Grants talk:PEG/Wikipedia Connection/Semester Funding for Workshops and Events

A decision has been made on this grant. Comments are still welcome on this page.

GAC members who support this request

1. --DerekvG (talk) 20:05, 5 January 2016 (UTC)
2. --Violetova (talk) 23:16, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

GAC comments

Please, I don't understand the impact. It's too general give some numbers as baseline, not set in a stone but at least to understand the context. --Ilario (talk) 17:46, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

@Ilario: Thanks for the question. Last semester's events included:

• The Buckeye Edit-a-Thon, which brought together 15 students and staff to edit articles. 6 of the attendees had never edited Wikipedia, and most had very little experience otherwise. In 2.5 hours, after an introductory presentation, 67 edits were made to 19 articles (2 of which were newly created).
• Weekly 1.5 hour workshops for students to edit together and receive help. These workshops had attendances of anywhere between 3 and 10, with an educational presentation and editing occurring at each one.

Through the above events, we had a direct impact on ~20 students and several faculty members. With the grant, the hope is to continue to support our current editors, and to host more frequent and larger events to expand our reach:

• We will host at least two edit-a-thons, with 20-40 attendees each.
• Our photography event(s) would result in 50+ photos illustrating the newly renovated campus.
• Collaborations with University student organizations, departments, and Ohio's congress would result in new editors, photos, and research material to improve Wikipedia with.

Through all these events, I estimate our organization will directly impact at least 40 students through educating them about Wikipedia and introducing them to editing. The number may be higher based on the popularity of our events, and whether we support any Education Program courses this upcoming semester. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 22:52, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Community comments

Hi there, and thank you for the work that you are doing at Ohio State. Your proposal makes good sense to me. And I would give you full funding if it was up to me.

• Strongest points:

Short term planning over one semester. It make sense to make plans that match the semester schedule. It's more realistic than thinking longer term since students and staff come and go based on the semester schedule.

Target audience You have identified a good target audience of students and staff.

Tie ins with other wikimedia events Joining other wikimedia events like Art+Feminism or Wikipedia Day will be a multiplier for publicity and resource materials.

Registering as official university club. It is both a great way to get extra resources from the university and way to promote fellowship and unity.

Connecting with Wiki Ed Foundation Good to see that you are reaching out to Wiki Ed Foundation for support and resources. And also could potentially support work they do in classrooms.

Utilize Ohio State archives and reference material. Connecting with campus librarians to assist with identifying collections and supporting editing. Liberians and libraries are a good place on campus to build capacity for future years.

Experienced Wikipedians Have the knowledge to help people learn to edit.

• Other points

Measures of Success Collecting Global Metrics is good but only part of the picture. I see that you have estimated the number of people that you will reach and also contribution (We will host at least two edit-a-thons, with 20-40 attendees each. Our photography event(s) would result in 50+ photos illustrating the newly renovated campus. Collaborations with University student organizations, departments, and Ohio's congress would result in new editors, photos, and research material to improve Wikipedia with.) So, you don't need to have many more complicated evaluation measures, but if they are written a bit differently they will do a better job of telling your accomplishments at a local level. I suggest separating them out for different projects so that they can help show your accomplishments for each event. And I encourage you to make them more relevant to your local area and interests. Like you did it when mentioning 50+ photos of campus buildings. For example, 5 articles about notable women scientists who graduated from Ohio State. Or 5 articles about women artists local to Ohio. This type of measures of success fits well with doing narrative storytelling about events. For example, in a blog post, you then could highlight why it is meaningful for local editors to devote time to searching archives or scanning old photographs about a local people. Also can help you determine the resources that you need to accomplish the goals. Like which books, databases, or archives need to made available for events.

Diversity You are already working on diversity issues by participating in Art+Feminism. Be sure to give yourself credit for including diversity in your plan by highlighting the projects which are the best positioned to increase diversity content or contributors.

Expanding to outside the university Reaching outside the university for events in Columbus on a limited scale is an good idea. A Wiki Takes Columbus event or working with the staff of state legislators are both interesting ideas and can be fun and rewarding. This will take more planning since it will be in addition to weekly events or on campus edit-a-thons. So, check your capacity for stretching to do these type projects. I would definitely prioritize this lower since they will be less likely to build community on campus.

All in all, the plan looks good and I wish you the best success. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 05:05, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

@FloNight: Thank you for all your feedback! I appreciate the encouraging words and good advice, especially regarding the evaluations and stretch goals. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 08:05, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

• Budget question

In general, the line items in the budget seem reasonable. The $200 for "Wikipedia Meet Ohio Congress" or other projects off campus is vague but the cost is not unreasonable. I think it sensible to include the $200 in this grant. But to be successful the project will need more detailed planning including a budget for use of the funds. Would you please spell out in a bit more detail the possible uses for the $200? Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 14:15, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

@FloNight: Good question. Since we've only started discussion on working with Ohio's Congress, the $200 serves to cover any unforeseen costs we could have. At this point, I expect the money to be put towards any postage we might need, educational materials (if we can't acquire them for free from Wikimedia or an affiliate), and food to cover events and workshops we have (e.g. light food and snacks for a collaborative workshop we could have with Congress staff). ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 08:05, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

• Bonus thought :-)

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to utilize The Wikipedia Library as a resource and potential future collaboration partner. TWL has developed special content about collaborations between research libraries and Wikipedia. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk)

@FloNight: Great idea, we'll definitely check this out. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 08:05, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

WMF comments

Hi SuperHamster and AddisWang, the plan you have outlined in the grant request looks good - it is great to hear that your initial events have been successful in attracting both new and experienced editors. As FloNight points out, having official recognition as a club sounds like a great asset, both in terms of the financial support they are offering and to help your club manage financial reporting. If you can respond the comments and requests below, we should be able to make a funding decision by the end of this week:

• Please move the measures of success described in response to Ilario's questions to the grant request itself.
• Please specify what items you would like to order from the Wikipedia store to offer as prizes and to distribute to event participants in the 'non financial support section' and remove those expenses from the budget table.
• It is great to hear that you have a plan to track participation in events and editathons. You might find the rangecontribs tool helpful for identifying new editors who remain active after events and editathons so that you can follow up with them.
• The editathon last term had a total of 15 participants but you estimate an average of 30 participants will attend each of the editathons this term. What are you doing differently this term to increase participation?
• T-shirts should be reserved for event organizers or as prizes, please reduce the number of t-shirts and the budget accordingly.
• FloNight made a great suggestion about setting goals for the creation or improvement of articles about specific topics, and paying attention to diversity outside of the art+feminism events. You might consider experimenting with this idea by setting a theme or a goal for some of the weekly editing meetups.

Thank you for your hard work on this proposal, and in organizing your club. Let us know when you have made the requested changes or if you have any questions or concerns about our comments. Cheers, --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 22:43, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

@KHarold (WMF): Thank you for the reply and encouraging words! We had a meeting today to discuss the changes. I'll respond to each of the points bullet-by-bullet:

• Please move the measures of success described in response to Ilario's questions to the grant request itself.

Done

• Please specify what items you would like to order from the Wikipedia store to offer as prizes and to distribute to event participants in the 'non financial support section' and remove those expenses from the budget table.

Done

• It is great to hear that you have a plan to track participation in events and editathons. You might find the rangecontribs tool helpful for identifying new editors who remain active after events and editathons so that you can follow up with them.

Great suggestion, thank you! We'll bookmark this tool for the future.

• The editathon last term had a total of 15 participants but you estimate an average of 30 participants will attend each of the editathons this term. What are you doing differently this term to increase participation?

Last year's edit-a-thon occurred shortly after the beginning of the school year, so there wasn't much time for us to advertise the event. This year, with both more time to prepare and prior experience, we're going to greatly expand our advertising reach. This will include:

• Posting over 350 flyers in residence halls and academic buildings for our club and each of our events.
• Reaching out to other student organizations whose members may be interested in participating (e.g. we've begun talking to Ohio State's ACM-W chapter, who are interested in our Art+Feminism edit-a-thon).
• Having our events appear on various campus advertising mediums, such as digital screens, calendars, and bus advertisements.
• Providing raffle prizes and awards to attract participation and increase motivation.
• Facebook advertising ("boosted posts") for events that can benefit from targeted advertising, such as the Art+Feminism edit-a-thon and photography event. These advertisement would target people in the Columbus geographic area with interest in Wikipedia, Ohio State, and topics related to the advertised event. This is a new item that our group came up with during our meeting, and I've added it into the budget as a $50 expense; please let me know if this should be changed.

• T-shirts should be reserved for event organizers or as prizes, please reduce the number of t-shirts and the budget accordingly.

Done

• FloNight made a great suggestion about setting goals for the creation or improvement of articles about specific topics, and paying attention to diversity outside of the art+feminism events. You might consider experimenting with this idea by setting a theme or a goal for some of the weekly editing meetups.

Great thoughts indeed, we'll work on implementing them throughout the semester. We currently have our weekly workshops revolve around a certain editing aspect (e.g. reliable sources, notability, uploading photos, etc.), though I can see us benefiting from having workshops focusing on particular themes and topics (particular ones related to diversity).

You might find that topic-specific sessions help you reach new/different editors who come out of interest in the topic. Keilana has experience doing this on her college campus and may have advice or tips to share. You can learn more about her here: Loyola Women in Science and Math Workshop/Report --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 19:30, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for your response and time. ~SuperHamster Talk Contribs 08:55, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Funding decision

Hi SuperHamster, we are pleased approve this request for $1,529 to support members of the Wikipedia Connection club at Ohio State University to fund workshops and events this semester. It is wonderful to see that you have a growing group of students who enjoy editing together, and we hope this funding helps your club continue to grow. Please update the measures of success section to include a specific goal for the number of articles that will be be created or improved as part of weekly workshops, editathons, and other events. You should create a system to track your progress toward these goals - we suggest that at the very least you use event pages to log participation and articles each week. We would also like you to keep track of participation - it will be interesting to see if having weekly workshops helps keep new and veteran editors engaged in your community. The RangeContribs tool makes it easy to track a cohort of editors. Thank you the GAC and community members who supported this request. Go Buckeyes! --KHarold (WMF) (talk) 22:24, 20 January 2016 (UTC)