Grants:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Australia 2021-2022

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Application or grant stage: approved
Applicant or grantee: Wikimedia Australia
Amount requested: AU$86,100 / US$67,020.67
Amount granted: 86,355.23 AUD (67,000 USD)
Funding period: 1 July 2021 - 30 June 2022
Midpoint report due: 15 January 2021
Final report due: 30 July 2022

Application[edit]

Background[edit]

Following three years of strategic planning, 2021 marks a significant milestone in Wikimedia Australia's history with the contracting of its first part-time Community Support and Outreach Coordinator staff position. The 2021-2022 annual plan builds on the increased organisational capacity this position has enabled, to fuel growth and momentum in three key program areas: community support, outreach and engagement and professionalised chapter governance and operations.

Annual Plan[edit]

The Wikimedia Australia 2021-2022 annual plan.

This follows the Wikimedia Australia 2020-2021 annual plan.

Budget Plan[edit]

The Wikimedia Australia budget 2021-22

The budget comprises of three key program areas:

  • Community Support: AU$12,000
  • Outreach and Engagement: AU$24,000
  • Governance and Operations: AU$50,100

Total: AU$86,100 / US$67,020.67

Staffing Plan[edit]

Within the Governance and Operations program is an allocation of AU$40,000 for the continuation of a part-time Community Support and Outreach Coordinator for 2021-2022, providing administration, communications, project and outreach support for the Australian Wikimedia committee, members and broader community approximately 15 hours per week. This position reports to the Wikimedia Australia Committee through the President. A full position description is available here. This follows the establishment of the position as a three-month contract in April 2021, currently filled by Caddie Brain.

Strategic plan[edit]

With support of the new Community Support and Outreach Coordinator, Wikimedia Australia has budgeted for the commencement of a new multi-year strategic planning cycle by the new Wikimedia Australia committee following the Annual General Meeting currently scheduled for 8 August 2021. The newly developed Wikimedia Australia Strategic Plan will be supported by a Communications Strategy and Operational/Program Plan that is also currently in development. This follows the initial strategic planning development that occurred in 2020, after the completion of its previous multi-year plan.

Introduction[edit]

Wikimedia Australia (WMAU) exists to support, advocate and promote the activities and needs of the diverse editing community across Wikimedia platforms in Australia, also offering regional support and leadership where possible.

Formed in 2007, WMAU is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, whose primary aim is to promote equality of opportunity to access and participate in the collaborative creation of free and open content in Australia, with a focus on its history, culture, languages, environment and regional context. Increasingly, this work is prioritising supporting marginalised and regionally disadvantaged communities to remove barriers that prevent people and organisations from accessing and contributing to free knowledge, and supporting the development of solutions to help eradicate inequality and bias on Wikimedia projects.

After three years of capacity building in planning, implementing and reporting against an annual grant, 2021-22 represents the maturation of Wikimedia Australia as an organisation through the contracting of a Community Support and Outreach Coordinator dedicated to delivering this annual plan alongside the Wikimedia Australia committee. This work will take place under three core program areas:

  • Community Support
  • Outreach and Engagement
  • Governance and Operations

There is no question that 2020-2021 has been one of the most challenging years to deliver outreach and community engagement activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly when delivering these services across an enormous geographical area. It has however also highlighted many new opportunities and grown capacity and agility in engaging with our members and community in new ways. Major achievements included the adaption and delivery of outreach and engagement events in the online space and establishment of monthly community meetings and seminars for the first time, which supported the growth and development of community members as facilitators across the country who are increasingly engaged in regular edit-a-thons, events, workshops and meet-ups. This culminated in Wikimedia Australia's 20th birthday celebration in January 2021 and launch of our animated 20 year video that went viral on social media and resulted in many media opportunities including on our ABC Radio National, the national broadcaster.

Wikimedia Australia has also set new strategic priorities for the next twelve months. This includes growing engagement with First Nations editors in Australia to deepen discussion about growing inclusion and what efforts may be needed to contribute to the decolonisation of Wikimedia platforms. This is part of a broader push to diversify and increase the capacity of editors working on Australian content across the Wikimedia projects. WMAU is also planning to address a growing need for maintenance tasks across these platforms, that will require education, awareness campaigns, the development of new tools and strategic partnerships with organisations that can support this work. We need to ensure that local data remains accurate, relevant and current in order to preserve trust in our platforms. We also aim to step up our regional leadership supporting campaigns and projects in partnership with Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand, and through participation in SWAN and ESEAP activities.

While our governance processes are well-established, 2021-22 will represent a critical period of professionalisation for the governing committee, in stepping back from day-to-day operational responsibilities now undertaken by the new Community Support and Outreach Coordinator, instead growing the kinds of strategic capacity and partnerships needed to secure the future of Wikimedia platforms for the next 20 years.

Programs[edit]

Program 1: Community Support

The Know My Name Edit-a-thon at the National Gallery of Australia in March 2021

Regular community meetings over 2020-21 have highlighted key concerns among our community regarding the limited number of new, active editors and administrators combined with an increasing load of maintenance work required on Australian content. To address this Wikimedia Australia will focus on engagement activities that increase the number of editors working on Australian content, and to increase the capacity of existing editors by providing better tools and support for maintenance and administrative work. This will also bring our community support goals in close alignment with outreach goals. This informs the following activities:

WikiClubs and Meetups

Wikimedia Australia is committed to maintaining a safe, healthy and diverse editing environment and welcomes global policy initiatives such as the Universal Code of Conduct. In order to engage directly with current and emerging editors in Australia, we will continue our monthly online community meetings, which have already been successful in connecting and building community among our geographically dispersed community. Promotion of available wiki tools is an area identified as a gap in editor knowledge, and we plan to initiate regular communications about these tools to the community through online events and newsletters to increase knowledge and editing efficiency.

We recognise that community-based events are also important for engagement and learning new skills. WikiClubs, user groups, training events and meetups will continue to be locally organised, and will be encouraged to call on administrative and promotional support from the Community Support and Outreach Coordinator, as well as funding for local activities. Addressing the gender gap and inherent bias on Wikipedia also remains a focus for our editing community particularly during Women's History Month, International Women's Day, as part of Art+Feminism and the Know My Name initiative so we will continue to grow our support of these activities again in 2022.

Australian Data Maintenance Tools

The Australian editing community has highlighted the ongoing challenge of keeping 20 years of Wikipedia content up-to-date. It has been set as a priority to address, as it is vitally important to retain readers' trust in Wikimedia platforms and information. To attract more editors to this area of work we plan to research and commission the development of a tool or bots to assist in the maintenance of Australian statistical data. A group from the Australian community will develop the coding brief, and Wikimedia Australia will contract an intern or contractor to build an Australian Census Tool that partly automates the process of updating population data before the 2021 Census data is released in June 2022. The tool could work with minimal, or 'light touch' human endorsement and oversight, and the project will also include training and promotion about how it works. After evaluating the success of this pilot we will look to extend the project to consider other data sources, for instance data from the Bureau of Meteorology.

Mini Grants Volunteer Support Program

Wikimedia Australia offers a mini-grant program for Australian contributors to obtain resources or share their knowledge about the projects and/or WMAU activities. Funds involved are generally small grants, designed for maximum flexibility and responsiveness. Most activities are ad hoc, and may be granted for a range of expenses related to presenting at conferences, or hosting events, to purchasing resources in order to generate content, or developing a new skill. Applicants are required to have a demonstrated contribution history and to provide a report upon completion of their activity.

Also for the first time in 2021, Wikimedia Australia will offer an inaugural micro-grant program to produce a prototype from Wikidata, to increase the profile and awareness of and experimentation with this emerging platform in Australia.

Planned activities

  • Monthly community meetings and seminars
  • National events aimed at addressing Wikipedia's gender gap (March 2022)
  • Establishment of working group to support development of Australia Data Maintenance Tools
  • Offering of mini Grants Volunteer Support Program
  • Establishment and promotion of inaugural Wikidata micro-grants program


Program metrics and targets
  • Prototype for a Australian statistical data tool: 1
  • Community Meetings: 10
  • Online training sessions: 4
  • No. of mini grants offered: 4
  • No. of Wikidata mini grants offered: 4
  • No. of blog posts/stories based on micro-grant/Wikidata grants program: 2
  • No. of edit-a-thons focused on gender diversity: 4


Program 2: Outreach and engagement

Noongarpedia workshop, 2016

First Nations engagement

First Nations content projects, including the Noongarpedia Incubator, an Indigenous language partnership project involving the Noongar and academic communities, remain a key area of importance for Wikimedia Australia and the Wikimedia movement. In order to support First Nations content across Wikimedia platforms we will build engagement between the Australian Wikimedia community and Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander communities.

Facilitating this engagement will involve approaching our existing GLAMR partners who are working in this area to make use of existing networks, protocols and content that is appropriately licensed. We will work towards development of Australian Indigenous cultural protocols on Wikimedia platforms, and policies on culturally safe and respectful engagement with Indigenous consultants. In the first instance we will support an issues and discussion paper on cultural knowledge concerns for First Nations and Australian Wikimedians and bring together an advisory working group to meet and develop the paper. This could lead to a future research agenda in conjunction with partner organisations and to Wiki Scholar or Wikimedian in Residence positions dedicated to relationship building, brokering conversations and key partnerships.

Education sector outreach

The secondary and tertiary education sector has been identified as an increasingly important area of future partnerships, to build knowledge of Wikimedia platforms and to support research outputs. Wikimedia Australia aims to establish a local Wikimedia Resident and Scholar Program, placing a Wikimedian in Residence within an Australian university. A part of this scoping work we will:

  • Promote the program to postgraduate and higher degree research students
  • Explore the potential for Wikimedia Coordinators in universities (as part of the library, postgraduate studies board, or student union organisations.
  • Highlight Wikidata through The Carpentries and digital research tools
  • Support particular academic divisions and research centres with projects
  • Explore case studies of teaching through Wikipedia at both the tertiary and secondary levels (such as Writing for the Digital World at the University of Sydney).
  • Explore curriculum links in the secondary education sector, particularly for local history and languages

GLAM sector outreach

During 2020-21 Wikimedia Australia successfully trialed facilitated online editor training. To build on this new expertise, Wikimedia Australia plans to collaborate with small to medium regional libraries, historical societies, museums and galleries in the provision of staff awareness presentations and/or training to increase understanding of the potential value Wikimedia platforms may bring to partners. This requires the development of training modules, case studies and materials to support delivery of online modules though potential contracted facilitator support.

Planned activities

  • Establishment of a pilot Wikimedia Resident and Scholar program in Australia
  • Establishment of First Nations working group
  • Development and delivery of an annual program of facilitated online editor training targeted at the GLAM sector
  • Investigation of GovHack partnership


Program metrics and targets
  • Delivery of Wikimedia Australia Communications Strategy (with internal engagement targets)
  • First Nations working group meetings: 4
  • Development of a First Nations Discussion paper regarding cultural protocols for Wikimedia platforms
  • Facilitated online editor training sessions: 6
  • Wikimedia Resident and/or Scholar placement: 1


Program 3: Governance and Operations

The 2018 face-to-face Wikimedia Australia committee seminar

Wikimedia Australia will continue to fulfill its legal, financial and reporting responsibilities as an incorporated association registered in Victoria, and a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). As well as Wikimedia Foundation responsibilities, this includes managing our 2021 Annual General Meeting in August, Consumer Affairs Victoria reporting, and Quarterly Business Activity Statements to the Australian Taxation Office, along with the provision of insurance to enable local outreach.

The key priority for the Wikimedia Australia committee is to streamline and professionalise its processes in order to grow into a more focused and sustainable organisation at the governance level. This will begin with the commencement of a new multi-year strategic planning cycle. Considering it is now two years since the committee and/or community has been able to meet for a strategic planning workshop, we retain the need for a face-to-face meeting to set our priorities, future-proof our organisation and properly induct and onboard new members. This is necessitated by the geographic challenges our committee faces, being based across the country in many different states and territories and timezones. We have scheduled and budgeted for this for later in 2021 in the hope that COVID-19 restrictions will enable travel.

Community Support and Outreach Coordinator

For many years, Wikimedia Australia has been limited in its capacity to increase partnerships, offer consistency and support to its members and professionalise its processes and operations due to an entirely volunteer run organisation that has, since 2007, carried responsibility for governance, community engagement activities and communications. While successful to this point, in 2021 the committee reached the limit of its ability to continue to grow operations on a 100 per cent volunteer basis.

In April 2021 Wikimedia Australia contracted an experienced Wikimedian, Caddie Brain to establish the duties and procedures in an interim role of Community Support and Outreach Coordinator. It has already provided considerable growth in communications, volunteer engagement and development, and general administration for the Wikimedia Australia committee and wider community. The continuation of this role will contribute to the development and implementation of Wikimedia Australia’s communications strategies and 2021-22 annual plan through coordination of online and in-person events where possible, expanding partnerships, and supporting the organisation and administration of the Wikimedia Australia Committee.

Planned activities

  • Monthly committee meetings with new streamlined reporting structure and system support
  • Strategic planning workshop August 2021 (face to face if possible) to support the delivery of a new multi-year strategic planning cycle supported by development of Operational Plan and finalisation and endorsement of Wikimedia Australia Communications Strategy
  • Provision of training for executive positions of new Wikimedia Australia committee
  • Appointment of Community Support and Outreach Coordinator for 12 months


Program metrics and targets
  • Delivery of multi-year Wikimedia Australia Strategic Plan
  • Delivery of Wikimedia Australia Annual Operational Program Plan
  • New committee members: 2
  • States/territories represented on the committee: 4
  • Increased diversity profile of the committee (language, age, gender etc)

Grant Metrics Reporting[edit]

Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.

Needs Request[edit]

We don't have any specific requests at this time.

Midterm report[edit]

Program story[edit]

Putting Australian music on the record – new Wikipedia projects aims to increase discoverability of Australian artists[edit]

'The Record: Australian Music on Wikipedia' project coordinators Caddie Brain and James Gaunt from Wikimedia Australia

Wikimedia Australia and the Australia Council for the Arts have partnered on a new project The Record - Australian Music on Wikipedia which aims to increase the visibility of Australian content on Wikipedia and make it easier for global audiences to discover great Australian music.

Through four edit-a-thon events across Australia, The Record will grow the low number of Wikipedia articles about Australian musicians, organisations and publications. Volunteers will be invited to be trained to edit, expand, and create new articles related to a diverse range of Australian music and musicians.

Program Progress[edit]

Program 1: Community Support[edit]

WikiClubs and Meetups[edit]

Wikimedia Australia held monthly community meetings from July to December 2021. Monthly meetings and seminars are also scheduled for January - June 2022. Despite significant COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns, WikiClubs, user groups, training events and meetups were held online with support from the Executive Officer. Addressing the gender gap and inherent bias on Wikipedia also remains a focus for our editing community particularly during Women's History Month, International Women's Day, as part of Art+Feminism and the Know My Name initiative so we will continue to grow our support of these activities again in 2022. Events held from July to December 2021, in reverse chronological order:

  • Strategic Plan Feedback Session - Community Meeting December — 2021 December 15
  • The Record: Melbourne Music Week Edit-a-thon — 2021 December 11
  • Melbourne Meetup 42 — 2021 December 10
  • The Power & Privilege of Editing Wikipedia — 2021 December 9
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday — 2021 November 24
  • East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific (ESEAP) meeting — 2021 November 13
  • An introduction to OpenStreetMap — 2021 November 12
  • New advances for Wikipedia integrated academic journals — 2021 November 11
  • Open Community Meeting - November — 2021 November 10
  • WikidataCon — 2021 October 29
  • Automated Decision-Making Wikipedia Edit-a-thon — 2021 October 27
  • Open Access Week 2021 — 2021 October 25
  • Community Meeting - A discussion about the Census and Code of Conduct — 2021 October 13
  • Ada Lovelace Day: 24-Hour Global Edit-a-thon — 2021 October 12
  • East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Meeting: Meet Maryana Iskander — 2021 October 9
  • Paralympics Wikipedia edit-a-thon — 2021 September 25
  • Women in STEM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2021 — 2021 September 17
  • Perth Meetup 72 — 2021 September 12
  • ESEAP Virtual Meeting — 2021 September 11
  • Open Community Meeting — 2021 September 8
  • Representation and erasure: new directions for Wikimedia in Australia — 2021 August 16
  • Perth Wikimania meetup — 2021 August 14
  • Meeting:2021 AGM — 2021 August 8
  • Perth meetup 70 — 2021 August 8
  • ESEAP Virtual General Meeting (11) — 2021 July 17
  • Wiki Wednesdays — 2021 July 14
  • Connecting the Movement: Communications Insights from the Wikimedia Foundation with Elena Lappen — 2021 July 14
  • First Nations Wikipedia Edit-a-thon — 2021 July 10

Australian Data Maintenance Tools[edit]

Following input from the editing community in our October community meeting, a subcommittee of the Wikimedia Australia committee has developed a brief and request for quote to contract an intern or contractor to build an Australian Census Tool that partly automates the process of updating population data before the 2021 Census data is released in June 2022. Applications are due 23 January with work delivered by May 2022.

Mini Grants Volunteer Support Program[edit]

Wikimedia Australia offers an annual mini-grant program for Australian contributors to obtain resources or share their knowledge about the projects and/or WMAU activities. No grants were expended from July to December 2021 due to an inability to hold events/activities or travel due to COVID-19. Wikimedia Australia has just launched its inaugural Wikidata Fellowship program to produce a prototype from Wikidata, to increase the profile and awareness of and experimentation with this emerging platform in Australia.

Mid-term activity summary

Program 2: Outreach and engagement[edit]

First Nations engagement[edit]

Wikimedia Australia is working towards the development of Australian Indigenous cultural protocols on Wikimedia platforms, and policies on culturally safe and respectful engagement with Indigenous consultants. Initial planning meetings and correspondence was held with AIATSIS, Jumbunna Institute (UTS) and the First Nations team at the Australia Council for the Arts. A First Nations Edit-a-thon was held with City of Sydney in July 2021, with a presentation curated at Wikimania on the opportunities and challenges of First Nations content on Wikimedia platforms with Kirsten Thorpe and Nathan Sentence. The launch of an advisory working group and/or research project to develop a First Nations Discussion paper regarding cultural protocols for Wikimedia platforms will take place in early 2022 for delivery by July 2022.

Wikimedian in Residence, Centre for Automated Decision Making and Society[edit]

Amanda Lawrence was appointed the inaugural Wikimedia in Residence at the Centre for Automated Decision Making and Society. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) is a new, cross-disciplinary, national research centre, which aims to create the knowledge and strategies necessary for responsible, ethical, and inclusive automated decision-making. One of the aims of the ADM+S is to promote greater understanding of automated decision-making technologies, applications and impacts and working with Wikipedia, Wikidata and other Wikimedia platforms is one of the best ways to do this. To support this process ADM+S has established a Wikimedian-in-Residence project for 6 months to help with engagement between Wikimedia platforms and the researchers, students, partners, projects and issues associated with the Centre with Amanda Lawrence starting in the role from July 2021. Through her work she has established an ongoing program for residents and scholars.

GLAM Training Program[edit]

Wikimedia Australia is midway through the development of a three part, one-hour GLAM sector training program with Wikimedian and consultant Mike Dickison. Once trialled in January and February 2022, the program will be offered to small to medium regional libraries, historical societies, museums and galleries in the provision of staff awareness presentations and/or training to increase understanding of the potential value Wikimedia platforms may bring to partners.

Mid-term activity summary

  • Wikimedia Australia's Communications Strategy is being delivered with internal engagement targets)
  • Establishment of a pilot Wikimedia Resident and Scholar program, Amanda Lawrence at the Centre for Automated Decision Making and Society
  • Wikimedia Australia's new GLAM sector training program is being trialled in January 2022 with the Australian Music Centre
  • Three online Introduction to Wikidata sessions are also scheduled for January and February 2022 as part of Wikimedia Australia's new Wikidata Fellowship program.

Program 3: Governance and Operations[edit]

Strategic Plan Development[edit]

Wikimedia Australia commenced a new multi-year strategic planning cycle with consultation from Strategic Communications Australia. The Wikimedia Australia committee has participated in two, two-hour strategic planning sessions in October and November 2021 that has resulted in the identification of three key strategic pillars, which were then presented to a public community consultation in December 2021. The plan will be finalised and released in March 2022. Face-to-face meetings have not been possible due to COVID-19 restrictions so all plan development has occurred online.

Community Support and Outreach Coordinator[edit]

In July 2021, Wikimedia Australia appointed its first Executive Officer, Caddie Brain. This followed the contracting of Caddie as the Community Support and Outreach Coordinator in April 2021, Wikimedia Australia's first staff member. Based on the managerial and breadth of skills required in this role, the Wikimedia Australia committee decided to re-title the role to Executive Officer. From July to December the position has supported new projects and events, improved communications, volunteer engagement and development, and general administration for the Wikimedia Australia committee and wider community.

Mid-term activity summary[edit]

  • Monthly committee meetings with held in July, August, September, October, November and December 2021.
  • The annual general meeting was held on 8 August 2021 with three new committee members appointed: Dr Bunty Avieson, Michael Barritt and Paige Wright
  • Two on-boarding workshops for new committee members
  • As outlined above two strategic planning workshops were held in October and November 2021
  • A public community strategic planning consultation was held in December 2021
  • An Executive Officer was appointed in July 2021 for 12 months

Spending update Midterm[edit]

Please link to a detailed financial report for your spending during the first half of your grant period. This should be in the same format as your detailed budget from your Simple APG application.

Link to Spending to 31 December 2021 (See Column E)

Please include the total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period:

  • $19,941.03 USD / $27,649.60 AUD

Grant Metrics Reporting Midterm[edit]

Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.

Final report[edit]

Program story[edit]

Populating Wikipedia: New tool integrating Australian Census data[edit]

The Australian editing community has long highlighted the ongoing challenge of keeping 20 years of Wikipedia content up-to-date. It has been set as a community priority to address, as it is vitally important to retain readers' trust in Wikimedia platforms and information. There are approximately 12 300 Australian place articles in English Wikipedia with population counts presented in an article Infobox. Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics counts every person and household in Australia in the Census of Population and Housing. Come Census data release day, place-article contributors have their work cut out for them! They are diligent and they are quick, but updating population values alone is a stupendous task.

To attract more editors to this area of work Wikimedia Australia budgeted for the development of a tool or bots to assist in the maintenance of Australian statistical data as part of this Simple APG grant.

Following input from the editing community in our October community meeting, a working group formed overseen by coordinator Maia Williams to manage the development of an Australian Census Tool that partly automates the process of updating population data before the 2021 Census data is released in June 2022. The core project team was coordinated by MaiaCWilliams, overseen by Wikimedia Australia’s Executive Officer Caddie Brain as coordinator and provider of encouragement, Wikimedia Australia President Canley and member 99of9 as mentors with extensive census data, Wikidata, Wikipedia and teaching experience and Wikimedia Australia committee member Samwilson as a Lua mentor and experienced Wikipedian. Many other Wikipedia editors contribute to ongoing discussions surrounding the project. The working group also met with key stakeholders at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

A Lua module was then developed. The module works with some assumptions about the content of the Wikipedia and Wikidata items, and the content of the population claims. See the list of assumptions here. There are minimum content requirements for Wikidata population claims to be used by this module. The ideal configuration is detailed here. It will continue to evolve and there are many add-ons, modifications and parallel module ideas on the horizon.

The full project documentation is outlined here.

Learning story[edit]

Wikidata Fellowships program launched[edit]

Responding to the somewhat limited profile and engagement with Wikidata in Australia and low rate of uptake of our open community grants, Wikimedia Australia launched a new experimental program called Wikidata Fellowships in 2022.

The program offered two Wikidata fellowships grants of $1000 (AUD) to curate a data set, develop a prototype or undertake an investigation using Wikidata. While originally developed to include four mini-grants, the grant amount was considered too small for the time and investment fellows were likely to invest so it was increased in value. Open to applicants from all backgrounds and skill levels, the program supported enthusiastic and innovative proposals that prioritized investigations as opposed to requiring pre-existing technical skills. Over the nearly two months that the fellowships were open for application, WMAU also held three ‘Introduction to Wikidata’ sessions which were attended by 15 people, including some from outside Australia.

While originally offering just two Wikidata fellowships, based on the strength and diversity of applications the assessment panel recommended allocating additional funds to award three fellowships: to Kerrie Burn, Margaret Donald, and Brett Tweedie.

  1. Kerrie Burn is the Library Manager at Mannix Library and also manages the University of Divinity's online Library Hub. Kerrie has headed up the Australian Women in Religion WikiProject since late 2019 that aims to address gender gaps on Wikipedia and also bring to light the under-recognised work of women who have made significant contributions to the world’s religious and spiritual traditions. The fellowship enabled Kerry an exciting opportunity to explore a variety of tools to enhance her existing dataset as well as leverage this data as an entry point for research. Read her blog post here.
  2. Data visualisation designer and developer Brett Tweedie, used Wikidata to explore the idea of ‘The Barassi Line’, a line that divided Australia roughly in two. On one side of the line - the south and west of the country - were those that primarily supported Aussie rules, and to the north and east were those that supported rugby league. The fellowship is outlined here and was also covered in The Conversation piece, The Barassi Line: a globally unique divider splitting Australia’s footy fans Read his blog post here.
  3. Wikimedian Margaret Donald’s first foray into Wikidata was to populate Qitems with APNI ids and without authority data by adding authorities to most such items. Having coordinated Wiki Loves Earth in Australia in recent years, she wanted to count the Australian animals and plants for which Wikimedia Commons does not have images. But most Australian animals were not in Wikidata. This is being remedied via Toby’s mix’n’match AFD catalogue, but as the figure shows, taxonomic information from other databases does not exist for a large number of Australian fauna in Wikidata (13688 or 9.73%) She used her Wikimedia Australia Fellowship to create new mix’n’match catalogues and update older ones. Read her blog post here.

Matched with suitable mentors Toby Hudson, Siobhan Leachman, Sam Wilson and Alex Lum, the inaugural fellows were offered resources, feedback and support and a sense of community in exploring their thematic areas. This also enabled equitable access to the program no matter how much or how limited their Wikidata experience.

The fellows undertook their investigations, presenting to the Australian community in May and sharing their investigations on the Wikimedia Australia website. This program also generated significant social media and mainstream media coverage. Fellows reported the benefits of supported learning opportunities with flexible outcomes and an opportunity to learn in a cohort, community-based environment.

Wikimedia Australia intends to run this program again in 2023, in partnership with Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand to offer a New Zealand fellowship also.

Program Impact[edit]

Program 1: Community Support[edit]

WikiClubs and Meetups[edit]

Wikimedia Australia held 12 monthly community meetings from July 2021 to June 2022. Despite significant COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns, WikiClubs, user groups, training events and meetups were held online with support from the Executive Officer. Addressing the gender gap and inherent bias on Wikipedia also remains a focus for our editing community particularly during Women's History Month, International Women's Day, as part of Art+Feminism and the Know My Name initiative that saw the delivery of an in-person edit-a-thon in May 2022.

Events held from July 2021 to June 2022 engaged 674 people:

  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 7 July 2021
  • First Nations Wikipedia Edit-a-thon — 10 July 2021
  • Community Meeting: Connecting the Movement, Communications Insights from the Wikimedia Foundation with Elena Lappen — 14 July 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday — 14 July 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 21 July 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 28 July 2021
Participants at the edit-a-thon for the Australian Women in Religion project held at Mannix Library, University of Divinity
  • Know My Name, National Gallery of Australia Information Session - 28 July 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 4 August 2021
  • Perth meetup 70 — 8 August 2021
  • Meeting:2021 AGM — 8 August 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 11 August 2021
  • Perth Wikimania meetup — 14 August 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 18 August 2021
  • Representation and erasure: new directions for Wikimedia in Australia — 16 August 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 1 September 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 8 September 2021
  • Open Community Meeting — 8 September 2021
  • University of Western Australia Rock Art - 8 September 2021
  • Perth Meetup 72 — 12 September 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 15 September 2021
  • Women in STEM Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, UNSW 2021 — 17 September 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 22 September 2021
  • Paralympics Wikipedia edit-a-thon — 25 September 2021
  • University of Western Australia Linguistics Information Session - 29 September 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 6 October 2021
  • East, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Meeting: Meet Maryana Iskander — 9 October 2021
Ada Lovelace Day: 24-Hour Global Edit-a-thon
  • Ada Lovelace Day: 24-Hour Global Edit-a-thon — 12 October 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 13 October 2021
  • Community Meeting: A discussion about the Census and Code of Conduct — 13 October 2021
  • Open Access Week 2021 — 25 October 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 20 October 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 27 October 2021
  • Automated Decision-Making Wikipedia Edit-a-thon — 27 October 2021
  • WikidataCon — 29 October 2021
  • Open Community Meeting - November — 10 November 2021
  • New advances for Wikipedia integrated academic journals — 11 November 2021
  • An introduction to OpenStreetMap — 12 November 2021
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday — 24 November 2021
  • The Power & Privilege of Editing Wikipedia, AAANZ Conference — 9 December 2021
  • Melbourne Meetup 42 — 10 December 2021
The launch of 'The Record: Australian Music on Wikipedia' at Collingwood Yards, Melbourne
  • The Record: Melbourne Music Week Edit-a-thon — 01 December 2021
  • Strategic Plan Feedback Session - Community Meeting December — 15 December 2021
  • January Open Community Meeting - 12 January 2022
  • GLAMR training modules Pilot 1 - 21 January 2022
  • GLAMR training modules Pilot 2 - 25 January 2022
  • GLAMR training modules Pilot 3 - 28 January 2022
  • Introduction to Wikidata - 29 January 2022
  • Women in Religion Wiki Wednesday - 3 February 2022
  • Introduction to Wikidata - 29 January 2022
  • February Community Meeting: From tentmaking to pagemaking - 9 February 2022
  • Introduction to Wikidata - 10 February 2022
  • The Record: AMC Edit-a-thon - 18 February 2022
  • March Open Community Meeting - 9 March 2022
  • Art+Feminism Melbourne - 12 March 2022
  • Women in Religion IWD week-long campaign (5-12 March) - 7 March 2022
  • Women in Religion IWD week-long campaign (5-12 March) - 9 March 2022
  • The Country Record: Australian Music Edit-a-thon - 17 March 2022
  • Art+Feminism Brisbane - 19 March 2022
  • Franklin Women Edit-a-thon - 7 April 2022
  • Franklin Women Aftercare Session - 13 April 2022
  • April Community Meeting - 13 April 2022
  • Surround Sounds Edit-a-thon, Geelong - 30 April 2022
  • Panel: Automating Wikimedia: open knowledge, linked data and search - 4 May 2022
  • University of Newcastle Dashboard Training - 11 May 2022
  • May Open Community Meeting - 11 May 2022
  • #1Lib1Ref Session - 16 May 2022
Know My Name Edit-a-thon, National Gallery of Australia
  • Digital literacy: Teaching students to fact-check - 17 May 2022
  • #1Lib1Ref Session - 18 May 2022
  • #1Lib1Ref Session - 23 May 2022
  • #1Lib1Ref Session - 25 May 2022
  • #1Lib1Ref Session - 30 May 2022
  • #1Lib1Ref Session - 1 June 2022
  • Canberra Meet-up - 3 June 2022
  • Know My Name Edit-a-thon, National Gallery of Australia - 4 June 2022
  • June Community Meeting - 8 June 2022

Australian Data Maintenance Tools[edit]

See Program Story and project documentation.

Mini Grants Volunteer Support Program[edit]

Wikimedia Australia offered a $3000 annual mini-grant program for Australian contributors to obtain resources or share their knowledge about the projects and/or WMAU activities. There has been little demand since the COVID-19 pandemic began due to an inability to hold events/activities or travel. Wikimedia Australia diverted these funds to the following activities:

  • $1000 - Provision of a third Wikidata Fellowship (as per Learning Story)
  • $2000 - National Archives of Australia data integration with Wikidata via GLAM Workbench - the GLAM Workbench created by Tim Sherratt, is a collection of tools, tutorials, examples, and hacks to work with data from galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (the GLAM sector) with a primary focus on Australian and New Zealand collections. The GLAM Workbench includes tools for extracting data from the National Archives of Australia (NAA) that includes information about all government agencies since 1901. Each agency is assigned a unique identifier, and a variety of relationships with other agencies are documented (succeeding agencies, superior agencies etc). Effectively this is a significant historical model of the Australian government. Currently NAA identifiers are not used in Wikidata (although there are some NAA citations in Wikipedia). This project funds the linking of NAA data via SPARQL of approximately 10,000 agency records. It may include integrating NAA agency identifiers as persistent IDs in Wikidata, mapping NAA agency relationships to Wikidata properties, and updating existing records about government agencies with the matching id and/or adding new records for missing agencies.

Final activity summary[edit]

Program 2: Outreach and engagement[edit]

First Nations engagement[edit]

Wikimedia Australia has engaged the Indigenous Archives and Data Stewardship Hub at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research (Jumbunna Research) at the University of Technology, Sydney lead by Senior Researcher/Indigenous Archives and Data Stewardship Hub Kirsten Thorpe, Research consultant Nathan Sentance and Research Fellow/Indigenous Archives and Data Stewardship Hub Lauren Booker.

The team will research and review the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information Services published in 1995 by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). The Protocols were endorsed by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library, Information and Resource Network (ATSILIRN). After a decade in circulation, it was recognised that there was little in the research literature that identified the extent of the use of the Protocols, or their value and effectiveness in workplaces across the Library and Information Services sector. By reviewing the indexing of terminology, subject headings and classification systems for access to materials in libraries, archives and information services for outdated, inaccurate or value laden terms, these could also be applied to a Wikimedia context. Many Wikimedia projects currently are ill-equipped or unsupported in reviewing terminology, subject categories and content for outdated, inaccurate and value-laden terms. An ongoing project, comprehensive desktop research will inform the delivery of a final discussion paper/report in November 2022.

Wikimedian in Residence, Australian Music Vault[edit]

In addition to the appointment of Amanda Lawrence as Wikimedian in Residence at the Centre for Automated Decision Making and Society, Wikimedia Australia also launched a new ten-week Wikimedian in Residence program at the Australian Music Vault in Melbourne, Victoria. Wikimedian James Gaunt will be using the APAC collection to expand and add information to Wikipedia pages, as well as provide training to staff on Wikimedia’s projects. The Australian Performing Arts Collection collects items relating to circus, dance, opera, music and theatre from across Australia, and is part of the Arts Centre Melbourne. They also run the Australian Music Vault, a permanent exhibition space at the Arts Centre, dedicated to Australian music. The team from APAC and the Vault have closely supported The Record: Australian Music On Wikipedia, a series of music related edit-a-thon events run in partnership with Australia Council for the Arts.

Wiki-GLAMR Training Program launched[edit]

Over six months, Wikimedia Australia collaborated with New Zealand Wikimedian Mike Dickison to develop a special four-part training program for GLAMR organisations in our region to explore opportunities for how Wikimedia platforms and projects can extend their collections and engagement. The Wiki-GLAMR Training Program was designed to be facilitated by Wikimedia Australia team of facilitators or can be presented in a self-guided manner by any organisation using the downloadable resources, or for use more broadly too. Slides and notes are provided for each module designed to be presented over approximately one hour. Modules include:

  • An introduction to the Wikimedia Movement: Wikipedia is a ubiquitous part of the Internet, but where did it come from, and why do we rely on it so heavily? Run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia is maintained not by an editorial board but by hundreds of thousands of self-organising volunteers. Along with its sister projects Commons and Wikidata it now underpins the world’s knowledge ecosystem, but has significant biases and gaps – and, famously, anyone can edit it.
  • How Wikipedia Works: Since so many of us rely on Wikipedia, it’s important to know how it works. We’ll lift the hood and look at how edits are made, how vandalism is detected and removed, and how Wikipedia tries to stay neutral and reliable while avoiding “edit wars”. You’ll learn how to assess the trustworthiness of an article by who’s edited it, and how to make changes yourself. Anyone who clicks the edit button and improves the encyclopedia is a Wikipedian, and at the end you will be too.
  • Organisational Wikipedia Strategy: Anyone can edit Wikipedia, but should they? Attempts to use it for marketing or spin can end in disaster; but used well, Wikipedia is a powerful tool for disseminating information. Learn how your organisation can reach an enormous audience by being part of the Wikimedia community: the different strategies range from simply using an open licence for your images to working with a Wikipedian in Residence.
  • Working with Wikidata: Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Launched in 2012, Wikidata acts as central storage for the structured data of its Wikimedia sister projects including Wikipedia, Wikivoyage, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and others. Learn what Wikidata is, explore key concepts and vocabulary, how it relates to other Wikimedia projects and see what makes it so powerful.

Trialled with the Australian Music Centre in January and February, the Wiki-GLAMR Training Program was launched in March 2022 and featured in the This Month in GLAM newsletter.

Final activity summary[edit]

  • Wikimedia Australia's Communications Strategy is being delivered with internal engagement targets
  • One First Nations Edit-a-thon
  • Development of a First Nations Discussion paper regarding cultural protocols with Jumbunna Research (underway)
  • Launch of Wiki-GLAMR sector training program in March 2022 with four trial sessions with the Australian Music Centre and 3 open Introduction to Wikidata sessions delivered.
  • Establishment of two Wikimedian in Residence programs:
  • 24 partnerships: University of Divinity, UNSW, Franklin Women, National Gallery of Australia, City of Sydney, Jumbunna Institute, ARC Centre for Automated Decision Making and Society, Griffith University, University of Western Australia, Australia Council for the Arts, Country Music Association of Australia, Australian Music Centre, Australian Music Vault, Yarra City Libraries, University of Sydney, Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand, Pankhurst Centre, Wikimedia Ghana, Wikimedia Kenya, Pakistan, APRA AMCOS, Surround Sounds Festival, Geelong Library & Heritage Centre, University of Newcastle
  • WMAU committee members also discussed potential partnerships and collaborations with a range of organisations in the GLAM and research sectors. This resulted in WMAU supporting Analysis and Policy Observatory (APO) in their application for WMF Alliance funding which was successful for funding in 2022.
  • Advocacy: WMAU met with representatives from similar open knowledge organisations to establish collaboration opportunities for mutual support and knowledge share including across communities including: Open Access Australasia, Creative Commons Australia, Australian Citizen Science Association, Australian Digital Alliance and Digital Rights Watch.

Program 3: Governance and Operations[edit]

Strategic Plan Development[edit]

Wikimedia Australia completed a new multi-year strategic planning development cycle with consultation from Strategic Communications Australia. The Wikimedia Australia committee participated in five, two-hour strategic planning sessions from October 2021 to February 2022, including one community consultation session. Face-to-face meetings were not possible due to COVID-19 restrictions so all plan development occurred online. The Wikimedia Australia Strategic Plan 2022-2025 was released in March 2022, identifying three key strategic pillars, engagement, equity and inclusion and capacity building. The strategic plan is also accompanied by a three-year activity plan, that formed the basis for our successful application for multi-year grant funding.

Community Support and Outreach Coordinator[edit]

In July 2021, Wikimedia Australia appointed its first Executive Officer, Caddie Brain. This followed the contracting of Caddie as the Community Support and Outreach Coordinator in April 2021, as Wikimedia Australia's first staff member. Based on the managerial and breadth of skills required in this role, the Wikimedia Australia committee decided to re-title the role to Executive Officer. In its first year, the position has supported new projects and events, improved communications, volunteer engagement and development, and general administration for the Wikimedia Australia committee and wider community. It also drove the successful application for multi-year funding from the Wikimedia Foundation and laid the managerial groundwork for the employment of a second employee in 2022-23.

Final activity summary[edit]

  • 12 monthly committee meetings held from July - June 2022
  • The annual general meeting was held on 8 August 2021 with three new committee members appointed: Dr Bunty Avieson, Michael Barritt and Paige Wright
  • Two on-boarding workshops for new committee members
  • As outlined above four strategic planning workshops for the Wikimedia Australia Committee were held in October, November, and January and February 2022
  • A public community strategic planning consultation was held in December 2021
  • Final Wikimedia Australia Strategic Plan 2022-25
  • An Executive Officer was appointed in July 2021 for 12 months and extended from July 2022 for another 12 months with multi-year funding

Spending update Final[edit]

Wikimedia Australia's grant expenditure to 30 June 2022 is available here (See Column F)

The total amount of Simple APG funds spent during the grant period was:

  • $61,175.92 USD / $88,152.91 AUD

Grant Metrics Reporting Final[edit]

Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.

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