Grants:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia New York City/2019-2020
- Applicant or grantee: Wikimedia New York City
- Amount granted: $46,000 ($46,000)
- Funding period: 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020
- Midpoint report due: 15 January 2020
- Final report due: 30 July 2020
Application[edit]
Background[edit]
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. not applicable
- Link to your annual plan, for the upcoming funding period. Annual Plan 2019-2020
- Link to your strategic plan, which includes the upcoming funding period. Strategic Plan 2018–2020
Please add your grants metrics to this sheet. Note that requirements for shared metrics have changed for grants starting 1 January 2017 or later. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_qZxJ7B9U_Eo6pMG55ox-zCHppM9-lubQm0jKI2tn6g/edit#gid=1956195248
Programs[edit]
Please describe any changes to your programs for the upcoming funding period, including the addition of new programs or any programs you are no longer doing. Include your rationale for any major changes to your programs here.
Please use the templates provided to add information about each program you are planning for the upcoming funding period.
These program areas and the associated objectives were developed are derived from the Wikimedia NYC 2018-2020 Strategic Plan. For more information about the Chapter's plans for the upcoming year, please see the Annual Plan 2019-2020.
Chapter Membership & Community
This program area focuses on growing and supporting the Wikimedia NYC membership in order to sustain the activities of the Chapter and the communities it supports. This community includes long-time editors, librarians, journalists, activists, students, retirees, developers, and artists, each of which have their own motivations for engaging with Wikimedia projects broadly and the Wikimedia NYC community specifically. In order to grow this community, Wikimedia NYC must establish a more networked membership, strengthen individual engagement with chapter activities, and provide more opportunities to advance into leadership positions. This requires infrastructure built in response to community need, starting with a friendly and welcoming space in which to operate.
We will know we are successful this grant period when:
- Attendance at member events such as Wikipedia Day and the monthly WikiWednesday Salon & Skill-Share increases by 25%.
- Effective means of reporting harassment are in place.
Partnerships
The partnerships program area provides support for programming and content contributions in collaboration with institutional partners. The scope of partnerships includes formal collaborations with Wikimedia user groups such as AfroCROWD and Art + Feminism, as well as institutions such as libraries, archives and museums, local colleges and universities, and smaller activist groups. Wikimedia NYC prioritizes partnerships with groups that share its non-profit status and its mission of supporting free access to knowledge.
Existing partnerships will be sustained through identifying and addressing additional areas of support and engagement.
In service to supporting the principles of knowledge equity, Wikimedia NYC aims to partner with geographically and financially diverse range of institutions. Through increasing programming in New York City's boroughs and the larger Metropolitan area, Wikimedia NYC will provide more opportunities for local knowledge to be made global.
We will know we are successful this grant period when:
- Wikimedia NYC establishes five new partnerships with institutions that report less than 15 full-time employees.
Outreach and Education
The outreach and education program area focuses on activities that promote and advance the work of the Chapter and its vision for open knowledge. Wikimedia NYC has hosted public facing edit-a-thons and meetups for over ten years, and is one of the most active volunteer chapter doing this work. However, there has not been a clear means of connecting local event attendees with the larger Wikimedia and open knowledge movement, and, in turn, many Wikimedians are unaware of the activities of the local chapter. Wikimedia NYC shares the vision of knowledge as a service, and aims to deepen the connections between the peoples of New York and the global open knowledge movement through its work in this program area.
We will know we are successful this grant period when:
- Wikimedia NYC members speak about Wikimedia and/or open knowledge at two additional events in the New York metropolitan area.
- The Wikimedia NYC web presence is accurate, up to date, and developed with each of its audiences in mind (e.g., Wikimedians, Wikipedians, wider public).
Content Contributions
This program area focuses on institutional partnerships and public-facing events that contribute content to Wikimedia projects in the form of text, media, and data. Approaching on ten years since it founded the movement's first museum and library collaboration events, Wikimedia NYC continues to support new and diverse editors in making contributions through this method. In addition, the Chapter recognizes its city as the cultural capital of the world, and regularly encourages and facilitates large content donations from local cultural heritage organizations, the most recent instance being the donation of 375,000 high-resolution images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Whether encouraging contributions through edit-a-thons or batch uploads, Wikimedia NYC is committed to identifying and addressing content gaps. As the Chapter moves forward, it will continue its work to address race and gender content gaps on Wikipedia, and extend this to other underrepresented groups. In addition, Wikimedia NYC will further advance knowledge equity by extending this work to Wikimedia projects beyond English Wikipedia.
We will know we are successful this grant period when:
- Wikimedia NYC facilitates one content donation from an institutional partner to a Wikimedia project.
Staff and contractors[edit]
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.
- Wikimedia NYC closed the Communications Manager position. The Support & Safety Design consultant was hired for a one year project that will end in June 2019.
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.
Budget and resource plan[edit]
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.
Midpoint report[edit]
This is a brief report on the grantee's progress during the midpoint reporting period: July 2019 - December 2019.
Program story[edit]
Please link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period.
Progress[edit]
Chapter Membership and Community
As a regional chapter, Wikimedia NYC’s primary aim is to grow community and deepen member engagement with Wikimedia and the larger free culture movement. Under the 2019-2020 Annual Plan, the Chapter committed to fostering a safer space for its communities by implementing the work it completed with the Support & Safety consultant during the 2018-2019 grant period, and expanding its reach by increasing attendance at member events by 25%.
Under the Annual Plan 2018-2019, Wikimedia NYC worked with a Support & Safety Consultant to build the foundation for more welcoming and inclusive spaces. This work, combined with increased outreach, led to a 50% increase in membership. We are pleased to report that the Chapter has now finalized its implementation of the Code of Conduct. Its text is linked from the Chapter’s pages on WP:Meetup and announced at the start of events. Perhaps more importantly, members and event attendees may choose between reporting to a designated organizer or submitting well after the event occurred and/or anonymously via Twilio.
The Chapter also committed to growing attendance at community events such as Wikipedia Day, the Wiknic, and the monthly WikiWednesday Salon. Whereas edit-a-thons bring new editors and content to Wikimedia projects, community events offer flexible programming and social time, giving existing community members a chance to talk with one another and to engage with larger topics at the local and global level.
The Chapter was very excited to more than double attendance at this year’s Wiknic, which included activities engaged with the global Wikimedia 2030 Strategy Process. More details about this event are available via the Program Story. Unfortunately, while the Chapter grows its efforts to support its community, its lack of an established office or physical space serves as a barrier to this work. The annual Wikipedia Day celebration, which brought in over 300 people last year, has been postponed and possibly cancelled because the event location is unexpectedly under construction and we’ve been unable to secure an alternative space. Similarly, attendance at the monthly WikiWednesday Salon is down after moving to a location that requires more travel time. The good news, however, is that the programming itself has continued to improve. The Community Engagement Committee formed during the previous grant period continues to rotate facilitators and invite speakers on a wide range of topics, from a newbie’s experience organizing their first edit-a-thon to longtime editors grappling with global issues such as the Turkey Ban or the Wikimedia 2030 Strategy process.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Increase attendance at community events by 25% | 50% |
Attendance at annual Wiknic doubled, but WikiWednesday is down. |
| Effective means of reporting harassment are in place. | 100% |
Code of Conduct is finalized, with multiple means of reporting in place. |
Partnerships
The partnerships program area supports programming and events in collaboration with institutional partners, ranging from Wikimedia user groups and local activist organizations to cultural heritage organizations and universities. Each partner serves a unique community or communities, and, thus, by working with partners, Wikimedia NYC is able to connect a broader range of people with the Wikimedia project.
Wikimedia NYC has partnered with a range of institutions, but historically they have been well-resourced and well-staffed institutions such as major museums. The Chapter maintains its commitments to growing these partnerships, which have made a clear, global impact. However, in service to knowledge equity, it’s also committed to forming new partnerships with smaller, less well-resourced groups. These organizations hold specialized, local knowledge that is not typically represented on Wikimedia Projects. Over the course of this reporting period, Wikimedia NYC has formed two of the five new partnerships it committed to establishing with institutions or groups that have less than 15 employees, the Tech Workers Coalition and the Construction Company.
The Chapter also continues to expand and strengthen its support of its Wikimedia partners. It supports AfroCROWD as its fiscal sponsor and a collaborator in NYC based events, and looks forward to collaborating with Art + Feminism again this March. New this year, Wikimedia NYC continued its growing support of LGBT+ content by joining with the LGBT+ User Group to launch the first global Wiki Loves Pride photo contest, which ran from June 19 - July 31st. In addition to supporting the organizing efforts, Wikimedia NYC has reserved outside funds to offer financial prizes for the winner.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Establish five new partnerships with small organizations | 50% |
Events with two new partners thru December, with additional partnerships being established now |
Outreach and Education
Recognizing Wikimedia NYC’s role as a local node in global movements, the outreach and education program area focuses on activities that promote and advance the Chapter’s work in support of Wikimedia and free knowledge. This includes communicating its work to its members and the larger Wikimedia movement, as well as the broader public.
Wikimedia NYC’s confused web presence has been a barrier to communicating its work and connecting with partners and the wider public. Therefore, in 2018-2019, the Chapter contracted Logic Department to analyse and propose a redesign of the information architecture across its three primary websites: meta.wikimedia.org, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC, and wikimedianyc.org. Wikimedia NYC continued its work with Logic Department this grant period. In August, Logic Department finished its research phase - including a full inventory of Wikimedia NYC’s web content, an analysis of its traffic, interviews with internal stakeholders, and a card sorting exercise with external stakeholders - and produced a final report with recommendations for next steps. A working group was tasked with implementing the proposed changes. Already, it’s archived over 250 pages on WP:Meetup, and the landing page, which was once cluttered with administrative details and outdated announcements, now boasts a clean design that directly connects users to upcoming events and ways to stay informed about future ones. Work has begun on nyc.wikimedia.org and we look forward to implementing all changes by the end of the grant period.
Further supporting the communication of its work, Wikimedia NYC committed to speaking about Wikimedia and open knowledge at two additional non-Wikimedia events in NYC, for a total of five events over the course of the 2018-2020 Strategic Plan. Unfortunately, a November workshop scheduled as part of an open pedagogy series was cancelled due to illness, but a new date has been set for the spring. Members from Wikimedia NYC have also submit proposals to the annual New York City Digital Humanities Week and to the symposium, Towards an Open Future. While it’s outside the scope of the stated goal for local workshops, Wikimedia NYC also offered a WikiCite workshop at the international FORCE 2019 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. FORCE11 is a community of scholars, librarians, archivists, publishers and research funders that, like Wikipedians, work “to help facilitate the change toward improved knowledge creation and sharing.” The workshop had over fifty participants and was well received.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Speak about Wikimedia and/or open knowledge at two additional events in the New York metropolitan area | 20% |
Spoke at one international event with local ones lined up for this Spring |
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Web presence is redesigned, accurate and up-to-date | 40% |
WP:WMNYC is redesigned. Work on wikimedia.nyc.org and meta.wikimedia.org is in progress. |
Content Contributions
This program area focuses on institutional partnerships and public-facing events that contribute content to Wikimedia projects in the form of text, media, and data. With knowledge equity in mind, Wikimedia NYC committed to increasing the diversity of content created at edit-a-thons, by increasing the number of edit-a-thons on LGBT+ topics and the number of events focused on projects other than English Wikipedia. The Chapter continues these efforts this grant period, supporting the global Wiki Loves Pride photo contest that received over 4,000 submissions, organizing a World AIDS Day Edit-a-thon (cancelled due to weather), supporting an edit-a-thon on transgender representation, and participating in the organizing efforts for the first Wikimedia conference focused on LGBT+ issues, Queering Wikipedia. The Chapter has also continued to offer workshops on Wikidata, and has scheduled translatathons for this spring.
As part of the 2019-2020 Annual Plan, Wikimedia NYC also aims to facilitate at least one content donation from an institutional partner. Staff employed at an institution may experience legal, technical, and/or cultural barriers when contributing to a Wikimedia project, and the community can play a role in overcoming these obstacles. Wikimedia NYC is currently in conversation with individuals at two institutions interested in contributing, and we hope to finalize this work by the close of the grant period.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Facilitate one content donation from an institutional partner to a Wikimedia project. | 15% |
Conversations are in progress |
Spending[edit]
Please report your organization's total spending during the reporting period, or link to a financial document showing your total spending.
- $9,127.40
Final report[edit]
Program story[edit]
Please link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period.
Learning story[edit]
Please link to one learning story that showcases your organization's learning during the reporting period.
Programs Impact[edit]
Introduction[edit]
During the 2019–2020 grant period, Wikimedia NYC intended to focus its efforts on increasing its organizational capacity and strengthening its work in support of knowledge equity and knowledge as a service. While it was largely successful in this effort, the Chapter is located at what is largely regarded as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. We do not yet know the full impact on the Wikimedia NYC community, but the board and its primary group of volunteers was hit hard, with multiple people battling the virus in their bodies and in their lives. On March 11, Wikimedia NYC cancelled or postponed all in-person events, two weeks before it was required to do so by the Wikimedia Foundation.
As a volunteer organization, one of Wikimedia NYC’s strengths has always been its agility and ability to adapt to the needs of its community. However, under the personal and professional strain of the pandemic, the capacity of its volunteers is significantly reduced, and our first priority must be to take care of ourselves and the people around us. For this reason, the multiple edit-a-thons scheduled for March were not simply remodeled into an online format, but cancelled so we could reimagine what programming will look like for Wikimedia NYC in an online environment.
Historically, Wikimedia NYC held the first edit-a-thons in the Wikimedia community because it recognizes the value of face to face education and community building. This cannot be replicated online, so while we still support some select online editing events, Wikimedia NYC was also interested in exploring new models for community engagement. The first of these experiments was the hugely successful COVID-19 Symposium held in May, and detailed in the Program Story associated with this report.
We do not know what lies ahead for Wikimedia NYC or the movement at large, but we know that we are here to do the work together.
Chapter Membership and Community[edit]
This program area focuses on deepening the relationships between members and the Chapter and each other through community-focused events, the monthly WikiWednesday Salon, and our annual Wiknic and Wikipedia Day celebrations.
As detailed in the midpoint report, attendance at this year’s Wiknic more than doubled from previous years and included a number of activities designed to engage local members with the Wikimedia movement’s larger 2030 strategy process. While attendance at the monthly WikiWednesday salon is lower than in the previous reporting period, it has remained stable, and with a move to an online format, we’ve been able to welcome longtime members of the community that wouldn’t otherwise be able to join because of their location.
Wikipedia Day is historically Wikimedia NYC’s largest event, including a full day of panels and invited speakers, lightning talks, and, of course, cake. The festive format is especially welcoming to members of the wider public who haven’t previously attended a Wikimedia event, and last year’s festivities boasted over 300 attendees, reaching the full capacity of the standing-room only space. This year, our longstanding partner, the Ace Hotel, was undergoing construction and unable to host us. Unable to secure an affordable, alternate location on a constrained timeline, Wikimedia NYC had planned to host a larger conference centered around climate change in the summer. This, however, was cancelled due due to the global pandemic.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Increase attendance at community events by 25% | 50% |
Attendance at annual Wiknic doubled, but WikiWednesday is down but stable. |
| Effective means of reporting harassment are in place. | 100% |
Code of Conduct is finalized, with multiple means of reporting in place. |
Partnerships[edit]
The Partnerships program area supports programming and events in collaboration with institutional partners, ranging from Wikimedia user groups and local activist organizations to cultural heritage organizations and universities. These relationships are what fuel the expansion of the Wikimedia community, and the diversification of content and contributors to Wikimedia projects.
As part of its commitment to local knowledge, Wikimedia NYC aimed to establish five new partnerships with smaller, less-well-resourced, community-based organizations during the 2019–2020 grant period. Two partnerships were formed in the first half of the granting period, and we’re pleased to say that two more - with Nowadays and Sure We Can - moved forward in the second half.
In January, Wikimedia NYC supported an electronic music edit-a-thon at Nowadays, a restaurant and performance space that also serves as an organizing location for local activist groups. One of our newer and most active members also organized a waste and environmental-justice edit-a-thon as well as a census multilingual translate-a-thon at Sure We Can, a non-profit redemption center that serves the canning community in New York City. While some partnerships did not move forward due to the global pandemic, we are thrilled we were still able to establish new relationships with smaller organizations and the communities they serve.
March is typically the busiest time of year for Wikimedia NYC, with almost one WikiWomen’s History Month or Art + Feminism edit-a-thon per day. While we were disappointed to cancel the great number of events planned for March, we were glad to continue our annual programming with Kundiman, hosting a weeklong edit-a-thon in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The week included three online training sessions in order to accommodate a range of schedules, as well as a happy hour to close out the week and celebrate the 34 articles created and 125 articles edited by just 33 new or newish editors.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Establish five new partnerships with small organizations | 80% |
Events with two new partners thru December, with additional partnerships being established now |
Outreach and Education[edit]
The Outreach and Education program area focuses on activities that promote and advance the Chapter’s work in support of Wikimedia and free knowledge.
As part of sAPG 2019–2020, the Chapter resolved to speak about Wikimedia and the broader open knowledge movement at two local events, totaling five events across the 2018–2019 and 2019–2020 grant periods. During 2019–2020, members of Wikimedia NYC spoke at five local events, including the New York City Digital Humanities Week, the Towards an Open Future Symposium hosted by the CUNY Graduate Center, as well as three events focused on open pedagogy at Hostos Community College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and York College. In addition, Wikimedia NYC members further spread knowledge of the Wikimedia movement through offering Wikidata/Wikicite workshops at two international conferences, FORCE and Open Repositories.
In addition to the advocacy and education work conducted during this period, the Chapter committed to improving its web presence across three primary sites: en.wikipedia.org/Meetup, meta.wikimedia.org, and nyc.wikimedia.org. Guided by the research and recommendations developed by an external consultancy, Logic Department, during sAPG 2018–2019, Wikimedia NYC has finalized the overhaul of these sites. Hundreds of pages were archived and the landing pages for the Meetup space on English Wikipedia and on meta are streamlined with user needs in mind (meta: before and after, en.wikipedia.org/Meetup/NYC before and after). Out-of-date and irrelevant pages were updated or removed from nyc.wikimedia.org, and we look forward to expanding the content on this site as we gain clarity on the future direction of the Chapter.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Speak about Wikimedia and/or open knowledge at two additional events in the New York metropolitan area | 100% |
Spoke at multiple local events and two international ones |
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Web presence is redesigned, accurate and up-to-date | 100% |
All three sites are redesigned and accurate |
Content Contributions[edit]
This program area focuses on institutional partnerships and public-facing events that contribute content to Wikimedia projects in the form of text, media, and data. In keeping with its goals to diversify the languages and projects it supports, Wikimedia NYC members led a number of local and international Wikidata workshops, and, while the multiday translate-a-thon at LaGuardia Community College was cancelled due to the pandemic, we were still able to support the census multilingual edit-a-thon at Sure We Can. Over the course of the 2019-2020 grant period, Wikimedia NYC formally facilitated 56 events, reaching almost 1,000 editors who contributed 373 new articles and edited. 2.47K existing ones. Notably, this is just two events fewer than the previous grant period, despite the shutdown in March.
Continuing its work supporting LGBTQ+ content on Wikipedia, the Chapter encouraged submissions to the annual Wiki Loves Pride editing event by offering a postcard incentive. Participants that created at least one new article or significantly expanded an existing article in the topic were sent a postcard bearing one of last year’s winning photos from the Wiki Loves Pride photo contest.
In this area, Wikimedia NYC’s primary goal of the 2019–2020 grant period was to facilitate one content donation from an institutional partner to a Wikimedia project. Such contributions can take a great deal of time, as one advocates for institutional change around standard sharing practices. At the time of its midpoint report, Wikimedia NYC was in conversation with three organizations about donating a subset of their collections to Wikimedia Commons. However, the pandemic, and the demands it made of the people and institutions of the city of New York, prevented these collaborations from moving forward. Given the increased attention to online programming in recent months, we hope to continue this advocacy work in the year ahead.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Facilitate one content donation from an institutional partner to a Wikimedia project. | 15% |
Conversations were haulted by the global pandemic |
Spending update[edit]
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.
Please include the total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period:
- $31,002.41 USD/Local currency
Grant Metrics Reporting[edit]
Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.