Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Building a firmer base for knowledge sharing on Wikimedia projects.

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Applicant details edit

Wikimedia username(s):

Elisabeth Carrera (WMNO), Jon Harald Søby (WMNO)

Organization:

Wikimedia Norge

G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?

Applied previously and did receive a grant

H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?

Yes

H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?

The last three years we have received small grants from Arts and Culture Norway, The National Library, The Fritt Ord Foundation, The NUUG Foundation, The Norwegian National Commission for UNESCO, and The Sámi Parliament of Norway.

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Additional information edit

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

Norway

S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:

Local

S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)

https://www.wikimedia.no/

https://no.wikimedia.org/ https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaNorge https://www.instagram.com/wikimedianorge https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD5DZY--KACoa8nUOtcLlSQ https://twitter.com/WikimediaNorge

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Proposal edit

1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?

Rather than to repeat our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan and our 2023-2024 Annual Plan in this proposal, we encourage the regional grants committee and others to read these documents in full before reviewing our proposal. There is also an audio version of the strategy. The documents and audio are found here: https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategi_2023–2028/en https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Årsplan_2023–2024/Handlingsplan/en

Our vision, which was last revised by our Annual General Assembly in February this year, is:

"Wikimedia Norge will be a visible advocate for knowledge sharing and open access to information. Wikimedia Norge will be the leading Norwegian organisation for everyone that supports the network of Wikimedia projects."

Our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan describes how we choose to pursue our vision, whereas our 2023-2024 Annual Plan shows how we intend to implement our strategies. These three cornerstones, passed by our Annual General Assembly, will ensure that our day-to-day operations are aligned with the expectations of our members and the WMNO Board of Directors. This proposal is based entirely on those cornerstones, in keeping with the Movement Strategy recommendation to ensure equity in decision-making.

Past work and learning strongly indicate a need to solidify our day-to-day core functions, particularly when it comes to membership follow-up and communications work. With only 49 paid-up members, and hardly any contributors on the Northern Sámi Wikipedia edition, it’s high time we listen to our members. For several years the WMNO board and staff has been encouraged to step up the efforts to recruit, train and retain members and editors. This proposal aims to help us build a firmer base for knowledge sharing by doing just that. Statistics also show that only 8 % of administrators and mentors on the two Norwegian and the Northern Sámi Wikipedias are women. By increasing our efforts to bridge the gender gap amongst these key contributors, we hope to attract more female editors and, in time, improve content equity.

Professionalising our administration will help us build a stronger organisational foundation. If we also step up our advocacy efforts, we might be able to qualify for state funding within this five-year strategic period. Increased efforts to grow the Northern Sámi Wikipedia version, could help our case. There is no competing encyclopaedia in Northern Sámi, and the Norwegian Bokmål encyclopaedia snl.no is publicly funded.

This funding period we will continue our international efforts to support under-represented languages in the Wikimedia projects, but with a stronger emphasis on including local wiki community members in sharing and learning. In 2022 the push to set up the Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub drained staff-time from core functions. For the future, with only 2.8 staff available in Wikimedia Norge, we will have to rely more on volunteer contributors and project hires for this part of our work, providing we are awarded project funding.

2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?

A more people-centred approach will make our chapter an intrinsic part of the local wiki community, so that we can help Wikimedia projects evolve. We need current and potential Norwegian and Sámi Wikimedians to pool their resources. Our goal is to grow into a diverse and inclusive popular movement that advocates knowledge sharing, open access to information and freedom of speech.

Also, if we become a more visible and attractive partner for relevant parts of GLAM (particularly libraries, archives and museums), the educational sector, the authorities and civil society in general, we stand a better chance of successfully introducing large-scale programs such as Wiki into Education. Please refer to our 2023-2024 Annual Plan for details.

3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.

Please refer to our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan for a full description of our main goals and strategies. Our strategies are divided into four thematic work areas that we believe are key to reach our goals:

1. Members and contributors 2. Organisational foundation 3. Norwegian partnerships and advocacy 4. International work

We are confident that our strategic choices will be effective because they are based on careful evaluation of our current and expected resources and the societal surroundings we operate within. Also, the shared experience of our Board of Directors, our staff and our members will help us navigate risks and seize opportunities.

4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?

Our activities for the first year of the funding period are described in detail in our Annual Plan. The summary reads: "In 2023–2024 we will make sure that our day-to-day operations are well-run, and we’ll work on minor projects in line with our mission statement, while we increase our efforts within the following areas:

1. Wiki community meeting places 2. To recruit and follow up on members and Wikimedia projects volunteers 3. Start to develop wiki training for high school and/or university level programs 4. Communications work 5. To strengthen small under-represented languages in the Wikimedia projects, beginning with Wikipedia in Northern Sámi"

5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?

Yes, for 3 years

5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?

Our five-year strategic plan allows us to focus on some or all of our thematic work areas, with their separate goals and strategies, for years 2 and 3 of the funding period. According to our governance structure, it should be left up to our members to pass each annual plan, based on the recommendations of the WMNO board and staff, at the Annual General Assembly.

But the next three years will undoubtedly be all about capacity building and firming up our organisational foundation. After year 1, when we have developed better ways of measuring and analysing our impact, we can make more informed decisions about how to best implement our strategies. The learning questions and the risk mitigation matrix that are part of this proposal are useful tools as we move towards more systematic organisational goals and performance management.

6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14vRShoeT09D_RlYjAi9l4cjPdWRTJ44J/edit?usp=share_link&ouid=111468296543055148138&rtpof=true&sd=true

7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?

Staff (https://www.wikimedia.no/en/about-us/staff/): Some of our strategies and activities require that we build staff competence and, potentially, recruit project staff. We need to professionalise our project management, our communications work and our future education program. From 1 May 2023 Elisabeth Carrera is our ED. Up until now we have had 2,8 permanent staff positions, but one of our project managers has handed in her notice, and we have started the process to recruit a replacement. We will advertise a full-time position, bringing our staff up to 3 full positions. That will give us a larger pool of qualified candidates, and we also need to up our staff-time somewhat now that we’re about to start implementing a highly ambitious annual plan.

The Board of Directors (https://www.wikimedia.no/en/about-us/the-board-of-directors/): We have a board of highly competent volunteers with a range of professional backgrounds. They help us stay on track with our strategic decisions, share their knowledge and help with our networking efforts.

Audit Committee (https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kontrollkomité/en): The two volunteer members of our audit committee oversee our finances and make sure that our board and staff adhere to our bylaws and the decisions passed by our Annual General Assembly.

Nomination Committee (https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Valgkomité/en): The committee will make sure that skilled candidates are nominated for our Board of Directors and Audit Committee.

Mentors and trainers: Currently, we have a handful of volunteers that we can involve more actively in organising activities. Recruiting and training more helpers is key to help us grow the number of activities.

It’s the joint efforts of staff and members that will enable us to implement the proposal.

8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Content Gender gap, Language, Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial

8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.

Please refer to our 2023-2024 Annual Plan.

9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.

Education, Culture, heritage or GLAM , Diversity

10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.

Gender Identity, Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language

11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?

Please refer to the thematic work area “Members and Contributors” in our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan and page 2 of our 2023-2024 Annual Plan.

12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?

In advance of on-site and digital events we always remind participants of the UCoC and our own friendly space policy (https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Retningslinjer_for_inkluderende_møter/en). In our experience, behaviour that challenges the environment for local Wikimedians happens in the projects, not as part of our activities. In our 2022 Annual Report (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/no/9/92/Annual_Report_2022.pdf) we listed the discouraging ratio of deleted Wikipedia articles that were created by new registered users. This is one of many indications that more systematic efforts to recruit and train editors, mentors and administrators could help us provide a more inclusive and supportive environment. Inexperienced editors are often put off because they don’t understand why their contributions are deleted. We’re trying to help beginners produce better articles and to increase the number of experienced users that are there to offer them a warm and supportive welcome.

Digital etiquette is one of three core elements in our future Wiki into Education program, but we also believe that our general efforts towards content and contributor equity help us on the way towards safe and uplifting knowledge sharing.

13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?

Yes

13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.

In addition to our general efforts to share and learn within the Wikimedia movement, our key partners for this proposal are

The local Wikimedia community
The Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub, which works with WikiTongues and user groups, chapters or individuals from 13 under-represented languages.

The local wiki community has been informed of our strategies and plans, and our members have been involved in making them. Our international efforts to support under-represented languages are planned and conveyed as part of the work in The Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub.

14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?

Yes

14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.

We have a number of connections in Norwegian GLAM, that are keen to help with our efforts to recruit and train editors.

For Wiki in Education, outreach efforts to the educational sector, The Ministry of Education and Research, The Norwegian Directorate for Education and potential funders will be key to gain support for the project.

A lot of our language work will be done in collaboration with Giellatekno – Centre for Sámi Language Technology at the University of Tromsø.

15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?

Our 2023-2024 Annual Plan is all about long-term capacity building. The activities will be continued throughout our five-year strategic period, and help us grow and develop as an organisation. We will finance our operations with a combination of project funding, grants from the Wikimedia Foundation and an increase of unrestricted revenues. Also, by firming up our organisational foundation we can realistically meet the requirements to apply for state funding within the next five years.

16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.

Please refer to our Risk Mitigation Matrix. File label "Risk Register".

RiskMitigationMatrix.pdf

17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Improve User Experience, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development

18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.

Yes

https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategi_2023–2028/en

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit

19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?

This funding period we need to find better ways to measure and evaluate our performance as part of our day-to-day operations. Some of our qualitative analyses will be based on surveys and are not reflected in our metrics. These are our learning questions:

Why have, or why have not, our activities to recruit, train and retain members and Wikimedia projects contributors been successful?
How can we increase our interaction with the specific target audiences in the year 2023-2024? I.e., female Wikipedia contributors and contributors to the Northern Sámi Wikipedia edition.
Do we need a more ambitious strategy to increase our unrestricted revenues? E.g., by allocating more staff time to fundraising.
Has our focus on communications work given us a more visible public profile?
Have our efforts to encourage knowledge sharing between international and national projects had any effect?
How can we stimulate more Wikimedians from under-represented languages to interact with the Wikimedia Language Diversity Hub?

20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.

Facebook and Instagram reach, i.e., the number of individuals that see our content

Page views on wikimedia.no.


Main Metrics	Description	Target
Wiki meetups: # of first-time participants	N/A	30
Wikipedia Kickstart: percentage of participants that are active editors on Wikipedia for at least a month.	An active editor makes at least five edits within a month.	50
# of WMNO members by the end of June 2024	N/A	85
Percentage increase for mass media coverage and owned media reach
25
# of Wikimedia language versions that our contributors and partners represent.	N/A	20

Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.


Additional Metrics	Description	Target
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities	N/A	N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities	N/A	N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability	N/A	N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors	N/A	N/A
Diversity of participants brought in by grantees	Percentage of Wikipedia contributors recruited by WMNO that are women.	50
Number of people reached through social media publications	N/A	N/A
Number of activities developed	N/A	N/A
Number of volunteer hours	N/A	N/A

21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics	Description	Target
Number of participants	N/A	500
Number of editors	N/A	375
Number of organizers	N/A	30

**Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project**
Wikimedia Project	Description	Target
Wikipedia	Articles created or improved.	3500
Wikimedia Commons	Files uploaded.	2500
Wikidata	Entries created or improved.	3500
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

We will allocate more staff time than before to recruit, train and retain members and Wikimedia projects contributors. We haven’t made a similar push before, so our quantitative targets are based on limited experience. What we do know, is that our corresponding targets for the previous funding period were overly optimistic.

Our targets for Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata in the additional core metrics are conservative estimates. We may set up GLAM partnerships that will up the numbers.

22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?

Manual counting, various edit counters, dashboards and the UKBot tool.

Financial Proposal edit

23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.

2300000 NOK

23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?

221513 USD

23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.

https://no.wikimedia.org/wiki/Årsplan_2023–2024/Budsjett

23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.

The amount we request from WMF for the first year of our proposal is 10 percent higher than what we have received for the current one-year funding period. This will go towards the added expenses we expect from inflation and salary increase.

Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.

Other public document(s): WMNO Timeline 2023-2026 document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14vRShoeT09D_RlYjAi9l4cjPdWRTJ44J/edit#gid=432646909

Final Message edit

By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.

We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.

Yes

Feedback edit

Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.