Grants talk:APG/Proposals/2014-2015 round1/Wikimedia Israel/Proposal form

Community review has ended. You are still welcome to comment on these proposals, but the FDC and the applicants may not be able to respond to your feedback or consider it during the deliberations.

Please do not edit this proposal form directly. If changes are needed, applicants can request them on the proposal form's discussion page. Thank you!

Proposal by Wikimedia Israel to support its annual plan with ~US$268,000.

Program focus: Community Support, Content, Training, Free knowledge awareness

Wikimedia Israel has expanded its activity in 2015 in two main courses of action: supporting several Wikimedia Projects and their communities and expanding our collaboration with with key organizations in Israel. Key focus areas this year include working to expand and strengthen the Israeli Wikipedia community and to support other Wikimedia Projects’ communities, and improving the training infrastructure will empower the volunteer instructors and increase the number of edits following the workshops. Beyond these actions, our intention is to expand WMIL activities in a new direction - the creation of openly licensed materials, and to expand collaborations which will increase content and encourage public awareness about the importance of open data and of the public domain.

Your requested increase in funding

You are running a very valuable set of activites in WMIL that is given international recognition. Also I know of the situation you had with the 2013/2014 funding that just covered yor basic admin cost. So I am not surprised you ask for an increase in funding even considering the Boards decision to cap FDC fundings. But while understanding the rationale for an increase I still do not understand the rationale for the huge requested increase of +35%. I also know from last year of the problems you face for finding alterative fundings, but still wonder if you have pursued all possibilited of alternative funding, also including cooperation with other chapters. Also considering the request being all outside the Boards guideline, I wonder if you have a plan B for your programs if you would receive less then requested. What parts of the proposed plan would be effected.Anders Wennersten (talk) 09:28, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

WMIL very much appreciates the grant received from FDC in 2014. At the beginning of 2014 we redeveloped our working plan and budget in accordance with available resources. As of today (first three quarters of 2014), WMIL has achieved all defined goals and is proceeding on schedule according to the working plan. One of the important assignments for 2014 was seeking alternative funding. It was our declared intention to raise NIS 90,000 on the basis of collaboration until the end of this year. Most of this money is already in hand. Unfortunately the process of serious fundraising requires hiring, at least on a temporary basis, an experienced fundraiser and this is not within the scope of WMIL’s priorities.

We definitely plan to diversify and broaden our sources of funding in the future.

Cooperation with other chapters in regard to mutual funding is a realm in which we lack experience and it is a subject which we will consider in 2015. Please keep in mind that there is limited room for collaboration because of the unique nature of the Hebrew Wikipedia. An example which we will study is the partnership established between WMAR and the local Jewish community. But I am not optimistic that it can serve as a model for WMIL.

We believe that we are capable of being fully funded. If this does not materialize in 2015, we will certainly adjust the working plan accordingly.

Michal Lester לסטר (talk) 13:59, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks for your answer which I find very enlightning. Good to hear of the efforts in broadening your funding. Personally I still beleive +35% is very high considering the decsion by the Board, but I wish you good luck in the proceedings with FDC.Anders Wennersten (talk) 14:15, 5 October 2014 (UTC)

Please complete Table 6 (Operating reserves: upcoming year's annual plan)

Hello, WMIL colleagues:

Please complete Table 6 (Operating reserves: upcoming year's annual plan) of this form. If you currently have no reserves and plan to have none in the upcoming year, please state that in the notes to the table and enter 0 for the fields requested. FDC staff approve your making changes to this table in advance, although it is after the proposal due date.

Thank you! Winifred Olliff (FDC Support Team) talk 18:19, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Done. Thank you. Michal לסטר (talk) 09:17, 7 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks a lot! Winifred Olliff (FDC Support Team) talk 23:11, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Changes in Table 3

Hello,

Unfortunately, we noticed that there was a mistake in the converting rate of shekels to dollars in Table 3 of the Proposal form. We would like to correct the numbers. Also, as table 3 refers to the 2014 proposal, we ask to stay with the 1$ = 3.6 NIS dollar rate (Table 3 only. The rest of the document is calculated according to the exchange rate required - 03.57800).

Chen Davidi Chen - WMIL (talk) 08:10, 7 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Chen, thanks for posting this. I understand why you have used the 2014 exchange rate in this proposal (since it was what was used last year), but we're asking all organizations requesting APG funding to use one common exchange rate throughout the proposal forms, which is the one you have used throughout the form. Since last year, APG grant allocations are made in local currency, so the exchange rate is only illustrative and not actual. Therefore we'd like to kindly ask you to stick with one exchange rate throughout the proposal form. Many thanks! KLove (WMF) (talk) 19:10, 7 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi KLove (WMF) I corrected the table and updated according to the requested USD rate (3.578) . Thank you! Chen - WMIL (talk) 05:55, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Great, Chen - WMIL! Thanks so much. KLove (WMF) (talk) 20:26, 14 October 2014 (UTC)

"سلام به نظر من نیاز به مطالعه عمیقتر وجود دارد"SAIED110

Translation: "Hello, in my opinion there is a need for deeper analysis/study." -Althunyon (talk) 00:45, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Questions from FDC staff

Thank you for submitting this proposal for an Annual Plan Grant to the FDC! As the FDC staff, we have enjoyed reviewing it and learning more about the work you’ve done to date, and the plans you have for 2015. At this time, we’d like to know a bit more. Some questions have come up as part of our review, and we have a few requests for clarifications. Please let us know if any of this is unclear.

Thank you for your hard work! KLove (WMF) (talk) 00:10, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Confirming your financial information

Based on your budgeted spend for 2014, your proposed growth rate is 34.16%. Based on your projected spend for 2014, your growth rate is 42.20% because you expect to spend 94.35% of the total budgeted. WMIL is requesting a 35.40% increase in FDC funding. This analysis is based on the following numbers:

• Budgeted spend 2014: ₪877,456
• Projected spend 2014: ₪827,855
• FDC funds granted 2014: ₪709,000
• Proposed budget 2015: ₪1,177,233
• FDC funds requested 2015: ₪960,000

We had some questions about the line items you used in your detailed budget. Would you tell us what costs each of the following items include?

• Community activities - total of ₪27,600

1. 3 community meetings - ₪7000
2. Prizes for two writing contests - ₪2,000
3. 2 meetings of other wiki communities - ₪1,000
4. Editor meetings - ₪5,600
5. Microgrants - ₪12,000

• Activities to support communities - total of ₪21,000

1. Hebrew Wiktionary: - ₪11,000
2. MediaWiki developer community - ₪11,000

• Marketing and advertising activities - ₪21,000
• Course for archivists & Librarians - ₪20,000
• Photography competition - ₪40,000
• Promotion and publicity activities - total of ₪37,500

1. 7th Wikiacademy (annual conference) - ₪30,000
2. Collaboration with The Public Knowledge Workshop - ₪3,500
3. Renewing WMIL public activity on issues of open data - ₪4,000

• Rent, accounting and general office expenses - total of ₪213,433

1. Office Space (including rent, municipal taxes and VAT) - ₪175,033
2. Accounting - ₪20,000
3. General office expenses - ₪18,4000

לסטר (talk) 07:52, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Questions

• WMIL has identified volunteer and contributor recruitment and re-engagement as key areas. We would like more insight into how you set your targets (ex: 6 volunteers for chapter activities, 6 veteran editors reached), and more insight into how you plan to do this recruitment and outreach. How do you believe that recruiting more volunteers will lead to more impact?

As we wrote in the proposal, returning inactive veteran editors is a big challenge. Inactive veterans have great knowledge about editing in Wikipedia and working as a community and we hope that at least some of them continue to contribute after being contacted. The communities coordinator, with the help of active and respected Wikipedians will contact the veterans and invite them to take part in WMIL activities that might interest them. For example, offer a veteran to give a talk, to take part in a workshop or a course in his or her field of interest.

We intend to recruit 6 new volunteers that will give WMIL added value. For 2015 we will look for volunteers that will assist WMIL to understand our scope in the strategic goal of raising public awareness to the importance of open data and to the public domain and its expansion. Other volunteers can help out in scanning, instructing, fundraising and more.

• In your collaboration with the Ministry of Education on the teacher training program, you aim to have 20% of teachers trained using materials provided by the workshops in their classes. Will this lead to more content being contributed to the projects? If not, what do you expect the impact will be?

The training for teachers program is part of the strategic collaboration with the Ministry of Education we reported in Q2 and will elaborate on it in the coming report. The aim of this training is to train teachers to use Wikipedia. Throughout the course there will be tasks that teachers can complete with their students. The materials developed for the collaboration with the MoE focus on understanding and using Wikipedia and less directed to contributing content.

The impact of the program is changing the attitude of teachers towards Wikipedia and give them tools to use it as an essential engine for teaching. If successful, we intend to extend this program to actual contribution of materials.

• Do you have goals associated with your monthly editing workshops in terms of content produced, or are these workshops intended to train new editors rather than produce content? If so, can you explain what the goals of the workshops will be? How many new editors do you expect to retain?

The workshops are only one of many points of support in the system WMIL provides for people who wish to learn to edit wikipedia and participate in workshops and courses. Other tools already exist (e-mail and phone support), and additional ones will be developed during the end of 2014 and 2015. Beyond that, we are aware that the existing training tools are not professional - we are developing new lesson plans for workshops, that will be available by the end of 2014, and we will encourage the volunteers to use these.

The goals of the workshops are:

“60% of participants will report at the end of the workshop that they are familiar with editing skills, and 10% of participants will continue editing 3 months subsequent to the workshop”. The extensive support system described above, is in place to ensure that these 10% retained editors would continue contributing, and to help them produce high quality materials and hopefully a few of them will become editors.

• You plan to recruit ten members to join the MediaWiki developer community. You were unsuccessful with this last year, so you plan to contact five tech companies to do this. Have you made any progress, and what is the reason you believe this new approach will be successful?

We are optimistic! In 2014 our main efforts directed to the Wikimedia community (known as searching under the lamp-post…). We did our best to engage active Wikipedians that have programming experience or to reach out to developers that already volunteered in other NPOs. In 2015 we will try a new approach. There are thousands of high-tech companies in Israel, and a vibrant open-source community. Surely we can find ten developers...

• How did you determine the need for your training program? How will WMIL invite or select participants in its training that are likely to continue to edit Wikipedia after the training? How did WMIL come to the conclusion that producing educational videos would be a good way to provide training about Wikipedia?

The training program are “training the trainers” programs

There were such programs in Israel. The presentations and the layout of the workshops were made by volunteers who do not have background in training.

Recently WMIL staff and volunteers started a brainstorming about building a group of volunteer instructors (they will recruited not from the Wikipedia community).

The educational videos are only a small part of the support system WMIL wishes to provide to participants in workshops and courses, not the only tool. Other tools include follow up e-mail contact with participants, phone support, collaboration with the Wikipedia Greenhouse and our devoted communities coordinator that provides help when needed.

Thank you for submitting responses to these questions. Cheers, KLove (WMF) (talk) 00:10, 11 October 2014 (UTC)
Thnak you Michal Lester לסטר (talk) 10:26, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Gender gap and diversity

Hello, thank you all for the work that you are doing for the wikimedia movement. I enjoyed reading about your past and proposed projects.

One area that I'm trying to better understand in your efforts to have more diverse content and a more diverse community.

For example, in the Q2 progress report you mention the importance of inviting more women to lecture. And you mention the Facebook group WikiWomen [1]. Neither of these two things have a specific cost associated with them.

I'm trying to better understand how that the money that you are requesting will achieve the goal of having a broader group of people contributing to wikimedia projects and creating broader content. Right now I'm not seeing any specific measurable goals around increasing the number of women editing or other measures that would show a more diverse community. And I'm not seeing how that funds would be used to meet the goal of having a more diverse community. I would appreciate it if you could elaborate on how that you will use future funds to create a diverse community and content. Thanks, FloNight (talk) 20:27, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

WMIL is obligated to increase diversity in content and in Wikipedia community. Evidence to that is that the connection with the WikiWomen Facebook group was a WMIL staff initiative. The first face to face meeting of the group took place at the WMIL office on September 9th. And we already booked the second meeting to December 2nd. Moreover, our approach to the gender gap is to integrate between Wikipedians and new members. Last week, the community coordinator with the volunteer who run the greenhouse organized a advanced workshop for “new” Wikipedians. More than 60% of the participants were women.

In preparation for 2015, WMIL had already started to make connections with other diverse groups that we would like to collaborate with.

The budget for Wikiwomen and all the other groups is included in the Editor Meetings section.

Michal Lester לסטר (talk) 15:14, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for your reply. It is good hear that WMIL is committed to increase diversity in content and the community. Since it sounds like you all have some interesting ideas and plans, it would be helpful to spell out your plans and results in more details as a way of sharing what works (and what doesn't) with the rest of the wikimedia movement. Doing this by collecting data and reporting in both qualitative and quantitative ways will make it easier to evaluate the success of your projects. I look forward to reading about them more over the next year. Warm regards, FloNight (talk) 20:20, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

The Wikipedia Foundation funding any Israeli project at this time seems to me not totally unlike the United States Olympic Committee sending athletes to the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

Arab participation in the project?

According to the article Israel, Arab citizens of Israel comprise 20.7% of the country's total population. (This does not include the occupied West Bank or Gaza, which is under blockade.) What percentage of the Wikiproject is Israeli Arab? If it is far less than 20%, have there been any attempts to recruit more Arabs? Also, is there an attempt to ensure editors maintain an NPOV policy towards the editing of articles about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Have there been any workshops or other events regarding doing so? Thanks. Carolmooredc (talk) 17:39, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Carolmooredc, and thank you for your question. Currently, there is no extensive activity of WMIL with Israeli Arabs. During 2014, we have contacted Tighe Flanagan from the Wikimedia Education Program to learn about the Foundation's work with Arabic speakers. We are also in initial contacts with the Israeli Ministry of Education, to encourage Arabic speaking schools to participate in our activities and workshops, and we're looking into supporting Israeli Arab students in universities and colleges to edit articles in the Hebrew, or Arab, wikipedias. Your idea of a workshop or event to promote editing by Israeli Arabs is a good one, and we will look into doing something like this.

That said, however, we have no power over the Hebrew Wikipedia editor community, and besides encouraging all writers to edit neutrally, and to be generally civil (both as human beings and as wiki editors), we have no interest (and nor should we, in my opinion as a Board Member in WMIL) in enforcing specific neutrality policies, besides those that already exist within the editor community.

I hope this answers your questions. Alleycat80 (talk) 06:33, 22 October 2014 (UTC)

Just FYI, I think a lot of Israeli Arabs speak Hebrew and/or English. 108.48.229.43 01:56, 23 October 2014 (UTC) (forgot to sign in -Carolmooredc)

My concern are along the lines of Carolmooredc; WMIL has made it clear that its traditional target community is Hebrew-language Wikipedia, and you want to revive the Hebrew Wiktionary, but what about Arab Wiktionary? I think it is fundamental that WMIL should represent all Israelis, not only the Hebrew-speakers. If a grant is given to WMIL, then we should insist that at least 20% is ear-marked the Arab groups, that is Arabic Wikipedia, and Arab Wiktionary. Huldra (talk) 11:09, 25 October 2014 (UTC)

So, Huldra, let's be reasonable about priorities. Yes, WMIL intends to initiate contacts with the Israeli Arab community. No, I don't think that it is reasonable to earmark 20% of the resources for Arabic Wikipedia or Wiktionary, to which other chapters and associated groups are tending to. I think the allocation should be done on a project or activity basis. When we establish activities with this community, and if they want to cooperate with us, we will budget these activities accordingly. We also have French, Ethiopian, German, Spanish and Yiddish speakers in Israel, just to name a few. This is part of what makes Israel such an interesting place - but it certainly does not mean that we can support all these Wikipedias, with only a few staff members. Alleycat80 (talk) 19:59, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Alleycat80 : That is not the point; the point is that "Wikimedia Israel" should represent all citizens of Israel. AFAIK you have 2 official languages: Hebrew and Arabic. And French, Ethiopian, German, Spanish and Yiddish are not official languages in Israel. I live in a small country, like Israel it has 2 official languages, each with its own wikipedia. It would be completely unthinkable that if the local country chapter got a grant, and gave it all to the "majority" language! Probably they would give most to the minority language, as it is the tradition to support "the weaker" part. Or take Canada; would is be acceptable if a local chapter in Canada gave everything to the English-language wikipedia, and nothing to the French? Of course not. I am quite astonished that this is even an issue. Huldra (talk) 00:17, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

Also, the idea that a national project may be organizing the dominant group to continue to provide dubious information about or delete positive information about the subordinate group is rather offensive, whatever the group is that is doing it in whatever country. I certainly found that to be true in years of editing on the topic (2007-2013). Assurances this will not be allowed to happen would be helpful. 108.18.72.228 02:11, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Better English in the Proposal

Wikimedia Israel will expand its 2015 activity in two directions:

• support of several Wikimedia projects and their communities, and
• expansion of our collaboration with key organizations in Israel.

Key focus areas in 2015 will include:

• Expand and strengthening the Israeli Wikipedia community.
• Support other Wikimedia Projects’ communities.
• Improve the training infrastructure to empower the volunteer instructors and increase the number of edits following workshops.

Beyond these actions, we intend to expand WMIL activities in new directions: creation of open licensed materials, and expanded collaborations [with whom?], which will result in increased content, and enhance public awareness of open data and public domain's importance.

Ronbarak (talk) 17:36, 26 October 2014 (UTC)

Achievements

What were your major achievements last year? Wikipedia is a global community, why your focus on Israel only?

WMIL achievements:

• Significant improvement of relations and building trust between the Hebrew Wikipedian community and WMIL.
• Contacts with new communities - Wiki Women and Hebrew WikiSourse
• Developing a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Education
  

WMIL focus on Hebrew Wikipedia and other Hebrew Wiki initiatives. Earlier this year we started to promote processes towards activity in Arabic Wikipedia. Michal Lester לסטר (talk) 06:33, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

Questions from Risker about participant metrics

I realise that the chapters and affiliates have not really been asked to produce consistent participant metrics to date, so it is understandable if you have to give estimates for some of these metrics. When responding, please identify if the data you are providing is verified (e.g., a maintained membership database) or estimated.

1. How many members do you have? If you have different categories of membership, give subtotals for each category.

WMIL has 30 members. About ten new members were registered as members. The team encourages members to renew their membership in the the chapter. Please bear in mind that in Israel is not common to be a member of an association (chapter).

1. How many individuals volunteered for/participated in an activity sponsored by your organization so far this year, excluding special events like WMF-related conferences/Wikimania? (Please let me know what kinds of activities you're including.) Approximately what percentage of these volunteers are also chapter/affiliate members?

WMIL has 42 active volunteers. Approximately 40% are registered members.

1. What percentage of the individuals who have volunteered for or participated in your organization's activities in the past year are also active Wikimedians, or became active Wikimedians after participation? (Activity could include content contributions or administrative contributions on any project, developer contributions, committee membership, etc.)

The vast majority of WMIL volunteers are Wikipedians. In the current quarter we also started to recruit volunteers who are not from Wikipedians.

Thanks for any information you are able to provide. Risker (talk) 04:40, 30 October 2014 (UTC)
Thank you. Michal Lester לסטר (talk) 07:17, 31 October 2014 (UTC)