Grants:TPS/Varnent/CreatingChange2012/Report

Event name:

24th National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change

aka Creating Change 2012

Photos from conference

Description of your participation:
Attended the Creating Change 2012 conference as a registered participant and presenter.

• On Friday night, hosted a wiki reception featuring Wikimedia, Wikimania, WikiQueer and OutHistory
  • Slides on projector promoting Wikipedia, Wikimania, Wikimedia DC, WikiQueer, OutHistory and Wikipedia's WikiProject LGBT studies
  • Desert items were served to draw people in
• On Saturday morning, hosted a wiki meet up
  • Introduced people to wiki concept
  • Addressed concerns about barriers to editing and contributing content
  • Discussed LGBT involvement in Wikimedia and 3rd party wikis
• One-on-one outreach promoting Wikimedia and Wikimania
• Inclusion of wikis, and specifically Wikimedia projects, in group discussions regarding use of technology
• Outreach to potential Wikimania 2012 vendors

What lessons were learned that could help others in similar events?

• Reception is a more realistic approach when volunteer recruitment will be an issue
  • Not as much coverage, but inclusion in program and high quality interactions
  • More compressed time frame - which requires less volunteers - but allows for less broad outreach
• Look into tax exempt status being used at large expenses like hotels
• Designate someone to take photos - you won't have time (forehead slap)
• Should be some stated guidelines on how grants funded should be communicated - what language is used for events hosted by the grant "Hosted by Wikimedia" was used, but could see others using "Wikimedia Foundation"
  • Guidelines on logo use as well, perhaps link to Outreach project if those guidelines are to be used, etc.

What impact did your participation have on the Wikimedia Mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?
During the conference I was able to...

• Hand out 100+ Wikimedia promotional materials and 50+ Wikimania materials
• Discuss Wikimedia activities with 200+ individuals
• Outline a new project to engage and encourage LGBT organizations and leaders in archiving original source content
  • Discussion with individuals involved with Library of Congress
  • Plan to have initial elements in place for presentation in DC, perhaps at Library of Congress, prior to Wikimania
  • Plan to present on new outreach effort at Wikimania
  • Two year rollout and outreach effort with support in years following from regional/state archives (including Library of Congress)
  • Request inclusion in Library of Congress' LGBT Portal
• Outreach to 2-5 potential Wikimania vendors
• Increased visibility of Wikimedia within LGBT communities
• Improved reputation for Wikimedia projects within LGBT communities
• Generated interest from, and support for, community in continued outreach
• Met with Netroots Nation staff about Wikimania outreach at Netroots Nation 2012 in June and general Wikimedia outreach and panel discussion at Netroots Nation 2013
  • Strong interest and possible partial scholarship (from NN LGBT scholarship fund) for attendance at Netroots Nation 2012 for Wikimedia outreach
• While it's hard to quantify potential new contributors, I can offer these estimates:
  • About 11-14 people were former contributors who seem likely to re-engage (at least a few had not been chive in several years)
  • At least 25 people were interested in becoming new contributors and are likely to sign up in the next few months
  • An additional dozen were interested in becoming involved through WikiQueer
  • Around 6 people representing organizations were interested in engaging volunteers or interns in contributing
• Similarly, it's difficult to quantify impact on readership. However...
  • I'm confident at least 50 people will become more frequent visitors to articles on LGBT issues.
  • A smaller group will become new readers (although, finding someone there who had never used enWP was a rare event).
  • Probably 24 people or so will use other Wikimedia projects outside enWP for the first time.

Participation numbers...

• Reception attended by 50+ conference attendees
  • Special guest: Katie Filbert, President of Wikimedia DC
• Meet up attended by a dozen conference attendees
• Conference attendance was 3,000+
  • Majority members of LGBT communities
  • Racial, religious, geographical, age and socioeconomic diversity very high for an annual national conference
  • Large percentage of students and academics present (at least 30%+)

Strong interest in continuing outreach to LGBT communities. Also an interest in holding meet ups and possibly receptions at future Creating Change conferences to build momentum.

Detail of expenditures:

Item	Value (in US$)
Accommodations	596
Per diem	71/day x .75 x 4 days = 213
Conference expense	150
Reception	319.43
Parking for reception volunteer	28
Total	US$1306.43

Amount underspent/left-over (please specify currency):

Requested value		Amount executed		Left-over	%
US$1523	-	US$1306.43	=	US$216.57	14.22%