Grants:TPS/Sky Harbor/Open Source Bridge 2016
This Wikimedia Participation Support request was not funded. Reasons have been communicated with the request submitter on the Discussion page.
Proposed participation
[edit]Hi, my name is Josh Lim (Sky Harbor), and I have been an active Wikimedian for the last eleven years. Currently, I am the President of Wikimedia Philippines and was previously a member of the Wikimedia Foundation's Affiliations Committee.
Half of my active life as a Wikipedian has been spent analyzing and studying the social dynamics and power relations between communities, specifically our own. Initially starting off as an academic endeavor I undertook as part of my studies, my research work on the Wikimedia community has since been presented at international conferences, including Wikimania (2013), Open Source Bridge (2013, 2014 and 2015) and AlterConf San Francisco (2016). I still conduct practical research endeavors into our community, its past and its future from time to time, although recently I have expanded this to encompass Internet research in general, and this year, I intend to present How NOT to run your organization into the ground: lessons from Wikimedia Philippines for open source at this year's Open Source Bridge, which has already been accepted.
This presentation will focus on how tech practitioners ought to run their non-profits, bringing in experiences from Wikimedia Philippines and Wikimedia affiliates at large. While people know how to get together, do projects and perform meaningful programmatic work, it's another matter when there's a need to set up an organization to meet those objectives. More importantly, we need to ask whether having an organization is necessary in the first place, and what sorts of things can we do to make sure that they're running smoothly and not, if you will, crashing into the ground. At the same time, we'll look at support strategies to ensure a healthy organizational environment, and also exchange ideas from other tech non-profits on how they're doing things which Wikimedia affiliates and the Wikimedia movement at large could benefit from.
Goal and expected impact
[edit]Given the preeminent position of the Wikimedia Foundation and of Wikimedia affiliates, many open source communities would benefit from our experiences with running affiliates, especially Wikimedia chapters. As such, my aim in presenting this presentation is to empower attendees who either are involved with tech non-profits or want to put up a non-profit of their own to know that it isn't easy to run an organization, and that they should be prepared to learn from their failures. It would also help to promote Wikipedia as a model that can actually work in terms of building online communities, and that is despite the current problems that we have.
In addition, learning from other non-profits how they've done things is strongly beneficial for our own affiliates. Wikimedia affiliates, especially less-developed affiliates like Wikimedia Philippines, will benefit from the insights conference attendees from other non-profits have to help improve governance and impact.
I am aware that for my last TPS grant request, my report was eight months overdue. To prevent that from happening here, I will be preparing a skeleton of the report in advance of the event, to be filled in after the event is finished.
Budget breakdown
[edit]- Airfare: $1040
- This is for two tickets: a round-trip ticket from Manila to Los Angeles and back on China Eastern Airlines which costs $840, and from Los Angeles to Portland and back on Spirit Airlines which costs $200.
Similar to last year, I will make my own arrangements for accommodation during the conference, and as a speaker, my registration is already paid for.
Other instructions
[edit]Unlike previous proposals, I am seeking reimbursement for expenses incurred in the course of my participation at Open Source Bridge. While I am hoping to request for the reimbursement of the full amount, should the Participation Support Committee feel otherwise, I hope to at least request for the reimbursement of the U.S. leg (from Los Angeles to Portland and back) should it feel that my participation did not generate the amount of impact desired. I will address this in my grant report.