case of Wikiclubs, for instance, each Wikiclub coordinator keeps track of their newly joined participants and active ones for each month. They provide this number to Wikimedia Armenia and WM AM counts the total for progress reports or the impact report.

Core Metric Number of content pages (Wikipedia) per project/event Evaluation tools: a) Program and Events Dashboard b) Event Metrics c) In some cases, we count manually by using a list of articles, and content pages added by the editors on corresponding event/project wiki pages

Core Metric Number of organizers - manual evaluation

Core Metric Number of content pages (other Wikimedia projects) per project/event Evaluation tools: a) Program and Events Dashboard b) Wiki Loves Competitions Tools c) Event Metrics d) In some cases we count manually by using categories, etc

Grantee-defined metrics - In the proposal we define how many of each project, event, edit-a-thon will be organized and carried out. In the progress or impact report, we manually count how many of each were actually carried out during the corresponding period.

Other We use the Montage photo evaluation tool for Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Earth photo contests.

Financial Proposal[edit]

23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.

88429668 AMD

23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

229092 USD

23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.

The original budget provides opportunities for normal development and sustainability of the Wiki movement in Armenia. All activities and projects are thoroughly designed and planned in a way to cover all ages and groups who are interested in and are eager to join our movement. The significantly reduced budget will basically keep the movement viable in its current state, and carries an intrinsic risk to lose hundreds of interested individuals in the community.

Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.

Other public document(s):

Final Message[edit]

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes


Feedback[edit]