Grants talk:PEG/WM NL/GLAM WIKI 2015

GAC comments

Comments MADe

Certainly a very interesting grant request. Very clear and tangible measures of success, solid project team, international support, financial support by other organisations. Wikimedia NL has a very good track record regarding "GLAM", they started the WikiLovesMonuments thing back in 2010.

• The scope of the conference is now very wide: all continents, the entire cultural sector, both wikipedians and non-wikipedians ... Is it feasible to keep it this broad? How do you plan the program to fully cover this scope but still allow the program to go into details? How do you ensure a good 'mix' of attendees so they can network?
• Financials: 13k€ of 75k€ will be borne by other organisations or the attendees itself. From experience I know there is a lot of interest from GLAM institutions etc to be present. There is also a lot of money available within Europe (Europeana etc). In what way can we increase the support by external parties?
  • 100€ for a professional conference like this is peanuts for an institution paying the travel costs of one of its exmployees. Could these be increased? What are entry costs of similar conferences?
  • what about financial support by other organisations (eg. http://www.iccrom.org http://www.europeana.eu/ )? They surely are interested in this type of global events? The grant request mentiones several other types of support ... When can these be secured?
• The conference is planned for April. What steps has the organisation taken to ensure this is enough time to attrack international visitors, get enough financial support, get the visa on time ...

MADe (talk) 12:31, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Answers for MADe

Thank you for your questions, MADe. I've written my answers below.

• Scope: Yes, it is feasible to keep it this broad. The Program Committee had their second meeting this morning and they've chosen a few themes to narrow the scope of the conference. I can't go in too much detail right now, because they're still working on it. Though the scope will be narrowed done, we really want the conference to be accessible - in terms of the topics that are being discussed - to a large and diverse audience. The program will be divided in different tracks, there will be workshops for beginners and expert users, debates where people can participate in or just listen to and a active "matchmaking" program to stimulate networking between attendees. The GLAM WIKI 2013 conference had different outcomes for different types of attendees, some drew inspiration from the conference and knew better what they wanted to learn, others gained practical knowledge on how to do things and others were helped with solving problems they encountered.
• We've talked to a few potential partners already and it's not as easy to get external funding for a conference like these. Most sponsorships are being offered in time and exposure. Europeana is an organisation that also works with plans that are made well ahead before executing these, currently they don't have any budget to support this conference financially. We still have a few sponsors to contact, hopefully we can persuade them to become a partner of the conference in one of the ways mentioned in the PEG.
  • We've based these prices on the GLAM WIKI 2013 conference and they are a bit higher already. The reason we ask people to pay for the conference is to secure their intention to attend (free events have a tendency to have a lower rate of people showing up, even if they booked in advance). But we also want to make sure that the conference is accessible to anyone, also from small GLAMs. Entry costs of other GLAM focussed conferences can be much higher, but these are only focussed on the GLAM professionals and most of the times have a commercial organisation behind them. In other words: the conference is a service that people have to make a living off. That's different for the GLAM WIKI conference.
  • I've answered about Europeana above. We want to secure the partnerships before the end of this month, but want to maintain the flexibility to add more partners after that.
• Planning:
  • International visitors:
    • The conference has been announced in relevant mailing lists and multiple facebook groups. There is a list on the grant application page with these mailing lists and groups. These and more mailinglists and facebook groups will also be used to send important updates about the conference.
    • We are in contact with Europeana and other organisations that have relevant networks to spread information about the conference.*** Program Committee is currently working on a list of relevant organisations in their countries / continents to inform about the conference.
  • Financial support:
    • The biggest part of financial support is the PEG request. We are still talking to potential sponsors.
    • The nature of these talks prohibit us from sharing more information at the moment.
  • Visa: Potential visitors can request a visa invitation letter from Wikimedia Nederland for their visa request. In some cases costs of visa requests can be reimbursed. More information can be found on the GLAM WIKI 2015 visa page

Ter-burg (talk) 15:10, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

Comments Kiril Simeonovski

Thanks for the submission. It's very nice to see that Wikimedia Netherlands plan to organise another GLAM-related conference which has to attract many international visitors and I've already endorsed it in the bottom section of the request. To avoid conflict of interest, I'm not going to vote for this request and will just ask the following questions:

1. What is the city the conference is planned to take place in? You mention so many details in the request but it's really strange that there is no information about such basic thing.
2. How many people you expect to attend the conference? How many affiliated organisations and institutions you expect to be represented?

Best regards.--Kiril Simeonovski (talk) 09:33, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Answers for Kiril Simeonovski

Thank you for your questions, Kiril Simeonovski. I've written my answers below.

• City of the conference: Most probably the conference will take place in The Hague. A GLAM has offered to host the conference, but currently they are researching the last details that determine if they can confirm this. We have a backup location in Utrecht. Both are less then 45 minutes by public transport from Schiphol Airport.
• We're expecting 150 attendees, this number was communicated in the number of units for the food during the conference and the expected ticket sales.

Ter-burg (talk) 15:18, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

WMF comments

Thank you for this request and all the work you've put into planning the conference so far! We look forward to your responses on our comments below.

1. It would be great to have more details on the impact of past events. The results of the 2013 survey are helpful, but please specify some of the "valuable lessons learned" and "several countries" that have used the toolset (did theses countries use the toolset before the conference or were they introduced to it as a result of participating)?
2. Please provide more details on the "need". What are the key challenges and opportunities faced by the GLAM wiki community? What opportunities have the "new insights, technology, people" brought to the community?
3. How will/does the program address the key challenges and opportunities? We realize the Program Committee has only recently put out a call for session submissions. However, we need to have a better idea of what topics will be covered and their relevance to the community's interests/needs. Please provide more details on how the program will be structured and what will the process be for building the program and facilitating preparation of participants/sessions to maximize the in-person meeting.
4. Do you have any updates on the possibility of venue sponsorship?
5. The budget for scholarship travel seems low (average 600 EUR). Have you already gotten a sense of who would be interested in participating and where they are coming from?

Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 00:02, 26 January 2015 (UTC)

Answers WMF comments

Thank you for your comments, Alex Wang (WMF).

1. Impact of past events: WMNL does not have more SMART details of past events than available in the results of the 2013 survey of the GLAM WIKI 2013 event. We do have a few examples from our own experience (summarised below). If more examples are needed we would like to offer to ask the international GLAM community to add their results to this list (several people have endorsed the conference, there is an active Facebook group and through the OpenGLAM en Cultural partners mailing lists).
   1. Skills:
      1. The GLAM WIKI 2013 event was the first time for several people that they saw a demonstration of the GLAMwiki toolset. A list of attendees has been asked form WMUK, but it is impossible for WMNL to connect attendees and their first usage of the GLAMwiki Toolset as a direct result of attending the conference. WMNL did write a manual for the GWT as a result and hosted 2 workshops for teach Dutch GLAMs to work with the tool. The concept of the GLAMwiki Toolset workshops have been copied in Sweden and France.
      2. Gaining knowledge about the lessons learned for editathons and other types of events led to an increase of the number and effectiveness of events organised by WMNL in 2013 and 2014.
   2. International networking:
      1. The conference provided for a unique chance for international GLAM coordinators to meet up, discuss challenges and exchange contact information.
      2. Axel Petterson (WMSE) and Sebastiaan ter Burg (WMNL) were invited to speak in Norway as a direct result of meeting Tom Klev from the Kulturrad at the conference.
   3. New projects:
      1. Follow up of the research by Beat Estermann in 33 countries. The idea to do a follow up research was born at the GLAM WIKI 2013 conference.
      2. The National Library and National Archive of The Netherlands learned about the impact of Wikipedians in Residence at the conference. They’ve used this knowledge to secure funding and hire the first Wikipedian in Residence in the Netherlands. This was an inspiration and an example for several other GLAMs, which resulted in 5 more Wikipedian in Residencies in total in the Netherlands in 2014. Currently there is a new position open the Netherlands.

Thank you for these details. We understand you did not organize the 2013 GLAMwiki conference and can only speak to the benefits WMNL gained specifically. As the organizers of the 2015 conference, it would be helpful to do two rounds of surveys, one immediately after the conference around the quality of the conference, specific sessions, and connections made, and one 6-12 months later on the longer term impact around developing and implementation projects and partnerships. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:50, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

1. Need:The GLAMwiki community has been active for more than 5 years now, the first events were organised in the UK and France in 2010. In this time, many of our GLAM partners have strongly adopted our values and have integrated Wikimedia-related activities as part of their core program and mission. A good example is the work of Wikipedian in Residence with the U.S. National Archives (NARA). As our pioneer work is maturing, we face the following challenges:
   1. Acceptance. We want our types of projects to grow beyond the experimental phase, and to become accepted practice by many more GLAMs
   2. Awareness and visibility. The GLAM community needs opportunities like GLAM WIKI to see the successful examples of the toolkit, Wikipedian in Residence outcomes and work that is in development demonstrated. An event like this provides a showcase and opportunity for vital networking.
   3. Geography. Adoption of GLAMwiki projects in all parts of the world.
   4. Scaling. How to make our projects more replicable; how to make more projects happen; how to engage more participants and how to emancipate GLAM staff into the Wikimedia world
   5. “New insights, technology, people”
      1. New insights and technology. The Wikimedia landscape is constantly changing, with some exciting possibilities for the GLAMwiki community. Wikidata is extremely promising for us, as are all new developments related to Wikimedia Commons, for instance. We communicate intensively about these developments on-wiki and via mailing lists, but nothing beats a physical gathering for brainstorms, presentations to newbies, and setting up new projects.
      2. New people. Around the world, young/new culture workers and Wikimedia volunteers are interested in learning about GLAMwiki. We offer a range of workshops and social events especially for them.
2. Key challenges and opportunities:
   1. The call for proposal has not been published yet because we are waiting for the GO /NO-GO moment for this conference. We did not think it would be appropriate to ask people to invest time in proposals when there is still a chance that the conference will not happen.
   2. The Program Committee is working on a document to structure the topics that are being seen as suitable for the conference. This working document is not finalized yet, but will be published after the GO moment to inspire potential speakers/session leaders/etc. for their proposal. Currently it holds 40+ ideas of topics/sessions for the conference.
   3. The process to design the program will be:
      1. The call for proposal will be published directly after the GO moment
      2. The call for proposal is open until the 25th of February
      3. Proposals will be
         1. discussed by the Program Committee directly after their receival in weekly meetings,
         2. plotted on the table of the previously mentioned working document to see where the proposal fits in the themes and perspectives,
         3. plotted in the table of the types of sessions,
         4. rated on their priority (is it a Must have, Should have, Could have or Would be nice to have proposal),
         5. rated on their quality,
         6. rated on the potential outcome for visitors.
      4. Based on the process described above the Program Committee might
         1. contact submitters to expand their proposal,
         2. contact submitters to discuss changes to their proposal, for example a shift in the theme/perspective or type of session.
         3. contact submitters to offered tohem to combine their proposals in case of comparable proposals
   4. The final program will be published in the first week of March

Thank you for the details and the draft requirements/ideas for proposals. This gives us a much better idea of how the needs/opportunities map to what will possibly be offered. Hopefully the sessions submissions will also map well. As discussed earlier, in terms of session development and preparation, we would like a commitment that the program team and session leaders will prepare and share on the conference pages any background information needed to prepare participants for fruitful in-person discussions. The in-person meetings should the culmination of discussions, not the start of them. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:50, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

1. Venue sponsorship: we can finally confirm that the National Archive and the National Library of The Netherlands in The Hague will host the GLAM WIKI 2015 Conference. They'll sponsor the venue, but we still need budget for
   1. an accessible internet connection with enough bandwidth for the conference
   2. audiovisual facilities like extra beamers and audio installations
   3. furniture: extra chairs, tables, couches, etc.

Fantastic! Can you please update the budget accordingly? Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:50, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

The budget is now updated. Ter-burg (talk) 18:14, 28 January 2015 (UTC)

1. Scholarship budget: The travel budget is based on our experiences with the international Hackathon in 2013 in Amsterdam. Attendees from Europe are usually able to travel to and from The Netherlands for around €100 to €200. We don’t have a set number or percentage of participants that will receive a scholarship. The motivation, relevance to the program and demonstrated need will determine mostly if someone will receive a scholarship.

This makes sense. In terms of scholarship criteria, we believe the most important is the "Activity" criteria. We should be supporting those Wikimedians that are actively engaged on the projects and with the highest potential for contributing/learning/sharing their gained knowledge and skills with their home communities. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 16:50, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Ter-burg (talk) 15:37, 27 January 2015 (UTC)

Approved

Thank you for all your work on this proposal and in planning the conference thus far. We have high hopes for the event and will be especially interested in seeing how the program develops and participant involvement in the session planning. Cheers, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 03:16, 29 January 2015 (UTC)

Change of contact at WMNL

As of March 1, Sandra Fauconnier took over from Sebastiaan ter Burg as contact and coordinator for this project at WMNL. (fauconnier[at]wikimedia.nl) Thanks to Sebastiaan for all his efforts sofar - we hope to see him at the event! Sandra Rientjes - Wikimedia Nederland (talk) 12:51, 2 March 2015 (UTC)

Requested budget update

Hello! We would like to request feedback and a go-ahead on the following budget updates for GLAM-WIKI 2015. Now, a few weeks before the conference, we notice that several line items will differ more than 10% from the planned budget.

The proposed changes only apply to logistics, not to the conference's programme or participants; we think we can safely assume that the proposed changes will have no impact on the conference's goals, activities and results.

The requested change applies to the following lines (see also changes in blue in the budget table below):

1. We have not hired an external freelancer (budget line 9), as most work for the conference has been done by the WMNL office. We did however get help in planning travel from our travel agency, which costs approx. 1000 EUR. Amount changes from 5.000 to 1.000.
2. We will have additional hotel costs, as the hotel turns out a bit more expensive than planned and we will host a few more people (budget lines 6 and 12). Amounts change (6) from 875 to 1.000 and (12) from 6.125 to 8.000.
3. We will have a few more speakers than originally planned and we also want to give a present to our valued volunteers. This means we'll have 40 units rather than the 20 outlined in the plan. Presents budget (line item 8) goes from 200 to 400 EUR.
4. Rental of equipment and furniture for the conference location (line item 1) is higher than expected, as the venue has less needed furniture than planned. Video registration is also a bit more costly. We'd like to re-budget this from 7.500 EUR to 9.250 EUR.

Please note that the grand total of our budget does not change. We have re-divided the 'gained' 4.000 EUR from budget line 9 to the other posts mentioned above. We'd like to hear if this is OK.

Thank you for looking into this! With kind regards, SandraF (WMNL) (talk) 13:17, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Cost per unit	Total cost	Currency	Notes
1	Conference location	Hire of extra audiovisual equipment, local wifi facilities and furniture at the conference location.	1 day	3	2500	7500 9250	EUR	We underestimated this cost.
2	Food	Coffee, thee and lunch on Friday, April 10 2015	1 participant	150	25	3750	EUR	Simple lunch buffet, other beverages will be available for purchase
3	Food	Coffee, thee, lunch and buffet on Saturday, April 11 2015	1 participant	150	40	6000	EUR	See above + buffet in the evening
4	Food	Coffee, thee and lunch on Sunday, April 12 2015	1 participant	150	25	3750	EUR	See above
5	Travel	Travel costs for speakers	1 speaker	5	1000	5000	EUR	Speakers will be travelling from all over the world. Travel costs are covered from the airport of the country of the speaker to the venue of the conference. These costs are for speakers without an affiliation with Wikimedia and who do not have a budget of their own to attend.
6	Accommodation	Hotel rooms for speakers	1 speaker	5	175 200	875 1000	EUR	A group rate will be negotiated. The preference is to have speakers and participants stay at the same hotel during the conference. Hotel is a bit more expensive than originally budgeted.
7	Communication	Printed programs, handouts and other communication material	1 participant	150	10	1500	EUR	Handouts also include surveys, touristic information and maps
8	Presents	Presents for speakers	1 speaker	20 40	10	200 400	EUR	Stroopwafels will be included. We have more speakers than originally planned, and also want to give a present to the conference's volunteers.
9	Personell	Freelancer	1 month	2	2500	5000 1000	EUR	Hiring a freelancer part time to support the organisation of the conference. This conference is an extra activity for Wikimedia Nederland for which there is a limited amount of time reserved in the year plan for 2015. In the last weeks to the conference we need extra support for hands-on work (badges, publications, last details with the venue, last minute changes of participants, etc.) which would take up too much time of existing employees of WMNL. WMNL has done (had the need to do) this in te past for other events. Freelancer was not hired this time. We only hired the help of our travel agency for 1000 EUR.
10	Unforeseen	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	10%	4000	EUR	Reserve of 10% for unforeseen costs
	SUBTOTAL					37575	EUR

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Cost per unit	Total cost	Currency	Notes
11	Travel	35 scholarships for International participants	1 participant	35	600	21000	EUR	Scholarships are specifically meant to give people around the world a chance to participate. Travel costs are covered from the airport of the country of the speaker to the venue of the conference. These costs also include costs for requesting visa. These costs are based on our experience with the Amsterdam Hackathon 2013. Criteria for determining scholarships are: Contribution: In what way does someone contribute to the conference by giving a presentation, training or in other ways? Chance of improvement: In what way does attending the conference help him/her improve the amount and/or quality of GLAM projects in their country/region? Activity (past and future): How much experience does he/she have with Wikimedia projects in general and with GLAM projects? What does someone plan to do with the knowledge and the network he/she gained the conference in 2015? Coverage of country/region: How many and what type of participants (volunteers / professionals / staff) of their country/region have already indicated that they will attend the conference? Costs: How much does it cost to let someone attend (5 people from Europe is the same cost as one person from Australia)? Diversity: A good balance between people with large experience in the Wikimedia / MediaWiki community and people that are newbies in our context but have a good track in other interesting projects.
12	Accommodation	35 scholarships for International participants + accommodation for staff and volunteers	1 participant	35 40	175 200	6125 8000	EUR	This reservation is a group rate for 3 night per person excluding tourist tax at a hotel very close to the venue. The preference is to have speakers and participants stay at the same hotel during the conference. See above: hotel is a bit more expensive.
13	Food	35 scholarships for International participants	1 participant	35	50	1750	EUR	Scholarships also include a €25,- daily subsidy to cover diner costs.
14	Unforeseen	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	10%	3000	EUR	Reserve of 10% for unforeseen costs
	SUBTOTAL					31875	EUR

Thanks for the clear budget change request. It is approved. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 17:07, 26 March 2015 (UTC)