Grants talk:PEG/WM US-NYC/WikiConference USA 2014/Report

Request extension

I would like to request an extension for the WikiConference USA grant reporting for 30 days. Unfortunately, the catering company still has not cashed our check to them yet, and we are waiting on them to be able to wrap things up financially and otherwise. And certainly, we won't be applying for another grant while this matter is still unresolved.--Pharos (talk) 16:14, 4 August 2014 (UTC)

Mission and allegations

In the grant application Grants:PEG/WM_US-NYC/WikiConference_USA_2014#Mission states "The mission of the conference is to create a forum for US-based Wikipedians and non-Wikipedians, including academics, professionals, students, and activists, to participate in meaningful discussion about the Wikimedia movement in the United States." Shortly before the conference, it was reported that a non-Wikipedian registrant, Gregory Kohs, received an "uninvitation" email from User:Newyorkbrad on behalf of the organization committee; when questioned on English Wikipedia, he indicated he did not want to discuss on that forum. w:User_talk:Newyorkbrad/Archive/2014/Jun#Conference.3F

Questions:

1. Could the conference organizers explain the process be which it was decided to uninvite a registered participant, and how does the action square with the proposal they made?
2. As a key funder of this event, does WMF consider such an action consistent with its Values of openness, diversity and transparency? NE Ent (talk) 00:15, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

Questions from WMF

Thank you for submitting this detailed report. We appreciate the effort the organizers, WMUS-NYC, WMUS-DC, and all the volunteers put in to making this event a success! We enjoyed the diversity of the program and depth of expertise brought by the participants. It was great to see so many participants from GLAM. I definitely learned a lot!
We have a few questions on the report below and look forward to your response.

1. Were scholars required to submit/publish anything following the event? If yes, please provide links.
2. When will the "formal conference report and comprehensive financial report" be published?
3. When will the video be completed?
4. Was there a written survey collected at the event? (I seem to remember there was one, but am not sure)

Please note that we cannot accept this report without the documentation of expenses.

Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 19:36, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Regarding the survey: there was supposed to be a paper pre-survey and an immediate conference post-survey. Logistical hurdles impeded the first data collection effort, and the immediate post-conference survey also depended on a list of attendees (that is, those who actually showed up) that was never provided to Wikimedia DC. Our plan is to do a six-month post-conference survey, once I get the email addresses. harej (talk) 03:47, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Alex Wang (WMF), Thanks for your support. Please see answers to your questions below.

1. Were scholars required to submit/publish anything following the event? If yes, please provide links.

The documentation of media related to the conference is currently located in the grant report at Media, Reportage and Social Media and Images, Videos, or other online documentation. We are investigating among the conference planning Board whether scholars were asked to submit reflections and hope to respond to this question in more detail shortly.

2. When will the "formal conference report and comprehensive financial report" be published?

Conference organizers will be convening this Sunday, October 26th to complete a "formal conference report and comprehensive financial report," which we will email to Grants, and post publicly on relevant channels.

3. When will the video be completed?

Processing the video recorded by New York Law School has turned out to be complicated as the files came to us in 20 huge .PGP files. Sunday, we are having a session to convert/edit these files and upload them to Youtube. Hopefully this will be completed by next week. After that, we will discuss posting the files to relevant other OA video platforms.

4. Was there a written survey collected at the event? (I seem to remember there was one, but am not sure)

See User:Harej's response above to this question.

Thanks, OR drohowa (talk) 16:42, 22 October 2014 (UTC)

Outstanding report issues

Jihyunb, harej, Pharos, OR drohowa -- Please note we are still waiting on answers to the above questions and documentation of expenses (receipts). This report cannot be approved until these outstanding issues are resolved. Please let us know when we can expect a response. Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 23:10, 20 October 2014 (UTC)

Thanks Alex Wang (WMF). Please see my answers to the questions above. We are working to finish the reporting as soon as possible, and will be meeting as a group this weekend, of 10/24-10/26. OR drohowa (talk) 14:12, 23 October 2014 (UTC)

Thank you OR drohowa for the response. Looking forward to an update after this weekend. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 17:06, 23 October 2014 (UTC)

Hi Alex Wang (WMF), an update: We are waiting for conference planning team members to gather the list of attendees that came to the conference, a different list from the Eventbrite RSVPs that consisted of our paper check-in sheet with marks noted for those who came and registered at the conference entrance. Jen will provide this to Wikimedia D.C. today so that they can use it to contact attendees about filling out the post-conf. survey. I am still editing video, but it should be up this week and posted on a Conference Youtube channel I created. OR drohowa (talk) 14:26, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

I have the lists in my possession and I will prepare the survey soon. Of note, our "free" Qualtrics license expired; we have a pending grant proposal that includes a Qualtrics license. harej (talk) 15:28, 13 November 2014 (UTC)