Grants:PEG/Michel Castelo Branco - Wikimedians in Brazil/WikiBrasil 2012/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2012-13 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:PEG/Michel Castelo Branco - Wikimedians in Brazil/WikiBrasil 2012.

You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
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The meeting took place between the 12th and 14th of October 2012, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.

Activities

The three days were divided into different kinds of activities and themes, following an adapted Open-space meeting methodology, as we detail below.

Day 1

Innauguration of the Pietro Roveri Association

tl;dr: About 20 people. Personal and project presentations. Built the schedule for the following days. Establishment of the Pietro Roveri Association. All done with great success.

From Friday morning until early afternoon we formed a single circle with everyone - about 20 people - presenting themselves, their purpose in the meeting, and the activities they've been engaged in.

Once that was done, we had lunch together, and returning from that we set the agenda for the next few days, taking input from everyone.

At 4 pm we started the general assembly in order to establish the Associação Pietro Roveri para Colaboração e Conhecimento Livres (APR-CCL), which roughly translates to "Pietro Roveri Association for Freedom in Collaboration and Knowledge". It is worth noting that from its start to its conclusion the assembly was deeply charged with positive, good emotions and memories of our dearest friend Pietro, who unquestionably made himself present through each of us.

Once the association was successfully inaugurated, the day was called and a few people remained to care of the paperwork to be taken to a registrar on Monday.

Day 2

tl;dr: About 25 people. Simultaneous flexible groups discussion. Four main topics addressed, producing reference documents of shared views, divergences and action plans.

On Saturday morning, a bit late as people took their time to arrive, we sat down in four different tables, each equipped with a computer and a large screen hanging above our heads, to discuss four topics identified in the previous day. Each table had a fixed topic, and throughout the day people would exchange tables and, every 30 min, make a plenary presentation of the overall points and conclusions of that time window. In this way everyone could participate in all topics, accumulating different views, but without forcing the discussion to run in circles.

Each table had, at all times, a member who was in charge of filling the wiki page for that topic, and another member who was in charge of reporting to the plenary during the next break.

By the end of the day, everyone was really worn out, but with a great feeling of accomplishment. It should be noted that the infrastructure conceived by the organizers served the methodology very well.

The 4 topics (in Portuguese):

Wikipedia

its community, technology, data, issues, challenges;

Content partnerships

with other communities, institutions, events.

Education

the ambassadors program, other initiatives from the community, barriers.

Politics

laws and bills relevant to our mission, some of which we helped develop, discussions on how to and where better support these.

Day 3

tl;dr: About 20 people. Single group discussion on power and responsibility in organizations. Critique of the Wikimedia Movement locally and globally.

Sunday was our last day, and was devoted to discussions about the structure and function of our Wikimedian community and the broader Wikimedia Movement, and what roles does each play for one another.

Part of that time was dedicated to discuss our relationships with other those groups, such as the WMF, the WCA and Iberocoop, and some important consensus were reached regarding those.

This alienated some participants, in particular newcomers who had never had contact with the soup of letters, committees, task-forces, boards and other structures and groups that evolved within the Wikimedia Movement. We tried to be inclusive and help everyone understand them, stopping on every term that required an explanation.

By the end, most thought it was a day more tiresome than productive, but because it was very tiresome and abstract. At the same time, there was a general feeling that those were important things we had shared and learned, and consequential consensuses had been reached.

Documentation of expenditures

Venue

After consulting six different potential venues, we choose a place easy to get in, in order to facilitate the transportation and catering for the subscribed participants. Also, we needed a place available during a prolonged weekend, so we could have more time for the event.

	Planned (USD)	Actual (USD)	Doc
Venue	1850	1844	DOC 012 2012 DOC 013 2012
Venue	1850	1844	2

Accessories

During the event, we prioritized the unconference format, so the attendees were arranged in five groups, discussing different themes in parallel, following by panel sessions for share the common proposals. Each group had a notebook connected to a wi-fi internet, so the attendees could register their proposals in a page at http://br.wikimedia.org. Also, the notebooks were connected to a TV, allowing a better visualization for all participants in the group and the others participants, during the panel sessions.

	Planned (USD)	Actual (USD)	Doc
Rental of 5 TV and 5 notebooks	1464	1464	DOC 014 2012
Printed material	77	0
Accessories	1541	1464	1

Travel tickets

In order to allow the participation of volunteers from other cities, we covered travel tickets for 10 Wikimedians: 3 from Rio de Janeiro, 3 from Brasília, 2 from Curitiba, 1 from Recife and 1 from Natal.

	Units	Planned (USD)	Actual (USD)	Doc
Brasília	3	1090	1038	DOC 003 2012 DOC 005 2012 DOC 006 2012
Curitiba	2	385	385	DOC 001 2012
Natal	1	317	306	DOC 010 2012
Recife	1	394	394	DOC 002 2012
Rio de Janeiro	3	294	312	DOC 004 2012 DOC 007 2012 DOC 008 2012 DOC 009 2012
Travel tickets	10	2481	2435	10

Accomodation

In order to reduce expenses with accomodation, attendees from São Paulo organize themselves to host the ones from other cities, so the organizers only had to pay for two attendees, coming from Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.

	Planned (USD)	Actual (USD)	Doc
Hotel		103	DOC 011 2012
Hostel		21	DOC 017 2012
Accomodation	185	124	2

Lunch

During the two first days of the meeting, the organization offered lunch to the participants. On Day 1, we paid up to BRL 20 in individual meals, at restaurants in a mall near the venue. On Day 2, all attendees lunched together at a nearby restaurant.

	Planned (USD)	Actual (USD)	Doc
Day 1	385	132	DOC 015 2012
Day 2	385	416	DOC 016 2012
Lunch	771	548	2

Transportation

By choosing restaurants close to the venue, the attendees could get there by feet, eliminating expenses with transportation during the intervals. Also, the accomodation of the attendees from other cities in locals' residencies reduced the expenses with transportation to the venue, which were covered by the participants themlseves. We've included one additional item for transportation before the event, related to visits and arrangements with possible venues.

	Planned (USD)	Actual (USD)
Pre-event	–	46
Day 1	77	3
Day 2	77	3
Day 3	77	3
Transportation	231	55

Reserves

We estimated reserves, 15% of the total fund, in order to cover wire transfer taxes and other unforeseen expenses.

	Planned (USD)	Actual (USD)
Wire transfer taxes	128	?
Unforeseen expenses	0	?
Reserves	128	?

Total

	Planned (USD)	Actual (USD)
Venue	1850	1844
Accessories	1541	1464
Travel tickets	2481	2435
Accomodation	185	124
Lunch	771	548
Transportation	231	55
Reserves	128	?
Total	7187	6470

Goals, and results

We will consider this project a success if we get:

25 ideas for activities to be done in the next 6 months;
a good general feedback from the attendees.

Ideas

Projects with QR Code
- GLAM - Implementation of QR Codes in partner institutions. But the links would be made to Wikibooks. Since some pieces not pass the current notability criteria of Lusophone Wikipedia. Plus there is a catchment of direct information from the museum. We have a potential partner, which makes scanning museums, and also captures this information, your scans as well as video and audio, according to them, are in public domain. They who contacted us.
- Zoo - Implementation of QR Code in zoos - also would create a task force to improve the articles of zoo animals, so we can have items of all animals on site. If we fail, the connection would be made to Wikispecies, which must also be displayed as an option for the reader.
Wikipedia improvement
- Creation of short tutorial films (~2 min);
  - Using other networks to spread the tutorials;
- Perform usability research;
- Produce new notifications and test the recommendations in an attempt to reduce the negative impacts that the current communication brings;
- Make an awareness campaign for better treatment toward beginners, with a focus on older volunteers.
- Improve the written tutorials from Wikipedia, making them more intuitive, more accessible, avoiding jargon.
In the first semester of 2013, hold photo marathons in cities across the country, to prepare ourselves for the WLM in September.

Lessons learned

By the end of the meeting, we made a feedback session, and the main issues were reported here. Summarizing, some points reported were:

What went well

it was a big and diverse event, a good opportunity to meet other people and establish more links between us.
Friday was fun! We must keep trying and making such events with fun.

What did not go well

Low press coverage: we've had difficulties to find a venue for the event at that weekend, so we had too little time to organize everythings in time (flight tickets, accomodations, etc.) and we fail to give a better attention to the media. We can improve this in the future, by defining the venue and dates earlier, writing press releases and being more in touch to our contacts in the media. By the way, increasing our network and social media presence seems to be a strong necessity.
the wi-fi connection: in that weekend, the main internet service for São Paulo went off for an entire day. That caused us difficulties to provide online participation for those who couldn't get to the event in person, specially Wikimedia Portugal volunteers, as we love to have the opportunity to talk to them. Nevertheless, we were able to talk online with Anasuya for some minutes and even play a song for her!
Failure to meet the scheduled time, specially at the begin of the event, and after the lunch time. There was a suggestion to have the lunch at the venue in the future, in order to have more time for the discussions. The first presentations were too long, so we had to hurry up in the end of the day, in order to finish the discussions on time. We must plan a different model for the opening activities in the future. An agenda previously defined was also pointed as a suggestion for future: we choose to provide time for open discussions, sometimes suggesting some main themes, rather than including presentations or defining specific questions. Maybe we can balance this better in the future.