Grants:IEG/Promoting Wikivoyage/Midpoint

This project is funded by an Individual Engagement Grant

Welcome to this project's midpoint report! This report shares progress and learnings from the Individual Engagement Grantee's first 3 months.

Summary

In a few short sentences or bullet points, give the main highlights of what happened with your project so far.

During the first half, I determined coordinating a webcast with the US Chamber would not be possible. State Chambers were not interested in webcasts, but several were curious to learn about Wikivoyage. So, my attention changed to creating a powerpoint that could also serve as a video to introduce Wikivoyage to anyone unfamiliar with the site.

Methods and activities

How have you setup your project, and what work has been completed so far?

Initially I intended to have links to all the separate pieces on my user page at Wikivoyage. Keeping materials accessible to the community while I was drafting them has been more difficult than I anticipated.

I do not have any fully completed materials. Below is the status of each of the items in my original solution.

Powerpoint located at Google Slides. Need to add audio and animations.
Webcasts none scheduled
Tutorials will use cuts from powerpoint
Welcome template not yet started
Expedition page located at Wikivoyage:User:Tbennert/welcome. Needs some polishing and then will request community approval.
Materials for bureaus not yet started

Describe how you've setup your experiment or pilot, sharing your key focuses so far and including links to any background research or past learning that has guided your decisions. List and describe the activities you've undertaken as part of your project to this point.

My key focus in the beginning was to arrange the webcasts. Seeing how chamber staff used and edited Wikivoyage as well as the questions the webcast generated would have helped create stronger help pages. Getting feedback from the users of the information is incredibly valuable.

When it became clear the webcasts were not coming together, I shifted my key focus to the items that would benefit the community - an informational powerpoint, tutorials, and welcome page.

Powerpoint The only way I found to allow others to view the notes for a slide was by using Google Drive and opening the document with Google Slides. Google Slides does not have audio recording capability so the recorded presentation will be shared as a video.
Webcasts Used phone and email to contact the US Chamber and the State Chambers. Shifted focus from a few large webcasts to smaller interactions. Set up account at Wiggio to facilitate calls with up to 10 attendees.
Tutorials Found that screen recording software was either expensive or difficult to operate. Trying Microsoft Expression. Will use powerpoint and screenshots if Expression is difficult.
Expedition page At Wikivoyage:User:Tbennert/welcome. Nearly ready for community approval to replace existing page.

Midpoint outcomes

What are the results of your project or any experiments you’ve worked on so far? The major focus of my solution - US wide webcasts - will not work. Fortunately the core concept - introducing Wikivoyage to local chambers - remains viable. No appreciable results thus far.

Please discuss anything you have created or changed (organized, built, grown, etc) as a result of your project to date.

Only the powerpoint and welcome page have been created.

Finances

Please take some time to update the table in your project finances page. Check that you’ve listed all approved and actual expenditures as instructed. If there are differences between the planned and actual use of funds, please use the column provided there to explain them.

Then, answer the following question here: Have you spent your funds according to plan so far? Please briefly describe any major changes to budget or expenditures that you anticipate for the second half of your project.

Expenditures are in line with original plan. The only variation I anticipate in the second half may be a change in the $100 meeting materials. The dollar amount remains the same but the intended recipient may change. Rather than using the money to facilitate webcasts with large attendance I may need to use the money for screen recording and editing.

Learning

The best thing about trying something new is that you learn from it. We want to follow in your footsteps and learn along with you, and we want to know that you are taking enough risks to learn something really interesting! Please use the below sections to describe what is working and what you plan to change for the second half of your project.

What are the challenges

What challenges or obstacles have you encountered? What will you do differently going forward? Please list these as short bullet points.

Using off-wiki programs while collaborating and then integrating back into site. Google Drive seems to be a workable solution.
Materials are spread all over so it is inconvenient for community to review and comment
Anything adequately created is better than nothing which makes community feedback limited

Once materials are at a final draft stage there will be a more solid product for the community to review and comment. Once the informational video is okay with the Wikivoyage community I would like to place a request to editors of the other projects to watch and comment.

What is working well

What have you found works best so far? To help spread successful strategies so that they can be of use to others in the movement, rather than writing lots of text here, we'd like you to share your finding in the form of a link to a learning pattern.

Next steps and opportunities

What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your project? Please list these as short bullet points. If you're considering applying for a 6-month renewal of this IEG at the end of your project, please also mention this here.

Complete powerpoint/video and add to Commons (and other sites that might be relevant)
Send email to all local chambers with link to Wikivoyage, Facebook page
Complete tutorials and integrate into existing Wikivoyage pages
Make another attempt to coordinate state-wide calls

I do not plan on requesting a renewal. I will likely extend my efforts to contact state/local tourism groups outside of Chambers of Commerce and work on some additional help pages. This will be volunteer time.

Grantee reflection

We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on how the experience of being an IEGrantee has been so far. What is one thing that surprised you, or that you particularly enjoyed from the past 3 months?

The positive reception from the Wikivoyage community was delightful. It also has been reassuring to remember this is a long game. When I've had setbacks I can pick back up and move forward without the intense pressure to produce immediate measurable results as would happen in most businesses.