Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Creating free knowledge in Israel through educational and GLAM projects, and enhancement of gender, age and ability diversity in the Hebrew and Arabic Wikipedias.
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Applicant details edit
Wikimedia username(s):
- RevitalP-WMIL
Organization:
- Wikimedia Israel
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?
- Yad Hanadiv, Ica Israel, Arkin Family Foundation . We have received grants from local philanthropic foundations, that are focused on specific areas of interest, and limited in their amount and support components.
Approval of their grants depend on each Foundation's financial availability, timetable, policy, and priorities. Funding criteria are subject to changes at the discretion of the relevant Fund. These grants are applicable to 2021
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Additional information edit
R. Where will this proposal be implemented?
- Israel
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://wikimedia.org.il/ , https://www.facebook.com/WikimediaIL, https://www.linkedin.com/company/wikimedia-israel , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ8iNP1OE_ppqlGGEo5sYTg , https://www.facebook.com/Hebrew.Wikipedia
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?
Wikimedia Israel is the local Israeli chapter of the worldwide Wikimedia movement. It works in close cooperation with the global Wikimedia Foundation and with other local Wikimedia chapters around the world. Our main goal is to promote and secure access to knowledge and cultural assets by encouraging people from all parts of the Israeli society to share their knowledge and create free content, namely content that is easy to access, share and reuse from technological and legal points of view.
2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?
The main challenges we are facing are: The potential number of content creators, both in HE & AR, in our geographical domain, is relatively low owing to the relatively small population and the small amount of available free online content in both languages. The community of he-wp editors does not represent the human diversity of the Israeli society. Women are particularly underrepresented in content-creating activities of the Wikimedia projects. Consequently, there is insufficient content about underrepresented audiences. The local population is small, hence the number of active volunteers is also rather small. Our volunteers are very committed - some have been active since the establishment of the chapter - but the workload is high and the needs are ever growing. We work constantly to preserve the existing group and enroll new volunteers. The local awareness of free content as a means to increase accessibility, equality, education and creativity, is low. This includes GLAM & governmental institutes, which show low willingness to share their contents. Our proposed solutions to address these challenges consists of: Careful choice of target audiences, to create significant impact, diversification & inclusion. Fostering underrepresented audiences with a good potential of becoming active creators of quality content, e.g. senior citizens; creating inclusive and safe instructional environments for underrepresented audiences (e.g. women); engaging people on the autistic spectrum. Promoting creation of impactful diverse content through instructional activities in HE- & AR-speaking educational frameworks and the academy, while emphasizing content gaps in he-wp & ar-wp; searching for new partners to enrich Wikidata with local data. Further development of instructional tools, while strengthening the team’s capabilities as facilitators and promoters of instructional activities; establishing a support environment for instructional materials, focusing on university lecturers; developing an Arabic online editing course to promote knowledge equity in Israel and worldwide. Conducting a survey among our volunteers to find new ways of strengthening our relations and mapping the volunteers’ capabilities, as well as enrolling new volunteers. Promoting public awareness of the meaning of free content and encouraging GLAM institutes to release contents to the public domain. To this end, we will further develop GLAM Wiki Dashboard and promote its usage locally and worldwide.
3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.
Our strategy is based on integration of 4 major organizing principles: Increasing the engagement & representation of the various sectors and genders of the Israeli society; Enhancing and diversifying our activities with partners to create quality content, information & data; Developing capabilities, skills & tools to position ourselves as the leading organization in the field of free content; Increasing our visibility & organizational sustainability in our geographical domain & within the movement. Our activity clusters will focus on: Our editing courses, as a central model for increasing diversity, inclusion & community expansion. Main target audiences: senior citizens, women & people with special needs. Using online methods will allow better geographic diversity & outreach to remote and small communities. Knowledge-creation strategies aiming at enriching Wikimedia projects with quality contents & data implemented through several coopeations: Article-writing projects in the HE- and AR-speaking educational systems & the academy, while prioritizing high-impact topics & insufficiently covered subjects on he-wp and ar-wp, and further development of teacher trainings as force multipliers. Coopeations with organizations that can enrich Wikidata, combined with initiatives for fostering an open-source community. Further development of the Dashboard’s capacities and its adoption in GLAM institutes in Israel and worldwide will be our main means for increasing awareness of free content and encouraging its release. Development of training tools & skills will focus on expanding content-creation capabilities, both in training activities and for our staff and volunteers. We will also develop a first online editing course in Arabic, to become available in Israel & throughout the movement, aiming at increasing cultural diversity and knowledge equity. Enhancement of our sustainability and public visibility will include: Expanding resource development, with an emphasis on diversifying our income sources and prioritizing field of activity with a combined potential of fundraising and significant impact. Initiating a thinking process to promote respectful discourse and improve the experience of new editors, for expanding the he-wp community and improving its reputation. Increasing visibility in the community and reaching out to new audiences through social media and public activities (e.g. webinars) to deepen knowledge about Wikimedia projects and related topics.
4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?
Our main objectives for 2022 are: Promoting engagement and representation of sectors and genders in our society, in terms of both content and content creators, in 50% of our activities; Enriching our instructional capabilities with at least two new means; Promoting the awareness of free content, enrolling 4-5 additional GLAM institutes; Fostering the community of volunteers, adding 2-3 new volunteers and new fields; Strengthening our organizational sustainability, increasing our efficiency
5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?
No
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?
- N/A
6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.
7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
The WMIL team is made up of the following members:
- Executive Director - RevitalP-WMIL- Full time
In charge of the chapter’s strategic planning and its implementation; resource development, development and fostering of partnerships and free-knowledge awareness in Israel and within the movement.
- Deputy Director for Content and Programs: - Shai-WMIL - Full time; on maternity leave until January 2022
In charge of the chapter’s content and educational programs, tools, skill development, and programs for enhancing diversity.
- Coordinator for Higher Education Programs and Wikidata:- Keren-WMIL - Full time (50% higher education + 50% Wikidata)
In charge of academic educational programs (college and university lecturers and students) and Wikidata projects.
- Coordinator for Hebrew Educational Programs: - Ruti-WMIL - Full time
In charge of the “Students Write Wikipedia” program in HE-speaking middle and high-schools, as well as extracurricular activities, teacher trainings and development of instructional materials.
- Coordinator for Arabic Educational Programs:- Abeer-WMIL - Full time
In charge of the “Students Write Wikipedia” program in AR-speaking middle and high-schools, as well as extracurricular activities, teacher trainings and development of instructional materials.
- Marketing and Events Coordinator: - Gitit-WMIL - Full time
In charge of organizing the chapter’s events and communication, through social media and otherwise. (to be replaced, currently in recruiting process)
- Finance and Administration Coordinator: - Hanna-WMIL, Full time; In charge of accounting support, administration and logistical support for team tasks.
The team is reinforced by an external professional training facilitator for the senior-citizen editing courses, who is responsible, with the team’s support, for the training and guiding process of each course unit that he leads. In 2022 we intend to further consolidate this working model.
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, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context), 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.
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 , Human Rights, Climate Change and sustainability, Open Technology, 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, Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Disabilities, Linguistic / Language, Age
11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?
During the coming year we will continue to work for the expansion and diversification of our community with organizations, institutes, sectors and genders that are on top of the movement’s and our own priorities. Institutional frameworks: Teachers & students in the HE- and AR-speaking educational systems, lecturers & students in higher-education institutes. Voluntary-engagement programs: senior citizens, women Specially targeted audiences: People on the autistic spectrum (for the first time) GLAM institutes, both as participants and organizers Volunteers & community members Influential officeholders: Mid and senior executives at the civil service, selected government ministries and others. The activities will take place throughout Israel, in person or online, to allow geographic diversity. Retention efforts will be tailored to the initial participation motivations and the potential of continuity. To encourage the participation of these audiences and enhance the potential of continuous work, our strategy will include: Specially designed environments that will meet the needs of the specific targeted audience & create a safe convenient space. For example, women-only editing courses, which allow women to be more open and feel more comfortable and create essential contacts among themselves. Development & expansion of our complementary activities and support for editing-course graduates, to encourage their growth as editors and further engagement in the community & in the chapter's activities, including joining up as volunteers. Strengthening the chapter’s support capabilities of various target audiences in formal settings, such as schools, the academy etc, and in public environments, by developing specific training materials in requested topics and through strengthening support networks for new editors, while improving their user experience. Defining preferred agendas in specific subjects to encourage the participation of relevant target audiences, as a means to reach out to new potential participants and increase the involvement of existing ones, e.g. gender issues, minority cultures, selected historical themes. Promoting projects that offer added value to participants, especially GLAM institutes, and encourage them to constantly release free contents for their own benefit. For example, the GLAM-Wiki Dashboard, which allows the institutes to follow the usage of their released contents and serves them as an important management & marketing tool.
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?
WMIL considers the safety & inclusion of our community members as a crucial component of the ecosystem in which we operate. We apply a Safe Space Policy in all of our activities, whether face-to-face, in virtual spaces, in social networks or otherwise. In the spirit of the UCOC, and in order to ensure that members of our community feel welcomed, valued, and that their participation matters, we plan to initiate a brainstorming process (to include volunteers, community and staff members) whose goals are twofold: o Delivering a clear message to the community about the importance of this issue for securing its own sustainability & strength and for a positive public reputation; o Identifying practical methods, tools and means to increase tolerance and encourage the reduction of disrespectful discourse among community members, while also recommending how to implement them, with a special focus on providing support for the most vulnerable sub-communities, such as women and new editors.
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.
We intend to expand our global cooperation within the movement focusing mainly on GLAM and Wikidata projects.This include: Expanding the already existing collaborations for the GLAM-Wiki dashboard, the open-source based analytical tool for following usage of free contents released to WM projects. Contacts with WMF Community Programs, and with certain selected chapters and user groups, were made so far through direct approach. Collaborations include back-end open-source development features, feedback, mobilizing global GLAM institutes to use the dashboard, and more. We accepted WMDE invitation to join their cross-chapter collaborative initiative to develop capacity-building resources for GLAM work across the movement. Since our open-source community is very small, we are interested in creating global cooperation for making the Israeli Film Archive’s historical collection (mainly newsreels) accessible through Wikidata. First steps were taken during the recent WikidataCon.
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.
The alliances are based mainly on a common interest shared with organizing entities that have a relative advantage or can provide an added value in issues we wish to promote by joining forces. Our main allies: Israel’s Ministry of Education (for both HE & AR education), higher education institutes, the National Library, Yad Vashem, senior-citizen organizations, GLAM institutes. More alliances are expected. Collaborations are tailored to reach specific goals. Each alliance is formed in an articulated manner that eventually broadens the overall impact of our work. They can be manifested in a variety of ways: providing better accessibility and outreach to target audiences, increase of public visibility and media outreach, providing quality information sources for editing processes, optimizing time and financial resources, and improvement of implementation capabilities by sharing tasks and dividing certain costs (e.g. learning & activity spaces, joint marketing, refreshments, etc).
15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?
Our strategic concept is based upon creating an ongoing impact to allow growth as a sustainable chapter and establish our position as a leading organization in promoting and facilitating free-content creation and accessibility, in Israel and as a contributor to the global movement and its vision. The modi operandi to be implemented will be examined for their scaling potential & sustainability in the long run, as well as their cost-effectiveness ratio. This concept will be manifested this working year in various ways, among them: Enhancement & development of strategic alliances with partners and leading organizers, to include WM projects in their working plans & facilitate a continuous growing influence over time. Responding to challenges encountered by editors, particularly new ones, providing practical means of support to improve the discourse among editors, their experience, retention and the community’s sustainability. Identifying new or developing socially impactful issues that may provide opportunities for enriching the content of he-wp, through their integration into our activities, and also for diversifying funding resources. Flexibility of our activity & constant reexamination of the changing needs and circumstances, and the level of relevancy and influence of our projects. Expanding the sum of our activity potential & our outreach to new audiences by fostering the volunteers’ human capital & building an ongoing process of ever growing network of activists.
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.
- n/a (this question was added after this grant was awarded)
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.
Improve User Experience, Invest in Skills and Leadership Development, Innovate in Free Knowledge
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.
- Upload Strategic Plan
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit
19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?
Our evaluation matrix focuses on the following main components:
- Impact:
To what extent our programs increase participation and representation in knowledge sharing within our geographic domain and the Wikimedia movement; Which of our strategies bear fruit in terms of promoting public awareness of releasing free content, and how we can enhance them; Which of our projects carry the potential of making an impact at the movement level and what we should do to scale and better adapt them.
- Sustainability:
Which activities should be prioritized for their contribution to both the overall impact of the chapter work and the expansion and diversification of our resource development efforts; Which activities should be reexamined or reformulated to make them more efficient in terms of time, human and financial resources.
- Community:
How we can support our communities more efficiently and more equitably, to increase the members' engagement; What tools and methods can be applied to promote respectful discourse, safe environment and supportive approach toward new editors, in order to improve their experience and facilitate their integration in the community, while strengthening he-wp’s community and its reputation.
- Efficiency & effectiveness:
To what extent our planning, including the learning and evaluation activities, are tailored to meet the needs of our target audiences, and how we can reach better and more effective results therefrom.
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.
| Main Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
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 | New graduates of the 2022 editing courses that will continue to edit for at least 3 months after completing the course | 25 |
| 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 | No. of institutes/organizations that contribute to our goals, demonstrate continued collaboration, and constitute force multipliers | 9 |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | Editing-course feedback survey (conducted among participants at the end of each cycle): An average overall final score of 4 out of 5 among participants | 4 |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | No. of new followers of our posts related to the work developed within the framework of this proposal = 800 new social-media followers, and 400 new mailing-list subscribers | 1200 |
| Number of activities developed | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | No. of person-hours of volunteers in our various projects: educational, senior citizens, and events | 800 |
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 | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | The total number of participants in all activities: 1984 (returning + new participants)
Of these - at least 70% will be new (mostly middle- & high-school students, higher education students, and senior citizens who took part in the editing course or were exposed to it f |
1984 |
| Number of editors | The total number of new editors in all activities: 845 Including: middle- & high-school students (230 in HE, 200 in AR), higher education (225), Wikidata editors (10), senior citizens - both men & women (70), people with special needs (10), people who take part in editing events or contests (100) | 845 |
| Number of organizers | The total target number of organizers in all activities: 67
Of these: 14-16 will be new 18 volunteers in educational activities (2-3 will be new) / 14 volunteers in marketing activities and events (2 will be new) / 1 training facilitator, 8 members of the HE educational system (2 will be new) / 6 members of the AR educational system (2 will be new) / 15 lecturers in the academy who include a Wikipedia assignment in their course, and partners who promote the project (5 will be new) / 5 representatives of GLAM institutes and cultural organizations (1-2 will be new |
67 |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Articles created or improved (he-wp) | 1135 |
| Wikipedia | Articles created or improved (ar-wp) | 200 |
| Wiktionary | Entries created or improved | 30 |
| Wikidata | Items created or improved | 4500 |
| Wikimedia Commons | Files uploaded | 5000 |
21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.
N/A
22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
We will use both quantitative and qualitative tools to measure the selected metrics, depending on their relevant characteristics. The tools are: WikiProject pages Dashboard Internal monitoring templates (Google sheets) Surveys (Google forms) Feedbacks from participants and organizers Statistics provided by social-media pages
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.
- 1273000 ILS
23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- 402128 USD
23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.
- See the attached budget documents (PDF) which include the following tabs:
- 1. Tab 1: Planned budget 2022 : including Revenues and expenses (program expenses,
operating costs, staff expenses), In kind contribution Amount requested from WMF.
- 2. Tab 2: Allowed use of Revenue source and Budget allocation plan according to funding sources
- 3. Tab 3: Notes on the 2022 Budget
- 4. Tab4: Annual follow-up table (to be filled - at mid 2022 and end of 2022 )
- A google sheet version of the Budget document (4 tabs) is sent via email separately for your convenience
- TAB 2 WMIL Use of Revenue Sources - 2022.pdf
- TAB 3-WMIL Notes on the 2022 Budget.pdf
- TAB 4- WMIL Budget-Annual follow-up 2022.pdf
23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.
- N/A
Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Other public document(s):
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.