Grants:APG/Proposals/2016-2017 round 1/Wikimedia Serbia/Proposal form
Proposal by Wikimedia Serbia to support its annual plan with $145,100.
Wikimedia Serbia had opened two half-time positions in 2015 (Office Manager and Communications Manager) with an objective to increase the visibility of the organization and the commitment to financial records and rationalization. Seeing as the positions have proved to be indispensable, they were both extended to full-time positions in 2016. That enabled a wider media coverage regarding projects and activities of Wikimedia Serbia, which yielded numerous endeavors, as well as better work organization and time management. We plan to realize 6 programs in 2017, i.e. 22 projects. Some of these projects are a continuation of the ones from the previous years, some of them stemming from the micro and photo-grants, and some are new. The focus of the organization will certainly be on the Education Program, which is becoming more developed and complex every year. The organization of the first ever Edu Wiki camp corroborates this, as well as the project submission (an accredited seminar) at the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development. The goal of the project is, as always, to increase the scope and quality of the free content on all Wiki projects. In addition to the Education program, a great deal of attention will be aimed toward the GLAM program, which is becoming more diverse each year. Within that program, the focus will be put on the digitization and content release, especially regarding the Wiki Librarian and Wikipedian in Residence projects.
We ask that you please don't make any changes directly to this page after the proposal submission date, but comment on the discussion page.
If you need to review the edit instructions you will find them in the edit intro.
- Use this form if you are eligible to submit a proposal in the current round, to request funding in the current round.
- This form must be published on Meta by the proposal submission date for each round to be considered, and no changes may be made after the submission date without staff approval.
- This form complements your organization's annual plan, detailed budget, and strategic plan. It won't be considered complete without a detailed budget and strategic plan.
- Organizations may apply for a funding period that does not exactly match their fiscal years. Follow the instructions carefully to understand what time period each question refers to.
- Refer to the framework, guidance from the Board, and the FDC's recommendations before using this form, so you have an understanding of the Annual Plan Grants process.
- Please Email FDCSupport@Wikimedia.org with questions about using the form.
A few terms used in the form:
FDC proposal form terms Wikimedia terms Learning & Evaluation terms
Overview
[edit]- 1. In order to support community review, please provide a brief description of your organization's work in the upcoming funding period.
- Wikimedia Serbia had opened two half-time positions in 2015 (Office Manager and Communications Manager) with an objective to increase the visibility of the organization and the commitment to financial records and rationalization. Seeing as the positions have proved to be indispensable, they were both extended to full-time positions in 2016. That enabled a wider media coverage regarding projects and activities of Wikimedia Serbia, which yielded numerous endeavors, as well as better work organization and time management. We plan to realize 6 programs in 2017, i.e. 22 projects. Some of these projects are a continuation of the ones from the previous years, some of them stemming from the micro and photo-grants, and some are new. The focus of the organization will certainly be on the Education Program, which is becoming more developed and complex every year. The organization of the first ever Edu Wiki camp corroborates this, as well as the project submission (an accredited seminar) at the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development. The goal of the project is, as always, to increase the scope and quality of the free content on all Wiki projects. In addition to the Education program, a great deal of attention will be aimed toward the GLAM program, which is becoming more diverse each year. Within that program, the focus will be put on the digitization and content release, especially regarding the Wiki Librarian and Wikipedian in Residence projects.
- 2. Name, fiscal year, and funding period.
- Legal name of organization: Wikimedia Serbia
- Organization's fiscal year: 01/01-12/31
- 12-month funding period requested: 01/01/2017-12/31/2017
- Currency requested: EUR
- Name of primary contact: Filip Maljković
- 3. Amount requested.
Table 1
| Currency requested | US$ | |
| Total expenses for the upcoming year | 130,170.00 | 145,093.99 |
| APG funding requested for the upcoming year | 130,170.00 | 145,093.99 |
| Amount of funding received from WMF for the current year | 112,500.00 | 126,201.37 |
- 4. How does your organization know what community members and contributors to online projects need or want? Does your organization conduct needs assessments or consult the contributors and volunteers most involved with its work?
- Wikimedia Serbia consults the community regarding its projects via different communication channels (mailing lists, Village Pump, social networks, meet-ups). The goal is to strengthen the community and increase motivation of the Wikipedians and Wikimedians to work on the projects and other activities. WMRS has often consulted the community about competition topics or other projects. We aim to have the community more involved with the work of the organization by participating in creating the new project proposals and pointing out the possibilities of improving the existing ones. The second WikiLive conference was held in 2016, which is a local Wikipedian conference. This kind of gathering enables Wikipedians and Wikimedians to get to know one another, exchange ideas, and reinforce the community, as well as the opportunity for the participants to find out more about the work of Wikimedia Serbia and submit annual projects. Wikimedia Serbia will continue with this practice, which is a result of commitment and support to the projects, and the understanding and respect for the needs of the community and the volunteers.
- 5. Please provide a link to your organization's strategic plan, and a link to your separate annual plans for the current and upcoming funding periods if you have them.
Financials: current year
[edit]The purpose of this section is to give the FDC an idea of how your organization is receiving funds and spending funds toward your current plan. Your current funding period is the funding period now in progress (e.g. 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 for most organizations).
Table 2
Financials for the current funding period Revenues or expenses Planned (budgeted) Actual, until one month before the proposal due date Projected Currency requested US dollars Currency requested US dollars Currency requested US dollars Revenues (from all sources) 112,500.00 126,201.37 113,137.35 126,916.34 113,137.35 126,916.34 Expenses 112,500.00 126,201.37 67,301.87 75,498.56 94.704,00 106,238.00
Table 2 notes:
Programs: upcoming year's annual plan
[edit]This section is about your organization's programs. A program is a defined set of activities that share the same objectives and a similar theory of change. Please share the general goal of each program, and then list the specific objectives that the program will meet. Please do not include information about your organization's operating activities in this section. You may provide information about activities like administration, staff and board training, fundraising, governance, and internal IT in another section or in a supplementary document, but please do not include these activities here as programs.
- 1. For each program, and overall
- Include targets for each of the three shared measures for each program, and overall. If one or more of these required metrics are not relevant to any of your programs, please consult your program officer.
- Also choose at least two grantee-defined metrics to highlight in this section, and include targets for each of these grantee-defined metrics for each program, and overall. (Other program-specific metrics may be included in your program objectives, in the detailed program sections below.)
Table 3
- Participants: The number of people who attend your events, programs or activities, either in person or virtually. This definition does not include people organizing activities, social media followers, donors, or others not participating directly.
- Newly registered: The number of participants that create new accounts on a Wikimedia project. These include users who register up to two weeks before the start of the event.
- Content pages: A content page is an article on Wikipedia, an item on Wikidata, a content page on Wikisource, an entry on Wiktionary, and a media file on Commons, etc. This metric captures the total number of content pages created or improved across all Wikimedia projects.
- Number of uploaded/released multimedia
files on Wikimedia Commons (file usage in %): Number of uploaded files on Wikimedia Commons includes free multimedia files gathered and/or released in WMRS projects (photos, video and audio records). File usage is also an important metric. Not only we encourage the creation of free content on Wiki projects but also its usage. - Number of events: Number of events will be measured in order to track Wiki impact. Those events can be lecturers, workshops, exhibits, meet-ups, conferences, photo-tours, Wiki corners etc. They're important because people who will participated in them will hear about Wiki world, WMRS projects or activities.
Program Participants Newly registered Content pages Number of uploaded/released multimedia
files on Wikimedia Commons (file usage in %)Number of events Education Program 1645 1125 1160 500 (25%) 61 Free Content 242 110 1420 33520 (37,2%) 130 GLAM 200 155 525 1122 (51,7%) 31 Wiktionary 125 45 750 75 (100%) 50 Community Support 346 60 300 1000 (5%) 35 Grants 20 20 125 1550 (22,6%) 30 TOTAL FOR ALL PROGRAMS 2578 1515 4280 37767 (~36%) 337
Table 3 notes:
- Projected metrics per every single project can be seen here.
- 2. Please list your goals and objectives for each program. Please be sure your objectives meet all three criteria for each program
- The objectives listed are each SMART: specific, measurable, attainable and relevant, and include time-bound targets.
- Include both qualitative targets and quantitative targets, and remember to highlight your baseline metrics.
- Provide any additional information that is important to our understanding of this program. For example, you may include needs assessments, logic models, timelines, tables, or charts. Share how this program will contribute more broadly to movement learning, or explain how your program aligns with important Wikimedia priorities such as increasing participation and improving content on the Wikimedia projects.
Education Program
Wikipedia in Schools
Project description and objectives:
The Wikipedia in Schools project, which encompasses Wiki Gymnasium, Wiki Student, and other activities in educational institutions, entails high school pupils and student education on editing Wiki projects and writing seminal papers on Wikipedia. Therefore, the main objective of the program is usage of different Wikimedia projects as free education platforms, through diverse project activities. The idea to have pupils and students write seminal papers and contribute to the quality and the quantity of the articles, bearing in mind that the topics of their articles are mostly from their field of work. In addition to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, which were mostly developed by activities in an academic environment, the goal is to “revive” and develop the less active Wiki-projects as well (such as Wikibooks, Wiktionary, Wikiquote).
Also, the plan is to provide additional help to the project participants, in order to use their full potential. In that respect, the practice of giving advice on Facebook groups Wiki Gymnasium and Wiki Student will continue. In this way, Edu volunteers and Wiki ambassadors would be more involved through communication with pupils and students. Another benefit of the groups is interpersonal communication among the project participants. The reoccurring errors would be noticed and they would be able to help one another.
In the previous years, this project has significantly grown. This year, a special emphasis will be put on the quality of the contribution of the participants in the projects and the work on self-sustainability (providing support to the teachers and professors that are involved with the project, working with volunteers and ambassadors that help in the realization).
Within the Wikipedia in Schools project, informal training of teachers/professors on editing Wikipedia and/or other Wiki-projects are being realized, so they could edit on their own, but also train pupils, monitor and grade their work.
Timeframe:
The nature of this project requests that the activities be coordinated with the school year. The course of the activities within one semester is as following:
- January and February/September and October:
- contacting schools and faculties
- specifying the activities of students/pupils, timeframe, and assigning responsibilities
- professors/teachers and students/pupils training for participation in the project
- Маrch and April/November and December:
- realization of activities
- monitoring the realization, supporting the pupils/students
- work evaluation
- project evaluation - by the involved pupils/students, but also by teachers/professors
Мeasures of success:
In addition to the global metrics, the project will be considered successful if:
- 10 participants engage in other WMRS projects or on online Wiki-projects
- 4 professors/teachers will be trained in working on Wiki-projects
Accredited Seminars
Project description and objectives:
Since the 2014/2015 school year, student training in working in Wiki-environment has become a part of the curriculum in teaching computer science in the second grade of high school. In order to make adopting and application of this knowledge easier, a seminar of professional development of teachers in elementary and high schools on using Wikipedia in learning and classes has been accredited. Seminars of professional development are a part of the mandatory professor activity, so the influence of this project is far greater than the influence of the seminars and training that are held within the Wikipedia in Schools project. After a lot of efforts to overcome the obstacles, first seminars were scheduled for September and October 2015. The importance of the seminars is manifold: firstly, the professors are being trained to use Wikipedia on their own and get recommendations and guidance on how to incorporate it in the teaching process. This way, a direct contact has been established with the interested professors, who can later get involved with the Education program. The teachers who implement what they have learned in their classes share their experiences with the others, which is a gateway to different models of application of Wikipedia and other Wiki-projects in class. Over the course of 2015 and 2016, 7 seminars for high school teachers have been held. The list of seminars, together with the participants, can be seen here. Teachers were provided with special brochures, which could help them with incorporating and conducting the Wiki Gymnasium project in their institutions.
In 2017 we plan to continue organizing accredited seminars, seeing as they very much alleviate the learning process of the teachers on how to edit Wikipedia and enable them to implement the Wiki platform in classes. 4 seminars per semester were planned (a total of 8), for which the teachers would get the mandatory points for professional development.
It is important to mention that Wikimedia Serbia has submitted a project Accredited Seminars to the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development of Serbia in August 2016. If the project is accepted, the benefit would be twofold:
- we would have additional resources to realize the seminars
- the project would be supported by the Ministry and its importance would be greater
Timeframe:
The project is being realized throughout the year, so a specific timeframe is not possible to determine.
Measures of success:
- Realization of at least 8 seminars of professional development over the course of the following year (4 per semester) and training of at least 150 professors/teachers in using Wikipedia in class and studying
- Animating at least 10 new professors to get involved with the Education program
Edu Wiki Camp
Project description and objectives:
Edu Wiki camp has been organized by Wikimedia Serbia for the first time in August 2016. The camp had 11 participants, and the very program encompassed diverse activities that helped participants get better acquainted with the Education program of WMRS and get more actively involved in its realization. The purpose of this camp was to animate the volunteers and potential Wiki ambassadors to continue working on the projects. The better prepared and trained ambassadors and/or volunteers can significantly contribute to the quality of the Еducation program. Guided by the positive experience of the volunteers, we have decided to organize another camp in 2017. This kind of practice will enable the camp participants from different Serbian cities to network, cooperate better, and develop new projects.
Edu Wiki camp program will be diverse with regard to the team building activities, workshops and lectures. The focus will be on getting the participants better acquainted with one another through different activities (quizzes, mini competitions, team building activities, edit-a-thons), and directing the participants to the Edu program of WMRS and the possibility of their engagement within different projects in this program. In that way, the representatives of Wikimedia Serbia will have lectures about Wiki ambassadors, accredited seminars, Edu extension, and other important topics.
The camp will be held in nature, in order to have all the participants focused on one another. This kind of event will gather primarily students, but also high school pupils that are about to go to university.
Timeframe:
- May and June
- camp organization (transportation, accommodation, food)
- announcing an open call for participants and selection of them
- July and August
- camp realization
- camp evaluation
- planning the future activities for the volunteers
Measures of success:
- 20 camp participants
- animating at least 5 new ambassadors or volunteers for Education program
Free Content
The Free content program has an objective to collect free material in any form (photo, audio, textual). Benefits of this endeavor are numerous:
- they generate a large amount of multimedia content
- they animate the community with a purpose to increase contribution to Wiki projects
- they are suitable for newcomers who are still unfamiliar with Wiki projects
- projects are thematically oriented, so the content is useful and meaningful to the enrichment of the Wikipedia articles and other Wiki projects
Wiki Loves Earth
Project description and objectives:
Wiki Loves Earth is a photo-contest with an idea of mass collection of free photographs of cultural heritage in Serbia. The goal of the project is, on the one hand, to photograph under free license as many cultural monuments as possible, and on the other hand, to contribute to the increase of the public knowledge about nature preservation. We are planning to organize this contest in May 2017. We are expecting for the project to gather a large number of new and old participants, and it will be very significant due to the cooperation with the institutions. Also, the media has shown a great deal of interest in the activities on this project, which is proved by more than 100 radio, TV, and internet portal announcements.
May will be designated for the contest, and after that comes the judging of the photographs, determining the 20 winning photos, organizing the prize giving event and organizing the travelling exhibitions all over Serbia. The exhibitions are very interesting events that, in addition to media coverage, have a positive effect in regard to educating the general public about the WMRS projects, and informing individuals on how they can be involved in the work of the organization.
Тhe contest has various goals:
- increasing photo-content on Commons through uploading photos of cultural heritage
- improving articles on Wikipedia by gathered photographs
- education of the public and engaging the community through organization of an edit-a-thon and a photo-tour
- promoting Wikimedia Serbia and its projects through organizing exhibitions all over Serbia
- establishing cooperation with GLAM institutions
Timeframe
- March - May: preparatory activities
- assembling an organizational team
- updating lists of cultural heritage
- designating and buying the prizes
- designating the members of the jury
- updating the website, social network profiles
- internal (site, blog, site notice, Village Pump, social networks) and external (press conference, media appearances) announcements
- May: the contest
- consultations with the participants and providing help
- organizing the edit-a-thon
- organizing the photo-tour
- media promotion
- June - July: preparation of the exhibitions
- selecting the winning photos
- announcing the winners and prize giving event
- contacting institutions we would organize the exhibitions with
- July - September: exhibitions
- promotion of the project and exhibition announcement
- opening exhibitions in other cities (logistics) and promotion of Wikimedia Serbia and its projects
Меasures of success: In addition to the global metrics, it is important to say that the following things will also be projected:
- 1 edit-a-thon
- 1 photo-tour
- at least 3 exhibitions with 20 winning photographs
- at least 150 media announcements
Zapis - Sacred trees in Serbia and Brzansko Moravište
Project description and objectives:
The project will be realized as a continuation of the project from 2015 and 2016, with the exception that the 2017 project is enriched with one more aspect - creating special photographs (3D, Time Lapse, 360°) of the special reservation of nature Brzansko Moravište. The goals of the project which encompasses two sub projects are photo-documentation of the sacred trees as cultural heritage in Serbia, a special reservation of nature Brzansko Moravište, as well as the registered monuments of culture.
Sacred trees
The leader of the Zapis - Sacred Tree project will supplement the earlier and current projects. He will also perform new photo-expeditions during which he will photograph the non-covered sacred trees and assemble information on them in Serbia. Over the course of the project, video material of prayer processions and other customs related to the zapis. The ultimate goal of the idea is for the Zapis and the Prayer processions to enter the UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage.
Special reservation of nature Brzansko Moravište
Underwater photography of Brzansko Moravište is being added to the project. Main goals of this sub project are formation of very rich content about the reservation, and completely geographically specified each and every object of recording. Photography of flora and fauna on the ground, in the air, on the water, and under water will be one of the main activities on the project. Over the course of the project, video material will be assembled, as well as special forms of photography (360°, 3D, Time-Lapse), which represents an innovation in the endeavor. Wikimedia Commons is not rich in this form of photography, and this kind of material is interesting for further use in articles and other places. In addition to the material itself, there is a possibility for its promotion, attracting and educating the public about free content.
Timeframe
Zapis - Sacred trees
Activities within this project will be performed throughout 2017, and will encompass field trips, photography, photo processing, and writing/improving articles on Wikipedia about these topics. A precise timeframe is not possible to determine, seeing as the activities depend largely on the free time of the volunteers. Field trips will be conducted on weekends, and will mostly depend on good weather conditions.
Special reservation of nature Brzansko Moravište
Photo shooting lasts for 3 hours a day over the course of 8 days in each season, so it would cover daily life of the area 24 hours a day.
Меasures of success:
Zapisi - Sacred trees
- Number of photographed sacred trees- 600
- Uploaded photos on Commons - 6000
- Number of Wikipedia articles - 100
Special reservation of nature Brzansko Moravište
- Uploaded photos on Commons - 3000
- Number of Wikipedia articles - 30
Tara’s National Park in 2000 Colors
Project description and objectives:
The Tara’s National Park in 2000 Colors project has been submitted by the leader of the Serbian Holy Mountain in 4 Seasons project from 2016. Seeing as the volunteer had good results in realization and implementation of the activities in 2016, as well as the fact that the concept of the project is the same and is thematically interesting, it has been decided to give support to this project. The greatest benefit of this project is the quality of photographs since that the leader of this project won two second places on WLE (2014 and 2015), and he’s a winner of WLE 2016..
The project would be realized in four parts - by photo shooting Tara’s National park in spring, summer, fall, and winter. The contribution to the Wikimedia contents is improving and enriching Wikimedia Commons through professional and quality photographs of a certain area. The ultimate goal is completion of photographs of the Tara National park, presented in all four seasons, but also to raise awareness about the preservation of nature of Serbia.
Of all the photographs, 400 photos of supreme quality would be singled out (a hundred for each season). Other photos would also be released under Creative Commons license.
Timeframe:
Activities on this project are field trips and photography. Good weather conditions will be taken advantage of in order to have the best possible results.
Timeframe: during 2017, in four outings, 3-4 days at a time.
- Phase one: January - March 250 photos
- Phase two: March - June 250 photos
- Phase three: June - September 250 photos
- Phase four: September - December 250 photos
Меasures of success:
Complete teritory of Tara’s National park will be covered by this project, 220 km² (flora, fauna, landscapes, canyons, rivers, Picea omorika localities…) with 2000 photos in all four seasons.
The number of original photos from inaccessible angles is 400 (100 per season). The greatest measure of success of this project is the quality of the free photos, as well as the yet unseen (photographed) atmosphere of the Tara’s National park.
Valjevska Kolubara and Podgorina in an Image
Project description and objectives:
This project is the continuation of Valjevo Mountains Through the Lens project. Geographical position of the Valjevo-Kolubara pit and Valjevo Podgorina has caused for this area to have lowland and mountain types of rural villages. Each of these categories has specific natural, cultural, economical, historical, and architectural unities that are relevant enough to be documented photographically. The basic idea of the project is to create free multimedia content which would represent all the above mentioned qualities of the Valjevo villages in this area, and which would enable further use through other Wiki projects and contents by uploading it on Commons.
In its nature, this project encompasses forming the material through several different thematic units, which are an important segment in acquiring new knowledge and education. Consequently, the ultimate goal of the idea is improving, but primarily enriching Wikimedia Commons with new photo and video materials that are not sufficiently represented (or not at all) on Commons. Forming new articles would largely contribute to knowing the features of the Valjevo villages and their individual unities on the Valjevo Kolubara and Podgorina area. The material would encompass:
Маterial that depicts natural features of the given area;
- Architectural characteristics of the villages (material that shows an evident difference between lowland and mountain types)
- Маterial that depicts the life of the people of a given area, including the architecture, which is by default connected to the economy of the population (e.g. water mills, mills, etc.);
- Cultural-historical unities (monuments, churches, archaeological monuments, cemeteries, famous places etc.);
- Cultural and corporate events
A complete, quality material would be uploaded on Commons, and as such would enable improving and forming new contents within other Wiki projects.
Timeframe:
The entire project would encompass around 70 all-day field trips on a given area from February to December with three main directions, which would entail 45 villages and one settlement:
- Valjevo – Slovac (16 villages: Babina Luka, Beloševac, Divci, Dupljај, Јаsenicа, Кlanicа, Кlinci, Маrkova Crkva, Мrčić, Paunе, Petnicа, Slovac, Šušeokа, Valjevska Loznica, Veselinovac, Zabrdicа)
- Valjevo – Družetić (12 villages: Blizonje, Brankovina, Donja Bukovica, Donja Grabovica, Družetić, Gola Glava, Gornja Bukovica, Gornja Grabovica, Јоševа, Коtešicа, Rabas, Rađevo Selo)
- Valjevo – Коmirić (settlement Osečina and 17 villages: Belotić, Beomužević, Gornje Crnjiljevo, Коmirić, Lopatanj, Мајinović, Мiličinica, Оglađenovac, Оsladić, Оstružanj, Plužac, Pričević, Sirdija, Tuđin, Valjevska Kamenica, Vragočenica, Zlatarić).
Due to the very nature and the area, and with a purpose of having the best quality realization of the project route Valjevo - Slovac, Valjevo - Družetić, and Valjevo - Komirić, the trips would be made once at a time in the
- following timeframes:
- February – Аpril
- Маy – Аugust
- September – December
Together with the realization of the proposed project, a parallel activity would take place - enriching the content on Wikipedia. The main priority would be improving the articles that are about this area in general, with a special emphasis on specific villages and settlements whose illustrative content is scarce or mostly nonexistent. Photo and video material to be gained with the project will be used to illustrate Wikipedia articles.
Меasures of success:
Seeing as the nature of the project is forming quality content of photo and video materials that would depict basic features of the villages from a given area and uploading them on Commons, the first thing to pay attention to is the very quality of the photos. In that case, special attention will be placed on the quality of the content, thematic unities, the possibility of content usage, primarily within Wikipedia, but also other contents intended for students and teachers for preparation of presentations and other activities. The amount of content will depend on the quality of the acquired content which will be uploaded on Commons, which would quantitatively be a minimum of 1000 quality material (over 300 contents per one planned itinerary). The number of photos to be used in the articles would be approximately 40% of total material.
Roadside memorials and tombstones in Serbia
Project description and objectives:
The Roadside memorials and tombstones in Serbia project has a goal to increase free content with photographs and articles about roadside memorials and tombstones in Serbia. The activities on the project entail tours of a great number of villages and hamlets on the territories of four municipalities of Moravica district. Over the course of 2017, the area of Gornji Milanovac municipality would be fully covered (over 60 villages), and certain villages in municipality of Čačak that set themselves apart by interesting material: Bresnica, Slatina, Vujetinci, Miokovci, Ježevica, Ostra, Gornja Trepča, Trnava… Some of these monuments have been declared outstanding spatial cultural-hisorical units. A tour of certain locations that are yet to be covered photographically in Ivanjica area is also planned.
The estimation is that in 2017, with this project, Wikimedia Commons could be enriched with over 1000 free new photographs taken during the year, as well as 500 old ones, taken over the course of several previous years by the leader of this project. Wikipedia articles would regard monumental heritage, wayward crosses (cenotaphs), epitaph transcripts, religious symbolics, art shows and ornamentics, the works of certain stonecutters, etc. At least 50 monuments would be covered in great detail, with articles written about them, or the existing ones improved. The result of the project would also be photographs of monuments from multiple angles, description, dimensions, and other technical details, epitaph transcripts, scanned ornamentics drawings, all with naming sources, references, literature list etc.
The project has a tendency to develop in 2018 as well, when it could be continued and completed with material from the entire Moravica district, and after that, cover the area of Šumadija and Western Serbia.
The contribution of this project to the Wikimedia contents consists of presenting the monuments that represent important testimonies about the history of Serbian people, and also an inexhaustible source of study in history, ethnology, sociology, linguistics, art etc. The material would in this way be available to the experts in said areas, but also to the general public.
Timeframe:
The project consists of several phases:
- Field trips with a purpose to find and photograph old roadside memorials and tombstones.
- Recording material from several positions, if possible: fronts and backs of the monuments, lateral sides, spatial positions, selected details.
- Selection and systematization of photographic material and its classification.
- Basic post-production of photos (cropping, contrast, sharpening).
- Publishing high-res photos on Commons, along with providing basic information in Serbian and English, with wider categorization and coordinate input.
- Writing and improving articles on Wikipedia about selected monuments.
The above mentioned activities would be realized throughout 2017, with a dynamics that largely depend on weather conditions and fieldwork opportunities. In the meantime, selection, systematization, and processing of the photographic material and its publishing on Wikimedia Commons would take place.
Меasures of success:
Measures of success of this project can be expressed with the number of covered monuments, as well as the quality of the photos. Published on Wikimedia Commons under a free license, these recordings can serve as an accompanying, illustrative material for diverse professional and popular publications.
- Number of photos uploaded on Commons: 1500
- Number of written and improved articles on Wikipedia on monuments: 50
Cultural Heritage of Western Serbia
Project description and objectives:
The Cultural Heritage of Western Serbia project is envisioned as a continuation of the Cultural Heritage of Mačva and Pocerina project, which was realized within a photo-grant in 2016. The goals of the project are to increase the number of free photographs, creating ans improving articles categorized by sections, such as:
- immovable cultural property (cultural monuments, notable places and cultural-historical unities)
- monumental heritage (19th and 20th century)
- religious buildings (churches, monasteries, mosks)
- monuments of nature and tourist destinations
- ethnographic content (ethno villages and parks, buildings of national masonry)...
Аctivities on the project would encompass:
- promotion of WMRS and its objectives,
- establishing contacts with cultural institutions and touristic organizations
- fieldwork (photography and collecting data) and
- creating new and improving existing pages on Wikipedia in Serbian language.
Timeframe:
- January-February 2017 – Establishing contacts with the Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments (Valjevo and Kraljevo), the existing tourist organizations, the Eparchies of the Serbian Orthodox Church, administrations of municipalities and cultural institutions, and informing them about the existence of the project.
- Маrch-September 2017 – Fieldwork, photography, collecting and updating photos and data in the categories.
- Оctober-December 2017 – Creating and updating lists and pages on Wikipedia in Serbian language.
Меasures of success:
Touristic, economic, and cultural potential of Western Serbia would be promoted by realizing the project, with:
- 18.000 free photos, classified in categories on Commons
- 10.000 uploaded photos on existent and new pages on Wikipedia
- 500-700 new pages (churches, monasteries, mosks, cultural monuments, buildings, monuments of nature, and touristic destinations) on Wikipedia
Metrics are very ambitious, but with reason. Namely, the project would be led by a long-time Wikipedian who has shown his capacities through the “Cultural Heritage of Mačva and Pocerina” project, and exceeded all expectations with regard to the planned goals. Vanilica is a very motivated member of the community who already has over 1000 written articles, and who we are sure would be successful in fulfilling the goals in the announced time period.
Competitions on Wikipedia
Project description and objectives:
The primary objective of the competitions on Wikipedia is to increase free knowledge thorough creating articles on Wikipedia. Also, through organization of this kind of activities, motivation and involvement of the community increases. Participation of the community is not only seen in the competition, but also in the organization of the activities, contacting the associations, and jury selection of the articles.
Timeframe:
The idea is to organize 3 competitions during the year in different time periods. Before, during, and after the competitions, it is necessary to conduct diverse activities, such as:
- coming up with an appropriate topic for the competition
- contacting professional associations and establishing cooperation
- designating the awards and buying them
- choosing members of the jury from the community
- announcing the competition and promoting it
- it is possible to organize an edit-a-thon during the competition at the association that we have established cooperation with
- after the competition comes the evaluation and announcing the winners
Меasures of success:
Bearing in mind that the number of written/improved articles increases from year to year, and that the contests are becoming more known in the community, the expected measures of success have increased compared to 2016:
- at least 500 articles will be created
- at least 250 articles will be improved
- at least 30 participants on the contests
Spoken Wikipedia
Project description and objectives:
Spoken Wikipedia has a purpose to create audio records of the featured and the most interesting articles on Wikipedia in Serbian language. The project was initiated in 2012, when the plan was for the articles to be read with the help of the text reading software, and to be intended for the visually impaired people. The plan was to have the material uploaded on Commons, Wikipedia, and to be on a DVD intended for organizations dealing with visually impaired people; however, these activities did not get off the ground.
Knowing that the capacities of WMRS are now bigger, we have decided to take advantage of the existing cooperations with individuals and institutions and restart the project. The concept of the Spoken Wikipedia is the same, only the read articles will not be software-generated. In order for the project to have greater impact and resonance in the public, selected articles will be read by actors and other public figures from Serbia. Actor Marko Stojanović, the president of the World Mime Organization that we previously worked with on a Mime edit-a-thon, will be involved in the realization of this project, as well as theaters - Terazije theater, Atelje 212, Boško Buha theater, and relevant cultural institutions.
In addition to the very free content that will be of great significance to Commons and Wikipedia in Serbian language, we are planning to record a promo video with the actors, which we would use to promote Wikipedia. The actors would give statements about Wikipedia and its significance in education and activation the young people in Serbia.
Timeframe:
- January - March
- preparatory activities
- contacting the actors and representatives of cultural institutions which would be included in the project
- creating the list of articles for reading
- finding an adequate partner to recording the actors
- March - July
- recording the actors and creating audio clips of the articles from the list
- July - September
- converting the material and uploading it on Commons
- placing the material in the Wikipedia articles
- September - December
- recording the actors and creating audio clips of the articles from the list
- converting the material and uploading it on Commons
- getting the statements from the actors and recording the promo video
Меasures of success:
- 20 read articles (featured articles)
- 20 audio recordings uploaded on Commons and in Wikipedia articles
- 5 actors or public figures that would read the articles
- 1 promo video
GLAM
We are planning to have various projects and activities in the year to come, including the program of cooperation with cultural institutions, organization of edit-a-thons, realization of the internship programs, Wiki Librarian project, and digitization of techno culture in Serbia. What follows is the description of the activities, objectives, timeframe, and measures of success for each of the projects. In addition to the standard GLAM projects, WMRS will give support to the Digital Belgrade project by providing training for the students who will write articles on Wikipedia. Digital Belgrade was initiated as a common project of the Istitute for Protection of Cultural Monuments of the city of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, and Wikimedia Serbia. It consists of writing articles about cultural monuments on Wikipedia by students, and then marking them with QRpedia’s QR codes. Because of a several-year-long and slow implementaton of the project, WMRS has given up on the further realization. Seeing as the activities ended up being realized after all, WMRS will provide Wikipedia editing and generating QRpedia’s QR codes training for the students of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, and in that way remain a partner in the project.
Wiki takes GLAMers
Project description and objectives:
The all-encompassing program of cooperation with cultural institutions will be the focus of the activities in the year of 2017. The plan for the year to come is primarily to continue the cooperation with the cultural institutions that have proved to be interested and reliable partners, but also to expand the cooperation on other models of collaboration. Attracting new partners/institutions, but also individuals (actors, collectors), will also be one of the main activities throughout the year. In additiion to the standard GLAMers (archives, museums, galleries, libraries), it is planned to have other similar institutions interested in the collaboration, like newspaper archives, sport associations, manifestations with a long tradition...
The main goal of this program is to establish a long, two-way cooperation with cultural institutions which would help Wikimedia Serbia to position itself as a reliable partner when it comes to guarding and releasing cultural heritage and bring about recognizability in cultural circles.
In the coming year, it is planned to decentralize these cooperations, seeing as the experience has showed us that the institutions in smaller towns are more excited to cooperate, and are equally as rich in materials worth of sharing. Also, directing toward a cooperation with the institutions in smaller towns would help strengthen the community, by activating members that have expressed interest to become activated in institutions in their respective environments.
Specific goals:
- To continue and strengthen the cooperation with the reliable partners
- Expand the established cooperation with new models
- Begin new cooperation with new institutions
- Direct attention towards individuals (artists and collectors)
- Establish cooperation in other cities
- Engage community members
- Make the program recognizable
- Position ourselves as a reliable partner in preserving and releasing cultural heritage
Timeframe:
The project is being realized throughout the year, so a specific timeframe is difficult to pinpoint. It depends on the very institutions and the activity dynamics, from the time when the cooperation was established to program realization. Activities with certain institutions that we cooperate with will be realized in accordance with the availability of their capacities and human resources. Negotiations with other institutions are yet to begin or are ongoing.
Меasures of success:
- Continue cooperationg with 2 reliable partnering organizations
- Establish cooperation with at least 4 institutions
- Establish cooperation with at least 1 individual
- Realize cooperation in at least 2 more cities
- Number of units of released content - at least 100 free files
- At least 5 public announcements
Edit-a-thons
Project description and objectives:
Edit-a-thons are events that have multiple target groups. They are primarily representatives of GLAM institutions with which a first step towards establishing a long-term collaboration can be made, and then there are participants. The participants are, depending on the topic of the edit-a-thon and the institution in which it is being organized, oftentimes students, high school pupils, but also the employees in the GLAM institution. Edit-a-thons, in addition to getting quality content on Wikipedia, carry with themselves the attraction of new volunteers and gaining new partners. This is why these activities will be carried over into the next year. The goals are education of the GLAM staff, participants of the edit-a-thon, but also establishing cooperation with the institution through overcoming main challenges:
- getting acquainted with the CC licenses and an explanation about the terms of use
- obtaining consent about releasing files
- a lot of new editors are present at the edit-a-thons, so it is sometimes necessary to additionally repair articles so they would not be deleted.
Timeframe:
It is difficult to make a distinctive timeframe with this project. The plan is to organize at least four edit-a-thons this year. If circumstances allow it, the marathons will be evenly distributed - one edit-a-thon every three months.
Меasures of success:
- 4 edit-a-thons
- 15 participants per marathon
- 4 GLAM institutions
Wikipedian in Residence
Project description and objectives:
The internship program entails engaging the Wikipedian in residence in some of the GLAM institutions so that person could work on establishing different forms of cooperation, digitization of certain works, releasing them, and educating the GLAM staff about Wikipedia and Wikimedia Serbia. Since 2014, Wikimedia Serbia has realized three internship programs, while one of them is still underway at the moment of writing the annual plan. Bearing in mind that the results are very satisfying, WMRS will continue with the realization of this project. Two internship programs in particular are planned in 2017. The emphasis will continue to be on digitization and content release. Wikipedian in residence should:
- mediate between Wikimedia Serbia and a GLAM institution
- promote the idea of Wikimedia amongst the employees of the GLAM institution
- work with the employees and help them to better understand the Wikimedia projects
- organize and hold workshops of editing Wikipedia, tribunes, lectures
- maintain the relationshps between the organization and the institution and give proposals for new models of cooperation or strengthening the old ones
- perform digitization
- upload the digitized material on Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, etc.
Strengthening the cooperation with the institution is performed through internship programs, Wiki projects are enriched by digitized content, the employees in the institute are being educated, members of the community are being motivated (the ones that would be selected to be a Wikipedian in Residence), and are given the opportunity to prosper.
Timeframe:
The plan is to engage two Wikipedians in 2017 to do the internship in GLAM institutions. Timeframe will depend on the institutions and will probably not be realized in the summer months when most of the volunteers are not in Belgrade. The activities during 2017 will be:
- contacting institutions and agreeing upon the internship program
- selection and ranking
- internship realization
- program evaluation, reporting, and proposals for new models of cooperation
Меasures of success:
- 2 internship programs
- 2 institutions
- 8 workshops/trainings/tribunes (4 per institution)
- 8 digitized works (4 per institution)
Wiki Librarian
Project description and objectives:
Wiki Librarian is a project with a purpose to educate and network librarians. Librarians have already had an opportunity to get acquainted with editing Wikipedia and other Wiki projects through workshops and edit-a-thons. Seeing as this project has had a very successful developmental path, it is planned to have it continue into 2017. The participants can get acquainted with different things from the Wiki world, such as:
- basic information about Wikimedia Serbia and how they can become members of the association.
- activities on Wikipedia and other Wiki-projects (Wikinews, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikimedia Commons).
- editing Wikipedia articles: topic selection, writing the text, sources and copyright, a detailed introduction to the basic principle of Wikipedia: “Everything you write must be justified by sources” (content formatting (internal and external links, uploading images)), communication among other editors.
- organization of additional workshops for the trainees for uploading quality content (text, images, video clips, literature). Free content on Wikipedia would increase by this.
- digitization and uploading library-related content (publications, photographs, postcards, etc.) under Creative Commons licenses on Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, or Wikibooks, honoring all copyright laws.
Specific objectives:
- Get the librarians interested in becoming successful Wikipedians.
- Expand the network of librarians and other cultural institutions and get them acquainted with the activities of Wikimedia Serbia.
- Upload a rich, quality, and informative content on Wikipedia.
- Get the students from the Library and computer science department interested in uploading free content on Wikipedia.
Timeframe:
Activities within the Wiki Librarian project are supposed to be realized throughout 2017:
- Оrganization of 3–5 lectures at the University library “Svetozar Marković” and other cultural-educational institutions in Serbia about Wikimedia Serbia and Wikipedia, as well as editing Wikipedia articles.
- Оrganization of 4–6 workshops at the University library and other institutions outside of Belgrade that possess the technical equipment and internet access.
- Оrganization of 2–3 edit-a-thons to help the interested colleagues to upload content on Wikipedia.
- Digitization of 7-10 publications from the library fund that are interested in conducting workshops in their facilities, as well as the University library “Svetozar Marković”.
- Organizing workshops for second-year students of the Library and computer science department of the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade and uploading the content on Wikipedia.
- Disseminating the results of the project at conferences abroad and in the region, with a possibility for a further cooperation in creating free knowledge:
- INFORUM (Conference on Professional Information Resources, May 2017, Prague, Czech Republic)
- Regional librarian conference in Opatija (Croatia), April 2017
- Organization of a presentation of the most successful libraries on Wikipedia and honorary certificates ceremony to the deserving Wikipedians.
Меasures of success:
The project will be rated successful if the following things become realized:
- At least 4 lectures,
- 4 workshops (workshops with new attendees and repeated workshops with a purpose to encourage the participants to upload content on Wikipedia), 40 new accounts and 40 new or improved articles.
- Two edit-a-thons, 20 new accounts and 40 new or improved articles.
- If we manage to establish cooperation with at least ten institutions from five cities in Serbia.
- Establishing cooperation with the Library and computer science department of the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. The result of this cooperation would be 35 new accounts and 35 new or improved articles.
- Digitization of 7-10 works from the library funds interested in training and uploading articles, as well as free content on Wikipedia and other Wiki projects. University library “Svetozar Marković” owns a contemporary Book Scanner that can be used to digitize the works from other libraries as well.
- Total metrics: new accounts 80-100; 300-400 new ones or significantly improved articles; 150 new files which would be used in articles from the project.
Digitization of Techno Culture in Serbia
Project description and objectives:
The project represents a second phase of the last year’s project. The core of the project is digitization of the analogue archives of techno culture of Serbia from the collections of the International art organization TECHNOKRATIA, other organizations, festivals, clubs, artists, collectors, etc. from 1990 until today, followed by making a database, editing, postproduction, writing texts/articles about it, connecting and publishing the content on Wiki projects. All the content will be available under Creative Commons licenses, and will in that way be available to the general public. The archives of the organization have thousands of hours of video material, photos, invitations, posters, programs, texts, printed and other materials of various events and club and techno culture projects (festivals, concerts, parties, exhibitions, performances, installations, interviews, conferences, forums, designer, fashion, extreme sport, research, media, and other projects) which local and foreign artists participated in, and which were attended or followed by millions of young people in Serbia. The project is directly creating, and then digitizing a large amount of free content (that enriches Wikimedia Commmons and increase the number of site views), which are then freely used, enabling the users to get to the free content about popular and underground culture of the young people in the past 25 years.
Specific objectives are:
- To make the organized and documented history of techno and club culture of Serbia free and available to the entire world, and connect it with world history of music, art, culture, media, and also scientific and educational institutions that use free knowledge via Creative Commons licenses.
- To create a large free base, platform, and system on Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia in Serbian language, which would enable the creators and users of cultural, artistic, and media contents to improve, correct, and add new content from this field, and then network, quote, and use them as free knowledge. This way, Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons become a main source of information in this field, which is very interesting to the media and the users, and thus increase visibility, relevance, number of quotes, and media exposure.
Timeframe:
- January - March - collecting, inventory, and cataloguing content
- March - May - content digitization (from various analogue formats: video (UH, BETA, BETA SP, VHS, SVHS, VHS, video 8, Hi 8, DV, mini DV, DVcam, DVCpro…), audio, photo, print…
- June - August - correction, editing, and archiving content, database
- September - December - postproduction, writing texts/articles about techno culture and linking content, followed by publishing the content
Меasures of success:
- Collecting and digitizing 1000 contents in various formats (video, audio, print, texts…)
- Selecting 100 pieces that are to be used, handled, and edited for publishing
- Detailed linking and networking (132 contents and 20 articles)
The project will be promoted in the media in the country and abroad through press conference, an exhibition, tribune and interviews.
Wiktionary
Cooperation with faculties
Project description and objectives:
Wiktionary aims to animate the volunteers community, especially students of the Faculty of Philology to work on the development of free online dictionaries, as well as the enhancement of the diversity of languages involved in the Wiktionary. The objectives will be realized by engaging students from different departments who we already had cooperation with in previous years: Arabic, Swedish, Norwegian, Chinese, Slovak, Ukrainian. Focus will be placed on the expansion and development of Wiktionary or the education of interested volunteers. Like the Education program, this project also has a specific timeframe which depends on the academic year (two semesters - winter and summer). During the first semester in 2016, assistants will be contacted and selected students will take part in Wiktionary editing training. In 2017, the project participants will be sufficiently independent to develop Wiktionary on their own.
Last year, students needed a lot of time to understand and to learn the rules of editing together with the assistance and supervision provided by assistants. Cooperation with those departments will continue, but the scope of activities will vary depending on the number of interested students and assistants’ schedule. Some of them will include the translation of the articles in their program. Since this is a long-term project, some of the assistants will introduce Wiktionary editing as a regular practice and will focus more on quality than on quantity.
Bearing in mind that students need more motivation and coordination, we will consider nominating team leaders for each language group.
Timeframe:
Project activities will be coordinated with the commitments and students’ schedule. Activities will be intensified from February to May and from October to December. During these months, training will be organized by Wikimedia Serbia representatives, or experienced participants on Wiktionary. From the past experience, we realized that it is necessary to increase the number of workshops and consultations.
Меasures of success:
- 100 entries per each dictionary
- at least 5 workshops per each dictionary
- depending on the motivation and students involvement, it is possible to organize promotions of the dictionaries
Language laboratory
Language laboratory is a project from 2016 and it has the ultimate goal of creating or perfecting grammar dictionary of Serbian language in electronic format and publishing it under a free license, which can be further used as a base for creating other projects (spell and grammar checking, text analyzers, automatic translation, and similar advanced functions).
Project activities will continue in 2017 on a voluntary basis without additional funds.
Community support
Animating the community
Project description and objectives:
The project itself is very specific, given that encompasses a range of activities in order to increase motivation and community participation in Wikimedia Serbia projects. The idea is to motivate community members through better communication to stay active on Wiki projects, to get them more involved in local projects and keep them informed on activities in the Wikimedia movement. In order to ensure a high level of participation, we will use different communication channels: blog, mailing list, social media, website, Village pump on Wikipedia. The expansion of activities outside of Belgrade will result in the participation of volunteers from other cities at the events that will take place in Belgrade. These volunteers will be provided with the travel costs to the conference, meet-ups or similar events. It is often the case that members of the community become more motivated after the meet-ups or the conference and it also occurred that such meetings encourage them to share ideas for some new projects.
Likewise, smaller communities are suitable for organizing activities, workshops and the establishment of cooperation with cultural institutions in which volunteers would be recruited. In these communities there are less events than in the capital, so interested residents are more willing to attend or participate in such events. That is why our plan for the year 2017 is to work actively on decentralization and engaging the community outside of Belgrade.
The implementation of a proactive approach when looking for the partners in local organizations from various cities in Serbia is one of the ways to focus on strengthening the capacity of the community. Primary objectives will be youth organizations interested in social activism and volunteerism. There are numerous activities in Serbia that can be synchronized with the WMRS activities and to motivate potential volunteers. Youth offices, Association of Serbian travelers, NGOs engaged in non-formal education, are some of the targeted partners with whom we can achieve fruitful cooperation in the area of education. Enthusiasts all over Serbia have the desire and motivation to get involved in our projects and to be useful. WMRS will try to give everyone a chance to take advantage of their potential. Through the organization of photo-tours, workshops, meet-ups, young people can write articles about the places they visited, post pictures, promote the work of the organization at local events, organize exhibitions, negotiate with GLAM institutions on models of cooperation etc. All this increases not only the participation of volunteers, but also the expansion of the activities, operation and dissemination of knowledge in other cities in Serbia. In order to achieve greater satisfaction of participants in such activities, it is possible to organize the final event. It can be tribune, promotion of activities or event where the results of the work of volunteers will be presented which should increase the interest of the public to engage in these challenges and their engagement in Wiki world. This event can be symbolically organized on December 5th, the Volunteers Day.
The event we introduced last year, which was very important in terms of education of the public and the spread of the idea of free knowledge is Wiki corner. Wiki corner represents a potential future in the area of education, research and knowledge, because it offers current knowledge on numerous topics through the open access to the all participants. The original idea was to apply the proactive approach and to set the stand on certain events or traffic locations in order to provide visitors a variety of information related to Wiki projects and WMRS various local activities. In this way the general public will get to know the rules of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Serbia activities, and those who do their smaller task, like editing some articles, may get a symbolic prize. In 2016 Wiki corner was organized during the Filmstreet festival (summer cinema), Nišvil Jazz Festival (within the exhibition Wiki loves Earth 2016), during the promo Researchers' Night activities and within the Scientific truck during the Researchers’ Night. In some cases, the stand was more and in some less visited. In any case, it had effects since some visitors learned more about the range of possibilities that Wikipedia has, about editing Wikipedia, the implementation of Wiki platforms in schools and other institutions, but also some of the visitors became more interested so they submit proposals of annual projects. It should be stated that Wiki corner is significant because of the decentralization, considering the fact that in 2016 it was implemented in Ćuprija, Niš, Kragujevac and Pirot. Also, Wikimedia Serbia collaborated with the organizers of the Researchers' Night in Serbia in 2016, who incorporated Wiki corner in their own project. Funding for this project was provided for 2016 and 2017.
In addition to that, the plan is to celebrate the birthday of Wikipedia in Serbian and English language, and birthday of Wikimedia Serbia, as well as the Volunteer Day on December 5th. These celebrations are useful for gathering the community and partners, media, and informing the general public about the work and goals of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Award Branislav Jovanović has already established as a regular annual award which is given to volunteers who contribute the most not only to the Wiki projects but also local projects of Wikimedia Serbia. The award is established in honor of the Wikipedian and the former vice-president of the organization, Branislav Jovanović. It was handed for the first time in 2016 to a prominent Wikipedian Intermedichbo, within the WikiLive Conference. Practice will remain the same in 2017.
Timeframe:
Our plan is to implement these activities throughout the year. Strengthening the capacity of Wikimedia Serbia will be achieved through the promotion of projects in workshops and lectures, but also by inviting the community members to get involved in projects. The timeframe can be determined for certain activities:
- on a monthly basis - 5 blog posts will be published on current projects
- January-February - Birthday of Wikipedia in Serbian language and Wikipedia in English language
- April-May - ceremony of Branislav Jovanović award
- June - September - Wiki corner on Filmstreet Festival
- August - Wiki corner on Nišville Festival
- September - Wiki corner on Researchers' Night event
- December - birthday of Wikimedia Serbia and celebration of Volunteers Day
In addition to the already planned Wiki stands, it is important to underline that Wiki corner can be implemented in other locations in accordance with the conditions and the availability of the volunteers. Within the Researchers' Night event, we got two Wiki stands so they can also be used in other towns in Serbia.
Меasures of success:
- 60 blog posts
- 300 posts on social networks
- 10 new active volunteers
- After various events, participants will fill out evaluation forms which will give us qualitative measures - satisfaction and motivation of the participants.
WikiLive 2017
Project description and objectives:
WikiLive 2017 will be the third local conference of Wikipedians which aims to gather and meet Wikipedians from various cities in Serbia and the region. Meet-ups of this type are important for the health of the community and improving the motivation of editors. It was first held in 2015 and proved to be successful event which resulted in new ideas for the projects, new collaborations and animated volunteers. The desire of participants to attend the conference in the following year was at a high level. Taking into consideration the satisfaction of participants, lecturers, productive discussions, and ideas that participants got at the end of the conference, it was decided that WikiLive should be an annual event.
This way, through secondary activities, the visibility of Wikimedia projects will increase within the community. The two-day program will include variety of sessions held by experienced Wikipedians, covering topics from the world of Wikimedia Serbia, as well as news from other chapters, and will feature new tools that can be used.
Based on evaluation forms from 2015, which were completed by the participants, we have noticed that it is necessary to include interactive workshops and debates. That is what we did in 2016. One such example is the World Cafe session. Now the goal is to find new, fresh ideas to animate the audience at the conference. The workshops will be adapted so that they can be attended by those with or without experience.
As in the previous year, Wikimedia Serbia will give scholarships to the volunteers from outside of Belgrade and from the region, allowing them to cover the costs of accommodation, transport, and food. After the conference, we expect a continuation of the work of active volunteers, as well as the inclusion in new projects of Wikimedia Serbia.
Timeframe:
It is necessary to spend a lot of time and effort in the organization of the conference. To ensure a high degree of implementation, it is necessary to gather the organizational team and distribute the tasks on volunteers. This is a good opportunity to engage people who may not be interested in editing Wikipedia but who are good at organizing events. They can later be involved in organization of other events in order to create a balance between those who organize and those who edit. Timeframe looks like this:
- February - March: preparatory activities
- announcing a call for volunteers and gathering the organizational team
- setting the date, place, and partners of a conference
- determing the program and contacting speakers
- preparating promo materials
- booking of accommodation and the catering order
- announcing the conference and promoting event among the community and general public
- open call for scholarships
- selection of scholars
- April: holding the conference
- logistics
- the conference program
- organization of social events
- evaluation of the conference
- May - Writing the report and sharing with community
After the end of the conference, contact with participants will be maintained and focus will be on their involvement in projects and implementation of new ideas, if there are any.
Measures of success:
- two-day program with at least 10 sessions
- minimum of 50 participants at the conference
- 20 scholarships
- about 5 volunteers in organizational team
- 50 media releases
Wiki South
Project description and objectives:
This project is a continuation of the 2016 project and it’s led by volunteers from the Ančiki Youth Center. Wiki South is an important part of the WMRS program because it promotes decentralization and strengthens Wikipedia in the Jablanica, Pčinja, Toplica, and Pirot districts.
The ultimate goals of the project are:
- training and educating the participants on the project from the Jablanica and Pčinja districts to actively work on updating free content, not only on Wikipedia, but also on Wikinews, Wikiquotes, nad Wikimedia Commons - through increasing free knowledge on the internet.
- increasing the cultural, artistic, and historical content from Jablanica, Pčinja, and Toplica districts and on other Wikimedia projects.
Timeframe:
Activity 1: Preparation, organization and work plan
In order to have the activities better performed, it is necessary to work on the preparatory activities. Preparation and organization of project activities, designating locations, and making deals and a specific work plan are intended to happen in February 2017.
Activity 2: Announcing an open call for participants
Ančiki Youth Club will open call for 20 participants on the Wiki South 2 project, from the territory of Jablanica, Pčinja, Toplica, and Pirot district. An open call will be announced in the beginning of March 2017. As usual, we will work on a media promotion of the project in order to attract as many participants as possible.
Аctivity 3: The meeting and introduction of participants, the presentation and promotion of Wikimedia Serbia
The goal of the workshop is to get the new participants better acquainted with the work and activities of Wikimedia Serbia, and their mutual introduction and bonding with a purpose to work together more easily. Introductory workshop will be realized at the end of March 2017.
Аctivity 4: Spring seminar „How to become a Wikipedian, vol. 2“
The main objective of the Spring Seminar is getting the participants acquainted with WMRS and its projects, and educating them about how to become a Wikipedian and how to actively participate in the work of WMRS. After that comes the Edit-a-thon, which will leave a significant mark on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
Topics of the seminar will be as follows:
- What is free knowledge and why is it important to be an active participant in promoting free knowledge and informal education
- How to update content on Wikipedia, Wikinews, and Wikiquote
- How to use Wikimedia Commons
- What are Creative Commons licenses
- Edit-a-thon with a specific topic
Spring Seminar will be organized for 20 participants of the project and will take place in Leskovac at an appropriate location (hotel or hostel) that has all the necessary conditions for an undisturbed work and socializing (internet connection, seminar hall, lunch room). Spring Seminar will be realized at the end of April 2017.
Аctivity 5: Collecting and updating the content
The organizational team, together with the volunteers, will continue photographing the monuments that are often forgotten, work on updating content from the historical figures and events, notable persons, artists, music bands, actors, as well as work on researching the content on the culture, traditional food, and places in the Jablanica and Pčinja districts. In addition to the Jablanica and Pčinja districts, the volunteers will also cover the Toplica and Pirot districts. This project will help update at least 300 new articles on Wikipedia and will upload a minimum of 1000 new photos on Wikimedia Commons. Work will also be done on Wikinews and Wikiquote. These activities will be conducted from March to November 2017.
Аctivity 6: Wiki expeditions
Wiki expeditiones are envisioned to be interesting events, both nice and beneficial. The participants will have an opportunity to see the beauty of Serbia, and transfer their impressions to the wider community through their camera lens by uploading them on Commons. The expedition locations will be followed with an edit-a-thon, e.g. implementing articles related to the visited locations. A realization of at least four Wiki expeditions is expected to happen within the project, on different meaningful localities in mentioned districts, and the expeditions can be one or two-day, depending on the distance. Wiki expeditions are planned for May, June, July, and August.
Аctivity 7: Wikipedians love history
Participants of the project will visit museums, libraries, and historical archives in said counties in order to gather as much information and literature as possible, which can serve for writing articles during the edit-a-thon. This activity was planned for September.
Аctivity 8: Photo exhibition
The most beautiful photos taken during the project will be displayed at the exhibition in the Ančiki Youth Club office, in order to show the wider audience the hidden beauty of Serbia. The exhibition is planned to take place in October.
Аctivity 9: Edit-a-thon
The edit-a-thon is a perfect opportunity to socialize and enrich Wikipedia content, and it’s also favorable for new users to practice their newly acquired skills. At the same time, this edit-a-thon will be a preparation of a sort for the Wiki competition that is planned to take place at the end of the project. The edit-a-thon is planned for October, and it will take place in the congress hall of a local hostel.
Аctivity 10: Wiki competition
In order to bring more dynamics into the project and the work of its participants, but also to encourage competitiveness, we will organize a Wiki competition which will have three phases:
- New articles upload,
- Article improvement,
- Photo upload.
The basic assignment will be to upload and improve as many articles and photos as possible in each of the three phases, after which the winner will be announced and symbolic prizes for the three most successful competitors will be handed out. Wiki competition is planned for the end of the project, i.e. December 2017.
Меasures of success:
At least 300 new texts on Wikipedia and a minimum of 1000 new photos on Commons will be uploaded through this project. It is expected to have 20 new Wikipedians join us and to continue working and cooperating with the participants from the previous project cycles.
Grants
- Standard grants which will be allocated to the applicants for the projects with different objectives (projects like GLAM, Edu, or those projects which intend to promote education of the general public and WMRS)
- Photo-grants that will be allocated to the applicants for the photo projects - with the objective to collect and upload free photos on Wikimedia Commons
Standard grants
Project description and objectives:
Micro-grants have proved to be successful in terms of increasing the interest of individuals and organizations for implementing projects that can be later developed into bigger projects. This project achieves several strategic priorities. It increases the participation of volunteers, the quantity and quality of free materials on Wiki projects. We actively work on decentralization and on expanding activities in other cities in Serbia, so increasing the visibility and education of the general public are still some of the goals that should be realized through these grants. It is interesting that many of the projects which have been granted became annual projects. Considering these results and the fact that micro-grants are incubators of the good ideas with a small level of risk, the practice of granting will continue. They are also a good channel to promote the call for submission of annual projects.
Timeframe:
- January - organization of the Committee for decision-making
- February - an open call for proposals and the info events in Wikimedia Serbia
- March - closing of the applications, selection and ranking of the projects
- April - beginning of projects realization
- April to October
- implementation of the projects
- signing contract
- tranfer of the funds
- consultations with the leaders of projects and monitoring
- support
- December - writing of the final report
Measures of success:
Measures of success depend on the type of the projects, so at the moment they cannot be precisely defined. In addition to the global metrics five projects with a budget of up to 500 euros are expected. One of the criteria that will be taken into account is decentralization, in other words, activities and animation of the community outside of Belgrade.
Photo-grants
Project description and objectives:
Photo projects are interesting both for the community and volunteers who have not had any contact with Wikipedia and Wikimedia Serbia. Photo expeditions are a combination of educational and entertaining events. For that reason we have been receiving many project proposals of this type for the micro grants program but also during the call for annual projects. We came up with the idea for photo grants in 2016 when with small budget and we succeed to motivate and engage a lot of volunteers. The practice has shown good results so these grants will be open again until September and implemented during 2017. They are suitable for increasing interest of individuals who are not close with other Wiki projects, not only to collect photo material, but also to use it for their Wiki articles. Projects of this type will be useful to promote the work of Wikimedia Serbia through the exhibitions. These projects attract many photographers, so high quality of the resulting material is expected.
Timeframe:
Photo-grants will be opened until September 2017. Proposal form will be created and open call will be announced in the beginning of January. We will promote photo-grants on various WMRS events: exhibits, workshops and other events. Interested participants will have an opportunity to get involved into WMRS activities.
Measures of success:
The situation is similar as in Standard grants. Project budgets are limited up to 500 EUR. We expect realization of at least 3 projects. In addition to collecting free materials, file usage in Wikipedia articles will be measured too.
Staff and contractors: upcoming year's annual plan
[edit]- 1. Please describe your organization's staffing plan or strategy here, and provide a link to your organization's staffing plan or organogram if you have one.
This year, there will be no changes in terms of WMRS staff structure. In 2015 we eliminated the position of Executive Director and it has been separated into two positions: Office Manager and Communication Manager. This proved to be a good decision which is why we’re not planning to change a staff structure. In the beginning of the 2016, we have given additional assignment of monitoring and evaluation of other employees to Program Manager and Community Support, which also turned out as a good idea, as the daily activities of other employees are now much easier to follow that way.
In May 2016, our Education Program Manager Milica Žarković has taken a maternity leave. In order to fill the void on this position, Wikimedia Serbia has hired Nebojša Ratković for the job, also for a full-time position. The plan of the organization is to keep Nebojša on this position until Milica Žarković returns, which is expected to happen in the early 2018.
- 2. List of staff by department or function.
- You can use this table (or substitute your own list) to show us the number of FTEs (fulltime equivalents) for each department or function, where one person working at 100% time would be counted as 1.0. We need this information about the total number of staff (FTEs) you plan to have by the end of the current funding period, and staff you plan to have by the end of the upcoming funding period.
Table 4
FTEs Department or function End of current funding period End of upcoming funding period Explanation of changes Program and Community Manager 1.0 1.0 Education Program Manager 2.0 2.0 Look in the notes Communications Manager 1.0 1.0 Office Manager 1.0 1.0 Total (should equal the sum of the rows): 5.0 5.0
Table 4 notes or explanation of significant changes: Until the beginning of 2018, Wikimedia Serbia will officially have two employees (one active) on this position because Milica Žarković is on pregnancy (maternity) leave.
- 3. How much does your organization plan to spend on staff by the end of the current funding period, in currency requested and US dollars?
By the end of the current funding period, Wikimedia Serbia plans to spend 43,528.56 EUR or 48,829.90 USD on staff.
- 4. How much does your organization plan to spend on staff by the end of the upcoming funding period, in currency requested and US dollars?
By the end of the upcoming funding period, Wikimedia Serbia plans to spend 56,574.00 EUR or 63,060.21 USD on staff.
Follow the link to our Budget 2017.
Financials: upcoming year
[edit]Detailed budget: upcoming year
[edit]- Please link to your organization's detailed budget showing planned revenues and expenses for the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017). This may be a document included on this Wiki (Meta) or a publicly available spreadsheet.
Revenues: upcoming year
[edit]Please use this table to list your organization's anticipated revenues (income, or the amount your organization is bringing in) by revenue source (where the revenue is coming from) in the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017).
- Use the status column to show if this funding is already guaranteed, if you are in the process of requesting funding, or if you are planning to request funding at a later time.
- Please include in-kind donations and resources in this table, as applicable, and use the status column to show that they are in-kind resources.
- Do not include money you plan to draw from your reserves during the upcoming funding period.
Table 5
Anticipated revenues for the upcoming funding period Revenue source Currency requested US dollars Status (e.g. guaranteed, application)
Revenues from WMF donation 130,170.00 145,093.99 In the process of requesting funding Interglider - - In-kind donation National Tourist Organisation of Serbia - - In-kind donation Total revenues (should equal the sum of the rows): 130,170.00 145,093.99 -
Table 5 notes:
Interglider will do the hosting and server administration services.
National Tourist Organisation of Serbia will provide space for the Wiki Loves Earth exhibition in Belgrade.
Operating reserves: current and upcoming years
[edit]Please note that there is a policy that places restrictions on how much FDC funding your organization can use to build its operating reserves. If you would like to use FDC funding to for your organization's reserves, you must note that here. You will not be able to decide to allocate FDC funding from this grant to your reserves at a later date.
- 1. What is your plan for maintaining, building, or spending your reserves in the current year and the upcoming funding period? Please use the table below to show the amounts in your reserves at the beginning, year-to-date, and end of your current year, and the amount you plan to have in your reserves by the end of the upcoming funding period.
Every year, our organisation is requesting 4,000.00 EUR for operating reserves. Those reserves are necessary for unforeseen expenses, but also for potential changes in programs, where we want to participate. This year we have spent 1,079.54 EUR (1,211.02 USD) from reserves. They have been used for covering the unplanned office moving costs. By the end of the current funding period we project it will be 2,920.46 EUR (3,276.14 USD) in operating reserves. The whole amount will be returned to WMF. The same principle is also for the next year. We will request 4,000.00 EUR and return the same amount to the WMF in case of the absence of unforeseen expenses.
Table 6
Year Year start Year start (US) Year-to-date Year-to-date (US) Year end Year end (US) Current year (e.g. 2017) 4,000.00 4,487.16 2,920.46 3,276.14 2,920.46 3,276.14 Upcoming year (e.g. 2018) - - - - 4,000.00 4,458.60
- 2. How much FDC funding is your organization requesting to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period? If you are not requesting any FDC funding to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period, you can write zero.
Our organization does not have and does not plan to build its own reserves.
Expenses: upcoming year's annual plan
[edit]- 1. Expenses by program (excludes staff and operations).
- Program expenses are the costs associated specifically with your organization's programs, and do not include operating expenses or staff salaries, which will be described in separate tables. Program expenses may be the costs of an event, the costs of outreach materials specific to a program, budgets for microgrants and reimbursements, or technical costs associated with specific programs, for example. The programs listed in this table should correspond to the programs you have listed in the programs section of this proposal form.
Table 7
Program Currency requested US dollars Educational Program 8,570.00 9,552.55 - Wikipedia in Schools 3,200.00 3,566.88 - Professional Development 1,900.00 2,117.84 - Wiki Edu Camp 3,470.00 3,867.84 Free Content 11,050.00 12,316.88 - WIki Loves Earth 2,500.00 2,786.63 - Zapis - Sacred Tree 2,040.00 2,273.89 - Tara's national park in 2000 colors 900.00 1,003.19 - Kolubara and Podgorina in the picture 1,100.00 1,226.12 - Roadside memorials and tombstones in Serbia 660.00 735.67 - Cultural heritage of Western Serbia 2,800.00 3,121.02 - Wikipedia Competitions 1,000.00 1,114.65 - Spoken Wikipedia 50.00 55.73 Free Content: GLAM 8,500.00 9,474.53 - Wiki Takes GLAMers 1,500.00 1,671.98 - Edit-a-thons 750.00 835.99 - Wikipedian in Residence 1,400.00 1,560.51 - Wiki Librarian 3,850.00 4,291.40 - Digitalisation of Techno Culture in Serbia 1,000.00 1,114.65 Wiktionary 500.00 557.33 - Cooperation with Univerisities 500.00 557.33 Community Support 10,000.00 11,146.50 - Community Support 3,200.00 3,566.88 - WikiLive 3,800.00 4,235.67 - Wiki South 3,000.00 3,343.95 Microgrants 5,000.00 5,573.25 - Standard Grants 2,500.00 2,786.63 - Photogrants 2,500.00 2,786.63 Total program expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 43,620.00 48,621.03
Table 7 notes: If your organization has significant funding designated for specific programs (e.g. a restricted grant), please make a note of that here.
- 2. Total expenses. Please use this table to summarize your organization's total expenses overall.
- These are divided into three categories: (1) staff expenses from Table 4 (including expenses for staff working on both programs and operations), (2) expenses for programs from Table 7 (does not include staff expenses or operations expenses), and (3) expenses for operations (does not include staff expenses or program expenses). Be sure to check the totals in this table to make sure they are consistent with the totals in the other tables you have submitted with this form. For example, your total program expenses excluding staff will be equal to the total in Table 7, while your total staff expenses will be equal to the total in Table 4 and your total expenses will be equal to the total in Table 1.
Table 8
Expense type Currency requested US dollars Program expenses (total from Table 7, excludes staff) 43,620.00 48,621.03 Operations (excludes staff and programs) 29,976.00 33,412.75 Upcoming staff total expenses (from Table 4) 56,574.00 63,060.21 Total expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 130,170.00 145,093.99
Table 8 notes:
Translated annual plan
[edit]This annual plan is also available in Serbian language on this link.
Verification and signature
[edit]Please enter "yes" or "no" for the verification below.
- The term “political or legislative activities” includes any activities relating to political campaigns or candidates (including the contribution of funds and the publication of position statements relating to political campaigns or candidates); voter registration activities; meetings with or submissions and petitions to government executives, ministers, officers or agencies on political or policy issues; and any other activities seeking government intervention or policy implementation (like “lobbying”), whether directed toward the government or the community or public at large. General operating support through the FDC may not be used to cover political and legislative activities, although you may make a separate grant agreement with the WMF for these purposes.
I verify that no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation will be used
for political or legislative activities except as permitted by a grant agreementYes
Please sign below to complete this proposal form.
- IMPORTANT. Please do not make any changes to this proposal form after the proposal submission deadline for this round. If a change that is essential to an understanding of your organization's proposal is needed, please request the change on the discussion page of this form so it may be reviewed by FDC staff. Once submitted, complete and valid proposal forms submitted on time by eligible organizations will be considered unless an organization withdraws its application in writing or fails to remain eligible for the duration of the FDC process.
Please sign here once this proposal form is complete, using four tildes. IvanaMadzarevic (talk) 13:30, 30 September 2016 (UTC)