Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/How to Wikify a Conference (ID: 22969643)
This is an automatically generated Meta-Wiki page. The page was copied from Fluxx, the web service of Wikimedia Foundation Funds where the user has submitted their application. Please do not make any changes to this page because all changes will be removed after the next update. Use the discussion page for your feedback. The page was created by CR-FluxxBot.
Applicant Details
[edit]- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
DrThneed
- Organization
N/A
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
N/A
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
Main Proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
How to Wikify a Conference
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2025-04-12 - 2025-09-30
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
New Zealand
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Not applicable
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
Professional conferences and meetings are a great way to communicate with experts in a field, and the main events at which academic and other experts gather in person. They often involve award ceremonies and have notable speakers, as well as speakers and attendees who are likely to become notable later. However they have been underutilised as a means of doing outreach for Wikimedia, possibly because WMF grants do not normally cover conference attendance.
We consider this a missed opportunity, both for volunteer participation and for improving the encyclopaedia. We would like to make it easier for Wikimedians to engage with conferences as a means of outreach to the academic and other specialist communities.
We will produce a digital handbook for Wikimedians on how to “Wikify” a conference, which will be drawn directly from our experience Wikifying several events. “Wikifying” involves having a visible “Conference Wikimedian”, creating notable conference presenters and attendees in WIkidata, taking photographs and recording introductions of presenters with their consent, giving advice to professionals on how to engage with Wikipedia and Commons, and collecting subject-expert feedback on articles with a view to building relationships and collaboration.
We will describe in our handbook what activities are involved, what can be done beforehand, what tools are appropriate, what needs to happen afterwards, what level of resource and planning is required, and how to do as much as possible with what you have available.
The handbook will allow other Wikimedians to learn from our experiences in order to more easily become conference Wikimedians. Greater engagement will lead to improved coverage of academics and other experts on Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata and Wikipedia, and greater engagement between those communities and the Wikimedia community.
Note: We are NOT applying for funding to attend the conferences, but rather to Wikify them. The funds will be used for travel, accommodation, posters, flyers, and materials to explain the event. Grant funds will not be used to pay conference attendance fees.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
We will be directly improving Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia in relation to three New Zealand events and their participants, but the main aim of the activities is to trial the approach to Wikifying events and document it, in order to write a handbook for the Wikimedia community. We have chosen three events of different sizes, and in different topic areas, in order to be exposed to different challenges. We have a hybrid event, and an event taking place in more than one location.
Organizers of all three events have already agreed to host us, waiving attendance fees and promoting our presence as official event Wikimedians to attendees.
At each event we will have a photobooth to take openly licensed images of attendees. Other activities will include a Wikidata clinic, where participants can engage with a conference Wikimedian to understand their Wikidata item, and how it connects to profiles they may have on other sites such as Orcid, and notable work they have produced.
The events we intend to cover are: 1. Printopia, a Festival for Printmakers https://printopia.nz/ 2–4 May, Auckland. A smaller event with around 40 artists exhibiting, and public attendance and workshops. We will trial how much a single experienced Wikimedian can Wikify an event.
2. The 150th Medical School Reunion at the University of Otago, 29 May – 1 June, in Dunedin, with possible smaller events in Christchurch and Wellington. A mid-size event with likely up to 200 people. https://events.otago.ac.nz/2025-oms-150th/programme We will hold an editathon on early medical education in New Zealand, and have a photobooth.
3. The International Congress of History of Science and Technology, 29 June–5 July in Dunedin, New Zealand https://www.ichst2025.org/. A large event with 500–1000 people, in person and online.
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
Tamsin Braisher, DrThneed, Wikimedian. Tamsin is a science editor and volunteer Wikimedian, who is donating her time for this project. Tamsin has experience running Wikiprojects, organising events, and teaching Wiki skills.
Mike Dickison, Giantflightlessbirds, Wikimedian. Mike is a professional Wikimedia consultant based in Christchurch, New Zealand but is donating his time to this project. Mike will be the photographer for the project.
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
We have already engaged with conference organisers for all three events, and have agreement to be conference Wikimedians. A short report will provided to the organisers after each event, to describe what we did.
Participants - we will engage directly with event attendees. Our roles are being promoted to attendees, we will have a visible stand and photobooth at each event, and will be running an editathon at at least one of the events. There may also be online events such as Wikidata clinics for virtual participants.
Wikimedia community - potential conference Wikimedians. We will make presentations to the Wikimedia community on our new resource, including a Diff blog, and presentations at community meetings, including Wikimania 2026 and/or a global GLAM meeting. We would also like to present an online webinar or community meeting for potential conference Wikimedians.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
This project was inspired by the WikiPortraits talk at Wikimania 2024 (https://www.wikiportraits.org/). Tamsin has talked about the project at three Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand online meetings in October 2024, Dec 2024 and February 2025 (see online notes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Aotearoa_New_Zealand_Online/54, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Aotearoa_New_Zealand_Online/56, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Aotearoa_New_Zealand_Online/58). We will be presenting about the project at the Global GLAM online meeting on 11 March 2025 to get feedback from a wider group of people.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Geography
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Not applicable
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Geographic
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Invest in Skills and Leadership Development
Learning and metrics
[edit]- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
This is a cross-theme project that provides a toolkit for Wikimedians from any area, empowering them to increase representation and engagement through making better use of conferences. We expect to learn: 1. What is the best workflow for convincing a conference attendee to release images (of themselves and their work) and voice recordings to Commons? 2. What are reasonable expectations for Conference Wikimedians in terms of what one, two, or three people can achieve for events of different sizes? 3. What tools are most appropriate for Wikifying different sizes and types of events? These include software, hardware, and camera setups. 4. What challenges arise working with participants from different subject areas, with different understandings of how Wikimedia works, at different size events?
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 1000 | 1000 conference attendees will engage directly or indirectly with Wikimedians; target of 10 conference attendees taking in part in edit-a-thon activities, plus a similar number of non-attendees/Wikimedians taking part in on-site activities. |
| Number of editors | 14 | Two editors directly, target of 12 editors using our handbook materials |
| Number of organizers | 2 | Two organisers directly involved. |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 30 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 105 |
| Wikidata | 500 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
This project is aimed less at content creation than at learning how to engage conference attendees and documenting ways to do so. However in the course of doing that, we will obviously be collecting images, improving Wikidata and improving a number of Wikipedia pages. Targets for Commons: 100 attendee photos, 5 voice introductions Wikidata: Improve or create at least 500 Wikidata entries, including for participants and events, institutions, and connected Wikidata items. Wikipedia: 30 articles created or improved
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
We will use the Programme and Events Dashboard and Event Metrics to measure editing contributions associated with each of the events we Wikify. As we are a small organising team we will also be able to keep our own records of new images uploaded, items created and Wikipedia pages improved.
Financial proposal
[edit]- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TMloQqTUKTLdPVW_toAwjZYYxUx-fsqBnLHPaPdCM4c/edit?usp=sharing
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
3740 NZD
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
2083 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
No
Endorsements and Feedback
[edit]Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).