Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/WikiProject Climate Change - Credible Resources and Quotables list (ID: 22028410)

statusFunded
WikiProject Climate Change - Credible Resources and Quotables list
proposed start date2022-12-15
proposed end date2023-12-05
grant start date2023-01-31T00:00:00Z
grant end date2023-12-31T00:00:00Z
budget (local currency)4532 USD
budget (USD)4532 USD
amount recommended (USD)4532
grant typeGroup of individuals not registered with an organization
funding regionNA
decision fiscal year2022-23
applicant• AnnetteCSteps
organization (if applicable)• Climate Steps
Review Final Report

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Applicant Details edit

Please provide your main Wikimedia Username.

AnnetteCSteps

Please provide the Usernames of people related to this proposal.

Mark Stewart - Loupgrru

Organization

Climate Steps

Are you a member of any Wikimedia affiliate or group, including informal groups like Wiki Fan Clubs, emerging language communities, not recognized Wikimedia groups etc.? Please list them all.

No

Grant Proposal edit

M. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.

WikiProject Climate Change - Credible Resources and Quotables list

Q. Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries? (optional)

International

Q2. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.

This project is the creation of the standards and the management and input of an online project, and it will pull information on quotes and references globally.

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

https://climatesteps.org/about/ https://climatesteps.org/about/#principles (Principles and Diversity and Inclusion Statements) https://www.linkedin.com/company/40863454/ (Climate Steps) https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetteolson/ https://www.facebook.com/ClimateSteps https://www.facebook.com/groups/climatesteps ­ https://www.facebook.com/annette.l.olson https://www.instagram.com/climate_steps/

https://www.earthhero.org (our open sharing data partner, from which information will also be drawn.)

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

Massive climate action is needed by 2030 to prevent catastrophic levels of change to our environment.[i] Millions of people are joining organizations (e.g., the Sunrise Movement) and/or seek information on HOW to take action, from youth to parents to retirees and from diverse cultures, regions, and prosperities. Having a site for people to find this information is critical. It is why we created our nonprofit Climate Steps, www.climatesteps.org (CSteps), but Wikipedia has far more users, and getting this information out quickly is critical.

The first step in creating a public understanding of effective actions is to compile reviews of scientific studies. We seek to work with WikiProject Climate Change to: 1) create a page/section and add useful, verified climate action references into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Climate_change/Recommended_sources; 2) help make this a central resource to support input, similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_COVID-19/Reference_sources; and 3) insert references and quotables into Wikipedia, Wikiquotes, and CSteps for the public to find and share.

Annette Olson, Ph.D., CSteps founder, has a long history with science, ecoinformatics, and building global data information systems. Collaborator Mark Stewart is a teacher and a researcher for CSteps; he has started a reference/quotables db. We are an open-data-sharing partner with EarthHero.org (EH), an action app, who also has quotes and references.

It is time to move the science to the forefront of action by documenting existing knowledge. Our respective groups of CSteps, EH, and Wikipedia all have different formats, but our underlying, fact-based research is often the same. The more we share, the better. Potential impacts are 1) the strengthened views by public citizens that they can make an impact, and 2) an increased trust in science.

[i] https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6/wg3/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_Full_Report.pdf

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

Climate Steps is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit formed to answer the question “How can I fight climate change?” which in 2016 started becoming prevalent within and outside of social media.[i](6) We have now been conducting science-based, individual-action research for six years and have created hubs of approachable, solid information. We seek to openly share our information as we build the Wikipedia list of verified action references; we also have support to bring in EH’s information.

CSteps, Wikipedia, and EH all have curators – experienced literature researchers who look over the published pages to ensure the presence of solid, unbiased information and references, as well as an approachable writing style. Reliable, science-based information is a core value for CSteps (https://climatesteps.org/about/#principles).

We will work with PCC members to create and coordinate this project, and we hope to tie in to the WikiEducation community (https://wikiedu.org/blog/2022/11/04/wikipedia-a-powerful-tool-for-climate-education) to help bring this resource to the forefront.

We seek to start building and managing this project immediately in preparation for the needed expansion of climate change action information on Wikipedia. Strategic goals: a) Discuss within the PCC critical holes for references on impactful climate action, prioritze. b) Increase active research by and curation within the PCC forum through 1) the addition Dr. Olson and Mr. Stewart, who has direct experience in researching community-level actions, 2) the recruitment of a volunteer to help find verified resources; 3) the tie-in of existing contributors. c) Request resources and famous quotes via the CSteps Facebook community (6000+), which includes scientists and experienced activists. Contact own network of researchers for resources. d) Share curated, shareable climate/environmental info on Wikipedia and CSteps and make available to EH.

[i] https://www.wired.com/story/what-you-can-do-solve-climate-change/.

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

Specific activities include:

  1. Recruiting at least one Wikimedian to help tie our references and quotes to broader Wikipedia use.
  2. Recruiting a climate activist from another country, to bring in credible references related to their region. We know of many in Africa.
  3. Tying-in potential, interested contributors from WikiEducation, as some references present materials suitable for education.
  4. Seeking to work with the movement campaigns in the next question.
  5. Training our our newly registered users on editing in Wikipedia
  6. Holding two discussion sessions with PCC editors, as well as other contributors, on the project description, objectives, and proposed standards. The second discussion will set objectives and standards and a draft finallized..
  7. Helping edit the current page to include a section on solid credible references on climate action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Climate_change/Recommended_sources, OR create a new wikipage structure for all references, similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_COVID-19/Reference_sources, and make it a major tab within the group. The current Resources page is a style guide. Potentially, a separate tab will be set up and the terminology defined to clearly identify each tab.
  8. Transferring to the new section/page and to Wikiquotes CSteps’ own, verified resources and compiling others from the PCC and WikiPages.
  9. We will seek sources through our CSteps network as mentioned.

After we meet these particular goals, we will continue sharing references and using WikiProjects as we conduct our own research in the future. For instance, WikiProject could provide a more substantial infrastructure than our CSteps regional forums (UK, Australia, Africa, Bangladesh, and Pakistan) to plan information foci, input references, and to review and edit information.

4. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign or event? If so, please select the relevant campaign below. If so, please select all the relevant campaigns from the list below. If "other", please state which.

1Lib1Ref, CEE Spring, Wikipedia Asian Month, Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos

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

Annette Olson, Ph.D. Founder and Exec Director of Climate Steps, is an biologist who has been involved in environmental science and outreach for 24 years with the federal government and nonprofits. She is an experienced project manager of national level research projects, global data systems, and international data standards.[i] Dr Olson will manage and coordinate the creation of the resource table and set standards required. Part of the funding will cover her salary. User: AnnetteCSteps.

Mark Stewart, tutor and teacher, plus researcher and writer of CS Articles focused on community level action. He has already created databases of references for EH. His role will be to compile the data into the PCC and work with WikiSource to ensure standards are met. He will also help recruit one wikimedia volunteer to assist. He is a short-term, project-specific contractor under CSteps for this project.

We will seek 1) one experienced wikimedian to help us coordinate with reference actions within Wikipedia, 2) one experienced wikimedian to help us tie, potentially, to the WikiEducation group to find crossover, shareable information. 3) one new volunteer from a different country, hopefully from our African CSteps forum and other contacts we have, to help bring in reliable resources that can help apply actions for their region. We hope to give this volunteer an honorarium, as well as provide training in a management aspect, if requested.

CSteps is also creating in 2023 a scientific advisory group, from whom we will ask five good resources within each person's speciality.


[ii]CV:https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ldvtl49wbquxu4v47o2bf/AAAS-Olson-CV-Nov-2022.docx?dl=0&rlkey=ykxwgbil7wwijhhfeiohlii1d.

6. 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, Socioeconomic Status, Other global topics for impact (topics considered to be of global importance)

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

Beyond the U.S., CSteps has five active regional forums, e.g., Africa, Pakistan, & Bangladesh to collaborate with to gather regional-specific climate actions and to recruit a volunteer. Our community has also experienced an emphasis on urban actions, about which rural participants have expressed frustration. We seek solid references on rural actions. Overall, our project focuses on the topic of impact of Climate Change, seeking to make scientific knowledge available to the public.

7. 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, Advocacy, Climate Change and sustainability

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

Gender Identity, Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Disabilities, Socioeconomic status, Age

9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities?

The two future contributors/editors onboard, Dr Olson (soon a senior citizen) and Mr. Stewart, are both white. Dr. Olson, had a disability before a new medicine assisted her and seeks to highlight climate actions for the disabled. It is one of the reasons for CSteps. Occasionally in our forums, an activist promotes marching in crowds and civil disobedience as the only options, but they are not options for Dr. Olson and many others. CSteps embodies the need for diverse actions for different situations.

We intend for our third newly registered user/future contributor to represent a different ethnic, racial, and/or cultural background, and to be preferably of a female or other gender. Dr Olson will be the primary mentor. She has supervised over 50 volunteers/interns in her career and is experienced with onboarding and supervising learning experiences.

There is no requirement for Wikimedian experience. Dr. Olson was on the Scientific Advisory Committee and a curator for the Encyclopedia of Life (EoL) project, www.eol.org, for which she participated in two wiki-a-thons at the Smithsonian, as well as took Wikipedia training at the SI Library. Mr. Stewart has edited Wikipedia pages. We can use more training, as may our third person. In this way, we bring 2-3 people into/back into Wikipedia.

For Wikipedia and Csteps users, we will pull in scientific-, fact-based references on actions especially suitable our targeted users.

For longevity, we will engage volunteers in other Wiki projects and groups, especially the WikiEducation group, via zoom calls/meet-ups to discuss the project, long-term maintenance, and the interesting things we find.

We plan promotions, e.g. via,: 1) social media posts (CSteps followers = 10,000); 2) website articles; 3) mention in interviews/podcasts; 4) mention in our newsletters/flyers to our funders/subscribers; and 5) sharing news with partners. We will credit and link any Wikipedia-sourced references we share to our webpages.

10. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants?

We have six-years experience in growing a collaborative Facebook group that is moderated, safe, and constructive. Our moderators ensure that our rules are met. Rules include: 1) kind behavior; 2) support of others; and 3) if any dire news is shared, the OP must present a practical climate action step. Users love the last rule especially. We ensure the best environment for CSteps members to collect, share, and sound out ideas. We also directly encourage members, as do other members of CSteps.

11. Please tell us about how you have let your Wikimedia communities know about the planned activities and this proposal. Use this space to describe the processes you carried out to make the community more involved in planning this proposal. Please link the on-wiki community discussion(s) around the proposals.

We have recently reached out to one person within PCC, but have run into a technical open-IP snag with editing, so conversations have been limited as we get that fixed. But we have had discussions with the Community Programs office at Wikimedia Foundation and with the Washington DC office on the possibilities of joint content research and writing. With the latter, we are planning to hold a joint edit-a-thon in March of 2023 (potentially in concert with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.) For, the first step of this project, we will review this proposal in more detail with some of PCC leaders related to climate change who may be interested in discussing needs and collaborating on climate action literature research, including: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:EMsmile, who has been working on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/SDGs/Communication_of_environment_SDGs.

NOTE: we also ran into a snag in uploading this proposal on Dec 1st, in 1st needing approval to register.

12. Are you aware of other Rapid Fund proposals in your local group, community, or region that are being submitted and that align with your proposed project?

No

If yes:

12.1 Did you explore the possibility of doing a joint proposal with other leaders in your group?
N/A
12.2 How will this joint proposal allow you to have better results?
N/A
13. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedia partners to implement this proposal? Required.

Yes

13.1 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 app Earth Hero, https://www.earthhero.org, was co-founded by the founder of CSteps in 2019 and Dr. Olson serves on both the board and as content lead. Both nonprofits have open-data policies and are information-sharing partners, with EH creating a large database of researched, practical climate actions that is available for access by other organizations (ex: https://climatesteps.org/specific-steps-to-take/review-eco-friendly-businesses/) with credit. CSteps and EH combined have over 110,000 readers and users. A link to Earth Hero’s Letter of Support is below. The value added is that each EH action usually has at least one solid reference on why this action is important, and/or researched arbon emissions for each action, Thus EH is compiling a large database to allow the study of relative impacts of actions.

Earth Hero Letter of Support: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kqqbp7o6dq4wkco85pa3g/EH-LOS-to-CSteps-WikiCred-appl.2022.docx?dl=0&rlkey=qt9iwrd97txnxjirnau9x9lyb.

14. 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, Manage Internal Knowledge, Identify Topics for Impact

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit

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

By building a resource regarding climate change, we hope to gain further understanding of the range of fact-based, impactful climate actions, then will apply that to both Wikipedia and CSteps. Outcomes include many of those in your examples, but also the below: Users of both sites become more aware of the science behind climate action; Users of both sites become more aware of the impact that they can have.

Examples of Possible Outcomes/Learning Questions are below.

1. Newly registered users are more aware of the value of open, wiki platforms, and seek to use. Questions. What did the new users learn from the wiki experience? “What may motivate them to contribute more? Did we make them feel welcome and safe? Challenges?
2. New/existing editors gain the skills to continue contributing. Questions? Do new editors now have the skills?
3. Users of the reference data learn that climate action is scientifically supported. Questions: How have readers’ perspectives changed re: climate action?
16. 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 spaces provided.
Main Open Metrics Data
Main Open Metrics Description Target
Effectiveness of approach on editors The effectiveness of our approach within Wikipedia editor/contributor community regarding the addition of science-supported climate action references, such as those that show the effectiveness of testifying in front of town halls
  1. Via surveys, did the newly registered users change their perspectives on climate action and the science of climate action, becoming more sure of the types of actions they could take.
  2. Did at least ⅔ newly registered users want to continue to become Wikipedia contributors. Did they become editors as defined by Wikipedia?
  3. Did fellow contributors already within Wikipedia have a similar change? Further, what feedback did they have on our project and resulting reference section/page? Did they appreciate the addition?
  4. Do new editors now have the skills needed?
2
Effectiveness on Wikipedia user engagement The effectiveness of additional scientific resources on the users within Wikipedia.
  1. Did readers increase to pages in which we added scientific resources? Especially regions pages, such as Africa?
  2. Did they stay longer?​​
50
Effectiveness on CSteps user engagement The effectiveness of additional scientific resources on CSteps and within the FB community.
  1. Did readers increase to pages in which we added scientific resources?
  2. Did they stay longer?​​
  3. Did members of the FB community appreciate the new sources added to their Guides?
  4. Did they discuss the resources any, and what feedback did they give?
2
User Learning Users of the reference data learn that climate action is scientifically supported.
  1. How have readers’ perspectives changed about climate action after reading a Wikipedia or CSteps page that has these new resources?
  2. Have readers taken action?
50
Reading on the Project Evaluation Report Did the PCC benefit from this project? Was there reading online of the Final Project Evaluation Report? 2
17. Core quantitative metrics.
Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target
Number of participants New Participant: 1

Returning Participant directly from the project: 2 Additional returning participant goals: 3

6
Number of editors Newly Registered Users: 1?

Returning Editor: 2-3?

3
Number of organizers Organizer - 2, Coordinator for overall project (Dr. Olson), Coordinator content in resource lists/db (Mr. Stewart.) 2
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target
Wikipedia Compile in Wikiproject a large page of recommended references from two additional sources, for use across meta-Wiki. Tie this to Wikisource and/or Wikidata. 1
Wikiquote Compile climate quotes from two organizations into Wikiquote to help create a dataset of quotes on climate action. Make accessible to Wikiprojects Climate Change. 1
Wikipedia N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
N/A N/A N/A
17.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.

We anticipate compiling resources and quotables from CSteps and Wikipedia databases in one database. Sources described earlier. We anticipate pulling at least 10 references from existing pages in CSteps and Wikipedia on on relative impacts of actions for each of 10 climate action topics, such as transportation, food, stuff, energy...). We anticipate another 5 specialty in each subject. We anticipate adding 5-10 new, overarching and explanatory scientific references on relative impacts of actions for each of 10 climate action topics, such as transportation, food, stuff, energy...). We anticipate another 5 specialty in each subject.

18. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support.

We are still determining this. The main tools for our metrics will be before, during, and after surveys of 1) our editors; 2) fellow contributors within the PCC; and 3) and of CSteps users via polls through our FB group, as well as insights from our CSteps pages. We are not sure yet of the availability of Wikipedia data and insights - except our own review of edits to pages described in this proposal. We seek to discuss this further.

Financial Proposal edit

19. & 19.1 What is the amount you are requesting from Wikimedia Foundation? Please provide this amount in your local currency.

4532 USD

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

4532 USD

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

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d9WzWFJHdyyUvmjxmLMsQiHHw3B7PA3WG4eBBWNol_8/edit?usp=sharing

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

Yes

Endorsements and Feedback edit

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