Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/WikiOutdoor Training 2024

statusFunded

Conference and Event Fund

WikiOutdoor Training 2024

proposed start date2024-04-03T00:00:00Z

proposed end date2024-10-31T00:00:00Z

budget (local currency)1390121 MKD

amount requested (USD)24688.55 USD

amount recommended (local)1390121 MKD

decision fiscal year2023-24

applicant• Полупрофесионален Шофер

organization (if applicable)• Wikimedia GMSZ MKD Skopje

Friendly Space Policy

Universal Code of Conduct

Application Privacy Statement

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Applicant details

A. Are you applying as a(n)

Group of individuals not registered with an organization

B. Full name of organization presenting the proposal.

Wikimedia GMSZ MKD Skopje

F. Do you have an account on a Wikimedia project?

Yes

F1. Please provide your main Wikimedia Username.

Полупрофесионален Шофер

F2. Please provide the Usernames of people related to this proposal.

Деан Лазаревски, Kiril Simeonovski, Ehrlich91

G. Are you legally registered?

Yes

If you are applying as an individual or your group is not a legally registered nonprofit in your country, we require that you have a fiscal sponsor.

I. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Objectives and Strategy

1. Please state the title of your proposal.

WikiOutdoor Training 2024

2.1. When will the event begin? Please enter the event start date.

2024-09-06

2.2. When is the last day of your event?

2024-09-09

3.1. When will you begin preparing for your event?

2024-04-03T00:00:00Z

3.2. When will you expect to complete your last event payment?

2024-10-31T00:00:00Z

4. In which country will the conference take place?

North Macedonia

4.1. In which city will the conference take place?

5. Is it a remote or in-person event?

In-person event

5.1. What will be the total number of participants at the event? (including scholarship recipients + organizing team + other guests + self funded guests) (required)

30

6. 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.

Regional

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

CEECA region

7. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has.

https://wikiexpeditions.mk/ https://www.instagram.com/wikiexpeditions_mkd/ https://mk-mk.facebook.com/Wikiexpeditions/

8. Do you work with any thematic or regional platforms such as WISCom, CEE, Iberocoop, etc.

Yes

8.1. Please describe what platforms and your work with them.

CEE

9. Please describe the target participants for this event.

Our primary target participants are people who are active and/or have a desire to be active in the expeditionary projects in their countries. We will aim to find people who want to research before the expeditions and are good with editing on Wikipedia, people who want to take images, people who want to fly drones, and people who want to drive to specific locations.

10. Please provide the link to the event's page if you already have one.

https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiOutdoor_Training_2024

The following questions (11-14) will refer to the Community Engagement Survey which is required in order to submit a proposal. Here is the survey form that you can copy and use (if the link does not work): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ieEI8EFf2vxjD9wN_h8-srYeRCp4fhSp7_1_wiR2jh8/edit. This survey is required to access a Conference grant.

11. How many people did you send the community engagement survey to?

150

11.1. When did you conduct the survey, and for how long?

The survey was conducted from 11 January to 31 January 2024

12. How many people responded to the survey?

12

13. What are the main objectives of the event?

The main objectives of the WikiOutdoor Training 2024 are the following:

• improve leadership and organisational skills for conducting outdoor activities (e.g. expeditions, photohunts, outdoor trainings etc.) in other parts of CEE as well as in Central Asia
• improve skills for identifying underrepresented topics on the Wikimedia projects related to geography, natural heritage and cultural heritage
• improve skills for discovering and accessing reference works on the identified underrepresented topics in collaboration with external stakeholders (e.g. GLAMs, educational institutions etc.)
• improve navigational skills for discovering and mapping places of interest that are mentioned in reference works but are not geolocated
• improve photographic and video-making skills for documenting the underrepresented topics, including skills for mastering aerial photography and videography
• improve editing skills on documenting the underrepresented topics on the Wikimedia projects

14. Based on survey responses, what are the most important things your community should do at the conference to achieve these objectives?

The most important things that people from the communities of Central and Eastern Europe as well as of Central Asia indicated in the survey are the following:

• extending collaboration with external partners (83.3%)
• producing multimedia (audio and video files) (66.7%)
• documenting places and monuments (66.7%)
• identifying new forms of knowledge (58.3%)
• learning drone photography (58.3%)
• producing quality images (50.0%)
• geolocating proper points of interest (50.0%)
• searching reference works and routes (41.7%)

15. 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.

Geography, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context)

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

Some of the objectives that the WikiOutdoor Training 2024 aiм to achieve are to improve skills for discovering and accessing reference works as well as identifying topics related to geography, natural heritage and cultural heritage. The event will teach participants on how to collaborate with external stakeholders in order to acquire materials on the identified topics and how to access the identified places and monuments that need to be documented

16. 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.

Culture, heritage or GLAM , Other

17. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities?

Geographic , Linguistic / Language, Digital Access

18. Do you intend to invite or engage with non-Wikimedian individuals or organizations? If so – can you explain your intention for this outreach?

No.

19. What will you do to make sure participants continue to engage in your activities after the event?

As our event is set up as a proper expedition with learning lessons in the process, we hope that by giving that feeling to the participants they will get the idea to realise the expeditionary projects in their countries as they can produce local content in the process.

Additionally, they will learn how to make an expedition from the experienced team, on which they can rely when they return to their countries. Our team can address any issue that they may face in any of the phases from starting to implementation phase.

As well, we plan to send the survey after one year of the event to receive a response from the participants, as we can notice if they organise something in their communities upon their return.

20. 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.

Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt

Logistical Aspects

21. Do you have any proposed venue for the event?

Since the WikiOutdoor Training 2024 is planned to be held in the region of Prespa Lake, our selected venue for this event will be Lakeview Hotel and Resort Otesevo.

This hotel offers restaurant, a special diet menu and packed lunches can be organised in the on-site restaurant, the units provide a balcony and a seating area with a sofa and private bathrooms with showers. The property offers free parking. For the purpose of this event a conference room that seats up to 40 guests

22. Is the event venue and hotel accessible for people with physical disabilities?

Yes

23. How many scholarships would you like to offer?

A total of 20 scholarships will be offered to community members of the CEE Region. Our aim is to have a diversified group of participants from this region, each and every one of them with different roles to learn, prepare and request to conduct the expeditions.

24. What expenses will the scholarship cover?

A scholarship will cover the following expenses: round trip, local transport, accommodation, meals and insurance.

25. How will scholarship recipients be selected?

Scholarship recipients will be selected on the basis of the information provided in a scholarship application which will be distributed through a call for scholarships sometime in April and May 2024. The scholarship application will ask applicants to provide details about their past involvement in the movement, state their interest and willingness to conduct or participate in other activities, and indicate a specific area of skills that they would like to acquire (e.g. editing skills, photography and videography, navigational skills, off-road driving skills etc.).

The scholarship criteria will be the following:

• ability to clearly express interest and vision for conducting and participating in outdoor activities
• country and community of origin (applicants from countries and communities with little-to-no record of conducting activities will have advantage)
• contribution record (applicants with editing experience on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons will have advantage)

26. In which ways can Wikimedia Foundation staff support your event onsite?

26.2. Do you intend to invite any WMF staff members to your event? (please note that all WMF staff travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the foundation). Please indicate what is the limit number of WMF staff members you would like to welcome at your event.

N/A

27. Please outline the roles and responsibilities of the organizing team for the conference.

We plan to hire one-time employee, Event Coordinator who will work on organizing the project, and we will also engage two additional staff to support some on-site logistical activities:

Event Coordinator will be responsible for planning and organizing events, communicating with partnering organizations, communicating with the Wikipedia communities and promoting the project activities. This role will be taking charge of the practical aspects, from selecting and booking the venue to arranging accommodations, transportation logistics, and overseeing catering and hospitality, development of the conference schedule, coordinating speakers.

The two on-site logistical support staff will be included in the implementation phase activities which will include overseeing all technical aspects, ensuring the seamless operation of audiovisual equipment and coordinating with IT support, working alongside with the participants and helping to create a rich multimedia photo library.

Nino Bogdanovski will be responsible for conducting the research and planning the activities in the project, communicating with partnering organizations, monitoring the development of the project and evaluating the project outcomes.

Dean Lazarevski is the licensed drone operator who will be responsible for conducting lectures for basic drone operation and aerial photography, also in the early phase of the project he will be responsible for the project event coordination activities.

Kiril Simeonovski is the chief photographer, photographing the objects, buildings, people, natural and cultural heritage, using his mountaineering skills to get closer to buildings, which are often in ruins or inaccessible by vehicle.

Toni Ristovski is the chief researcher on the team, makes preparations to be covered during the expeditions, searching through various sources before the expeditions and finding the exact locations of the points of interest. Co-driver and main navigator.

28. Do you have plans to co-organize the event with other Wikimedia communities, groups or affiliates?

No

28.1. If yes, can you please explain how you are going to co-organize the event and what responsibilities each partner will have.

29. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these?

In planning the WikiOutdoor-expedition conference, various risks, both external and internal, are anticipated. External contextual factors pose potential challenges, including unforeseen changes in law regulations, public health emergencies, or natural disasters that could impact the implementation of the event, but these are likely to be very low. We will involve maintaining close monitoring of external conditions, establishing contingency plans for different scenarios, and having clear communication channels to communicate any adjustments to participants.

Another external risk involves changes in the technological factors, such as disruptions in internet connectivity or cybersecurity threats. To mitigate these risks, an appropriate IT infrastructure and measures will be implemented. Financial risks, such as unexpected expenses, are also considered. With creating a detailed budget with contingencies, and maintaining open communication with the stakeholders can help mitigate financial uncertainties.

In conclusion, risk identification, thorough planning, effective communication, and adaptable procedures are the core of the risk mitigation approach for the WikiOutdoor-expedition conference, ensuring a resilient response to potential challenges.

30. Friendly space policy - Please add the link to the friendly space policy that your community will be using for this event.

We will use very similar friendly space policy to the CEE Meetings (https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiOutdoor_Training_2024/Safety)

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation

31. What do you hope to learn from your work organising this conference?

Our learning from organising the WikiOutdoor Training 2024 will reflect the answers on the following questions:

• What is the level of preparedness for conducting outdoor activities in the CEECA region? The gathering of people from different parts of Central and Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia will help to get a better understanding of different forms of the knowledge in different areas that people require in order to successfully conduct outdoor activities, which would be of particular importance in the process of planning and organising similar outdoor trainings in the future.

• What are all necessary roles for conducting a specific form of an outdoor activity? Outdoor activities involve people who have different roles during the undertaking. This event will test the successful model of conducting Macedonian Wikiexpeditions through the years in order to conclude if that division of roles is easily applicable to communities who have not conducted similar activities in the past. In other words, this event will help determine the optimal size of the team involved in an outdoor activity and the division of roles between its members.

• What is the best strategy to deliver the necessary knowledge in order to improve skills? Given that the WikiOutdoor Training 2024 will be the first event of its kind in the region and one of the first in the movement overall, we do not have any prior knowledge about strategies that work the best. That being said, this event will have to reveal what works and what does not work so that we can define the best strategy for organising such outdoor trainings.

• What new types of outdoor activities and new forms of knowledge can be identified? In-person events are always a very good opportunity to stimulate teamwork and brainstorm ideas. One of the main things that we would like to learn from this WikiOutdoor Training 2024 are ways to improve the current forms of outdoor activities, new forms of activities that are worth experimenting with, and new forms of knowledge that could enrich the Wikimedia projects.

32. Main open metrics

Main Open Metrics Data

Main Open Metrics	Description	Target
Number of participants	We aim to have at least 25 participants, containing: scholarships attendees, core organising team, logistical members and self funded members	25
Number of outdoor activities in which participants will be involved one year after the event	We will ask the participant within the year following the event with survey regarding the activities they took in their local communities on this topic.	5
Number of represented communities	Represented communities from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia	10
Number of covered objects during the event	During the specific day of the outdoor training the objective will be to cover at least 50 buildings, monuments, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc.	50
Number of uploaded content	After the day of the outdoor training, participants should upload images, edit articles and Wikidata items in total number of at least 300 content pages	300

Financial Proposal

33. What is the amount you are requesting from Wikimedia Foundation? Please provide this amount in your local currency.

1390121

34. Select your local currency.

MKD

Requested amount in USD

24688.55 USD

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

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1doZV0lsN56bDaHFzQ0iRTidkZfdQ-8zaiYeQl-C46Js/edit?usp=sharing

36. Do you expect to receive funding for this conference from other organizations to support your work?

Yes

36.1. If yes, what kind of resources are you expecting to get?

In kind contributions in total value of 7.240 USD. Details about different segments of this contributions you are able to find in our budget link

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

Yes

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

Other public document(s):

Endorsements and Feedback

Please add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.

Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:

• Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
• Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
• Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
• Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
• Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).

Endorse