Grants:PEG/WM AU/GLAM-WIKI/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2009-10 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

• To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:PEG/WM AU/GLAM-WIKI.

• You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
• You are welcome to Email grants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?

Activities

The Foundation provided some funding to Wikimedia Australia in order to hold the first ever GLAM-WIKI conference in Canberra, Australia. In addition to financial resources, the Foundation provided employee Jennifer Riggs to attend and speak at the event. The financial contribution made by the Foundation was matched by other grants and donations for the event made by other educational and private-sector organisations in Australia.

Further notes and materials are available at wmau:GLAM-WIKI.

Project goal and measures of success

Project goal

The goal was to build bridges between the Australian GLAM sector and the Wikimedia community. In this sense, the project was quite successful.

Measures of success

Many of the chapter's subsequent GLAM activities, including collaborations with the Queensland Museum and the State Library of Queensland, were direct results of contacts made between the Australian WM community and the Australian GLAM sector at this event.

Lessons learned

What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects? While the event was a big success, it did take its toll on the volunteers involved. The subsequent 'event fatigue' meant that another conference planned for later in the year never went ahead.

What impact did the project have on WMF mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation? The project was delivered before these goals were formally a part of the WMF plan. Therefore no measurements were taken at the time to measure the impact.

However, I think it's fair to say, given the number of successful partnerships that ended up flowing from this event, that it could be said to have contributed in a major way to advancing these goals within Australia.

• Increased Reach - Many of the cultural sector people who attended the event had never seriously engaged with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia movement until this event. While some volunteers had done some excellent work prior to this in talking to GLAM institution on a one-on-one basis, this was the first real opportunity to speak to a lot of the larger GLAMs all at once and introduce ourselves to them. Holding this event was an essential ingredient in starting the conversation between the Australian Wikimedia community and the Australian GLAM community.

• Increased Quality - the event did not directly increase the quality of material available (apart from some secondary benefits like getting a picture of a Senator in front of our logo), but the flow-on effects of programmes and projects that were hatched at the event (like the Bert Roberts photo collection contributed by the Queensland Museum, the State Library of Queensland upload project and subsequent regional workshops programme, and the provision of archival news footage by the ABC all had their roots in this event, and clearly have increased both the quantity and quality of material available to the community.

• Increased Credibility - while largely anecdotal, I heard a lot of relief and surprise (and appreciation) of the fact that when members of the GLAM community were able to actually come face-to-face with a large number of Wikimedians, we weren't at all like the stereotype would suggest. Experts from outside our community saw that we weren't all just shut-ins and "computer nerds", but that there was a mix of men and women, young and old, and people from many walks of life involved. This helped put to bed some negative perceptions and myths about who we were, and made GLAMs a lot more willing to work with us.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

Did you send WMF documentation of all expenses paid for with grant funds? Unknown. Details of expenditures: The event ran at an overall loss, even when factoring in other sources of income. The catering was based upon conference-style catering for 160 guests, and included three light meals and one "working style lunch". A number of bursaries were also awarded by the management committee. While a total of $950 was authorised, not all of this amount was used by the recipients.

Item	Amount (AUD)
Income:
WMF	6290.50
Other Income	2500.00
Total Income:	8790.50
Expenditure:
Catering	7440.00
Security	566.00
Bursaries	785.00
Other	28.15
Total Expenditure:	8819.15
Total Surplus (Deficit)	(28.65)

Note: In order to maximise participation, no registration fee was levied upon attendees.

Will you be requesting re-allocation of remaining grant funding? No grant funding remains.

Will you be returning unused funds to the Wikimedia Foundation? N/A

Additional requests and related proposals

Will you be requesting an extension or were you granted an extension? N/A

Please link to related grant proposals here: N/A