Grants talk:Conference/Wikimedia France/WikiConvention Francophone

Participation

There is definitely a huge benefit of having non-wiki partners, or newcomers at the event. But if you do, you need to make sure you plan for it and you incorporate a 'newcomers engagement plan' or designed sessions as part of the program to welcome non-wiki participants.

Here is how we plan to invite non-wiki partners :

GLAM partners will be invited to GLAM conferences, so they can discover what is being done in other french-speaking countries or in other institutions. These partners have a good notion of the wikimedia projects as they are members of staff from institutions that we have trained in editing, taught about creative commons licences and good practices. The same goes for our partners in the world of education : teachers, professors and ressource building institutions who are long time partners and work with wikimedia projects will be specifically invited to education related conferences.

As for policy makers, an event will be dedicated to them at the opening of the conference, on friday night. We will hold a round table on topics about laws and policies that impact the wikimedia movement.

Collaborating with potential partners - How do you plan to leverage and develop those partnerships you outlined? What exactly are you hoping to achieve by collaborating with those organizations? Are you working on any specific projects together?

We plan to invite collaborators who could become potential contributors as well as decision makers of the institutions and inspire them to become agents of change in the release of content in the Wikimedia projects. This will be an opportunity to reinforce our relations with those partners to hopefully developping bigger projects in the future.

• The organisation internationale de la francophonie is a historic partner of Wikimedia France. It used to fund the scholarship program for the wikiconvention. Since the arrival of their new president and strategy plan, their criteria for projects they support has shifted a little and no longer include the wikiconvention. We are however working with them on a new project around francophone content discoverability that will see us organize editathons together with African usergroups. We hope that by asking them to partner with us on the communication of the event, we can bring further interest to our projects among their ranks.
• The Institut Français, 2IF and the Dictionnaire des francophones are partners we are on good terms with but would like to develop closer ties with so they could support the international month of francophone contribution, which takes place in march every year. We hope the wikiconvention francophone can convince them to do so by making them more aware of our work.
• Collabora Lab in Nanterre is a long term partner : many of their researchers have worked with us, and we are welcoming one of their phd students, Tsaag Valren, as a member of Wikimedia France staff for two years. She is going to developp and maintain our wikidata mooc as part of her dissertation on e-learning and wikimedia projects. Partnering up with them would bring more academic attention to these projects.
• Ertim Lab are our co-organisers for ContribuLing, a conference about minority langages and the open, contributive digital tools that help document them. We want them to attend the wikiconvention francophone as partners to recognize the work we’ve done together in the last 2 years. Adelaide Calais WMFr (talk) 11:20, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Scholarships

I see you allocated 25 scholarships to African Wikimedians, and another 20 for local participants with partial scholarships. What about other France speaking community members who do not live in France or Africa? Will you also welcome individual applications?

Wikimedia Switzerland, Belgium and Canada have made plans to offer scholarships for their wikimedians. Wikimedia Belgium has a budget of 500€ dedicated to wikiconvention francophone scholarshpis this year for Belg wikimedians. The other two chapters have not communicated on a budget yet, as they will adjust it to the effective needs of their communities.

Why do all 25 scholarships include 5 days and nights accommodation? According to the proposal, the first 2 days will only be for ''chapter leaders''. Will all 25 scholarship recipients be community leaders? We were perhaps a little restrictive in saying usergroup and chapter leaders : the 25 scholarships will be allocated to active wikimedians who are community leaders (see below for definition)

How are you defining 'community leaders'? How will you decide who is eligible for the full 5 days or only 2?

We would define community leaders as people who are either leading a usergroup/chapter/ emerging community in a country that doesn’t have a usergroup yet, or organizing activities that help develop and strengthen the community – training sessions, editathons, contests and meetings or talks.

Among the 25 people who are allocated the scholarship, all will be required to attend the 4 days of the event. Getting them to join us is so expensive and complicated visa wise that it would be a shame for them to only attend 2 days.

Please clearly outline the scholarship criteria you intend to use for the scholarship process.

The scholarship criteria are available here : https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiConvention_francophone/2022/Bourses

To translate briefly, the scholarship comity will look at 4 criteria : activity on wikimedia projects (60%), activity in the wikimedia movement (communities, strategy process, meetings etc.) (20%), whether they are presenting a conference/workshop at the wikiconvention (15%), activity in the general open software ecosystem (with framasoft, open street map, open food fact and such)(5%). Adelaide Calais WMFr (talk) 11:28, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Risks

I understand the new circumstances with Wikimedia Tunisia, but if you see time management as a risk, why not having the events in 2023? You can submitt an application on the September 2022 round, and still host an event in early 2023 without the time pressure.

To be honest, the risk was manageable and we have already avoided most of it by opening the grant and conference call very quickly and gathering the team that we have now. Volunteers are working quickly and very eager to ensure that the event takes place. WikiFranca had its constitutive assembly as a non profit organization last november, and it needs to hold its yearly general assembly by november 2022. If we were to postpone the wikiconvention that would have consequences on this project as well as on the community building efforts that have been developped every year at this event.

On top of this, Wikimedia Côte d’Ivoire has been selected to hold the 2023 edition and is taking advantage of the 2022 edition to work closely with the board of WikiFranca and Wikimedia France staff to take on the required skills and experience. Adelaide Calais WMFr (talk) 11:37, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Goals and objectives

I would want to hear more about your objectives. What are you hoping to achieve? What will you consider a success for this conference? What kind of change are looking to see after the conference and what is the impact you are working for. Clear Metrics are very welcomed (quantitative and qualitative).

Francophone Wikimedian goals :

• prompt wikimedians to share experiences and skills
• offer wikimedians a space where they can meet potential new partners for their projects
• reinforce the sense of community between francophone wikimedians by allowing them to meet in person
• onboard wikimedians who have been contributing for 2 years but don’t really feel part of an international francophone community yet and have little awareness of the rest of the movement (online conferences hardly ever prompt us to meet new people the way in person events do.
• reinforce wikimedians' sense of purpose and usefulness by showcasing their work

WikiFranca goals :

• hold WikiFranca’s general assembly
• bring WikiFranca representatives (the board and one or two delegates per francophone usergroup/chapter) together around a common action plan and 5 year strategy
• offer mutual capacity building through 2 days of training and workshops on community building, finance managing, usergroup governance, thereby building skills among community leaders in the wikimedian francophone space
• Make WikiFranca a reality for a wider francophone audience, as the organization that brings them their yearly event and helps them think as an international, diverse community.

To determine whether the event was a success or not, we will send participants a survey and hope to get responses as follows.

General survey :

• 70 % of people learnt new skills or feel inspired by an experience sharing session.
• At least 5 % of respondents report that they have met wikimedians they didn’t know before who they would like to work with.
• Positive community feeling of belonging and shared values : 80 %
• Wikimedians feel re-energised after the conference and are ready or motivated to share knowledge through wikimedia projects , more than they would be if they hadn't attended ː yes from 60 % of respondents
• Wikimedians feel like they have better tools and ideas for community governance after the event : yes from 60 % of respondents
• Knowledge of what WikiFranca is and how it can help wikimedians carry out their projects : apt response from 60 % of respondents.

Extra survey for the pre-conference participants :

• Confidence in WikiFranca’s action plan and board : yes from 80 % of respondents
• participants will be asked to detail what they have learnt and explain how they plan to incorporate these new insights and skills into their practices. We hope to find that 40 % of respondents at least plan to change something in their habits/practice or implement something new.
• Feeling of representativity, inclusive leadership and shared governance : yes from 80 % of respondents.

The conference will be a success if it can meet these metrics.

Adelaide Calais WMFr (talk) 13:37, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Budget

The second version of the Budget is available on this page. I also added it to the main page. So it would be easier to read. Adelaide Calais WMFr (talk) 18:22, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Proposal approved

Hi Adélaïde Calais WMFr and the WikiConvention Francophone team,

Thank you for your work on the grant request. I appreciate your efforts and patience with this special round process.

We are glad to inform you that we have reviewed the final proposal and we are happy to support it in the amount of 60,000€ (62,869 USD). We are excited for the opportunity to support you in this important initiative and thank you for taking on this effort.

Looking forward to working together! On behalf of the Conference Grants Committee and Community Resources team. Best, CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 19:47, 28 June 2022 (UTC)

Asking for additional funds

Hi Chen,

Following our meeting, I added a request for more funds on the grant page ː

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Conference/Wikimedia_France/WikiConvention_Francophone#Budget_supplement

Thank you again for your support.

Adelaide Calais WMFr (talk) 14:57, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Hi Adelaide Calais WMFr, Your additional funds request in the amount of 19,379 € is approved. I only ask you to be environmentally responsible when choosing SWAG/Merchandis. Thank you, CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 03:17, 14 October 2022 (UTC)