Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Simple Annual Plan Grants of the Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group 2022/Midpoint Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 2022-07-15T00:00:00Z
Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Midterm
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General information edit
This form is for organizations receiving Wikimedia Community Funds (General Support) or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their mid-term learning and results. See the Wikimedia Community Fund application if you want to review the initial proposal.
- Name of Organization: Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group
- Title of Proposal: Simple Annual Plan Grants of the Wikimedians of United Arab Emirates User Group 2022
- Amount awarded: 107401.5 USD, 394485.71 AED
- Amount spent: 40750 USD
Part 1 Understanding your work edit
1. Briefly describe how your strategies and activities proposed were implemented and if any changes to what was proposed are worth highlighting?
- Our strategies and proposed activities have been implemented by chronology and as we have planned except that certain programs, such as the road map of the universities, we found it a bit challenging to influence the decisions of the universities. It's taking longer than we expected. we are in talks with two big universities in UAEU and ZU for a possible collaboration and starting Wiki Clubs on campus, however, since the schools are in summer holiday, things are delayed till the Fall term. In addition to all our activities, we have been extremly busy organising the Wikiarabia 2022 conference.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you feel are being effective in achieving your goals?
- We tried Edit-a-thons in cooperation with Libraries, Galleries and other cultural institutions and for the first edit-a-thon we have invited Maryana Iskander to join us by video, which she graciously agreed, and gave our first edit-a-thon ever a wonderful push and interest from the public. we also collaborated with AUD (American University of Dubai) Mass Communication Major and gave the students two sessions of training on Wikipedia and Wikinews. We are in the middle of organising two competitions, one on Wikipedia and another one on WikiCommons (Wiki Loves Earth UAE). these competitions are open to all the Arab World and beyond which is giving us us more visibility in the Arab World Wikimedia community, and we are starting to receive partnership proposals with other affiliations.
3. What challenges or obstacles have you encountered so far?
- -the first challenge was of course during our first event. the number of participants was low.
- as we are a young group, we are always forced to show our potential especially with the more established groups in the region and vis-à-vis the experienced contributors of Wikimedia platforms.
- also the connection with the universities is very long because they have their own timeline. but as we started working with them next year we will be planning in advance. we will have more opportunities to work with them.
4. Please describe how different communities are participating and being informed about your work.
- our main tool is social networks, especially our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
for competitions like the WLX, apart from what we said above, we use the Central Notices. for local competitions in Arabic we also use local banners and we discuss in the forum. we are tapping into the volunteer base of our fiscal sponsor Emirates Literature Foundation, as they have a big network of volunteers. we are organising online trainings to them on how to become editors on Wikipedia
https://m.facebook.com/103991541562967/
5. Please share reflections on how your efforts are helping to engage participants and/or build content, particularly for underrepresented groups.
- We have created thematic events, such as a workshop and an Edit-a-thon dedicated to women in the UAE. and we had an Edit-a-thon evening for people who practice Lent/Fasting during the month of Ramadan. During both events the community took these events very seriously, and it was very well received. As a result we had two new members who joined us, and they are quite active in the community.
we understood that small events with small groups working on a single subject worked well with new contributors. this practice or format will be a tradition for our next events
6. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What have you learned so far about these areas during this period?
- we learned a lot by working with different departments of Wikimedia Foundation. for example, we had a visit from the Wikimedia Education team, and we were able to get lots of new information that was very important to us. and we decided to partner with them to be able to make a program through their projects.
and we also learned how to collect databases, from local partners, such as libraries and archives and private organisations such as publishers. before launching our competitions, we developed advanced ways to filter these data for the benefit of creating Wikipedia articles and Wikidata items.
7. What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your work?
- -Finding partners among various cultural institutions and musuems to setup QR Codes before the end of the year
- This month we started a big competition in the English Wikipedia (about Arabic books and authors). There will be another competition on the Wikipedia Arabic in the month of December (the Arabic Language month)
- We will try to secure more collaborations with the Universities starting the Fall term.
- Secure more collaborations and partnerships during the WikiArabia 2022 in Dubai.
Part 2: Metrics edit
8a. Open and additional metrics data.
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 231 | Creation of Wikipedia articles during the Edit-a-thons. The main event will be in August to reach our proposed goal. | The method used is count how many articles are created by the participants inside during the Edit-a-thons. |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 700 | Updating photos on Commons. The main photos come from WLE contest | Commons landing page of the contents |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 1000 | Wiki data items. The main number will be added in the second part of the year by our database researchers. | Excel sheets and databases that we collect. |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | We hope to have 100 participants after our activities. | 100 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | Organizers of events like the WLX and other contests and trainers | 20 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | We hope that we will have partnerships with 3 ministries and 1 library and 1 NGO that will work with us permanently | 5 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | We will send a survey to all participants of our activities to have more feedbacks | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | will have a marketing target on social media | 10000 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | QR Code
Wikipedia Arab month Kateb Maktub project |
3 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | Program 1: Education and Digital Literacy
Activity 1: Establishment of university roadmap across seven Emirates 3750 min. Activity 2: Training librarians on Wikisource, Wikidata, and other Wiki project 960 min. Activity 3: Roundtable with teachers 1200 min. Activity 4: Partnership with archives 2900 min. Program 2: Community Outreach Activity 1: Edit-a-thons 2400 min. Activity 2: Competitions 48 000 min. Activity 3: Arabic language month 10 000 min. Activity 4: Partnership in the Golf region 5760 min. Activity 5: Wikipedia Arabic World forum 27 000 min. Activity 6: Wiki loves X 960 min. Activity 7: Wiki Club 10 800 min. Program 3: Media Outreach Activity 1: Media gatherings 120 min. Activity 2: Engage journalist students 2400 min. Program 4: Research Programme Activity 1: Specialists Outreach 2400 min. Program 5: Local Identity projects Activity 1: WPWP 960 min. |
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
8b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | Program 1: Education and Digital Literacy
Activity 1: Establishment of university roadmap across seven Emirates 120 participants Activity 2: Training librarians on Wikisource, Wikidata, and other Wiki projects 16 participants Activity 3: Roundtable with teachers 20 participants Activity 4: Partnership with archives 15 participants Program 2: Community Outreach Activity 1: Edit-a-thons 40 participants Activity 2: Competitions 100 participants Activity 3: Arabic language month 100 participants Activity 4: Partnership in the Golf region 20 participants Activity 5: Wiki loves X 100 participants Activity 6: Wiki Club 180 participants Program 3: Media Outreach Activity 1: Media gatherings 15 participants Activity 2: Engage journalist students 40 participants
Program 5: Local Identity projects Activity 1: Wikimedian-in-residence specialized researchers 20 participants |
829 | 74 | Most of our new contributors come to Edit-a-thons after hearing about us on Social Media and college students that we train | taking note of participants at the event. And using statistic tools proposed from Wikimedia. (toolforge.org) |
| Number of editors | Program 1: Education and Digital Literacy
Activity 1: Establishment of university roadmap across seven Emirates 120 participants Activity 2: Training librarians on Wikisource, Wikidata, and other Wiki projects 16 participants Activity 4: Partnership with archives 15 participants Program 2: Community Outreach Activity 1: Edit-a-thons 40 participants Activity 2: Competitions 100 participants Activity 3: Arabic language month 100 participants Activity 4: Partnership in the Golf region 20 participants Activity 6: Wiki loves X 100 participants Activity 7: Wiki Club 180 participants Program 3: Media Outreach Activity 1: Media gatherings 15 participants Activity 2: Engage journalist students 40 participants
Program 5: Local Identity projects Activity 1: Wikimedian-in-residence specialized researchers 30 participants |
799 | 123 | from participants at the event. And statistic tools proposed from Wikimedia. (toolforge.org) | |
| Number of organizers | Program 1: Education and Digital Literacy
Activity 1: Establishment of university roadmap across seven Emirates 4 organizers Activity 2: Training librarians on Wikisource, Wikidata, and other Wiki projects 3 organizers Activity 3: Roundtable with teachers 2 organizers Activity 4: Partnership with archives 2 organizers Program 2: Community Outreach Activity 1: Edit-a-thons 2 organizers Activity 2: Competitions 4 organizers Activity 3: Arabic language month 9 organizers Activity 4: Partnership in the Golf region 4 organizers Activity 5: Wikipedia Arabic World forum 30 organizers Activity 6: Wiki loves X 4 organizers Activity 7: Wiki Club 4 organizers Program 3: Media Outreach Activity 1: Media gatherings 3 organizers Activity 2: Engage journalist students 2 organizers Activity 3: Press releases 1 organizer Program 4: Research Programme Activity 1: Wikimedian-in-residence specialized researchers 3 organizers Activity 2: Specialists Outreach 2 organizers Program 5: Local Identity projects Activity 1: WPWP 1 organizer Activity 2: QR code 5 organizers |
85 | 17 | We work with lots of volunteers and staff from our fiscal sponsor (Emirates Literature Foundation) who provide us with lots of support and help. |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Program 1: Education and Digital Literacy
Activity 1: Establishment of university roadmap across seven Emirates 120 articles Activity 2: Training librarians on Wikisource, Wikidata, and other Wiki projects 16 articles Activity 3: Partnership with archives 100 articles Program 2: Community Outreach Activity 1: Edit-a-thons 80 articles Activity 2: Competitions 1600 articles Activity 3: Arabic language month 500 articles Activity 4: Wiki Club 180 articles Program 3: Media Outreach Activity 1: Media gatherings 10 articles Program 4: Research Programme Activity 1: Wikimedian-in-residence specialized researchers 200 articles Activity 2: Specialists Outreach 80 articles |
2886 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Wikimedia Commons | Program 1: Education and Digital Literacy
Activity 1: Partnership with archives 2000 Program 2: Community Outreach Activity 1: Wiki loves X 2500 Program 4: Research Programme Activity 1: Wikimedian-in-residence specialized researchers 3000 Activity 2: Specialists Outreach 400 Program 5: Local Identity projects Activity 1: QR code 500 organizers |
8400 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Wikidata | Program 1: Education and Digital Literacy
Activity 1: Training librarians on Wikisource, Wikidata, and other Wiki projects 10000 items Activity 2: Partnership with archives 10000 items Program 2: Community Outreach Activity 1: Edit-a-thons 20 items Activity 2: Competitions 200 items Activity 3: Arabic language month 50 items Activity 7: Wiki Club 40 organizers
|
21210 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Wikisource | Program 1: Education and Digital Literacy
Activity 1: Training librarians on Wikisource, Wikidata, and other Wiki projects 8 books |
8 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Wikiversity | Program 4: Research Programme
Activity 1: Wikimedian-in-residence specialized researchers 10 courses |
10 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
9. Are you having any difficulties collecting data to measure your results?
- No difficulties so far. Always we try to be prepared in advance. And we have the know-how.
10. Are you collaborating and sharing learning with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
- Partially
10a. Please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how?
- Being a young group, we look for support from other Wikimedia affiliates especially user groups from the Arab World and being the first user group in the Gulf region, we are in good position to give support for the members of other Gulf countries who want to form their own groups. we have conducted online training with one of Saudi Arabia's University students on how to contribute on Wikipedia and we are helping them to officialize their own user group.
11. Documentation of your work process, story, and impact.
- Below there is a section to upload files, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g. communications materials, blog posts, compelling quotes, social media posts, etc.). This can be anything that would be useful to understand and show your learning and results to date (e.g., training material, dashboards, presentations, communications material, training material, etc).
- Below is an additional field to type in link URLs.
Part 3: Financial reporting and compliance edit
12. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
- 40750
13. Local currency type
- USD
14. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Provide links to your financial reporting documents.
15. Based on your implementation and learning to date, do you have any plans to make changes to the budget spending?
- No
15a. Please provide an explanation on how you hope to adjust this.
- N/A
16. We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on how the experience of being a grantee has been so far.
- good experience, which gave us a lot of expertise. we are more chronological in our plans. and to achieve our strategy, we have to work well with the budget, so as not to have to spend more