Grants:APG/Proposals/2016-2017 round 2/Wikimédia France/Proposal form

Proposal by Wikimédia France to support its annual plan with ~ 726,000 USD.

Wikimédia France has three main objectives:

  • To increase content (quality and quantity), by organising edit-a-thon or free-for-all events, helping with digitisation and uploading of content. With this in mind, we form partnerships with organisations that have social objectives ;
  • To support communities interested in Wikimedia projects, by offering contribution training, educational presentations, and supporting contributors with their individual or collective projects by offering human, financial and material resources ;
  • To act on the environment (financial, legal and technical) to make it more favourable to our movement, by supporting developments, talking to the media and public authorities, and participating in fairs and conferences.

Comment on Wikimédia France's proposal here


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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.

Wikimédia France has three main objectives:

  • To increase content (quality and quantity), by organising edit-a-thon or free-for-all events, helping with digitisation and uploading of content. With this in mind, we form partnerships with organisations that have social objectives ;
  • To support communities interested in Wikimedia projects, by offering contribution training, educational presentations, and supporting contributors with their individual or collective projects by offering human, financial and material resources ;
  • To act on the environment (financial, legal and technical) to make it more favourable to our movement, by supporting developments, talking to the media and public authorities, and participating in fairs and conferences.


2. Name, fiscal year, and funding period.
  • Legal name of organization: Wikimédia France, association pour le libre partage de la connaissance
  • Organization's fiscal year: 07/01-06/30
  • 12-month funding period requested: 07/01/17-06/30/18
  • Currency requested: 686,000 Euros (€)
  • Name of primary contact: Nathalie Martin


3. Amount requested.

Table 1

Currency requested (1 EUR) US$ (1.05939 $)
Total expenses for the upcoming year 1,101,700 1,167,130
APG funding requested for the upcoming year 686,000 726,742
Amount of funding received from WMF for the current year 570,000 603,852


4. How does your organization know what community members and contributors to online projects need or want? Does your organization conduct needs assessments or consult the contributors and volunteers most involved with its work?
  • Please, look below (in "Foreword")


5. Please provide a link to your organization's strategic plan, and a link to your separate annual plans for the current and upcoming funding periods if you have them.


Financials: current year edit

The purpose of this section is to give the FDC an idea of how your organization is receiving funds and spending funds toward your current plan. Your current funding period is the funding period now in progress (e.g. 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2016 for most organizations).


Table 2

Financials for the current funding period
Revenues or expenses Planned (budgeted) Actual, until one month before the proposal due date Projected
Currency requested US dollars Currency requested US dollars Currency requested US dollars
Revenues (from all sources) 1,086,000 1,184,516 970,982 1,028,649 1,101,700 1,167,130
Expenses 1,086,000 1,184,516 780,281 826,622 1,101,700 1,167,130

Table 2 notes:

  • Our quarterly budget follow-up will be done in mid-April. We will be able to transmit it to this period. To know our previous budgetary follow-up, you can consult our half-year report


Metrics edit

Table 3

Shared metrics

  1. Participants: The number of people who attend your events, programs or activities, either in person or virtually. This definition does not include people organizing activities, social media followers, donors, or others not participating directly.
  2. Newly registered: The number of participants that create new accounts on a Wikimedia project. These include users who register up to two weeks before the start of the event.
  3. Content pages: A content page is an article on Wikipedia, an item on Wikidata, a content page on Wikisource, an entry on Wiktionary, and a media file on Commons, etc. This metric captures the total number of content pages created or improved across all Wikimedia projects.

Grantee-defined metrics

  1. Press mentions: Number of press mentions (national press, local press, websites...) of the association or an action.
  2. People trained: Number of people trained (during editathons, trainings, workshops...).
Program Participants Newly registered Content pages Press mentions People trained
Axis 1 9005 2370 11400 86 4065
Axis 2 420 20 300 17 255
Axis 3 540 330 5000 37 445
TOTAL FOR ALL PROGRAMS 9965 2720 16700 (and 10550 reuse on the Wikimedia projects) 140 4765


Programs: upcoming year's annual plan edit

FOREWORD
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This proposal was drafted by taking into account the feedback given on the previous proposal and the work carried out in drafting the new action plan (2017-2019 - currently being prepared). We studied previous proposals, both from Wikimédia France and from other chapters, in order to give a better overview and a better understanding of the activities we plan.

What emerged from this, is that we need to take account of a number of factors:

  • The necessary link between action plans and FDC applications;
  • The need to design activities with the potential for duplication throughout the movement;
  • An appropriate and stable assessment method (to facilitate monitoring);
  • An initiative favouring the diversity of the different stakeholders;
  • The need to take account of previous results and to commit to a process of ongoing improvement;
  • The need to meet the aspirations of the various communities.

Additionally, the members and contributors have been the subject of surveys, polls and interviews. A survey was posted on the village pump on September 21, 2016.

An e-mail was subsequently sent out to our local groups (on December 1, 2016) requesting their views on three questions:

  1. How can Wikimédia France contribute to the development of the content of Wikimedia projects?
  2. How can Wikimédia France contribute to organising and motivating the communities of contributors or advocates of these projects?
  3. How can Wikimédia France promote and defend Wikimedia projects?

Finally, the most heavily-involved stakeholders in Wikimédia France met up in January 2017 for a weekend, to jointly sketch out the overall architecture for this plan. The result was a number of guidelines, but also the drafting of various diagrams, which are attached to this application. The first, which you will find for each action, takes the form of an impact mapping exercise making it possible to understand at a glance the objective pursued, the stakeholders involved, and the way they are involved. The second is a radar chart drawn up based on indicators described by the participants as being decisive in the success of an activity. This is an a priori evaluation enabling us to design the implementation of a project or otherwise.

THEME 1 - CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
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Item A: Focusing on heritage
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Description of the initiative

Several activities carried out by the association were designed with the aim of enhancing the content about French heritage on Wikimedia projects. This fairly vast historical and cultural theme is one of significant interest to the volunteers and already accounts for a large number of Wikipedia articles. Heritage (and particularly local heritage) is a subject that interest the general public, especially when focusing on local aspects but which often lack illustrations. For this reason, Wikimédia France is seeking to involve the public in Wikimedia projects. Among other things, this involves taking photos (for Wikimedia Commons), something which is easier for inexperienced members of the public than drafting encyclopaedic articles for example. This theme also enables our local groups to easily embrace these activities and adapt them. The four projects described below are focused on the taking photographs (or videos) of various forms of heritage: architectural, natural, but also culinary, craft-related or cultural heritage etc.


L’Été des régions (The Summer of the regions)


 
Pictogramme pour demande FDC


With its 35,000 communes (towns), France has an extensive and well-developed territorial structure, a result of its history. In order to make this complexity, this diversity and this variety accessible via Wikipedia, the "Été des régions" activity (Summer of the Regions) was launched in summer 2015, by inviting large numbers of holidaymakers and Wikimedians to take photos of the French regions and contribute them to Wikimedia Commons. The objective was twofold: to illustrate Wikipedia articles on the French towns while at the same time making local stakeholders aware of Wikimedia projects. During the events held over the last two years, this campaign has made it possible to contribute almost 30,000 photos to Commons, of which 13,000 have already been reused on Wikipedia. Contacts have also been forged with the Association des maires ruraux de France (Association of French Rural Mayors) and other local public institutions which have raised awareness of and supported the initiative. Encouraged by its success, we will be continuing the event for the third year running, with all the same ingredients (an explanatory website, communication tools and targeted action focusing on town halls).

Ma Commune Wikipédia (My Wikipedia Town)


 
Ma commune


Following on from the Été des régions and to boost our activities on the popular topic of France's towns, we initiated last year a second activity titled "Communes de France" (French towns). This is a web platform aimed at encouraging people to contribute to Wikimedia projects on the theme of the French towns by supplying an overview of the missing information for each town. The theme offers definite advantages for such a website: firstly, the strictly structured nature of the Wikipedia articles on the towns makes it possible to easily check their completeness ; and secondly this subject, with its local focus, makes it possible to attract new contributors, whether these are staff from the councils in question, tourist offices or simply local residents. The website will make it possible to automatically evaluate (using a script developed for this purpose) the content on Wikipedia in a town article, and therefore its state of progress. It can be extended to verify the presence of articles on noteworthy related subjects (such as for example historical monuments), but also content on sister projects: photos of the town on Wikimedia Commons, data related to it on Wikidata, etc.

To encourage use of this site, we will be working with the Association des Maires de France and the Agence du Numérique (Digital Agency). Within the scope of “Opération Libre”, or simply to help the towns to adopt a digital strategy focused on openness, the website "Ma commune Wikipedia" (My Wikipedia Town) should provide us with additional future opportunities for action in all parts of the country. This concept can be easily replicated in other countries, as all is needed is to integrate the list of towns to the website via Wikidata. Work is also underway to link the website and the Communecter community.

Wiki Loves Monuments and new photographic competition


 
Wiki loves.png


Photographic competitions such as Wiki loves Monuments or Wiki loves Earth came about at the initiative of volunteer contributors, both with the aim of motivating the existing community but also of encouraging contributions to Wikimedia Commons on a given theme. The objective is to help the general public discover Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, and even recruit new volunteer photographers. This year, the Wiki loves Monuments competition will be repeated and its scope extended: the competition will now be open to other architectural objects and aspects covered by a number in the Ministry of Culture's official database and not only to historical monuments. This decision follows brainstorming by the members of the association aimed at injecting new dynamism into these competitions, which has also seen the emergence of new ideas for photographic competitions. Several members are keen to organise a Wiki loves Science initiative, which will focus on taking photographs of well-known scientists, laboratory equipment and instruments, in addition to producing scientific diagrams to illustrate articles on chemical, physical and medical phenomena, etc. The competition will be publicised in a targeted manner to the scientific communities.

Raising the profile of craft-related and musical heritage

In our previous application, two new activities were presented:

  • The recording of musical activities to document Wikipedia articles concerning traditional music and songs.
  • An operation aimed at documenting craft-related and industrial practices, particularly through the filming of videos.

Several experiments took place last year. The development of the Lingua Libre tool (please see below) on which the first activity was based influenced our capacity to carry out this operation. A recording test has already been performed with a poem in the Alsatian language. This year, with the continuation of the Lingua Libre initiative, we intend to boost this activity to facilitate the contribution of high-quality recordings to the projects.

Concerning the documentation of traditional practices, a number of local initiatives have already proved successful. For example, in February 2017, Wikimedians visited the Musée de l'ardoise de Trélazé (Trélazé slate museum) to document Wikipedia articles describing the region's industrial past. Training for members of Wikimedia France in the video filming of items will be organised during 2017-2018. We consequently hope to build on the gains achieved with these two activities, by proposing that local groups implement them in their areas.


Impact mapping - L’Été des régions (The Summer of the regions)

 
Impact mapping - Summer of regions Wikipedia


Impact mapping - Ma Commune Wikipédia (My Wikipedia Town)

 
Impact mapping - Communes de France


Impact mapping - Wiki Loves Monuments and new photographic competition

 
Impact mapping - Wiki Loves Monuments and new photographic competition


Risks

The photographic competitions or campaigns run the risk of running out of steam after several events have been held (this is particularly true with Wiki Loves Monuments), especially as the number of sites for which illustrations do not yet exist on Wikimedia Commons naturally reduces over time. For this reason, the volunteers are giving thought to new themes for such competitions or campaigns (hence the emergence of Wiki loves Science or the project to raise the profile of the artistic trades). Concerning the "Communes de France" (French towns) initiative, this requires development skills combined with a sound knowledge of Wikimedia projects: the people possessing such skills are rare within the association and calling in outside developers can be costly, which makes the project dependent on special financing. Boosting the skills of an employee and of several volunteers is therefore necessary, particularly regarding training in the use of Symfony (already undertaken by the employee with responsibility for this field).

Involvement of volunteers

Involving the volunteers is vital for the photographic competitions, which require the sorting of the many illustrations submitted to the competition, then during the work carried out by the jury, comprised of amateur photographers contributing to Wikimedia Commons. Once the development work has been completed, the Communes de France tool will be vital for the volunteers within local groups, as it will enable them to train their target audiences in contributing to closely related subjects affecting them directly (their town). The "Summer of the Regions" is aimed directly at the general public, and the participation of Commons contributors to categorise the images correctly is very useful.

Strengths and weaknesses

The photographic competitions continue to attract members of the public, whether they are Wikimedians or novices, and each event makes it possible to import several thousand photographs. Nevertheless, a major investment in time and effort is required (by the volunteers in particular) for each new event. Moreover, this type of competition quickly loses its novelty value, which means that it's important to regularly update the themes covered. For its part, the "Summer of the Regions" provides for mass participation, though requiring a major investment in employee time for communication purposes. There is also a risk that the project could run out of steam. Concerning the "Communes de France" project, its main weakness lies in the development time required, but this is more than offset by the novel aspect of the website, which make it possible to encourage various target audiences to contribute.

Item B: Activities involving schools and universities
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Description of the initiative


 
Wikiconcours.png


The "Wikiconcours lycéen" (high school wikicompetition) is an educational initiative arising from a course taught in schools and high schools known as Éducation aux médias et à l'information (education to media and information), taught to all French pupils. Originally designed five years ago, within a local education authority (Toulouse) by a documentalist who was already using Wikipedia in their institution, the following year the project was carried out in partnership with Wikimédia France with the aim of moving up a gear. Several local education authorities were keen to participate and as a result the high school wikicompetition was held all over the country. On this occasion, the wikicompetition really took shape and in addition to a project page, a guide was published by the association: Utiliser Wikipédia en classe (Using Wikipedia in the classroom). This activity is now considered a priority by the Ministry of National Education, which enables us to raise awareness among and to train three target audiences: teachers, teacher-documentalists and inspectors. These groups are "opinion leaders" when it comes to advocating the use of Wikipedia to future contributors (pupils and students). For three years now, approximately 1000 to 1500 high school students have taken part in the wikicompetition each year and the teachers are actively requesting this type of operation. Next year, French-language high schools in other countries will be joining the competition (particularly in French-speaking Africa) in addition to high schools in the AEFE network (Agence pour l'enseignement du français à l'étranger – Agency for French Education Abroad). Our objective is therefore to ensure that more classes see contribution work through to the very end (the online publication of the draft) and do not drop out along the way. This requires an increase in the number of training sessions we organise in the country aimed at teachers.

During this campaign, we plan to launch a competition for a particular target audience, doctoral students (mainly those in the last year of their thesis work), given their level of knowledge and their skills in documentation techniques and researching sources, etc. The aim would be to forge partnerships with doctoral and research laboratories with the aim of having the doctoral students participate on a theme of their choice (generally related to the student's thesis) over a given period. This would essentially be a replication of the high school wikicompetition though aimed at doctoral students. One of the objectives is to use this competition to find new teacher-researchers and research laboratories, in order to develop opportunities for cooperation together. We will also be seeking approximately 2000 to 3000 pupil/student contributors each year and 200 teachers proposing educational projects.

In the same way, we will continue participating in research colloquiums and academic conferences. This year, we participated in the drafting of two white papers (best practices guide) on the participating sciences, an overview of research in France and the various tools to be introduced to bring civil society and stakeholders in the research sector closer together. Via numerous working groups involving selected associations, ministerial project managers and mediators, we have been able to propose theoretical contributions and concrete recommendations. One of these white papers will be the subject of a submission to the National Assembly (French parliament) next April. An increasingly favourable context is developing in which we can promote our positions and underpin the association's legitimacy in this field.

Impact mapping

 
Impact mapping - Involve students and enrich Wikipedia through competitions.png


Risks

The wikicompetition (running for five years now) has become a durable activity thanks to the involvement of the Ministry. Five months ago, the CLEMI (Centre de liaison aux médias et à l'information - Media and information liaison centre) underwent internal restructuring and our usual contact changed job. This has not derailed the initiative, for which a new project leader has been appointed internally. However, the potential risk would be a major restructuring of our partner’s organisation, entailing disruption to or the end of our partnership.

Concerning the future competition aimed at doctoral students, the risk would be to fail to establish a sufficient number of partnerships to reach the detailed objectives explained above.

Involvement of volunteers

Various volunteer communities are involved both before and during the project. Firstly, during the training of teachers, which generally occurs around September each year and secondly throughout the competition, to answer questions from the teachers and pupils, to support the participating classes and to collect the contributions. Volunteers are also involved in the evaluation of the contributions (as part of an eight-people jury). The education and research working groups are informed and involved during events and colloquiums for example.

Strengths and weaknesses


 
WikiConcours Lycéen et Doctorant - Radar


The high school wikicompetition is now well-established and requires less involvement by employees and volunteers than previously. Other chapters are looking into replicating it in their respective countries (particularly Switzerland and Germany). Moreover, more teachers are now trained in contributing to Wikipedia, allowing for easy management of the initiative within the participating classes. Concerning overall awareness of this activity, we have noted that it is not very well known among the general public, but it is within the educational community thanks to press coverage. The approval of the association by the Ministry of National Education recognises our organisation as being complementary to public education and the fact that the high school wikicompetition is an educational activity officially categorised as a national action from this year onwards are also solid proof of progress.

Item C: Building awareness among the general public
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Description of the initiative

Building awareness among the general public is a central aspect of Wikimédia France’s activities, as simply improving their understanding of Wikipedia is a vital first step in getting them to contribute to the encyclopaedia or to other Wikimedia projects. Fostering this awareness among the public, which can extend to training, is mainly achieved in two ways: presence-based and online. For the presence-based aspect, this chiefly takes the form of edit-a-thons and contribution workshops which seek to offer people their first experience of Wikimedia projects (mainly Wikipedia and to a lesser extent Wikimedia Commons) in a given location and setting, with small groups and over a very limited period (generally a day). This is now further enhanced through awareness building online via the WikiMOOC, a six-week MOOC providing more in-depth training on contributing to Wikipedia for a large number of surfers (several thousand and potentially even more) in a simultaneous manner. The presence-based awareness building activities (edit-a-thons, workshops, conferences, etc.) and the WikiMOOC complement one another perfectly and it is by no means rare to find participants from the edit-a-thons in the WikiMOOCs, or alternatively to meet people having taken part in the first WikiMOOC during the awareness building activities. Furthermore, Wikidata is a very hot subject right now, and we are running specific awareness building initiatives, particularly aimed at public institutions with the objective to arranging mass data import, and also aimed at target audiences interested in the semantic web. On this point, a version of MOOC on Wikidata is also being considered if we produce a MOOC platform.

Continuation and diversification of the edit-a-thons


 

The cultural and heritage-related institutions (GLAM), local authorities, associations and other organisations regularly ask us to carry out edit-a-thons. Over the last six months, 25 edit-a-thons have been organised, involving 250 people, leading to the improvement of more than 750 articles on Wikipedia. In partnership with these institutions, the edit-a-thons generally held within a documentation department with IT workstations and Internet connection available. In 2014, we edited a guide aimed at institutions wishing to carry out such activities and a second version was published in early 2017 as response to new requests. The guide will also be translated into English shortly, to make this accessible to a wider number of people and to those chapters expressing an interest. The edit-a-thons also have the aim of providing training for the various target audiences for the Wikimedia projects (archivists, curators, the general public, doctoral students, etc.) and partners (museums, archives, local authorities, etc.). Aware that the edit-a-thons make it possible to significantly influence Wikimedia projects, we plan to adopt edit-a-thon themes which have been used throughout the world such as minority languages or women. We plan to increase the number of edit-a-thons aimed at diversifying the profiles of our contributors, including by encouraging more women to contribute (in partnership with the associations and foundations working in this field as part of civil society) and contributors from a specific language to create content related to these themes. A civic service member will shortly be arriving to enhance the profile of the edit-a-thons carried out in partnership with Wikimédia France, particularly by means of a project page on Wikipedia with reports, case studies and feedback. Thanks to this portal, the idea is to raise awareness among potential new GLAM partners with a view to organising corporate activities (edit-a-thons, the contribution of content to Wikimedia projects, etc.). Our objectives in quantitative terms are to organise 70 edit-a-thons supported by Wikimédia France, with a contributor retention rate of 5% to 10%.


The third WikiMOOC event


 


The WikiMOOC came about from an idea submitted by a volunteer contributor in 2014. From 2015 onwards, a group of Wikipedians set about designing it (key numbers), after having requested support from Wikimédia France. The same group repeated this initiative in 2016 for WikiMOOC #2, which was held from March 6 to April 19, 2017. The aim was and still is to have an innovative training resource (the MOOCs) available online to reach a larger number of people than presence-based training can achieve. The objective is both to raise awareness of the way Wikipedia works and to recruit new contributors. The volunteer team and the association are also seeking to diversify the profile of new contributors, a large majority of whom are Westerners and male. Consequently, more than 6000 people registered for the first MOOC of whom 36 % were women and 19% Africans, resulting in the publication of 500 articles (further information). At the time of writing, the second one attracted 4000 people, with the proportions of women and Africans similar to those seen in the first event. The objective for the third one is threefold:

  • To perfect the new optional module (added in the 2017 event) focusing on wikicode, in order to meet a demand expressed by trainees;
  • To carry out video interviews with volunteer Wikipedia contributors, who talk about their daily experiences in order to make the course more "human";
  • To recount anecdotes (media-related or legal, etc.) related to Wikipedia and referring to persons or events known to the general public (for example: explaining why an article on a celebrity has been deleted). The goal is to make the MOOCs user friendlier.

Now that the MOOC is well-established, the aim is to concentrate on improving its infrastructure, through the development of a MOOC platform for the whole Wikimedia movement, which will also make it possible to create MOOCs more easily on other Wikimedia projects (Commons, Wikidata, etc.).

Developing a Wikimedia MOOC Platform

After completing two WikiMOOC courses on the FUN platform, the French WikiMOOC team has extensively sought an alternative platform to better suit our needs. The team has noticed that MOOCs platforms as they are generally designed (for example using OpenEdX or Moodle software) do not fit the needs for MOOCs tackling with Wikipedia or other related Wikimedia projects.

  • attendees usually register on the platform and create an account on Wikipedia[note 1], they have two usernames and there is no easy way to identify who on the MOOC platform is who on Wikimedia projects. This is a major issue for the pedagogical team because the teachers need to know who the pupils are on both platforms:
    • to help attendees when they ask questions about Wikipedia on the MOOC forum;
    • to evaluate the work produced by attendees on Wikipedia, especially in the case when completing the MOOC successfully provides them with a certification.
  • attendees need to permanently switch between the MOOC platform and Wikipedia in order to practice, but roundtrips between the platform and Wikipedia[note 1] are disturbing and cumbersome for attendees, as the MOOC platform and Wikipedia don't have anything in common: interfaces are completely different, there is no easy way to navigate between the two websites...[note 2]
  • there is no possible (public) data communication from Wikipedia[note 1] to the MOOC platform, in order to evaluate practical exercises attendees are expected to do on Wikipedia (for example: we might expect the platform to identify automatically when attendees fulfil specific edits on their draft page, and to update the file registering students progression).

Our goal is to build an international platform to host courses and MOOCs for every Wikimedia project (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikidata...) in every language, a platform which will be suitable for Wikimedia chapters’ and communities’ needs, and a platform adapted to MediaWiki technology (more details on metawiki: Wikimedia MOOC platform, « Platform general specifications ») The platform will:

  • use single sign-on (SSO) interface: people register on the platform and this automatically creates a corresponding SUL account;
  • allow an easy reuse of courses, through a CC BY-SA licensing policy, in particular the courses reuse (in private sessions, SPOC) in an academic context, for students;
  • have a compatible visual interface, adapted to Wikimedia projects interface and design;
  • easily communicate (data) with MediaWiki websites of the Wikimedia Movement;
  • allow easy roundtrips with Wikimedia projects;
  • have an English & French interface for attendees and teachers team, furthermore easily translatable in every needed language;
  • have an interface that promotes the Extension:GuidedTours use by teachers teams, and which use or is linked to the WikiEdu Dashboard, in order to easily follow attendees edits;
  • have a flexible "peer review" functionality, which would allow the teaching team to cancel or add reviews, etc.

This platform will be able to host courses on Wikipedia, on Commons, on Wikidata and other projects, but also courses on "how to use Wikipedia in the classroom" aimed at teachers, or on "how to create an edit-a-thon", etc. The University of Lorraine is also interested in possibility of reusing the courses in an educational environment and a partnership may possibly be established with it. To make a success of this project, initially we need financing to recruit someone with responsibility for drawing up a list of requirements and specifications for the platform, in coordination with the movement’s other organisations. This initial stage must be implemented conscientiously and with great consideration to ensure that the development phase proceeds smoothly.

Promoting the Wikidata project


 
Wikidata timeline


Wikidata will be five years old this year. Wikimedia France provides ongoing support to the community of contributors to this project, organising workshops, training for the general public or contributors from other projects, presentations at conferences and by participating in activities aimed at massively importing data (please see the Mass Upload section).

This support has two main aims: firstly, to ensure that contributors to the various projects better understand Wikidata’s potential and take this onboard, and secondly to make Wikidata a "go to" resource for institutions wishing to publish their data as open data.

However, although we are witnessing increasing interest in this project, this is a "two-speed growth. The institutions seem to encounter difficulties in appreciating the value of Wikidata, and this has resulted in numerous requests for presentations and even support for the contribution of content. However, for its part the enthusiasm shown by contributors is somewhat patchier, and a certain amount of reticence is still encountered. Consequently, the actions undertaken by Wikimédia France will take two forms: by drawing upon local groups, we wish to identify and train key players able to expend and disseminate the training programmes currently proposed, and mainly in Paris. This recruitment work will also be undertaken during "tech" events (such for example during the Semantic Camp Paris). Benefiting from these new contacts, Wikimédia France will be able to get more closely involved with cultural and administrative institutions keen to open up their data.

Additionally, there are also plans to consult the community to find out if it wishes to see us develop a gadget making it possible to modify Wikidata data directly from Wikipedia (with the incorporation of data from Wikidata being debated within the French-speaking Wikipedia community).

Finally, as planned, the Rencontres Wikimedia in November 27 will be focused on Wikidata. In partnership with Paris XIII University, Wikimédia France will be giving a three-day presentation on the challenges of open data. The first day will be mainly intended for stakeholders from the cultural and administrative institutions. The second will combine the interests of the institutions and contributors. The last day will be given over to time to practice the Wikidata project, including: presentation, introduction and contribution.


Impact mapping - Continuation and diversification of the edit-a-thons

 
Impact mapping - Editathons


Impact mapping - The third WikiMOOC event

 
Impact mapping - WikiMOOC3


Impact mapping - Promoting the Wikidata project

 
Impact mapping - Wikidata - Training workshops


Risks

Concerning the edit-a-thons, the risk is that we may not initially have enough volunteers to supervise them, such as for example for Art + Feminism (around 100 participants in all). However, the tendency is for this risk to diminish as the partners become more self-sufficient, something which is essential, concerning the management of the project and the organisation of the participants (Wikimédia France's different partners are now running autonomous edit-a-thons in 2017 and only require our help for communication with the volunteers) (please see the Open Content part). For its part, the design of the MOOC chiefly lies with the volunteer team, although this team generally lacks time, making support from an employee essential. However, this investment is now set to reduce (please see above). Furthermore, the team is dependent on the current MOOC hosting platform, which is unsatisfactory as it is not adapted to our constraints. The employee with responsibility for the WikiMOOC has also started work on the specifications for a MOOC hosting platform and has begun contacting other stakeholders in the movement, including several chapters, to obtain details of their requirements. Nevertheless, the necessary investment in time means dedicating a full-time employee to drafting the specifications, which means recruiting someone. Finally, concerning Wikidata, the low number of people possessing an advanced level of knowledge in the project makes the support of an employee essential, limiting the number of training sessions which can be performed.

Involvement of volunteers

According to the location of an edit-a-thon, its theme, the partner and other possible factors, various volunteers are involved. These can be volunteers from a specific region or volunteers possessing links with the theme in question. They are generally involved at several different levels:

  • Ahead of the edit-a-thon, to guide the selection of sources and articles to be improved;
  • During the edit-a-thon as trainers and participants;
  • After the edit-a-thon, when this makes it possible to generate dynamism within a local group.

For the MOOC, around a dozen volunteers are directly involved, at all stages, especially as this takes place at their initiative. Apart from the design team, numerous contributors are involved in the MOOC in varying degrees. The education team is also involved in the planning and design of the Wikimedia MOOC Platform specifications (but not in the project management or development work). Concerning the activities related to Wikidata, although the Wikidata community includes a number of French speakers, few of them are involved in the organisation of events aimed at getting the project known, hence the benefit of training.

Strengths and weaknesses


Working closely with a GLAM or local authority, an edit-a-thon can be replicated regardless of the partner in question, as long as he has a documentation centre with sources. The edit-a-thons carried out by or supported by the association are regularly mentioned in the press (link to the press review) making it possible to raise awareness of the association among the general public and the GLAMs. This type of action is not new (training workshop followed by a contribution period) although the contribution theme often is, the latter meeting the needs of a community and of the participants in the Wikimedia movement, such as the diversification of contributor profiles (more women or isolated groups for example). We should also note that the edit-a-thons provide an opportunity for the association and the Wikimedia movement to forge long-term partnerships with GLAMs wishing to open up and publish their media on Commons (GLAM policy).

The WikiMOOC is an innovative activity which reaches a large number of web surfers with profiles more diverse than on Wikipedia. It is now easy to replicate from year to year, but nevertheless required a major investment in time (but low financial expenditure) in terms of both volunteers and employees, to design the first two events. This investment should significantly reduce for the third and subsequent events, with fewer "tweaks" being required than after the first event.

The Wikimedia MOOC platform will significantly benefit the movement over the long-term. We have discussed this with several chapters, all of whom were enthusiastic and of whom several have already indicated that they would like to support this action. It will also benefit from the experience of the French language WikiMOOC team and of Wikimédia France in the MOOC field. On the other hand, it will require significant resources (one person for the creation of the specifications and the identification of the requirements of other stakeholders in the movement, followed by developers and designers) over the long-term (a developer will be necessary to maintain the platform). Finally, regarding activities concerning the creation of awareness of and the provision of training in Wikidata, Wikimédia France is well placed to directly support the project community, and is seen as a key contact by institutions looking to use Wikidata. The training can be easily replicated in other places or contexts.

Item D: Providing contributors with free access to high-quality sources
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Description of the initiative


 
Bibliothèque Wikipédia


This action originated with suggestions and requests from the community of Wikipedia contributors. This community was formally consulted on two occasions in 2016, and these questionnaires revealed that one of the requirements most often expressed by the contributors was free and easy access to high-quality sources for the drafting of articles The English language The Wikipedia Library project has existed since 2013 and, through partnerships with publishers, makes it possible to supply free access to various sources for experienced contributors able to justify their requirements. Only around half a dozen French language sources are accessible in this way and the community has listed numerous sources to which it would like access, in particular sources from the mainstream media. The task therefore involves meeting the needs expressed by the community to directly improve the reliability and quality of Wikipedia articles. To achieve this, we will be contacting the various publishers (in particular the French language press) to obtain free user accounts making it possible to access their publications or their archives which are usually accessible on a for-payment basis. Furthermore, an employee will manage the distribution (to the contributors) of the user accounts, for the few sources already accessible: this off-putting administrative task was handled up until now by two volunteers, one of whom is no longer available.

Impact mapping


 
Impact mapping - Bibliothèque wikipedia

Risks

The only risk is inherent to the project itself: the publishers may be reticent to join forces with Wikipedia and to supply contributors with free access to the sources they publish. On the other hand, they may perhaps be keen to get involved in our initiative to improve the quality of the information published on Wikipedia, at a time when the media use (and abuse?) the expression fake news and post-truth era, or even be flattered that Wikipedia considers their publications as reliable.

Involvement of volunteers

The contributors are very interested in the project but do not possess the skills and experience needed to approach publishers, and even less so those needed to manage the allocation of accounts, an off-putting task. It is therefore anticipated that an employee will handle this.

Strengths and weaknesses


 
Bibliothèque Wikipédia - Radar


This action generates significant involvement and loyalty from volunteer contributors and requires only moderate resources to achieve long-term results (once established, partnerships can be easily renewed). Finally, the association is the only organisation able to perform this action and forge the necessary partnerships

Item E: Languages
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Description of the initiative

France enjoys an extraordinary linguistic richness. This linguistic diversity is also expressed via the Wikimedia projects. There are 11 language versions of Wikipedia in regional French languages, with most of their editors living in mainland France. Most of the speakers often contribute to at least two versions of Wikipedia: that of the "national" language and that of their minority language. However, these projects in minority languages often encounter a number of intrinsic problems. Due to the ban on teaching minority languages and their marginalisation, limiting them to being a simple expression of local folklore, communities of contributors are often quite limited and those who could participate in the improvement of projects are simply unaware that a version of Wikipedia exists in their language. However, a large number of associations, institutions and cultural stakeholders exist in France keen to promote their culture and language in the 21st-century. For many of them, digital technology constitutes a barrier which can be difficult to cross, partly due to the fact that this is an ageing population and consequently the number of speakers is decreasing. Wikimedia projects are often a convergence point for all of these problems. As a digital space in which people can meet and work together, Wikipedia allows everyone to participate without imposing any spelling and linguistic rules other than those which the community decides to apply. This is therefore an ideal environment in which speakers of minority and regional languages can work and express themselves.

Since June 2015, Wikimédia France has been involved in supporting contributions in minority and regional languages to Wikimedia projects. This initiative led to an initial training session in contributing for associations and local institutions working to protect linguistic heritage. Several training workshops were organised for speakers, always working with the editors of the projects concerned. In 2016, based on feedback from the partners, speakers and contributors, our work has been essentially focused on the Alemannic German and Occitan languages. For the year to come, a partnership between the Public office for the Basque language, the Basque user group and Wikimédia France should be organised to launch and implement several actions in the northern Basque area with training sessions aimed at the general public or teachers, and an edit-a-thon at the Basque museum in Bayonne. Following the first edit-a-thon in Occitan, several workshops should also be organised with the creation of the Occitan speakers group, in order to support local contributors. Similarly, along with the projects launched by Wikimedia UK, a training and awareness building exercise will be carried out aimed at Breton speakers in particular, through the numerous existing associations.

However, we noted that a lack of awareness of Wikimedia projects was not the only obstacle to getting minority language speakers involved. Indeed, the ban on teaching such languages and their exclusion from the public arena ensure that these regional languages are strictly limited to a close environment of family and friends. As a result of these policies, the ability to write the language has gradually been lost by some speakers. In order to be able to include these volunteers in the contribution process, we have therefore come up with an online recording tool: Lingua Libre.

Similarly, French sign language should be included in the Wikimedia projects. In France, it is considered in the same light as a regional language such as Corsican. On Wikimedia Commons, only 32 videos exist in French sign language. Keen to continue our efforts aimed at these diverse linguistic communities, a special project will be launched in 2017 thanks to the partnership with the Signes de Sens association.

This problem concerning the integration of minority languages within Wikimedia projects seems to be becoming increasingly prevalent within the European chapters. A learning pattern based on the experience gained by Wikimedia France over the last two years will therefore reproduced over the upcoming 2017-2018 period.

Lingua Libre


 
Lingua Libre


October 2015 saw the launch of the Lingua Libre project, a free recording tool available online. Developed in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, associations and linguistic research centres, Lingua Libre underwent a development phase from April to September 2016. Several working meetings with contributors made it possible to produce an operational interface. Since then, several test phases have been carried out during workshops, allowing us to identify the tool's limitations. These experiments have enabled us to note the capacity for a minority language speaker to record around 1000 words in 45 minutes. Today, 3700 recordings have already been produced and 478 have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Although initially designed for minority languages, the project has already taken a step towards greater internationalisation by including languages from other countries. The translation of the interface into English is also underway. The objective over the coming period is to finally complete the development of the tool by the introduction of a system for the uploading of the audio clips to Wikimedia Commons and the use of OAuth to link the contribution via Lingua Libre to the Wikimedia projects. In order to widely publicise and encourage its use, an official launch evening for the tool will take place before summer 2017. During upcoming events in the Wikimedia movement, contributors will be giving speeches to present the tool and its use (Celtic Knot, Wikimania, WikiCon). We will organise several edit-a-thons devoted solely to mass recordings. The first took place during the oc-a-thon in December 2016 and March 2017, with the support of the International Organisation of La Francophonie.

Over the coming year, a group of linguists from Strasbourg's SPIRAL University centre will be developing a new feature for the Lingua Libre tool. The idea is to use this web platform as linguistic survey submission centre. Thus, the university staff and students will benefit from the work already undertaken by Wikimedia France members making possible to obtain a large number of high-quality recordings remotely and, in return, all of the survey results obtained by the scientists will be covered by a CC-BY-SA license and may be used to improve the projects. Lingua Libre will therefore become a home for a wider scientific process, bringing Wikimedia projects closer to the university establishment.

French sign language (langue des signes français - LSF)


 
LSF


In 2016, initial contacts were established between Wikimedia France and Signes de Sens, an association working to improve access for deaf or hard of hearing persons. These meetings led to a wider initiative with multiple objectives. Firstly, people will be trained to provide training in sign language contributions. Next, the association Signes de Sens will free up 25,000 videos comprising the Elix dictionary (1 word = 1 video) to upload them to Wikimedia Commons. The final objective is to develop a new feature for the French language version of Wikipedia to facilitate the understanding of articles for deaf and hard of hearing individuals who often have difficulty in reading. This tool should make it possible to link a word on Wikipedia to the corresponding video thanks to cross-referencing with Wikidata. In order to finance part of this project, a crowdfunding exercise launched jointly by Signes de Sens and Wikimédia France will seek to raise 20,000 euros, which will make it possible to continue the production of videos in sign language (under Creative Commons license), the training of sign language interpreters and the development of this new feature.

Impact mapping - Lingua Libre

 
Impact mapping - Lingua Libre


Impact mapping - Increase sign language content on Wikimedia projects

 
Impact mapping - Increase sign language content on Wikimedia projects


Risks

The minority regional languages remain a sensitive political issue in France and any activities undertaken to raise the profile of the country's linguistic heritage can only be carried out by working with locally recognised associations and contributors. In France, each initiative launched dealing with minority languages may encounter profound reticence of an ideological nature which could paralyse the initiative. Depending on the results of the next presidential elections, support from the Ministry of Culture may radically change. Furthermore, although Lingua Libre's technical administration can be handled by volunteer Wikimedians for the moment, the pace of progress with this initiative suggests that over the medium term this will no longer be sufficient to maintain and continue development. The initiative focusing on French sign language also includes a technical aspect which will need to be addressed. The crowdfunding exercise and extensive publicity for this action should enable us to raise the necessary resources.

Involvement of volunteers

A working group focusing on this Languages theme has been up and running for two years now and will continue to work on the development of actions to promote minority languages. It includes around a dozen regular Wikimedians with a range of different profiles: Wikipedians, Commonists and Wiktionarians in particular. Moreover, we are actively working with other Wikimedia chapters and user groups to ensure that Lingua Libre benefits the entire Wikimedia movement.

Strengths and weaknesses


  • Strengths

The action carried out to support minority languages is part of our ongoing wish to support contributions of all forms in France. Several contributors had notified us of difficulties they encountered and the work carried out with the Basque User group and the Amical Wikimedia enabled us to identify the target languages (Occitan, Breton, Alsatian, Basque). The work carried out made it possible to involve new contributors in the projects through training and the organisation of local events. Building awareness of the projects also facilitates the involvement of several local institutional stakeholders and has an impact in the local press. Lingua Libre is a web interface enabling anyone to participate remotely in the enhancement of Wikimedia projects. Language communities who are regularly excluded from the digital revolution find a new means of expression and a new way to participate thanks to this tool. Thus, thanks to Lingua Libre, we are supporting contributions to the projects and enabling new communities to take part. Lingua Libre is still in its development phase but once the website has been finally incorporated within Wikimedia projects, the tool will provide an innovative new means of access and its potential uses are many and varied. With the collaboration of Wikimedia DE, Wikimedia UK, of the Basque User group and of Amical Wikimedia, we are ensuring that Lingua Libre is of benefit to the whole movement. These initiatives are also valuable sources of action for regional activities for our groups of contributors, who can get involved in the recording of native speakers and the organisation of local workshops.

  • Weaknesses

Beyond the political aspects already mentioned, Lingua Libre and the French sign language function still need to undergo several development phases and numerous technical requirements are anticipated. Although the extremely active contributors have succeeded thus far in maintaining a high work rate which ensures these projects proceed smoothly, this involvement by volunteers may no longer be enough in the medium term.

THEME 2 - WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITIES
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Item A: The French language
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Description of the initiative

  • Contribution month
     
    Contribution month
  • French language Wikiconvention
     
    Wikiconvention
  • WikiFranca
     
    WikiFranca

Within the WikiFranca network, we are supporting contributions in French, within France itself and also outside the country by supporting local initiatives. A characteristic of the global French-speaking community is that it is present on at least three continents. WikiFranca facilitates coordination and collaboration between Wikimedia participants interacting with French language projects. Two key highlights should be mentioned for the French speaking world during 2017-2018: the French language contribution month and the Wikiconvention.

The fourth French language contribution month was held from March 1-31, 2017 in 13 different countries. The objective is to take advantage of Semaine de la Francophonie event which is held around March 20 to build wider awareness of contributions to French language projects, while at the same time strengthening the WikiFranca network. From workshops to edit-a-thons or to training aimed at the general public or students, the types of activities involved are highly diverse and more widely make it possible to raise awareness among a large number of stakeholders from many different backgrounds. Benefiting from significant media coverage and our prestigious international standing, we receive large numbers of propositions each year. Over the month of March 2017, 19 events were held in mainland France, in other words more than one Wikimedia action every two days. This Wikimedian activity makes it possible to attract new contributors each year and to work with new cultural stakeholders while also reaching out internationally.

This heightened co-operation with French-speaking contributors culminated in the organisation of the French language Wikiconvention held from August 19-21 in Paris. This initial event made it possible to bring together no fewer than 140 participants from 16 different countries, including in particular several African grant holders financed by the International Organisation of La Francophonie. This meeting encouraged the exchange of information and the organisation of joint activities among the contributors. Designed and initiated by the contributors with the active support of Wikimédia France and other member chapters of WikiFranca, the Wikiconvention met the needs expressed by the French-speaking community who have eagerly embraced it and intend to ensure its long-term future.

Consequently, the Wikimedians from Strasbourg have volunteered to organise the second event in their city from 19 to 21 October 2017. Benefiting from the support of the Grand-Est region, from the city of Strasbourg and major local networks of associations, the next event should see the convention firmly established as the key annual event for the French-language community. It is to be hoped that in 2019/2020, this contributors’ meeting can be organised outside France. During the next event, there will be a special focus by the Wikiconvention on Wikipedia in Alemannic German. The venue for the meeting, a public building loaned by the Grand-Est region, will also make it possible to welcome the people of Strasbourg for introductory sessions in Wikipedia. Strasbourg's central geographical location in relation to the rest of Europe means that we can envisage German-speaking contributors coming along. The organisation and date of the second event in Strasbourg have already been discussed with Wikimedia DE with the aim of bringing the communities of contributors together.

Wikimedia France’s support for contributions and contributors also includes a strategic partnership with the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF). This working relationship and cooperation have made possible for French-speaking contributors to come along to the first Wikiconvention. However, this partnership also resulted in the creation of two positions of international French-speaking volunteers intended for African Wikimedians. The first volunteer, from Chad, arrived in Abidjan in January 2017 to work with the Ivory Coast user group. Another volunteer could work with the Tunisia user group shortly. Wikimedia France is not involved in any way in the process of selecting the Wikimedian. This partnership with the OIF helps reinforce Wikimedia’s activities and the development of user communities.

Impact Mapping


 
Impact mapping - Organize a Wikiconvention to improve the network of french contributors


Risks

The French language contribution month requires a significant investment in time, with limited resources. Indeed, there are many requests and it's not always easy to fully measure the impact of the many workshops organised throughout all of the participating regions. Similarly, for the moment, the organisation of the French language Wikiconvention requires significant efforts on the part of Wikimédia France, even with the support and commitment of the contributors.

Involvement of volunteers

Thanks to their international scope, the French-language activities involve large numbers of contributors. For just the month of March 2017 alone, around 100 volunteers were involved in the organisation of the contribution-focused events. The local Wikimedia France group in Strasbourg has volunteered to host it. They will be organising the arrival of the participants in Alsace and helping organise the related activities. A discussion list has been drawn up to facilitate discussion and dialogue and a programme committee including a representative from Wikimedia Canada, Wikimedia Tunisia, Wikimedia Ivory Coast and Wikimédia France has already been set up.

Strengths and weaknesses


  • Strengths

The contribution month is a major event and one which has a significant impact on our partners. The many French-language activities throughout the world and the different regions all provide excellent opportunities to put Wikimedians in touch with one another. Moreover, the edit-a-thons and workshops organised over the period have a visible effect on the projects. Wikimédia France gets involved to contribute the logistical and human assistance necessary to the performance of the activities by the volunteers. The French language projects are also sources of collaboration and cooperation between the chapters and user groups participating in WikiFranca. Having a significant media impact and facilitating the organisation of the French language community, these activities are a good way of mobilising the volunteers.

  • Weaknesses

The numerous actions, particularly during the French language contribution month, sometimes make it difficult to draw up an exhaustive overview of this activity. Similarly, the French language Wikiconvention requires significant input and financial support from the participating Wikimedia organisations and particularly Wikimedia France.

Item B: Local groups
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Description of the initiative


 
Groupes locaux

For several years now, Wikimédia France has chosen to develop content and organise its community based on the creation of local groups. These are groups of multi-project contributors, often located near the main urban areas, working together for creating new activities.

Today, 14 local groups are active and carry out various awareness building, training and workshop work throughout the whole country. Their local activism and the diversity of the themes covered each year make it possible to attract new contributors to Wikimedia projects. Nevertheless, some geographical areas are still suffering from a lack of contributors. We need to be continuing and accentuating our work aimed at them. The goal for this year is to strengthen the network and create opportunities for dialogue between local groups. Indeed, now the main urban areas have set up their groups, new requests are emerging from small towns (such as Angers or Orléans for example). We therefore need to support their emergence and create synergy to be able to share experiences and organise local peer-to-peer support.

To apply the strategy, a staff member will be focusing on organising and maintaining those groups which are already firmly established. At the same time, a second staff member will be focusing on the emergence and consolidation of new groups. The work required can differ depending on whether a group is new or well established. We therefore consider it best to divide up the task in this manner rather than based on geographical criteria (western France/eastern France) the way we have been doing up until now.

Additionally, another obstacle to contribution can sometimes be the price of the equipment needed to produce multimedia content. This is why, for several years now, the association has been investing in equipment made available to the contributors (members). This takes the form of high quality, semi-professional photographic equipment but also, for a while now, audio and video recording equipment. The local groups are also slowly getting equipped with equipment meeting the needs of their members and which helps make them more independent in their activities.

Moreover, Wikimedia France provides and organises training sessions (on topics like image acquisition and processing, use of software, etc.). Responding to requests for training is simplified by the fact that these are expressed by local groups or by combinations of local groups. Finally, the association provides help in obtaining accreditation, when official support could be useful in gaining credibility

Impact mapping


 
Impact mapping - Stabilize and support the structuring of local groups in the regions


Risks

The emergence of a new group often occurs at the initiative of a particularly motivated member. The main risk is therefore that this member may run out of steam or become demotivated before things really gain sufficient momentum. Additionally, an increase in the number of these groups results in the need for more coordination time by the staff. With several dozen actions undertaken each month, the activities in the regions are intense and very diverse.

Concerning the availability of equipment, the risks are particularly low. There is some risk of loss/theft or of deterioration, but we have insurance covering such eventualities.

Strengths and weaknesses


 
Stabiliser et soutenir la structuration des groupes locaux - Radar


Although the involvement of staff is important to meet the needs of members in the regions, organisation based on local groups has demonstrated its effectiveness and legitimacy over previous years. By becoming autonomous, the Wikimedians have succeeded in creating a network of local partners (associations, libraries, schools, etc.) who host events and support Wikimedian initiatives. The local aspect not only boosts cooperation between contributors but it is also the source of some interesting regional dynamics. Some groups specialise in specific themes. This is the case with the Nantes group for example, which has received a distinction for its workshops on women and feminism from the minister for families, childhood and women’s rights. The regional network which has emerged makes it possible to extend and boost the impact of our activities.

Item C: Making the most of our volunteers
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Description of the initiative


 
Dév. de la Com. non violente et lutte contre le harcelement


The association has noted a lack of involvement on the part of some of its members in the activities it carries out: only around a third of the members get involved. Some members do not get more involved as they see their membership simply as an expression of support, in the same way as a donation. Other members could without a doubt be interested in the association's activities or wish to develop activities themselves but are insufficiently informed on this point and therefore have no incentive. Moreover, a better knowledge of the wishes, skills and geographical location of our members (at the time they join for example by means of a form or a personalised contact) would make it easier to involve them by contacting them individually when activities are likely to be of interest to them. Improvements to the way that we welcome members will be the focus of several initiatives:

  • A personalised welcome for members, particularly by telephone;
  • The creation of a "Welcome Day" (a minimum of once a year) in each local group, to fully involve the (potential) new members;
  • The creation of a map showing the geographical location of new members but also their interests in order to be able to directly contact them more easily when an event or an action is likely to be of interest to them;
  • The creation of a booklet for volunteers highlighting the benefits they can derive from their involvement, namely training, using their volunteer activities to improve their career chances, self-assurance, etc. The idea here is that every donation should also bring something back to the ‘donor’ (gift/reciprocate).

Additionally, one of the explanations for the lack of diversity in the projects is believed to be the content and form of interactions between contributors: passive-aggressiveness, sexism, trolling, etc. However, the existence of such forms of expression may not only result from a deliberate wish to harm or humiliate someone. It can also stem from incompetence (someone not knowing how to express their ideas or opinions in any other way). Our action therefore involves the organisation of workshops focusing on non-violent communication in several major French cities (five or six dates). To this end, an external speaker will be brought in to draw up a programme.

Impact mapping


 
Impact mapping - Communication non-violente


Risks

The main risk is that the initiatives carried out to improve the way we welcome new members do not result in greater involvement on their part. Similarly, for the non-violent communication aspect, there are two risks: that the person does not realise that the problem in question actually concerns them, and the second is that only people with a high level of awareness and sensitivity to others (and therefore not our main target) show an interest in this kind of initiative.

Involvement of volunteers

The members are already involved in welcoming new members within local groups and themes, but it is necessary that the new members should be directed to the relevant local groups or themes at the time they arrive. Concerning the aspect of non-violent communication, the demand for this comes from members and contributors, who are therefore available to get involved in the organisation of training and/or the drafting of guides.

Strengths and weaknesses


 
Développement de la Com. non violente et la lutte contre le harcelement - Radar


Providing a better welcome for new members and encouraging their involvement is a purely internal action requiring a major investment in staff time over the long term (when each new person joins) and its visible results are only indirect although these can nevertheless be very important (the emergence of new actions, or making current actions easier to carry out). Concerning the non-violent communication aspect, this corresponds to a need expressed by the volunteers, and although the association possesses no particularly legitimacy concerning this subject, it can facilitate the organisation of training (by volunteers or outside associations) which must nevertheless be organised over the long term, on a regular basis. Obtaining results is something which is therefore very difficult to anticipate and can be complex to assess, as the possible beneficial effects will not be either immediate or even necessarily perceptible as a whole, if only a small percentage of the members and contributors are trained.

THEME 3 - PROMOTING AND PROTECTING PROJECTS
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Item A: Training target audiences (schools, volunteers and professionals)
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Wikimédia France is regularly asked to carry out training intended for our partners (particularly GLAMs) and teachers. The association's volunteers also request this to a lesser extent in order to improve their skills when working on Wikimedia projects or using the resources published by the association. In 2015, we published a training catalogue online with the aim of better structuring and presenting our proposals. One of the development aims of this catalogue is to focus more on professional target audiences. These training sessions make it possible to build awareness among various target audiences of Wikimedia projects, of good contribution practices, of the association's actions and, according to the organisation, to encourage them to carry out an action with us (preparation and uploading of a company's archives to Wikimedia Commons for example). These three specific target audiences require a different strategy as the approaches and expectations are not all the same.

Description of the initiative


 
Pedagogie et formation


Pupils and students are regular readers and consumers of Wikipedia, with usages changing and educational actions now incorporating the digital sphere as a means of knowledge acquisition. The number of support missions for educational projects and the training of teachers has doubled over the last six months: we are regularly asked to train teacher-documentalists and teachers in the use of Wikipedia in the classroom and in designing educational projects. These are generally focused on contribution work supervised the classroom, related to one of the aspects of the subject being taught that year (according to the educational stream). As part of this theme, the task is to support teachers from the very beginning of the project when drawing up the specifications and during the educational project itself. The approval granted to the association by the ministry recognising Wikimédia France as an institution considered complementary to public education means that we receive more requests, as among other things this legitimises our work in the educational and digital fields. Finally, the use of Wikipedia in the classroom is in line with the ministry’s digital plan, one of the objectives of which is to train teachers in the contemporary use of digital resources. The educational community has genuine expectations where Wikimédia France is concerned. This community sees us as completely legitimate when it comes to carrying out training and designing educational projects, as do the ministry's local sections. Over the coming period, we aim to continue supporting educational projects, particularly through a project currently underway in one particular area (Loir-et-Cher), involving school pupils who are contributing to Wikipedia on the theme of the Second World War Accompanied by their teachers and trainers from the CLEMI (Liaison Centre for Education and Media Information), the pupils are improving Wikipedia articles dealing with this theme. The project is currently scheduled to last a year and will be repeated next year. We hope that this action, which is being closely monitored by the region’s Prefect and the local authorities, will be replicated in other French départements (counties) thanks to our support. Our objective also concerns the provision of initial training for teachers in teacher-training colleges during Master 1 and Master 2. To achieve this, we need to make the ministry aware of the value of the training we carry out within the establishments (aimed at teacher-documentalists) and as part of the Plan Académique de Formations (ongoing teacher training) throughout the year. This training and our participation in professional shows (Educatec and Eduspot) are both actions which we will be carrying out once again next year to reach this objective.

Another target audience where training is concerned is the professional audience (employees of companies). We have started a prospection phase aimed at this particular audience via tenders in order to propose our training to training managers, communication managers and training planners.

Finally, concerning volunteers, we plan to draw on local groups (either those already created or in the process of being created) to propose training to them matching their requirements (carrying out an edit-a-thon, contacting a GLAM, organising a Wikipermanence, obtaining funding, etc.). Consequently, when a local group is in the process of being set up, the volunteers will be able to quickly gain skills in one or several subjects. The training sessions will be held in a room reserved for the occasion or in a location hosting the Wikipermanence for example, and will last a half-day or a full-day.

Risks

 
Soutiens projets pédagogiques et formation des enseignants - Radar

The risk of this project is the involvement/sustainability ratio. Indeed, the training courses are often responses to a specific requirement (improving skills for teachers) but we experience difficulties in obtaining feedback concerning the performance of educational projects in the classroom. Finally, the main difficulty is that it is not possible for the association or an independent trainer to propose training unless this has been approved beforehand during the education authority's annual meeting. The logical solution is therefore to establish prior contacts with a teacher who will then propose the training to his managers. Once approved as part of a Plan Académique de Formation (Academic Training Plan) this training can then be announced to other teachers. It is at this point that we become involved. Also, concerning professional target audiences, the main risk and constraint concerns identifying the right people to contact. Very often these people are not identifiable on the company's websites and we need to go through a number of different departments and standard addresses to reach them.

Involvement of volunteers

The volunteers in the education group, the Wikipedia contributors in the educational projects area and the members are all regularly involved in the support we provide to teachers and their training. It may be the case that the volunteers are directly involved in the classroom when this is possible. More widely, whether we're talking about a professional target audience or members in the regions, the volunteers participate in the training sessions according to their availability (along with the employee handling this action).

Strengths and weaknesses

The training sessions provided to teachers and teacher-documentalists throughout the country enable us to make people more aware of our activities, to inject dynamism into local groups (through supporting the classes participating in the Wikiconcours lycéen for example) and can be replicated both by the volunteers and by other stakeholders thanks to the online publication of the training aids and of an educational kit. The latter has also helped us to publicise activities to the general public thanks to several instances of coverage in the specialist and mainstream media. When dealing with professional audiences, the prospection work is a demanding and complex exercise, which involves a lot of follow-up work and very little return on investment at the moment. However, in the three training courses issued over recent months, we have noted a high level of satisfaction among the participants.

Item B: Open content
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Description of the initiative


 
Open content


For several years now, numerous partnerships have been established by Wikimedia France with major national GLAMs (the French national library, Musée de Cluny, Musée du Quai Branly, National Archives, Musée des beaux-Arts de Lille) or local GLAMs. All of these actions carried out in cooperation with contributors led to the organisation of edit-a-thons, training sessions, but also the development of open content initiatives within the French cultural institutions. The National archives regularly upload historical documents to Wikimedia Commons, which are reused on Wikipedia and Wikisource. However, in most cases these actions are still based 100% on the work of volunteers. Indeed, although certain GLAMs are prepared to open their content, the link to Wikimedia projects is still done by Wikimedians, and despite numerous in-person training sessions aimed at staff, we have to admit that open content initiatives struggle to exist over the longer term. Moreover, the legal risks identified by Wikimedia France with regard to lobbying activities and concerns related to the business model of French cultural organisations tend to complicate the establishment of stable relationships. Open content initiatives encounter fairly stiff resistance even if today the GLAMs are aware that practices need to change.

In 2017-2018, we therefore need to find new ways to forge a solid link between our GLAM partners and the Wikimedia projects, while at the same time facilitating the liberation of content. This programme will therefore focus on two complementary themes. The handful of informal meetings organised in Wikimedia France's premises have enabled us to appreciate to what extent the GLAM organisations needed somewhere to meet and interact outside the usual channels. Indeed, people spearheading open content projects within GLAMs rarely hold the same position. They don't always face the same obstacles in dealings with their hierarchy and the resources at their disposal can vary significantly. Above all, these partners often feel isolated when advocating such initiatives to their colleagues and faced with the contractual restrictions imposed by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN). Wikimedia France therefore has a key role to play in organising and amplifying the open content movement in France, which is still in its infancy in relation to that of the United States and other European countries. To overcome some of the reluctance, the solution also lies in fairly widescale but easily replicable initiatives such as Wikimuseum. The idea is to invite visitors to a museum to directly take photos of the museum (the building, the rooms and the artworks) for Wikimedia Commons. To initiate this OpenGLAM movement, a civic service volunteer will be joining the staff team from April 2017 onwards to launch this initiative with our current partners. The volunteer will liaise with GLAM institutions having organised Wikimedia events such as edit-a-thons. A national meeting of Wikimedia France's partners will be organised during 2017 with the aim of launching a GLAM-Wiki club. This meeting of GLAMs working with Wikimedia France should enable us to publicise the initiatives carried out, and to incorporate these as part of a wider, long-term movement. A website created in collaboration with other associations involved in free and shared content will also be launched to support the initiative. A specific communication kit will also be created before carrying out wider communication and publicity aimed at targeted stakeholders.

However, this initiative can only succeed if, over the same period, we provide these cultural organisations with easily usable tools enabling them to upload content to the projects. In the past, Wikimédia France has already carried out partnerships resulting in the mass importation of content, including among others those with the French national library or the city of Toulouse resulting in the importation of the Trutat collection and that of the Toulouse Natural History Museum. Several mass data importation tools have been developed by the Wikimedian community over the years. One of the most recent, introduced by a French contributor, is ComeOn!. Wikimedia France will be supporting its development over the coming period with the organisation of a hackathon and by increasing training for our partners in its use, to help liberate content and data.


Impact mapping - Support open content practices within GLAM partners

 
Impact mapping - Support open content practices within GLAM partners


Impact mapping - Open content website

 
Impact mapping - Open content website


Risks


 
Soutenir les pratiques d'open content dans les GLAM - Radar


Beyond the legal risks already mentioned, which will be dealt with in more detail in the section on lobbying, this action has no intrinsic risks other than the capacity of the volunteers to follow up the partnerships while the GLAMs achieve autonomy in addition to the technical capacities required to ensure the widespread deployment of ComeOn!

Involvement of volunteers

The volunteers in the regions make it possible to establish local relationships with the GLAMs. They are often the main point of contact with whom the GLAM envisages organising long-term activities. This is the case for example with the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille which has given permission for the siting of a wikipermanence on its premises. However, this cannot be handled by members alone. A GLAM working group will be reorganised and refocused on the objectives mentioned above, defined in consultation with the contributors.

Strengths and weaknesses

This action should allow for an increase in open content initiatives on the part of the GLAMs via the training and formal establishment of a coherent network of partners. Similarly, support for the development of a contribution tool like ComeOn! will encourage French cultural organisations to get directly involved in the process of contributing to Wikimedia projects. The arrival of a civic service volunteer should facilitate this project, which risks being time-consuming. However, the objectives set may encounter a number of legislative obstacles, which Wikimedia France will seek to remove.

Item C: Lobbying
edit

 
Lobbying

Description of the initiative

These activities are financed from our own funds.

Following the lobbying of collecting societies (royalty collection societies) working for its withdrawal, Wikimédia France has decided to continue its lobbying activities.

The defence of Wikimedia projects, threatened by various national laws and European directives, has now become one of our stand-alone areas of activity, with the essential objective of ensuring that the legal, social and cultural environment is favourable to the open sharing of knowledge.

The necessary involvement of Wikimédia France is made further necessary by a particular French characteristic in the intellectual property rights field. This demands investments and the acquisition of expertise by the association concerning legal issues. Our task here is to make civil society aware of the implications of the "digital law" including a "freedom of panorama" with commercial restrictions (enacted in late 2016), of the limitations arising as a result of the law on the freedom of creation, architecture and heritage, and of the scope of the text of the European directive concerning copyright reform.

Generally speaking, the challenge of this work is to make the general public aware of the wider issues concerning open culture: the field of open digital content and respect for the public domain On the plus side, the reputation, structure and experience of Wikimédia France make it today a key contact in any debate on the above-mentioned issues. A number of associations sharing our concerns expect to see Wikimédia France initiating and implementing increasingly time-consuming actions. It has today become difficult for us to respond to all the requests we receive.

With this in mind, an idea which proved popular during the strategy weekend (in January 2017) is that some of these actions should be assigned to a third-party organisation, even if we have to invest in the creation of this organisation should one not exist. Wikimédia France has therefore begun giving thought to the idea of setting up an organisation capable of handling the challenges explained above, to handle lobbying activities more widely, and to support initiatives concerning matters in which we would not normally get involved.

Impact Mapping


 
Impact mapping - Lobbying


Risks

The collecting societies are an obstacle to the free sharing of knowledge and can hinder or even block Wikimedia projects through antagonistic lobbying activities. Dealing with this constant risk means constantly monitoring and raising the alarm about such threats. This could take the form of legal action, if the opportunity presents itself, or participation in debates to raise public awareness and to clarify conflicting intentions and positions.

Involvement of volunteers

The association’s substantial reputation gained thanks to our lobbying activities, the need to have a well-identified key point of contact and the need for responsiveness when faced with the latest legal and cultural events unfortunately do not leave any scope for us to maximise the involvement of volunteers, with the main participants being the members of our Executive Board.

Strengths/Weaknesses


 
Structurer nos actions de lobbying - Radar


Including legal action against restrictive laws, participation in debates and public speaking, our activities don’t only offer a response to a long-standing problem but also make it possible to anticipate the political and legal threats hanging over our projects and to bring about a lasting impact on society. Although the very nature of this action bears witness to the association’s vital role, participation by volunteers nevertheless remains low and the resources required in terms of involvement and adaptability are substantial. Finally, although the impact is a long-lasting one, the resulting gain in public awareness also helps spread our message

Item D: Educational videos
edit

Description of the initiative


 
Vidéos


Videos offer a powerful, modern and accessible communication resource. They make it possible to present information in an attractive format, both for the public and chapter members. As such, they are a useful tool for explaining abstract notions or for use during the daily activities of our online communities. Simple and easy to consume, videos provide a passive means of consuming information. For Wikimédia France, this communication method helps meet our need to promote greater understanding of the association's activities or of Wikimedia projects. Moreover, the ease with which videos can be shared helps boost the cohesion and involvement of the communities on our social networks.

We are therefore keen to work on videos of various forms covering different themes, (for example):

  • Explaining the subtleties (or absurdities) of copyright law.
  • Conducting interviews with active members of the association to illustrate our activities.
  • Producing presentation videos ahead of certain events (the Wiki Loves competitions, French-language contribution month, the French-language wikiconvention, etc.).
  • Producing videos during our special evening events and ceremonies (the prize giving ceremony for Wiki Loves Monuments, the annual general meeting, etc.).


Impact mapping


 
Impact mapping - Videos


Risks

The main risk is that we may struggle to get the most from the videos produced and that they attract only a low number of views. We must thus pay particular attention in promoting them, particularly on social media.

Involvement of volunteers

The Communication and Lobbying working groups will be involved in this activity, in addition to the volunteers participating in the association’s major activities (Wiki loves monuments, Wikiconvention, etc.) for which videos may be produced.

Strengths and weaknesses


 
Videos - Radar


This action requires significant effort and resources, as for any video production work, all the more so as the members and employees are not all familiar with such resources. Additionally, each new video requires time and effort in its own right. However, if widely circulated, the videos are more likely to reach the target audiences effectively, getting information across in a fun and user-friendly manner.

Notes edit

  1. a b Whether Wikipedia or any other sister project, the same configuration takes place (Wiktionnary, Wikidata...)
  2. On the other hand, fulfilling the course directly on Wikipedia (or Wikiversity) is not desirable, because attendees, who are newbies, need a safe and clean space to start learning, whereas Wikipedia has a "messy interface", with many links everywhere... It is therefore not a great idea to have the courses directly on the platform being the main topic of the course.

Staff and contractors: upcoming year's annual plan edit

1. Please describe your organization's staffing plan or strategy here, and provide a link to your organization's staffing plan or organogram if you have one.

The events of the last year led us to review our organization and staff structure:

  • a special advisor has left ;
  • a community manager has left ;
  • increasing requests for public debates, lectures and hearings ;
  • the emergence of opportunities for the movement where our organization is involved (transversal and international actions) ;
  • the need to comply with new obligations and duties for our anticipated Recognition of Public Utility

Moreover, Wikimédia France must keep on efforts to strengthen its role as an interface between projects (and their communities) on the one hand and their environments (legal, media, economic, etc.) on the other hand.

In this twofold aim, to optimize human resources and good communication about our activities (according to our actions plan), we decided the following organizational chart:

 
Illustration pour la demande FDC 2016/2017

Therefore, we structured our team into 3 departments, making it easier to understand what are WMFr's core activities.

The former special advisor "fundraising and community engagement" becomes Deputy Executive Director. He will continue to oversee the financial management, he will support the off-line community manager and assume overall management of the structure. In this way, our Executive Director can more easily focus on her mission of representing the organization, promoting our values and supporting the board of trustees. Incidentally, a new fundraising manager will be recruited to still have this position filled. Finally, with the MOOC platform project, a web developer will also be hired.

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 plan to have by the end of the current funding period, and staff you plan to have by the end of the upcoming funding period.

Table 4

FTEs
Department or function End of current funding period End of upcoming funding period Explanation of changes
Executive Director 1 FTE 1 FTE
Deputy ED 0 FTE 1 FTE
Executive assistant & human resources manager 1 FTE 1 FTE
Community (off-line) manager 1 FTE 1 FTE
Community (off-line) manager 1 FTE 0 FTE The deputy ED will take a part of the mission
Community (on-line) manager 1 FTE 1 FTE
Accountant 0.5 FTE 0.5 FTE Still half-time student
Outreach & evaluation manager 1 FTE 1 FTE
Communication & events manager 1 FTE 1 FTE
System & network administrator 1 FTE 1 FTE
System & network student 0.5 FTE 0 FTE
Partnerships & institutional relations manager 1 FTE 1 FTE
Fundraising and community engagement special advisor 1 FTE 0 FTE Became Deputy ED
Fundraiser 0 FTE 1 FTE To replace the special advisor
Web developer 0 FTE 1 FTE Notably to draw up the guidelines of the MOOC platform
Total (should equal the sum of the rows): 11 FTE 11,5 FTE

Table 4 notes or explanation of significant changes:

3. How much does your organization plan to spend on staff by the end of the current funding period, in currency requested and US dollars?
  • 673,258 € (713,243 $)
4. How much does your organization plan to spend on staff by the end of the upcoming funding period, in currency requested and US dollars?
  • 681,861 € (722,357 $)


Financials: upcoming year edit

Detailed budget: upcoming year edit

Please link to your organization's detailed budget showing planned revenues and expenses for the upcoming funding period (e.g. 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2017). This may be a document included on this Wiki (Meta) or a publicly available spreadsheet.
  •  
    Budget Prévisionnel 2017-2018 de Wikimédia France

Revenues: upcoming year edit

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 January 2017 to 31 December 2017).

  • 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 include in-kind donations and resources in this table, as applicable, and use the status column to show that they are in-kind resources.
  • Do not include money you plan to draw from your reserves during the upcoming funding period.

Table 5

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


Projects grants 30,000 31,782 Estimated
APG 686,000 726,742 Requested
Membership fees 11,100 11,653 Estimated
Donations 368,000 389,856 Estimated
Miscellaneous revenues 2,000 2,119 Estimated
Other incomes 1,600 1,695 Estimated
Costs transfer 3,000 3,178 Estimated
Total revenues (should equal the sum of the rows): 1,101,700 1,167,130 -


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

  • The funds will be used in the same way than APG, but they will also fund anything not covered by the APG : for example, our advocacy campaigns.


Operating reserves: current and upcoming years edit

Please note that there is a policy that places restrictions on how much FDC funding your organization can use to build its operating reserves. If you would like to use FDC funding to for your organization's reserves, you must note that here. You will not be able to decide to allocate FDC funding from this grant to your reserves at a later date.

1. What is your plan for maintaining, building, or spending your reserves in the current year and the upcoming funding period? Please use the table below to show the amounts in your reserves at the beginning, year-to-date, and end of your current year, and the amount you plan to have in your reserves by the end of the upcoming funding period.

Table 6

Year Year start Year start (US) Year-to-date Year-to-date (US) Year end Year end (US)
Current year (e.g. 2017) 478,760 € 507,194 $ 478,760 € 507,194 $ 478,760 € 507,194 $
Upcoming year (e.g. 2018) - - - - 478,760 € 507,194 $
2. How much FDC funding is your organization requesting to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period? If you are not requesting any FDC funding to add to your reserves in the upcoming funding period, you can write zero.
  • zero


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, and do not include operating expenses or staff salaries, which will be described in separate tables. 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, for example. 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 Currency requested US dollars
THEME 1 60,722 64,328
THEME 2 97,977 103,796
THEME 3 47,012 49,804
Total program expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 205,711 217,928

Table 7 notes: If your organization has significant funding designated for specific programs (e.g. a restricted grant), 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 categories: (1) staff expenses from Table 4 (including expenses for staff working on both 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 Currency requested US dollars
Program expenses (total from Table 7, excludes staff) 205,711 217,928
Operations (excludes staff and programs) 214,128 226,845
Upcoming staff total expenses (from Table 4) 681,861 722,357
Total expenses (should equal the sum of the rows) 1,101,700 1,167,130

Table 8 notes:


Verification and signature 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. General operating support through the FDC may not be used to cover political and legislative activities, although you may make a separate grant agreement with the WMF for these purposes.
I verify that no funds from the Wikimedia Foundation will be used
for political or legislative activities except as permitted by a grant agreement
Yes


Please sign below to complete this proposal form.

IMPORTANT. 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 or fails to remain eligible for the duration of the FDC process.
Please sign here once this proposal form is complete, using four tildes. Emeric Vallespi (talk) 19:56, 31 March 2017 (UTC).