Wikimedia Meta-Wiki

Grants:APG/Proposals/2014-2015 round2/Wikimedia Italia/Proposal form

< Grants:APG | Proposals | 2014-2015 round2 | Wikimedia Italia
Wikimedia Italia received a funds allocation in the amount of €148,950.54 in 2014-2015 Round 2. This funds allocation was recommended by the Funds Dissemination Committee on 1 June 2015 and approved by the WMF Board of Trustees on 30 June 2015.


If you need to review the edit instructions you will find them in the editintro.

  • Use this form if you are eligible to submit a proposal in the current round, to request funding in the current round.
  • This form must be published on Meta by the proposal submission date for each round to be considered, and no changes may be made after the submission date without staff approval.
  • This form complements your organization's annual plan, detailed budget, and strategic plan. It won't be considered complete without those documents.
  • Organizations may apply for a funding period that does not exactly match their fiscal years. Follow the instructions carefully to understand what time period each question refers to.
  • Refer to the framework, guidance from the Board, and the FDC's recommendations before using this form, so you have an understanding of the Annual Plan Grants process.
  • Please Email FDCSupport@Wikimedia.org with questions about using the form.

A few terms used in the form:

FDC proposal form terms Wikimedia terms Learning & Evaluation terms


Overview

edit
1. In order to support community review, please provide a brief description of your organization's work in the upcoming funding period that can be used as a summary of your proposal. (This should be about 200 words, and should be easy for anyone to understand.)

WMIT's strategy for the first part of the upcoming funding period is aimed to strengthen its foundations and consolidate both its existing activities and its relationships in order to replicate projects that are already planned for the years to come. These projects involve Italian Wikipedia, WLM, initiatives with libraries and museums, OSM but also Wikisource and Wikidata. This means the recruiting of new volunteers and a re-organization of volunteers' activities on a geographical basis through the introduction of national and local coordinators for the main programs.
A re-organization of the staff will take place too: new functions, such as Business Management and Fundraising, will be introduced in the organizational chart and other will be further developed (Communication). Special attention will be given to the growth of WMIT's brand awareness and to the diversification of funding.
This consolidation effort is necessary for a sustainable growth strategy, which is different for every project, in relation to its stage of development. The launch of an educational project at a national level, the improvement of content quality on Italian Wikipedia, the recognition of WMIT as the official local chapter of the OpenStreetMap Foundation and a more structured relationship with the Wikidata community are a few examples of the results expected at the end of the funding period. The growth will be also measurable in terms of a more efficient structure, an increased users' involvement, a greater visibility of WMIT's activities among general public and cultural institutions, the systematic introduction of need assessments and indicators.


2. Name, fiscal year, and funding period.
  • Legal name of organization: Wikimedia Italia - Associazione per la diffusione della conoscenza libera
  • Organization's fiscal year: 01/01-12/31
  • 12-month funding period requested: 07/01/15-06/30/16
  • Currency requested: € (EUR)
  • Name of primary contact: Giuliana Mancini (Executive Director) - direttore-generale@wikimedia.it


3. Amount requested.

Kindly use the currency exchange rates provided by the FDC staff. Also, please use the following numerical format: 1,222.04

Table 1

Currency requested US$
Total expenses for the upcoming year 403,214.72 451,209.37
APG funding requested for the upcoming year 148,950.54 166,680.12
Amount of funding received from WMF for the current year 0 0


4. Please explain your organization's rationale if your revenues or total annual expenses will change significantly this year.

WMIT expected revenues and expenses in the upcoming year (July 2015 – June 2016) are 50% higher than the ones of the current funding period. The annual expenses are changing significantly. They will raise from 261,252 € (July 2014 – June 2015) to 403,214.72 € of the upcoming funding period (July 2015 – June 2016). This can be explained with the following reasons:

  • with regard to the staff, last November 2014, WMIT introduced in the organization chart one more FTE, the Executive Director;
  • two interns will join the organization staff, one for Wiki Loves Monuments and one to support fundraising activities;
  • the expenses for contractors will increase, in fact, in the upcoming funding period, more activities, courses and consultancies in libraries, schools and public institutions will be held, as scheduled in the strategic plan. Consequently, the expenses for reimbursements to contractors and trainers will raise, if compared to the current funding period;
  • in the upcoming funding period, WMIT has planned an articulate communication plan (5x1000, advertising, public events).

On the revenue side, we planned an increase from 267,790.10 € (July 2014 – June 2015) to 403,214.72 € budgeted for the upcoming funding period due to donations and APG funding.



Community engagement

edit

This section provides the FDC an overview of your organization's work with volunteers and online contributors.

1. Which Wikimedia community or communities does your organization work with most closely, and which online Wikimedia project or projects does your organization's work support?

Over the past years, WMIT has worked mainly with the communities of Italian Wikipedia and Italian Wikisource, which are the most active Italian-speaking Wikimedia communities. WMIT also dialogues, to a lesser extent of engagement, with Wikidata and Commons communities, which the association plans to involve even more in its programs and activities in the short/medium run.

WMIT supports volunteers working with Italian language editions of the above cited Wikimedia projects:

  • Italian Wikipedia: especially WMIT’s educational programs and GLAM partnerships with libraries and museums provide contents for the Italian Wikipedia;
  • Wikimedia Commons: the main contributions come from Wiki Loves Monuments Italy (WLM). From 2012 (the year of the first edition in Italy) to 2014 more than 37,000 pictures have been uploaded and the last edition of WLM Italy has registered 1,038 participants, placing the Italian contest at the first place for number of photographers globally. In Italy, there are more than 2 million monuments and many of the people who take picture for WLM after the contest keep on contributing with their pictures to Commons. Significant uploads to Commons will also come from GLAM projects; for example, WMIT has just signed a partnership with Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina which will provide around 200 digitized 16th-century books in Italian, Spanish and Latin to be uploaded on Commons and Wikisource;
  • Italian Wikisource: Wikimedia Italia has already signed in the past some partnerships with libraries to obtain digitizations of public domain books to be released on Wikisource: in this light, Wikisource is strategic also for GLAM's activities with libraries. Moreover, Wikisource proved itself as a good start for introducing new users to Wikimedia projects: some libraries did promote Wikisource workshops instead of Wikipedia ones and results seem promising. WMIT also sponsored some proofreading contests which obtained significant participation results with a low budget: from last November, after the Wikisource Birthday contest, the Italian Wikisource has seen a sustainable growth in both proofread and validated pages.
  • Wikidata: WMIT plans to contribute to Wikidata mainly within GLAM's activities with Italian libraries for the upload of their set of bibliographic data. WMIT can build on the experience of the EAGLE project which is the first project to use Wikibase outside Wikidata itself.

As we point out across the present form, even if the relationships between WMIT and libraries are now very well structured, in Italy libraries are late in digitalizing their assets and offering digital services. WMIT has also finalized the request to become an official chapter of the OpenStreetMap Foundation.


2. How does your organization know what community members / contributors to online projects need or want? Does your organization conduct needs assessments? How else does your organization consult the contributors and volunteers most involved with its work?

On March 2015, WMIT has conducted articulated surveys by sending questionnaires to several target groups: members, former members, donors, former donors, wikipedians and “friends” of Wiki Loves Monuments Italy (contacts mailing list).

 
Questionnaires Analysis

Each questionnaire had specific purposes but they all shared the same basic idea: to obtain feedbacks and useful information about the participation of the cited groups in the life of the association, their contribution to Wikimedia projects, the areas that they would like to see more developed in the future, their evaluation of WMIT’s communication, etc.

These surveys had extremely high responses rates and have given WMIT inputs for strategic planning. Furthermore many people expressed the intention to help WMIT and its projects (about 60 people only for WLM).

WMIT is in fact at a turning point: after ten years from its establishments, it is now time to start thinking about the association and its overall structure, to know its stakeholders and the communities most involved in its work even better. This year, for the first time, a strategic plan (for the years 2015-2016) has been drafted. In short, WMIT has closed an initial assessment of its activity, in order to highlight not only our strengths but also our weaknesses and assets, to start planning with more breadth.

You can find the results of these surveys here.
WMIT intends to repeat this action in the next years.

Other important communication tools used today by the WMIT are:

  • Mailing lists: they are the main tool for the exchange of views among members, and also a convenient tool for mass communications that people may use to discuss about news related to WMIT’s activities, but also about the world of open culture in general. On the other hand, the number of emails that recipients receive daily is high, with the obvious downside that they are hard to monitor for those who are not used to manage such a large flow of daily communications, ending up as a possibly "elitist” way of communicating. WMIT will work to give a solution about this downside.
  • Newsletters: they are drafted by the staff in collaboration with volunteers, are delivered twice a month and highlight WMIT’s "showcase" activities. Their use will be encouraged to exploit the potential they offer in terms of visibility and opportunity to talk in depth about the association with the most suitable tone of voice and style. Apart from the WMIT newsletter, an official WLM newsletter is also sent out. These are useful tools for engaging volunteers for different projects. The two newsletters still have a relatively limited firepower (about 2,600 readers for the WMIT newsletter and less than 500 for the WLM newsletter). Their potential will be unleashed and put in relation with the new website statistics.
  • Blog on WLM Italia also containing galleries with the most representative pictures of each edition sorted by themes (archs, churches, ecc.).

Several meetings are organized by the Italian Wikipedia community to make people meet and talk about their interest in specific themes of the encyclopedia.

The general assembly takes place twice a year with an average participation of the 10% of the total members. From the survey to the members it can be argued that the main reason for their absence is the distance from where they live and the place the assemblies are held. We are studying into ways to increase members’ participation.

We have also planned to introduce a recruitment meeting for volunteers. The first will take place next April and we want to schedule this appointment every year from now on.


Organization planning and reports

edit

Please provide links to your organization’s planning documents and reports. All of these documents are required unless otherwise indicated.

Your organization's strategic planning documents, past reports, and current annual planning documents, are essential to our understanding of your organization's proposal. If you think you will have difficulty submitting any of these documents with your organization's proposal form by the proposal submission deadline, you should contact FDC staff right away. You may also provide notes to this table here, as well as links to any supplementary documents to this proposal form.

Table 2

Completed fiscal year Current year Upcoming year
Annual plan (including budget) 2014 WMIT budget (in Italian)
2014 WMIT annual plan (in English) 		2015 WMIT budget (in English)
2015 WMIT annual plan (in English) 		2016 WMIT budget (in English)
2016 WMIT annual plan (in English)
Community discussion around annual plan 2014 discussion (in Italian) 2015 discussion (in Italian) see previous
Annual report (including financial report) 2014 WMIT financial report (in Italian)
2014 WMIT annual report (in English) 		Not required. Not required.
Strategic plan There is no strategic plan for the completed fiscal year. 2015-2016 WMIT Strategic Plan (in English) 2015-2016 WMIT Strategic Plan (in English)


Table 2 notes:


Financials: year-to-date progress

edit

The purpose of this section is to give the FDC an idea of how your organization is receiving funds and spending funds against your current plan.

  • Current funding period: This is the funding period currently progress on 31 March 2015, according to the upcoming funding period you defined in the overview section. This is a 12-month period. For organizations new to the APG process, this will be the 12 months before your upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015).
  • Year-to-date funding period: This is the period between the start of your current funding period and 1 March 2015. This period may be less than 12 months, since its length will depend on when your current funding period begins.
  • Projected revenues and expenses: This is the entire amount you plan to receive and spend by the time your current funding period ends. Your projected year is the same as your current year, which is a 12-month period.

Table 3

Current funding period planned / budgeted Year-to-date funding period actuals Projected end of current funding period
In currency requested In $US In currency requested In $US In currency requested In $US
Revenues (from all sources) 0.00 0.00 199,353.07 223,082.07 267,790.10 299,665.16
Expenses 0.00 0.00 149,722.77 167,544.27 261,252.00 292,348.83

Table 3 notes:


Programs: upcoming year's annual plan

edit

This section is about your organization's programs. Please do not include information about your organization's operating activities in this section. You are welcome to provide information about activities like administration, staff and board training, fundraising, governance, and internal IT in another section of this proposal form or in a supplementary document. Please answer all four questions for each program.

Premise: working method

edit
 
WMIT Strategic Plan 2015-2016

WMIT is now at a turning point. 2015 is a year of change, also regarding the challenges WMIT will face in the near future, starting with the drafting, for the first time, of a two year strategic plan (2015- 2016) and including this participation to the Annual Plan Grant process, which is a first time for us as well. Besides, another change has occurred in the organizational structure, almost at the beginning of 2015: WMIT has introduced the new figure of the Executive Director.
This year we also celebrate WMIT's tenth anniversary: beyond the satisfaction for the achievement, it is time to start thinking about the Association and its overall structure and strategies. In the last four months we have conducted an assessment of our activity in order to start planning our future more widely.

To establish our goals, with the involvement of our stakeholders and communities, we have taken these steps:

  1. we have created several questionnaires that has been addressed to different targets, members and former members, to donors and former donors, to subscribers of the Wiki Loves Monuments newsletter and to Wikipedians. We have received in total more than 2000 answers. This activity was therefore useful to make the strategic goals and the actions of the plan comply more and more with the expectations of members, supporters and people who either develop the projects of the Association or participate in it. However, operational guidelines, included in the strategic plan, emerged immediately, such as the need to better communicate what Wikimedia Italia is or does, so as to draw people, who are now external, closer to the Association. The questionnaires contained multiple choice questions and gave also the possibility to give open answers at some points, thus giving us the possibility to hear the “voice” of the people and have more qualitative feedbacks.
    Here the analysis of the results of the survey;
  2. simultaneously we have performed a SWOT analysis of all Wikimedia Italia's activities, namely about the major projects that we are carrying out. These were examined individually both by the Board and also by the key volunteers already active on them;
  3. for each activity and project strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats were analyzed and then strategic goals were defined and declined in concrete, targeted actions. Particularly, we have identified 8 core areas of intervention and have focused our strategic planning on:
    • Coordination of Volunteers,
    • GLAM: Libraries,
    • GLAM: Museums,
    • Educational project,
    • Wiki Loves Monuments,
    • OpenStreetMap,
    • Project on Italian Wikipedia (also including Gender Gap projects),
    • External Communication.
These areas mainly correspond to the projects and initiatives where WMIT is more active or where it wants to improve its commitment but they also correspond to some organizational areas we need to empower in order to sustain our planned growth (for example, coordination of volunteers or communication). The cited projects lie at different development stages. Therefore, we have preferred to focus on each of them and treat them separately in order to individuate specific strategic goals. However, we can trace a common trend: as mentioned in the "Overview", in the short run, our strategy will aim at the consolidation of the existing activities, the necessary premise for sustainable growth in terms of projects and structure. Our goals also meet the strategic priorities and goals set by the Wikimedia Foundation and can be summarized and exemplified as follows:
  • Building and engaging community / Increasing participation: the questionnaires to different target groups and the regular meetings with the Italian communities of Wikipedia and Commons are examples of these goals;
  • Recruiting new editors/contributors / Retaining the existing ones / Making contributing fun and easier: the editahons and the bibliohackaton planned within the GLAM activities for libraries go in this direction;
  • Increasing volunteer motivation and commitment: for example, we have planned meetings for the recruitment and motivation of the volunteers;
  • Improving quality: the partnerships with universities and high level cultural institutions are to be taken;
  • Increasing awareness of Wikimedia projects and our brand awareness: an external communication plan is focused on this specific goal;
  • Reducing Gender gap: with the involvement of women in Wikimedia projects (mainly in GLAM activities and educational projects) and with the realization of specific initiatives.
For an accurate and in depth analysis of our strategic goals please see below at the sections dedicated to each core area;
  1. to make the strategic goals achievable and adjusted to the desired impact, we created a group of performance indicators (key performance indicators or KPI), setting parameters for both output and outcome. These indicators will be specific, measurable, assignable, realistic and time-related, according to the guidelines provided by the Wikimedia Foundation. Setting objectives in terms of output and outcome has been the most demanding part of this work as in most cases there were no baselines available to build on. We believe that the ability to measure our actions is a crucial asset in an efficient organization; therefore, we have finally introduced indicators for almost every action;
  2. tasks related to each project have been scheduled. Each project is accompanied by its Gantt diagram, which mark the monthly tasks to be carried out by Wikimedia Italia in the next two years, 2015-2016, with a focus on the APG period;
  3. programs and Gantt diagrams were finally translated into a cash flow based on estimates of the revenues and expenditures assessed. We have taken in general a cautious approach being rather conservative on the revenue side and liberal on the estimation of expenses;
  4. since the funding period for the APG goes from July 1st, 2015 to June 30th, 2016 while the financial year for WMIT starts on January, 1st and ends on December 31st, it has been necessary to develop a parallel accounting compared to the fiscal year. The work of preparation of the strategic plan has been connected to the creation of a detailed balance sheets, of a detailed accounting and business management for every projects. The overall reorganization of internal accounting procedures has been an important step to achieve greater knowledge of the internal processes and, thus, greater efficiency. The construction of the proposal for the Funds Dissemination Committee has held a central role in planning and carrying out the strategic plan even though it constituted a major effort for our staff, board and volunteers during the last months. Wikimedia Italia has already experience with participating to call for projects from several institution both at regional (e.g., the Archeowiki project), national (Wiki Loves Monuments) and European level (EAGLE Project). In 2014, project-specific funding generated 19.6% of the revenues of WMIT. We want to continue this diversification of funding and increase our ability to raise funds from several sources. We believe that our current reorganization will make us even more effective and we plan to develop our internal know-how and expertise in fundraising. Some of the partnerships we are building with institutions will be based on project funded through external sources. Our request to the FDC will give a solid middle term basis for this process thus reducing the risk associated with external project-based funding, which constitutes 15% of our budgeted revenues for the FDC funding period of this proposal. Relatively to the fiscal year 2014 this represents an increase of 43%. Government sources of funding as the "Cinque per mille" constitute 35% of our expected revenues, but we cautiously planned them to be constant with respect to the last fiscal year in absolute terms. In summary, our strategic plan starts from the consolidation of the lines so far developed in order to proceed to growth with new effectiveness.

    GLAM - Libraries

    Strategic goals for GLAM projects - Libraries

     
    SWOT analysis - GLAM-Libraries

    After carrying out an analysis of the GLAM libraries projects (please look at the SWOT Analysis), we have designed a strategy whose goal, at least for the first part of the funding period, is to consolidate existing relationships in order to replicate projects that are already planned for the years to come. This means inevitable work on the structure of existing volunteers and recruiting new ones. Initiative-wise, training courses for librarians will continue, in order to provide them with the necessary skills to operate profitably on Wikimedia projects (including Wikidata, for a project to import bibliographic data is in the planning stage) and increase the number of shared materials with free license such as Creative Commons.

    Collaboration on the "Wikipedian in Residence" model will be more and more encouraged. According to this model a wikipedian becomes part of the staff of a cultural institution for a limited period of time in order to find every possible form of promotion of its heritage and to train its staff to continue the work autonomously. This model allows the greatest possible result, since two very different cultures, the wikipedian and the librarian one, have a chance to meet.

    The efforts towards library users aimed at making the contribution to Wikimedia projects a "fun" experience will also continue. The goal is both to reach a satisfactory level of "literate" wikipedian operators in Italian libraries, but also to recruit new users for Wikimedia projects. This specifically refers to bibliohackatons and Wikisource workshops; at the end of June, a rereading contest will be held at the National Central Library of Florence (BNCF) and another contest will be organized on the occasion of the birthday of Wikisource, in late November/early December. A bibliohackathon will be organized in collaboration with the same BNCF, with the aim to assess the feasibility of managing and cataloguing of bibliographic data through Wikibase, the MediaWiki extension underlying Wikidata. Moreover, the bibliohackathon will aim to create a replicable workflow for libraries for importing their bibliographic datasets into Wikidata. If successful, this experiment could lead to a new whole era for Wikidata and libraries.

    Great potential can also come by the agreement (signed last March 10) with ICCU (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico) which, among its other functions, oversees the National Library Service and many other projects related to the management bibliographic data. The agreement explicitly states the intention of the Institute to gradually release the wealth of data collected from its projects, on the basis of specific agreements, so that it is integrated on the Wikimedia projects and OSM.

    Agreements with trade associations are crucial for libraries as well. In this case the main trade Association is the Italian Library Association (AIB), with which WMIT is already in touch. Such relations that have led to the creation of the first courses for librarians carried out by WMIT and the goal is to reach a stable agreement for offering professional courses throughout Italy, involving volunteers and paid staff. A standard training offer to be proposed to target different libraries will be crucial in this regard. Being able to obtain the support of a body such as AIB may prove decisive for communication and to increase general awareness concerning GLAM projects (promoting the work with libraries is closely related to the increase of WMI's brand awareness). Participating in major national and international librarians conferences, like Convegno Stelline and the 2016 IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) in Paris, will also contribute to WMIT's brand awareness inside the library world.

    The initiatives carried out with libraries will also be promoted on dedicated mailing lists (AIB-CUR, the national list of library operators with over 6,000 subscribers) and press releases will be directed to specific trade publications. As part of the work with the libraries, a review of the help pages and documentation pages concerning the Wikisource project is possible (it should be the work of a professional).

    Writing documentation is a classic weak point of collaborative projects, because it is a complex action that requires the cooperation of experienced members and new members. It is, above all, a boring activity the volunteers would prefer to avoid. WMIT is strongly promoting Wikisource: it is an ideal project to be proposed to libraries, which often need to digitize ancient books and documents. It is a project easy to teach to beginners, and recent experiences with libraries in Trentino prove it. Wikisource "barriers to entry" are lower than those concerning Wikipedia, but not low enough. This is the reason why a professional should be involved in order to improve Help pages (which are obsolete in Wikisource in Italian), fact that could improve the participation of new users. In support of these activities a quality control initiative will be carried out and specific tools for measuring performance through appropriate qualitative (questionnaires to be administered ex ante and ex post) and quantitative (Wikimetrics/Education extensions) indicators will be proposed to the community to be implemented.

    Please look at this table containing goals, actions and objectives related to the GLAM projects for libraries. The table provides a detailed idea of the general context of each goal: it covers the same two year period of our strategic planning (2015-2016), showing, in black, what is to be included in the funding period and, in blue, everything is out of it.

    Please look, also, at the Gantt chart with the timing of the scheduled actions.

     
    Performance measurement - GLAM-Libraries
     
    Gantt chart - GLAM-Libraries

    GLAM - Museums

    Strategic goals for GLAM projects - Museums

     
    SWOT analysis - GLAM-Museums

    After carrying out an analysis of the GLAM museum projects (please look at the SWOT Analysis), a process that will quickly create relationships with new institutions that play a strategic role and consolidate existing ones has been outlined.

    The above mentioned agreement signed on March 12 with the Italian chapter of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and the relationship started last January with Museimpresa contribute to this goal. Museimpresa, in particular, represents a very interesting target for us since the kind of museums that it represents stem from companies that are more sensitive to the issues of shared culture (they are museums created by the companies themselves) and have financial resources to invest in cultural initiatives.

    The collaboration with ICOM Italia and Museimpresa may generate opportunities to implement initiatives in favour of the museums they represent, such as conferences, training courses for museums professional concerning ongoing Wikimedia projects and their application in the field of cultural heritage. Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons are of sure interest to museums. This means that collection curators might benefit from possible training and dialogue initiatives. The content of these initiatives may vary from basic literacy on compiling encyclopedia articles (e.g. for items related to artists or disciplines covered by the museum) to promoting their own iconographic material on museum-related articles, in the different language versions of Wikipedia. Editathons can also be organized in museums with the aim to create or improve Wikipedia articles by putting experienced Wikipedians and collection curators with specific skills and documentary sources in direct contact. Wikipedians will convey specific expertise and available documentary sources of Wikimedia projects.

    The "Wikipedian in Residence" model will be promoted among museums just as it will be among libraries, with the aim to allow the release of museum heritage material which will then be loaded with free licenses on Wikimedia Commons. Some national authorities and specific events inside the museum network can bring significant added value in terms of released materials. Communication will play a strategic role; press releases will be sent out in the occasion of major initiatives and social networks will be massively exploited.

    Please look at this table containing goals, actions and objectives related to the GLAM projects for museums. The table provides a detailed idea of the general context of each goal: it covers the same two year period of our strategic planning (2015-2016), showing, in black, what is to be included in the funding period and, in blue, everything is out of it.

    Please look, also, at the Gantt chart with the timing of the scheduled actions.

     
    Performance measurement - GLAM-Museums
     
    Gantt chart - GLAM-Museums

    Italian Wikipedia

    Strategic goals for Italian Wikipedia

    Strategic goals
     
    SWOT analysis - Italian Wikipedia
    After an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Italian Wikipedia, we have focuses our attention to find a solution to the well-known problem of user retention: our goal is to be able to set up an adequate support structure. WMIT plans to relaunch OTRS (Open-source Ticket Request System) in Italian with internal training, following and adapting the German experience, through the creation of internal training sessions for operators on priority issues, opening dialogue with users and the community of Wikipedia in Italian about the need to increase the visibility of guideline pages (possibly better integrated and amended) and the possible creation of a Skype line.
    At an organizational level, WMIT will increase the number of projects with schools, organize bibliohackatons and editathons and strengthen GLAM projects. In terms of communication, WMIT will focus on library users, create specific information material and a communication kit (based on the experience gained with WLM).
    Another strategic action that aims to raise the level of articles quality is the signing of agreements with Italian universities for the activation of internships, in which students create and/or modify articles relating to the subjects of their dissertation. A further action - whose implementation is to be agreed upon with the community - is the creation of a landing page or a “Welcome program” showing Wikipedia and WMIT’s other projects, which integrates the efforts so far made by the community in this regard and amends redundancies, similarly to that it planned for OTRS. Specific actions against gender gap will be the creation of targeted activities for women's participation.
    Please look at this table containing goals, actions and objectives related to Wikipedia in Italian. The table provides a detailed idea of the general context of each goal: it covers the same two year period of our strategic planning (2015-2016), showing, in black, what is to be included in the funding period and, in blue, everything is out of it.
    Please look, also, at the Gantt chart with the timing of the scheduled actions.
    Gender gap
    Gender gap is a strongly felt issue by the Wikimedia movement and WMIT, which commits to fill this gap with a series of activities.
    In the last few years many ad hoc initiatives designed by WMIT members have been carried out, among which: WikiDonne, a project that consists of a series of events targeting women (both past and still ongoing), project GLAM/8 marzo 14, which led to the proposal of creating Laboratorio Femminismi, "a meeting place to coordinate the work for articles regarding feminism, its history, its areas of interest and people related to it", aimed at enriching articles on important female figures in history.
    In the period of time between March and October 2015, the activities of two of WMF committees for the allocation of funding (namely, the Grant Assessment Committee and the Individual Event Grants Committee) will be dedicated to financing projects aimed at reducing gender gap. Even WMIT wants to engage to this regard, with activities designed to increase women involvement.
    Gender gap can be approached from two perspectives: in terms of shortage of female editors and in terms of inadequate involvement of women in WMI's initiatives.
    In order to increase women contributors, WMIT aims to strengthen projects with libraries, museums, schools, etc. The experience of the past years taught us that projects with schools and GLAM projects have been particularly effective in the retention of users more than individual events: the GLAM user base, particularly rich in women, promises to become the most effective to the issue in question. Moreover, the presence in schools allows us to have to do with an equally distributed audience.
    WMIT has also planned an initiative aimed specifically to increase articles relating to women, an editathon in each of the regions in which GLAM projects are more present. This project will take place in the month of March, internationally recognized as the month for women's rights.
     
    Performance measurement - Italian Wikipedia
     
    Gantt chart - Italian Wikipedia


    OpenStreetMap

    Strategic goals for OpenStreetMap

     
    SWOT analysis - OpenStreetMap

    For OpenStreetMap, we have carried out a SWOT analysis to underline the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this project, as well as we have done for the other ones. The strategic objectives are:

    • at an organizational level, obtain WMI's recognition as an official OSMF branch;
    • in terms of strategic relationships, sharing data coming from regional information systems, thanks to the signing of new agreements with Italian Regions;
    • in terms of marketing, organize strategic events, able to get us closer to players of our interest, such as the Civil Protection, the Government, universities and Associations (disabled, visually impaired);
    • among the possible new areas of development: paid consulting contracts for the extraction of OSM data and training courses for its use;
    • promote OSM as an open tool within WMI's projects and an increase in awareness of OSM's potential among operators and users, through print advertising and specialized press.

    Please look at this table containing goals, actions and objectives related to OpenStreetMap. The table provides a detailed idea of the general context of each goal: it covers the same two year period of our strategic planning (2015-2016), showing, in black, what is to be included in the funding period and, in blue, everything is out of it.

    Please look, also, at the Gantt chart with the timing of the scheduled actions.

     
    Performance measurement - OpenStreetMap
     
    Gantt chart - OpenStreetMap

    Education program

    Strategic goals for Educational projects

     
    SWOT analysis - Educational projects

    Interacting more and more with the world of education is strategic for WMIT. After carrying out a SWOT analysis, we have planned to create more intense relationships, expand our network and, above all, review our strategy in a more organic and structured way. The long-term goal for WMIT is to be able to affirm itself on a national scale as an important partner for educational institutions, offering education thanks to the modern and dynamic characteristics of the Wiki system, also encouraging students to be part of the Wikipedia community and remain active users even when a specific school project is over.

    The first action to be taken is to define a regionalized working structure, with a number of regional representatives who report and interface directly with the national representative of school projects, which, in turn, will report to the Project Leader for school projects within the Board of Directors. In the immediate future, these representatives will be identified in the regions where there have already been positive experiences and where the community of volunteers is more active (Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, and the Autonomous Province of Trento). Then we will try to extend the network to other regions with the ambition to cover the whole country in the long run.

    Regionalization, however, will go hand in hand with a more homogeneous format of school projects and with the identification of a set of standard activities, documentation for lessons and an information pack to be exploited for all future projects. We are still open to the possibility of meeting specific educational institutions needs and implementing specific projects. This kind of organization needs a greater commitment from the volunteers' community. Once available wikipedians have been identified (thanks to the work of the regional representatives), they will be followed and supported by WMIT in organizing internal training held by expert wikipedians.

    Another objective is to strengthen the relationship with strategic partners. The actions in this area will aim to obtain meetings with regional school boards and school associations (teachers, principals, leaders, etc.), presenting possible projects and suggesting that Wikipedia is included in refresher courses for school staff. A great deal of attention will be reserved to universities. Universities will be contacted and internship will be organized at WMIT. These internships will focus on creating and correcting Wikipedia articles in the subjects less related to the student's specific subjects of study under the supervision of university professors, and will involve the recognition of credits as extracurricular activities. The purpose of these internships will be also to enrich and improve the quality of the Italian Wikipedia in its most weak areas (for example, Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science, Foreign Language and Literature, International Relations, etc.). It will be our goal to try and establish constant communication with universities, with recurring moments to exchange views and to present the results achieved with speeches and case histories presented in university seminars. In order to reach a national scale, in the second half of 2016, a solidarity SMS campaign will be carried out to raise funds that will finance an action on Italian schools on a larger scale.

    The send out of a solidarity SMS is to be considered a strategic activity aimed to increase WMIT's brand awareness and to diversify its sources of revenue. In order to carry out this campaign effectively, it is advisable to rely on a professional agency taking care of the making of the TV commercial and ensure a wide presence on television in the period in which the campaign takes place.

    Please look at this table containing goals, actions and objectives related to educational projects. The table provides a detailed idea of the general context of each goal: it covers the same two year period of our strategic planning (2015-2016), showing, in black, what is to be included in the funding period and, in blue, everything is out of it.

    Please look, also, at the Gantt chart with the timing of the scheduled actions.

     
    Performance measurement - Educational projects
     
    Gantt chart - Educational projects

    Wiki Loves Monuments

    Strategic goals for Wiki Loves Monuments

    Strategic goals
     
    SWOT analysis - Wiki Loves Monuments
    The objectives and actions for the 2015 WLM Italia edition are fully consistent with WMIT's vision and long term goals developed after an in depth analysis of the past edition (please look at the SWOT Analysis). The success of WLM is also a cornerstone for WMIT trying to establish itself as national reference player of open culture. Besides being WMIT's most popular project, WLM is also one facing the harshest legislative and political hurdles. WLM will reach its final goal once the legal frame that currently limits the spread of photographs of Italian monuments has become more liberal. However, to reach this ambitious goal we need to work both top down, lobbying activities and pressuring at parliamentary level, and bottom up, with promotion of activities at regional and local level.
    We will act in terms of positioning, trying to strengthen WMIT's brand-awareness, promoting a change in perception towards WLM. The message has to come around strong and clear, through events and a specific editorial plan: WLM is a project by WMIT. In order to strengthen the image and reputation of WLM, WMIT will expand its network in relation to the competition, looking for new partners and new strategic players proposing ad hoc projects (for example, wikipedians giving speeches at their meetings) and involving famous photographers and architects as WLM ambassadors.
    Besides networking, fundraising becomes crucial. The first step will be a monitoring activity towards public grants supporting cultural activities, bank foundations and other associations. The second step will be to look for financial sponsorships specifically. The long-term goal is definitely to increase the number of partners providing financial support. However, given Italy's difficult economic situation, we must at least aim to confirm existing in kind/financial sponsorships.
    Volunteers and local areas promotion will play a very important role. Volunteers are the heart and soul of Wikimedia projects, and this is also true for WLM. An immediate action will be to re-contact the members that contributed to WLM in the past, asking them to try to engage new people in their area. Moreover, more than fifty "friends" of the competition, recently involved in a survey, stated that they would like to participate actively and thus will be contacted. The medium-term goal will be to implement a stable volunteers team at least in those regions where their presence is higher (Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, the Autonomous Province of Trento), appointing a regional representative working as a liaison between the local group and the WMIT's central structure. In the long run, the goal is to extend this system across Italy. The emergence of local groups of volunteers will lead to a greater involvement, with the hope that WLM local editions will also grow, as it happened in Emilia Romagna and in the province of Asti. This provides the frame for more actions such as closer relations with Italy's largest municipalities, especially if regional capitals and/or province, or with superintendents or councillors for local culture and heritage.
    The participation of WLM within an important national photo festival (Toscana Foto Festival) has recently been confirmed. This will generate indisputable returns in terms of visibility and relations with the world of photography. We will concentrate our efforts on Lombardy, where we will push for the organization of a local edition WLM: Expo 2015 in Milan and Wikimania 2016 at Esino Lario are opportunities to be seized. We will therefore do our best to strengthen WLM's presence in the region.
    This strategic plan will not divert staff from their regular activities supporting participants and requesting authorizations to municipalities. However, the focus on bigger cities and the regional scale of action will also allow us to get in touch with local institutions and politicians who are likely to climb up to a national level. This way bottom-up actions go well together with top-down lobbying activities aimed at overcoming the Urbani Code.
    Please look at this table containing goals, actions and objectives related to Wiki Loves Monuments. The table provides a detailed idea of the general context of each goal: it covers the same two year period of our strategic planning (2015-2016), showing, in black, what is to be included in the funding period and, in blue, everything is out of it.
    Please look, also, at the Gantt chart with the timing of the scheduled actions.
    Lobbying
    As pointed out in the previous paragraph, WLM has faced several difficulties for its implementation in Italy since its launch. The competition, created in 2010 in the Netherlands, has rapidly expanded across Europe, but Italy had to wait until 2012 for its first edition. Still today, the main difficulty for its unwinding is the Urbani Code (Legislative Decree no. 42/2004 "Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape"; for more information, please visit this page on Meta), which in Article 107 paragraph 1 provides that "the Ministry, the regions and other local governments may allow reproduction as well as the instrumental and precarious use of cultural heritage that they have received, subject to the provisions [...] on copyright. The interpretation of this article confines photographic reproductions of cultural heritage to authorization by the bodies responsible for its safekeeping. Moreover, Article 108 of the same decree provides that for these reproductions the public managing body may require payment of a fee or a license fee. In summary, the Urbani Code extends characteristics similar to those of copyright also to works that are no longer subject to the constraints of copyright, for example, architectural works whose author died more than 70 years ago.
    In order to launch WLM in 2011, WMIT initially tried to come into direct contact with the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities (MiBAC), which committed to provide a list of monuments eligible to be reproduced. After that, however, top personnel in the Ministry were either transferred or replaced for political reasons. Thus the project had a stop and WLM could not go live in Italy. This experience confirmed the need to undertake lobbying activities, in order to try and overcome the constraints of regulations that challenge the full unwinding of Wikimedia projects in Italy. These constraints are not limited to WLM and the material uploaded on Wikimedia Commons, but they also extend to other projects and activities carried out by WMIT, e.g. projects with museums, libraries and archives within GLAM.
    The strategy put in place by WMIT in recent years has followed a bottom-up approach, which caused WMIT's staff a huge amount of work. Over the years, the staff reached out to over 1,000 municipalities and institutions responsible for cultural heritage, requiring authorizations. One can easily understand that this gave way to an operation of prohibitive size: considering the public sphere only, the Italy's cultural heritage involves over 8,000 municipalities, more than 100 provinces, 20 regions (divided into ordinary and special regions, with different levels of expertise concerning cultural heritage) and many other specific entities. Moreover, the vast majority of these institutions is not equipped with a list and description of all the cultural sites under their jurisdiction. The engagement work towards the Public Administration proved its effect during the latest WLM edition: in 2014 about 4,500 monuments were "released" and 273 municipalities participated. This is a good result, but, when compared to the total number of Italian municipalities (8,047 as of March 2015), one cannot certainly believe that the final goal has been reached.
    The top-down and bottom-up work carried out over the years allowed to organize WLM Italia from 2012, achieving results of indisputable value in terms of quantity and quality, but there is still much potential to be expressed. Thanks to the relationships established with the Ministry of Culture, we came to realize the importance of WLM ("We have chosen to join the WLM project because we believe that it is a great way to experiment the active involvement of our countrymen in the discovery and sharing of our historical and artistic heritage" - note of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, September 10, 2012). However the existing regulatory framework wasn't modified at all.
    All this shows the need to implement a strong, strategic and organized lobbying activity, with the help of a professional lobbyist. A long-term vision and a unified message to be conveyed are crucial in order to avoid the dispersion of energies (individuals' initiatives) and to maximize results.
    The lobbyist will be mostly involved in the following activities:
    • report on the hidden revenues/cost of the actual law: revenues coming from the licensing of the cultural heritage reproductions raised by municipalities and other cultural heritage rightsholders and opportunity costs related to the production of promotional materials (for tourism activities) which could be avoided with free licensed pictures of cultural heritage. The aim of this study is to gain data and figures regarding the economy of cultural heritage reproductions in order to raise awareness about the opportunity costs of shifting to a free licensing model;
    • networking with stakeholders sharing our same goals, for example, ICOM (International Council of Museums), FIAF (Italian Federation of Photographic Associations), etc;
    • awareness raising on the issues contained in the Urbani Code affecting the reproduction of free licensed pictures of cultural heritage to politicians, members of the parliament and the Government;
    • in the long run, possibly out of the funding period, advocacy for the promotion of a reform of the current law.

    Please, note that we do not intend to pay any politician, member of the Government and of the Parliament to reform the current law.

    We have budgeted a sum of $ 6.826,08 to cover the consultancy of a lobbyist.
     
    Performance measurement - Wiki Loves Monuments
     
    Gantt chart - Wiki Loves Monuments


    Volunteers

    Strategic goals for Volunteers

    The Organization of volunteers today
    The volunteers' activities are usually managed independently by the volunteers themselves who organize individually or in groups, referring to the Project Coordinator within the Board (at present Ginevra Sanvitale). Moreover, and just for the GLAM project, the Board appointed Virginia Gentilini as GLAM coordinator: volunteers carrying out activities related to GLAM projects refer to her.
    Strategic guidelines for 2015-2016
     
    Organizational chart of Wikimedia Italia
    The need has emerged to make volunteers' involvement more systemic, by organizing their activities on a geographical basis through the introduction of a national coordinator for the main programs (along the lines of libraries and museums which already have a national coordinator), educational projects, OSM and WLM. Furthermore, there is a need for leaders at regional level, to be identified within the regions where WMIT is most active with its projects.
    It is an organization to which we will tend in the medium to long term. In the short term, given the relatively small number of active volunteers, it is more likely that within the same region only one manager for more projects will be identified. The managers so identified, as well as the national coordinator for the GLAM projects, Virginia Gentilini, will refer to the Board of Directors, in the person of Ginevra Sanvitale, current Project Coordinator.
    In order to achieve this goal a meeting to recruit and involve new volunteers will be organized by the end of April 2015 and again on April 2016.
    From an analysis of WMIT’s structure and of the needs expressed by the volunteers active on projects, we believe that this structure can help create a greater sense of cohesion and belonging, eliminating overlapping and making volunteers aware of their responsibilities as regards their missions within the Association.
    Please look at this table containing goals, actions and objectives related to the new volunteers' organization. The table provides a detailed idea of the general context of each goal: it covers the same two year period of our strategic planning (2015-2016), showing, in black, what is to be included in the funding period and, in blue, everything is out of it.
    Please look, also, at the Gantt chart with the timing of the scheduled actions.
     
    Performance measurement - Volunteers
     
    Gantt chart - Volunteers

    Communication Plan

    Strategic objectives and targets

    WMI's main strategic objectives in terms of external communications are the following:

    • increase WMIT's brand awareness, to ease fundraising and thus autonomy;
    • increase WMIT's credibility among third parties;
    • convey the "vitality" of the Association to members and donors;
    • establish a relationship of trust with the press representatives;
    • create a consistent and ongoing communication flow towards the outside world;
    • open communication with institutions;
    • recruit new members and donors;
    • fundraising.

    The targets of the external communication are cross targets:

    • the general public (wikimedians, wikipedians, people not yet reached by previous communication activities);
    • institutions and national bodies;
    • influencers: schools, universities and training organizations;
    • professional organizations (accountants, public notaries);
    • media professionals;
    • internal public (Wikimedia members, volunteers, donors).

    The primary objective of the 2015-2016 communication plan is the growth of WMIT's brand awareness: the increase in the number of subjects well aware and well informed about WMIT will lead to an audience more receptive to fundraising campaigns, to appeals for the collection of 5x1000 and to calls for engagement into specific events and projects.

    These objectives, together with a number of other strategic objectives, translate into a number of actions to be carried out all year around or for limited periods of time: these actions relate both to the acquiring greater visibility and fundraising to finance the Association and its projects.

    Some of the actions planned for 2015 are conceived to celebrate WMI's decennial: in addition to a brochure and a video of presentation, a party will be thrown in autumn the same day of WMIT assembly.

    Moreover, ongoing press activities will be managed throughout the year by the staff and will be divided as follow: creation of an institutional press kit, send out and follow up of press releases and direct relationships with representatives of the general and specialized press.

    WMIT's communication activities also include the publication of newsletters, the publication of content on social networks and on the WMIT blog. The blog is published in the new website that will be online by spring 2015.

    Part of the communication annual plan will also be fundraising and 5x1000 campaigns (mailing, social advertising, facebook campaign, direct mailing to business consultants/accountants/tax support offices, fliers).

    In order to strengthen the relationship with general public and members, new gadgets personalized with WMIT images and logos will be produced.

    After about one year, such an approach will allow good returns in terms of visibility and "trademark" recognition on the different media. Actions that do not offer an immediate return in economic terms or in visibility (such as loyalty actions towards the specialized press, which can yield results after a considerable amount of time) will prove useful as well. For example, WMIT will have an advantage in terms of brand awareness, which - if its increase is pursued consistently – will grow year after year.

    Please look at this table containing goals, actions and objectives related to the external communication plan. The table provides a detailed idea of the general context of each goal: it covers the same two year period of our strategic planning (2015-2016), showing, in black, what is to be included in the funding period and, in blue, everything is out of it.

    Please look, also, at the Gantt chart with the timing of the scheduled actions.

    Wikimania Esino Lario 2016

    Wikimania is the annual world conference of the volunteers of Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects, organized each year by a local group in a different city in the world.
    The conference unwinds in parallel sessions: different activities, such as discussions with distinguished guests, closed meetings for discussion and working sessions related to individual Wikimedia projects, take place at the same time in different convention areas. This initiative is always open to the public and roughly a thousand people attend it every year. Starting from 2005 the event has been hosted in the following countries: Germany, USA, Taiwan, Egypt, Argentina, Poland, Israel, Hong Kong and the UK.

    Wikimania 2015 will be held in Mexico City and Wikimania 2016 will be held in Italy, in Esino Lario, a mountain village in the Province of Lecco located between Lake Como and Valsassina.
    The eleventh Wikimania edition in Esino Lario arises from an idea which is certainly different from those which gave life to the previous editions; its main objective is to create a widespread event involving a large territory, aimed at involving all citizens and being something different from a major conference hosted in a central location in a world capital. Wikimania Esino Lario also aims to promote the knowledge and use of the Internet among its local population.

    The promoter of the event is Ecomuseum Grigne, which enjoys the support of some partners, including WMIT and Wikimedia Switzerland. The project management is handled by a group of over 50 volunteers and 20 institutions. WMIT will be involved both in the preparatory phase prior to the conference and during the event, from June 21 to 28, 2016. In the period of time right before Wikimania, WMIT staff will support communication and promotion, spreading the news about Wikimania through its fortnightly newsletter and other media, such as WMIT’s social networks. During the conference (for 7 days) three staff members will be registering participants.

    The involvement of WMIT could increase if the project "Wikimania Esino Lario – Being cultural protagonists offline and online" presented by Ecomuseum Grigne were to be selected among the winners of Cariplo Foundation’s grant competition and be co-financed. In this scenario, WMIT would receive a contribution of € 20,000, in exchange for extra work.

    Specifically, the Association will be required to network with public institutions in Lombardy in order to involve them actively in the Wiki world and in a local spinoff of WLM. WMIT has the task of creating a network of schools, museums and libraries in Lombardy, and to take action in organizing Wikigite and excursions. In order to promote and enhance the competition in the area, it is important that WMI supports institutions and follows the process leading to the release of the necessary authorizations.

    Since Cariplo Foundation’s grant is uncertain, the € 20,000 have not been inserted in WMIT’s provisional budget.

     
    Performance measurement - Communication Plan
     
    Gantt chart - Communication Plan



    Staff and contractors: upcoming year's annual plan

    edit
    1. Please describe your organization's staffing plan or strategy here, or provide a link to your organization's staffing plan or organogram.

    Since September 2013 the staff has consisted in 1.5 FTE (one full-time and one part-time person). Until November 2014 these two people have been in charge of secretarial activities, assistance to members, support to donors and communication. They have also contributed to the realization of the latest editions of Wiki Loves Monuments Italia.

    In November 2014 the role of executive director (ED) was established; thus staff rose to 2.5 FTE.

    Wikimedia Italia has hosted stagiaires and interns in the past: in particular since February 2015 and until the half of March, WMIT has been hosting three interns. Two, from local secondary schools, who dealt with the statistical analysis on the progress of the donation campaign of December 2014 and a university student whose commitment was directed both to the administrative activity of the office, and, under the supervision of both a Wikipedian and a university tutor, to the writing and widening of Wikipedia pages in Italian, relating to the issues covered in her final thesis.

    Moreover, a paid internship has been activated in March 2015: its commitment has mainly been the organization of the 2015 edition of the Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest. To enable this internship Regione Lombardia will recognize a contribution of 200 euros per month for the duration of the internship. By the month of July, for a limited period of time, we plan to hire an event manager to organize OpenStreetMap related events.

    Thus, by the end of the current funding period, WMIT's staff will consist of 2,5 FTE + 2 intern (for WLM, for Wikipedia) + 1 contractor (event manager, OSM for the month of June).

    From April 2015 a re-organization of the staff will take place in order to provide a specialization of areas of expertise in the functions of: 1) Administration-Management Control; 2) Fundraising; 3) Communication/External Relations; 4) Projects (Wikipedia, Wiki Loves Monuments, OSM, etc.). The ED is in charge with supervision and reports to the Board. The introduction of these functions within the structure stems from an analysis of the Association needs and of the potential of the current resources. It also responds to the strategic need to internalize the skills as much as possible so that they become an asset for the Association in the long run.

    In the upcoming funding period, we plan to recruit new staff for specific projects/activities. In particular, we have already planned for:

    • an event manager for supporting the organisation of OSM related events, recruited within the OSM community, in order to create partnerships and organize events;
    • a continuous flow of interns from universities. WMIT will partner with universities to train university students as part of their internship: they will be supervised by their university tutors and they will be encouraged to write Wikipedia articles in their field of studies, thus providing high quality content. Furthermore they will have the occasion to see how a non-profit works as it is required by the University curriculum. We also plan to hire a student coming from Master courses in Fundraising (this particular internship will be paid).
     
    Functional chart of Wikimedia Italia

    Finally, we have planned to hire a lobbyist who will work on a problem that affects the realization of WLM in Italy and, in general, any use of pictures with a free licence. The lobbyist will make advocacy towards Italian politicians and the Italian governing bodies and raise awareness in the public opinion in relation to the Italian Law "Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio" (decree no.133/2014, converted into Law no.164/2014). As we point out in the section dedicated to our specific programs and initiatives, in Italy you are not allowed to take photos of cultural heritage (monuments but also museum collections, archives, books in public domain) for commercial purpose without a proper authorisation from the proprietor/owner/managing authority. The above cited law only allows photos for personal use, the owner manages the rights and the national sites are managed by a branch of the Public Administration (the Soprintendenza). This fact turns into a huge bottleneck for Wiki Loves Monuments. As a result of these limitations the first edition of the contest in Italy was in 2012, one year later than other European countries, and to make the contest possible we need to ask every year each single municipality and institution for its authorizations to take pictures.

    Thus, by the end of the upcoming funding period the staff is going to increase at 3,5 FTE plus 2 contractors and 2 interns.

    The increase in resources is relatively modest, compared to the desired functional specialization of the staff. This choice has been suggested in the light of three considerations: 1) the need to avoid an excessive imbalance in the budget; 2) the need to have a period of adjustment and observation of the real needs of personnel following the changes planned; 3) the need to enable growth and professional training of the staff currently employed. However, the possibility of further recruitment will be evaluated during 2016, within the limits of the planned budget, in relation to the actual needs.

    2. List of staff by department or function.
    You can use this table (or substitute your own list) to show us the number of FTEs (fulltime equivalents) for each department or function, where one person working at 100% time would be counted as 1.0. We need this information about the total number of staff (FTEs) you will have hired by the end of the current funding period, and staff you will have hired by the end of the proposed funding period.

    Table 4

    FTEs
    Department or function End of current funding period End of upcoming funding period Explanation of changes
    Staff
    Executive Director
    (general management)     		0.7 0.7
    Administration - Business Management 0.6 0.6
    Communication
    Press/External Relations     		0.7 0.7
    Fundraising 0.5 0.5
    Specific projects/events:
    organization of WLM and other Wikimedia projects     		0.0 1.0 Upcoming funding period:
    We plan to hire 1 new FTE as permanent staff for all the year, mainly for WLM and other wikimedia projects (please see the row here below)
    Total of staff 2.5 3.5
    Contractors and trainees
    Specific projects/events:
    organization of WLM     		1.0 0.0 Current funding period:
    Intern for the organization of the current edition of WLM who will work for the duration of the contest
    Specific projects/events:
    organization of OSM events     		1.0 1.0 Upcoming funding period:
    1 FTE (contractor) for the organization of OSM events (for limited periods of time related to the them)
    Specific projects/events:
    trainee for Wikipedia     		1.0 1.0 Current and upcoming funding periods:
    we plan to have a continuous coverage of interns by the end of the upcoming funding period
    Fundraising (trainee) 0.0 1.0 Upcoming funding period:
    for a limited period of time
    Lobbying 0.0 1.0 Contractor
    Total of contractors and trainee 3.0 4.0
    Total (should equal the sum of the rows): 5.5 7.5 4,5 FTEs: staff member
    2 FTEs: contractors
    1 FTE: traineeship

    Table 4 notes or explanation of significant changes:

    • Executive Director: role established in November 2014;
    • Management control: new function introduced from the beginning of 2015;
    • Fundraising: new function.


    3. How much does your organization expect to spend on staff during the current funding period, or in the twelve month period before your proposed grant will start (e.g. 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2015), in currency requested and US dollars?
    Currency requested () US$ ()
    88,833.58 99,407.44


    4. How much does your organization expect to spend on staff during the proposed funding period (e.g. 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016), in currency requested and US dollars?
    Currency requested () US$ ()
    161,723.49 180,973.44


    Financials: upcoming year's annual plan

    edit

    Detailed budget: upcoming year's annual plan

    edit
    Please link to your organization's detailed budget showing planned revenues and expenses for the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016). This may be a document included on this Wiki (Meta) or as a publicly available spreadsheet.

    Revenues: upcoming year's annual plan

    edit

    This section is about your organization's anticipated revenues for the upcoming funding period you defined in the Overview section (e.g. 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016).

    1. Does your organization plan to draw on its operating reserves during the upcoming funding period to support its expenses? If so, please provide the amount you intend to draw from your reserves here. This should not be included as revenue in the table below.
    WMIT doesn't plan to draw on its operating reserves during the upcoming period. If this proposal receives full funding our reserves at the end of the funding period will be equal to the reserves at the beginning of the funding period.
    2. Please use this table to list your organization's anticipated revenues (income, or the amount your organization is bringing in) by revenue source (where the revenue is coming from) in the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2016). Use the status column to show if this funding is already guaranteed, if you are in the process of requesting funding, or if you are planning to request funding at a later time. Please feel free to include in-kind donations and resources in this table, as applicable, but use the status column to show that they are in-kind resources.

    Table 5

    Anticipated revenues for the upcoming funding period
    Revenue source Currency requested US dollars Status (e.g. guaranteed, application)


    Membership fees 7,629.00 8,537.08 Estimated
    Donations 40,044.14 44,810.59 Estimated
    Grants and Wikimedia contributions 148,950.54 166,680.12 In the process of requesting funding
    5x1000 (tax donations) 142,000.00 158,902.26 Estimated
    Funding and compensations for institutional activities 63,901.04 71,507.18 Estimated/Guaranteed
    Training courses in libraries 13,664.00 15,290.43 Estimated
    Training courses in schools 10,980.00 12,286.95 Estimated
    Regional reimbursement for WLM internship 1,400.00 1,566.64 Guaranteed
    Wikipedian in Residence BNCF 7,320.00 8,191.30 Guaranteed
    OpenStreetMap consultancy 2,440.00 2,730.43 Estimated
    Training courses on OpenStreeMap 488.00 546.09 Estimated
    Courses for “the month of training” in museums 4,000.00 4,476.12 Estimated
    Wikipedian in Residence in museums 20,000.00 22,380.60 Estimated
    Wikipedian in Residence in libraries 3,609.04 4,038.62 Guaranteed
    Occasional funding 680.00 760.94 Estimated
    Roundings and extraordinary income 10.00 11.19 Estimated
    Office rent 7,590.00 8,493.44 In-kind resources
    Total revenues (should equal the sum of the rows): 410,804.72 459,702.80 -


    Table 5 notes: If your organization has significant funding other than FDC funds, please note how those funds will be used.


    Operating reserves: upcoming year's annual plan

    edit

    Please use this section to report information about your organization's current and planned operating reserves.

    1.How much does or will your organization have in operating reserves on each of these dates?

    Table 6

    Total amount of operating reserves. Currency requested US dollars
    1 March 2015 123,507.74 138,208.87
    End of the current funding period (e.g. 30 June 2015). 80,415.54 89,987.40
    End of the upcoming funding period (e.g. 30 June 2016). 80,415.54 89,987.40


    2. Does your organization have a reserves policy in place, or a strategy about maintaining, reducing or adding to your reserves? Please share your organization's thinking about reserves here in one or two sentences, or by sharing a link to your organization's more detailed policy.
    WMIT's strategy is to maintain its operating reserves in order to cover the staff expenses for six months, also due to the fact our main source of revenues comes from 5 x 1000 which has an unpredictable timing.
    3. If your organization plans to use FDC funding to increase its reserves in the upcoming funding period, please list the amount of FDC funding your organization will use to build its reserves here (in the currency requested and in US dollars). Please note that there is a policy that places some restrictions on how much FDC funding your organization can use to build its reserves.
    Our organization does not intend to increase its reserves using FDC funding.


    Expenses: upcoming year's annual plan

    edit
    1. Expenses by program (excludes staff and operations).
    Program expenses are the costs associated specifically with your organization's programs. These costs do not include operating expenses or staff salaries, which will be described in separate tables. For example, program expenses may be the costs of an event, the costs of outreach materials specific to a program, budgets for microgrants and reimbursements, or technical costs associated with specific programs. The programs listed in this table should correspond to the programs you have listed in the programs section of this proposal form.


    Table 7

    Program / initiative In currency requested In $US
    GLAM - Libraries [1] 29,771.00 33,314.64
    GLAM - Museums[1] 34,000.00 38,047.02
    Italian Wikipedia 6,791.00 7,599.33
    OpenStreetMap 11,688.00 13,079.22
    Education Program 67,070.00 75,053.34
    Wiki Loves Monuments 10,300.00 11,526.01
    Volunteers 2,500.00 2,797.58
    Communication Plan 22,537.00 25,219.58
    Total program expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 184,657.00 206,636.72
    1. ↑ a b Expenses include the expenditure of Wikipedians in Residence

    For more details on the expenditures associated with WMIT programs, please look at cash flow of each program.

    Table 7 notes: If your organization has significant funding other than FDC funds for specific programs, please make a note of that here.


    2. Total expenses. Please use this table to summarize your organization's total expenses overall.
    These are divided into three expenses categories: (1) staff expenses from Table 4 (including staff expenses for both staff working on programs and operations), (2) expenses for programs from Table 7 (does not include staff expenses or operations expenses), and (3) expenses for operations (does not include staff expenses or program expenses). Be sure to check the totals in this table to make sure they are consistent with the totals in the other tables you have submitted with this form. For example, your total program expenses excluding staff will be equal to the total in Table 7, while your total staff expenses will be equal to the total in Table 4 and your total expenses will be equal to the total in Table 1.


    Table 8

    Expense type In currency requested In $US
    Program expenses (total from Table 7, excludes staff) 184,657.00 206,636.72
    Operations (excludes staff and programs) 56,834.23 63,599.21
    Upcoming staff total expenses (from Table 4) 161,723.49 180,973.44
    Amount to be added to operating reserves (if applicable)
    Total expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 403,214.72 451,209.37

    Table 8 notes:


    Verification that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities

    edit

    Please enter "yes" or "no" for the verification below.

    The term “political or legislative activities” includes any activities relating to political campaigns or candidates (including the contribution of funds and the publication of position statements relating to political campaigns or candidates); voter registration activities; meetings with or submissions and petitions to government executives, ministers, officers or agencies on political or policy issues; and any other activities seeking government intervention or policy implementation (like “lobbying”), whether directed toward the government or the community or public at large. Grants for such activities (when permitted under U.S. law and IRS regulations) should be sought from the Wikimedia Foundation Project and Event Grants Program .
    I verify that this proposal requests no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation for political or legislative activities Yes


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

    Please do not make any changes to this proposal form after the proposal submission deadline for this round. If a change that is essential to an understanding of your organization's proposal is needed, please request the change on the discussion page of this form so it may be reviewed by FDC staff. Once submitted, complete and valid proposal forms submitted on time by eligible organizations will be considered unless an organization withdraws its application in writing.

Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grants:APG/Proposals/2014-2015_round2/Wikimedia_Italia/Proposal_form&oldid=22420780"