Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Edit-a-thon/Pittsburgh Redd-up-a-thon

Just a note that I was the one to create the draft of this page initially, but was logged out. It's not some random person. --TheLeaper (talk) 18:46, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

WMF comments

Hi TheLeaper. It's great to see there are folks in the Pittsburgh area that are excited about developing offline activities. It sounds like you have a good group of experienced editors and solid institutional support. Please see our comments/questions below.

1. While we do support helping volunteers attend local events, considerable flight costs, hotel, and taxi transfers are not typically funded for one-day editathons. Considering you have a number of experienced editors to help with the facilitation and training, perhaps this volunteer can participate remotely or get additional support from their institution. If there are other considerations we should be aware of, please let us know.
2. In order to better understand the break-down of food costs, please let us know how many people you expect at each event -- 25? For a 2hr editathon providing snacks and drinks we would expect up to $10/person.
3. In terms of swag, we can send you buttons and stickers. You can see the options in the Wikipedia store.

Looking forward to your responses. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 19:01, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi Alex Wang (WMF). Thank you for the comments. My responses are numbered here.

1. I understand if these costs could not be covered; we thought it would be a great opportunity to get our other Visiting Scholar to visit and attend, since we see him so rarely and he is affiliated with our institution. Perhaps the cost associated with flying him here could instead be redirected to hosting an additional one of these events. We have had enough interest in this event that I think now that we could put on more edit-a-thons. Would you prefer that I edit the grant proposal accordingly?
2. We currently have 15 confirmed attendees from just within my library and an additional 10 from e-mailed or RSVP confirmations, and we are expecting members of the community, other universities, and students as well. At this point, we are expecting between 30 and 40. (Maybe more? It's really hard to gauge this with students and brand new editors potentially joining us.)
3. We'd love to have additional Wikipedia swag! We have designed some special buttons for these events that relate them to Open Access Week and Pittsburgh's bicentennial. We hope to continue to use these items for future events and for the Pittsburgh chapter if (when!) we form one.

Please let me know if you'd like me to incorporate this information into the grant or any other information that you need. --TheLeaper (talk) 19:52, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi TheLeaper. Thanks for this additional information and context. If you have the capacity to hold another event that would be great. Typically we see a lot more engagement and retention of new editors if there is a series of events, rather than a one-day training. Can you please update the proposal accordingly? We will still need a breakdown of cost/person for the food. It seems quite high. We don't recommend creating swag that is specific to any one event as it is hard to re-use, but it sounds like the pins you've created can be used for future events? Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:00, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Hi Alex Wang (WMF) , thank you for your comments. I have updated the grant. We hope to re-use the swag at all three events and could even use it in future years and with the Pittsburgh chapter at their events. The logo that we have designed is also reminiscent of the Pittsburgh bicentennial logo, which helps connect the wikipedia editing to an important event in the city. We would certainly use these items until the supply is exhausted.

Comments on approval

Hi TheLeaper. Thank you for your responsiveness and all the updates. We are ready to approve. Please do report on your event follow-up activities as it's always interesting for us to understand methods of engagement post-event and how that contributes to repeat participation and continued editing. Also, 50 people per editathon is quite a lot. We typically advise people to have at least one experienced Wikimedian per 10 new folks to give adequate hands-on support. You may also find that 2hrs feels tight. These are all just suggestions based on our past grantees experience. We have lots of additional editathon resources here. Have fun! Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 17:03, 21 October 2016 (UTC)