Grants:Project/Rapid/ELiSo/Vikio Amas ZEOjn/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2017-18 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/ELiSo/Vikio Amas ZEOjn.
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 rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

We're happy. For years this was a dream project of our user group and finally we make it real. At first we didn't know what to expect and from now on we have a better idea of what we can do with this project (Wiki Loves ZEOs) and make the necessary changes to receive better results in future. With any results, this is a Milestone for Esperanto and Free Knowledge UG.

Curiously the contest woke more attention after the final dates. A half page note appeared on the November edition of Revuo Esperanto (most important magazine in Esperanto) and a full page note appeared on the number 251 of Esperanto Aktuell, the magazine of the German Esperanto Association. It also appeared a post on the Wikimedia Central and Eastern Europe Newsletter. This bring hope to awake more participation in next years.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
50 participants	20 participants	Not reached. We even didn't got the half of the expected participants. This is because the mistakes we did it using press media and flaws in communication.
Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 100-500	208 see the uploaded photos on Commons here	Success
Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects: 100	72	Not reached. We finally got 208, so our initial expectation about use 100 of the photos represents near the half (48%) of the whole obtained. Anyway, for this first experimental time, 72 it's a high enough amount of file usage.
Recruit new editors	35.00% of participants (7 participants) were newbies.	Partial success. Newbies uploaded 26.92% (56) of the photos. The percentage of newbies is good enough. Anyway, we've to increase the actual number during the next contests.
Engage existing editors	65.00% of participants (13 participants) were veterans.	Success. They uploaded 73.08% (152) of the photos Veterans uploaded a high amount of photos considering the actual low number of them.

Winners

First place
2nd place
3rd place
4th place
5th place
6th place
7th place
8th place
9th place
10th place

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

What worked well?

The use of Commons:Montage as jury tool make the process of election really simple and fast.
The contest help us to make our user group visible inside our language community. We receive from the Universal Esperanto Association (the bigger association of Esperanto-speakers) a discount to appear an ad in its magazine and they sponsored the contest giving discounts in the bookshop of the association to the better five photos on each continent.
Talk directly with other Affiliates worked well and bring us some interesting photos. The CEE gathering during Wikimania was a good place, and our talk woke attention from groups and chapters from Russia and Poland, but in the end they decided not to sponsor the contest on photos taken in their countries.

What did not work so well?

Press media seems to be no longer the best choice to publish ads. We spent funds appearing a 1/8 of page ad (for the prize of 1/16 of page ad) in the most important magazine in Esperanto. In that way we expect to engage new people to take part in the contest but results show that the ad didn't work well.
Despite asking for a CentraNotice banner is several language projects, we finally receive green light to appear the banner only in eo.wiki. The contest didn't target only Esperanto-speakers and the ZEOs (monuments) are all over the world. Maybe this is why we didn't receive photos from Asia or Africa.

What would you do differently next time?

We'll no longer use press media to spread the word. Instead, use of Facebook ads or similar seems to be a better election since the Esperanto community is growing fast in the digital era.
Definitively ask for a better CentralNotice banner in more projects. We should also be more assertive in our communications inside our movement, like talking with other affiliates directly or posting more with the information of the contest in Wikipedias and sister projects.
We finally have some numbers to make better and more accurated expectations and goals for next years. This year's contest will work as a base to work from on.
Wait as long as possible to receive the funds. The currency ratio changed a lot since we received the funds in Colombia, where the currency is Colombian pesos (COP), and the valor decreased compared to United States dollars. For that we lose some money.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Actual cost per unit	Actual total	Budgeted total	Currency	Notes
1	Ads	Ads	Units	1	165€	94.5€	110 USD	EUR	Include bank fees
2	First place prize	Prize	Units	1	150$	150$	150 USD	USD
3	Second place prize	Prize	Units	1	100$	100$	100 USD	USD
4	Third place prize	Prize	Units	1	38£	38£	50 USD	GBP
5	Pleople's Choice Award	Prize	Units	1	50$	50$	50 USD	USD
6	Other prizes	Prize	Units	3	90$	90$	90 USD	USD
7	Extras	Extra, banks fees	-	-	-	4 USD		USD	Currency change for third prize

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

36 USD

Somehow we forget to pay for the Facebook ads. Anyway, that helped to manage the high unexpected increase of the currency ratio. The total remaining funds are 36. We would like to pay this via PayPal.

Remaining funds have been used or will be used for other approved mission-aligned activities. This use has been requested in writing and approved by WMF.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?