Grants talk:Conference/Wikimedia Serbia/EduWiki Conference 2020

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Dear @Dungodung:, Thank you for submitting this informative proposal. I really enjoyed reading it. We are happy to explore the opportunity to support you in hosting the EduWiki Conference 2020.

Your proposal has many strengths to highlight. I especially appreciate you thinking about the details on how to make this conference more impactful and the content more meaningful.

Thank you for the kinds words! I've added responses from the UG inline. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

I reviewed your proposal, and have some follow up questions and comments to offer as a part of staff review:

Purpose and vision

• Focusing on the ‘How’ and not only on the ‘What’ is for me, one of the main keys to a good program design. We often prefer oral presentations which can be a great resource for sharing experience (and failures as well), but quite often, comes as counterproductive when we want to share skills and see clear outcomes and action items to implement.

  Agreed! We hope to have a combination of hands-on workshops, skill-building trainings, facilitated meet-ups, and oral presentations for this conference. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

• Thank you for sharing the link to the Engagement Survey Report. This is extremely helpful.

  Good to hear. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

• Community needs are very clear and well communicated. Could you try to articulate those as goals and objectives? How will you measure those? What will success look like? What will be the indication that you achieve those goals?

  To be honest, we haven't given this too much thought. Certainly, some of the goals could revolve around awareness about education programs, available tools, resources and grant schemes, connections made during the conference, including joint projects and initiatives etc. Most of those goals could be measured through post-conference surveys, like folks from Wikimania 2019 have been doing. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

• Progress from last conference - I know this is not the same event, but please see if there is any progress you can track from the 2019 Education conference Donostia. You might have some shared goals.

  The Education Greenhouse was featured in the Donostia group; we hope the team there will be able to attend our conference and provide an update (they recently presented at one of our User Group’s open meetings). There were also learnings that the workshops, specifically technology workshops were very popular, and we expect to follow-up on that trend in this conference. We expect some overlap of participants, so this continuity will on the one hand be organic. On the other hand, we would utterly welcome a panel proposal that would assess this event you have mentioned and others -- like regional events (i.e., Wikimedia Education SAARC conference) -- and have a clearer understanding of how we are evolving and the role these conferences play in a broader strategy of bringing Wikimedia projects to the forefront of the education realm. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Participation

• As outreach is definitely a high priority for some of the Wiki events, it seems like the focus in this case is mainly on Community development and skill building. So how will the global organizations representatives you mentioned will benefit from attending? And what will be the impact and rational of having them? How do you intend to engage with them after the conference?

If an outreach effort is an area of interest, there should be a strategy behind it, and to be supported by the program. I am not sure that the current focus and the working groups call for engagement is of much interest for global organizations.

• We are seeking people from those organizations who are already affiliated with the Wikipedia & Education movement, rather than doing outreach to new people. Many of the education programs globally are partnering with external organizations, so they are already familiar with our movement. We agree outreach requires a strategy, but this would not be outreach so much as bringing people who are involved with Wikipedia and education, regardless of their current affiliation (so not just limited to current Wikimedians, but also people who are advocating for Wikipedia and education in their organizations). One of the strategic directions for the conference will be how to fit Wiki-Education within a broader context of OERs. There have been some attempts to broaden our community and reach a leadership spot within this community, and we need to think about this. Benefits from partnering at this level have several benefits, such as fostering a global recognition of Wikipedia and sister projects in the realm of the OERs. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

• What will you do to ensure the representation of the movement’s affiliates? Are you planning to also engage directly with affiliates, or to leave it as an open call? This is a matter worth thinking about as this is the first formal conference, and a great opportunity to ensure Diversity and representation within the Wiki groups.

  Since we are a thematic user group, many of our members are part of regional affiliates as well. Our survey respondents indicated representation from 28 other Wikimedia affiliates in addition to our user group. Education is one of the major programs in our movement that many affiliates engage in, and ensuring active participation from affiliates’ education people is very important! --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Scholarships

• You intend to give 70 scholarships, but you expect to have around 120 people. Who will be the other 50? Are those locals?

  This number is a rough estimate, but apart from 70 scholarships, other 50 would be self-funded participants, members of the organizing team and volunteers. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Budget

• What will be done with the Video recordings?

  The conference will be streamed live by the professional video recording agency. After that we will get the video clips from each session separately which will be published on Wikimedia Commons. Recording is particularly important for training sections, as people can use video and other resources from these sections in follow-up educational activities. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

• When it comes to swag, we ask to be environmentally mindful and to limit swag to low cost items like stickers.

  Thanks for the suggestion. We decided to limit swag to low cost items like stickers, badges and magnets. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

• Who are the people who should pay the 100 EUR conference fees? 100 EURO is quite a high fee for Wikimedia conferences. Is there a reason for asking participation fees?

  Due to the decision to cut promo pack costs, as well as the cost of Saturday dinner in the city centre, we were able to reduce the conference fee from 100 to 30 euros. The registration fee will be paid by self-funded participants sent by chapters/user groups. --FiliP ██ 19:01, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

When you're able, please respond to the questions above and revise the proposal as needed. These revisions will be due by 25 February 2020, after which the Conference Grant Committee will begin formal review of the proposal.

Thank you again for your significant role in supporting the Wikimedia Education community! And for this very thorough proposal. Best CAlmog (WMF) (talk) 00:22, 19 February 2020 (UTC)