Grants:PEG/WM US-DC/Outreach 2013/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/WM US-DC/Outreach 2013.

You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email grants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Compliance and completion

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?: Answer YES or NO.; Yes

Is your project completed?: Answer YES or NO.; Yes

Did you use any of the grant funds?: Answer YES or NO.; Yes

Activities and lessons learned

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

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.

GLAM Boot Camp

On April 26–28, 2013, Wikimedia DC and the National Archives held the inaugural GLAM Boot Camp, a three-day training workshop designed to teach attendees how to execute GLAM-Wiki projects. Intended to enlarge the pool of Wikimedians working on GLAM projects by attracting interested yet uninvolved members of the movement, the workshop featured numerous sessions led by Wikimedians experienced in working with cultural institutions, including Wikimedia DC's Cultural Partnerships Coordinator, Dominic McDevitt-Parks, and Lori Byrd Phillips, former US Cultural Partnerships Coordinator at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Notable guests at the event included the Archivist of the United States, David Ferriero; Pamela Wright, Chief Innovation Officer at the National Archives and Records Administration; and Michael Edson, Director of Web and New Media Strategy at the Smithsonian Institution.

Twelve attendees, all of whom were active in the Wikipedia community, were invited to attend the three-day workshop. Eleven months following GLAM Boot Camp, we surveyed these attendees to gauge their perspective on the workshop and its impact on their activities. Of the 11 who responded, all reported that the conference was a valuable experience. All agreed or strongly agreed with the statements "GLAM Boot Camp gave me skills necessary for reaching out to / cultural institutions" and "GLAM Boot Camp helped increase my enthusiasm for the Wikimedia / projects," while all agreed strongly that "GLAM Boot Camp helped improve [their] relationship with fellow / Wikimedians and with the GLAM community."

Our goal was to recruit Wikipedians into the GLAM-Wiki movement, and the year of activity following GLAM Boot Camp as reported by our attendees indicate that we have been successful. The list of accomplishments include two established Wikipedian in Residence positions, with another in the works; collaborations with institutions including the Internet Archives and PubChem the National Center for Biotechnology Information, several universities, and a public library system; the establishment of online initiatives, including the Oregon Arts Project and The Wikipedia Library; several edit-a-thons and photo-walks; a Wikipedia project for a graduate school course; and a pilot project for a Wikipedia Visiting Scholars program to grant editors access to university resources that has attracted interest from 30 major institutions. As attendees were recruited from throughout the United States and Canada, we are excited to see this nationwide movement of Wikimedians, and we wish to keep them actively involved.

Boot Camp attendees reported back that they most appreciated the opportunity to connect with other Wikipedians and spend a weekend together, one noting that these opportunities are rare. Access to the National Archives, including the opportunity to meet Archivist of the United States David Ferriero, was also a valuable part of the workshop. To summarize the excitement, one responded that the workshop provided validation: “these things made me feel like what I've always hoped was true: that my work on Wikipedia does matter and that we are really making a difference.”

As the Wikimedia movement battles the problem of volunteer retention, we can look to workshops as these as an opportunity to recruit volunteers at the organizational level—the people planning events, collaborating with institutions, and submitting grant proposals. These volunteers are the engine of the movement, and active encouragement is vital to keep them going. Wikimedia DC will consider the lessons learned from this experience as it plans other outreach and community events, including the upcoming WikiConference USA in New York City.

Outreach events

Wikimedia DC partnered with several institutions for outreach events, including edit-a-thons. Some of these events were held at no cost to Wikimedia DC; the cost accounting is noted later in the report.

Our proposal included outreach in five categories: academic and educational outreach, cultural outreach, government outreach and engagement, international and diplomatic outreach, and public outreach and education. We held numerous events with cultural institutions, given Wikimedia DC's strong relationship with the cultural sector, especially with the Smithsonian Institution. We have also built relationships with educational institutions, particularly George Washington University, which we look forward to have future events with. Though we had limited opportunities for reaching out directly to government employees, we worked with the Cato Institute to improve Wikipedia's coverage of proposed legislation; more information is below. All of our events were open to the public and emphasized helping those who were new to editing Wikipedia. Unfortunately, due to a lack of organizing resources, we were unable to conduct outreach to the international and diplomatic sector.

Information about specific events is below and also described in our plans and reports. Wikimedia DC publishes quarterly activity reports in addition to annual activity and financial reports.

Academic and educational outreach

D.C. Historical Society—Wikimedia DC and the D.C. Historical Society hosted an edit-a-thon on March 23, 2013. Around thirty people attended the event, which featured a behind-the-scenes tour of the Historical Society's Kiplinger Library. Nineteen articles on Washington history were created or improved, including several articles on DC establishments. The event was covered in the Washington Post.

Field Notes—On June 21, the Field Notes Edit-a-Thon, a collaboration among Wikimedia DC, the National Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian Institution Archives, took place at the Museum. Participants learned about the Field Book project, a partnership between the Archives and the Museum which seeks to create a single online location for scientific field books. The event included a special tour of the Russell E. Train Africana Collection, a special collection housed in the Smithsonian Institution Libraries which contains several thousand manuscripts, photographs, original artwork and prints, posters, maps, ephemera, and man-made and natural artifacts relating to exploration, big game hunting, wildlife, and travel in Africa dating from 1663 to the late 1990s. Specific outcomes of the edit-a-thon included the creation of 4 new articles, various improvements made to 7 additional articles, and uploads of 13 new image files.

Economic History Association—On September 20, Wikimedia DC held a presentation at the annual meeting of the Economic History Association to explain Wikimedia projects, notably including Wikisource, and invite the members of the Association to improve economic history content online and to use Wikimedia in classwork.

Laurel History—The Laurel Historical Society Edit-a-Thon was a one-day event held at the Laurel Museum in Laurel, MD, with two major goals: to train Laurel Historical Society (LHS) volunteers on editing and contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia, and to allow LHS and Wikimedia DC members to edit and create Wikipedia articles using the LHS’s library and archival holdings. As a small city museum, the Laurel Museum and the LHS have holdings specific to the city of Laurel, Maryland and its environs, largely dating from the nineteenth century to the present day.

Two newspapers covered the event, with articles appearing in the Baltimore Sun and the Gazette. In their grant report, the Laurel Historical Society noted that this event helped with their outreach to a younger demographic, an audience of increasing interest to LHS which has been challenging to reach in the past. They hope that this event, and its focus on making information freely accessible online, will encourage further efforts to make more of its holdings widely available and accessible to the public.

International Year of Statistics—Wikimedia DC worked with Justin Fisher of Statistics Without Borders and the American Statistical Association to host an edit-a-thon in honor of the International Year of Statistics. The event, attended by twelve editors, saw the contribution of 20,504 bytes of content across 46 edits, with five new articles created: Lynne Billard, S. N. D. North, Isador Lubin, and Katherine Wallman. An additional 21 articles were improved, including articles related to the American Statistical Association and its past presidents, as well as the article on the Censuses of Egypt.

This was our first event related to statistics. Given our access to statistical resources and volunteer interest in the subject matter, there is an opportunity to hold future events and continue our work in this field. The edit-a-thon was also our first event interrupted by weather conditions. The library hosting the event was shut down in the afternoon because of icy weather, and we reconvened at a cafe in a nearby museum and continued working safely behind its thick stone walls.

Cultural outreach

Women in the Arts 2013—The Women in the Arts edit-a-thon was held at the Archives of American Art on March 29. Thirty people attended, including Wikipedians, archivists, and museum staff. The edit-a-thon was preceded by an introductory presentation on editing Wikipedia, followed by a presentation by curatorial staff on the different items in the archives. During the event, ten news articles on women in the art were created, and 26 additional articles were improved.

All Things GW—On April 20, Wikimedia DC and the George Washington University held the All Things GW Edit-a-Thon, which offered participants a rare opportunity to visit the archives of the George Washington University Libraries and use their unique resources to research and update Wikipedia pages related to the University and the Foggy Bottom neighborhood. The event included a behind-the-scenes tour of the University Archives led by University Archivist Bergis Jules and Jennifer Kinniff, Public Services and Outreach Librarian for Special Collections. Specific outcomes of the edit-a-thon included the creation of 2 new articles and various improvements made to 8 additional articles.

GLAM-Wiki US Consortium—Wikimedia DC hosted the first meeting of the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium, which took place over a dinner during the first GLAM Boot Camp followed by an all-day meeting the following Monday, April 29, 2013. The meeting, held at the National Archives, established the framework for what was eventually recognized as a Wikimedia User Group, featuring representatives from OCLC, New York Public Library, the Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Given the high potential of the group, Wikimedia DC determined that outreach to this group was a priority and thus ensured that it would have the full opportunity to work with the Wikimedia community. Today, the Consortium has nine affiliated organizations, with dozens of Wikipedians interested in working with the Consortium, and a monthly video chat called GLAMout.

Luce and Lunder—On July 19, Wikimedia DC and the Smithsonian American Art Museum held the Luce and Lunder Edit-a-Thon, part of an ongoing series of events to create and improve Wikipedia content about American art and artists. The event included a workshop for new editors, as well as behind-the-scenes tours of the Luce Foundation Center for American Art and the Lunder Conservation Center led by Luce Center Coordinator Bridget Callahan and Programs Coordinator Chris Wayner. Notable guests at the edit-a-thon included G. Wayne Clough, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Specific outcomes of the edit-a-thon included the creation of 15 new articles, 3 of which were subsequently featured in the "Did you know" section of the English Wikipedia's main page, as well as various improvements made to 13 additional articles.

Smithsonian Libraries 2013—The American Art/Portrait Gallery branch of the Smithsonian Libraries held an edit-a-thon with Wikimedia DC on October 25. The event, focusing on American artists of the World's Columbian Exposition, was made possible by library books, journals, and curatorial files made available by the Smithsonian Libraries. The Exposition was largest exhibition of American art ever assembled at the time, and many of the artists who participated lack adequate coverage on Wikipedia. This edit-a-thon was organized as part of Wikipedia Loves Libraries, a national campaign to encourage Wikipedia outreach in our nation's libraries. Watch Andrew Lih's video

Sara Snyder opened with an introductory presentation on editing Wikipedia for newcomers. The event attracted many new editors and resulted in improvements to articles on notable women throughout history, helping to address Wikipedia's gender gap in coverage. We look forward to working with the Smithsonian Institution on improving Wikipedia's coverage of subjects in fine art.

Government outreach and engagement

Legislative Data Workshop—The Cato Institute hosted the Legislative Data Workshop on March 14 and 15, and several Wikimedia DC representatives participated; in addition, Wikimedians throughout the country attended the event with the aid of travel stipends offered by Cato and the Wikimedia Foundation. The first day of the workshop featured a presentation by Pete Forsyth on the basics of editing Wikipedia, followed by an edit-a-thon and reception. The second day was an all-day strategy session on improving coverage of the legislative data on Wikipedia, with breakout groups discussing reaching out to Wikipedians, standard article formats for bills of Congress, and semi-automated solutions for updating content on Wikipedia. Wikimedia DC is continuing to work with Cato on legislative data. We held a follow-up meeting with Cato on June 8 to discuss efforts to date on improving Wikipedia articles.

Public outreach and education

Wikimedia DC held at least one public-outreach event per month, including WikiSalons and other monthly meetups. A full record is available on our meetup archive page. We also provided funding for a Wikipedia meetup in Chicago to encourage the growth of a Wikipedia community in that city.

Wiki Loves Monuments

Wikimedia DC successfully carried out the Wiki Loves Monuments contest for the United States in 2013. The contest, held during the month of September, led to volunteers uploading 10,191 freely licensed photographs to Wikimedia Commons.

In first place is a photograph of the eastern span of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in Yerba Buena, California, submitted by Frank Schulenburg. In second place is a picture of the eastern façade of the Mount Vernon Estate in Fairfax County, Virginia, submitted by Martin Falbisoner, and in third place is a picture of a lighthouse along Lake Michigan in South Haven Harbor, Michigan, submitted by Marlene Calderon. Wikimedia DC awarded cash prizes of US$500, $300, and $150 for the top three winners. These photographs, along with seven other finalists, were submitted as finalists in the international Wiki Loves Monuments contest. The top prize in the international contest is a free trip to the Wikimania 2014 conference in London, with additional prizes for runners-up. The top three winners are displayed below; all ten are displayed in the press release.

Wikimedia DC held a Holiday Happy Hour with the local Social Media Club on December 16, 2013, to showcase the Wiki Loves Monuments finalists. The event, attended by about thirty people, featured the finalists projected on screens throughout the venue.

One of the goals of the Wiki Loves Monuments photography contest is to improve Wikipedia's photographic coverage of recognized historic sites. WikiProject NRHP collects statistics for the illustration rate of a given state or territory (collectively referred to in this report as "regions"). The illustration rate measures the number of monuments with a corresponding photograph on Wikimedia Commons relative to the total number of monuments in a given region. For example, if a region had 10 monuments, and 6 of those monuments had pictures on Wikipedia, the illustration rate would be 60%.

To measure the impact of the contest, we compared revisions of the WikiProject NRHP statistics page before and after the contest. Specifically, we sorted the data for each region according to the illustration rate prior to the contest. We then calculated a percentage point increase by subtracting the illustration rate prior to the contest from the illustration rate at the end of December 2013. A revision from December, well after the contest ended, was used to account for delays in reporting from the contest, given the reliance of the project on volunteers. The national pre-contest illustration rate was 56.9%. After the contest, this rate increased to 61.8%, corresponding to 4.9% growth overall.

While we are pleased with this rate of growth, we noticed that the contest has an uneven impact. In terms of raw numbers, an additional 4,448 monuments were illustrated, meaning a majority of the 10,191 uploads were pictures of sites that were already illustrated. Even after two Wiki Loves Monuments contests, adding over 30,000 pictures to Wikimedia Commons, there are still 29 states and territories (out of 60 total) where fewer than 50% of that region's historic places have pictures uploaded. Further, our Wikipedia Takes America campaign, encouraging volunteers to organize local photo walks, had a minimal impact on boosting uploads. We are currently exploring our options for targeted outreach that would help increase uploads in these underrepresented regions.

Lessons learned

What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects? Consider the following questions and respond with 1 - 2 paragraphs.

What went well?

GLAM Boot Camp went extraordinarily well, attracting a core group of a dozen volunteers who have since conducted outreach activities in their home communities. This can be attributed to the ability to use Wikimedia funds to recruit a nationwide pool of attendees, selected competitively based on their potential. We would also like to thank Dominic McDevitt-Parks and Lori Byrd Phillips for their enthusiasm in organizing the workshop. Further, we succeeded in holding events with nine institutions, plus engaging the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium and its several GLAM representatives. Indeed, we were able to hold most of our events purely on in-kind donations, saving Wikimedia DC money. Finally, our Wiki Loves Monuments contest succeeded in bringing in over 10,000 photographs, documenting many historic sites throughout the United States, as well as being partially funded through outside sponsorship.

What did not go well?

We planned to hold an embassy event but were unable to due to the departure of a volunteer essential to the event taking place. Wiki Loves Monuments, as successful as it was, did not do enough to improve photographic coverage of states that have little photographic coverage on Wikipedia, although this was not an explicitly sought goal. Overall, the five outreach categories specified in the proposal were not adequately satisfied by the volunteer capacity of Wikimedia DC, causing us to have far more events in certain areas than others.

What would you do differently if you planned a similar project?

Given our experiences carrying out this project, we have made changes to our organizational structure and are continuing to revise and implement our best practices. For instance, we are steadily working toward building institutional knowledge—knowledge that is vested in Wikimedia DC as an organization and not just in the individuals who volunteer for it. As knowledge is shared among event organizers and project planners, it will be easier to allow new volunteers to take the place of departing ones. We have also streamlined our program structure, replacing the five specific categories with three more general ones: Content, Technology, and Community, which reflects the three factors that make the Wikimedia movement possible. This allows us to focus all our content-oriented efforts, rather than split them up into different categories, while also making sure technology and community are put on equal footing. We are also planning a revised version of Wiki Loves Monuments which is more focused on outreach efforts to areas of interest.

Project goal and measures of success

This section should reference the project goals and measures of success described in the approved grant submission. See Grants:PEG/WM US-DC/Outreach 2013 to review the goals and metrics listed in the approved submission.

Project goal

Provide the project goal here.

Reach out to Washington by:
- Collaborating with at least two institutions in each sector (as explained in this proposal) through events open to the public as well as consultations, trainings, and contribution drives. This includes a planned GLAM Boot Camp, our flagship event of 2013.
- Holding at least one or two events per month, including both educational and social events.
Serve the Wikimedia movement by:
- Developing a standard outreach event guide for Wikimedia organizations.
- Encouraging government, cultural and other organizations to open up and make content available under a free license and support contributions of content to Wikimedia project.

Did you achieve your project goal? How do you know your goal was achieved? Please answer in 1 - 2 paragraphs.: We definitely succeeded in holding at least two events per month, including educational and social events. Refer to our record of meetups for more information on this matter. We succeeded in hosting multiple events in the cultural, education, and government sectors, and for the general public, while there were no events in the international and diplomatic sector. Further, of the events we organized, they were predominantly edit-a-thons, as opposed to other forms of collaboration. That said, we accomplished a lot in 2013, and as our capacity grows, so will our ability to reach out to more institutions and individuals.; As we serve the Washington community, we believe our efforts have also yielded positive benefits for Wikimedia projects. We did not, during this grant period, secure large donations of content, but we are encouraging these organizations to participate on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons through edit-a-thons. Further, we have a rudimentary event guide that, while not exhaustive or comprehensive, may ultimately be integrated into the Wikimedia Foundation's own design pattern apparatus.

Measures of success

List the measures of success exactly as provided in the approved grant submission, and evaluate your project according to each measure listed there.

The numbers and diversity of events and projects (e.g., editathons, content contributions, consultations with institutions)
Documentation of editors and contributions at our local outreach events
Documentation of our projects and their outcomes on the Wikimedia DC website
Measures of participation in, and media coverage of, Wikimedia DC and its events

Provide an overall assessment of how your project went according to these measures.: As reported above, we were successful in holding several events but not so successful in diversifying the types of events and sectors with which we held events. Our meetup pages document the outcomes of events, and later in the grant period we have made more rigorous efforts to measure the outcomes of events through tools such as Wiki Metrics. Media coverage of Wikimedia DC events has been token in nature.
If you were to plan a similar project, would you measure it differently? If yes, please explain how.: Wikimedia DC has since adopted more specific and rigorous measures of success, as reflected in our Projects 2014 grant proposal.

Impact

This section ties this project to Wikimedia's broader goals, and shows what the project accomplished.

What impact did this project have on WMF's mission and the strategic goals? Please answer in 1 -2 paragraphs and include specific measures of impact such as the number of readers or editors reached by a particular project, or the number of articles edited or improved.

Stabilize infrastructure
Increase participation
Improve quality
Increase reach
Encourage innovation

This project increased participation through the recruitment of new editors at our events as well as the development of relationships with institutions that we plan on maintaining as part of a continued outreach effort in the DC area. Edit-a-thons, in addition to introducing organizations to Wikipedia, provide direct improvements to Wikipedia's content as participants create and improve articles. At least 24 new Wikipedia accounts were registered, and at least 241,477 bytes of content were added to 136 articles. (This data is approximate, since we only have precise data for events held later during the grant period, and does not include every event held.) Much of this content was in subject area which have traditionally not received enough attention on Wikipedia, including the fine arts and notable women of science and history. Additionally, Wiki Loves Monuments brought in over 10,000 photographs, providing pictures of national historic sites for over 4,400 Wikipedia articles.

While aiming to recruit new editors into the Wikimedia movement, we also aimed to get existing editors more actively involved. The GLAM Boot Camp was highly successful in training a group of 12 Wikipedians from throughout the United States and Canada on conducting local outreach, doing the sort of work Wikimedia DC does in their communities. We hope to keep this group of highly engaged volunteers motivated and to hold more training sessions. In general, the long-term success of Wikimedia DC will rely on the continued recruitment of volunteers at all levels.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

This section describes the grant's use of funds

Documentation

Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grants at wikimedia dot org, according to the guidelines here? Answer "Yes" or "No".: Documentation will be sent to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Expenses

Please list all project expenses in a table here, with descriptions and dates. Review the instructions 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 WMF Grants Program staff. For all other variances, please provide an explanation in the table below.

Item	Allocated Amount	Amount Spent	Variance	Note
GLAM Boot Camp
Travel	$4,500.00	$5,605.05	+24.6%	Due to insufficient information, we were unable to accurately forecast the cost of travel. We helped mitigate this cost overrun through reductions in other expenditures (see below). The reduction of expected attendance from 15 to 12 also helped, although this happened without respect to the budget.
Accommodations	$1,710.00	$1,406.00	-17.8%	We only needed to book accommodations for 11 people, since overall attendance was reduced from 15 to 12, of which one was locally based.
Catering and per diem	$1,575.00	$1,351.05	-14.2%	We did not award a per diem for attendees and we went with lower-cost catering options.
Incidentals	$215.00	$216.91	+0.1%	Incidental expenses include: printing ($18.76), name badges ($31.16), signage ($96.99), and cab fare for an attendee arriving at the airport late at night ($70.00).
Outreach events
Embassy event(s)	$1,500.00	$0.00	-100.0%	Our main organizer for the planned embassy event was no longer able to commit to the event. We subsequently decided to re-allocate this line item toward other outreach programs.
Other outreach events	$2,000.00	$1,966.21	-1.7%	The following outreach events were funded by WMF: GLAM-Wiki Consortium: $1,092.63 Women in the Arts 2013: $427.38 Field Notes: $359.99 Chicago Wiknic: $86.21 Most of the outreach events reported above occurred at no cost to Wikimedia DC.
Wiki Loves Monuments
Prizes	$1,500.00	$950.00	-36.7%	We opted for a prize tier of $500/$300/$150 to keep prize amounts below U.S. tax reporting thresholds. This resulted in savings overall.
Exhibition	$750.00	$435.37	-42.0%	We were able to project the winning pictures on televisions throughout the venue instead of printing them, thus our only expense was on the sponsored happy hour.

Other costs	–	$36.00	–	Banking fees incurred by the opening of the second account. We were eventually able to restructure the account such that fees would not be charged.
Total direct costs	$13,750.00	$11,966.59	-13.0%	The original project budget was 124% of the grant ($11,086.05), with Wikimedia DC proposing to fund the rest of the project. The amount spent by the end of the project was only 108% of the grant amount. While less money was spent overall, all of the funds from the grant have been depleted.

Total project budget (from your approved grant submission): $13,750.00

Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission, this total will be the same as the total project budget if the WMF grant is your only funding source): $11,086.05

Total amount spent on this project (this total should be the total calculated from the table above): $11,966.59

Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project (this total will be the same as the total amount spent if the WMF grant is your only funding source): $11,086.05

Are there additional sources of revenue that funded any part of this project? List them here.: Wikimedia DC raised additional funds through membership dues, donations, and a $500 sponsorship from Freestock.ca. For more information, see our annual financial report.

Remaining funds

Are there any grant funds remaining?: Answer YES or NO.; No

Please list the total amount (specify currency) remaining here. (This is the amount you did not use, or the amount you still have after completing your grant.)

$0.00

If funds are remaining they must be returned to WMF, reallocated to mission-aligned activities, or applied to another approved grant.

Please state here if you intend to return unused funds to WMF, submit a request for reallocation, or submit a new grant request, and then follow the instructions on your approved grant submission.

No leftover funds