Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Community Malta Simple Annual Plan 2023

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Applicant details

Wikimedia username(s):

ToniSant

Nevborg

Organization:

Wikimedia Community Malta

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?

Valletta Design Cluster

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Additional information

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

Malta

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)

http://www.wikimalta.org

http://www.facebook.com/wikimalta http://www.instagram.com/wikimalta http://www.twittter.com/wikimalta

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Proposal

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?

To promote the uptake of Wikimedia activity amongst Maltese communities through the implementation of various Wikimedia activities, projects, training and outreach events, as well as to nurture the conservation of collective and cultural memory within Malta through wiki platforms.

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

General community engagement (editor/contributor retention): this seems to be a general challenge across various parts of the global movement and we will continue to address this by being consistent in the delivery of an annual engagement activities program and events that encourage community engagement and growth.
Engagement with mt.wikipedia towards growth on content available in Maltese language, both in terms of breadth of content and quality: Maltese is a small language (written/read by fewer than 0.5 million people around the world, however, we aim to engage more editors who can write good quality articles once they’ve received basic training through us.
Broadening awareness of Wikimedia platforms in Malta: we are particularly keen to provide opportunities for systematic positive media stories about Wikipedia and related projects in Malta. We aim to partner up with a major news/media organisation in Malta to provide a way for more people in Malta to discover the great wealth of open knowledge and the great benefits of the ways it is gathered and shared.
Encouraging institutional engagement with open knowledge: this is a similar situation to the previous point about public awareness, however, this is directed more at institutions, especially public institutions, who often have an active interest in such things and some resources to engage with them appropriately. Target institutions include University of Malta (education) and Heritage Malta (GLAM).

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

The main strategy is to continue being consistently active by producing activities to encourage participation and engagement. The main activities planned for this year are Wiki Loves Folklore (including Feminism & Folklore along with Art+Feminism), CEE Spring, International Museum Day, Wiki Loves Earth, and Wiki Loves Monuments. We are also planning to engage with the National Council for the Maltese Language and the National Book Council during the annual Malta Book Festival to raise the profile of our activities among Maltese-language writers across Malta.

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

To continue producing activities to enable participation by Maltese Wikimedians in international activities e.g. WLM, Art+Feminism, CEE Spring, and WLE. We are aiming to enhance other objectives that we have as an organisation, including our mission to promote Wikimedia in Malta. This lines up with WCM's raison d’etre since its inception and consistently demonstrated our ability to produce more engagement with Wikimedia projects from Malta then there were in the years before we became active.

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.

See WCM's Operantional Calendar 2023 here: http://wikimalta.org/wiki/Operational_Calendar_2023

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

Yes, Wikimedia Community has an appropriate team to implement this proposal.

Tony Micallef, the Wikimedia Community User Group Malta President, chairs monthly meetings to ensure smooth strategic and operational procedures. Furthermore, along with the applicants (Toni Sant + Neville Borg) we have a small number of active volunteers who work closely with us. These include: User:Mrjohncummings User:Dans User:Trigcly

These three community members have worked directly with WCM over the past years and continue to work with us to deliver and enhance our program of activities.

We have also employed Enrique Tabone in 2022 to serve as our Program Coordinator. It is planned that she will continue in this role, in a slightly enhanced capacity.

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, Geography, Language

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.

We are particularly active in producing more online text written in the Maltese language, which has been identified by the European Commission as in danger of digital extinction. We are also active in the area of sharing information about Malta and anything directly related to Malta around the world, while also ensuring that knowledge about Malta and anything Maltese is available to everyone, while working to make knowledge accessible to all to Malta and in the Maltese language.

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, Public Policy, Culture, heritage or GLAM

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?

Our target participants fall into four categories: 1. Wikimedians in/from Malta who have attended our events over the past years and continue to participate on various projects. 2. Wikimedians in/from Malta who have attended out events over the past years but have not engaged with Wikimedia projects beyond this initial expression of interest. 3. People in/from Malta interested in developing their interest in open knowledge. 4. Other interested parties keen to explore how they can contribute to Malta-related content on Wikimedia projects, both locally such as public bodies Heritage Malta and the University of Malta, and internationally, such as CEE and DRHA, with whom we have already established a working relationships in previous years.

Our strategy to retain participants revolves around the following points: 1. Regularly organise events aligned with Wikimedia activities (such as Wiki Loves Monuments, Art+Feminism, CEE Spring etc.) to entice Wikimedians in/from Malta to participate in Wikimedia projects 2. Follow-up with participants (ensuring GDPR compliance) to support them in engaging with Wikimedia projects more regularly 3. Reach out to new audiences who may be interested Wikimedia projects but often don’t really know how to get involved, providing them with training workshop and other opportunities to engage 4. Partner up with a small number of key institutions (mainly in the GLAM and Education sectors) to explore ways they can get more directly involved in Wikimedia projects 5. Organise trainings and participation in international events, such as Celtic Knot/Arctic Knot and the CEE Meeting.

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?

We aim to have the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy translated into Maltese and referred to regularly throughout the year as we present our activities. In any case, almost everyone in our community can also read English; the translation is not an urgent matter for ensuring appropriate application of the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy.

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.

CEE / CEE Spring - see http://wikimalta.org/wiki/CEE + https://mt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedija:Rebbieg%C4%A7a_CEE_2022 + https://mt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedija:Rebbieg%C4%A7a_CEE_2022

WLE - see http://wikimalta.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Earth

Wiki Loves Monuments - see http://wikimalta.org/wiki/Wiki_Loves_Monuments

Art+Feminism - see http://wikimalta.org/wiki/Art%2BFeminism

Wiki World Heritage User Group - see https://mt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorija:Siti_ta%27_Wirt_Dinji, which through WCM efforts is by far one of the most populated categories on mt.wikipedia

Wiki Loves Folklore - we’re planning to engage in this international photo contest for the second time in 2023 following up with the organisers from previous years

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.

Spazju Kreattiv - with whom we have a standing collaboration agreement to make use of resources, especially in terms of spaces for public-facing events. All contributions are in kind and there are no monetary transactions.
Times of Malta - where we’re reworking our original plan to have a WiR arrangement for 2022.

M3P Foundation - with whom we have a standing collaboration agreement based on joint aims relating to MediaWiki use in Malta. We are now exploring ways to make a financial contributions towards the resources that they’ve largely offered to us in kind between 2015 and 2021 - i.e. we aim to continue getting internet service and office space through them while making a reasonable financial contribution towards these services, which evidently involve 3rd party costs, as we've done in 2022.

Heritage Malta - with whom we have re-initiated contact after Covid-19 interruptions through the International Museum Day in May.

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

We aim to develop a multi-year grant proposal after this year.

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.

See attached Risk Register.

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.

Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Ensure Equity in Decision-making, 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.

No

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation

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

We are hoping to learn how to develop a successful chapter and scale up our user group activities accordingly over the coming years.

Significantly we need help understanding and implementing core metrics, ideally through appropriate support that makes for realistic targets rather than random numbers. However, we understand that qualitative assessment is becoming equally relevant within the Wikimedia Movement. We are greatly heartened by this development, especially given the relatively small size of our community.

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	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	N/A	N/A
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	N/A
Number of editors	N/A	N/A
Number of organizers	N/A	N/A

**Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project**
Wikimedia Project	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

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

We need some guidance on handling this section appropriately. Meanwhile you can view our general metrics from previous activities on this Google document to aid with this consideration: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NUEuU2g_A__xk1TtemF3c3TH_s0Xyk6p1fnCdzRQi6Y/edit?usp=sharing

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

We will primarily continue to use the Outreach Dashboard: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/wikimedia_community_malta/programs

We will also continue to use Montage for WLE and WLM judging.

Financial Proposal

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.

38756 EUR

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

37295 USD

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

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

Our budget for 2023 is slightly higher than the one for 2022 as we have applied a 10% increase to allow for rise in cost of living across most, but not all, line items. We have also significantly increased our allocation for 'Accounting Services' as per our risk assessment regarding this aspect of our operations in 2022. We believe that these adjustments are essential to maintain things in line with what we've experienced in the previous round of funding.

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

Other public document(s): Metrics - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NUEuU2g_A__xk1TtemF3c3TH_s0Xyk6p1fnCdzRQi6Y/edit?usp=sharing

https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/campaigns/wikimedia_community_malta/programs

Final Message

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

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