Grants:Conference/Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group/The Wiki Caribbean Forum

Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group

statuswithdrawn

Conference & Event Grant

WIS

Wikidata, Wiki Commons, Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikiproject Caribbean, WikiProject African Diaspora, 1Lib1Ref, GLAMWiki, WikiGap, AfroCROWD, Offline Wiki, Kiwix, WikiProject Climate Change, Wikimedians for Sustainability, Wikimedians for Disaster Response, Wiki Project Med

targetIncreasing Participation

strategic prioritySeptember 4-7, 2020

event dates$29,850 USD

amountplease add the amount you are requesting (USD)

typeShanluan on behalf of the Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group

nonprofitNo

creator• [[User:SherryAntoinegmail.com|SherryAntoinegmail.com]]

contact• Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group/The Wiki Caribbean Forum Mini-Conference 2020• https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedians_of_the_Caribbean_User_Group

organization• User Guettarda

Friendly space expectations

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Event overview

Purpose and vision

Please give a brief description of the event you are planning. What do you hope to accomplish during the event? Why is this event important for your community?

The purpose of the Wiki Caribbean Forum is to build capacity on the ground of new Wikimedia editors, and partners. It is an engagement conference for the existing Wikimedia community and for newcomers. We intend to hold training the trainers style events to train interested editors and potential regional organizers on WikiData, Wikipedia, Wiki Commons, and organizing Wikimedia meetups. We will touch on other topics relevant to the Caribbean community, like adding information on ecology, and meteorology, especially in the wake of natural disasters in recent years, but in the context of training about forms of contribution. Our team, being comprised of a federation of sorts of Wikimedians from different parts of the Wiki community who have organized and lead events and other Wiki initiatives, and most of whom identify as part of the Caribbean context, we are passionate about this target audience and region and look forward to working to introduce participants to the wider community. The event is small, but aims to attract local and regional Caribbean participation to learn about participating in the Wikimedia community and helping others do the same.

We are going to focus not only on Wikipedia editing but Wikidata and other important areas of the Wikimedia movement like Wiki Commons. We also want to train potential trainers. Our outreach survey showed that there are areas where many are interested in Wikimedia, but the editing numbers can be improved.

We also want a greater representation of information from the Caribbean from people of the Caribbean and its diaspora.

We propose the event be Friday September 4-Sunday to September 6 with opening reception the evening of September 4 in Nassau, Bahamas. As an intermediate-scale event ( mini-conference for 25-35 people), the Forum will serve to connect the regionally-focused Wikimedia community.

Specific goals: The event endeavors:

• To help in the promotion, development & support of efforts by and for Caribbean Wikimedians across the region.
• To promote regional integration through the bringing-together of various people groups, languages and identities across the Caribbean.
• To broaden the user group’s mission reach through to the wider community; a hands-on approach to community engagement.
• To assist in capacity-building initiatives through information sharing, developing best practices and experience sharing with regional stakeholders. Regional Stakeholders refers to academia (lecturers, students, librarians etc.), Caribbean wikimedians, Policy makers and other such influencers.
• Foster & support sub-regional groupings through the lending & developing of technical and human resource capacities. Currently, WikiCari is building out capacity in regions like Jamaica & Puerto Rico - with the hope of them breaking out into autonomus units under the regional grouping. The idea is to have units that work on localized programming with regional cooperation fostered though WikiCari.

• To foster a platform and model for future region-wide community integration & coworking efforts.
• To create opportunity for Caribbean trainers to expand their skills and experiences in delivering training that reflects the needs and context of the Caribbean region and it’s communities
• Welcome newcomers to the wiki community and talk about what it means to be a Wikipedian. The first task would be identifying the scope of "newcomers" (if no such hard-and-fast parameter exists in Wiki lexicon). From there, building out programming for their specific uses would be crucial. We are actively recruiting quite a bit of new Wikipedians with our current outreach. The hope is to involve up to a selection of them to compose a 50/50 mix in audience. The thought behind this is that training-heavy programming might be cost-intensive. For that reason, setting the agenda around ideas that transcend different stages of Wiki users would be more effective. The themes would be such like Wikipedia in Education, Pedagogical measurement using Wiki Dashboards, Teaching WikiCode, Caribbean Feminism through the lens of Wikipedia, Knowledge-as-a-Service for the public good: Democratizing information for the purpose of encouraging fact-consciousness. This is a brief summation of what I had behind the idea.

Other Areas we will look at include:

• Environment/effects of climate change for island nations
• Indigeneity
• Caribbean history
• Structured data
• Caribbean Heritage/ culture/ music
• Wiki Commons contributions

Important details

Please add key information to the table below. The dates, location and number of participants can be estimates and do not need to be finalized at this time.

Proposed date(s)	September 4-7, 2020
Proposed location	Nassau, Bahamas
Number of participants	15-30
Event page	Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group
Primary contact person	Shanluan

Background

Community input

Use the results from the community engagement survey to fill in the table below. Since you cannot cover all topics or meet all needs at one event, prioritisation is important. Please rank the priority of each topic, skill, project or problem as high, medium or low. Finally, please answer the questions below the table.

	Description	Priority
Strategic discussions: What are the top issues affecting your community that need to be discussed in person?	To help in the promotion, development & support of efforts by and for Caribbean Wikimedians across the region. To promote regional integration through the bringing-together of various people groups, languages and identities across the Caribbean. To broaden the user group’s mission reach through to the wider community; a hands-on approach to community engagement.	4
Capacity development: Are there important skills that many people in your community need to learn?	To assist in capacity-building initiatives through information sharing, developing best practices and experience sharing with regional stakeholders; academia (lecturers, students, librarians etc.), Caribbean Wkimedians, Policymakers, and other such influencers. Fostering & supporting sub-regional groupings through the lending & development of technical and human resource capacities. To foster a platform and model for future region-wide community integration & coworking efforts. Create an opportunity for Caribbean trainers to expand their skills and experiences in delivering training that reflects the needs and context of the Caribbean region and its communities Welcome newcomers to the Wiki community and talk about what it means to be a Wikipedian.	1
Working groups: Are there joint projects that need to be planned in person?	Inter-island projects; meeting with organizers for collaboration & dialogue. Working with academia and relevant stakeholders in building tailored curricula for Wikipedia in Education for the upcoming school year.	3
Community building: Are there other in-person activities are important for community building?	To assist in capacity-building initiatives through information sharing, developing best practices and experience sharing with regional stakeholders; academia (lecturers, students, librarians etc.), Caribbean wikimedians, Policy makers and other such influencers. Fostering & supporting sub-regional groupings through the lending & developing of technical and human resource capacities.	2

Survey analysis:

1. How many people did you send the survey to? How many people responded to the survey? Over 3000+ people responded to our Reader & Editor survey. The survey was served across the Caribbean, in 33 territories and in 3 languages; in English, French and Spanish.
2. Did you see consensus around shared goals that this community wants to focus on in the next 12 months? What were the top 2 goals? Consensus gained from the survey focused on developing a more active presence across the Wikimedia Community. Caribbean authors help colour content about region by those of the region.
3. Based on survey responses, what are the most important things your community should do at the conference to achieve those goals? The most pressing needs emanating from the surveys would need an agenda set around ideas that transcend different stages of Wiki users. The themes would be such like Wikipedia in Education, Pedagogical measurement using Wiki Dashboards, Teaching WikiCode, Caribbean Feminism through the lens of Wikipedia, Knowledge-as-a-Service for the public good: Democratizing information for the purpose of encouraging fact-consciousness. The user group considers the event to be the primary form of engagement. For this, the user group’s communications team will input participant data into a CRM platform; for further messaging and feedback. Additionally, the user group has already made inroads with establishing projects in some of the jurisdictions concerned. The user groupintends to continue in building on this. Yes, we intended to have WMF presence at the event. Events Team, Education Team and other like teams the foundation recommends. We believe that these teams provide valuable advisory and training help that are uniquely germane to the issue.

Context

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?

This conference is being led by the Wiki Cari usergroup, which itself first came together at WikiConference North America 2018. It was recognized that there is a broad community of Wikimedians both in the Caribbean and in the diaspora, but this community had not been able to come together before for a meeting or joint activities. A regional conference like WikiConference North America or Wiki Indaba or the CEE Conference could help to solidify a common feeling and help grow the network of connections and shared experiences between different parts of the Caribbean.

2. How does this event relate to other activities that your community is working on?

This event is a follow-up to our Carribean survey of 2018 where we reached out to readers and editors in 33 countries of the broader region and 3 languages, promoted by a geographical centralnotice banner. This brought together many new contacts both from experienced Wikimedia editors, and those working in information and technology fields who could be helpful to our efforts. Some of these we helped direct to WikiConference North America 2019, and more from this set will be able to come to the dedicated Caribbean meeting. We are also following up on previous activities in the region, such as by Black Lunch Table in Trinidad and Jamaica, AfroCROWD’s edit-a-thon and training in Dominica, Wiki goes Caribbean in Aruba, the Haiti usergroup, our presentations at Wikimania and Wiki COnference North America  and our recent joint efforts in Puerto Rico.

3. Please list the priorities identified in the report from the last conference organized by this community. What progress have you made in those areas?

This will be the first conference organized by this community, but we do have a list of priorities, some gleaned from our experiences as active members of the Wikimedia community in general.

4. If your community has hosted a similar conference in the past, what key lessons were learned, and what would you like to improve on?

We have hosted events in Puerto Rico, Dominica, Trinidad, and Jamaica. These were predominantly capacity building events.

We have learned to be flexible according to the needs and growth levels of our audience. We have also learned that each location provides an oportunity to train trainers in the community. We have also learned that providing options for continued learning without a online connection can be useful in locations that have bandwidth options or costs that can limit legnthy editing. This is why offline available video tutorials for example are helpful. In person training is also valuable for that reason, making capacity buiding events like this even more valuable. We also learned that a lot can be done via vdieo link, but on the ground helpers and organizers a very necessary. Our successful Puerto Rico event at Microsoft Puerto Rico's office, which focused on Wikidata, we organized in the span of a week over the US's Thanksgiving holiday, could not have happened without connecting with our organizers on the ground through our interviews via our strategic outreach during our online survey period (we used tools like online media, video link and other communications) and in person connection during Wiki Conference North America. A mini conference linke this forum can allow for continued connection like this to grow capacity.

Plan

Venue and Logistics

1. If the venue is more than 1 hour away from a major airport or transportation hub, how will participants travel to the event venue?

Currently, we are in the process of securing venues. All possible venues (for both accommodations and the conference itself) are within 15 minutes from each other and 15-30 minutes from the airport. Notably, the Bahamar Resort is only 15 minutes away from the Nassau International Hotel and has three hotels: the Rosewood, Hyatt and SLS. It boasts full service, offers discounted rates for conference attendees at all three hotels and also has its own art gallery, The Current, that can be booked for programming. Alternatively, we are looking into securing Airbnbs that can accommodate several attendees each.

Additional information about the venue Venues we are considering include:

The head of the University of the Bahamas has offered us the school as a venue and is excited to engage with the Wikimedians of the Caribbean community.

The National Gallery of The Bahamas: The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) was the first institution of its kind in the history of The Bahamas, announced in 1996, by then-Prime Minister, Hubert A. Ingraham, as part of a larger expanded system of museums that would record, preserve and historicize the narrative of the independent sovereign nation, established in 1973. We have an established contact at the institution.

2. Is the event venue within walking distance from the hotel? If not, how will people travel between the two locations?

Attendees will be provided with a shuttle from their accommodations to the venue daily but are also welcome to use public transportation and taxi services at their own discretion.

3. Is the event venue and hotel accessible for people with physical disabilities?

Comfort Inn and Suites is offering us a good potential option that is affordable and prioritizes accessibility. If participants wish to forgo this, other locations like the nearby Hyatt, are accessible with paths throughout the hotel and the rooms and have accessible showers and bathrooms. Baha Mar, for example, has non-motorized and motorized wheelchairs are available at the resort for transportation use only for a fee that we will cover for participants needing the service. While not yet confirmed, we will prioritize venues that are accessible to participants with a range of abilities.

4. Do you anticipate any challenges with using the space for the event you are planning?

No.

Friendly space policy

Please link to the friendly space policy that your community will be using for this event.

We plan to use the guidlines of this Friendly Space Policy.

Participation

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.

We are targeting a 50/50 mix of new Wikipedians and experienced Wikipedians. Of the new Wikipedians, most will comprise academia and students alike (composition of which is determined by applicant pool for scholarships and interested parties).

2. 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?

The user group considers the event to be the primary form of engagement. For this, the user group’s communications team will input participant data into a CRM platform; for further messaging and feedback. Additionally, the user group has already made inroads with establishing projects in some of the jurisdictions concerned.

3. 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 intend to have WMF presence at the event, especially the Events Team, Education Team and other like teams the Foundation recommends. We believe that these teams provide valuable advisory and training help that are uniquely germane to the conference.

Scholarships

1. How many scholarships would you like to offer?

We propose 15-17 scholarships for regional guests (based on the costings for the conference hitherto).

2. What expenses will the scholarship cover?

The scholarships will cover travel costs, accommodation, and conference registration during the conference.

3. How will scholarship recipients be selected?

• The selection scheme will favor two broad groups.
  1.     Established chapters & user groups: To be selected based on their boards, on-wiki discussions or general meetings of their organizations.
  2.   Individual applicants: Most active and engaged Wikimedians (preferably on Wikipedia & Wikidata), based on their submissions or, providing a lack thereof, history of on-wiki and off-wiki collaborations. **must selection scheme be transparent to everyone or just the Foundation?
  The scope of scholarships will focus on four main groups:
  

1. Nationals: Nationals of the hosting country will be within the intended scope of the scholarship, having satisfied the aforementioned scheme.
2. Regional Nationals: Regional nationals will be within the intended scope of the scholarship, having satisfied the aforementioned scheme. These nationals will be considered based on their belonging to a specific national grouping. For the purposes of this conference, these groupings include CARICOM, French Overseas Departments, US Unincorporated Territories, Netherlands Antilles or, any such lands nearby to the Caribbean Sea.[1]
3. Diaspora: Diasporic Nationals will also be within the intended scope of the scholarships, having also satisfied the aforementioned scheme. Additional . requirements dictate that the work be such within the movement, uniquely germane to the communities, identities, cultures and other parts thereof - represented regionally by the ‘Caribbean’ grouping.
4. Minority/Experts/Special Interests: Additional scope required for representation from applicants from minority/special interest groups. Such designation takes into account more qualitative descriptors; inferential. (Protected Minority List from the US to serve as precedent but not explicitly. ----[1] Nearness is contingent on distance < 200nm from the capital city. This excludes countries in Central & South America that do not fit in the aforementioned country groupings listed

Resources and risks

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

Resources

Organizing team

Team	User Names
WMF Liaison	Jletang Joel Letang
Logistics	Shanluan
Conference Program	Guettarda / Shanluan
Scholarships	Shanluan / JamaicanEditor / Guettarda / Nikitag94 / Pharos
Communications	JamaicanEditor / Pharos/ AfricanadeCuba
Volunteer Coordinators	Nikitag94
Team Members	Shanluan / Guettarda / Nikitag94 / Fuzheado/ Pharos/ AfricanadeCubaJamaicanEditor / Siarus1074 / Haroldcardenaslema / MassiveEartha / Galahmm

Risks

Examples of risks, along with how you would minimize or overcome them, are:

Perceived Risks:

• Rising costs related to regional travel in the beginning of the summer travel period.
• Non-O&D routes/markets requiring USA flight connections & requisite visas.
• Start of the Hurricane Season
• Government Approvals/Permits
• Skill gaps in project leadership team (e.g. financial management experience, etc.)
• Material aspects of which related KPIs cannot truly capture or lie outside the scope therein (general sentiment, multiplier effect, brand equity etc.)
  Examples of how to minimize these risks include:

Anticipatory/Compensatory Mechanisms:

• Recruiting a volunteers with the requisite skill-sets.
• Effecting adequate cost controls.
• Working with the WMF Learning & Evaluation Team to develop an appropriate measurement and evaluation plan.
• Seeking & building partnerships with likely interested travel industry stakeholders.
• Coordinating with US Consulates in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago for visa letters for interested attendees with itineraries requiring transit through the US. We don't perceive extensive government protocols on the gathering itself as we are partnering with local establishments and the training event is free and open to locals in the public. Wikipedia is also a non banned entity in the country and we anticipate all participants coming in to the country will be coming in as tourists staying for less that 10-15 days which is much less than the 90 day tourist visa limit.
• Working with regional meteorologists to establish a 2 week to 7 day outlook for atmospheric conditions during the Wikimedians of the Caribbean Forum.
• Liaising with the Foundation’s as to developing thorough and necessary measurement and evaluation schemes.

During the conference

Interpretation at the event

The Forum will engage a volunteer interpreters’ service for at least Spanish and another dominant language of the region. We will also encourage presenters to submit their presentations in advance for the text in the slides to be translated.

Multi-lingual slides

Selected sessions will be live-streamed on YouTube with increase opportunities to participate.

After the conference

Evaluation Report

All conference participants will be invited to complete an evaluation survey - the result of which would be included in the report and published on Meta. The evaluation will be designed to measure whether the goals of the conference have been achieved in addition to the:

• Impact and relevance of the context of the conference
• The management of the conference
• The outcomes including opportunities for establishing regional and diasporan collaborations
• Reflections of safety and equity

The evaluation survey will message both qualitative and quantitative outcomes and outputs. The conference report will aim to include an executive summary translated into the languages in the region. We would like to translate the full report - budget permitting.

Communications

WikiCari will update the broader community through the Wikimedia-I and other like Ibercoop-I email lists, along with other relevant mailing lists, in addition to sharing in the relevant Wikiprojects and communities in the target language Wikimedia platforms.

The filmed sessions will be published on Wikimedia Common, YouTube and other platforms under an open license. Filmed sessions will be transcribed, and ideally videos subtitled, in the dominant languages of the region.

Audio from the conference will be incorporated into a podcast documenting the event which will be published by Wikimania 2020, in addition to being uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. We will submit a presentation to Wikimania themed around the learning from the WikiCari Forum.

Budget

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

Event budget table

Budget
Venue & Materials	In our efforts to partner with like-minded institutions that can offer their space free of charge or at a discount we will work with: National Gallery of The Bahamas University of the Bahamas Programming at Doongalik Studios which is also a community art space: $3,250 Stickers: $50 Printed banners: $100 Reusable signs: $100	$3,500
Travel & Meals	Full scholarships (17) include round trip travel:$600 average ($800 max expected) shared accommodations: $800 for each double / triple occupancy room during the conference Visa fees: case by case basis for those who need the additional assistance:$1000 Travel scholarships will be for experienced editors and active volunteers including two Citizen Tales translators Food Lunches during the conference: $1,000 Sept 5 Sept 6 Sept 7 Coffee breaks: $900 Sept 5 Sept 6 Sept 7 Group dinner: $2,000 Sept 4 Sept 5 Sept 6	$12,000 (Flights) $6,000 (Lodging) $1,000 (Visas) $3,900 (Food)
Event Planning & Support	Travel agent fees Administrative support through management company and production staff: $5,200 Tasks include: Processing visa application letters Reimbursements to scholarship recipients Dedicated production staff Local transportation for site visits and meetings with event partners: $500 10% for unforeseen expenses: $2,900	$5,200 $500 $2,900
Alternate sources of funding	To consider for in-kind donations: ACURIL sponsoring outreach to partners in the Bahamas Organizations who support work in your region/conference topic: These organizations will help advertise the event to their networks on the ground, cutting our outreach costs ACURIL University of the Bahamas Digital Library of the Caribbean The National Gallery of The Bahamas key institution contact	-$5,150 (marketing cost)
Total Budget	Total minus in-kind donations	$29,850

Total cost of event

$35,000 USD

Total amount requested from the Conference and Event Grants program

$29,850 USD

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

We plan to reach out to potential flight sponsors.

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

Yes

Discussion

Endorsements

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.

• The Caribbean has long been forgotten. This region of nearly 30 million people has a unique story to tell, and a unique blend of history, languages, cultures, identities, and people. WikiCari aims to help buttress the vision; helping put the region on the map and support local & trans-regional initiatives in achieving these goals. I wholeheartedly endorse the venture! JamaicanEditor (talk) 04:28, 3 February 2020 (UTC)
• I'd like to endorse the Wiki Caribbean Forum as an important act of outreach to an underserved region, with the host usergroup being awarded Most Exciting New Affiliate at WikiConference North America 2019. This effort builds on the usergroup's previous survey of editors and readers in the region, and will be particularly productive in building networks through national libraries in the Caribbean.--Pharos (talk) 03:25, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
• I met representatives of the Wikimedians of the Caribbean User Group at the November 2019 WikiConference North America. They contributed to the program and made for a better event for everyone. The Wikimedia Movement's commitment to geographical diversity includes taking opportunities to support Wikipedia events in places where previously there has been less engagement. The Caribbean group has had overlap with other Wikimedia projects for the African diaspora, non-English content development in North America, and Latin American communities. I think partnerships such as those are a great early direction for a new community and I wish for these relationships to develop. I also appreciate the group's early interest in medicine content, experiments with offline Wikipedia, and environmental issues especially for disaster response and awareness. Besides financial funding, this group would greatly benefit from any public information the Wikimedia Foundation could share about its strategic plan for acknowledging and supporting contributions from the region of the Caribbean. Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:13, 12 February 2020 (UTC)
• The Caribbean is an underserved part of the Global South, but one with a relatively high level of education and internet access. The region has substantial linguistic and cultural diversity, and played a pivotal, but often under-appreciated role in the Atlantic world throughout the historic period. There's a lot to add to Wikipedia about the Caribbean, and there's a lot to add to Wikipedia from a Caribbean perspective. The people are there, but the knowledge that people can contribute to Wikimedia projects, and the technical ability to navigate the process of contributing to the projects isn't where it needs to be. And more people need to know that we have the right to shape the way we are presented to the world. The project, and WikiCari's mission as a whole, helps bridge this gap. The pieces are there, we just need to help put them together. Guettarda (talk) 21:20, 24 February 2020 (UTC)
•  Support It is critical that a project like this is funded as Wikimedians of the Caribbean seeks to improve the capacity of Caribbean citizens to author their own histories. I believe that a conference would foster relationships between users within the region and increase the possibility of inter-island communication and collaboration. The results of the survey conducted by the group on Caribbean Wikimedia usership brought to the fore a number of Wikimedians who have been working in isolation for varying lengths of time. This conference can serve as a platform that facilitates the necessary work of bridging these gaps. Nikitag94 (talk) 05:55, 1 March 2020 (UTC)