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Grants:PEG/WM CZ/Communities/Report/2015-01

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Interim report accepted
This interim report for a Project and Event Grant has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.


Compliance and completion

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Are you complying with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?
Answer YES or NO.
YES
Do you expect this project to be completed by the date specified in the approved grant submission?
Answer YES or NO.
YES
Did you use any of the grant funds?
Answer YES or NO.
YES
Was this interim report requested by WMF?
Answer YES or NO.
YES

Activities and lessons learned

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This section describes what the grantee did, and what the grantee learned from implementing the project. This section should be useful to others implementing similar projects and is an opportunity for the grantee to reflect on the project's performance.

Activities

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Provide a detailed list of activities performed to complete this project, descriptions of these activities, and the amount of time spent on each activity. This section should also include a list of participants, or a link to pictures, blog posts, or videos from the project or event.
A poster for the seminary about works subjected to copyright in the office
The office during the works subjected to copyright session in January 2015
Inside of Karel Čapek's house - an unique opportunity for Czech Wikipedians to see where Czech famous writer Karel Čapek lived. His villa is now a museum
  • Various office related events
    • The seminary about works subjected to copyright in the office. (ticket 701) on 21st January 2015.
      • A session about copyright, PD-GOV and about limits that prevent public institutions from releasing their material into public domain. A nice session, where Vojtěch Dostál prepared a presentation and the number of attending people was around 15-20, making our office efficiently full. The event was very good for networking and general meeting. Also, the results of a study in this field, that was unique to us, were presented to all the interested people. Various NGOs send their representatives, such as IuRe, OSGeo, National Technical Library, Creative Commons etc. Event page on Czech Wikipedia
    • Translatewiki editathon (ticket 707) on 31st January 2015.
      • A translatewiki editathon was arranged in WMCZ office on 31st January 2015. An event with rather limited audience, but a dedicated one. We have discussed the issue of translatewiki in general. Juandev prepared a presentation about the project, about the tools that are being used on translatewiki and what translatewiki needs. In following hours a small team of volunteers made together around 1700 translations from English to Czech. An important lessons were learned: Translating is not that easy as the software allows us to make it. But if it is so simple, maybe other projects would benefit from the extensions used in translatewiki - such as Wiktionary or Wikidata. Further investigation of how to implement these is necessary, but if we want to edit en mass, more tools are needed than a simple edit window. And it can work!
    • International Open Data Day on 21st February 2015.
      • A presentation in the WMCZ office with Python workshop. The idea was to explain how mass editing can and might work. The event started with Wikidata presentation and then continued with some Python bot source code being distributed to participants. Everyone had a chance to test how this tool can work and what it can do. Event page on Czech Wikipedia
    • Open Dictionary on 9th March 2015.
      • On 9th March 2015 Juandev arranged a co-working related to Wiktionary in the WMCZ office. We have created some new articles on Wiktionary and also discussed how should be Wiktionary improved. Some current templates used on Wiktionary when it comes to conjugation were shown as a good example how to simplify the editing process.
    • WMCZ General Assembly on 11th April 2015.
      • General assembly of WMCZ took place in the WM CZ office on 11th April 2015. New board was elected and core annual documents of the chapter were approved. Vojtěch Dostál became the new chairman of our chapter.
    • CEE Spring Editathons on 21st April 2015 and 23rd May 2015.
      • Two editathons were arranged, but the amount of visitors was rather low (2-3), despite all the efforts to bring the event to better know by other volunteers. For the first time external partners participated in promotion of the event (Polish Institute). An external location will be definitely a better choice, as WM CZ office is located outside the center of Prague.
  • Other community-related events (funded by CG)
      • Since the small Liteň community is really active, WMCZ tried to reach out the participants in this small town in Central Bohemia. Two meetings took place in the end, with some propositions for mutual Wikipedia cooperation. Such a cooperation might incorporate the local elementary school and prepare a model collaboration project. Photographic activities would be also encouraged.
    • Week of open education (ticket 730) on 13th March 2015.
    • Karel Čapek villa Wikipedians tour (ticket 754) on 28th April 2015.
      • A tour for Czech Wikipedians was arranged in Karel Čapek's villa (now a museum) in Prague 10. The arrangement of this special tour was done thanks to the good relations with the Prague 10 District. The tour was accompanied with professional guides. A category on Commons was created.
    • PaGIS meeting in Brno on 1st June 2015.
      • A meeting dedicated to the GIS informations systems, that do have an influence on Czech Wikipedia and Czech Wikipedians. The meeting took place in Brno. The discussion was focused on the database systems migration, that will influence monuments databases on Czech Wikipedia, as thanks to WLM cs.wikipedia has a database of all more than 40k national monuments. WMCZ representative discussed this migration issue with people from National Heritage Institute. A Wikipedia presentation took also place; with the Wiki software and Wiki way of managing information being stressed.
    • Wikimeetup in Prague on 15th June 2015.
      • A regular Wikimeetup was arranged on 15th June 2015.
    • WikiGrilling in Prague on 28th June 2015.
      • An informal event encouraging the winners of CEE Spring International Round was organized in the Community Garden in Prague 2. Thanks to the event not only that we met in person some of the CEE Spring winners, but also initiated some cooperation with the Community Garden.
  • Participation on these regional events
    • GLAMWiki Coordinators Meeting (ticket 703) on 7th March 2015.
      • A meeting dedicated to the GLAM cooperation of various European chapters. The event was visited by Gampe, the most dedicated to GLAM member of WMCZ. Czech GLAM events were presented and our approach of GLAM was put in a contrast with the approach of already professionalized chapters (ie. WikiProject approaching institutions - vs. the institutions themselves). The debate was focused then on sharing knowledge, finding ways how to disseminate information to our audience (ie. various communication channels, and finding proper metrics. The meeting was however kinda too big; the amount of stuff for discussion clearly exceeded the timespan reserved for the meeting. report in Czech
    • SozialMarie Prize meetin in Vienna (ticket 763) on 1st May 2015.
      • Two representatives from Wikimedia Czech republic has visited the SozialMarie evening event in Vienna on 1st May 2015. We were invited by SozialMarie, as the project Senior Citizens' write Wikipedia was nominated for the prize (which already should be seen as a success). We have an opportunity to see various other NGOs from all around the region (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia) and a presentation of their work. Some of them might be good ones for cooperation for various WMCZ events.
      • Another issue is that we have combined this visit of the city with the visit of Wikimedia Austria's office. We have discussed the professionalization issue of Wikimedia chapters, the amount of work done by Austrians when it comes to volunteers or professional staff. We have learned interesting stuff related to hiring employees, managing them, or knowing what kind of an employee a chapter would need. We also learned about the WMAT's financial structure, their major activities and projects and how they can be applied in the Wikimedia environment (Community manager) or how not (Open Data).
      • Note: An attempt to visit Vienna was done earlier, with an unfortunate result, having our visitng member becoming suddenly ill. With no chance to return the tickets, the costs couldn't be refunded.

Lessons learned

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What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects, or that may change the way you are doing this project?
What went well, or is going well?
The office was previously used for work done on permanent or semi-permanent basis. In essence, a person was present there, performing task. This model worked really well. For the half-year period described in this report, this was however not the case. Still, the office is essential as a backbone for our community and the chapter. It is used for storing our stuff so it can be accessible at any time. It is a perfect place for events that take place from time to time, like seminars, workshops, meetings etc. It is a really good place for negotiations and meetings with partners.
Many of the ideas that were supposed to make the community stronger did help. Another new possibilites however appeared, such as networking potentials with various friendly institutions. Collaborating with other communities and NGOs is a current trend in the chapter and the Communities grant helped to facilitate this.
Another item that was partially supported by this grant was the CEE Spring contest, that showed to be a really good idea. The contest attracted new wikipedians (thanks to the outreach of our partners for example), brought some previously unknown contributors to the community and helped to accelerate activities of older ones. It was also a good opportunity for participation with new institutions. The contests format is overall popular and together with networking and advocacy events should be included in any further project of WMCZ.
What did not go well, or is not going well?
The concept of editathons in the office was supposed to be a cornerstone of the Communities grant, but for some reason this is not the case. The concept of editathons in general is attractive to Czech volunteers (as it was proven in various events in Prague - like the Museum Night or WikiTown Hustopeče) but not in the office. The events in the office can be however attractive, if carefully planned and with interesting content. More people need to be involved.
From your answers above, do you plan to change anything you are doing as your project continues?
As it can be seen from our experiences, instead of community-related topic (no. 2) we should have 3 different ones - contests (4), that really do help the community to be improved, mutual participation with similar NGOs (5) (for example to help co-oraganizing events and facilitating common actions) and some basic advocacy (5) (that will be the outcome from the mutual participation). This however will work much more as a idea for upcoming projects rather than for reshaping this very grant, as the Communities grant will be over in half a year.

Project goal and measures of success

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This section should reference the project goals and measures of success described in the approved grant submission. See Grants:PEG/WM CZ/Communities/Report to review the goals and metrics listed in the approved submission.

Project goal

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Provide the project goal here.
The goal of this project is to strengthen and expand the Czech Wikimedia projects community. In order to do this, the number of active participants of the projects, as well as the number of Wikimedia Czech Republic's members, should grow. Currently, the number of members of Wikimedia Czech Republic is somewhere around 40 for the last 2 years. The amount of active Wikipedia users is also stagnating.[1]

In order to combat this, volunteers have to be motivated (workshops, editathons) or educated (editathons) to contribute. As the time needed for writing good articles - according to constantly rising Czech Wikipedia's standards - rises, the office can provide a good space for a long-termed unspoiled concentration and voluntary work on our projects. It will also serve as the place where volunteers can meet and engage in joint activities, exchanging idea and improving motivation. The office will also be used to store the chapter's property (boxes of our leaflets, scanner, laptop).

Do you expect to reach your project's goal? Why or why not?
Most of the goals we expect to reach. The topic no.2 goal will not be however reached, as the events in the topic no. 2 proved to be better for networking and mutual collaboration than to community growth. Other grants however provide this required functionality.

Measures of success

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Project metrics

Project metrics Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
To organize at least 7 meetings with a projects-related program. A projects-related program means that presentations related to the projects organized by Wikimedia Czech Republic has to be there at every meeting (in the beginning). Attendance is supposed to be: average 15 people. 11 in total events outside of Prague (in Brno and České Budějovice). These events are organized by the Brno community, 1 of these was supported by the chapter, 10 of such were without any costs. We have reached 157 % of our minimal plan. The community in Brno is remarkably active. Other cities are starting slowly, but with promising results. These can contain Kadaň, České Budějovice, Liteň etc.
To organize at least 10 presentations with a projects-related programs. A presentation is an activity organized in a cultural institution (ie. library, school etc) that aims on all visitors interested in learning how to use/contribute to our projects. Attendance is supposed to be: average 20 people. There were 6 events of this kind overall. The first events supported was Wiki takes Přibyslav. Another presentation of Free knowledge Advocacy Group took place on 18th October 2014 in Pirate Party center during the Young Pirates conference. Another event that was arranged together with EDUin during the Week of Open Education in March 2015. Wikipedia was also presented in Brno at PaGIS meeting and in the Liteň meetings (2), that were both supported by our grant. We have reached 60 % of our minimal plan. This is a very crucial element of the grant and after a weak start it might go forward. Having good relations with various cultural institutions is a cornerstone that will "open doors" to more events like this. Libraries should be contacted in future, cultural institutes etc.
To organize workshops and editathons in the Office (100 articles on Wikipedia to be created during these workshops is a minimum). Workshops and editathons are supposed to be:

a) educational, ie. explaining how to edit Wikipedia (or other projects) and why. How can one contribute. The goal is to teach future Wikipedians/chapter members/sympathizers. b) content-making, ie. people gather together to make content. The goal is to write as much articles as possible (minimum, as stated above, is 100).

There were 4 editathons in total, but rather unsuccessful. The current amount of articles written during these events are 16. We have reached 16 % of our minimal plan. Apparently in a contradiction to all our experiences and attempts, the idea of an editathon is not attractive for our volunteers in the office. Such events are however applied already within other grants and events of WMCZ, such as WikiTowns or Wikimedia presence at various events (like Museum Night or United Islands festival), where better results are achieved.
To obtain an office, furnish the office and organize at least 5 meetings (workshops, editathons) inside the facility. The office is supposed to be 30 m2 area at Konopišťská 3, Prague 10. The internal wiki of Wikimedia Czech Republic has a page listing all the events that take place in the office. The page has 48 items so far (many of these were long-term projects, see "Lessons learned", 1st paragraph). There were 7 community meetings in the office ([1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]) and 5 board meetings in the office. As about editathons and workshops, the total number is so far 9 (EduWiki Workshop, First Czech Editathon, Media cooperation education workshop, Photographic workshop, Mois de contribution, Translatewiki Workshop, Scanning workshop, CEE Spring Editathons (2x)). We have reached 180 % of our minimal plan.
To provide a place (ie. the office) that can increase effectivity of other grant projects of Wikimedia Czech Republic (i.e. Mediagrant and Presentation&Outreach) - for workshops, meetings and other events. In the period from 31st December 2014 to 30th June 2015 no new updates to the office were made. The unfinished bathroom situation (ceiling not yet painted) should be counted as a 5 % down. Since the office works well, there should be 100 % final scoring.
To participate in at least 3 regional events where the current progress, practice and experiences from the communities of Wikimedia Projects in Czech or from the Wikimedia Czech Republic Chapter will be presented. As of 30th June 2015, WM CZ has participated on 7 regional events (WMAT Monumento Salzburg, EduWiki Conference, Chapters Meeting in Berlin, Wikipedians in Seinhennersdorf, CEE Conference in Kiev, GlamWiki Coordinators Meeting in Paris, SozialMarie ceremony in Vienna). We have reached 233 % of our minimal plan (7 out of 3). Given the fact that Czech Republic is located in Central Europe and there is a long-term cooperation in various fields, international travels are quite commonplace.


Provide an overall assessment of how your project is going according to these measures.
There was a discussion how to reach our goals. In areas 1 (office-related issues) the chapter was able to reach most all the prescribed minimum goals. In area 3 (travel participation) the participation works on a principle of more journeys with less money. As about the area 2 (community-related events) we've reached some limited success. Instead of attracting a lot of volunteers, we were however able to maintain our community working, to sparkle sister projects and to initate important networking issues. One of the sucesses from the topic no. 2. is that we actually made it to expand our chapter out from Prague, to places like Brno, Kadaň or Liteň.
While doing this project, have you decided to track any other measures of success not listed in your grant submission? If so, please list them here.
no.

Remember that you will need to report on Global Metrics in your final report.

Impact

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Remember that you will need to report on your project's impact on WMF's mission and strategic goals in your final report.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

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This section describes the grant's use of funds

Documentation

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Remember that you will need to send receipts or documentation of all project expenses to WMF at the time your final report is submitted.

The documentation is provided by our tracker
Following tickets are subjects of Communities grant for year 2015, Q1:

[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

Expenses

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  • 1 EUR = 27,245 CZK as of 29th June 2015
Please list all project expenses in a table here, with descriptions and dates. Review the instructions here here.
These expenses should be listed in the same format as the budget table in your approved submission so that anyone reading this report may be able to easily compare budgeted vs. actual expenses.
Note that variances in the project budget over 10% per expense category must be approved in advance by Project and Event Grants program staff. For all other variances, please provide an explanation in the table below.


Number Category Item description Unit Number of units Actual cost per unit Actual total Budgeted total Currency Notes
1.1 Rent WMCZ office rent costs 1 month 6 18,35
(500)
110,11
(3000)
120
(3269,4)
EUR (CZK) 500 CZK was paid 6 times, once per every month. No other payment (ie. deposits) was done in this case.
1.2 Allbuilding related services ie. electricity connection, water connection, elevators etc. 1 month 6 8,77
(239)
52,76
(1435)
48
(1307,76)
EUR (CZK)
1.3-1.4* Furnishing the office and basic repairs The sum of money is supposed to be used for purchase of basic furniture and equipment for the office, ie. chairs, tables and cabinets. Also for basic repairs like painting of the place etc. This sum was supposed to be mainly spent in this period in order to make the office furnished for the entire period of its use. N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A EUR (CZK) * The merge of these items is based on the additional request.
Note: No furnishing took place in the 2015-Q1 period
1.5 Water, electricity and internet connection Sum of money needed for basic costs for the above mentioned services. Unlike in 1.2 these are related to the office consumption only. N/A N/A 16,88
(460)
101,30
(2760)
N/A EUR (CZK)
1.6 Heating Heating deposit - 2000 CZK per month. Once the real costs are known by the administrator of the building, then the real price will be calculated. Thus we might got a refund or we will have to pay an additional costs in the future. This might thus be a reason for any changes in further reports in this field. 1 month 6 N/A N/A 960
(26155,2)
EUR (CZK) No deposits were paid in the first half of 2015
2.1** Organization of certain number of meetings in the Czech Republic Events we organize around the country. 1 event 2 10,63
(289,75)
21,27
(579,5)
80
(2179,6)
EUR (CZK) ** Costs per unit may vary from the planned amount significantly, since a derogation is in force. This however does not affect total costs Only meetings financially supported by this grant are counted.
2.2** Organization of certain number of presentations in the Czech Republic Presentations of Wikipedia in the Czech Republic. Wikipedia and other WMF projects are supposed to be presented around the country on various events 1 event 4 14,65
(399,25)
58,62
(1597)
320
(8718,4)
EUR (CZK) ** Costs per unit may vary from the planned amount significantly, since a derogation is in force. This however does not affect total costs
2.3 Workshops/editathons (in the office) Various workshops and editathons in the office. These events should be either educative (ie. for newbie wikipedians to learn about our projects) or content-generating (ie. we want to make a lot of articles/a quality article) 1 event 6 6,63
(180,67)
39,79
(1084)
180
(4904,1)
EUR (CZK)
3.1** Participation on regional events WMCZ members will participate on events in the Region (whole Europe, but not exceeding 1500 km from Prague by a direct line). 1 event 3 165,12
(4498,93)
495,39
(13496,80)
3000
(1101,12)
EUR (CZK) ** Costs per unit may vary from the planned amount significantly, since a derogation is in force. This however does not affect total costs Note: A 3rd event was paid for and booked, but unforutnately the traveller was sick and there was no chance for us to return the tickets.
Total amount spent on this project so far (with currency)
86 631,16 CZK (3162,53 EUR) + 2015/Q1
Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project so far (with currency)
86 631,16 CZK (3162,53 EUR) + 2015/Q1
Based on your spending, will you need to request any changes to your budget? If you do, please see the guidelines for requesting changes to your budget.
NO