Grants:PEG/Volunteers/MLA2011

Not funded

This grant submission from an group, organization, or individual in 2013-14 was not funded by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Prior to 2011, reasons for not funding this submission were communicated in private and may not be available on the discussion page. For more information about a particular request, please contact the grantee directly or send your questions to grants at wikimedia dot org.
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Legal name of chapter: None
Grant contact name: Adrianne Wadewitz
Grant contact user-name or e-mail: User:Awadewit
Grant contact title (position)
Project lead name: Adrianne Wadewitz and Bill Wedemeyer
Project lead user-name or e-mail: User:Awadewit and User:Proteins
Project lead title (position), if any

Full project name: MLA 2011
Amount requested (in USD): $2,300
Provisional target start date: July 2010
Provisional completion date: January 2011

Budget breakdown

Travel: USD 600

Plane ticket for User:Awadewit: USD 300 (approx.)
Plane ticket for User:Proteins: USD 300 (approx.)

Accommodation: USD 1200

4 nights x 2 for User:Awadewit and User:Proteins (approx.)

Workshop funds: USD 500

Printing costs; Wikimedia pens, paper and folders for participants, name tags, and other assorted supplies
May or may not include a flashdrive for each participant

Project scope

I would like to hold a Wikipedia workshop at the 2011 MLA conference, which is the annual conference for language and literature professors across the world. Usually about 20,000 people attend the conference. At least 50 people are expected to attend our workshop. I will spend the remainder of the conference attending relevant panels and networking to improve Wikipedia's credibility.

Project goal

The two immediate aims of the workshop are to show language and literature professors how they can use Wikipedia in their research and teaching, and to argue for why they should edit as experts in their fields. Its two strategic goals are to recruit more experts in language and literature - an area in which en.wikipedia is weak - and to form professional relationships with academics in these fields. A lesser goal is to teach participants the "nitty-gritty" of editing. Depending on the amount of time given the workshop and the desires of its participants, we will adjust how much of this topic address.

Non-financial requirements

None

Fit to strategy

This project supports key objectives of the Foundation:

Increasing participation, by encouraging experts to edit and to have their students edit
Increasing quality, by encouraging subject-area experts to edit and to develop ways for them to evaluate Wikipedia
Increasing credibility, by showing experts who have been resistant to Wikipedia in the past or are not visible on the site in a high number currently that Wikipedia has much to offer their research and teaching and encouraging them to become part of our community

Other benefits

The MLA conference is reported in the media. A workshop to help academics contribute to Wikipedia would be seen as newsworthy, considering the commonly held misconception that academics hold Wikipedia in low esteem.

Measures of success

The project leaders, particularly Adrianne Wadewitz, will be following up with the participants in the workshop and will consider it a success if 10%-20% of them are engaged with Wikipedia in some way, either by editing themselves or using it in their teaching.