Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia France-Funding request 2023-2026

statusYear 2 plan funded

Wikimedia Community Fund

Wikimedia France-Funding request 2023-2026

start date2023-07-012023-07-01T00:00:00Z

end date2026-06-302026-06-30T00:00:00Z

budget (local currency)425000 EUR

amount requested (USD)450687 USD

amount recommended (USD)1411551

grant typeWikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)

funding regionNWE

decision fiscal year2022-23

funding program roundRound 2

applicant and people related to proposalRémy Gerbet WMFr

organization (if applicable)Wikimédia France

Friendly Space Policy

Universal Code of Conduct

Application Privacy Statement

Yearly Report (2023)

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Applicant details

Wikimedia username(s):

Rémy Gerbet WMFr

Organization:

Wikimédia France

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?

Funds from the French State, international organizations or foundations in France and private sponsorships

M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?

No

M1. Fiscal organization name.

N/A

Additional information

R. Where will this proposal be implemented?

France

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:

International

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:/www./wikimedia.fr

@Wikimedia_Fr

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?

Wikimedia France has undertaken a global overhaul of its strategic plan in 2021-2022. This new plan adopted by our Board defines our main orientations for the next 5 years and is based on 4 axes:

• Position the association as a key player in free digital education, scientific research and culture
• Promote volunteer engagement and the diversification of Wikimedian communities
• Strengthen an efficient, responsible and inclusive organizational culture
• Contribute to the development of the movement for free knowledge

In April 2023, the first institutions to win the “Culture Libre” Label will be announced. After several years of raising awareness and training French cultural institutions, we are going to take a decisive step this year by bringing together, evaluating and supporting more collectively cultural institutions engaged in a process of freeing up content and data. This work is the logical continuation of the report on open content in France that we produced in 2022. The partnership between the Ministry and Wikimedia France around open science has officially started with 3 wikimedians in residences who have integrated the training units universities at the start of the year. The evaluation will be conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education and we hope to further improve the project for the years to come. At the same time, the deployment of the Wikeys game in partnership with the Ligue de l'enseignement (a major French NGO) has led us to position ourselves as a major player in media and information education with interventions in classes for young people with learning difficulties. The project concerning the Overseas Territories continues to be strengthened and we will gradually extend to other territories what has been started in Guyana. Finally, Wikimedia France has initiated a close partnership action with other free knowledge associations with a direct support program that aims to strengthen the free knowledge movement beyond the Wikimedia movement and to forge strong alliances for the future.

There is therefore a real continuity in our actions which were planned, designated last year and which today are beginning to bring concrete results.

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

Each audience we target is different and it is difficult to derive a theory of change that could apply globally. But overall, we aimed to transform the practices of our target audiences. We aim to:

• Remove barriers in the world of culture by forming a sufficiently broad and powerful movement bringing together hundreds of cultural institutions that have started a process of opening up content around the label and observatory project to change legislation ;
• Reinforce the acculturation of the scientific and research world to Wikimedia projects by developing open access which will make it possible to improve Wikimedia projects by adding quality references ;
• Raise awareness among young people about the history of free software, the free movement and the notion of digital commons with Wikipedia as an example to make them active digital citizens tomorrow ;
• Protect and support the online community in the face of the multiple challenges it faces. (attempted manipulation, external pressures, etc.);
• Support the development of the free knowledge ecosystem through increasingly close partnerships with associations such as Vikidia;
• Develop a network of the entire national territory through effective support for local voluntary activities and rapprochement with other digital mediation associations;
• Create volunteer dynamics in territories where the Wikimedia movement is absent;

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

The planned projects were built over time by building long-term alliances and partnerships.

In the field of culture, there are very strong lobbies in France that have the ear of politics. To move the lines in the long term, we therefore had to bring together under the same banner all the cultural institutions that had taken steps in recent years and develop an evaluation and promotion method that could, firstly, encourage them to continue on this path and avoid discouragement, make this approach more visible to the State. After the announcement of the launch of the label, we had a more attentive ear from the Ministry.

In the field of science and research, the challenge is not so much political as technical and human. The French State has adopted national plans on open science. The residency at the University of Clermont-Ferrand was a conclusive test but which also showed us certain limits which the progressive acculturation of the researchers. Having recognition from the ministry and long-term funding with an adapted training plan should allow us to transform practices as we go along. The residencies will be coordinated from Wikimedia France, which will assess progress in this area for the ministry.

In the field of education, we have given up projects of direct contribution of the youngest to Wikipedia or other projects. The French Wikipedia is increasingly complex. We insert our action in the broader field of media and information literacy. This opens many doors for us by allowing us to act in the fight against online disinformation but also by developing contributory practices through smaller digital commons and then bringing them in stages to Wikipedia and other Wikimenia projects.

On the subject of diversity and in particular linguistic, cultural and geographical diversity, we have chosen to act towards overseas territories that combine these three issues. The partnership with the University of Guyana allows us to train teachers, then students who may be speakers of Creole languages or Amazonian languages. The objective is then to bring out a local volunteer group capable of leading actions outside the university by benefiting from the network of partners that we will have built upstream.

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

I have already mentioned several but here is a non-exhaustive list

• Label Culture Libre: labeling of cultural institutions that release their content and data
• Open Science Project: Train academics and researchers in Wikimedia projects with the wikimedian in residence program
• Wikeys: Raising students' awareness of contributory practices and Wikipedia's operating rules
• Overseas Project: Development of contribution activities to Wikimedia projects in Overseas Territories
• Volunteer program: strengthening membership, local presence and volunteer actions with an adapted training plan
• Lingua Libre: Maintenance, development and animation of the oral contribution project to Wikimedia projects
• Wikimedia Culture and Digital Day: Organization of a national day dedicated to cultural professionals
• Contribuling: Study day on linguistic and digital diversity in partnership with INALCO
• WikiOlympics: Establishment of Wikimedia in the Olympic Village in order to contribute to disabled sports, the representation of women in sport and to document the Paris Games in 2024
• IncubatorWiki: Supporting the structuring and development of free knowledge organizations and associations

5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?      

Yes, for 3 years

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?

The objective of the years 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 will be to lead the change of scale of most of our actions. We are considering the internationalization of the label in the French-speaking world as a first step, the implementation of new actions in new overseas territories. We envisage, with the strengthening of local groups, a gradual evolution of Wikimedia France towards a sort of federation of association capable of carrying the voice of the free knowledge movement in France by also supporting the emergence of new strong organizations. We also anticipate the development of an ever closer collaboration with the world of research by further accentuating the training plan and completely integrating the school program relating to media and information education which is emerging in the years to come. come. With respect to the online community, we will strengthen our role as a service and support association by gradually adding new forms of support. After psychological support, legal or financial support, we will gradually strengthen our technical support through training but also by taking care of certain needs ourselves.

The next major elections will take place in 2027, so we anticipate that by then the current dynamic that exists in France regarding support for digital commons and free software should strengthen. We must seize the opportunities presented to us. Of course there are always economic risks related to the international situation but for the moment our base of support remains stable and even tends to strengthen.

6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.

• Calendar 2023-2026.xlsx

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

Our team has been strengthened during this year with the recruitment of a person responsible for volunteering, a new project manager who thus brings the operational division (in charge of the continuation of the association's projects) to 4 people and 1 person in part-time doctoral research for 3 years who works on the structuring of the training plan and the evaluation of the actions of the association.

We do not anticipate any new full-time recruitment next year. However, to anticipate the evolution of the budget, we will certainly welcome a person on a work-study program in fundraising to strengthen the finance department and, if it works, then we will consider making this position permanent the following year (2024-2025). In the next two years, we also plan to recruit a person in web development in order to respond to several issues. In particular, we must strengthen the web tools made available to the community such as Lingua Libre or Wikiway, but also help volunteers in the maintenance of bots or the development of new tools useful to the community. This is a need that is increasingly felt with many requests in this direction from our members and volunteers.

The association also regularly benefits from occasional help with volunteers in civic service (4 in 2022) or trainees and work-study trainees.

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.

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

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.

Through our actions towards overseas populations and linguistic minorities in France but also throughout the world with projects like Lingua Libre, we actively contribute to reducing linguistic and territorial biases within the Wikimedia movement. These actions also make it possible to train people who are far from digital. We are also in the process of getting closer to digital mediation players to strengthen our territorial network to get closer to these communities. Our actions in favor of media and information literacy are increasingly essential in our societies where conspiracy theories flourish and where Wikipedia appears to be one of the last places on the web where everyone will have access to the same information at the same time outside of any information bubble. We therefore have a responsibility as a movement to act to explain, train, raise awareness and promote this rational, respectful, inclusive internet, which protects our personal data.

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, 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.

Geographic , Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background, Linguistic / Language

11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?

Last year; as planned in our action plan, we have reworked our training program for our audiences by harmonizing our templates and defining a clear method for collecting and monitoring people trained in Wikimedia projects. The results are still only partial, but the actions that give the best results are those where the contribution to Wikimedia projects is included in university courses or those that are integrated into a policy adopted at the level of an institution. This is why, to go and train people from Creole communities in Guyana, we have chosen to do so through the university and by first training teachers in order to anchor territorial and long-term ambassadors. movement. We also support actions that reinforce moments of conviviality that promote the integration of new people into our movement (WikiCamp) while maintaining the motivation of existing volunteers.

We are also imagining volunteer missions and new forms of commitment that do not only involve contributions. The Label Culture Libre is a good example of this, with the involvement of professionals from the world of culture who volunteer to support and evaluate applications. These people therefore find different ways of engaging with the movement.

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?

As indicated in our previous plan, we continue to work for a welcoming and inclusive space through a set of actions:

• Provision of a constantly open psychological support telephone line.
• Provision of the association's lawyer to provide support and legal advice to people who are victims of online harassment

We had indicated a partnership with the French police to help identify cases of harassment and threats on Wikimedia projects related to the community. The partnership is not yet established in March 2023 but it will be before the end of the year because a date for signing the agreement has been set.

At the same time, we have started work on creating a global charter concerning the events organized by Wikimedia France. The objective of this charter is to define the mandatory minimum criteria according to the types of events and to answer certain questions:

• In which type of event do we have to provide the provision of a quiet room for neuro-atypical people?
• In which type of event do we have to offer childcare costs to encourage the participation of women?
• In which type of event do we have to provide for the mandatory presence of a person trained in first aid or the mandatory presence of a person trained in conflict management and able to apply sanctions in the event of toxic people? .

This major work was undertaken with a group of volunteers during the year and should come into effect before the summer of 2023.

We must further strengthen the training aspect both for field volunteers and for the online community (identification of forms of harassment, attitudes to adopt as mediators or organizers, support for victims, etc.)

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.

The actions of Wikimedia France are based on the commitment of members of the community in the field through the holding of stands, fairs, the organization of editathons or conferences. We regularly exchange with the online community via the projects but also with other channels such as the discord room of the French-speaking community. For the second consecutive year, we are organizing a conference for administrators and community patrollers. We also have all the association's internal channels with mailing lists by region and by work theme.

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.

We work with many partners outside the Wikimedia movement. They are listed in an internal stakeholder map.

We will work with:

• all the cultural institutions applying for the label
• all the universities involved in the Open Science project
• Branches of the Ministry of National Education such as Canopé and CLEMI in the deployment of training and awareness-raising actions for students.
• Ministries that are committed to supporting the actions of the Wikimedia movement
• Other NGOs or associations whether to build alliances around certain projects or to support them in their development as with Vikidia
• Cities and metropolises that welcome local groups of volunteers
• Third places, organizations of the social and solidarity economy such as cooperatives in order to build common actions for the French State.

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

We are committed to actions that are thought out and built to develop over several years, in particular through a gradual change of scale.

For example, the partnership between the education league and Wikimedia France around the Wikeys game and the deployment of actions for school groups in difficulty was thought of as a test project to assess the feasibility and relevance of this action. It is financially supported by a foundation (AFNIC) which will evaluate our results before supporting deployment and action on a larger scale.

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.

The risks are known and come mainly from the economic context which is difficult for many people in France and elsewhere in the world. This may impact our fundraising. While we were growing in previous years, this year we managed to collect the same amount as last year but the growth was stopped. We will therefore have to be vigilant about the situation in December 2023.

For the moment, we benefit from support as we have rarely had before within the French administrations. Wikimedia France is recognized, expected and requested. This should not change too much in the years to come unless a scandal affecting the projects were to resurface on the association. This is why we also pay particular attention to the state of mind of the Francophone community.

As mentioned above, the growth of our organization also requires adapting our internal procedures and challenging them regularly. For this, we are helped by IDEAS, an organization for labeling good governance practices.

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.

Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, 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.  

Yes

• Strategic Plan 2022-2027.pptx

Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation

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

We hope to learn several things:

• How can the contribution to Wikimedia projects and digital commons be integrated in a sustainable way into school and university curricula?
• How can Wikimedia projects serve as a learning tool for media and information literacy?
• How can open access and open science practices strengthen the quality of content on Wikimedia projects but also legitimize the contributory practices of researchers within universities?
• How to sustainably engage minority linguistic communities on one or more Wikimedia projects?
• What are the mechanisms for transforming internal policies within cultural institutions in favor of free sharing?

With our new strategic plan, we have defined a set of new indicators by strategic axis, relating to the diversity of the people participating in the association's projects, to the transformations of professional practices, but also to our greenhouse gas emissions because our association cannot get away from issues relating to climate change.

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
Number of professionals active on Wikimedia projects having been trained by Wikimedia France	The professional audiences targeted by Wikimedia France are those of national education, culture (museums, libraries, archives...) of the scientific world (universities, research laboratories...) Active: 5 edits per month In 2022 = 85 per year Our objectives are set for 5 years	150
Number of active local and thematic groups	A local or thematic group is considered active when it is made up of at least 2 members and has carried out at least 2 activities over a year. Situation in 2022 = 14 Our objectives are set for 5 years	35
Percentage of volunteers or employees who participated in at least 1 project of the association during the year among those who declared a diversity criterion	Diversity criteria: (gender, language, geography, level of study, socio-professional category, disability) Number of volunteers or employees ticking at least one diversity criterion who participated in a project / Number of volunteers or employees ticking at least one diversity criterion Situation in 2022 = 57,1% Our objectives are set for 5 years	70
Number of partner associations or friends supported (financially or humanely) by WMFR (empowerment)	The objective is to achieve the empowerment of the partners benefiting from the support of WMFr. Situation in 2022 = 5 Our objectives are set for 5 years	10
Number of volunteers who declared having participated in at least 1 project of the association	Percentage obtained during the survey sent to all members up to date with their subscription in September of each year Situation in 2022 = 43,4% Our objectives are set for 5 years	60

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	Number of public or private organizations committed to a partnership agreement with the association for more than 2 years in this differents fiels (culture, education, research...) Situation in 2022 = 19 Our objectives are set for 5 years	50
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	A legal obligation, the calculation of volunteer hours is also a useful indicator for measuring the level of commitment within the association. Two types of hours are counted 1) hours of animation or organization: Animation or participation in an event, training, participation in working group meetings, face-to-face meetings, coordination of local or national activities and 2) hours of management: participation in the good governance of the association, participation in the association's committees (micro-grants, conflicts of interest, audit, electoral commission, etc.) Situation in 2022 = 5229 Our objectives are set for 5 years	10000

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	5000
Number of editors	N/A	2000
Number of organizers	N/A	40

Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project

Wikimedia Project	Description	Target
Wikipedia	We will track all reports of volunteer activities funded by Wikimedia, results of trainings, contribution competitions and editathons	3000
Wikimedia Commons	Number of uploaded files	90000
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.

N/A

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

We mainly use the Dashboard and Wikiscan

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.

425000 EUR

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

450687 USD

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

• Budget 23-26 .xlsx

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

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

Year 2 Plan

Annual Plan for Year 2

1.1. Please upload or indicate a link for Year 2 Annual Plan. (required)

• Link:
• Annual Plan 2024-2025.pdf

1.2. Please describe any major changes in your Annual Plan. If there are changes that require a budget change, please specify. (required)

No major changes compared to last year. The planned projects have been carried out or are in the process of being carried out. However, 3 elements to add:

Wikimedia France had the joy of being selected to organize Wikimania 2026. This logically had a modest impact this year with dedicated time to start organizing this edition. Then, the dynamics of subjects around AI also pushed us to position ourselves in open source LLM projects which could benefit the community, particularly in the fight against disinformation.

Finally, the overall atmosphere has deteriorated on the French Wikipedia in recent months. This will undoubtedly call for the implementation of specific actions on the part of Wikimedia France, WikiFranca or the WMF.

Budget for Year 2

2.1. Do you request an increase or decrease from what has been approved for Year 2? (required)

No, my budget request for Year 2 has not changed

2.2. Please upload a detailed budget file or indicate a link to it for the Year 2 proposal. The revised budget should show your anticipated yearly budget from the beginning of Year 2 through the end date of the grant. (required)

• Link:
• Budget WMF 2024-2025 - Feuille 1.pdf

Metrics for Year 2

3.1. Main open metrics (required)

Main Open Metrics

Metrics Name	Description	Target
Number of professionals active on Wikimedia projects having been trained by Wikimedia France	The professional audiences targeted by Wikimedia France are those of national education, culture (museums, libraries, archives...) of the scientific world (universities, research laboratories...)	150
Number of active local and thematic groups	A local or thematic group is considered active when it is made up of at least 2 members and has carried out at least 2 activities over a year.	35
Percentage of volunteers or employees who participated in at least 1 project of the association during the year among those who declared a diversity criterion	Diversity criteria: (gender, language, geography, level of study, socio-professional category, disability) Number of volunteers or employees ticking at least one diversity criterion who participated in a project / Number of volunteers or employees ticking at least one diversity criterion	70
Number of volunteers who declared having participated in at least 1 project of the association	Percentage obtained during the survey sent to all members up to date with their subscription in September of each year	60
N/A	N/A	N/A

3.2. Core metrics (required)

Core Metrics Summary

Core metrics	Description	Target
Number of participants	N/A	5000
Number of editors	N/A	2000
Number of organizers	N/A	60

Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects

Wikimedia Project	Description	Target
Wikipedia	N/A	3000
Wikimedia Commons	N/A	200000
Wikidata	N/A	150000
N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A

3.4. If you are introducing new metrics related to a major change in your budget or programmatic plans, please describe them below. (optional)

N/A

Additional information for Year 2

4.2. If there are additional links, files, or information you would like to share related to Year 2 planning, please add them here. (optional)

Feedback

• Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.