Link to these documents, for the upcoming funding period, only if you have them.
Link to your organization's staffing plan, for the upcoming funding period.
Staffing Plan
Contractor 1: AfroCROWD Program Director (July 2019 - June 2020)
The duties of the program director, who reports to the Executive Director and has been in the role since 2015 will be as follows in this grant cycle:
Direct AfroCROWD programs;
Coordinate editathons and editathon reporting including maintenance of on-wiki page;
Support the Executive Director in managing and maintaining institutional/GLAM/Grassroots partnerships to further these programs;
Pursue and maintain new institutional/GLAM/Grassroots partnerships;
Direct social media accounts to support outreach for the programs and the AfroCROWD brand;
Research and draft monthly newsletter;
Where needed, represent the organization in public appearances and conferences;
Draft grant applications and reports.
Staff time
The weekly work time will be 20 hours/week.
Contractor 2: Accountant (July 2019 - June 2020)
In exchange for being fiscally sponsored by the WMNYC chapter, AfroCROWD will contribute $1,000 of the annual fee requested by the accountant to tend to the chapter’s accounting, including periodic reports of expenditures and disbursements and issuance of Contractor 1’s checks.
Please describe any changes to your staffing plan for the upcoming funding period. These should include increases in staff or contractor hours, new staff positions, or staff positions you are removing. Include your rationale for any staffing changes here.
Our staffing plan has expanded to handle expansion of partnerships and programming as well as more international and inter-regional programming.
For each new staff or contractor position, please use the template provided to add information about each new staff or contractor you are planning for the upcoming funding period (or to describe significant increases in hours or changes in job descriptions for existing staff). You are not required to provide this information for existing staff where no changes are required.
(Please see above answers)
Link to your annual plan, for the upcoming funding period.
AfroCROWD is on target for its goals in 2018-2019 and after 4 years of organizing at least one editathon or Wikimedia/Wikipedie event a month or more has now organically expanded to the London in the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and New England, with the expectation that the project will expand by at least one more city and organizer by the end of 2020.
AfroCROWD’s social media outreach has also grown steadily with thousands following online and the project expects that reach to continue to grow. Our suite of tutorial videos which have now been deployed for several events and presentations and we look forward to growing their reach through translations to other languages and are exploring subtitles.
AfroCROWD has made partnerships in the African community in the United States and abroad will continue to find ways to grow this connection and continue to work with partners, established and new, in the Global African community.
Please use the templates provided to add information about each program you are planning for the upcoming funding period.
AfroCROWD has continued to explore and prepare infrastructure for expansion to London in the United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, France and to Los Angeles, California in the United States. The project also became a user group and we are applying for this grant this year not as a program of WMNYC but as fiscally sponsored by them.
Engaging both the languages of the African Diaspora and oral knowledge, we will also be holding:
One or more events in collaboration with Wikitongues and other partners, generating oral testimonials in several African Diaspora languages to be uploaded to Commons.
A Haitian Creole Translatathon
A Francophone editathon engaging French and francophone communities in partnership with WMNYC, Wikifranca and Wikimedia Canada
We would like to continue to have more translation events focused on languages in the African Diaspora (for example Haitian Kreyòl and Garifuna)
We drafted affiliates agreements to be signed by AfroCROWD branch organizers going forward
We’re going to continue including wikidata in our editathon trainings
We plan again have a women focused virtual editathon campaign. It would focus on around Wiki Project African Diaspora during African Union Day May 25th. This campaign can engage current affiliates in the UK and LA, our wikimedia partners in Africa and partners among Latin-American Wikimedians who engage afro-descendant communities there.
We will be collaborating with partners and organizations from the African Diaspora for a Black film edit-a-thon focused on films within the African diaspora.
We are looking at a cosplay / comics editathon in partnership with BLERD and other partners.
We will continue using our training videos to encourage editathons that do not require our physical presence in locations where we cannot necessarily travel and will be implementing voice overs for the tutorials.
Programs
AfroCROWD will continue to seek to increase awareness of the Wikimedia and free knowledge, culture and software movements among potential editors of African descent. AfroCROWD events and activities will engage existing contributors and new contributors in building community and in content creation with the aim of bridging the multicultural gap in editorship and content coming from and regarding Africa and the African Diaspora through meetups, editathons, public speaking, social media outreach, community engagement, and partnerships with cultural grassroots groups in our target groups and GLAM and educational institutions.
By June 2020
Goal: Continue to maintain existing community in the United States and support factors of growth
Continue to work on integration and cross-fertilization of existing AfroCROWD community to the broader movement
2 AfroCROWDers attend Wikimania 2019 and 2020
4-5 Articles in blogs, local or national press
Hold an editathon, translatathon or recordathon per trimester
Generate a monthly newsletter of US, UK and known African diaspora editathons and Wikipedia events of interest to our target group
Continued maintenance of mailing list and continued maintenance and growth of a cross-continental Afrocrowd google group and/or Slack channel
Support and encourage Wikipedia-related efforts by members of the community, using our new training video
at least one trainee editor organizes editathon independently
Continue using toolkit and Training video for those in target group who want to hold editathons independently
Continue fostering awareness of AfroCROWD and of our availability as a resource nationally and globally through near daily engagement on social media
Measure: Over 75 new people in target group follow us on Social Media
Overall on-wiki measures:
About 100 articles edited or created or photos uploaded for the year (including some in other languages spoken in the African diaspora)
Over 100 people attend editathons
Over 100 people hear presentations at conferences or when we are invited to present
Over 100 people edit Wikipedia with us
Other measures:
20 new contributors make 2+ edits within 4 months after participating in an event, and 5+ existing contributors report increased engagement as a result of their attendance at meetups and editathons or their participation in other AfroCROWD activities.
AfroCROWD will continue to hold 9-12 events for the year with at least 4 editathons being held in the United States and one overseas, each of which will have at least 8-15 participants with at least 5 participants for overseas or LA events.
All meetups will be facilitated by an experienced AfroCROWDer with the aim to increase participation among diverse, underrepresented populations in the African Diaspora. In addition to supporting initiatives to add
ress the diversity gap among people of African Descent, AfroCROWD is looking to continue to partner with more groups working on the gender and diversity gaps.
Goal: Continue Capacity Building of AfroCROWD Affiliates in the UK and New England, Other countries in Europe, the Caribbean and South America
Obtain SWAG / AfroCROWD branded materials for affiliates and branches and AfroCROWD HQ and associated events
Please see the table in the expenses section for more on AfroCROWD outreach materials or swag for branch organizers
Monthly meeting and ongoing email contact with Kelly Foster, experienced London-based Wikipedian and AfroCROWD organizer in the UK, Kai Alexis Smith organizer for AfroCROWD New England, Ivonne Gonzalez, organizer for Barcelona, Spain and French AfroCROWD events
Attendance, in-person meeting and joint presentation with Kelly, Kai and Ivonne at Wikimania and/or other events that would benefit from the combined effort (for example translation related events)
Implement further usage of training videos
Serve as an ongoing resource to Kelly, Kai and Ivonne and offer support for navigation of the broader Wikimedia bureaucracy
Explore and research expansion to other European metropolises with large afro descendant communities, and to South American cities in countries like Uruguay and and cities within the Caribbean like Roseau and Port au Prince and others
Goal: Grow the AfroCROWD User Group
AfroCROWD is now a Wikimedia User Group and we would like to continue growth under this distinction
Educate event participants, newsletter readers and social media followers about the activities of the user group
Research user group governance and network and continue learning from mentors among similarly situated user groups
Annual administrative meeting in January meant to pick the brains of Affiliate heads in the UK, New England, France and other organizers on priorities for the user group.
Goal: Continue to create a bridge between African and African Diaspora Wikipedians
Attendance of one or two AfroCROWD people at the next Wiki Indaba
International Joint Campaign: Black History Month
Continued involvement and showcasing of African Wikimedians remotely at US, Europe, the Caribbean and South America
Hold events deepening awareness of wikipedias in languages of Africa and the African Diaspora in collaboration with African Wikimedian groups and Latin-American Wikimedian groups (another Wiki Project Africn Diaspora virtual campaign, Whoseknowledge annual visible women virtual campaign)
Known Calendar Items
2019
June: Spelman Juneteenth Wiki Week, Atlanta
July: BLERD
August: Wikimania
September: African Women on Board at the UN
October: Wiki Conference NA
December: Year end Wikipedia editathon and celebration
2020
January: Wikipedia Day and AfroCROWD Administrative meeting and Summit
February: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Annual Editathon + Potential online campaign centered around WikiProject African Diaspora
March: Collaboration with Art + Feminism
May 25th, Africa Day Campaign
June 19: Juneteenth event with ABENY or affiliated partners
(Month TBD: French Language Editathon targeting French speakers in New York)
(Month TBD: Partnership with Open West Africa for the Africa Challenge)
(Month TBD: German Afrocrowd Edit-a-thon)
Link to your strategic plan, which includes the upcoming funding period.
Please add your grants metrics to this sheet. Note that requirements for shared metrics have changed for grants starting 1 January 2017 or later. Grants with start dates before 1 January 2017 should still use the old Global Metrics.
AfroCROWD will continue to seek to increase awareness of the Wikimedia and free knowledge, culture and software movements among potential editors of African descent. AfroCROWD events and activities will engage existing contributors and new contributors in building community and in content creation with the aim of bridging the multicultural gap in editorship and content coming from and regarding Africa and the African Diaspora through meetups, editathons, public speaking, social media outreach, community engagement, and partnerships with cultural grassroots groups in our target groups and GLAM and educational institutions.
AfroCROWD will continue to hold events and editathons throughout the coming grant cycle aimed at awareness and editor recruitment in our target audiences, centered on diversity gaps, engaging the many languages of Africa and the African Diaspora
Wiki Languages. Including an edit-a-thon focused on Wiki Commons.
Wiki Languages of Africa and the African Diaspora
Objective: By June 30, 2020, AfroCROWD will:
Hold a Haitian Creole Translatathon or other Francophone event
engage Spanish-speaking Afrolatinx communities in Latin-America with Wikimedia Uruguay and Afrolatino Project via an online program/ event
begin translating and voice over of the video in at least 1 of 3 languages of the African Diaspora, likely French and Spanish.
bring attention and awareness to the various African and African diaspora languages through outreach and 2 programs
Engaging both the languages of the African Diaspora and oral knowledge, generating oral testimonials in several African Diaspora languages to be uploaded to Commons. We also plan to hold a Haitian Creole Translatathon and a French Editathon. We plan to engage Spanish-speaking Afrolatinx communities in Latin-America with IIbero Coop and other Wikimedia chapters in those regions engaging those communities. We plan to begin translating and voice over of the tutorial videos in at least 3 languages of the African Diaspora, including French and Spanish.
Ideally, AfroCROWD’s efforts in our various events will bring attention and awareness to the various African and African diaspora languages on Wikipedia, including:
Wikimedia Movement Awareness, Involvement and Visibility Campaign
Continued Wikimedia Movement Awareness, Involvement and Visibility Campaign
Visibility is a key part of the AfroCROWD initiative, and a powerful tool in spreading the word about the Wikimedia movement. Visibility is also a key pre-requisite to meeting the movement's strategic goal of Knowledge Equity by 2030.
Also, by the way, did you happen to see Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales himself wearing the AfroCROWD t-shirt we gifted him this time during his Keynote speech at Wikimania, Capetown in South Africa? We sure did and this time got some great photos with him. This is still such a great thing to us and we are truly grateful for his support and the way he champions the whole Wikimedia community!
Media-wise, we have previously been featured in the New York Times, and the Guardian among other news outlets, and this grant cycle, our mentions include leading German news source, "Deutsche Welle" and news in Nigeria and Oregon as well as the Wiki Edu Blog.
AfroCROWD in the News:
Wiki foundation wants to 'decolonize the internet' with more African ...
Deutsche Welle-Jul 19, 2018
Afrocrowd, based in the United States, for example, is building an oral history-sort of repository of knowledge that will be digitized and available ...
Happy 18th birthday, Wikipedia. Let's celebrate the Internet's good ...
Washington Post-Jan 14, 2019
Do-it-yourself initiatives such as AfroCROWD and Art+Feminism host edit-a-thons, organized public events where volunteers help improve the ...
Wikimania to bring global knowledge experts to Cape Town
Times LIVE-Jul 4, 2018
Sessions will include “AfroCROWD: expanding into the African Diaspora”‚ a panel discussion on how to raise awareness of Wikimedia among ...
The Undertold Story of Mary Ellen Pleasant's Haitian Heritage
Haitian Times-Feb 3, 2019
Few women captivated the 1800's with great ambition and cleverness like Mary Ellen Pleasant. According to various sources, she was born a ...
Tribute to Venerable Haitian Pierre Toussaint
Haitian Times-Feb 6, 2019
In light of President Donald J. Trump's alleged derogatory remarks about Haiti and African countries, a retired Vincentian-born public school ...
ALA 2018 Spotlight: On Wikipedia
Publishers Weekly-Jun 15, 2018
The New York City chapter, meanwhile, has done a series called AfroCrowd where they organize monthly edit-a-thons focused on the African ...
The collective writing womxn back into art history
Dazed-Mar 25, 2019
Communal editing tables were hosted by AfroCROWD and POWarts and across the street, New York Public Library's 53rd Street Branch will ...
Monthly Newsletter
Objective: By June 30, 2020 AfroCROWD will expand it’s newsletter outreach by 250 recipients made up of
partners within the movement,
potential participants, partners and influencers outside the Wikimedia movement who we think would make good Wikipedians, and
past editathon and event attendees who we want to remain aware of AfroCROWD and movement activities
Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Knowledge Equity
AfroCROWD will continue summarizing all known happenings concerning Wikimedia and people of African descent in Africa and the African Diaspora in its monthly newsletter which currently reaches out to over 3,000 recipients, depending on the campaign, all over the world. The newsletter typically contains monthly events by AfroCROWD UK and LA, the Black Lunch Table and broader Wikimedia events such as Wikimania, which have traditionally lacked in participation of our target group.
Conferences
Objective:By June 30, 2020, AfroCROWD will participate in at least 3 conferences to sensitize those in our target group who might make good wikipedia editors to the need for their contribution to the movement. Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Knowledge Equity
Participation in conferences regarding our areas of interest
During the 2018-2019 fiscal year AfroCROWD gave talks or trainings at several conferences that have helped produce awareness and useful partnerships for coming projects.
These included:
Wikimania 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa in August on the work of AfroCROWD in partnerships and development of programming types
Wikiconference, North America 2018 in Columbus Ohio in October on oral knowledge and translatathons
Wikipedia Day in New York, NY on Wikipedia as a global movement in January, 2019
Speaking at the UN on the importance of knowledge access in March, 2019 and again with the Swedish Mission at the UN for a Women’s WikiGap Wikipedia information day that same month
Wiki + Edu Conference in Donostia, Spain in April, 2019 on translatathons and AfroCROWD innovations in university relations and the importance of language in bridging the divide to knowledge access in the African Diaspora and beyond
We anticipate getting and accepting similar invitations in the new grant cycle.
Visibility at Wikimedia Movement conferences
Objective: By June 30, 2020, AfroCROWD will continue to grow meaningful presence and participation in Wikipedia Day, Wiki Indaba, Wiki Conference North America and Wikimania to nurture better Wikimedians in our target group, especially the most engaged and motivate Wikimedians in other parts of the world where there are people of African descent to do the same. In the process we hope to obtain or nurture 4 partnerships or intermovement collaborations. Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment:Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Knowledge Equity
Wikimania 2019 Stockholm costs:
Flights for 2 AfroCROWD representatives: $1800
Lodging for 2 AfroCROWD representatives: $800
AfroCROWD sees it as a vital part of its mission to increase attendance and visibility of our target group at Wikimedia movement conferences. We believe that our physical presence also builds awareness of the content and editorship diversity gap while it also empowers our target group to become impactful Wikimedians.
Organizational Development
AfroCROWD Administrative Meeting at Wikipedia Day
Wikipedia Day is a local (greater New York City) one day unconference and birthday celebration for Wikipedia, in line with the global Wikipedia Day (on meta) and Wikipedia Day (on EN-WP). It is a chance to introduce Wikipedia to those interested enough to participate in the event. Wikipedia Day 17 (January 2020) will be a modified unconference, with dedicated plenary sessions (organized on our meetup page), lightning talks to the whole assembly, and open space sessions. AfroCROWD intends to participate in the Wikimedia NYC Wikipedia day as a whole. As such we would like to bring organizers of the AfroCROWD UK and AfroCROWD LA groups to the event with us for a presentation in New York.
Partnerships Development and Outreach Campaign
GLAM / 1Lib1Ref Institutional Partnerships
Objective: By June 30, 2020 AfroCROWD will continue to collaborate organizations in the New York City area and beyond. We are especially looking forward to working with partners within the Wikimedia community locally and internationally, as well as new and continuing partners among at least 3 organizations. Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Knowledge Equity and Knowledge as a Service
Specifically, AfroCROWD plans to collaborate with the following organizations: 2-3 Metro New York GLAMs
Cultural Grassroots Partnerships
Objective: By June 30, 2020, AfroCROWD will Continue outreach to our target group who are not yet in the movement with at least 2 cultural grassroots partnerships. Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Knowledge Equity
AfroCROWD will continue seeking out and collaborating with grassroots cultural and advocacy groups in our target audience:
Afrolatino Project
Haitian Creole Language Institute
Garifuna Nation
Wikitongues
BLERD
AWB
UNESCO/ UN
And whichever unforseen solicit our collaboration
University and College partnerships
Objective: By June 30, 2020, AfroCROWD will continue our partnerships with professors at educational institutions with at least 2 programs. Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Wikimedia 2030 Strategic Direction alignment: Knowledge Equity
AfroCROWD has established partnerships with professors and educators at Columbia University, New York University, the Fashion Institute of technology, The New School, and CUNY among others, as well as educators in the public school system and New Jersey’s Seton Hall University. In the coming year, we would like to continue our partnerships with professors at educational institutions.
Long Island University (Prof. Barriere)
Fashion Institute of Technology
Barnard College
New York University
Columbia University
CUNY (LaGuardia Community College, Baruch College, The Graduate Center, New York City College of Technology, Hunter College, Queens College)
MIT
Fordham
LaGuardia
Spellman
And whichever unforseen solicit our collaboration
Wikimedia Partnerships
Objective: By June 30, 2020, AfroCROWD will
support international programs related to the scope of closing the diversity and gender gaps as either a main node or via satellite events for at least 4 programs.
Improve our ability to connect internationally and investigate better ways that may be available to do so.
help test WMF test tools that will be rolled out in the coming year
We will support international programs related to the scope of closing the diversity and gender gaps as either a main node or via satellite events. Support entails creating event pages that can serve as the main event page for global nodes, outreach, networking or resource sharing or social media support. We will also participate by sending a representative to certain events or conferences where possible.
International events may include:
Wikipedia Day
Art+Feminism
Wiki Loves Pride
Wiki Indaba
Wikipedia Diversity Conference
Wiki Loves Women
Black WikiHistory Month
Wikimedia Conference
Wikimania
Wiki Education
Wikiconference North America
Wikimedia Canada
Ibero Co-op
Whose Knowledge
Wikitongues
WikiFranca
Wikimedia Portugal
Wikimedia Germany
Wikimedia Frnace
WkimediaUK
Wikimedia Uruguay
Wikimedia Canada
Part of partnership development is communications. We would also like to look into improving our ability to connect internationally and investigate better ways that may be available to do so. For example, we would like to look into improved conferencing options for international meetings among partners and Wikimedia groups.
For our programs, we remain interested in helping to test WMF test tools that will be rolled out in the coming year that people like James and Leon have been working on. This is up to the foundation if it is interested, but we want to try out what they are working on and see if our community groups are interested and if it works for capturing information about our editathons and other events that may be useful to the larger community
Link to a detailed budget for the upcoming funding period. This budget should include all of your organizations expenses. Please specify which expenses will be covered from your APG. : {{{Budget}}}
Please link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period.
Connecting across the seas through Wikimedia:[edit]
AfroCROWD has many great stories from this grant period, but one of the shining stars has been our work in the Caribbean and with the new Wiki Caribbean user group, which we have helped lead. We have also made strides across the seas not only in the Caribbean, but with fellow Wikimedia groups in Africa.
In the Caribbean, we have led events on Islands like Dominica, where we trained new editors, and as a part of Wikimedians of the Caribbean efforts in Puerto Rico. Thank you to Kai Smith and Ivonne Gonzalez who led AfroCROWD info sessions in English and Spansih with the Digital Library of the Caribbean (DLOC), creating forrays there. These efforts are even stronger now that we have a series of AfroCROWD Wikimedia tutorials in English and soon in Spanish. When our program director spoke at an edit-a-thon at Columbia University earlier this year, she was pleased to learn that a separate speaker would be using the AfroCROWD tutorials in her presentation. We were also pleased at the response from Wikipedians at the Wikiconference North America AfroCROWD presentation of the tutorials.
In that same spirit of connection, we also worked across the seas with our focus on what we named the Wiki Year of Return after the African Diaspora was invited back to the shored of the African continent for Year of Return, happening in Ghana in 2019. Towards this, we connected with Wikipedians at Indaba as we held a translatathon at MIT in Boston during Wiki Conference North America, and proclaimed friendship and the 400 year+ familial bond with Africa and the African Diaspora.
Editor in Ghana at the Wiki Year of Return Editathon looks at AfroCROWD item on the joint meetup page
Our edit-a-thon, which took place with Sherry steering online and via video link with AfroCROWD's organizer on the ground, Rachel on the offices of our fellow Wikimedia parterners, Open Foundation West Africa, on the ground in Accra, Ghana. We hoped to document some of the experiences around this historical moment of the start of what we hope will be Years of Return in coming years, and the spirit of the time, add and improve articles about the Year of Return Ghana events, notable figures and events of the people of Ghana, Africa and Diaspora, as well as capture other items like photographs and other media surrounding the celebration. This was not only a meaningfull time of connection for AfroCROWD and our fellow editors in Africa and the African Diaspora, but a meaningfull and historcal time for the world in general. We were very pleased to be a part of it in this way.
Finally, in the last week of our midpoint period on January 12th, we were pleased to connect with participants in Chicago for an event celebrating the music of people of African descent in Chicago and one of Chicago’s noted departed sons, Frankie Knuckles. It is a connection that began at Wikimania Sweden, passed through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through our parter Amy, and wound up making history in 2020 as AfroCROWD's first event in the area. While this event was not across an ocean, it was an example of how the same spirit of connectivity and growing communities allowed us to embark with a partner for our first affiliated foray there. It was a very positive beginning,
These events have all shown us what maintaining and creating connection can do to build Wikimedia communities, develop existing relationships and generate new ones.
We are excited for what the rest of the year holds in store.
Please add text or a link to a page with details on your program progress. This should include reporting against each of the SMART objectives form your proposal.
Testimonials from AfroCROWD partners in the Wikimedia Community and with one special shout out:[edit]
At LGCC CUNY Translatathon, AfroCROWD's Sherry Antoine interviews participants in their languages
"In 2019, we at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City continued to partner with AfroCROWD, along with Wikimedia NYC, to plan our annual Translatathon, which was held on April 4th and 5th. Members of these groups were invaluable in helping us not only plan the Translatathon itself, but to make connections with new partners who could suggest projects for our students and faculty to work on. We also had lightening talks this year given by some of our partners to introduce our community to Wikipedia work being done all over the world, and hope to continue that this year. In 2019, most exciting was the coordination of our Translatathon with a similar event taking place on the same dates at the Wikimedia + Education Conference in Basque Country. In addition, we were excited to work with Wikimedians of the Caribbean and AfroCROWD to sponsor a Translatathon at the WikiConference North America in Boston on November 9th."
--- Tara Coleman, LaGuardia Community College CUNY
"Open Foundation West Africa is glad to have had collaborations withAfroCROWD in the past year". These events which are often centered on the African context, gives us the opportunity to strengthen cross collaborations and network with other groups and individuals from the diaspora to contribute to African related subjects on Wikipedia and it's sister projects. It is our greatest pleasure to do more with the team because their innovative doors are always open to all.”
---Joy Agyepong, Core Leader, the Wikimedia Open Foundation West Africa Group
“In a nurturing environment adapted to each individual’s skills level and that honors their cultural heritage and experience, AfroCROWD runs transformative workshops. In a few hours, novice Wikipedia readers become emergent editors and authors of entries in English and other languages. As the Director of an NSF-funded program that aims to show students who are heritage speakers of non-English languages—or native speakers of socially under-valued English dialects—how to expand and exploit these valuable resources to help construct their careers, I value what AfroCROWD adds and how it empowers individuals from all backgrounds by enabling them to become lifelong active agents in the transmission of knowledge. “
--- Isabelle Barrière, PhD, Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques Director National Sceience Foundation (NSF)-Research Experience for Undergraduates Intersection of Linguistics, Language & Culture Associate Professor in Communication Sciences & Disorders LIU-Brooklyn/Molloy College
AfroCROWD holds AfroWikiWeen to promote WikiProjectAfroCine in Nigeria and online
November:
AfroCROWD and WikiCaribbean Wikipedians with MIT African Students at Idagba 2019
AfroCROWD presents at Wikimania
AfroCROWD worked with Wikimedia Nigeria and the Participants of Wiki Indaba and Wiki Caribbean to develop a “Proclamation in Memory of Slavery and Proclamation of Friendship with African Wikimedians and the Diaspora” meeting at Indaba, Nigeria. In the lead up and during the simultaneous conferences, leaders from each group to formulate the commemoration that was then shared with the respective communities.
AfroCROWD partners with Wiki Cari for Cafe y Donas, Puerto Rico event
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (DLOC): The goal of dLOC is to build a cooperative digital library among partners within the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean, thus providing scholars, students, and citizens around the world with open online access to Caribbean cultural, historical and scientific materials, while also ensuring long term preservation of these materials.
The Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) originated as part of a movement for Caribbean cooperation at the university level, initiated in the late l960’s by the Association of Caribbean Universities (UNICA).
African Student’s Association, MIT
AfroCRWD Wikimedia Movement partners so far this period: [edit]
Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group
Wiki Indaba
Open Foundation West Africa
WikiConference North America
Wikimania
Wikimedia NYC
Wikimedia Nigeria
WikiProject AfroCine
Noircir Wikipedia
Wikimedia DE
University and College Educators partnerships:
Columbia University
LaGuardia Community College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Contributions to a global movement (conferences etc):
October 28, 2019: Writing African American History Into Wikipedia Laurie M. Bridges Oregon State University Diana Park Oregon State University Tiah K. Edmunson-Morton Oregon State University
This is the final report for our grant, describing our outcomes from the period July 1 2019 - June 30, 2020.
AfroCROWD Edit On Weekly Challenge Campaign
While the coming of the COVID 19 Pandemic has changed how we do things, it is a challenge that has forced us to be creative, innovative, patient and ductile. As a result, we feel more capable now than ever before to handle the future. Necessity has been a useful catalyst. Out of the challenges of these times, We have come up with some new ideas and forged new pathways in partnership and communication that we believe will continue to strengthen our ability to grow in our mission both locally and abroad.
It has been a year to remember, with quite the active quarantine.
On the Black Lives Matter episode of the Wikipedia Weekly Podcast with special guests that include Wikimedia Foundation COO, Janeen Uzzell, our Executive Director, Sherry Antoine, who also leads the Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group and represents AfroCROWD, described some of our programs.
During the show, we hear about AfroCROWD's innovative work during the pandemic including:
Wikipedia Weekly Screenshot of Episode 136 on Black Lives Matter with Sherry Antoine of AfroCROWD and Wiki Caribbean, Brandon Sullivan of Wiki Caaribean and Janeen Uzell, COO of the Wikimedia Foundation with hosts Andrew Lih and Richard knipel
The AfroCROWD Weekly Wiki Challenge, created to encourage AfroCROWDers to remain active and engaged during the early days of the COVID19 Pandemic.
Here is a story that showcases how our organization learns and evaluates our work and uses what we have learned:
We had the honor of being invited to be one of the first contributors to Diff, the Wikimedia Foundation's new blog. In it, you will hear about how we navigated a pivotal moment in history and the results of our efforts in the midst of it.
Please add text or a link to a page with details on your program results. You should report on each of the objectives you included in your Simple APG application.
Take a look at our brand new website uploaded this quarter! While the site is still in it's growth and development stage, we were excited to soft launch it in the early Spring, 2020.
We are also excited about our growing AfroCROWD Spanish tutuorial library on Youtube, which continues where we left off with our English tutorials.
Please link to a detailed financial report for your spending during the grant period. This should be in the same format as your detailed budget from your Simple APG application
