Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia South Africa-supporting the growth of the free knowledge movement in South Africa for 2023/Final Report

Report Status: Draft

Due date: 2023-07-31T00:00:00Z

Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund

Report type: Final

Application Midpoint Learning Report

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General information edit

This form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results. See the midpoint report if you want to review the midpoint results.

  • Name of Organization: Wikimedia ZA
  • Title of Proposal: Wikimedia South Africa: supporting the growth of the free knowledge movement in South Africa for 2023
  • Objectives of Proposal: The chapter intends to run the following projects. Each of which tackle at least one WMZA strategy focus (diversity, capacity, access, flexibility and awareness):
  • Chapter meetups - Since 2020 WMZA hosts a community meetup on the last Saturday of every month to strengthen community health. (awareness)
  • African language champion - identify and reach out to notable South Africans that can act as language champions to rise awareness of different African language Wikipedias. (diversity, access, awareness)
  • WikiGap & Artfeninism edit-a-thons - WMZA has built a strong relationship with the Swedish Embassy to run WikiGap events to encourage the creation of articles that address the gender imbalance on Wikipedia and female editors. The chapter wishes to do more events in Johannesburg and start doing events in Cape Town. (diversity, awareness)
  • Afrocrowd & Black Lunch Table participation - to help cover the racial content gap and encourage black editors WMZA would like to use this grant to develop the capacity to start hosting these events in South Africa. A desire for South African events has already been expressed by Afrocrowd in the past but we were unable to action it due to capacity constraints. (diversity, awareness)
  • LGBTQ+ outreach - WMZA would like to support the local LGBTQ+ community by hosting at least one event in 2022/23 in support with the intention of doing more such events in the future. (diversity, awareness)
  • GLAM digitization - the tragic destruction of the Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town in a 2021 fire highlighted the need to digitise content for posterity. Making that content publicly available on Wikimedia Commons would mean it can be used freely on Wikipedia as well thereby expanding its public benefit. Both these goals seek to be met with this project. Currently the chapter is seeking a collection to digitise with our partners at the University of Cape Town. (capacity, access, awareness)
  • Climate change outreach and content creation - WMZA hosted the first climate change edit-a-thon with climate change scientists in 2019. We would like to start hosting these events again in the future but we need the administrative, project management and specialized skills capacity to do so. This grant seeks to solve that problem thereby making this project a possibility again. Increasing and enhancing reliable climate change content on Wikipedia is important to use and something we have experience in. (access, awareness)
  • 1Lib1Ref - for the librarians, a project we have been running in South Africa since 2017 and would like to continue running. (awareness)
  • Thematic edit-a-thons - we are often present with opportunities to do thematic events with partner organizations that were unforeseen at the start of the year. This project gives us the capacity and flexibility to do a small number of these events as they come up during the year. (capacity,flexibility)
  • Wiki Loves:
  • Science
  • Fynbos
  • Monuments
  • Africa
The Wiki Loves events gives the chapter a change to enhance coverage of South African topics on Wikipedia by generating photographic content to illustrate relevant articles. We have a long of experience in hosting these events since 2012. Wiki Loves Fynbos is a South Africa specific competition designed to encourage photographs of indigenous plant species for use on Wikipedia, something that is much needed. (access, awareness)
  • Wikipedia Bookshelf - this Wiki community specific project makes it easier for Wikipedia editors to edit by providing them free access to reliable reference sources that would otherwise cost money to access. (access)
  • African Wikipedia citation reliability list - There is a need for greater clarity on what is a reliable citation source on Wikipedia when covering African topics. An issue that is especially important in an environment of high levels of misinformation and disinformation. This project seeks to create, expand and update a list of reliable South African citation sources for Wikipedia editors to use. It requires the time of a Wikipedian in Residence within the chapter to compile and is covered in the specialized skills line-item. (access, awareness)
  • Kaapse Wikipedia incubator: working with the Kaapse language community to start a Wikipedia in incubator. Invoves training and coaching the community in their efforts to start their own language Wikipedia.

Other events and activities the chapter will be doing in this period is assisting the Foundation with community feedback, facilitation, strategy development and advocacy. The chapter is currently applying for WIPO membership to assist with the WMF's copyright advocacy efforts. The WMZA is also looking at possibly becoming or assisting with the creation of a hub for Sub-Sahara Africa.

Part 1 Understanding your work edit

1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented. Were there changes made to your proposed activities that are important to highlight?

2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals? Please describe these.

3. Would you say that your project had any innovations - things that you did very differently? If so, please describe them.

4. Please describe how different communities participated and were informed about your work. Provide any useful links that illustrate community engagement.

5. Documentation of your impact. Please use the two spaces below to share files and links that help tell your story and impact. This can be documentation that shows your results through testimonies, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, etc.) social media posts, dashboards, etc.

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A

6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements about your efforts? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives
E. Encourage the retention of editors
F. Encourage the retention of organizers
G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement.

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups? What did you find were effective strategies for doing so? What were some of your main challenges?

N/A

Part 2: Your main learning edit

8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities for this fund. What are you learning about these areas during this period?

9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative (challenging/difficult) situations. What did you learn from those experiences?

10. How do you hope to use this learning? For instance, do you have any new priorities, ideas for activities, or goals for the future?

11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one fascinating thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?

12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedian organisations so that they can learn from your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others.

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A

Part 3: Metrics edit

13a. In your application, you outlined some core metrics and targets that you would like to measure and the targets for each metric. In the following table please highlight the metrics that you measured and describe the qualitative or quantitative results. You can also provide any comments or analysis regarding these results, such as a more detailed description of qualitative results, or explanations if certain metrics or targets were not met or had to be changed. Please also mention what tools and methodologies were used to measure each metric. If relevant you can link to the results of measurements using tools such as dashboards, as well as tools that you have designed such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies, etc.

Core Metrics Summary
Core metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants 100
Number of editors 10
Number of organizers 9
Number of new content contributions per Wikimedia project
Wikimedia Project Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Wikipedia N/A 40 N/A N/A N/A
Wikipedia Number of South African or African media sources reviewed in the compilation of the African reliable citation list. 100 N/A N/A N/A
Wikipedia Number of new African language Wikipedia's in incubation. 1 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

13b. In your application, you outlined some core metrics and targets that you would like to measure and the targets for each metric. In the following table please highlight the metrics that you measured and describe the qualitative or quantitative results. You can also provide any comments or analysis regarding these results, such as a more detailed description of qualitative results, or explanations if certain metrics or targets were not met or had to be changed. Please also mention what tools and methodologies were used to measure each metric. If relevant you can link to the results of measurements using tools such as dashboards, as well as tools that you have designed such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, case studies, etc.

Additional Metrics
Additional Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A 20 N/A N/A N/A
Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities N/A 9 N/A N/A N/A
Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability For the long term we intent to continue focusing on the following five partnerships:
  • University of Cape Town
  • University library system (LIASA)
  • ReCreate South Africa
  • Swedish Embassy
  • German Embassy

The chapter intends to build and grow relationships with many more partners but those are the current five that we are most focused on.

5 N/A N/A N/A
Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors N/A 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 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Number of activities developed N/A 4 N/A N/A N/A
Number of volunteer hours N/A 1000 N/A N/A N/A
N/A The number of individuals who attend or benefit from our project activities, either in person (offline) or virtually (online). 100 N/A N/A N/A
N/A Number of new members to the Wikimedia South Africa chapter. 40 N/A N/A N/A
N/A The number of new Wikipedia articles created in any of South Africa's 11 official language Wikipedias. 4000 N/A N/A N/A
N/A The number of content items (photographs, videos, etc) uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Most of this content is likely to come from the Wiki Loves events. 4000 N/A N/A N/A
N/A The number of new editors to Wikipedia with a specific focus on new Wikipedia editors on African language Wikipedias. 10 N/A N/A N/A

14. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?

N/A

14a. State what difficulties you had or why you felt it was best to change them.

N/A

15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations of how to address them in the future.

N/A

16. Use this space to link or upload any additional documents that would be useful to understand your data collection (e.g., dashboards, surveys you have carried out, communications material, training material, etc).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
N/A

Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships edit

17. For the following aspects of organizational capacity, in which aspects have you grown over the fund period? For which aspects do you require support?

Organizational capacity dimension
A. Financial capacity and management
B. Conflict management or transformation
C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values)
D. Partnership building
E. Strategic planning
F. Program design, implementation, and management
G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation
H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer)
I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers)
J. Governance
K. Communications, marketing, and social media
L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability
M. On-wiki technical skills
N. Accessing and using data
O. Evaluating and learning from our work
P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders
N/A
N/A

17a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

17b Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.

18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support? Were there any training/tools/capacity-building resources that were important to help you grow?

N/A

19. We are interested in learning more about your partnerships with other institutions. To what extent do you agree with the following statements? These can relate to new partnerships that resulted from this fund period or the further development of existing partnerships.

Over the fund period...
A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame)
B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups
C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups

19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships?

N/A

19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships?

N/A

20. Is there anything else you would like to share about your efforts to build partnerships with other institutions and groups?

N/A

Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration edit

21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement? Feel free to include an example if desired.

22. How has your (for individual grantees) or your group/organization’s (for organizational grantees) sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

23. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

N/A

24. How has your group/organization’s sense of personal investment in the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement changed over the fund period?

25. If you would like to, please share why it has changed in this way.

N/A

26. Are there other movements besides the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement that play a central role in your motivation to contribute to Wikimedia projects? (for example, Black Lives Matter, Feminist movement, Climate Justice, or other activism spaces) If so, please describe it below.

N/A

Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration edit

We are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.

27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members? This can include things such as data and direct outcomes, lessons you have learned, or information on how to run or recreate your programs.

27a. If yes or partially, please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how.

28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?

29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees? How did these relationships form and why? (e.g., whether there were common interests)?

N/A

Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance edit

30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

31. Local currency type

32. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

  • Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
  • Report funds received and spent, if template not used.

33. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.

N/A

34. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?

34a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

N/A

34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

N/A

34c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

N/A

35. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?

As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

36. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?

37. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.

38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.