Grants:PEG/UG BG/CEE Spring
This Wikimedia Foundation grant has a fiscal sponsor. Stowarzyszenie Wikimedia Polska administered the grant on behalf of Wikimedians of Bulgaria User Group.
Wikimedia CEE Spring 2016 is an event organised by Wikimedians and Wikipedians from the region of Central and Eastern Europe with an aim to support article creation about every country in the region on every Wikipedia in the region. This corellates with the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation to “empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.”
In contemporary times the CEE region has experienced several unfortunate Springs that have resulted in misunderstandings, conflicts and disappointment (exempli gratia the replacement of Dubček in April of 1969 to reverse the Prague Spring, escalating conflicts in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the Spring of 1988, intensification of Transnistrian conflict in March of 1992, the beginning of the Siege of Sarajevo in April of 1992 and most recently the Spring of 2014, which marks the beginning of the War in Donbass).
Wikimedia CEE Spring aims at joining local forces of free knowledge to accumulate and distribute information about history, culture, traditions and people in every corner of the region to support mutual acknowledgment and understanding and to increase the quantity and quality of free knowledge available about the CEE region globally.
The event itself will take place from the 21st of March to the 31st of May. During this time period there will be an individual article competition on 21 related Wikipedias concentrating on creating and significantly editing articles about history, culture and notable people of each and every participating country from the region. For more information about article topics, please consult the structure page.
Local competitions will be organised by local teams and in every community the competition will have a bit different face to take into account local context. Contact data of the local coordinators can be found on the contacts page. In last year’s edition it was proved that volunteering organisers from the different communities carried on the tasks for the contest until the end. Local teams present lists of articles about their country which they would like to see in every possible language from the region and editors from all other countries create and significantly edit those articles, whereby participants can write about any topic, connected with the other participating countries in the region.
The contest is aimed at active and very active editors, but the organisers will popularise it among non-Wikipedians in the hope that new editors would join CEE Spring and the Wikimedia movement.
This year we defined our goals better than last year. Besides the obvious goal of creating more high-quality freely available encyclopaedic content, we also have aims of strategic meaning – closing the content gender gap and further developing the regional cooperation Wikimedia CEE. Our aims have been chosen in a way to not only provide new encyclopaedic information, but also to create high quality information (excellent and good articles) and distribute the articles in a fair way between countries. Wikimedia CEE Spring 2015, together with 100wikidays and Wiki Loves Earth was a driving force in establishing Wikimedia Central and Eastern Europe as one of the leading regional cooperations in the world of wiki and holding this article writing contest yearly provides a possibility to keep this cooperation and strengthen it.
Last year 28 countries took part at the contest, albeit we do not have good data on the outcomes of it. There are tables about changes in articles from the lists at Wikimedia CEE Spring 2015/Structure/Table and pages linked there, but there were plenty of newly created articles about topics, which were not on the lists. Some countries like Albania (65 new articles), Bulgaria (216), Slovenia (60), Poland (693) Russia (264), and Ukraine (477) have lists of created articles, but these results have never been organised on an international level. Even less can we say something about the topics of the articles.
Goals and metrics
editQuantitative
editShould
editThese goals have been set based on expectations based on quantitative data analysis from the international organising team and will be used as measure of success.
- at least one excellent article created or significantly edited during the contest per country (except wikis without excellent articles) on average (21 in total)
- at least two good articles created or significantly edited during the contest per community on average (38 in total)
- at least one article with 300 words on average per active editor (>5 edits per month) per participating country (7125 in total, not counting Austria, because of the unknown number of Austrians contributing on German Wikipedia) on average
- rather equal distribution of newly created and significantly edited articles about every country in every language according to:
- A / B > 0,5 for 75% of participating languages, where
- A = minimal number of created and significantly edited articles about a country
- B = maximal number of created and significantly edited articles about a country
- Total number of participants: 400
- Total number of female participants: 200
Could
editThese goals have been set based on qualitative estimations by the international organising team.
- 5% of the participants in all countries are new users
- higher number of newly created and significantly edited articles about women than about men
Strategic
edit- Closing the content gender gap (correlates with the quantitative goal about articles about women)
- Further development of the regional partnership Wikimedia Central and Eastern Europe
Unused metrics
editSee Grants:Evaluation/Program_resources/Writing_competitions#Metrics Metrics from the Program resources.
We would compute these global metrics but will not define goals for them
- % increase in contribution rate per participating user as compared to user's contribution rate outside the competition timeframe
- # of participants editing X months after the event: 400
- # of participants who are active editors (5 edits/month) X months after an event: 400
Furthermore the number of bytes added, if needed can be computed easily by using Quarry.
Plan
editThe participating communities have been asked to organise as few concurrent contests as possible. This will reduce the number of people not taking part at CEE Spring because of taking part at another contests.
Furthermore, this year there is an international organising team which already coordinates and supports the local organisers.The international organising team will also popularise the event via Twitter, Facebook and the blog www.ceespring.eu. Social media helped in popularising initiatives like 100wikidays and we will build on that experience. Via social media and the blog we will steer the participating communities so that the goals can be reached. The international organisation team will write texts directed at active Wikipedians and possible new editors. Two volunteers already work on a design for the blog, such that it is appealing for both groups of participants. Three of the people on the international organisation team have experience in the blogging and social media. They will also work closely with local organisers on advice how articles for the national blogs and social media pages can be created.
We wish to use prize funds of 400 Euro per country to help us channelise the aims of the editors in reaching those aims. By giving prizes in certain categories we can ensure the writing of articles in the above stated categories - e.g. there can be prizes for the largest number of articles about women (closing of the content gender gap) on different wikis, prizes for the largest number of created articles on every wiki, prizes for excellent and good articles where applicable, as well as prizes for the best new editors on different wikis. The local organisers know their communities the best, so they will be free to choose how they will reach them, whereby they will have strong international support.
Wikimedia Polska was chosen by the international organisation committee to be a payment processor for the grant on the international level, based on the large size of the chapter, their experience in handling grants and the fact that being in the EU would reduce money transfer taxes to some of the participating countries. Wikimedia Polska would process the grant based on following basic rules.
Rules on international level
edit- CEE Spring 2016 is a set of local contests, without prizes on international level, however internationally coordinated by coordinating committee.
- Local contests must be organized in a way to select winners before 30 June 2016.
- In order to join the CEE Spring 2016 a chapter, an established or not-established user group must:
- Select one person as a coordinator; this person must be ready to reveal to the Wikimedia Polska office his/her full name, contact address and bank account number to be used for money transfers
- Prepare the set of rules of local contest and give them to the international coordination committee for acceptance.
- Prepare a list of at least 100 articles in at least 5 categories about their countries to translate/create before 15 March 2016.
- It is up to local organizers to decide about method of selection of local winners, however it must be clearly defined and accepted by the international coordination committee.
- The prizes in the contest are books or other reference materials (journal subscription, CDs, paid access to professional databases etc.) - useful for writing articles in Wikipedia.
- It is up to local organizers how many prizes they want to offer, but the overall sum for all of them in each country cannot exceed 400 EUR
- Local organizers will first buy the prizes themselves and collect invoices for them issued for Wikimedia Polska.
- Local organizers must create a protocol of the process of selection of winners, calculation of overall costs, collect the invoices proving the purchase and send it to Wikimedia Polska and the coordinating committee.
- Wikimedia Polska will reimburse local organizers after acceptance of the protocol, invoices and calculation of the overall costs by the coordination committee and the accountant of Wikimedia Polska.
- The reimbursement will be sent as money transfer to a bank account provided by the local organizer.
- The points 4-9 are applicable only for those chapters and user-groups which want to be reimbursed by grant processed by Wikimedia Polska. The chapters and user-groups willing to fund their own prizes are free to do it as they wish.
Resources
editParticipating projects and local organisers
editDuties
edit- Discuss the rules of the contest with the own community.
- Define a list of at least 100 articles about your country, region or language, in as many of the following categories as considered meaningful with help from the own community by 15 March. An exception will be made for Esperanto, because they cannot have categories like nature, sports and transport. For the purpose of this contest Crimea is considered part of Ukraine, based on the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/262.
- Culture
- Nature / Geography
- Economics
- Society
- Sports
- Politics
- Transport
- History
- Science
- Education
- Women
- Put the lists at Template:Wikimedia CEE Spring 2016 Article Lists by Country.
- Make sure that all participating articles on their own wiki have the template CEE Spring 2016 with parameters for username, topic and country.
- Create a local page and link it to Q22342981. You can use this template if you wish.
- If the grant proposal gets accepted, follow the Rules about processing the grant on international level
- Add information about the contest (links to one or more of this page, the Facebook page, Twitter page, the blog and further pages) in sitenotice if they consider it helpful in their context.
- Add the participants on the local Wiki to Wikimedia CEE Spring 2016/List of Participants
Press releases
edit- Check Wikimedia CEE Spring 2016/Press releases for inspiration.
Further resources
editTwo designers from Bulgaria have volunteered to create the design of the blog and are already working on it. The international organisational committee has seen some snapshots of their work and is guiding them. As soon as the rules are finalised (which includes changes based on feedback from the Grant Advisory Committee) programmers from the CEE Community will create the needed tools for measuring results and success. As it stands, three people have expressed their willingness to creat such a tool.
Risks
editRisk matrix
edit| Risk | Number | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Simultaneous organisation of other article writing contest | R1 | The simultaneous realisation of further article writing contests could lead to reduced participation, which would lead to the reducing of the number of created or significantly edited articles, as well as to lower quality articles. |
| Burnout of organisators | R2 | Due to the high intrinsic motivation project organisers could overestimate their energy and get burned out. This could lead to a missing local organiser or more work for the international coordination team. |
| Pulling out of organisers because of other obligations in their chapter or user group | R3 | Chapters and user groups could pull off their staff or volunteers because of unplanned more important tasks. This could lead to a missing local organiser or more work for the international coordination team. |
| Lack of financing of prizes | R4 | Lack of financial rewards would make it harder for organisers to channel the efforts of participants in direction of the goals of the project, e.g. a number of excellent and good articles, number of articles, even distribution of articles and closing of the content gender gap |
Risk probability
editRisk probability was estimated on the scale “very low - rather low - rather high - very high”
| Risk | Probability | Damage |
|---|---|---|
| R1 | very high | very high |
| R2 | rather low | rather low |
| R3 | rather low | very low |
| R4 | low | rather high |
Measures
edit| Risk | Preventive measures | Corrective measures |
|---|---|---|
| R1 | Participating chapters and User Groups will be asked at the beginning of the project to not organise simultaneous article writing contests, because CEE Spring is a project of regional importance. This will reduce the probability that the risk enters. | The coverage of the contest via Facebook, Twitter and the international blog will be used to direct the attention of the participants in direction of CEE Spring. |
| R2 | Whenever possible responsibility will be split among a group of people, so that too much pressure is not being put on single persons. | New local and international organisers can be recruited during the project. |
| R3 | Chapters and User Groups will be informed about the amount of time their staff and volunteers would need to invest during the project. | New local and international organisers can be recruited during the project. |
| R4 | The Grant Advisory Committee will be presented a well created grant proposal | Chapters and User Groups will be asked to search for local sponsors and find immaterial ways to express their appreciation of the participants |
Budget
edit| Item | Cost by unit (€) | Number | Total (€) | Total (USD) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prizes | 400 | Funded by the international grant will be Albania, Azerbaijan, Bashkortostan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Esperanto, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova + Romania, Poland, Russia, Republika Srpska, whereby Moldova and Romania might be together or split, User:Gikü is in discussions. On April 5 funds were approved to provide prizes for Belarussian classic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Sakha and Turkey. Funded by their own budgets will be Armenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Serbia, Slovakia, Ukraine | |||
| Bank transfer costs and risk | 20 | 22 money transfers to various countries in various local currencies. The typical cost for transfer is around 10 EUR + money exchange rates spread and risk of money exchange fluctuations during the contest = around 20 EUR. Could be less if the local organizers have PayPal accounts, but also more for transfers to countries outside EU with officially non-exchangeable currency (Belarus, Albania etc.). | |||
| Work of employees | 850 | 2/10 of monthly wage (office secretary + accountant) | 170 | 190 | Wikimedia Polska office employees will have to spend around 10% of their time to handle paperwork related to the contest for around 2 months, this is why it gives 2/10 of their monthly wages. The monthly wage is 2500 PLN for secretary and 1200 PLN for accountant = 3700 PLN = around 850 EUR. This is to be donated by Wikimedia Polska. |
| OVERALL |
Total amount requested
editUp to 6,700 Euro (7440 USD) 9,640 EUR ($10,980 USD)
Additional sources of revenue
edit- Wikimedia Polska: Wages: 170 EUR (190 USD) + office rent, internet connection, phone calls etc by employees of Wikimedia Polska.
- Wikimedia Slovakia: will use its own budget for their prizes
- Wikimedia Estonia: will use its own budget for their prizes
- Wikimedia Ukraine: will use its own budget for their prizes
- Wikimedia Armenia, Czech Republic, Austria and Serbia will use their own budgets for their prizes, as APG funded chapters (see the talk page).
Non-financial requirements
edit- One or more blog posts on the international Wikimedia blog (http://blog.wikimedia.org).
Discussion
editCommunity notification
editYou are responsible for notifying relevant communities of your proposal, so that they can help you! Depending on your project, notification may be most appropriate on a village pump, talkpage, mailing list. Please paste a link below to where the relevant communities have been notified of this proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips?
- A list for Wikimedians of Central and Eastern Europe: wmcee-l@tools.wikimedia.pl
- Wikimedia CEE Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1535273526719763/
- CEE Spring Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/WCEESpring/
- Twitter account of CEE Spring: https://twitter.com/CEE_Spring
- Meta page of CEE Spring: Wikimedia CEE Spring 2016
Endorsements
editDo you think this project should be selected for a Project and Event Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.
- Contests are a wonderful way to engage existing editors in new ways and they are also fun. And remember, as the contests on catalonia wikipedia say: the winner of a contest is Wikipedia! I would be happy to support/mentor for this project since I worked on the contest evaluation report. I'm already supporting via the talk page :) --EGalvez (WMF) (talk) 23:46, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
- For grantees
If you are the grantee or representative that wrote this grant submission, you may request changes by using these links: