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Grants:Project/Rapid/MurielMary/Aotearoa New Zealand Wikipedia 20 Event/Report

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Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2020-21 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.


Goals

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

The organising committee and the participants are very happy with how the project went. In terms of goals, these were our original goals, with notes beside on our achievement of them:

Share editing experience and tools: yes, achieved. Participants shared tools such as using article alerts and watchlists, contributing to DYK, using VIAF identifiers in Wikidata and more (see the details of the event in the shared document here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GAI9CSSZ-eTFtTVXm82bARED1WyaF3E-13QMwsuaBfM/edit?usp=sharing )
Provide training for new editors: there was one participant who had never edited before. She gave helpful feedback about her experience of the event. As there was no specific breakout session for completely new participants she found some of the sessions too high-level for her to benefit from. However she also reported that she learnt a lot about the movement and the platforms in general and how she could support the editing community through her role at a GLAM.
Discuss strategic vision of the Wikimedia User Group of New Zealand and progress our work towards the 2030 Wikimedia Strategy: yes, achieved. We discussed our goals and plans for developing the User Group into a Chapter, the steps involved in that and who would take responsibility for which step.
Increase the profile of the Wikimedia Movement in New Zealand: yes, achieved. The event was covered by national and local media outlets. Also, one participant was from a local library and she will be able to elevate Wikimedia within her role. In the wider community, we collaborated with Heritage Hokitika on the Hokitika Cemetery visit and article; and we collaborated with local historian Biddy Manera in Ross to document the notable history and buildings of the area. Neither of these partners had any previous knowledge of how to engage with Wikimedia/Wikipedia editors.
Increase the diversity of the editing community into under-represented demographics e.g. rural residents, non-Pakeha people, women: partially achieved. Of the 14 participants, 7 were women and 7 were men; there were 2 participants from provincial parts of New Zealand (Picton and Westport). There was one non-Pakeha/European participant. We had a useful discussion of how to further diversify our community.
Create content to fill knowledge gaps e.g. locations on the West Coast, or local flora and fauna that are under-represented: yes, well achieved. The two field trips produced a large number of images, as well as articles being expanded and improved, and some new articles created (see table below).
Commemorate and celebrate the 20th anniversary of Wikipedia: yes, achieved. We enjoyed watching a birthday message from Katherine Maher and celebrated with a 20th birthday cake for the Wikipedia movement.

Outcome

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Please report on your original project targets. Please be sure to review and provide metrics required for Rapid Grants.


Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
Total Participants: 20 Total Participants: 14 (after 2 last-minute cancellations) As our first attempt at organising a conference in NZ we didn't really know the size of our community and how many participants we would attract; the venue capped numbers at 20.
Number of newly registered users: 8 Number of newly registered users: 1 We expected to have more new users from the West Coast attend; the regular meetups now running in Hokitika and Greymouth are catering for new users however.
Number of people who will help organize the event: 4 Number of people who will help organize the event: 4 We had 4 editors volunteer to help plan and organize the event, and all 4 remained involved throughout the process.
Number of content pages created or improved, across all Wikimedia projects: 20 Number of content pages created or improved, across all Wikimedia projects: approx. 20 See details in the Outcomes section of the event page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiCon_Aotearoa/West_Coast_2021#Outcomes
Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 40 Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: approx. 100 See details in the Outcomes section of the event page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiCon_Aotearoa/West_Coast_2021#Outcomes
Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects: 10 Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects: approx. 15 See details in the Outcomes section of the event page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiCon_Aotearoa/West_Coast_2021#Outcomes


Learning

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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:

The photo that featured in the Hokitika Guardian after the conference.
  • What worked well?
    Networking between participants was effective - organisers made efforts to move people around in sessions and during meals so that everyone had opportunities to meet others, and according to the feedback from participants this (the informal interactions with other editors) was a highlight of the weekend. 8 of the 14 participants mentioned "meeting other editors" as their highlight of the event. (All 14 participants completed a feedback survey, and the tabulated results are available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-qViVH0zK_kq6w4ui_z57xUQmrOKqOyZrvSFit_5U-g/edit?usp=sharing )
    Good coverage in local and national news:
  • What did not work so well?
We didn't have capacity to provide editing training for someone who had never edited before. This was possibly a lost opportunity, although this participant stated in her feedback that she benefited a lot from learning about the movement and could see how she could support and contribute to the movement through her work role, which was also an excellent outcome in terms of improving the profile of Wikimedia projects in the GLAM sector.
There needs to be a better balance between formal presentations and informal skill sharing.
  • What would you do differently next time?
It would be useful to survey participants prior to the event regarding their primary area/project of interest e.g. Wikidata, Wikipedia, Commons and their level of experience e.g. how many years they have been editing for; this would enable more targeted offerings of sessions.
We would consider the capacity of the on-site organiser and ensure that person can manage all the specific on-site questions (we had 3 organisers off-site and 1 on-site; one of the off-site organisers and two other editors arrived on the Friday afternoon to help with preparations and that was helpful).
A WikiCon weekend goes quickly. Having a right balance to achieve all of the goals of socialising with other Wikipedians, developing the User Group, learning new skills from each other, and creating new content for Wikimedia platforms is hard. With WikiCon Auckland depending on external on-site partner and with a focus on new editors, the event is likely to have a different programme from the West Coast WikiCon.

Finances

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Grant funds spent

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

The majority of the funding was spent on:

  • Catering: NZ$1,845.62
  • Travel subsidies: NZ$800
  • Prizes: NZ$116.89
See the balance sheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MYctVDd5CNqNtWtURp5ujGxaZQaTj9PXNaD8DgXxzLQ/edit?usp=sharing

Remaining funds

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Do you have any remaining grant funds?

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.
Yes, NZ$57.78. We plan to apply for an event grant for an event in Auckland in July 2021. If successful, we would transfer this sum to the account for the Auckland event and reduce the amount received from the Foundation accordingly.

Anything else

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Anything else you want to share about your project?

  • InternetNZ Sponsorship

A year's membership to InternetNZ was awarded to three participants of the West Coast WikiCon. InternetNZ also provided $NZ500 to assist with attendance to the WikiCon. Scholarships were offered but there was no interest. The funding has been transferred to the Auckland WikiCon tentatively scheduled for July 2021.

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