Grants:Project/Rapid/WLX and education projects in Thailand 2018/Report

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Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2017-18 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Summary[edit]

Wikimedia Thailand
Presentation by Athikhun Suwannakhan at Wikimedia Education Con, Basque Country

Over the course of one year, Wikimedians in Thailand User Group conducted many activities and reach a number of milestones. We participated photo and article contests including Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Monuments and Wikipedia Asian Month. We also introduced the Mentor Project and One article, one or more images project. Three sessions of education program were implemented at Mahidol University International College. The results and outcome of our education program were presented at the ESEAP Conference in Bali and Wikimedia Education Conference in Basque Country. Two members of our user group received full scholarship to attend Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town. We hosted a Wikipedia workshop and an edit-a-thon in collaboration with UNESCO As part of the international women's day. We also began working on the evaluation of medical content on the English Wikipedia. Our pilot study is being considered for publication in an academic journal. We have also applied for recognition as Wikimedia Chapter in January.

Wikimedia Thailand chapter application

After five years of actively engaging in the global Wikimedia movement, our user group finally applied for recognition as Wikimedia Chapter. We are waiting for formal approval which will likely take place in mid 2019. After the official approval is granted, we will proceed to incorporation as as association according to Thai law.

Education program

Forty one students have participated in the education program since April 2019. All students were new users. Education program statistics will be added later due to technical issue with the tool.

Participation in Wikimedia Education Conference

User:Athikhun.suw received full scholarship to attend the Wikimedia Education Conference, Basque Country, between 5-7 April 2019. It was an opportunity for our user group to present our work on the evaluation of medical content on Wikipedia. Wikipedia has gained so much popularity in the medical community such that more than 90% of medical students used it as learning resource. Despite its popularity, the quality and accuracy of the content has remained debatable. In our work, we constructed a questionnaire which can be used to evaluate medical content. The questionnaire was piloted by user group to evaluate the quality of anatomy articles on the English Wikipedia. This questionnaire is reproducible and can be used by other researchers to evaluate Wikipedia content in other fields of study.

Wikipedia Workshop and edit-a-thon at UNESCO Asia-Pacific Office

On 8 March 2019 Wikimedians in Thailand User Group conducted a Wikipedia workshop and edit-a-thon at the UNESCO Asia-Pacific in Bangkok as part of the International Women's Day. Thirty people participants in the event resulting 20 articles being created. More than 80% of the participants were female. The objective of this event is to raise the awareness of gender inequality, and engage more Thai editors into our movement. Almost all participants were new to Wikipedia and Wikipedia project. Among the participants, one was a university lecturer who later developed an interest in implementing a Wikipedia education program at her institution. Having said that, this project not only brought new faces into the movement but was also a door for future collaboration and expansion of our long established education program. The workshop was featured on the Bangkok Post and was also published on UNESCO website.

Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki Loves Monuments

It was our 4th Wiki Loves Earth and 6th Wiki Loves Monuments. For WLE, number of submissions were 658. Number of photographs submitted for WLM were 2,487. The amount of photographs submitted for both events were somewhat equal to 2017. Number of people involved were also similar to the previous years. In terms of quality, we noticed there was a slight increase for quality. This year however our photographs did not win any international award. We gained one more local partner, Seub Foundation, as a result of these photo contests.

Wikipedia Asian Month

Last year was our 4th participation in the Wikipedia Asian Month. One-hundred and seven new articles were created as a result of this event.

Goals[edit]

Wiki Loves Earth and Wiki Loves Monuments[edit]

  • We expected to receive at least 3,000 files uploads for both the WLE and WLM.
  • We expected at least 10% of the uploads are quality images and will be used in various project over a period of time.
  • We expected to have at least 5 volunteers in the organizing team.
  • We expected to have professional photographers, columnists as judges.

Wikipedia Asian Month 2018[edit]

  • We expected at least 100 articles to be created/edited on Thai Wikipedia.
  • We might extend the WAM into the English Wikipedia
  • We expected at least 30 volunteers to participate.
  • We expected to have at least 3 active volunteers as organizing team and judges.

Mentor Project[edit]

We plan to make this a permanent project to increase the retention of editors by boosting the engagement within the community and making sure that the new editors get sufficient assistant and treated in friendly manners.

  • We expected at least 100 articles to be created/edited on Thai Wikipedia in 2018.
  • We expected at least 30 mentees to participate in 2018.

One Article, One or More Images Project[edit]

The project is planned to be piloted for a month, then with positive feedback, we plan to convert it into regular event in which winners will be awarded either monthly or bi-monthly.

  • We expected at least 100 articles to be assigned into category:articles needing images.
  • We expected at least 100 images to be uploaded into Commons.
  • We expected at least 100 images from Commons to be added into articles.
  • We expected at least 20 volunteers to participate in the first month.

Meetups[edit]

We expected at least 5 volunteers in every meetup.

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Outcomes[edit]

Photo and article contests

Project metrics

Project metrics Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
We expected at least 3,000 uploads for the WLM and WLE. We had 658 and 2,487 uploads for the WLM and WLE, respectively. Target reached. We received more than 3,000 uploads, although the number of uploads remained somewhat unchanged compared to last year's result.
We expected the submitted photographs (for WLE and WLM) to win international prizes. No photograph won international prizes. Target not reached. No photograph from Thailand won the international WLE or WLM.
We expected 100 articles created or improved and at least 30 volunteers to participate in the WAM. 107 articles were created by 11 active participants Target reached. There was a slight increase in number of articles created/improved when compared with last year (45 articles).
We expect to have at least 5 active volunteers as organising team and judges. We have exactly 3 people in the organising team, and 6 as jury members. Target reached.


Wikipedia Asian Month
Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 11 editors 11 editors for WAM
2. # of new editors 0 editor Participants were either last year's participants or those that normally contribute to Wikipedia.
3. # of individuals involved 12 individuals 11 editors and 1 organiser for WAM
4a. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 0 image The project focused solely on participation and articles written/improved, the goal was not to collect images.
4b. # of new images/media uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (Optional) 0 uploaded media The project focused solely on participation and articles written/improved, the goal was not to collect images.
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 107 articles 107 articles were created as part of WAM.


Learning[edit]

  1. Even we did employ several strategies such as social media advertisement and communication channels of our sponsors, number of submissions for WLE and WLM remained somewhat equivalent to the previous year.
  2. We only used small amount of budget for promotion because there were leftovers from the previous year. Some of the promotional materials were also donated by our local partners, which also eliminated the need of purchasing more.
  3. We did not use any budget for meetups as all of them were informal. Meetups served as consultation sessions for the education program.
  4. The success of the mentor project has led us into developing a more concrete volunteer support program. This idea was first discussed in 2018 at Wikimedia Conference. We are planning to translate what we have thought into action points.
  5. Introduction of Kiwix to inmates was on our list of activities for 2018. However, after discussing with the people and the organizations involved, concerns were raised. More information is available upon request.

Finances[edit]

Amount requested: 63,000 THB

Actual amount received: 63,253.97 THB

Total amount used: 38,922.00 THB

Remaining amount: 24,331.97 THB

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of 24,331.97 / US$777.91 were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/Rapid/WMTH/Wiki_Loves_Monuments_2019_in_Thailand.
Number Category Item description Amount request (THB) Amount used (THB)
1 Awards (1) Cash/voucher prize for 1st-10th winners (1st prize=10,000THB). Awards for 2nd-10th places will be managed when we know the total number of winners.

(2) Trophies and certificates for WLE, WLM, and WAM.

44,400 37,400
2 Promotion (1) Promotional materials (e.g. flyers, posters, postcards, calendars, t-shirts, merchandise, etc.)

(2) Web hosting, online advertisement and other associated costs

9,300 1,522
3 Meetups Six bimonthly meetups (venue and food for about 5-10 volunteers/participants during the course of the project) 6,200 0
4 Contingency Incidental costs (Custom duty + other charges on WP merchandise sent from overseas, travels, phone calls, souvenirs/trophies for local corporate partners, extra postage fees, stamps and packages etc.) 3,100 0
Total 63,000 THB 38,922 THB