7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

The Sinirangan Bisaya Wikimedia Community (SBWC) in cooperation with the Philippine Science High School - Eastern Visayas Campus (PSHS-EVC) conducted the 7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, an event in which people come together in a place to collaboratively contribute to online projects such as but not limited to Waray Wikipedia, at the Computer Laboratory, 3rd Floor, Main Building, Philippine Science High School Eastern Visayas Campus, Pawing, Palo, Leyte on March 10, 2017. This edit-a-thon was funded by generous donors. Wikimedia Foundation has granted a one-time license to use its trademarks for this activity. Two Wikimedia volunteers from Manila served as resource speakers for wiki editing and assisted in the conduct of the actual edit-a-thon. Professor Voltaire Oyzon of Leyte Normal University also served as resource speaker for the orthography of the Waray language. The PSHS-EVC provided the venue and invited participants for the event. This is the first edit-a-thon hosted in Palo, Leyte.

This edit-a-thon is unique among other edit-a-thons done in Eastern Visayas or in the Philippines because this is the first time that it was held in a high school. Also, within three hours and forty-five minutes, this edit-a-thon produced the most number of characters contributed in any documented edit-a-thon conducted in the Philippines as of March 2017. Upon generating 218,721 characters, it has widely beaten the 6th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College, which contributed 66,366 characters.

As a side event, the project team of this edit-a-thon presented Waray Wikipedia and other Wikimedia Projects to the members of the Association of Government Information Officers (AGIO) of Region 8 (Eastern Visayas Region) during its meeting on March 13, 2017 at the Leyte Academic Center. This side event is the 5th Waray Wikimedia Forum that was made possible with the cooperation of Ms. Alicia E. Nicart, Officer in Charge of the Office of the Director of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) of Region 8.

Activities

Pre-event

The 7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon and the 5th Waray Wikipedia Forum happened through the efforts of Michael Glen U. Ong, SBWC coordinator and administrator of Waray Wikipedia. Since January 2017, he diligently contacted the Campus Director of PSHS-EVC, Dr. Reynaldo B. Garnace, to finalize the date for the edit-a-thon. He also coordinated the inclusion of the presentation of Waray Wikipedia and other Wikimedia-related projects in the agenda of the AGIO meeting. The main contact person for the AGIO meeting is Ms. Alicia E Nicart, PIA Region 8 - OIC Director, which SBWC met for the first time on June 2016. After a series of follow-up meetings, SBWC was permitted to present Wikimedia projects during the AGIO meeting on March 13, 2017.

Actual events

Edit-a-thon at Philippine Science High School - Eastern Visayas Campus

With a confirmed schedule for the edit-a-thon at PSHS-EVC, Michael once again tapped veteran Filipino Wikimedians Jojit Ballesteros and Bel Ballesteros to give talks and facilitate the edit-a-thon. Michael, Jojit and Bel formed the project team. Michael also invited Professor Voltaire Oyzon to discuss Waray language orthography. The event happened at the Computer Laboratory in the 3rd Floor of the Main Building of PSHS-EVC. As designated by Dr. Garnace to take charge of the event in behalf of PSHS-EV, Mrs. Vicky Maraya-Paete, a faculty member of the school, took care of the event's logistics and registration of participants.

Schedule

Time	Activity	Speaker/Facilitator	Notes
March 10, 2017 (Friday)
8:30 am	Registration
9:10 am	Welcome remarks from SBWC	Michael Ong, SBWC coordinator
9:12 am	Lecture: Waray language orthography	Voltaire Oyzon, Leyte Normal University Professor
9:37 am	Lecture: Introduction to Wikipedia	Bel Ballesteros, Wikimedian
10:25 am	Morning snacks
10:37 am	Demonstration on how to edit Wikipedia	Jojit Ballesteros, Wikimedian
11:30 am	Lunch break
12:30 pm	Start of edit-a-thon	The whole project team assisted and guided participants during the edit-a-thon. Teachers of PSHS who were present during the event assisted the students on translation. Afternoon snacks were given around 3:00 pm as participants continue to edit.
4:15 pm	End of edit-a-thon and the start of tallying of the participants' contributions.	Jojit and Bel tallied the contributed characters of the participants
4:38 pm	Presentation of plaque of appreciation	Michael Ong	SBWC had given plaque of appreciation to Dr. Reynaldo B. Garnace.
5:10 pm	Announcement of winners and awarding	Bel Ballesteros announced the winners while Michael facilitated the awarding.	The twelve (12) students and one (1) teacher were awarded with prizes.
5:30 pm	Event ended

List of participants

There were twenty-one (21) students and five (5) teachers who participated in the edit-a-thon. All of them were new to Wikipedia but only twenty five (25) were able to create their Wikimedia user accounts. One teacher failed to create his user account but he assisted the students with the translation during the edit-a-thon. The students, who were handpicked by PSHS-EVC, belonged to Grades 10 and 11 and had ages between 15 to 16 years old. The registered teachers also edited some articles during the edit-a-thon and assisted students on their editing, particularly in translation work.

Prizes were given to the top twelve (12) students and the top teacher based on the number of characters contributed. All student winners received Offline Wikipedia versions of both English and Waray language editions. The top three winners of the edit-a-thon each won a USB flash drive containing Offline Wikipedias of both English (version 0.8_2016-09) and Waray (version all_2017-01) language editions as well as a Wikipedia mug while the rest of the winners received their offline English (version 0.8_2010-12) and Waray (version all_2017-01) Wikipedias in DVDs. The teacher who contributed the most number of characters among the teachers was given a USB flash drive containing the offline English (version 0.8_2016-09) and Waray (version all_2017-01) Wikipedias and a Wikipedia mug while the rest of the teachers received DVDs containing offline English (version 0.8_2010-12) and Waray (version all_2017-01) Wikipedias. All participants received Wikipedia stickers and Wikipedia key chains as well as certificates of attendance.

Students
Username	Gender	Contributions in characters	Edit count	Created articles	Wikimedia projects	Notes
Eis Reese	Female	31,217	2	Zedd Bullet Dumas	Waray Wikipedia	First place winner
Alymarmar	Female	23,928	3	John F. Kennedy Jr.	Waray Wikipedia, Wikidata	Second place winner
Nins Zamoras	Male	20,079	11	Lonzo Ball	Waray Wikipedia	Third place winner (Unable to claim his prize personally because he left for another activity after finishing uploading his work. Mrs. Paete claimed his prize on his behalf.)
Kbayooooot	Female	17,345	15	Troye Sivan Us the Duo Jacob Lee AJ Rafael William Singe	Waray Wikipedia	Fourth place winner
Thedudenics	Male	17,213	3	Partido Liberal (Pilipinas) Opisyal nga Gaseta han Republika han Pilipinas Sistema han mga Hitaas nga Eskwelahan han Pilipinas ha Siyensiya	Waray Wikipedia	Fifth place winner
Viadame	Female	16,538	8	Baldomero M. Olivera	Waray Wikipedia	Sixth place winner
DoctorJjay	Male	13,512	15	PewDiePie Lechon Hitaas na Eskwelahan hit Pilipinas ha Syensya - Kampus hit Sirangan Bisayas	Waray Wikipedia, English Wikipedia, Tagalog Wikipedia, Wikidata	Seventh place winner
Whitephewcoco	Male	12,007	17	Lamelo Ball	Waray Wikipedia, English Wikipedia	Eight place winner (Unable to claim his prize personally because he left for another activity after finishing uploading his work. Mrs. Paete claimed his prize on his behalf.)
Ruswelli	Female	10,837	5	(No article created. She only edited an article and created a user page.)	Waray Wikipedia, English Wikipedia	Ninth place winner
S Tip	Female	10,472	10	Paulo C. Campos Black Pink	Waray Wikipedia	Tenth place winner
Chuagusss	Male	6,751	5	(No article created. He only improved an article.)	Waray Wikipedia	Eleventh place winner
GaborRanz16	Male	6,274	5	Zalman Krause Mga balaud ha Volleyball	Waray Wikipedia	Twelfth place winner
Thirdymedino13	Male	4,914	8	Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center	Waray Wikipedia
Chloe Tina	Female	4,859	1	Gavino C. Trono Jr.	Waray Wikipedia
Kouks Heire	Male	3,833	10	Jericho "Icot" Petilla	Waray Wikipedia, Wikidata
Orbetajanadrian	Male	3,614	2	Leon Maria Guerrero	Waray Wikipedia
Its krizzy	Male	2,785	1	Asuncion K. Raymundo	Waray Wikipedia
Anonymous403 1234JOM	Male	2,780	7	(No article created. He only edited an article.)	Waray Wikipedia
JK Fraga	Male	2,593	4	Samsung Francis Fronda Transesterification	Waray Wikipedia
Wikitristan	Male	2,554	6	K.A.R.D.	Waray Wikipedia
GD 2516	Male	1,750	9	(No created article. He only edited articles.)	Waray Wikipedia

Teachers
Name	Username	Gender	Contributions in characters	Edit count	Created articles	Wikimedia projects	Notes
Gina Cañete	Amable2017	Female	1,916	1	Veronica Chan	Waray Wikipedia	Winner
Jesse Ronald Estoque	Jrestoque	Male	945	3	Wi-fi	Waray Wikipedia
Maria Lorna Garnace	Maria lorna garnace	Female		1	(No created articles. She only edited an article.)	Waray Wikipedia
Divina Villalino	Barakatmark	Female	5	3	(No created articles. She only improved articles.)	Waray Wikipedia
Cary Von Alano		Male					Unable to create a user account but helped students on their edits.

5th Waray Wikimedia Forum with Philippine Information Agency - Eastern Visayas

With the assistance of Ms. Alicia Nicart, OIC Director of Philippine Information Agency of Region 8 (Eastern Visayas), Wikimedians Jojit, Michael and Bel were able to present Wikipedia and other Wikimedia-related projects to the members of the Association of Government Information Officers (AGIO) of Region 8 during its meeting on March 13, 2017 at the Leyte Academic Center at Palo, Leyte highlighting the Waray Wikipedia and Wiktionary. The slot allotted for the presentation was from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. During the presentation, questions from the government information officers were entertained and answered to further clarify what have already been presented, to correct some misconceptions and to encourage them to take part in enhancing the Waray Wikipedia and Wiktionary.

Towards the end of the presentation, the idea of having edit-a-thons for AGIO and in Borongan, Samar were opened up (i) to improve the content of the Waray Wikipedia and Wiktionary, and (ii) to enhance the translation of the interface of the Waray Wikipedia. Ms. Nicart said that she would look for possible schedules for the events and she would inform the project team. After the forum, the project team gave a plaque of appreciation to Ms. Nicart for giving SBWC the chance to present Waray Wikipedia and other related Wikimedia projects.

Lessons learned

What worked well?

Having dialogues/meetings with partners beforehand, the PSHS-EVC for the edit-a-thon and the PIA-Region 8 for the forum, helped establish these collaborations. The series of communications, meetings and persistent follow-ups before the events greatly helped in exchanging ideas and information on how to conduct this event. For the edit-a-thon, these ideas include orienting the partners on Wikipedia and its related projects for them to appreciate the target outcome and output of the activities, explaining the conduct of an edit-a-thon so that the partners would know what to expect during the activity, requesting for facilities such as computers and internet connections which are conducive to productive edit-a-thons and preparing the participants, through the partners, by making them plan or think of what they would like to contribute in terms of encyclopedic articles with a minimum of three independent, reliable and verifiable sources. For the forum, ideas and information exchanged during meetings and communications before the event include short orientation on Wikipedia and related products highlighting Waray Wikipedia (online and offline) and Wiktionary, description of how a Wikipedia forum in Eastern Visayas is usually conducted, and profile of the target participants of the forum.
This edit-a-thon was held at a science high school, which is a first for an edit-a-thon in the Philippines. The participants consisted of high school students and teachers who participated individually at the high school's computer laboratory. Most of them contributed seamlessly due to the reliable internet of PSHS-EVC. With a total of 218,721 characters contributed by the participants, the project team was very much pleased with this overwhelming results and they also found out that most of the top contributors created good articles even though this edit-a-thon's goal does not include measuring quality of the articles unlike with the 6th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. The students were very eager to edit the Waray Wikipedia and share what they know.
Some of the students drafted their work first on a word-processor software or text-editor before uploading it to Wikipedia, which helped them to not lose their work. The project team suggested this technique to PSHS-EVC contact person/s before the actual event.
Although some of the participants had difficulty translating some English words to its Waray counterpart, the assistance of the teachers as well as students (who were also participants) solved this problem.
Because PSHS-EVC have one IP address, the project team was initially worried about the six-account limit per day per IP that Wikipedia imposes. This is usually resolved by creating user accounts through a Wikimedia user who has an account-creator status. During the event, although the project team has two account creators, Jojit and Michael, Michael was preparing for the next item on the schedule so he was not present at the venue during the creation of the participants' user accounts. But only several participants needed to have their user accounts created by an account-creator because participants who weren't able to create an account due to the six-account limit were able to create their user accounts by connecting to the project team's personal broadband WiFi. Thus, it is a good thing that the project team have a backup broadbrand WiFi.
The edit-a-thon is a stand-alone event (not part of a larger event) which enabled the participants to focus on editing/contributing content to Waray Wikipedia.

What didn't work?

During the edit-a-thon, an Administrator of Tagalog Wikipedia, another Philippine-based language Wikipedia, who was not part of the project team, reverted edits and blocked a participant from editing indefinitely that particular Wikipedia because he suspected the participant of vandalism. The edits were indeed vandalism upon Jojit's inspection. Despite that, Jojit immediately unblocked the said participant so that he could continue participating in the edit-a-thon. Then, Jojit said to the audience/participants that it is fine to edit Wikipedia as long as the changes/contributions are valid. After this incident, the said participant no longer vandalized Wikipedia during the event.
A participant continued to edit in the Waray Wikipedia after the edit-a-thon but his edits are vandalism. He was blocked by Michael for one month. He is not the same person who vandalized the Tagalog Wikipedia during the actual edit-a-thon. As a lesson learned and to avoid these kind of incidents in the future, the project team shall emphasize more that vandalism is not being tolerated in Wikipedia.
Edits in the English Wikipedia of another participant (not the participant who vandalized Tagalog Wikipedia or the one who was blocked by Michael) were reverted back after the edit-a-thon due to copyright issue. This shows that issues on copyright were not clear enough during the edit-a-thon and that copyright matters should be explained and emphasized more in the next edit-a-thon/s or events such as forums.

Outcomes and impact

Outcomes

The main focus of this project is to increase quality contributions to the Waray Wikipedia that includes editing existing articles and creating new ones. Participants were able to contribute mostly to the Waray Wikipedia, linked data from the Wikidata to the Waray articles and edit a few articles in the English Wikipedia.

The first goal is to have at least fifteen (15) participants for the event which was achieved because twenty one (21) students and four (4) teachers actively participated in the edit-a-thon. There was another teacher who did not participate in the actual edit-a-thon (i.e. did not edit or contribute content) but he assisted the students on their translation work.

The second goal is to have a minimum of 30,000 characters contribution to the Wikimedia online projects. This was also achieved because the participants contributed a total of 218,721 characters. Incidentally, as of March 2017, this is the most number of characters contributed in any documented edit-a-thon in the Philippines beating the 6th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in November 2016 that produced 66,366 characters.

To determine the number of contributed characters: (a) the facilitators of the event took note of the usernames of the participants; and (b) contributions were counted after the actual edit-a-thon with the use of "global edit summary" and the "recent changes" features of MediaWiki for each project that the participants have been editing. MediaWiki is the software behind Wikimedia online projects.

The third goal is have at least five (5) new articles for the Waray Wikipedia. This was achieved because the participants created a total of thirty one (31) new articles.

Progress towards targets and goals

Project metrics

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
There should be at least 15 participants for the event.	Excluding the project team and organizers, twenty one (21) students and four (4) teachers actively participated in the edit-a-thon by creating user accounts and contributing information in the Waray Wikipedia.	Through the directions of Dr. Garnace, the PSHS-EVC Campus Director, Mrs. Paete, a faculty member of the school, coordinated the attendance of the participants.
There should be 30,000 characters or equivalent to approximately 20 pages of printed text added in the Waray Wikipedia and other Wikimedia-related projects.	There were 218,721 characters contributed mostly in the Waray Wikipedia and a few in the English Wikipedia.	The participants were actively contributing content during the edit-a-thon. Although some students had difficulty translating, their fellow students and the teacher-participants assisted them in the translation.
There should be at least five (5) newly created articles.	Thirty one (31) new articles with references were created in the Waray Wikipedia.	The participants were focused on what they were doing and they helped each other in the translation.

Global metrics

For more information, see Global Metrics.

PARTICIPATION (COMMUNITY)
Metric	Achieved outcome	Explanation
1. Number of active editors involved	3	Three (3) active editors were with the project team; all participants were new or have never edited or contributed to Wikipedia before the edit-a-thon
2. Number of newly registered users	25	Twenty five (25) participants have created their user accounts and contributed content to Waray Wikipedia during the edit-a-thon.
3. Number of individuals involved	32	Three (3) individuals as the project team; two (2) individuals as the PSHS-EVC organizing team; one (1) individual who is a Waray language specialist/teacher as speaker; twenty one (21) students and five (5) teachers as participants
CONTENT
4. Number of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages	0	No one uploaded new pictures in Wikimedia Commons but some reused existing ones to their articles.
5. Number of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects	31 articles added with a total of 155 edit count	31 new articles are created in the Waray Wikipedia
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects	approximately 218,721 bytes added	Only the bytes added were considered
LEARNING QUESTION
7. Did your work increase the motivation of contributors, and how do you know? Yes, the edit-a-thon at PSHS-EVC has increased the motivation of contributors because the Campus Director has requested for another session of edit-a-thon and a faculty member who is a member of the PSHS-EVC organizing team has promised to contribute to Waray Wikipedia after the edit-a-thon.

Impact

The participants created a total of thirty one (31) new articles, which are mostly about biographical topics, in a span of three (3) hours and forty five (45) minutes. They were all new to Wikipedia and they contributed a total of 218,721 characters or around 145 pages of printed text assuming that one printed page equals 1,500 characters. According to the data collected in the 2013 Evaluation Report of the Wikimedia Foundation for Edit-a-thons, the average characters contributed for all edit-a-thons is almost 24,000 or 16 pages of printed text while the most productive edit-a-thon in the survey contributed 157,586 characters. In comparison, the 7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is far more beyond the average and more productive.

The project team generally assessed this edit-a-thon as an event with a significant impact to the Wikimedia Movement's vision that everyone could "share in the sum of all knowledge." This is due to the fact that twenty-five (25) individuals who are new to Wikipedia were able to add thirty one new articles with an overwhelming 218,721 characters contribution in less than four hours.

In the Wikimedia movement, contributors are mostly male-dominated and the movement is trying to encourage more female contributors and narrow the gender gap. In this edit-a-thon, the ratio of female participants to male participants is two is to three (2:3). Though there were greater number of males than females, the female participants which include the top winners are more prolific writers because 53.5% of the total characters contributed are theirs.

As for the 5th Waray Wikimedia Forum at the Association of Government Information Officers Meeting, the project team was able to reach out to government information officers of Region 8. Through this forum, the attendees have acquired a better understanding of Wikipedia and how it works and gained some information on how they can help improve Wikipedia. They expressed their interest in helping Waray Wikipedia grow particularly in improving the terms used on the user interface. The forum also made the information officers realize that Wikipedia can be a source of good information with the references being verifiable and reliable.

Lecture presentation files

Presentation file of the lecture given by Bel and Jojit
Introduction to Wikipedia

Download the original file

Presentation file of the lecture given by Voltaire
An Winaray

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"Wikipedia - FactsMatter" This was shown during the lecture on Introduction to Wikipedia

Download the original file

Gallery

Edit-a-thon venue: Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas Campus

Banners about the 7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
Banner posted at the front gate of PSHS-EVC
Banner posted inside the room where the edit-a-thon was held

Swags and prizes for the 7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon participants
Key chains that were given to all participants
Wikipedia mugs for the top three winners
Offline Wikipedia of Waray Wikipedia and English Wikipedia in a USB flash drive

Offline Wikipedia DVDs given to the top 12 winners while all participants received Wikipedia stickers with the text of the Wikimedia vision in English and Waray

The morning session lectures of the 7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas Campus
Michael Ong welcomes the participants
Participants listening to lecture

Participants listening to lecture
Michael Ong welcomes the participants

Voltaire Oyzon gives a lecture about the Waray language
Voltaire Oyzon gives a lecture about the Waray language
Bel Ballesteros gives a lecture about the Wikipedia
Bel Ballesteros gives a lecture about the Wikipedia

Jojit Ballesteros gives a lecture and demonstration on how to edit Wikipedia
Jojit Ballesteros gives a lecture and demonstration on how to edit Wikipedia
Jojit Ballesteros gives a lecture and demonstration on how to edit Wikipedia
Jojit Ballesteros gives a lecture and demonstration on how to edit Wikipedia

Scenes from the actual edit-a-thon at the Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas Campus

Presentation of plaque of appreciation to Dr. Reynaldo Garnace

The edit-a-thon participants with the project team and PSHS-EVC partners

Awarding of prizes to edit-a-thon winners
12th place winner
11th place winner
10th place winner
9th place winner
7th place winner
6th place winner
5th place winner
4th place winner
Mrs. Vicky Maraya-Paete received the prizes of the 8th place and 3rd place winners on their behalf
2nd place winner
1st place winner
The 1st place winner with Dr. Garnace and Jojit Ballesteros
The 1st place winner with Dr. Garnace and Jojit Ballesteros
Gina Cañete is the first place winner among the teachers.

5th Waray Wikimedia Forum at the Association of Government Information Officers Meeting
Opening ceremonies before starting the AGIO meeting
The Wikimedia Forum banner at the stage
The AGIO meeting starts
Bel Ballesteros gives a talk about Wikipedia
Bel Ballesteros gives a talk about Wikipedia
Bel Ballesteros gives a talk about Wikipedia
The attendees of the AGIO meeting
Jojit Ballesteros gives a demonstration on how to edit Wikipedia
Jojit Ballesteros gives a demonstration on how to edit Wikipedia
The project team answers questions from the audience
The project team answers questions from the audience
The project team answers questions from the audience

A plaque of appreciation was given to Ms. Alice Nicart
A plaque of appreciation was given to Ms. Alice Nicart

External links