Grants:APG/Proposals/2014-2015 round1/Wikimedia Österreich/Progress report form

Purpose of the report edit

This form is for organizations receiving Annual Plan Grants to report on their progress after completing the first 6 months of their grants. The time period covered in this form will be the first 6 months of each grant (e.g. 1 January - 30 June of the current year). This form includes four sections, addressing global metrics, program stories, financial information, and compliance. Please contact APG/FDC staff if you have questions about this form, or concerns submitting it by the deadline. After submitting the form, organizations will also meet with APG staff to discuss their progress.

Global metrics overview - all programs edit

We are trying to understand the overall outcomes of the work being funded across our grantees' programs. Please use the table below to let us know how your programs contributed to the Global Metrics. We understand not all Global Metrics will be relevant for all programs, so feel free to put "0" where necessary. For each program include the following table and

  1. Next to each required metric, list the outcome achieved for all of your programs included in your proposal.
  2. Where necessary, explain the context behind your outcome.
  3. In addition to the Global Metrics as measures of success for your programs, there is another table format in which you may report on any OTHER relevant measures of your programs success

For more information and a sample, see Global Metrics.

Community support edit

Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 428 19 + 17 + 27 + 40 + 12 + 42 + 10 + 16 + 40 + 10 + 23 + 2 + 16 + 16 + 20 + 3 + 22 + 55 + 38 = 428
2. # of new editors 153 153
3. # of individuals involved 806 22 + 17 + 28 + 42 + 13 + 44 + 12 + 16 + 40 + 16 + 24 + 200 + 17 + 16 + 21 + 4 + 24 + 211 + 39 = 806
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 0 n/a (out of program scope)
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 0 n/a (out of program scope)
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects 0 n/a (out of program scope)


Free content generation edit

Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 149 12 + 2 + 35 + 1 + 2 + 40 + 11 + 26 + 3 + 6 + 11 = 149
2. # of new editors 0 n/a (out of program scope)
3. # of individuals involved 165 13 + 3 + 36 + 8 + 3 + 11 + 41 + 27 + 4 + 6 + 13 = 165
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 2449 Progress report: Media files supported by Wikimedia Österreich
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 6853 2828 + 3846 + 27 + 39 + 28 + 4 + 81 = 6853
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects Somewhere in between 421,063 and a billion. Needless to say that all our activities labeled with "Generating written content" should also lead to a high "absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects". However, only a few of these activities are eligible to be measured with Wikimetrics.

Too many of them are not, for instance our support of the 22nd Wikipedia Writing Competition:

  1. We know all user names of the 40 participants, the exact time frame of the activity (March 1st 0 a.m. to March 31st 12 p.m.) and the project (dewiki).
  2. We can put these data into Wikimetrics and get an impressive absolute value of 9,791,360 bytes.
  3. Unfortunately it would be wrong to use this value to measure the impact of our activity: the participants, among them some of the most prominent and active German-language Wikipedians, did a lot of edits within the time frame which were not at all related to their participating in the writing competition.

Similar problems when using Wikimetrics occur with:

On the other hand, to name only the activities suitable to be measured with Wikimetrics (only some edit-a-thons in fact) would lead to a number far too low in order to identify the impact of our activities: 292,220 + 109,590 + 19253 = 421,063 bytes.


Reach / free knowledge awareness edit

Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 27 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 4 + 2 + 5 + 11 = 27
2. # of new editors 9 9
3. # of individuals involved 8,105 40 + 2 + 40 + 16 + 800 + 12 + 40 + 7 + 7,137 + 11 = 8,105
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 0 n/a (out of program scope)
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 0 n/a (out of program scope)
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects 0 n/a (out of program scope)


Movement sustainability edit

Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 28 3 + 5 + 2 + 13 + 5 = 28
2. # of new editors 0 n/a (out of program scope)
3. # of individuals involved 52 4 + 11 + 8 + 5 + 16 + 8 = 52
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 0 n/a (out of program scope)
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 0 n/a (out of program scope)
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects 0 n/a (out of program scope)


Telling your program stories - all programs edit

Please tell the story of each of your programs included in your proposal. This is your chance to tell your story by using any additional metrics (beyond global metrics) that are relevant to your context, beyond the global metrics above. You should be reporting against the targets you set at the beginning of the year throughout the year. We have provided a template here below for you to report against your targets, but you are welcome to include this information in another way. Also, if you decided not to do a program that was included in your proposal or added a program not in the proposal, please explain this change. More resources for storytelling are at the end of this form. Here are some ways to tell your story.

  • We encourage you to share your successes and failures and what you are learning. Please also share why are these successes, failures, or learnings are important in your context. Reference learning patterns or other documentation.
  • Make clear connections between your offline activities and online results, as applicable. For example, explain how your education program activities is leading to quality content on Wikipedia.
  • We encourage you to tell your story in different ways by using videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g.), compelling quotes, and by linking directly to work you produce. You may highlight outcomes, learning, or metrics this way.
  • We encourage you to continue using dashboards, progress bars, and scorecards that you have used to illustrate your progress in the past, and to report consistently over time.
  • You are welcome to use the table below to report on any metrics or measures relevant to your program. These may or may not include the global metrics you put in the overview section above. You can also share your progress in another way if you do not find a table like this useful.

Community support edit

Maintaining and expanding existing communities edit

Highlights from the WMAT community survey I
Highlights from the WMAT community survey II

WMAT defines itself as a service provider for Wikimedia communities - in order to assess whether our clients are happy with us and to better understand their needs, we conducted a community survey among our volunteers. As we have a very inclusive definition of our clients (you don't need to be a member of WMAT to draw from our resources), we opened the survey to the broader community. Hence, the composition of the survey participants reflects our reality: Some are Wikimedians who are members, some are only one of the both, some people participate in our activities, some do not. The results are quite satisfying, especially as we can see that the answers to many questions become more positive the longer and closer people work together with WMAT and are especially positive among our members. Other insightful results were that the current composition of our services (travel support, organizational assistance) fulfill the needs of our volunteers and the important role of personal contacts (between the individual volunteers and between volunteers and WMAT staff) both, in terms of communication (only championed by the mailing list) and as a resource for their volunteer work. The survey will be an important basis for the further budget and program planning and the strategy review (see also Program 4). The detailed survey results can be found here.

The outcomes are also reflected in the successful activities of the last six months: We regularly host WikiTuesdays on a variety of topics in our office, to foster exchange between volunteers and to prepare or evaluate projects. The retention rate of the event and our weekly satisfaction survey demonstrate the value of these gatherings for the volunteers. Other events besides the WikiTuesdays that work great for retaining existing volunteers or involving more Wikimedians in our activities are photo hunts such as Wiki takes Nordtiroler Oberland and supporting the smaller sister projects (Wiktionary Conference). We also support the exchange with the international communities - on strategic and organisational issues like GLAM relations (see the GLAM-WIKI 2015 Conference in Den Haag or the meeting in Paris) and gatherings to promote skill transfer, such as the Wikipedia Photo Workshop - or workshops on community health, like the Guide-Camps on conflict resolutions by non-admin actions in the German-language Wikipedia. Especially the latter initiative has a good resonance in the Austrian community and one of our volunteers recently took over the leadership for this international project. In order to cater for the information and communication preferences of our volunteers we also introduced quarterly e-mail newsletter (WMAT Melange) which includes all the WMAT highlights of the past three months and which additionally includes an international section.

WLE 2015 in Austria

WMAT is proud of its active and enthusiastic photography community. During the last few years we realized that photo contests are an effective way to retain and engage existing editors but also great way to expand our photography community. Contests like Wiki Loves Earth (WLE) and Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) regularly attract many new contributors. Hence, WMAT made this and not the number of uploaded files the main goal for these projects. As expected, the second edition of WLE attracted less overall participants, but the ratio of newbies is even slightly higher than in the previous year. As last year, this is mainly a result of our outreach activities to media and environmental organisations with like-minded communities in Austria. This year we also made additional effort to motivate these newbies by contacting them directly after the contest, thanking them for their participation, informing them about our services (equipment rental, accreditations etc.) and suggesting ways to stay involved in Wikimedia projects after the contest. As WLE only ended on June 30 in Austria, it is still to early to evaluate the impact of this measure. The retention rate among active editors is with over 40% likewise satisfactory.

Incubator projects: Developing new communities edit

For this year's budget we specifically provided an incubator budget in order to fund ideas which have the potential to open up new communities. An important requirement for these initiatives is that they are developed together with the existing community and have at least one volunteer who wants to push the idea with the help of our staff. Currently, we pursue two ideas in this context:

Our first explainer video
  • Explainer videos:
Videos become more and more popular as media for knowledge transfer. Especially explainer videos are used to communicate complex content in a simple way. In order to use this format in Wikimedia projects on a broader basis and to grow a community of storyboard authors for explainer videos, WMAT started a cooperation with the simpleshow foundation, an organization with long-standing experience in this field. Not only will simpleshow foundation videos be published under a free license on Commons, they also help us to build skills on how to create storyboards for explainer videos within our community and offer to produce them pro bono. In January, we hosted the first pilot workshop for volunteers from the DACH region (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) at the simpleshow office in Stuttgart and the feedback on the side of potential volunteers was immense. We had 80 applications for 20 places, 80% of the applicants are newbies, i.e. volunteers who are not yet active Wikimedians. Also, the percentage of female participants was fairly high (approx. 45%).
While the first feedback of the participants was extremely positive and enthusiastic, the follow-up process and completion of the storyboards proved to be a challenge. Although we reduced the barriers to a minimum (not technical skills, special software or technical infrastructure needed, as all the production is done by simpleshow), we so far only have one completed video. The participants have not dropped out completely, but the process is cumbersome and we still try to figure out what the reasons are. One presumption is, that especially for non-Wikimedians the barriers are still high - creating a storyboard, writing on a general topic in a neutral way, creating an account on Commons/Wikipedia etc. Another obstacle were some conflicts within the Commons community, on whether the simpleshow foundation can have an organization account there for uploading videos and how the process should be. This issue could recently be solved during Wikimania, where we hosted a second workshop for the international community. We have not evaluated the Wikimania workshop in detail yet, but the response again was very positive: we hosted 13 participants, including 30% female Wikimedians. Two concrete international follow-up events are already in the works: WMNL is interested in hosting such a workshop at their WikiCon and the organizers of Wikimania 2016 already inquired as well. We are also curious to see how the return rate of storyboards of this workshop (with 100% Wikimedians as participants) will develop in contrast to our pilot workshop in January. We hope that this will help us to better understand the obstacles and challenges so that we can refine our approach in future. The costs for this incubator are quite limited so far: some travel support by the DACH chapters for the first workshop (many volunteers came from Stuttgart region and did not need any support) and catering and technical equipment (projector) for the Wikimania workshop. simpleshow sponsored venue, food and staff time (2 trainers) for the first workshop and travel costs and staff time for two trainers for the Wikimania workshop.
  • Hackathon:
WMAT applied for the 2016 Hackathon in order to expand its tech community in Austria. Currently we are facing the problem that many projects need tools and bots that cannot or only partly be programmed and maintained by the Austrian community, which makes us dependent on paid contractors or external volunteers with little interest in the matter. This lack of skills is also a hindrance for innovation. A recent example is the ErfgoedBot for WLM which is crucial for us to update the Austrian monuments lists for the contest and which will not be maintained by its creator anymore.
The idea of hosting the 2016 Hackathon indeed created a momentum in the Austrian community and for the first time we were able to send three instead of one volunteer to this year's hackathon. Unfortunately, WMAT was not chosen to host the next hackathon, although we were clearly told that this was not due to the quality of our bid. The timing would have been perfect for WMAT, concerning the organizational and strategic circumstances and at this point in time we are not sure whether we will be able to apply again next year and we hope that despite this setback the momentum will not be lost completely. However, we are currently evaluating the possibility of a smaller, issue-specific hackathon in 2016 (similar to the GLAM hackathon hosted by WMNL last year or the open science hackathon by WMUK this year).
Most importantly, we hope that the criteria for the decision making on the location for the hackathon will be more transparent next time. This year we had the impression that a lot of the criteria where made up on spot without proper communication beforehand. Would we have known for example, that the location of the respective Wikimania in the same year has an (quite considerable) impact on the decision, we would probably not have applied in first place, as the time that needs to be invested in such an application is considerable for a lean chapter like ours. We also summarized this feedback in our recommendations for future bids.

Learning patterns edit

Progress table edit

Objective Last year
(if applicable)
Progress
(at end of Q2)
Projected
(end of year)
Comments
Gaining and retaining newly registered users
Increasing the number of newly registered users (one or more uploads) by 150 through participation in 2 photo contest events.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
Acquisition of 75 newly registered users by 1st photo contest.
238 newly registered users by photo contests (175 by WLE, 63 by WLM). 153 newly registered users by WLE.
Above target.
Detailed reports: Wiki Loves Earth 2015 (Jun.)
Increasing the number of newly registered users by 8 (5%) that make one additional edit in the Media namespace, File namespace and/or (Gallery) namespace on Wikimedia Commons in the six months after the photo contest (turning newly registered users into regular editors).
(Retention for WLE and WLM in all projects and namespaces: 23.) 0.
On target. Intermediate results after 12/2015 (six months after WLE), final results after 03/2016 (six months after WLM).
Detailed reports:
Engaging active editors into online and offline chapter activities; empowering existing active editors
Engaging 30 active editors into the planning and/or executing of 2 photo contests and/or into participating in 2 photo contests.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
Engage 30 active editors into 1st photo contest.
n/a Engaged 55 active editors by WLE.
Above target.
Detailed reports: Wiki Loves Earth 2015 (Jun.)
Conducting 40 offline community events in 2015 that support and value the online work of our active editors and create a motivational environment.
(Supported or organized 36 community events.) 29 offline community events.
On target.
Detailed reports: WikiDienstag (Jan.), 50th Vienna Wikipedia Meet-up (Feb.), WikiDienstag (Feb.), Wiktionary Conference in Vienna (Mar.), WikiDienstag (Mar.), Community IdeaLab (Apr.), WikiDienstag (Apr.), WikiDienstag (May), WikiDienstag (Jun.)
Attracting at least 200 participants at the events mentioned above.
n/a 220 participants.
Above target. 208 active editors among 220 individuals.
Detailed reports: WikiDienstag (Jan.), 50th Vienna Wikipedia Meet-up (Feb.), WikiDienstag (Feb.), Wiktionary Conference in Vienna (Mar.), WikiDienstag (Mar.), Community IdeaLab (Apr.), WikiDienstag (Apr.), WikiDienstag (May), WikiDienstag (Jun.)
At least 75% of the participants state in questionnaires that they have gathered and/or shared useful know-how regarding their work on Wikimedia projects by attending the events mentioned above.
Milestone 2015-03-31:
50% of participants of 10 offline events gathered/shared useful know-how.
n/a 100% for 13 events.
Above target.
Detailed reports: WikiDienstag (Mar.)
Engaging 10 active editors who have formerly not or very rarely been active WMAT volunteers into the planning and/or executing of chapter activities.
Engaged 17 active editors. Engaged 14 active editors.
Above target.
Detailed reports: Wiki Loves Cheese in Austria (Jan.), WikiDienstag (Feb.), WikiDienstag (Mar.), Wiktionary Conference in Vienna (Mar.), WikiDienstag (May), 2nd TFM Edit-a-thon (May), Mission statement (Jun.), Wiki takes Nordtiroler Oberland (Jun.)
Retaining 5 active editors who became new active WMAT volunteers in 2014 (this is 50% of the 10 Wikimedians we wanted to become active WMAT volunteers in 2014) into the planning and/or executing of chapter activities.
n/a Retained 9 active editors.
Above target.
Detailed reports: Guide-Camp in Berlin (Jan.), WikiDienstag (Jan.), School workshop in Sitzendorf (Jan.), Wiktionary Conference in Vienna (Mar.), Wikipedia at Grazer Linuxtage (Apr.), Wikimedia Hackathon Lyon 2015 (May), Wiki takes Nordtiroler Oberland (Jun.)
Reports on other activities within the scope of this program:
Video workshop in Stuttgart (Jan.), Community survey (Mar.), European GLAMwiki Coordinators Meeting in Paris (Mar.), AdminConvention 2015 (Mar.), German WLM Kick-off in Wiesbaden (Mar.), GLAM-WIKI 2015 in Den Haag (Apr.), 15th Wikipedia Photo Workshop (Apr.), Wikimedia Hackathon Lyon 2015 (May)

Free content generation edit

Shifting priorities: from quantity to quality and added value edit

Open Data Portal Austria - the first year in numbers

For a long time the sheer amount of new content was a main measure of success for many of our activities. While we still strive to increase free content for Wikimedia projects, we also shifted our focus to making this content as valuable as possible. This is particularly noticeable for media files: Instead of just adding content to Commons we now increasingly emphasize the value of this content. This can be measured in several dimensions: the quality of the content (e.g. decorated images), added value for Wikimedia projects (e.g. encyclopaedic value of rare pictures or documents / usage in Wikimedia projects) or added value for free knowledge in general, such as new partnerships and contacts or an increased awareness for free licenses by cooperations to liberate content. An example for the latter is the Open Data Portal Austria, which served as a door opener to many well-known Austrian organizations (see infographic on the right). This is also the case for written content, although the quality and added value is often harder to measure. Hence, WMAT's emphasis here is the support of contests that reward quality and improvements and the involvement of experts - the latter still being a challenge, especially the question of how to design tools for a systematic and trusted exchange between the experts and our volunteers. Since 2014 we also organize edit-a-thons on specific topics (cultural heritage, theatre and media) with access to related literature and experts in Austria. These events are usually moderately frequented but quite productive, given their size.

As we could not foresee how this approach would influence our numbers, we planned quite conservatively in our proposal for this year. For the last six months however, we can see that an increased awareness for quality and added value is not necessarily achieved at the expense of the overall amount of content - at least not to a vast extend. Hence, we could once more exceed our goals regarding the generation of media files. The results concerning the overall quality and usage of the content is equally satisfying and a result of a longstanding, systematic development. WMAT systematically expanded its support comprising all the essential stages of free content production: workshops to build skills among volunteers to generate high quality material (photography and post-processing workshops on various topics), providing and coordinating a pool of high-end equipment, helping with accreditations and travel reimbursements for photography projects, photography contests, providing suitable software for post-processing to improve the quality of images, introducing a systematic procedure for following up on improper use of our media files by third parties, help and advice on how to work on Commons and how to apply free licences (see also our case study on this topic in the 2014 impact report).

Nevertheless, the amount of generated content in individual projects can still be lower than expected. One example is Wiki Loves Earth, where we ranked among the top 10 regarding contributions but still generated fewer pictures than expected, especially given he fact that the competition period was two months instead of one month this year. Nevertheless, the usage of pictures (≈18%) is quite satisfactory (compare WLE infographic in Program 1).

Success story: Eurovision Song Contest 2015 edit

The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in numbers

An example for how quantity and quality can go hand in hand is our photography project for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Vienna. The ESC is a pan-European, annual TV song competition held, primarily, among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Over the last years the competition became increasingly popular around the world, leading up to Australia's participation this year. Hence, the competition attracts a lot of attention and for artists of many countries it is the first time that they perform in front of such a huge international audience. In fact, not uncommonly the bands and artists weren't even well known in their own countries prior to their participation of the event. This provides a lot of potential for Wikimedia projects, i.e. first or better pictures and articles about the respective celebrities in the various language versions.

Two of our most experienced event and celebrity photographers covered over 20 events in two weeks (not including the Austrian pre-selection process) producing almost 800 pictures of which almost 65% are used in Wikimedia projects. The early start was part of the success, as we were able to illustrate many articles across 59 different Wikipedias just in time before the interest in the contest and its participants reached its peak and Wikipedia is usually one of the first information sources people consult. The most important factors for this success were:

  • good and longstanding relationship between WMAT and the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) without which we would not have been able to get the necessary accreditation
  • good documentation of former ESC projects by a Swedish Wikimedian that we could build on
  • experienced photographers who can handle difficult light situations and time pressure
  • suitable equipment from the WMAT pool
  • friendly cooperation, clear organization and division of tasks between the volunteers involved (one volunteer photographing the accreditation only events, one the fringe events)
  • early start (covering the preliminary events and fringe events and not only the main events)
  • cooperation with other volunteers (including a small edit-a-thon) who helped to integrate the media files in articles

Learning pattern edit

Progress table edit

Objective Last year
(if applicable)
Progress
(at end of Q2)
Projected
(end of year)
Comments
Generating and spreading media files
Generating 30,000 media files supported by Wikimedia Österreich for Wikimedia Commonsː at least 10,000 by photo contests and the others by activities such as lending photographic equipment, organizing accreditations, giving travel grants for photo tours and liberating content with GLAM partners.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
Supported 15,000 media files.
60,644 media files (15,218 by photo contests). 21,032 media files.

3638 by photo contests (WLE).

On target. By the end of the year, the total number of supported media files might be higher than 30,000 whereas the share of photo contest images might be lower than 10,000.
Detailed report (overview): Progress report: Media files supported by Wikimedia Österreich (Jun.); Detailed reports (on outstanding activities): Wiki Loves Cheese in Austria (Jan.), Video workshop in Stuttgart (Jan.), Busts in the aula of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Feb.), Eurovision Song Contest (May), Wiki takes Nordtiroler Oberland (Jun.)
Increasing the number of decorations (valued, quality, featured) of images supported by Wikimedia Österreich by 500; this applies regardless of the creation and upload date of the images.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
250 decorations for images.
758 new decorations. 2134 new decorations.
Above target.
Detailed reports: Progress report: Media files supported by Wikimedia Österreich (Jun.)
Increasing the number of media files supported by Wikimedia Österreich used in the main namespace of Wikimedia projects by 3000; this applies regardless of the creation and upload date of the media files.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
1500 media files used in the main namespace of Wikimedia projects.
n/a 2449 media files.
Above target.
Detailed reports: Progress report: Media files supported by Wikimedia Österreich (Jun.)
Generating written content
Supporting at least 7 editing contests and/or events which result in 1000 new articles and 2000 revised articles; 10 newly decorated articles resulting from editing contests and/or events supported by Wikimedia Österreich.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
1500 revised articles and 3 newly decorated articles resulting from editing contests/events.
n/a 7 editing contests/events.

102 new articles.

6751 revised articles.

16 newly decorated articles.

Above target.
Detailed reports: Wartungsbausteinwettbewerb Winter 2015 (Mar.), Wikiměsto Hustopeče (May), 22nd Wikipedia Writing Competition (May), Wartungsbausteinwettbewerb Spring 2015 (May), Jubilee Edit-a-thon (May), 2nd TFM Edit-a-thon (May) Wiki takes Nordtiroler Oberland (Jun.)
Establishing an expert network for one subject area, consisting of at least 3 people who review at least 20 articles.
n/a 0.
On target. Scheduled for Q4/2015.
Detailed reports:
Liberating content
Opening 70 data sets of 15 different organizations in the context of the Open Data Portal Austria partnerships.
Milestone 2015-03-31:
Opened 20 data sets.
89 data sets. 245 data sets.

8 different organizations.

Above target. Organizations: Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Lastenräder Rentals, WIFI, Greenpeace, WKO, Grüne, ÖRC, zoomsquare.
Detailed reports: Progress Open Data Portal (Mar.)
Generating or liberating 1000 media files in cooperation with at least 3 GLAM partners.
1759 media files, 2 GLAM partners. 285 media files.

2 GLAM partners.

On target. GLAM partners: "Der Schweizer" and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. /
A third GLAM project scheduled for August 2015 will result in higher numbers of files.
Detailed reports: Wiki Loves Cheese in Austria (Jan.), Busts in the aula of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Feb.)

Reach / free knowledge awareness edit

Giving free knowledge a voice in Austria and Europe edit

WMAT FoP campaign in numbers

An important objective for 2015 was to further increase awareness and understanding among external stakeholders for Wikimedia in Austria and Europe and the things and values we stand for. In a first step this comprised an assessment and respective improvement of our communication channels to these audiences. The main feedback from external and internal experts and the general public was that there were two major deficiencies that we need to work on: No systematic, well maintained and WMAT owned network of press contacts (in previous years we often relied on paid press services) and a static and little attractive website which was not informative enough for external stakeholders. As a result we focused on building a media data base for WMAT which currently comprises some 108 contacts which we subsequently used for three press campaigns on activities of ours. We also relaunched our website, a project that was collaboratively planned and executed by volunteers and staff with help of an external contractor for design and programming. A lot of thought and consulting of external stakeholders was dedicated to the question what information should be provided and how it should be structured. We also included some basic information in English and all official languages in Austria besides German − as we expand our cooperation with the CEE chapters (Eastern Europe) in the near future we plan to add information on concrete joint activities.

A first major litmus test on whether these measures create the desired impact was our Freedom of Panorama (FoP) campaign in June: Due to unexpected developments in the European Parliament in the context of the so-called Reda report, a discussion emerged throughout Europe concerning the Freedom of Panorama. The subject was an amendment to the report which would restrict the FoP in EU member states to non-commercial use, which would have legal implications for Wikimedia projects and of course for the volunteers and their photography projects. Especially in countries like Austria and Germany, which currently enjoy a very liberal version of FoP and have strong photography communities. As explained above, photography contests are also an important tool for growing our community - under more restrictive and complicated legal circumstances this would not be possible to the same extent any more. The German-speaking Wikipedia community started a campaign on Wikipedia to raise awareness and to collect signatures for an open letter to the European Parliament demanding to retain the current state of FoP. WMAT supported this with an accompanying press campaign, providing background information over our newly established press channels and background information as well as photo material and illustrations on our new website. The campaign was developed in close cooperation with the EU Free Knowledge Advocacy Group in order to make sure we speak with one voice and spread the same message in the various countries. Due to successful networking activities in Brussels, the EU advocacy group were in contact with many Austrian EU representatives, and WMAT supported this with flanking activities by reaching out directly to MEPs of the Conservative Party with the help from our partners of the University of Vienna. The response to these measures was quite satisfying with 14 articles in major media across the whole DACH region (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) and a huge resonance in our main social media channels Facebook and Twitter, which involved over 8,105 people and created retweets and new, often prominent followers especially in the political sphere. In the end, not only the voting results in Brussels were in our favor but we also managed to enhance the awareness for free knowledge and the necessary legal parameters for it to strive in the German-speaking parts of Europe. The campaign also showed the benefits of having a well informed and networked common EU advocacy group which enables us to react quickly on such crucial occasions by coordinating activities and communication among chapters and volunteers and spreading the necessary background information.

The many facets of Wikimedia in Education edit

WMAT's education activities comprise two major approaches. Firstly, media competency trainings for schools which aim at increasing acceptance and enhanced understanding of Wikimedia projects and free licenses. Secondly, cooperations with universities in order to promote contributions of students and professors to Wikimedia projects and the creation of open educational resources in the framework of university courses. The evaluation of these various initiatives is only due in the second half-year of 2015 but there are some trends and learnings that we can share:

  • For both approaches we can see that they provide a good opportunity to increase diversity: The share of female participants in these projects is 50% or more.
  • The costs for these projects are so far almost negligible (apart from staff costs for communication, coordination and organizational support), as they can usually be conducted by local community members with low/no travel costs and no additional costs for venues, equipment etc.
  • There is a considerable demand for such cooperations on the side of universities, since our kick-off event with the university of Vienna in March 2014 we could constantly grow our network of partners which involves all relevant stakeholders of the institution (students, teachers, administration, library staff). In October 2015 we launch a similar event at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
  • The number of Wikimedia volunteers engaging in these activities is growing as well. This development reached its peak in a current university course with the communication studies department of the University of Vienna, where around 13 Wikimedians volunteered to mentor some 30 students on Wikiversity and Wikipedia. For the students this means a divinely mentor-student-ratio of almost 1:2 (usually not the standard in Austrian universities) and for the individual volunteers it extremely reduces the additional time they have to dedicate to this project which increases the likelihood that they will keep up their engagement in future.

Learning patterns edit

Progress table edit

Objective Last year
(if applicable)
Progress
(at end of Q2)
Projected
(end of year)
Comments
Enhancing the media competency concerning Wikimedia projects and free knowledge in educational institutions
Providing skill transfer and training by offering 5 workshops or seminars in 2015.
7 workshops / seminars. 3 workshops / seminars.
On target.
Detailed reports: School workshop in Sitzendorf (Jan.), 2nd school workshop in Sitzendorf (Feb.), School workshops in Ziersdorf (Mar.)
Attracting 100 participants.
217 participants. 93 participants.
Above target. "Participants" includes the trainees and excludes the trainers.
Detailed reports: School workshop in Sitzendorf (Jan.), 2nd school workshop in Sitzendorf (Feb.), School workshops in Ziersdorf (Mar.)
At least 80% of the institutional representatives (e.g. teachers and professors) state in questionnaires that the workshops mentioned above improved the media competency of the participants.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
Media competency improvement of the participants of 3 workshops/seminars according to 80% of institutional representatives.
n/a 0.
On target. First results scheduled for Q3.
Detailed reports:
Establishing contact with EU MEPs via the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU (FKAGEU) and actively consulting them on free knowledge issues
Providing an EU advocacy contact database for Wikimedians.
n/a Provided an EU advocacy contact database for Wikimedians.
On target.
Establishing 10 new working contacts to MEPs, which result in ongoing consultations by volunteer Wikimedians (as qualified by meetings, email conversations, phone calls).
n/a More than 20 new working contacts to MEPs.
Above target.
FKAGEU participates in all relevant EU copyright dialogues, meetings and consultations (at least 20, no more than 90 events) and plays an active role in all opportunities.
n/a 88 relevant EU copyright dialogues, meetings and consultations.
Above target.
Additional working partnerships on EU consultancy are established and existing ones are deepened (as qualified by shared vision and goals, joint projects, joint policy statements, 2 collaboratively organized events, 20 additional volunteers engaged in advocacy activities).
n/a At least 8 working partnerships on EU consultancy.

2 collaboratively organized events.

10 additional volunteers engaged in advocacy activities.

On target. Working partnerships with: OKFN, Creative Commons, Kennisland, Right to Research Coalition/SPARC, Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue, EDRi, Amnesty International, Mozilla Foundation.
By end of 2015 at least 2 volunteer Wikimedians from EU chapters have participated in the “Wikimedian in Brussels” work stipend and our EU advocacy activities.
n/a 1 volunteer Wikimedian from WMIT participated in the “Wikimedian in Brussels” work stipend.
On target.
Detailed reports: Progress report: Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU (Jun.)
Networking, sustaining existing and reaching out to new partners and allies
Building a media database with 50 press contacts and using it for 3 press campaigns.
Milestone 2015-03-31:
Media database with 50 contacts established.
n/a 108 press contacts.

3 press campaigns.

Above target.
Detailed reports: Media Database (Feb.), Wiki Loves Earth 2015 (Jun.), Wiki takes Nordtiroler Oberland (Jun.), Freedom of Panorama campaign (Jun.)
Gaining 150 new subscribers to our newsletter and social media channels.
n/a Gained 163 new subscribers.
Above target. Facebook: + 91 (total: 639),
Google+: + 0 (total: 29),
Twitter: + 72 (total: 470).
Detailed reports:
Involving 15 Non-Wikimedians from 10 different organizations in our activities in 2015.
(Collaboration with like-minded organisations and communities in 7 projects.) 16 Non-Wikimedians.

5 different organizations.

On target. Organizations (individuals): simpleshow foundation (2), Sitzendorf school (3), Austrian Academy of Sciences (1), Ziersdorf school (1), University of Vienna (9).
Detailed reports: Video workshop in Stuttgart (Jan.), School workshop in Sitzendorf (Jan.), Busts in the aula of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Feb.), School workshops in Ziersdorf (Mar.), Meeting with University of Vienna Representatives (May)
Reports on other activities within the scope of this program:
Wikipedia at Grazer Linuxtage (Apr.), Exhibition "War On the Wall" (Jun.), wikimedia.at relaunch (Jun.)

Movement sustainability edit

Sharing is caring: supporting capacity building in the movement edit

WMAT identified two strategic priority areas which are strengths of our organization but in which we are also continuously striving to become even better: Volunteer support across chapters and countries, and organizational effectiveness. We also believe that these are crucial factors for the sustainability of our movement. Our approach towards sustainability is based on two dimensions: structure (organizational dimension) and context (environmental dimension). Concerning the first dimension, we aim at designing WMAT to be a learning organization with effective processes which is not dependent on certain individuals in board and staff. The second dimension relates to context of our work; as part of an international movement the quality of our collaboration with other players in the Wikiverse has a major impact on our programmatic work and organisational development.

During the last two years WMAT developed tools for governance, quality management and systematic inter-chapter volunteer support in lean medium-sized organizations. This can be valuable for other stakeholders in the movement, especially emerging affiliates and communities. Hence, WMAT dedicates resources into sharing this knowledge and our experiences with the wider movement, in order to make the original investment in the development of these tools even more worthwhile. However, our approach has somewhat changed since we created our proposal for 2015. Instead of designing separate workshops as capacity building events (as we did in 2014 and as we originally planned for this year too), we now focus on amplifying and supporting existing events and initiatives: end of 2014 the WMF launched a tool for capacity building for affiliates and we decided that we rather direct our resources into supporting this initiative by translating parts of the tool into German, contributing to the creation of a case study about organisational effectiveness at WMAT and serving as a model chapter for the use of the tool. In the first half of 2015 we also focused on the Wikimedia Conference as a platform for learning and exchange on these topics. A WMAT representative served on the program committee, we hosted and supported several sessions on the topics mentioned above and we have since continued to work closely together with the Wikimedia Conference program coordinator to follow up on these topics and further develop them until the next conference. For the second half of 2015 we plan to contribute to Wikimania and the CEE Conference in a similar fashion. From our experience there is a keen interest for exchange and assistance in the field of organizational effectiveness and WMAT has been consulting smaller affiliates from neighbouring countries and beyond. Nevertheless, this 1:1 approach has its limits, hence we are happy to collaborate with the WMF and other affiliates to develop a more systematic and scalable model for the wider movement.

As a matter of course we further refine our tools and concepts in parallel to these activities. The last months were mainly dedicated to preparing the review of our 3-year strategy by creating a mission statement for WMAT together with our community. The high approval rate for the general direction of our organization (please see community survey in Program 1) made us very happy, but was also an incentive to maintain or even exceed this in the years to come. Creating a shared vision and mission for our future was a first important step into this direction and will serve as a sound basis and framework for the strategic work of the board and the day-to-day business in the WMAT office.

Learning patterns edit

Progress table edit

Objective Last year
(if applicable)
Progress
(at end of Q2)
Projected
(end of year)
Comments
Building strong international networks for effective volunteer support
Establishing an international volunteer support working group by creating communication channels (e.g. mailing list) and holding 2 meetings in the context of international Wikimedia events involving 20 delegates of 10 different chapters.
Milestone 2015-03-31:
Communication channels for volunteer support working group created.
n/a Created communication channels.

Held 1 meeting at Wikimedia Conference.

34 delegates involved.

On target. Due to the character of the conference sessions it is not possible to evaluate the individual background (chapter affiliation) of the participants.
Detailed reports: Communication Channels for Volunteer Supporters Network (Feb.), Wikimedia Conference 2015 (May)
Cooperation and bi-weekly exchange of the DACH volunteer support teams resulting in viable and transparent processes and procedures for all common support areas.
n/a Cooperation and bi-weekly exchange established.
On target.
Detailed reports:
Building capacities for effective leadership and collaboration in chapters
Designing and implementing a CIP (Continual Improvement Process) tool for quality management in chapters; share first insights and experiences with the movement during the Wikimedia Conference 2015.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
Insights on the quality management tool shared with other chapters.
n/a CIP designed and implemented.

Shared first insights and experiences during Wikimedia Conference 2015.

On target.
Detailed reports: Wikimedia Conference 2015 (May)
Collaborating on two international events for capacity building and chapter effectiveness (such as board training workshops) involving 40 movement leaders.
2 events. 0.
Skipped.
At least 75% of the participants state in questionnaires that they have gathered and/or shared useful know-how regarding their chapter work by attending the capacity building events mentioned above.
Milestone 2015-06-30:
At least 75% of the participants of the 1st capacity building event gathered and/or shared useful know-how.
n/a 0.
Skipped.
Detailed reports:
Reports on other activities within the scope of this program:
Organizational effectiveness survey (Jan.), Mission statement workshop (Apr.), Mission statement (Jun.), General assembly (Jun.)

Revenues received during this six-month period edit

Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

Table 2 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

  • Please also include any in-kind contributions or resources that you have received in this revenues table. This might include donated office space, services, prizes, food, etc. If you are to provide a monetary equivalent (e.g. $500 for food from Organization X for service Y), please include it in this table. Otherwise, please highlight the contribution, as well as the name of the partner, in the notes section.
Revenue source Currency Anticipated Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Anticipated ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Explanation of variances from plan
FDC grant EUR 228,000.00 133,000.00 - - - 133,000.00 299,364.00 174,629.00
netidee grant EUR 9,796.00 9,796.00 - - - 9,796.00 12,862.15 12,862.15 Last installment from the 2014 grant.
Membership fees EUR 3,000.00 - 1,577.00 - - 1,577.00 3,939.00 2,070.60 WMAT is systematically updating its membership data base - members who haven't paid in several subsequent years will be eventually removed. Hence, the expected income at the end of the year might be lower than expected.
Fundraising / Donations EUR 17,000.00 - 2,806.00 - - 2,806.00 22,321.00 3,684.28 Fundraiser only due end of the year.
In-kind donations EUR 8,000.00 - 6,825.00 - - 6,825.00 10,504.00 8,961.23 Mainly pro bono consultation, video workshop for volunteers and event support (free venue, catering).

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Spending during this six-month period edit

Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

Please also compare our updated Budget for 2015 (English). In contrast to the numbers in the proposal, it does not include the subsequent netidee grant which was denied after the deadline of the FDC proposal.

Table 3 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

(The "budgeted" amount is the total planned for the year as submitted in your proposal form or your revised plan, and the "cumulative" column refers to the total spent to date this year. The "percentage spent to date" is the ratio of the cumulative amount spent over the budgeted amount.)
Expense Currency Budgeted Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Budgeted ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Percentage spent to date Explanation of variances from plan
Staff expenses EUR 104,000.00 - 54,577.00 - - 54,577.00 136,552.00 71,659.60 52,5% -
Operations EUR 33,000.00 - 16,986.00 - - 16,986.00 43,329.00 22,302.62 51,5% -
Community support EUR 72,500.00 - 30,081.00 - - 30,081.00 95,193.00 39,496.35 41,5% -
Free content generation EUR 35,400.00 - 6,652.00 - - 6,652.00 46,480.00 8,734,07 18,8% WLE not completely accounted for. WLM will only happen end of 2015. Planned photography equipment not yet purchased.
Reach / Free knowledge awareness EUR 22,500.00 - 8,708.00 - - 8,708.00 29,543.00 11,433.60 38,7% -
Movement sustainability EUR 9,500.00 - 3,543.00 - - 3,543.00 4,651.96 12,473.00 37,3% -
TOTAL EUR 276,900.00 - 120,547.00 - - 120,547.00 363,569.70 158,278.21 43,5% -

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Compliance edit

Is your organization compliant with the terms outlined in the grant agreement? edit

As required in the grant agreement, please report any deviations from your grant proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes.

Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Grant funds as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes.

Signature edit

Once complete, please sign below with the usual four tildes.

Resources edit

Resources to plan for measurement edit

Resources for storytelling edit