Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimania 2021 Host Event in Cambodia/Report

Wikimania 2020 in Phnom Penh was a Wikimania seminar held on Tuesday, August 17th, 2021 with 15 participants, funded by the Wikimedia Foundation, during the online celebration of Wikimania 2020, the annual conference that celebrates access to free knowledge through volunteers around the world.

Goals[edit]

Wikipedia in Khmer has grown incredibly since its inception on January 15, 2005. A small community has developed the first online Khmer encyclopedia with incredible zeal. On February 20, 2007, the Khmer Wikipedia had 100 articles. As of December 13, 2007, the Khmer Wikipedia had grown to 500 articles. As of March 3, 2008, the Khmer Wikipedia reached the threshold of 1,000 articles. Today, more than 259,314 edits have been made since its creation and more than 8,303 articles are available in Khmer language.

The rapid development of Cambodia has allowed for more and more people to have access to Wikipedia in Khmer, either through their cell phones, tablets or computers. For the first time since it was created, the Khmer Wikipedia received more than 4 million online visitors in May 2021 alone, a sign of the growing interest and use. The development of online learning over the past year has definitely been an important factor in this development.

However, while the number of viewers has exploded, the number of editors has fallen sharply. While the Khmer Wikipedia has 4 admins and 33,184 users, online 47 are still active users. Active users who contributed immensely at the creation of the Khmer encyclopedia are now married and successful businessmen, and short of time to volunteer for the encyclopedia. Meanwhile a new generation of Khmer online encyclopedians has not yet emerged. The purpose of the upcoming Wikimania get-together in Cambodia is to contribute to this renewal.

With the Wikimania 2020 in-person event in Phnom Penh which successfully took place in August 2021, we believe we are going one step further in overcoming these challenges.

Outcome[edit]

The outcome of the event developed according to the bilingual Khmer-English program below, with a rich exchange between participants, the training of young students curious to develop their skills on Wikipedia, and a friendly social into the late evening:

Date: Tuesday, August 17th, 2021
Start time: 5:00PM PDT / 1700
- កាលវីភាគ ៖
  - ម៉ោង ៥ ៖ ០០ ល្ងាច៖ ពិធីស្វាគមន៍
  - ម៉ោង ៥ ៖ ១០ នាទីល្ងាច៖ ការចាប់ផ្តើមជាផ្លូវការ
  - ម៉ោង ៥ ៖ ១២ នាទីល្ងាច៖ រូបភាពផ្លូវការ
  - ម៉ោង ៥ ៖ ១៥ នាទីល្ងាច៖ ការបង្ហាញរបាយការណ៍នៅលើវិគីភីឌាខ្មែរ លោកពុក គង្វាល
  - ម៉ោង ៥ ៖ ៣០ នាទីល្ងាច៖ ការអភិវឌ្ឍ វិគីភីឌាខ្មែរ ជាមួយវចនានុក្រមទស្សនវិជ្ជាអុកហ្វដ ដោយ លោកគ្រូ សាន ពុទ្ធីសែន
  - ម៉ោង ៥ ៖ ៤៥ នាទីល្ងាច៖ ការបង្ហាញគម្រោងវីគីភីឌាខ្មែរឆ្នាំ ២០២២
  - ម៉ោង ៦ ៖ ០០ ល្ងាច៖ សំណួរនិងចម្លើយ
  - រហូតដល់ម៉ោង ៧ យប់៖ ពិសាភេសជ្ជៈនិងការពិភាក្សា
- Schedule
  - 5:00 PM : Welcome
  - 5:10 PM : Formal beginning
  - 5:12 PM : Official picture
  - 5:15 PM : Report on Wikipedia Khmer by Lokpuk Will Conquer
  - 5:30 PM : Developing Wikipedia Khmer with the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy by Lok Kro Puthisen San
  - 5:45 PM : Presentation of the project Wikipedia Khmer 2022
  - 6:00 PM : Questions and Answers
  - Until 7:00 PM: Drinks and Discusssion

Project metrics

Project metrics	Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
1 event	1 event
30 participants	15 participants	While there was no curfew in Phnom Penh, both pubic gatherings and work meetings were still limited to 15 participants.
15 new editors	7 new editors	Despite not quite meeting this target, we were very honored to welcome two new editors who are gate-openers to do new realms which Wikipedia Khmer is excited to open up to. The first one is an invitation to run an Edit-a-Thon in Siem Reap in December 2021 during the Siem Reap Festival of Arts. The second is to organize a workshop with the members of the Royal Academy of Cambodia to explain the use and purpose of Wikipedia Khmer and work on further collaboration with local institutions.
10k social media outreach	5k viewers	After the Facebook page of Wikipedia Khmer had been inactive since 2016, the revival of the page gave great satisfaction, with over 200 unread messages and 5k viewers of the post concerning the Wikimania event. Various press releases mentioned below helped the event have a great impact. Finally, a few pictures on the Wikimania Telegram group also stirred a certain emotion of joy among distant participants which was also a source of comfort.

Learning[edit]

What worked well: the simple fact of an in-person event in the current context gave great satisfaction. What's more, the excitement of attendees as well as the flow of messages received through social media encouraged us to organize more events of this type: small, personal, and informative. The event has had a ripple effect with 4 new events already planned as well as a major project for Wikipedia Khmer to be developed in 2022.

What did not work so well: the follow-up has been difficult. Writing the report one month after the event reveals through Facebook metrics that the excitement created by the event has somewhat eroded and that new events and projects are needed to keep it going.

What would you do differently next time: the event being limited in size, it was somewhat frustrating to keep the event to us only. Many people wanted a Facebook live which we're not sufficiently prepared to offer properly. We share the event on Zoom but after technical issues emerged, we decided to try and do better next time.

Finances[edit]

Grant received: 500$
Hospitality pack: 3; including:
- Private room
- Specific signage
- Technical support (projector, computer, electrical cables, pens and papers)
- Hospitality staff
- Food and drink for 15 participants (overflow)
Communication: 100$
Realization of 30 visuals for communication on social networks
Translation into Khmer of the Wikipedia - Happy 20th anniversary video posted and pinned to the Facebook page (technical support appreciated to upload it properly to Wikicommons: special format and special username)

Grant funds spent[edit]

Because of the uncertainty caused by the current pandemic, security and safety were major factors in organizing the local in-person Wikimania.

For that reason, the location, Coconut Park on Koh Pich in Phnom Penh was chosen rather than an ordinary workspace coffee house. The wide open spaces on the banks of the Mekong River and the privacy ensured that a private event could be organized in the best conditions.

Remaining funds[edit]

Once the banking fee is taken into account (15$), 35$ remain to be spent. With the social communications team of WK-Khmer, our hope is to invest that money into advertising on various social networks, as suggested in the proposal. Various technical difficulties need to be fixed first (as fixing the WK Khmer bank account rather than using our own account which might later be abused by future managers).