Application or grant stage: grant in progress

Applicant or grantee: Wikimedia Australia

Application date: 1 April 2020

Amount requested: AUD$39,250 (USD$25,198)

Amount granted: TBD (to be added by WMF)

Funding period: 1 July 2020 - 30 June 2021

Midpoint report due: 15 January 2021

Final report due: 30 July 2021

Application

Background

Annual Plan

The 2020 annual plan is the current plan. The 2020-21 annual plan will be developed following committee elections in August 2020.

Budget Plan

Wikimedia Australia budget 2020-21 (includes per activity/per program targets)

Staffing Plan

This organization is not requesting staff.

Strategic plan

Our Strategic Plan is in development. This plan focuses on the distinct audience groups the chapter aims to support and work with.

Program Story

Know My Name national Art+Feminism edit-a-thons

Learning Story

Online community meetings

Introduction

Following our first two years experience of planning, implementing and reporting against an annual grant, Wikimedia Australia is keen to build on this in our third Simple Annual Plan Grant application. Following a consolidation phase in 2019-20, our plans have been interrupted since mid-March due to pandemic protocols. The chapter will focus on establishing online outreach activity during July - September 2020, and we look forward to resuming a balance of online and in-person community events when possible.

As well as an allocation to support the costs of managing the chapter, we again seek funds to maintain the two program areas of:

Community Support
Outreach and Engagement

Major achievements in our second year included several successful outreach and engagement events, many of which involved community members as facilitators. A key priority for the next twelve months is to build strategic partnerships with a number of these organisations, with a view to sustaining the initial interest and activity.

Our other key activity is engaging with, and supporting the editor community. Our online community meetings have had regular attendance. We plan to conduct a major scholarship program next year to support Wikimania, given our chapter's involvement on the planning committee. The small grants program has been simplified and we will promote this to the community more actively.

Our governance processes are well-established. Recruiting members to the governing committee and increasing the diversity of the Wikimedia Australia membership and committee is an ongoing goal for the next period.

Programs

Community support program

The key goal this year is to engage directly with current and emerging editors in Australia. We will continue our monthly online community meetings, which have been successful and a good solution for connecting our geographically dispersed community. We look forward to the time when face to face events can start again and WikiClubs, training events and meetups can continue locally. This program will also benefit from the plan to engage external expertise to create and manage regular newsletters, storytelling for media outlets, and community outreach.

WikiClubs

State-based WikiClubs have the opportunity to move to online meetups, and some have done this. Regular events at the local level strengthen community connections and collaborations, support editor retention and provide a known group of editors who can be called upon to support local Outreach and Engagement events.

WMAU provisions WikiClubs to undertake activities like regular meetups, workshops and edit-a-thons that bring the contributors for the local area together, and also support special locally-focussed projects such as WikiTowns and Noongarpedia in WA; State Library staff clubs in Queensland & NSW, and WikiCite in Melbourne. Like user groups, the WikiClubs are saved the burden of legal and financial administration which are provided under the umbrella of WMAU. Local activity in Victoria and New South Wales increased during 2019, and budget has been increased in this program to provide funding to regular activities in ACT/NSW as well as in TAS/VIC.

Indigenous engagement grant

Indigenous content projects, including the Noongarpedia project remain an area of importance for Wikimedia Australia, and the Wikimedia movement. As an Indigenous language project promoting knowledge equity it involves partnerships with both the Noongar and the academic communities and is a tangible model for future Indigenous language partnerships in Australia, and globally. The significant project goal for the next period is to continue to tell the story of Noongarpedia. This will involve engaging with The Noongar community, Western Australian organisations, such as Museums and universities, in order to further develop Noongarpedia. We see it as a priority to follow on from initial engagement with the WMF language committee at Wikimania 2019, to build global understanding of local issues of colonial impact, cultural impediments and support for the project team at Wikimania 2021.

Mini Grants Volunteer Support Programme

WMAU offers a mini grants programme for Australian contributors to obtain resources or share their knowledge about the projects and/or WMAU activities. Funds involved are generally small amounts and designed for maximum flexibility and responsiveness. Most activities are ad hoc, and may be granted for a range of expenses related to presenting at conferences, or hosting events, to purchasing resources in order to generate content, or developing a new skill. All applicants are required to be in good standing as well as to have a demonstrated contribution history available, including providing a report on their activity.

Support for community member engagement in regional and global events

The Australian community feels its distance and isolation from the wider movement. Enabling involvement in global activities - both on-wiki and in-person is very important to us. The development of the East, South East, Asia, Pacific (ESEAP) regional network has been important in building understanding and collaboration beyond Australia. WMAU is committed to being part of and contributing to this network and its activities, particularly Wikimania 2021.

As a chapter we also request funding to be able to run an open scholarship process for Wikimania that enables at least three members of the community to share their knowledge and experiences. It is vital to learn about initiatives elsewhere, that can be disseminated among the Australian community. One of the scholarships will be designated as a diversity scholarship with a focus on new contributors from under represented local communities

Outreach and engagement

Outreach to the wider Australian population is a priority, in order to increase engagement. Wikimedia Australia activities continue to increase the number of people who know about Wikipedia and related projects, who understand how the projects work, and who are attracted to contributing. Specific target audiences include educators, the GLAM sector, and rural and Indigenous communities.

The outreach and engagement program for this period includes continuation of successful activities, a more proactive approach to new opportunities, and increased capacity for responding to partnership requests. We will use external expertise in marketing and media outreach to free up volunteer time to work on training and support for partner organisations, as well as for increased understanding of the value Wikimedia brings to partners.

Content competitions

Competitions generate new Australian content on a particular theme from a broad range of contributors, many of whom are new to Wikipedia. The competitions raise awareness about open licences in the broader Australian community and provide Wikimedia Australia with media opportunities. High quality images, datasets, and textual content can be promoted locally and globally, and there is an opportunity for email conversations with winning contributors. WLE and WLM will continue to be supported by WMAU with cash prizes being awarded and entries submitted to the international judging. The focus will be on promoting these activities off-wiki, and supporting new facilitators. We aim to give Wiki Loves Science another try, and also plan to run a WikiSource challenge to raise awareness of this project, and encourage more proof readers of Australian content, including early Indigenous language records.

Engagement with GLAMs

Wikimedia Australia has a long history of GLAM-Wiki projects and continues to look for opportunities to build awareness of the benefits to GLAMs of partnering with Wikimedia. As well as collaboration with larger GLAMs, particularly State libraries, there are opportunities this year, to collaborate with small to medium regional libraries, historical societies, museums and galleries in the provision of staff training online.

Facilitate online training modules for libraries

During 1Lib1Ref 2020 Wikimedia Australia is trialling facilitated online training for Australian library staff in two states. Once this course is developed we aim to market this as a professional development activity for libraries, particularly in costly to access regional areas. Content is customised for Australian contexts, and facilitated by experienced trainers.

Implement communications and media strategy

WMAU plans to work through the year with a local specialist not-for-profit association services provider to implement our communications and media strategy, including following up on leads generated through events and training. This same provider will be able to help us to implement a strategy for attracting members and donors.

Chapter governance

WMAU must continue to fulfil its legal, financial and reporting responsibilities as an incorporated association registered in Victoria, and a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). As well as WMF responsibilities, this includes managing our 2020 Annual General Meeting in August, Consumer Affairs Victoria reporting, and Quarterly Business Activity Statements to the Australian Taxation Office, along with the provision of insurance to enable local outreach.

Committee handover and strategy face to face meeting

During the next twelve month period there is a need for a strategic planning summit to set both the mid term strategic plan, and the next annual plan. We recognise that due to travel restrictions it is unlikely that we will be able to hold our strategy planning summit face to face, and have removed that from the budget. We retain the budget for one face to face committee meeting, as this is so important to induct new committee members and develop our culture. The committee is intentionally made up of members from as many different states and territories as possible. We have scheduled this for later in 2020, and hope travel will allow us to conduct this meeting face to face. We will again aim for the following in terms of our governance committee:

At least 2 new recruits to the committee in 2020
At least 4 states/territories represented on the committee
Increase the diversity profile of the committee in terms of language, age, gender, etc

Midterm report

Program story

Please tell or link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period. This can be another meta page, a blog post or any other source that tells your program story.

Wikipedia Edit-a-thons: A Networked Approach to Community Engagement and Information Activism a presentation at the Arts Libraries Society of Australia and New Zealand conference by Simon Underschultz, National Gallery of Australia, discussing the 2020 online editing training program in partnership with Wikimedia Australia.

Program Progress

Community Support Program

The key goal this year is to engage directly with current and emerging editors in Australia. We have converted to online events for WikiClubs, training events and meetups and online community meetings.

WikiClubs

With the exception of WikiClub West, all WikiClubs have moved to meeting online during this period.

Community meetings have been held online on the second Wednesday of each month at 7pm (Eastern time).

Women Write Wiki have met monthly using Wikimedia Australia’s online meeting platform

Wikiversities Melbourne continued their monthly lunchtime meetings online

While the global pandemic shut down our in-person events for most of the year, WikiClub West was again invited to be an exhibitor at the Seniors Recreation Council of Western Australia's Tech Expo, held in Perth in late October, and Gnangarra faced up to the task.

Noongarpedia Indigenous engagement

Wikimedia Australia is collaborating with Curtin University in Western Australia to produce Nyungar language videos with English translations. Ingrid Cumming, Karla Hart, Maitland Schnar and Gnangarra are enabling this material, with the initial videos now loaded in Commons, and further videos to be created in the next six months.

Ingrid Cumming received a commendation at the Western Australia heritage awards for her work on Noongarpedia.

The long term goal is to support the project team in moving Noongarpedia from the incubator space to nys.wikipedia.org and ongoing success.

Mini Grants Volunteer Support Program

Wikimedia Australia has funding available for members of the Australian Wikimedia community to enable work on Wikimedia projects or other activities directly related to Wikimedia Australia’s mission, be it about content, outreach, technical, research or editing. The Volunteer Support Program (VSP) is a mini-grant initiative that supports Australian contributors to Wikimedia projects to obtain resources or share their knowledge about the projects and/or WMAU activities.

At every opportunity, we encourage members and interested partners to apply using an online application form, or to contact a Committee member to discuss ideas for a project. Only one application was received in this period, for visualisations to support a research project on comparing notability in Wikipedia, Wikidata and the Australian Honours system.

Visualising Australian Honours

Wikimedia Australia is supporting a University Technology Sydney research project exploring the connection between the recognition systems of the Order of Australia and Wikipedia. Kelly Tall was funded to create visualisations that will be used by researchers Heather Ford and Tamsin Pietsch to produce an illustrated data essay, an academic paper and news article comparing these two systems of recognising notability of Australians.

Support for engagement in regional and global events

Regional and global Movement

The move to online global meetings has eliminated the distance element (but not the timezone element) that has hindered the Australian community from engaging fully in global movement activities. Since July 2020, WMAU members have become increasingly active in regional and global forums, including:

East, South East, Asia, Pacific (ESEAP) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ESEAP_Hub

Strategic Wikipedia Affiliates Network (SWAN) https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Wikimedia_Affiliates_Network

Strategy Global conversations https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Transition/Global_Conversations

Monthly online Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand Meetups https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_User_Group_of_Aotearoa_New_Zealand

WikiCite Virtual Conference, 27 October 2021, Thomas Shafee and Alex Lum hosted an Australian session. Local presenters included Margaret Donald, Amanda Lawrence, Thomas Shafee and Toby Hudson who spoke of their work on the theme of Research output items.

As Wikimania and international travel will not be happening this year, the scholarship funding requested in our budget can be reallocated. We propose to organise an online community conference for Australian editors and GLAM partners, possibly as part of a regional online event.

Outreach and engagement

Wikimedia Australian continues to work to increase the number of people who know about Wikipedia and related projects, who understand how the projects work, and who are attracted to contributing. Specific target audiences include educators, the GLAM sector, and rural and Indigenous communities. Engagement with GLAMs has been the success story for this period.

Content competitions

Wikimedia Australia did not participate in Wiki Loves Monuments in September 2020 as planned. This was a result of timing coinciding with the changeover of committee, and a lack of volunteers to coordinate and judge this competition. Wiki Science did not run in 2020, however Australia had two winners in the global judging of the 2019 competition which generated a little further engagement in September. We are still planning to run a WikiSource competition to encourage more proof-readers of Australian content, including early Indigenous language records, to participate in Wiki Loves Earth in May 2021, and to encourage categorisation and articles related to a set of 13,000 early South Australian photographs contributed by the History Trust of South Australia.

Engagement with GLAMs

Facilitating online training for libraries is one of our goals for this grant, and thus far, we have piloted this in two ways.

National Gallery of Australia volunteer training

When the National Gallery of Australia closed to visitors in March it interrupted the Know My Name program on which Australian editors had been working as part of Art+Feminism 2020. It also shut out the Gallery's team of volunteer guides. With some creative thinking by the Know My Name Program Coordinator, and lots of preparation work by the Gallery's volunteer coordinator, learning team and library staff, Wikimedia Australia supported online Wikipedia training for gallery guides. Wikimedia Australia member, Kerry Raymond developed and expertly delivered the 100% online training for new editors, over three 2-hour sessions in June. During this program 27 new editors worked on 138 articles related to Australian women artists, and contributed 943 references.

Simon Underschultz, Librarian at the National Gallery presented on the Know My Name partnership at the 2020 Arts Libraries Society of Australia and New Zealand Biennial Conference in November 2020. His paper was titled: Wikipedia Edit-a-thons: A Networked Approach to Community Engagement and Information Activism.

University of Newcastle virtual edit-a-thon

On September 8 2021, Wikimedia Australia joined the University of Newcastle Library for a virtual event with the hashtag #UONMissedInHistory. Paige Wright and her team from the library ran a very well-organised event, and 28 editors worked on local articles and contributed photographs from the university archives to Commons. The results are available on the Outreach Dashboard, and a rich set of training resources is available on the Library's Missed in History LibGuide.

Wikidata GLAM Engagement

Rebecca Hawcroft, a consultant with expertise in content development and the GLAM sector, undertook a project to scope materials to support Australian GLAMs engagement with Wikidata. This project recognised a lack of awareness of Wikidata in the Australian GLAM sector. The first stage involved interviewing Australian and New Zealand Wikimedians who have been successful in engaging with the GLAM sector. Key messages from these interviews guided the development of materials to use with GLAM institutions. The final report was published at https://wikimedia.org.au/wiki/File:WikidataGLAMReport.pdf.

We plan to use the knowledge gained through these programs to develop facilitated online training modules for Australian library staff in regional areas where we cannot readily provide trainers.

Another goal in the outreach program is to develop and implement a communications and media strategy. This is a priority for the next six months.

Chapter governance

WMAU fulfilled its legal, financial and reporting responsibilities as an incorporated association registered in Victoria, and a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), and submitted two quarterly Business Activity Statements to the Australian Taxation Office in this period.

The 2020 Wikimedia Australia Annual General Meeting was slightly delayed and held on Sunday 13 September 2020. Nominations were received in advance for all positions on the committee. We welcomed Alex Lum as the new President, and Caddie Brain as Vice-President, and one first-time committee member, Amanda Lawrence. We met many of our goals for the new Committee:

At least 2 new recruits to the committee in 2020. We welcome 1 new committee member who brings strong expertise and experience in open access publishing, policy and grey literature, research and grant seeking, and community connections in environmental projects.
At least 4 states/territories represented on the committee. At the time of the AGM, the committee members came from 4 states/territories: ACT, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia.
Increase the diversity profile of the committee in terms of language, age, gender, etc. The new committee has achieved an equal gender balance for the first time in both the executive and the full committee.

Due to COVID restrictions, there has been no opportunity to hold the strategic planning summit required to set both the mid-term strategic plan, and the next annual plan. Given the encouraging outlook for travel within Australia, we may be able to conduct this as a face-to-face event in the coming months. If not, we will plan an externally facilitated online workshop series for June 2021.

Spending update

Please link to a detailed financial report for your spending during the first half of your grant period. This should be in the same format as your detailed budget from your Simple APG application.

Wikimedia Australia budget 2020-21 (includes funds committed July-Dec 2021)

Please include the total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period:

$4,084.28 / $5,261.27 USD/AUD

Grant Metrics Reporting

Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.

Progress March 2021 and Proposal

The problem

In order to grow, increase partnerships and professionalise its operations, Wikimedia Australia requires additional support to coordinate its community development and outreach work. Since the chapter was established in 2007, the small managing committee has carried responsibility for governance, community engagement activities and communications. While successful to this point, the committee has reached the limit of its ability to continue to grow operations on a 100% volunteer basis.

Proposed solution Wikimedia Australia proposes to contract an experienced Wikimedian, well-recognised in the community and familiar with Wikimedia Australia events and operations to establish the duties and procedures in an interim role of Community Support and Outreach Coordinator.

This role is a short-term contract position that will contribute to communications, volunteer engagement and development, and general administration for the Wikimedia Australia committee and wider community. In particular the role will contribute to the development and implementation of Wikimedia Australia’s communications strategies and plans, organise online and in person events, expand partnerships, and support the organisation and administration of the Wikimedia Australia Committee.

Request to reallocate Simple APG 2020-21 funds

At the midterm review of progress against the Wikimedia Australia Annual Plan 2020-21, there are a number of activities within the budget that cannot proceed due to COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions, in particular Wikimania scholarships. Wikimedia Australia would like to take this opportunity to reallocate up to AUD$10,000 to establish the Community Support and Outreach Coordinator contract as per the following role statement. This pilot funding will enable both the Committee and the Coordinator to establish working arrangements and test the position, and will inform Wikimedia Australia’s Annual Plan and budget for 2021-22.

Supervision and Committee Transition

The Community Support and Outreach Coordinator will report to the current Committee President, and will work remotely as per the Wikimedia Australia transitional Position Guidebook currently in preparation.

Final report

Program story

Contracting an inaugural Wikimedia Australia Executive Officer

After nearly 13 years operating with only a volunteer committee, 2020-21 saw a significant milestone for the Wikimedia movement in Australia with the contracting of WMAU’s first staff member, a Community Support and Outreach Coordinator.

In order to grow, increase partnerships and professionalise its operations, WMAU required additional support to coordinate its community development and outreach work. Since the chapter was established in 2007, the small managing committee has carried responsibility for governance, community engagement activities and communications. While successful to this point, the committee had reached the limit of its ability to continue to grow operations on an entirely volunteer basis.

The Community Support and Outreach Coordinator role was a three-month short-term contract position approximately 15 hours per week that managed communications, volunteer engagement and development, and general administration for the WMAU committee and wider community. At the midterm review of progress against the WMAU Annual Plan 2020-21, there were many identified activities within the budget that could not proceed due to COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions. WMAU reallocated AUD$10,000 to establish the Community Support and Outreach Coordinator. This pilot funding enabled both the committee and the coordinator to establish working arrangements and informed WMAU’s annual plan and budget for 2021-22.

WMAU contracted experienced Wikimedian Caddie Brain, who is well-recognised in the community and familiar with Wikimedia Australia events and operations, to establish the duties and procedures within the interim role. Caddie Brain (she/her) is an independent creative technologist, producer and former journalist. She began Wikiclub NT, a monthly editing club in the Northern Territory that effectively doubled the number of pages for that region and established Know My Name, a partnership with the National Gallery of Australia. She has also produced radio, exhibitions, augmented reality audio tours, machine learning prototypes, Wikipedia editing clubs and recently supported Arrernte young people, artists and linguists to make their own emoji set. She has worked is public programs and exhibitions across the GLAM sector and recently completed a Master in Applied Cybernetics.

Key deliverables of the Coordinator role included:

Development and implementation of a three-year Communication Strategy
Management and growth of of WMAU’s social media channels
Planned implementation of the redevelopment and redesign of the WMAU website
Production of regular newsletters (every two months) for members and partners
Management of WMAU's brand and visual identity, including the design and production of printed materials and merchandise
Organisation of facilitation and/or support of 18 online and face-to-face events for WMAU and its partners
Established new partnerships acting as a main point of contact both for the partner organisation and volunteers involved
Managed monthly committee meetings, providing agenda preparation, reports and updates
Facilitated and supported 1Lib1Ref and Wiki Loves Earth campaigns

Overall this was a very successful initiative which has significantly expanded the administrative and outreach capabilities of Wikimedia Australia and one we plan to continue.

Learning story

Pivoting to online events

The ongoing travel and social distancing requirements in Australia due to COVID-19 has kicked off a rich period of experimentation and model development for virtual, online and hybrid training training, meetup and community events. WMAU found success with both formal presentation models, edit-a-thons and casual drop-in sessions. Even beyond the acute phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, WMAU intends to continue to offer both a mix of online and face-to-face (but no hybrid) events.

Key learnings from across these sessions include:

Use of a more complex video conferencing system such as Zoom enables fuller control and management of participants.
Multiple facilitators should be made hosts in order to better manage participants and ensure calls continue if the host loses connectivity for some reason. This also ensures participants are all able to move into break out rooms with different facilitators depending on their level and interests.
Sessions required a minimum of two hours, but a maximum of three hours. An hour-long event only allows enough time for an information session but not significant editing.
Online events avoid many of the shared IP issues experienced in face-to-face events.
Introducing and encouraging editing in just one Wikimedia platform is recommended (i.e. editing in English Wikipedia only, not simultaneously introducing Wikimedia Commons as well for new users)
For an online edit-a-thon (not an information session) around 30 participants is the maximum number to create community and intimacy while ensuring that participants are adequately supported.
An Acknowledgement of Country is essential at the beginning of each event. As participants are often geographically dispersed, they can also be invited to post the Traditional Country from which they are joining the call into the chat.
Welcoming participants to include their pronouns in their video name also ensures inclusivity and safe spaces for a diverse range of participants.
Online edit-a-thons run best when supported by multiple experienced Wikipedians (ideally a minimum of three).
Inviting participants to share their usernames allows a record of participants and/or an easy way to load editors into a Dashboard. The Dashboard provides a way of staying in touch and tracking participant progress over time.
The chat function is a useful tool for enabling participants to quickly post questions without interrupting the flow of a presentation.
Editing counts are generally less than face to face events. Many participants do not have access to multiple screens so following the video instruction and editing simultaneously can be challenging for many participants.
Slides can be a useful tool to provide participants an introduction to Wikipedia and the WIkimedia movement. Although live demonstration of Wikipedia editing through a screen-sharing function is preferred to slides.
Preparation is key. Offering participants a range of suggested content to work on ensures a smoother event. Use of a shared spreadsheet avoids edit conflicts and ensures ease of communication between participants. Providing participants the option of working on existing pages as well as new pages is critical considering the limitations of online instruction.
Once an introduction has been provided, offering participants a range of Breakout rooms, each of which is supported by an experienced Wikipedian enables a greater level of support for participants with different skills and interests. or example, use of the main room for new editors, provision of a room for experienced editors to undertake communal editing and having a few breakout rooms ready for one-on-one instruction for users that may require a higher level of support.
Online edit-a-thons offer a greater opportunity to reach a more diverse and geographically dispersed range of participants.
Wide advertising of meeting links may generate potentially unwelcome or inappropriate drop-ins into calls.
Hybrid events with both a face to face component as well as online participants are not preferred. They require a greater level of support and offer a poorer experience for both kinds of participants.

Programs Impact

Community Support Program

The key goal this year is to engage directly with current and emerging editors in Australia. We have converted to online events for WikiClubs, training events and meetups and online community meetings.

WikiClubs

Wikiclub activities were significantly impacted by COVID-19 restrictions across Australia. Lockdowns in major cities and risks to vulnerable populations in regional and remote areas limited most events, engagement and travel around Australia. Much of the funding available for these activities was diverted to the Community Support and Outreach Coordinator position.

State-based WikiClubs had the opportunity to move to online meetups, and four clubs successfully pivoted to online edit-a-thons and meet ups that ran throughout 2020-21. These included:

Women Write Wiki (WWW)

One of Australia’s longest running editing clubs celebrated four years in March 2021. They have been meeting twice each month at The Women’s Library in the inner-Sydney suburb of Newtown, to write about Australian women authors represented in the library. At this time, just 16 per cent of articles on English Wikipedia were about women. By March 2021, the group was celebrating four years of editing, activism and friendship, during which they estimate they’ve now created over 300 new pages on Australian and New Zealand women. Their efforts form part of Women in Red and Art+Feminism, whose work to increase the visibility and representation of women on Wikimedia platforms has seen the number of pages about women grow to nearly 19 per cent as of March 2021. WWW pivoted to online meet-ups as of April 2020 and are now transitioning back to physical meet-ups (COVID-19 restrictions permitting).

Article: Four Years of Women Write Wiki

Women’s Art Register

Despite five lockdowns in Melbourne since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Women’s Art Register wikiclub managed to hold three edit-a-thons - a meetup on 12 November 2020, an event on 6 March 2021 at Richmond Library in Melbourne as part of a suite of national events for International Women's Day and Wiki Wednesday event on 16 June 2021. Coordinated by Caroline Phillips with support from Wikipedian Pru Mitchell, the edit-a-thon draws on Australia’s living archive at the Women’s Art Register, which features documentation of over 5000 artists housed at the Richmond Library in Melbourne.

WOMEESA

Also joining the gender diversity campaign in March was a month-long editing effort from Women in Earth and Environmental Sciences in Australasia (WOMEESA), who after an initial online training session with Wikimedia Australia, spent a month working on the pages of renowned women in earth and environmental sciences.

Event dashboard.

Women in Religion

2021 saw the launch of the Women in Religion project. It responds to the underrepresentation of women in religion on Wikipedia, who experience similar levels of bias as other areas, making up just 18 per cent of all biographies. To address this, WMAU is partnering with the University of Divinity in Melbourne led by librarian Kerrie Burn of the Mannix Library to form an Australian contribution to the international 1000 Women in Religion Project that originated in the United States. After an initial edit-a-thon in March 2021, a weekly online meetup is now on every Wednesday offering training and supported editing with Pru Mitchell.

Program Dashboard
Article: More Wikipedia Women, Daily Voice
Article: Australian Women in Religion Edit-a-thon, Vox

Noongarpedia and Curtin University

Nys colours with en gnangarra

2020-21 saw the development of a new phase of the Noongarpedia incubator project first launched in 2016, an Indigenous language portal in the Noongar language of south west Australia. Indigenous content projects like this are essential in promoting knowledge equity and remains a best practice model for Indigenous language partnerships in Australia, and globally. To continue to grow content for Noongarpedia, funding supplied to Curtin University enabled a set of workshops coordinated by Wikimedian Gnangarra in November 2020. Cultural oversight was provided by Ingrid Cumming, who ensured the accuracy of the language, spelling and audio recordings by Karla Hat and Maitland Schnar with the Nelson and Bartlett Families. Fourteen videos were developed featuring multiple themed sets of words for each video such as colours, body parts etc. These videos were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons in February 2021, and integrated into Wikidata and English Wikipedia.

Mini Grants Volunteer Support Program

Each year WMAU offers a flexible, responsive mini grants programme for Australian contributors to obtain resources or share their knowledge about the projects and/or WMAU activities. In 2020-21, six applications were received, with five grants successfully granted.

Visualising Australian Honours - Kelly Tall

In February 2021, a WMAU mini grant supported researchers Heather Ford, Tamson Pietsch and Kelly Tall from University of Technology Sydney’s School of Communication who were researching the relationship between Wikipedia and the Order of Australia to understand who is recognised and who isn’t. Across all levels of the Honours, only 11% of recipients have a Wikipedia biography, but the Order announcement is an important signal for establishing notability on Wikipedia, and there is a discernible spike in page creation in the week the awards are announced. The project resulted in an illustrated data essay entitled Producing distinction: Wikipedia and the Order of Australia, A visual essay, an academic paper and news article comparing these two systems of recognising notability of Australians.

Coordination of projects in WA universities - Gnangarra

In 2020-21, Gnangarra was supported in the purchasing of essential equipment such as a laptop to support the growth, coordination and engagement with GLAM sector and tertiary institutions in Western Australia through events and presentations. Despite limitations to physical events due to ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns, partnerships were initiated with Curtin University, the Seniors Recreation Council of WA, the Historical Encyclopaedia of WA, and University of Western Australia Archaeology Department. The equipment also supported the ongoing Noongarpedia development and the coordination of Wikimania 2021. Read more.

University of Sydney Write Women - Dr Bunty Avieson

Senior Lecturer at the Department of Media and Communications Dr Bunty Avieson was supported in running a Write Women edit-a-thon at the University of Sydney on 8 March 2021, on International Women’s Day. The event provided training and support for 16 new and experienced editors. The funding supported facilitation for the event and light catering.

Write Wiki Event Dashboard

Art+Feminism Laptop Stickers - Caroline Phillips

Each year, WMAU supports edit-a-thons around Australia to reduce the gender gap on Wikipedia. Recent years have brought a focus on women artists and creators as part of the Know My Name and Art+Feminism movement. In order to support these ongoing programs, Caroline Phillips of Art+Feminism and the Women’s Art Register was supported in producing 500 vinyl Art+Feminism laptop stickers to offer to participants at events and to encourage participation, support and visibility of the Art+Feminism movement around Australia.

Wikimedia Australia pilot internship - James Gaunt

The development of a pilot WMAU internship program for tertiary students is underway, supported through a mini grant. The stipend was provided to RMIT journalist James Gaunt to work with WMAU one day per week from June until October 2021 to help establish and road-test the pilot program, relevant documentation and workflows. The internship is also enabling James an opportunity to research and publish case studies on the WMAU website, write resources and internal communications, support WMAU events and workshop activities with partner organisations and contribute to ongoing research projects.

Internship application

Support for engagement in regional and global events

As for chapters across the world, 2020-21 presented many challenges to the Wikimedia movement globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel for global events and opportunities simply wasn’t possible due to border restrictions, therefore funding was instead diverted into establishing the Community Support and Outreach Coordinator role. This staff member, as well as WMAU committee members and key community members continued to enthusiastically contribute to and lead regional and international initiatives over 2020-21. These included:

WMAU committee and community members were regular attendees, presenters and occasional chairs of the East, South East, Asia, Pacific (ESEAP) regional network meetings
Former WMAU President and Wikimedian Gnangarra is a member of the organising committee of the first fully online Wikimania on from 13 - 17 August 2021.
WMAU has worked closely to support the new Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand in its first year. As well as ongoing attendance and support from Australian Wikipedians at its events and monthly meetups, WMAU officially partnered with Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand librarians for a joint 1Lib1Ref campaign this year co-hosting six drop-in sessions over the three weeks of the campaign from 15 May until 6 June 2021. Library professionals across Australia and New Zealand added 1650 new citations to Wikipedia in just three weeks. WMAU also supported the production of promotional Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand stickers for use at its conferences in 2021.

Outreach and engagement

Content competitions

Fifteen photographers from across Australia were recognised in the 2021 Wiki Loves Earth photo competition for 2021. The overall number of prizes was increased from 10 to 15 prizes of $100 due to an invitation to contribute 5 additional winners than past years to compete in the international round. The competition saw 182 people across Australia upload over 1500 photos between 1 May and 13 June 2021, the highest number of entries since the competition began nine years ago. Australia’s competition was run by volunteer Margaret Donald who has been a Wikipedian since 2017.

Engagement with GLAMs

Opportunities for GLAM engagement in 2020-21 were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Galleries, museums, libraries and archives across Australia were closed for many months with lockdowns and events significantly limited by attendance restrictions and COVID-safe planning requirements. Despite this, WMAU established two significant new programs:

City of Sydney partnership

WMAU is partnering with the City of Sydney to support its commitment to Wikipedia events and staff training across its network of 11 inner city libraries. So far in 2021 WMAU has helped to support one major edit-a-thon called Picture This at Darling Square Library. Guided by City Historians Dr Lisa Murray and Laila Ellmoos and supported by Wikipedia editors Toby Hudson and Ann Reynolds, participants learnt to upload public domain images to Wikimedia Commons and then add them to Wikipedia pages on everything from Sydney mayors to Sydney suburbs. The City archives holds materials from as early as 1842 when the Municipal Council of Sydney was established, with online access now available for over one million items. The hybrid edit-a-thon featured editors in-person at the library as well as remote participants via video link. Despite the challenge of learning multiple platforms, the 20 or so participants added 43 images to Wikimedia Commons, editing 250 articles. This has led to the development of a formalised partnership that is currently in development. It has already supported an online First Nations edit-a-thon on 10 July 2021, with another scheduled for September 2021.

Picture This Event Dashboard

1Lib1Ref

Librarians and library professionals across Australia and New Zealand added 1650 new citations to Wikipedia in just three weeks. For the first time, Wikimedia Australia partnered with Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand on a regional campaign, co-hosting six drop-in sessions over the three weeks of the campaign from 15 May until 6 June 2021. Around 50 librarians attended the online sessions (as well a surprise drop-in flamenco guitar player and a child who showed us his toys) who were trained in the basics of Wikipedia and how to add a citation by Wikipedians Siobhan Leachman, Ann Reynolds, Kerry Raymond and Caddie Brain as well as Mike Dickison who facilitated an online LIANZA Webinar. Additional live and online events were also held at the University of Melbourne, Yarra Plenty Regional Library, University of Newcastle Library, Charles Sturt University Library in Wagga Wagga and the State Library of Queensland. The final results are available here, as are the efforts of the State Library of Queensland and Yarra Plenty Regional Library.

Facilitate online training modules for libraries

During 2021 Wikimedia Australia is preparing to trial facilitated online training for Australian library staff. Once this course is developed we aim to market this as a professional development activity for libraries, particularly in costly to access regional areas. Content is customised for Australian contexts, and facilitated by experienced trainers. COVID-19 restrictions have forced a rich period of experimentation with a range of online and hybrid delivery models for training and engagement as outlined in a central learning story. This is providing an opportunity to reach organisations across Australia that we previously couldn’t. Therefore WMAU are creating a suite of training resources to offer online introductory training and awareness sessions for a wide range of GLAM organisations, to formalise the many lessons learnt and new opportunities to overcome regional disadvantage. WMAU contracted Wikimedian Mike Dickison from New Zealand to develop standardised learning modules with follow tasks and certification. These include a series of four one-hour online professional learning modules that provide an introduction to Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata for GLAM staff including learning outcomes, session outlines and learning review tasks, accompanying slide decks, presenter scripts and materials, resources for participants (Australasian case studies, activities involving Australasian content, learning review tasks) and testing of these materials and resources with at least one external GLAM partner with WMAU for rollout in 2022.

Implement communications and media strategy

In 2021, WMAU developed a Communications Strategy for the first time in its organisational history. The policy’s purpose is to outline the appropriate and strategic use of communication activities and tools (including in person, print and digital) by WMAU and its community. The communications strategy aims to protect the organisation’s reputation by ensuring reliability, consistency and trust, and support membership growth, engagement and advocacy for the importance of Wikimedia platforms and missions. The strategy was developed by the Community Support and Outreach Coordinator. Caddie Brain, who was contracted to this role, is a former journalist and experienced communications specialist and wrote the strategy as part of her work in this role, with input from the committee and wider WMAU community. It was approved and published in June 2021.

WMAU is also in the process of finalising an official branding suite (logos, presentation and letterhead templates etc) to finalise, professionalise and make its brand consistent, with support of Sydney design agency Ramen Studio.

Wikimedia Australia Communications Strategy

This Month in GLAM

WMAU was also a regular contributor to This Month in GLAM.

Chapter governance

As an incorporated association registered in Victoria, WMAU has continued to fulfil its legal, financial and reporting responsibilities as a charity registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). It maintained all relevant insurances and tax statements throughout 2020-21 with support from a contracted accountant as needed.

The annual Wikimedia Australia chapter AGM was held online on Sunday 14 September 2020 with two new recruits joining the management committee, with significant experience in the tertiary and GLAM sectors, open research and community engagement. The committee has members from four states and territories - the Australian Capital Territory/New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia. Two committee members also stepped up to the executive for the first time into the roles of President and Vice-President. While also well-balanced in terms of gender the committee continues to aim to grow the overall diversity of language, culture and/or age represented in its governance committee. Read more about the committee.

As per 2020, a Strategy Planning Summit was not held in 2021 due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. WMAU will look to contract a consultant from July - December 2021 to initiate a new strategic planning cycle through a series of two-hour online sessions to set key strategic pillars and objectives for the next three years in board alignment with the international Wikimedia Foundation annual plans and directions.

Spending update

A detailed budget can be seen here.

Total expenditure: US$24,117.43/AU$32,511.38

Grant Metrics Reporting

Metrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.