Grants:Conference/Egypt Wikimedians UG/WikiArabia 2017 Conference


23 – 25 October 2017 |Cairo, Egypt


statusFunded
Egypt Wikimedians UG/WikiArabia 2017 Conference
WikiArabia 2017 will be the third annual conference for Wikipedians and Wikimedians from across the Arabic world
.
targetWikimedia projects in Arabic
strategic priorityplease add a strategic priority
amount38,404 USD
typeA group
nonprofitYes
contact• ah.hamdi@wikimedia-eg.org• mmustafa8@gmail.com
organization• Egypt Wikimedians UG


Goals and outcomes

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Goals

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Please list three to four priorities that the community has identified that they want to focus on at this conference. These should be specific and actionable.

  1. Gather as many Arab Users/effective people together to discuss the challenges, opportunities of enhancements and new ideas face to face.
  2. Develop and strengthen collaboration among Arab user groups, especially that most of them are new. Support common projects and share experiences.
  3. Strengthen the relationships and collaboration among the WMF, Wikimedians and Arab wikipedians. It’s been noticed that Arab wikipedians are not strongly engaged with the Wikimedia projects and programs; may be the most noticeable interaction is through the education program, yet it needs more.
  4. Provide support for local and regional initiatives that may affect and be affected by Arabic Wikipedia; encourage them to merge their work with Wikipedia and other projects.
  5. Sharing past experiences about GLAM, WLM, Wikipedia's education program and other regional activities, in order to expand them into new Middle eastern countries as well as further developing them in the countries where they are already employed.

learned from WikiArabia 2016

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  • the importance of keep in touch with the participants after the conference .
  • the importance of informing people about the event at a early stage to ensure participation of key people.
  • We also learned about the value of having dedicated staff who gather information and capture outcomes continuously during the conference to ensure continued work on the issue and to keep people unable to participate in-person informed and up to date.
  • *the importance of the social media in the success of the conference .


Context

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It is helpful to get an understanding of why this event is important to your community, and what experiences you have had in the past. Please answer the applicable questions below.

1. What inspired your community to begin planning this event?
The success of WikiArabia conference in the last year. (Please tell us what was successful about the conference last year.)
2. How does this event tie into other activities that your group has done?
This event will Strengthen the relationships and collaboration among the WMF, Wikimedians and Arab wikipedians. and Provide support for local and regional initiatives that may affect and be affected by Arabic wikimedia projects


3. If your community has hosted a similar conference in the past, what outcomes and benefits have you seen from past conferences?
there was many outcomes , which are listed in the past conference report here
(please write three or four bullet points about the most important outcomes of the event)
4. Please list the focus priorities identified in the report from the last conference organized by this community. What progress have you made in those areas?
Gather as many Arab Users/effective people together to discuss the challenges, opportunities of enhancements wikimedia projects and this was highly succeeded
5. If your community has hosted a similar conference in the past, what key lessons were learned, and what would you like to improve on?
  • more hands-on workshops (may be also an editathon), less theoretical sessions
  • Invite more active participants who positively ran programs and initiated unique ideas that can inspire other participants.

Measures of success

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Please provide a list of both quantitative and qualitative criteria that will be used to determine how successful the project is. You are welcome to modify, delete or add to the metrics listed below so they reflect the goals of your event.

  • Total # of participants (More participants does not equal better. More important are the experience level, level of engagement, and diversity of the participants)
  • # of female participants
  • % of participants who present at or moderate sessions
  • % of respondents to the post-event survey and survey results
  • # of new projects/partnerships initiated as a result of connections made, skills learned, or ideas shared at the conference (2 months, 6 months, and 1 year after the event)
  • # of new tools or communication channels created to better coordinate work amongst participants and the greater community

Plan

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Venue and Logistics

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Friendly space policy

(inspired from WMF Friedly space policy)

The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to providing a harassment-free venue and conference experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, race, ethnicity, political affiliation, or religion—and not limited to these aspects. We do not tolerate any form of harassment of conference participants. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any conference venue or talks. Any participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the conference at the discretion of the conference organizers.

Event Program

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WikiArabia2017/Programme

Community Input

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Grant reviewers will be interested to read how the planning discussion developed and who was engaged. Please link below to all of the places where discussion about this conference are happening, i.e. talk pages, Facebook groups, meetup pages, notes from meetings. The most central, up to date, and relevant page should be highlighted in BOLD letters.

Participation

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It is crucial that most participants have a minimum level of Wikimedia experience so that they can engage actively in workshops and discussions. Please answer all applicable questions below.

1. Please describe the target audience for this conference or event.
ًWikimedia effective Users who are interested in Arabic versions of Wikimedia projects
2. If you are requesting funds for travel scholarships, what criteria will be used to select scholarship recipients?
Active users in Wikimedia projects
3. If your conference has an outreach component, how will you ensure engagement with these participants after the conference, and what impact do you see them having on the projects?
All attendees are required to fill out a post-conference survey, in which they can explain if they find the conference useful, beneficial, and if they learned something
4. Are you thinking about inviting WMF staff to attend or participate in the event? If yes, please list individuals or teams who you may want to invite, or describe how you would like WMF staff to be involved in the event.
Yes , We are inviting all WMF staff who are interested in Wikimedia projects in the Arab World

Follow-up

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  • All attendees are required to fill out a post-conference survey, in which they can explain if they find the conference useful, beneficial, and if they learned something.
    • Speakers will be required to send a report on how their presentations will be translated to effective programs and practical work.

Resources and risks

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Describe the resource potential for successfully executing this project and the key risks/threats.

Resources

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Organizing team
Team User Names
Conference Grant Ahmed Mohi El din
Logistics Ahmed Mohi El din
Conference Program Mohamed Ouda & Walaa Abdel Manaem, Reem Al-kasihf
Scholarships Ibrahim.ID
Communications Mohamed Ouda & Walaa Abdel Manaem, Reem Al-kashif
Volunteer Coordinators Kamal Osama Elgazzar
Other team members

Risks

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Invited participants may not be able to get a visa, or may not be able to arrive for the conflicts and security issues in their countries.

How to minimize these risks include:

  • If the participant will present something or will participate in training or workshop, he/she may join via hang-out. We'll also try to broadcast the sessions online.

Budget

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Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here. See Budget Guidelines.

Event budget table
Number Item description Unit Quantity Cost per unit USD Total cost USD Notes
1. Travel costs & visas 19404.69 USD
1.1 International travel costs per participant 38 ?? 16,934.69 USD the costs are not certain yet
1.2 Visas per participant ?? ?? ??
1.3 Traveling Agency Per Participant 38 65 USD 2470 USD
2. Accommodation 7150 USD
1.1 Hotel Accommodation Rooms x nights 23 x 4 89 USD 7150 USD Accommodation in double rooms. participants will travel in the night of third day depending on the flight tickets availability
3. Venue and meals 7700 USD
1.1 Venue Hall x days 1 x 3 400 USD 1200 USD
1.2 Meals Meal x days 1 x 4 1100 USD 4400 USD For lunch and dinner at the 3 conference days as well as a dinner for the first night(dinner will be in a traditional street food)
1.3 WiFi connection Days 4 450 USD 450 USD
1.4 Transportation Buses x days 1 x 4 800 USD 800 USD
1.5 After party Nights 1 850 USD 850 USD
4. Printed materials 750 USD To print 50 notebooks, 50 t-shirt, 4 rollup and 4 banners.
5. Additional expenses 1500 USD
1.1 Management expenses 500 USD Event coordinators, tour operator (our team will work with them to decrease the amount)
1.2 Emergency expenses (Contingency budget) 1000 USD
TOTAL 36.504.69 USD
Total cost of event

36.504.69 USD

Total amount requested from the Conference and Event Grants program

36.504.69 USD

Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this event, and amounts funded

No

Please confirm that you are aware that changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

YES

Discussion

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Endorsements

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Do you think this project should be selected for a Conference Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

  • I fully support funding WikiArabia 2017, as it will bring together Wikip(m)edia volunteers from across the Arab World to work out issues related to Wikimedia projects in Arabic, as well as to promote local involvement in the movement. The past two iterations of WikiArabia have given the movement great momentum, and I can only imagine the upcoming one doing even more by learning from what worked and what didn't in the past. Holding regional conferences, such as WikiArabia, WikiIndaba, WikiConference North America, etc, are important, because they focus on issues and challenges that are unique to the respective regions, and may not apply at the broader international level. Conferences are also a great way to get more and more people to meet in person and form a true sense of community. --Fjmustak (talk) 22:59, 21 February 2017 (UTC)
  • The WikiArabia gathering helped in promoting and enriching the Arabic Wikipedia. Organising WikiArabia 2017 will enhance the Arabic contributors input and help them move forward with policies and joint projects between local communities. I really support funding WikiArabia 2017 as it comes after two successful regional conferences (WikiArabia 2015 and 2016). The diversity in the projects run within the region and the different practices will be on the table to be discussed by the different attendees who will get to exchange the best practices. Organising WikiArabia in Egypt will have a big potential to be promoted regionally in the media; as Egypt is a media hub in the region. Personally, I fully support funding WikiArabia 2017. Emnamizouni (talk) 16:28, 23 February 2017 (UTC)
  • Its a necessary conference to discover what do other arabic community around differents arabic country and other who speak arabic do. The arabic language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and Wikipedia must deserve a better place, it's a huge oportunity to increase the motivation focused on the particiapation, The arabic wikimedians mouvement need to find the best keys of succes of the arabic projects around Wikipédia : the noble cause of collecting knowledje. I think that this conference should to help the attendees to trace a future strategy to the next 10 years in concordance with the global strategy of the fundation. Mohammed Bachounda (talk) 08:52, 29 March 2017 (UTC)