Grants:PEG/WM CZ/Communities

Funded

This submission to the Project and Event Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2013-14. This is a grant to an organization.

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• Report: Please visit Grants:PEG/WM CZ/Communities/Report to read this report, comment on this report, or review its status.

Basic information

Project details

Official project name

Communities

Project start date (include month, day, and year)

1st November 2013

Project completion date (include month, day, and year)

1st November 2015 (t+2 years)

Please describe the project in 1–2 sentences

The goal of this project is to allow WMCZ to help to enlarge its community. By creating a backbone (office) in Prague, many events can take place in the capital. In regional centers, various workshops and presentations as well as meetings should be organized in order to encourage more volunteers to participate in both Wikimedia Foundation projects and Wikimedia-related activities in the chapter.

Financial details

Currency requested

EURO

Amount requested in currency requested

10.192

Equivalent amount in US$ on the date of this submission

13.924

List the exchange rate used to calculate the amount listed in US$

1 Euro = 1,3662 U.S. dollars

Grantee details

See the eligibility requirements for more information.

What is the official name of the organization requesting this grant?

Wikimedia Czech Republic

Are you an organization, an individual, or an individual submitting on behalf of a group?

ORGANIZATION

Are you a for-profit entity?

NO.

Are you able to provide local proof of nonprofit status within your country?

YES

Does your organization currently employ any fulltime or part-time staff or contractors?

YES, 1 at the moment - the chapter's accountancy is done on a contract basis.

Contact information

Primary contact name

Jan Loužek

Primary contact username or email

jan.louzek@wikimedia.cz

Primary contact title (position within the organization)

Vice-chairman

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

Project goal

The goal of this project is to strengthen and expand the Czech Wikimedia projects community. In order to do this, the number of active participants of the projects, as well as the number of Wikimedia Czech Republic's members, should grow. Currently, the number of members of Wikimedia Czech Republic is somewhere around 40 for the last 2 years. The amount of active Wikipedia users is also stagnating.

In order to combat this, volunteers have to be motivated (workshops, editathons) or educated (editathons) to contribute. As the time needed for writing good articles - according to constantly rising Czech Wikipedia's standards - rises, the office can provide a good space for a long-termed unspoiled concentration and voluntary work on our projects. It will also serve as the place where volunteers can meet and engage in joint activities, exchanging idea and improving motivation. The office will also be used to store the chapter's property (boxes of our leaflets, scanner, laptop).

Measures of success

Please provide a list of measurable criteria that will be used to determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed.

Measures of success

• To organize at least 7 meetings with a projects-related program. A projects-related program means that presentations related to the projects organized by Wikimedia Czech Republic has to be there at every meeting (in the beginning). Attendance is supposed to be: average 15 people.
• To organize at least 10 presentations with a projects-related programs. A presentation is an activity organized in a cultural institution (ie. library, school etc) that aims on all visitors interested in learning how to use/contribute to our projects. Attendance is supposed to be: average 20 people.
• To organize workshops and editathons in the Office (100 articles on Wikipedia to be created during these workshops is a minimum). Workshops and editathons are supposed to be:
  • a) educational, ie. explaining how to edit Wikipedia (or other projects) and why. How can one contribute. The goal is to teach future Wikipedians/chapter members/sympathizers.
  • b) content-making, ie. people gather together to make content. The goal is to write as much articles as possible (minimum, as stated above, is 100).
• To obtain an office, furnish the office and organize at least 5 meetings (workshops, editathons) inside the facility. The office is supposed to be 30 m² area at Konopišťská 3, Prague 10.
• To provide a place (ie. the office) that can increase effectivity of other grant projects of Wikimedia Czech Republic (i.e. Mediagrant and Presentation&Outreach) - for workshops, meetings and other events.
• To participate in at least 3 regional events where the current progress, practice and experiences from the communities of Wikimedia Projects in Czech or from the Wikimedia Czech Republic Chapter will be presented.

We will consider this project a success if the office will be frequently used by the chapter's members or Wikimedia projects contributors. Based on data in carefully administered register of the usage, the lowest amount of hours, when the office will be used for the chapter's activities, is set at 720 hours in the period of December 2013 – December 2014 to let the project be considered successful.

Project scope and activities

This section describes what will happen if this project is funded. Who will do what, and when?

List of activities

• Obtaining and furnishing the Office of WMCZ. The office is supposed to be a place for the community. It will be used only by members of the communities, members of the chapters and anyone who is interested in participation. There will be no full-time or part-time worker involved in functioning in the office.
• Organizing meetings. The meetings are supposed to be social events that can strengthen the community of the projects.
• Organizing presentations. The presentations are a university-like or conference-like lectures, where various ideas related to Wikimedia Projects will be deliveried (ie. in libraries).
• Organizing workshops/editathon. Workshop/editation is an event where articles are supposed to be created/improved and a high load of new content should be available for the projects.
• Participation on regional international events (ie. meetings or conferences)

Budget and resources

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

Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Cost per unit	Total cost	Currency	Notes
1	Maintaining the office					5.962	EUR
1.1		Rent	month	24	20	480	EUR	WM CZ competed for a very low cost placed offered by a governmental agency Prague 10, working to support new small-scale ngo's. It's an office of 30 m2, Konopišťská 3, Prague 10. We won the competition organised by that organisation and recieved a serious reduction in the rental costs. The normal rental cost for such office in Prague would be around 320 € a month, that would be 7.680 EUR per 24 month. Thanks to the external support, we managed to lower this to 20€ a month. This way we save about 7.000 EUR.
1.2		allbuilding-related services (ie. electricity connection, water connection, elevators etc).	month	24	8	192	EUR
1.3		Furnishing the office	-	-	-	600	EUR	This is the sum of money that will be used for purchase of basic furniture and equipment for the office, ie. chairs, tables and cabinets.
1.4		Basic repairs	-	-	-	350	EUR	ie. painting of the place and some basic repairs.
1.5		Water, electricity and internet connection	-	-	-	500	EUR
1.6		Cost for central heating	month	24	160	3.840	EUR	This is calculated to cover the maximum costs if the office will be used a lot during the (freezing!) winter. If the costs are less then this (very likely), we may very well return as much as half of the rent costs back to the WMF. At this point, we think that we should have a reserve so that we are not surprised by a high cost of energies.
2	Community building					1.230	EUR
2.1		Organization of certain number of meetings in the Czech Republic	event	7	40	280	EUR	The sum is counted for a minimum number of workshops in the office, but will be used based on the number of events initiated. The price is supposed to cover travel costs for some of the participants (ie. experienced members of the community travelling to smaller cities in order to adress new volunteers or sympathisers).
2.2		Organization of certain number of presentations in the Czech Republic	event	10	80	800	EUR	The sum is counted for a minimum number of presentations, but will be used based on the number of events initiated. When a higher number of presentations will be done, the price must be redistributed for the higher amount of presentations. The price is supposed to cover costs for space in some facilities and travel costs for the speakers of the event.
2.3		Workshops/editathons (in the office)	event	5	30	150	EUR	The sum is counted for minimum number of workshops in the office, but will be used based on the number of events initiated. The costs are supposed to cover: transportation costs for a limited number of participants and basic food/beverages. When a higher number of workshops will be done, the price per event will be adjusted for the higher amount of workshops.
3	Participation on regional events					3.000	EUR
3.1		participation on an event	event	3	1000	3000	EUR	This sum is supposed to cover costs for travelling of the experienced members of Czech Wikimedia Projects community and members of Wikimedia Czech Republic to the events in countries in region (not exceeding the direct distance 1500 km from Prague mark - ie. all Europe except for Portugal, Ireland and Finland). The minimum events that it is supposed to be used for are 3. When a higher number of events will be done, the price must be adjusted for the higher amount of events.

Total cost of project

10.192 €

Total amount requested from the WMF Grants Program

10.192 €

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

N/A

Non-financial requirements

See a description of nonfinancial assistance available. Please inform Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) of any requirements for non-financial assistance now.

Requests for non-financial assistance

• None so far.

Impact

In the sections below, please describe how the project is related to the Wikimedia mission and Wikimedia's strategic priorities.

Fit to strategy

How will this project support the key organizational objectives of

• increasing reach (more people will access or contribute to Wikipedia or our other projects),
• participation (more people actually contributing),
• quality (more content, more useful content, or higher-quality content),
• credibility (more trust in our projects),
• organizational maturity and effectiveness (how it will move you or the Wikimedia community forward),
• or financial sustainability (how it will help you achieve more in the long run)?

This statement should address at least one of the strategic priorities listed here specifically.

• Increasing reach: (strongly addressed) The project will allow more people in the Czech Republic to meet the Wikimedian and Wikipedian community and help them to get familiarized with it. Instead of internet interface the potential contributors would have chance to see real people, which can be more effective when getting sympathisers/contributors. Potential as well as beginner contributors will be addressed. They are supposed to carry a good picture of the community and see it as an open one. More people would therefore have the chance to contribute to Wikipedia.

• Participation: (somehow addressed) The goal of the workshops is to generate content as well as to invite those who are interested but yet not very skilled when it comes to writing new articles or any other content. Wikimedia and Wikipedia communities are supposed to be shown as open an inclusive entities for newcomers.

• Quality: (somehow addressed) This grant might be a base for editathons/workshops that would focus on raising quality of the pages of Wikimedia projects (i.e. referencing workshops/FA workshops etc.).

• Credibility: (poorly addressed) This grant does not deal with public relations. Attracting more people to the Wikimedia community might be seen as a move how to make Czech Wikipedia (Wikiversity etc) more versatile, thus having more credibility.

• Organizational maturity and effectiveness: (strongly addressed) By this grant Czech Wikimedia and Wikipedia communities are supposed to find a new generation of sympathisers, editors and contributors. Having the Czech communities expanded, new opportunities will be opened for Wikimedia Czech Republic. The long-term standstill in manpower available for promotion of free knowledge will be broken.

• Financial sustainability: (not addressed at all) This grant is not designed to address the issue of financial sustainability of Wikimedia Czech Republic.

Benefits

The Wikimedia Czech Republic's own office should have multidirectional positive effect on the chapter's activities and subsequently on the Wikimedia Foundation projects. It will allow more chapter's members to develop their activities (examples of those are introduced as other Wikimedia Czech Republic projects in this grant procedure), which should show itself in an increasing quality and/or quantity of the Wikimedia projects materials. The office will serve as a basis for any already proposed or future projects, that would be difficult to execute without it, and thus it will develop the organizational maturity and effectiveness of the chapter on a new level.

If the project will benefit a specific online community, please tell us.

The office of Wikimedia Czech Republic might be used for other NGO's that share the goals of WMCZ (i.e. Creative Commons)

Please provide a brief statement about how the project is related to other work in the Wikimedia movement. For example, does the project fit into a work area such as GLAM, education, organizational development, editor retention, or outreach?

The project is related to the community of Wikipedia, Wikiversity, Wiktionary and other projects in the Czech language, i.e. to the members of the community that speak Czech.

If successful, will the project have the potential to be replicated successfully by other individuals, groups, or organizations? Please explain how in 1–2 sentences.

This project is designed to solve specific issues inside Wikimedia Czech Republic, i.e. long-term complications. Any chapter or WMF Projects community worldwide is welcome to re-use it and copy our knowledge in order to help itself.

Please list other benefits to the movement here.

The ownership of its own office will help to promote image of Wikimedia Czech Republic as an established and reliable organization for contacts with prospective sponsors or other partners. On the other hand the office can be used as a nice and peaceful place i.e. for individual article editing.