Grants:IEG/Expo 2015: Contributing to Wikipedia at Expo 2015

statusnot selected

Individual Engagement Grants

Expo 2015: Contributing to Wikipedia at Expo 2015

summaryA synergy with Expo 2015 in Milan, aiming at feeding knowledge on Wikipedia with the involvement of the institutions and visitors of Expo.

targetContributions on two specific topics: food (topic at the centre of Expo 2015) and cultural heritage of Lombardy Region on Wikipedia in Italian and English, Wikivoyage, Wikimedia Commons and openstreetmap.

strategic priorityimproving quality

themeoffline outreach and partnerships

amount10 930 (EUR)

grantee• Yiyi• giudittaN

advisor• iopensa• Vanessa De Luca

contact• dario.crespigmail.com

volunteer• Luckyz• Torsolo

this project needs...

volunteer

created on15:09, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

2014 round 2

Friendly space expectations

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

Between May and October 2015, the city of Milan in Italy is hosting Expo. Expo 2015 is a world gathering, presenting stands and pavilions, and focussing on Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. Feeding knowledge is one of the objectives of the event, which aims also at actively involving its public. The event is expecting 20 million visitors, 163 exhibitors, it is already involving in its program a wide network of institutions working in particular in Italy and in the Lombardy Region and it is meant to produce content. Visitors are expected to visit the Expo, to find accommodation in the larger territory of Milan (including also Lake Como) and to take advantage of the touristic sites and the cultural and natural beauties of Lombardy Region and beyond. The event has been at the centre of a series of storms with sudden changes in the management, delays in the execution of the infrastructures, and processes for fraudulent commissions. Despite the objective turbulence this event has brought to Italy – and the convincing criticism surrounding it – there is no doubt that Expo 2015 is a well-known event format, it represents a major international show-window for Italy and – even if the expected visitors might be overestimated – it will surely reach a wide audience and it is already involving a wide number of institutions. It would be a misoportunity to not take advantage of this event and wikimedians could do it with a beneficial (for anyone) emphasis on content.

What is your solution?

A synergy between the Wikimedia project and Expo 2015 in Milan, aiming at feeding knowledge on Wikipedia.

Project goals

The aim of this project is to establish a synergy between the Wikimedia projects and Expo as an opportunity to target a wide public, to improve content at the centre of Expo, and to take advantage of the wide network of institutions and visitors Expo has been and will be gathering. More specifically the objective of the project is to involve Expo and 50 institutions gathering around Expo 2015. A series of events, interventions and communication tools will contribute to involve Wikimedia volunteers and the institutions and to improve content on the Wikimedia projects related to the topic of food, nutrition and sustainability.

What we will NOT do:

• We will not communicate the Expo. Our aim is not to highlight Expo, but to highlight the topic Expo is focusing on (food and nutrition, and content related to Milan and Lombardy Region).
• We will not work for Expo. This is an independent project focussed on Wikipedia and its sister sites. The synergy with Expo can facilitate access to the venues, and the communication with the institutions the Expo involves and its public.
• We will not communicate the project, but our message. Our message is "Feed knowledge on Wikipedia".

Project plan

Activities

The project is structured into three event formats. Each event format requires a series of activities necessary to prepare and develop the event; the event can be implemented as a large-scale event or as a series of smaller events aiming at producing the same results.

First event: QRpedia

The first event aims at installing QRpedia in the stand and pavilions of Expo 2015. The interventions is essentially meant to link the analog installation of Expo with the digital world of Wikipedia: to inform visitors and institutions that – over there too – content is available (or not particularly available) and that they can contribute to it too. This event requires a series of steps:

• Partnership with Expo
• Building the landing page and the project pages to support contributors.
• Communication to the network of institution of Expo (163 exhibitors)
• Involvement of the network of institutions of Expo (open licenses and QRcodes); contacts and follow up.
• Positioning QRcodes (using QRpedia) in the Expo site with links to Wikipedia articles related to participating countries, food traditions, processes of food productions and content specifically related to the exhibitiors.
  • Selecting the articles (each pavillion can have more QRcodes)
  • Printing the QRpedia codes
  • Installing the codes
  • Recording the list of articles highlighted through the process.
  • Involving the volunteers. We expect to involve 100 people; volunteers will work in groups of 2-3 people; teams selecting the articles will include a person with experience on Wikipedia; other 3-4 groups (with participants who can make rounds) will focus on printing the QRcodes and record the articles selected.
  • Coordinating the event (preparation, involvement of the volunteers, coordination of the institutions, management of the day).

Second event: Wikimarathon

The second event aims at improving the articles of Wikipedia selected during the first event (QRpedia) and at activating the resources needed.

• Preparing the resources necessary for the event (existing content released with open licenses)
  • Communication to the network of institution of Expo and the network of institutions linked to Expo 2015, with a particular focus on institutions based in Lombardy Region to ask content with open license.
  • Follow up of the contacts and support to the institutions to include the open license or to sign authorization (OTRS).
• Contributing to Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects during a Wikimarathon online and offline.
  • Involving the volunteers and the participants.
  • Coordination of the event in a library

Third event: Treasure hunt

The third event aims at experimenting a Wikipedia Treasure Hunt. The treasure hunt uses Wikipedia content and requires contributions to Wikipedia and its sister project. People will be called upon to use Wikipedia like a tool to achieve the various stages of the treasure hunt, and they be required to actively contribute to upload information and photos about the places they visit.

The treasure hunt produces three itineraries. We expect to develop some of the itineraries in the Lombardy Region lead participants to discover the cultural heritage of Lombardy; among the possible sites included in the itineraries (which will be selected during the project) Milan, Sesto San Giovanni and Busto Arsizio (where are ongoing projects SestopediA and BustopediA), and Lake Como with Esino Lario (the village candidate to host Wikimania 2016).

The itineraries do not focus on the expo in itself to avoid producing a tool with a limited use; we are considering the possibility of creating an online itinerary on food (thematically linked to the Expo).

• Selection of the itineraries.
• Selection of the actions (missing photos, informations) and the missing content.
• Designing the treasure hunt (a series of itineraries)
• Testing the treasure hunt in teams.

Budget

Event		People	Cost per unit	Days	Hours	Cost	Total per event (EUR)
First event: QRpedia	Coordination of the preparation	1	160	7	56	1120
	Drinks and food for the active volunteers	100	15	1		1500
	Equipment and materials for the event					600
	Total first event - QRpedia						3220
Second event: Wikimarathon	Contacting 173 institutions to involve 50 (contact and follow up calculated by multiply 30 minutes per 173 institutions	173	20		0,5	1730
	Coordination of the event	1	160	3		480
	Drinks, food and reimbursement for the active volunteers	6	50	1		300
	Drinks for the participants	100	7	1		700
	Prints and communication materials					400
	Total second event - Wikimarathon						3610
Third event: Treasure hunt	Coordination content	1	160	5		800
	Coordination game	1	240	5		1200
	Drinks, food and travel reimbursements for the active volunteers	30	50	1		1500
	Prints and communication materials					600
	Total third event - Treasure Hunt						4100
Total project							10930

Community engagement

The project is structured into events specifically to facilitate the engagement of communities. The events drive all the energies into a gathering, they focus the activities into productive and interconnected results, and they facilitate the involvement of volunteers. The project to be feasible requires the participation of a quite large number of volunteers; asking volunteers to contribute for three days is easier than having them active for 6 months or more; furthermore events have an important social and fun atmosphere, they allow people to work in small groups (we expect to work in groups of at least 2-3 people) and they concentrate the work in a limited amount of time.

Sustainability

The project contributes to the quality of content on the Wikimedia projects and it tests two working methodologies which – if successful – can be replicated.

1. It tests the involvement of a large number of institutions at once. Differently from the typical WikiGLAM partnerships, we do not work with one institution at the time but we use a large event to target a large group of institutions. This format – if it works – can be replicated and it can boost the engagement of countries, international organizations and civil society organizations.
2. It tests the use of a treasure hunt to play with Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects (as reader and as active contributor).

The projects links with other current initiatives

1. It contributes to content related to Wiki Loves Africa 2014, which focuses on food.
2. It contributed to GLAMWiki initiatives, with links with international pavilions (nations) and institutions.
3. It involves groups and initiatives already active in the Lombardy Region (Bustopedia, Sestopedia, members of Wikimedia Italia)

Measures of success

Please find below the expected results and measures of success according to the global metrics.

Metrics

Calculating global metrics	Description	Expected results
PARTICIPATION (COMMUNITY)
1. Number of active editors involved	Existing active editors (5+ edits per month) involved at any capacity (planning, executing, participating) during the project duration	In Italy we expect to involve 30 active editors (according to the definition 5+ edits per month) in the planning, executing, participating. Active editors are a specific target of the project and they are involved in particular online and during the events. Their participation in testing the treasure hunt is meant specifically to engage them (us) in a fun experience. We also expect the project to involve (online and during Expo) 7 active editors based outside Italy (targeted by communicating the initiative through WikiProjects).
2. Number of newly registered users	Newly registered users as a result of the project, using a two week window for specific events	The project communicates Wikipedia during Expo ("Feed knowledge on Wikipedia"). Based on the 20 million expected visitors of Expo, the project might reach a quite large number of potential users, but producing newly registered users is not a direct metric of the project. We expect to involve around 60 "non active editors" during the event QRpedia (for the event it is irrelevant that people register on Wikipedia or on Wikimedia projects); during the Wikimarathon we involve not only active editors but also students and people with an expertise on our topic (also in this case people can also contribute without registration) and during the Treasure Hunt we do not target new editors but active contributors.
3. Number of individuals involved	All people participating in the project (organizers, users, attendees, etc.)	As presented in the budget, we expect to involve in the first and second event 100 people, and in the third event 30 people; expecting a total number of 100-120 people (there can be the same participants in the different events). We will contact 173 institutions (we expect the involvement of 50) and we will communicate Wikipedia to the visitors of Expo (expected visitors 20 million people). The project team involves 2 grantees (Dario Crespi with a focus on Wikipedia and Giuditta Nelli with a focus on events), and 2 advisors (Iolanda Pensa with a focus on strategy and management and Vanessa De Luca with a focus on games). Members of Wikimedia Italia and active projects in the Lombardy Region have already been contacted and involved.
CONTENT
4. Number of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages	# of images uploaded to Commons and added to Wikipedia articles or other Wikiproject pages	The project is expected to produce images of Expo, and images of the events (around 200). We expect to collect images with authorizations from the institutions involved (around 100 - the number is limited because content presented during Expo is likely to be copyrighted and not in public domain, and the ownership of images often does not belong to the institutions involved or they might not have the right to sublicense it). We expect to trigger the production of 100 images on Milan and the Lombardy Region and we expect to use on Wikipedia articles around 10 relevant images produced within Wiki Loves Africa focusing on food.
5. Number of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects	By project (Wikipedia, Wikisource, etc.) the # of articles that were created or improved as a result of the program efforts	We focus on Wikipedia in Italian and English. We calculate the number of articles improved by on the hypothesis that we will improve 2 articles per each of the 50 institutions involved (100 articles). More specifically the articles we will target are: the session culture (cuisine) in articles of countries, the article culture (cuisine) of specific countries; articles related to specific food, ingredients, preparations, plants and other resources; we might also contribute to general topics such as sustainability, resources of the plant, OGM (those are not our priority because challenging and controversial if edited in the frame of a project). We expect also to contribute to articles related to Milan and Lombardy Region by involving among the 50 institutions also institutions of this territory, or through the events (around 20 articles). The project is also meant to improve openstreetmap with georeferenced content (around 100 sites mapped); openstreetmap can allow us to include in the project information related to local producers and companies (we can add their location on the map); this is possible because on openstreetmap a site does not need to be necessarily notable in the same way Wikipedia evaluates it; content on openstreetmap is specifically useful if there are images related on Wikimedia Commons.
6. Number of bytes added to and/or deleted from Wikimedia projects (absolute value)	By project, total number of bytes contributed to or deleted from the Wikipedia projects through programs: $|BytesAdded|+|BytesRemoved|=TotalBytes$	We will record on Wikipedia discussion pages or in the attribution on Wikimedia projects the credits of institutions (this will allow to report on bytes the specific content provided by institutions through a hidden category). Our initiative will contribute to existing thematic WikiProjects on Wikipedia; we will present our initiative within the existing thematic projects (nutrition, agriculture, cuisine, Milan, Lombardy Region). The reason we will not associate Wikipedia content to Expo is because Expo is a company, and because the role of the event is to trigger the online contribution not to produce it.
LEARNING QUESTION
7. Learning question: Did your work increase the motivation of contributors, and how do you know?

Get involved

Participants

Grantees

The project is quite complex; two people are directly involved in the project with a grant to guarantee that the activities are planned, prepared and implement properly to allow others to contribute.

• Dario Crespi is an active Wikimedia and openstreetmap contributor and he has a bachelor's degree in environmental architecture; he's an athletics trainer and he coaches a team of kids. He worked for Archeowiki project and collaborated for Wiki Loves Monuments Italia. He's coordinating the project Bustopedia. Dario is the coordinator of the project.
• Giuditta Nelli is an artist with an international experience in events, workshops and interactive games. She has skills also in graphic design and in interpreting and translating low and high tech into real life events. Giuditta contributes to the structure of the treasure hunt. Profile on Linkedin.

Advisors (volunteers)

• Iolanda Pensa is a Wikimedia contributor and researcher at SUPSI University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland with a specific experience in planning and managing projects. She has been already promoting and implementing an IEG project in 2014. Iolanda contributes as an advisor to the project planning and managing, and by supporting the coordinator throughout the project. She has experience in supporting institutions in releasing content under Creative Commons attribution share alike license and contributing to the Wikimedia projects.
• Vanessa De Luca is designer and researcher with a focus on interaction design and gameful design. She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial design and multimedia communication at the Polytechnic of Milan with a thesis on game design and she has contributed to the games QRiosity Mixed Reality Game ([12]) and Voices decision Making Process Game ([13]); she works at SUPSI University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland. Vanessa contributes as an advisor to the brainstorming of the project with her specific expertise in games and urban games.

Participants (volunteers)

• Synergy with Bustopedia (lead by Dario Crespi as volunteer) and Sestopedia (involvement confirmed)
• Involvement of members of Wikimedia Italia, living in particular in Milan and in the Lombardy Region. Wikimedia Italia has around 300 members and the projects is conceived to allow also people who are part of the association but they are not active Wikimedia contributors to be involved and to contribute to the events.
• Involvement of members of relevant WikiProjects on Wikipedia in Italian and English.
• Synergy with Wiki Loves Africa (focusing on food in 2014) - involvement not confirmed.
• Synergy with Expo - manifestation of interest, involvement not defined yet.
• Involvement of researchers and students (Faculty of Agriculture in Milan not confirmed; interest from 3 high schools in Lombardy Region - manifestation of interest, involvement not defined jet).
• Volunteer I would like to partecipate to this project as a volunteer Luckyz (talk) 02:50, 30 September 2014 (UTC)
• Volunteer Ancora non lo so... Torsolo (talk) 07:04, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

Community Notification

Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips?

• Bar of Wikipedia in Italian (here).
• Wikimedia Italia mailing list in Italian.
• Wikimedia Lombardy Region mailing list in Italian.
• Team of Wiki Loves Africa (email).
• Wikimedia chapters cultural partners coordination mailing list.
• Team of QRpedia (email).

Endorsements

Do you think this project should be selected for an Individual Engagement Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. (Other constructive feedback is welcome on the talk page of this proposal).

• Community member: add your name and rationale here.

Expo has been contacted and Dario Crespi and Iolanda Pensa had a meeting with three people of the communication department of Expo September 18th, 2014. The feedback on the project is very positive and we are still in a discussion to define the possible ways Expo can communicate the initiative and create synergies with their current program of events. --iopensa (talk) 08:26, 29 September 2014 (UTC). A link to this proposal has been sent to Expo; we received positive feedback and we are moving on with the next steps for the collaboration (specifically: browsing Expo websites to identify content which can be relevant for Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects and provide them with a list and to further discussion the release of content under cc by-sa). --iopensa (talk) 09:08, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

• (Promuove il sapere libero e potrebbe davvero essere utile per migliorare l'apporto di informazioni sull'alimentazione, IMO carenti.) It promotes free knowledge and could really be useful to improve the provision of information about nutrition. Umberto NURS (msg) 12:22, 29 September 2014 (UTC).

• After clarifying comments on the talk page, I'm happy to endorse this project as it represents a vehicle to make Wikipedia highly visible, attract new editors, and to improve content on a well-defined subject area (cuisine, food, and food-related resources) through a variety of events throughout the Expo. I JethroBT (talk) 18:56, 2 October 2014 (UTC)

•  Support It is a great opportunity to spread the Wikimedia movement and build awareness about the Wikimedia projects. Best wishes.--Visdaviva (talk) 12:00, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

Endorsement from Wikimedia Italia

The Expo will be a great opportunity for the visibility and coverage: it is important to be there as Wikimedia, promoting free knowledge and boosting our impact. It is a great occasion for visibility, promotion and networking, as well as impact on cultural heritige and Wikimedia content. Wikimedia Italia endorses the project. Aubrey (talk) 22:05, 30 September 2014 (UTC)