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Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Annual plan of Wikimedia Serbia (2022/2023)/Yearly Report (2022)

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Yearly Learning Report (Year 1 - 2022)

Report Status: Accepted

Due date: 2023-04-01T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund

Report type: Yearly Learning Report (for multi-year fund recipients) , reporting year: 2022

Application Yearly Report (2023)

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General information edit

This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving multi-year Wikimedia Community Funds to report on their yearly results.

  • Name of Organization: Wikimedia Serbia (Викимедија Србије)
  • Title of Proposal: Annual plan of Wikimedia Serbia (2022/2023)

Part 1 Understanding your work edit

1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.

WMRS implemented three programs during the 2022 - Education Program, GLAM Program and Community Support. The beginning of the year was still under the influence of the pandemic, which is why live events were not organized. It has been challenging to organize new online events, as community members have lost interest in them. The most important offline events were local Wikipedian conference, but also Wikipedia editing workshops and accredited seminars within the Education Program. One of the highlights is the emphasis on quality over quantity. There is a noticeable trend towards the creation of more substantial material, as well as an increase in the self-sustainability of the teams leading the projects. Also, one of the aims of WMRS is to strengthen the sister Wikimedia projects in the programs. Thus, we had a greater presence of Wikidata, Wikibooks, Wikisources, and Wikiquotes through various activities. The Serbian Wikipedia community is more active in WMRS acitvities, through greater participation in events and conferences, but also through organizing competitions, supporting and participating in actions and edit-a-thons.

WMRS got a new staff member at the beginning of the year. The position of Diversity Project Manager was taken by Nevena Rudinac. Within this position, Nevena started working with marginalized groups in order to better represent them on Wikimedia projects, but also to create opportunities for them to contribute to projects.

During the year, the work of WMRS was very noticeable in terms of not only greater presence in international campaigns, but also in launching them. In this respect, WMRS has cooperated with WMDE within the Wikimedia Accelerator UNLOCK, actively shared successful education project models within the EWOC group, was the coordinator of the 1lib1ref campaign at the CEE level, and at the end of the year, it was decided that the international Edu Wiki conference will be held in Belgrade in May 2023.

2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?

During the year, we used the approaches and strategic directions defined in the organization's strategy (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DSjyVRXpAPr5BYCl-jR-e1-bTwY3pUFs/view?usp=sharing), as well as the strategic plan (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T72BBLdeAy9cM8sy6rtd9HhWe-OwHHnr/view?usp=sharing). Apart from the fact that a proactive approach to both partners and volunteers has been implemented for years, the importance of partnerships is very significant. In the previous year, we tried to achieve better results through partnerships, introduce new perspectives and find a link with organizations and institutions with which we can pool resources.

With that being said, once again we’ve got the support from the Ministry of Culture and Information which helped us in implementing the top-down approach and opened doors to many GLAM institutions.

3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?

Wikimedia Serbia's programs have been taking shape over the years and mostly the same project models are used that have proven to be good, successful and with a low risk rate. We have expertise in such models and have achieved good results. However, despite this, we try to refresh the programs, improve them and apply new approaches that haven’t been used before. One of those examples is the course Translation Technologies at the Faculty of Philology University of Belgrade (2019/20 academic year). In one of the course’s mandatory activities the students had a task to create Wikipedia articles. All the published articles were post-edited translations from English to the Serbian language produced in the Content Translation Tool using Google Translate. The Content Translation Tool was used because it replicates the structure of the original Wikipedia article, also providing automatic placement of internal and external links and references.

It is important to note that last year we participated in the Wikimedia UNLOCK Accelerator program. Although this program was not financed from General Funds, but from Movement Strategy Implementation Grants, General Funds most certainly motivated us to seek cross-regional collaboration and participate in fostering innovations in the movement and outside it. This was implemented for the first time in the Western Balkans. Wikimedia Germany was the initiator of this program, which was focused on supporting innovative projects, through a series of training, as well as through grants. The program was aimed at implementing the ninth strategic recommendation, Innovation in free knowledge. The collaboration enabled the mutual creation and development of projects, support for teams in terms of the necessary skills, and also the establishment of connections between innovators from different countries and regions. The cooperation was presented in Wikimedia's podcast WIKIMOVE, as well as at the CEE Meeting and WikiLive conference.

4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.

Wikimedia Serbia cooperates most closely with Wikimedians of Republika Srpska, since the communities are working on the same language project. In collaboration with them, the #1lib1ref campaign was organized together, as well as the CEE Spring competition. During the year, international campaigns were launched, in which numerous communities were involved. One of these is the edit-a-thon on the occasion of the International Roma Day. The GLAM Manager of Wikimedia Serbia became the CEE coordinator of the #1lib1ref campaign, which led to greater communication with communities in the region. Wikimedia Serbia took part in the CEE hub, but was also present at most of the conferences, during which the achieved results, different models of cooperation and the possibility of their application were promoted. Also, the Education Program Manager participated in the mentorship program, which enabled a better transfer of knowledge and skills that our organization possesses.

5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.

6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups Strongly agree
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Strongly agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Agree
E. Encourage the retention of editors
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Agree
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. Strongly agree

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?

WMRS got a new staff member at the beginning of the year. The position of Diversity Project Manager was taken by Nevena Rudinac. Within this position, Nevena started working with marginalized groups in order to better represent them on Wikimedia projects, but also to create opportunities for them to contribute to projects. This means that we paid great attention to diversity in the projects and thus worked on the implementation of the strategic recommendation "Provide for Safety and Inclusion". Two goals were in focus - to increase content about underrepresented groups, and also to involve those groups in terms of editing and participation in campaigns. Within the project, campaigns such as WikiGap, Wiki4HumanRights, Wiki Loves Pride, as well as edit-a thons on the occasion of International Day of Persons with Disabilities and International Roma Day were organized. As part of the implemented activities, partnerships were also made with organizations that share the same or similar goals, which increased the impact itself. At the end of the year, it was decided that Nevena would take the position of Diversity Program Manager, within which the community support activities would also be implemented.

Part 2: Your main learning edit

8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?

In our application, we stated that we will focus mostly on learning about the best models of introducing Wikimedia projects in teaching, on digitization in collaboration with partners, on developing critical thinking and increasing awareness of the importance of free knowledge. In terms of above mentioned, we tried different approaches, to involve younger students, to increase activity on other Wikimedia projects and there are several proofs that this has been fruitful for our activities. Wikimedia Serbia received a confirmation of acceptance of a new accreditation for professional training seminars for teachers, for the school years 2022/2023, 2023/2024. and 2024/2025. Of particular importance is the fact that Sanja Ječmenica, a teacher at the elementary school "Jovan Sterija Popović", received the second prize in the contest Learned at the seminar - applied in practice, which was published on the website of the Institute for the Improvement of Education of the Republic of Serbia. The award was won for the project "WikiJunior books".

Learnings about quantitative and qualitative evaluation of our work is explained here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2021-2022_round_1/Wikimedia_Serbia/Impact_report_form#Global_metrics_overview_-_all_programs

9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?

Wikimedia Serbia can boast of a large number of activities, realized collaborations, cross-regional and international campaigns, but there are certain deviations in the metrics. For the most part, the activities went smoothly, but the beginning of the previous year was still challenging in terms of gathering people and reaching certain targets.

10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?

Wikimedia Serbia submitted the annual plan for 2023 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tyJg7msYMvhbjd3JBzEX80UqYP7y28YC/view?usp=sharing) and within it emphasized the changes adopted by the organization for the following year. As part of the changes, a Diversity Program was created, while community support activities were distributed to other segments. The second change concerns the structure of employees - so Wikimedia Serbia has an Executive Director from 2023, and the team consists of the Education Program Manager, GLAM Program Manager, Diversity Program Manager and Office Manager. Apart from the mentioned changes, the plan presents the way in which Wikimedia Serbia will work on the implementation of strategic recommendations, but also on providing support to communities in the region.

11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?

The most interesting story not only for our friends, but also for our volunteers, is the protection of our cultural and historical heritage. We had two examples where cultural and natural monuments were destroyed in traffic and infrastructural accidents, but the photos were preserved within our projects. These stories always delight them, especially the fact that they can use this content freely. The media is always delighted with the statistics and the fact that so much work is done on a volunteer basis.

12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.

Part 3: Metrics for Year 1 edit

13a. Open and additional metrics data

Open Metrics
Open Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
File usage File usage is important for because we don't want for volunteers to just collect multimedia files, but to use them in articles and for other purposes. 6150 N/A We're very satisfied to see more usage of the gathered material. We don't want to just pile a lot of content which won't be used. Dashboard, GLAMorous tool
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Additional Metrics
Additional Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of people reached through social media publications N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of activities developed N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

13b. Additional core metrics data.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants N/A 3000 1384 The number of participants is smaller due to the lower general attendance at various events and conferences where WMRS presented programs and thus introduced people outside the community about projects and activities.
Number of editors N/A 2070 786 The results shown here are related to the newly registered editors. Despite the effort in the organization of activities that differ in terms of topic, dynamics, time of holding, there was a problem of attracting new editors. The existing editors showed interest in our activities by their participation in the activities, but it was difficult to attract new editors and interest them in our activities. Dashboard, tracking editors by event pages.
Number of organizers N/A 150 162 When we talk about the number of organizers, it is important to emphasize that the presence of the Wikipedia core community in the organization of WMRS' projects and events has increased.
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Wikipedia We measure articles on Wikipedia, new and improved ones. This number is a bit high since we measure illustrated articles within Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos. Without that, it would be 8000 articles. 28000 12256 When we look at the number of pages created on Wikimedia projects, the number deviates only for the reason that the campaign Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos did not have a response like the one in 2021, when over 20 thousand articles were illustrated. However, looking at this metric individually by program, it is clear that it was exceeded within the Education Program, and even doubled within the GLAM Program. Dashboard, event pages, individual projects.
Wikimedia Commons Multimedia files on Wikimedia Commons 11050 15842 N/A Projects' Categories on Wikimedia Commons, Dashboard, Wikipedian in Residence project pages.
Wikidata N/A 1400 5248 We're looking into more possibilities to include Wikidata in out work. Currently we're organizing workshops and increasing Wikidata related topics at our events. N/A
Wikibooks N/A 60 52 N/A N/A
Wikisource N/A 80 56 N/A N/A

14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?

No

15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.

N/A

16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2021-2022_round_1/Wikimedia_Serbia/Impact_report_form#Global_metrics_overview_-_all_programs

Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships edit

17. Organizational Capacity

Organizational capacity dimension
A. Financial capacity and management This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
B. Conflict management or transformation This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
D. Partnership building This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
E. Strategic planning This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
F. Program design, implementation, and management This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it
I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
J. Governance This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
K. Communications, marketing, and social media This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it
L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
M. On-wiki technical skills This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
N. Accessing and using data This capacity has grown but it should be further developed
O. Evaluating and learning from our work This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high
P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders
N/A
N/A

17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Peer to peer learning with other community members in conferences/events, Peer to peer learning with other community members in community/ies of practice* (structured and continuous learning and sharing spaces), Peer to peer learning with other community members (but that is not continuous or structured)

17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Lack of staff time to participate in capacity building/training, Lack of financial resources

18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?

N/A

19. Partnerships over the funding period.

Over the fund period...
A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) Strongly agree
B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups Agree
C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups Strongly agree

19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Permanent staff outreach, Partners proactive interest

19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

Difficulties specific to our context that hindered partnerships

20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?

What is crucial in achieving partnerships is fostering sustainable and long-term cooperation. Cooperation should be nurtured, improved as much as possible through the introduction of new approaches. Partners are important part of the annual meet-up of Wikipedians, but also of other thematic conferences where we present together. Collaborations are fostered between the organization and various stakeholders outside the movement, but with similar goals, as well as with other Wikimedia communities. Chapters and communities that are similar in terms of history and culture can take advantage of these similarities. On the other hand, when we cooperate with chapters from other countries, the benefits are different perspectives, views, but also resources and skills that we can exchange.

Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration edit

21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?

A sense of belonging is very important for our organization and community. The community has the feeling that it’s a part of something bigger and that it’s not alone in the fight for free knowledge. This is especially important when challenges and misunderstandings arise, because they are easier to be resolved. On the other hand, we have a sense of belonging that is important for the organization, because in this way it can learn about new models and innovative approaches from other communities. When we share knowledge, skills, and resources, we enable each other to make fewer mistakes, avoid greater risks, and gain expertise in the work we do. Belonging is important when sharing success stories, but it also has a significant impact on avoiding volunteer and employee burnout and is a safe place to share existing problems.

22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Increased significantly

23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

Wikimedia Serbia has grown over the years, but it still does its work in an underdeveloped country, which is why it is very important to us that our work is recognized and appreciated by the global community. We believe that our work has been recognized in the previous two years, and this gives us the motivation to be even better and to develop and learn from others. Belonging to such a global movement helped us expand the network of partners who themselves felt that they were part of Wikimedia.

24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

Somewhat increased

25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

It was easier for us that we didn't have to spend a lot of time on administration, but instead invested that time in projects, thanks to a two-year grant.

26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.

Feminist and LGBT+ Movement

Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration edit

We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.

27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?

Yes

27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?

Wikimedia Serbia has invested some time in sharing successful stories and models of collaboration that can be applied in other chapters or communities that are not sufficiently developed. Over the years we have developed models that can be implemented with a small amount of financial resources and with in kind donations, which is especially important for communities that still do not have a user group or a chapter. All this is shared in newsletters (GLAM and Edu newsletters on Wikimedia outreach), through diff blog posts and at Wikimedia events and meetings (CEE Meeting, Wikimania, Wikimedia Summit, VSN Meeting, GLAM coordinators meeting, Wikipedia+Education, EWOC, Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom project, Queering Wikipedia Meeting). We also organized a discussion Queer History in the Digital: We are here, we are queer - where is our history? Skills and resources are shared within the mentorship program (our Education Program Manager is a part of it) and within the 1lib1ref campaign (our GLAM Program Manager is the coordinator in the CEE region). At the end of the year the CEE hub became more active and we are a part of it.

28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?

We do this regularly (at least once a month)

29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?

This is explained in the question 27a.

Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance edit

30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

114966.92

31. Local currency type

EUR

32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

  • Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
  • Report funds received and spent, if template not used.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:APG/Proposals/2021-2022_round_1/Wikimedia_Serbia/Impact_report_form#Revenues_received_during_this_period_(6_month_for_progress_report,_12_months_for_impact_report)

33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.

There were no changes compared to the original proposal of our budget. The only budget item that had slightly bigger variances to the planned (665.32 EUR) is the budget for staff. To reduce the impact of inflation on employees’ lives, Wikimedia Serbia Board rewarded them with bonuses at the end of the year.

34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?

34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

833.08 EUR

This amount is an underspent due to the other grants we received and in kind donations.

34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

C. I am planning to send them back to the WMF

34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

N/A

35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?

As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?

Yes

37. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.

Yes

38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.

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