Grants:PEG/WM UK/Kick start

Funded

This submission to the Wikimedia Foundation Grants Program was funded in the fiscal year 2009-10. This is a grant to an organization.

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• This project has been funded, completed, and a project report has been reviewed and accepted by WMF Staff.
• To review a list of other funded submissions by fiscal year, please visit the Requests subpage, and to review the WMF Grants Program criteria for funding please visit the Grants:Index.

Legal name of chapter

Wiki UK Limited, operating as Wikimedia UK

Grant contact name

Andrew Turvey

Grant contact user-name or e-mail

secretary@wikimedia.org.uk

Grant contact title (position)

Secretary

Project lead name

Tom Holden

Project lead user-name or e-mail

treasurer@wikimedia.org.uk

Project lead title (position), if any

Treasurer

Full project name

Kick start funding

Amount requested (in USD)

8,150 (= GBP 5,000)

Provisional target start date

1 June 2009

Provisional completion date

1 June 2010

Budget breakdown

The bid is for start up funding to kickstart the chapter's work across a number of projects. This is broken down as follows:

Project	Expense	Value (GBP)	Value (USD)
Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools	Computer	1,000	1,630
	Travel	1,000	1,630
Content access projects	Travel, refreshments	1,000	1,630
Content generation projects	Advertising	1,000	1,630
Attending the chapters conference	Travel, accommodation	500	815
Attending free content conferences	Travel	500	815
Total		5,000	8,150

Project scope

This project provides start up funding for Wikimedia UK so that we can kick-start a number of items we would like to work on. Because the income from this grant takes us over the £5,000 level it also allows us to register with the UK Charity Commission - which helps us to book cheaper rooms and gain various tax benefits associated with charitable recognition sooner than would be otherwise possible. The funding will be used in the following five items - further details of which are on our wiki.

1. Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools

This funding will support volunteers to go into educational venues and give talks and demonstrations to encourage students to positively contribute to Wikipedia. It will part-fund the purchase of a computer to help demonstrations and will pay for volunteers to travel to and from the venues.

2. Content access projects

This item focuses efforts on identifying and developing partnerships with organisations that control archive material that could be of benefit to Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects. The objective is to achieve similar content-release arrangements to the one that Wikimedia Germany has recently managed with the Saxony State Library.

We have several leads we are currently pursuing; the funding for this item will pay for chapter representatives to travel to meetings with content owners and for entertainment costs.

3. Content generation projects

This funding will pay for advertising supporting the proposed “London Loves Wikipedia” project, which is to be organised by the chapter, the Victoria & Albert Museum and seven other cultural institutions in London. Pencilled in for spring 2010, this project is similar in scope to the “Wikipedia Loves Art” project organised by the Brooklyn Museum in February 2009. The project enables participants to take high quality photographs of museum exhibits and upload them for use in the Wikimedia projects.

4. Attending the chapters conference

Each year a conference is arranged bringing together all the Wikimedia chapters, the Foundation and the developers conference. This is a valuable event where we can share ideas on potential projects and best practice and can co-ordinate activities.

In 2009, the chapter had to apply for financial assistance from other chapters and without this assistance we would not have been able to participate. In 2010 we are likely to be in a similar situation. Funding will help pay for travel and accommodation for two delegates from the chapter.

5. Attending free content conferences

In early 2009 we were invited to attend the Open Knowledge Conference, an event that brings together leading organisations in the free content movement in the UK, including the owners of http://www.theyworkforyou.com and the Open Knowledge Foundation. We were unable to attend this year because we didn't have the available funds. Funding for this will enable chapter delegates to attend future conferences like, paying for travel and conference fees.

Project goal

The overall goal of the project is to establish the chapter by kick-starting these projects and enabling the chapter to gain recognition as a charity from the UK Charity Commission. This recognition will improve the effectiveness of the chapter by reducing costs and increasing our credibility.

The individual goals of the five items are:

1. Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools : encourage participation in Wikimedia projects
2. Content access projects: to make content available to the Wikimedia projects
3. Content generation projects: to make content available to the Wikimedia projects
4. Attending the chapters conference: to identify new ways to achieve our goals
5. Attending free content conference: to identify new ways to achieve our goals

Non-financial requirements

We would appreciate any introductions you could give us to help us achieve our goals for item 2 (content access projects).

Fit to strategy

The individual elements in this project work in different ways to support the key objectives of the Foundation:

1. Increasing participation, by encouraging people in schools to participate in the projects
2. Increasing quality, by generating content through access partnerships and content generation projects
3. increasing credibility, by engaging with free content organisations and getting charity status in the UK
4. organizational maturity and sustainability, by getting charity status in the UK, extending the chapter's experience with projects, learning from other chapters and raising our profile among Wikimedia's supporters in the UK, encouraging them to join the chapter, donate and get involved.

Other benefits

These projects will be available as a template for future opportunities by both our chapter and others.

Measures of success

Overall

1. Costs saved and income generated through having charitable status

Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools

2. Number of students attending talks on Wikipedia

3. Number of editors recruited to Wikipedia

Content access projects

4. Number of usable items uploaded to Wikimedia

Content generation projects

5. Number of usable items uploaded to Wikimedia

Attending the chapters conference

6. New initiatives or concrete improvements to the chapter's activities resulting from attendance

Attending free content conference

7. New initiatives or concrete improvements to the chapter's activities resulting from attendance