Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/WoALUG 2023 Annual Plan Activities/Final Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 30 January 2024
Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Final
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General information
editThis form is for organizations, groups, or individuals receiving Wikimedia Community Funds or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their final results.
- Name of Organization: Wikimedians of Albanian Language User Group
- Title of Proposal: WoALUG 2023 Annual Plan Activities
- Amount awarded: 37618.59 USD, 38360.84 EUR
- Amount spent: 34973.7 EUR
Part 1 Understanding your work
edit1. Briefly describe how your proposed activities and strategies were implemented.
In implementing our proposed activities and strategies, we complied with the approach to learning outcomes based on the User Group’s work on Education, GLAM, and Outreach. At the beginning of 2023, we identified key challenges and opportunities within the targeting scope. For this year, we prioritized collaborative decision-making to align our activities with comprehensive goals. Additionally, we established transparent communication channels to engage our audience and partners by fostering a sense of shared responsibility. In 2023, we were able to seek more partnerships to increase external expertise and resources. By fostering collaboration with organizations and entities sharing common objectives, we wanted to expand the impact of our activities. Flexibility was established in our methodologies, allowing for quick-thinking responses to unforeseen challenges. Continuous learning with periodic reflections and assessments driving adaptive strategies was another approach we embraced. In conclusion, the successful implementation of our proposed activities and strategies is attached to strategic planning and stakeholder collaboration. By focusing on the specific reporting year and emphasizing key factors, we aimed to provide valuable insights for ongoing improvement.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you felt were effective in achieving your goals?
To achieve our goals, we focused on some strategies. We actively sought to: Engage partners, organizations, and stakeholders from diverse groups and backgrounds. This provided an understanding of challenges and opportunities. Stakeholder engagement was structured through targeted surveys to ensure a comprehensive perspective and further create a database. Adaptation was an integral part, allowing us to improve continuously throughout activities and project cycles. Strategic partnerships with aligned objectives. Strategic partnerships helped approach organizations sharing common goals and objectives. Reflective practices for ongoing learning. Regular feedback provided insights for improvement.
3. Would you say that your project had any innovations? Are there things that you did very differently than you have seen them done by others?
To increase the efficiency and impact, we embraced some strategies this year: Early age coding education within the 9-year elementary schools in Albania. The Education system in Albania has introduced coding education at the elementary school level. We thought to capture the momentum to cooperate with 2 schools by training students to work on queries on Wikidata and provide them with technical and/or practical skills in information. Hybrid training approach. We added more hybrid training sessions, offering both online prior editing training and subsequent editathons. This approach allowed participants to build an overall understanding through online training, and then editathons took place for more practical application. Focus on recruiting new contributors. This approach helped us involve targeted outreach, awareness campaigns, and initiatives to attract people who are new to Wikimedia projects and equip them with the knowledge how to edit and improve Wikipedia and other platforms. Hosting events to bring in key people from the local government and institutions to be informed about our projects and activities.
4. Please describe how different communities participated and/or were informed about your work.
For our engagement with the community, we tried to ensure meaningful interaction and information. 1 Digital platforms, social media, and village pump. We shared regular updates, project milestones, and relevant information on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 2. Attendance at trainings, workshops and conferences. Participation of our staff in various training and conference workshops to further strengthen our engagement strategy to foster networking and collaboration with other community contexts. 3. Community feedback sessions. These participatory methods ensured that community people had a direct impact on decision-making processes. The insights and feedback sessions influenced the evolution of our approach.
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.
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/WoALUG/Wikimedian_n%C3%AB_Rezidenc%C3%AB_-_KS_2023
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/WoALUG/WikiGap_Kosovo_2023
https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/WoALUG/International_Roma_Day_Editathon,_Albania_2023
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_in_Albania_%26_Kosovo_2023
6. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Agree |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Neither agree nor disagree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement. | Agree |
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?
In our efforts to bring in participants, particularly for underrepresented groups, such as the LGBTQ+ community, Roma and Egyptian community, and women and children’s rights in Albania and Kosovo, we aimed to address the existing gaps in content representation on Wikimedia platforms. When working with these communities, we focused on targeted outreach and inclusive language to create friendly language and a welcoming environment fostering trust and engagement. At all the targeted events, the participants shared narratives and personal stories to get into the core of the content creation process. Also, the language localization of expressing the content on Wikipedia ensures that language would not appear to be a barrier to engagement. Working with the underrepresented groups, we aligned the events and editathons with the international days, such as WikiGap and Roma International Day events, providing a thematic focus on content creation. Apart from the successes, we also come across barriers to participation, limited access to technology, digital literacy inefficiencies, and society’s stigmas that hinder the participation of groups overall, and sometimes a lack of participation from some local organizations in order to work towards social inclusion.
Part 2: Your main learning
edit8. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What did you learn about these areas during this period?
Reflecting on the lessons learned during this period, we planned to focus on increasing/ having many experienced contributors. Recognizing the role these contributors play in enhancing the quality of Wikimedia projects in Albania and Kosovo, we focused on encouraging their ongoing engagement. This includes creating opportunities for skill development, recognizing and celebrating their contributions, and promoting a supportive community. Moreover, we were committed to expanding our reach by collaborating with groups not engaged thus far. Our intention was to broaden the geographical scope of our activities, moving beyond concentrated areas to ensure a more inclusive representation and involvement throughout the country. Building on our experience, our strategy for the future emphasizes the promotion and development of free knowledge. This involves increasing the number of programs and activities in the GLAM, Education, and Outreach domains. We plan to diversify topics and collaborations to ensure a wider audience and interests.
9. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities?
Some of the surprising occurrences that happened when implementing the activities are:
- Unforeseen technological challenges. Our User Group tries to inspect the working environment in person prior to the events, especially in Albania.
- Sometimes it is lesser or higher than expected participant engagement. On certain events we had in 2023, such as WikiGap in Albania at the Swedish Embassy in Tirana and the 2-day editathon of Wikidata in Albania, we had to quickly adapt to managing the larger audience, trying to maintain a positive attitude.
- Reflections on different unexpected occurrences highlight the importance of adaptability and responsiveness to challenges. What we learned from the past processes includes deep planning, ongoing monitoring of the community, and developing more collaborations with several stakeholders.
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?
The insights gained from our experience in 2023 will help us use this learning to enhance planning. In future activities, we will prioritize more in-depth planning; and content strategy to monitor community feedback and preferences, strengthening collaborations to seek opportunities for strategic cooperation with organizations and partners; inclusive decision-making models by inviting the community and individuals to be involved in developing and making decisions for our initiatives. Our User Group believes that this will create a sense of ownership among the community members. In summary, these insights have been extracted through practical experiences, participant feedback, and team reflections.
11. If you were sitting with a friend to tell them one thing about your work during this fund, what would it be (think of inspiring or fascinating moments, tough challenges, interesting anecdotes, or anything that feels important to you)?
12. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon 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. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).
- Upload Documents and Files
- Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Education/News/March_2023/Wikeys_in_the_Albanian_language https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oV5eUTesBZcTj89nj9_PtUkhe3KV5I4p https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Case_Studies,_How_instructors_are_teaching_with_Wikipedia_(Wiki_Education_Foundation).pdf https://drive.google.com/drive/search?q=rast%20studimi https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11O8I1QrDiwVzvn80ldwIkYSwz7xgNSqmZ3mPBqnB_Aw/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FFPquJx46F3R2_CT1cnPrfpVPwcTlZ0g https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qU5niM9GDN7-2ad5NRiLxj-BXZWVX_xK https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uvDYVVatN38wm2vbGehLN2I0qiqdWLqd
Part 3: Metrics
edit13a. Open and additional metrics data
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participants | individuals who attend or benefit from the proposal’s activities, either in person or virtually. Does not include social media followers, donors, or others not participating directly. | 488 | 400 | N/A | Google forms and Outreach Dashboard |
| Editors | people who edit Wikimedia projects, creating or improving content as a result of grantee activities | 396 | 239 | N/A | Google forms and Outreach Dashboard |
| Organizers | (people that make sure that activities can be implemented by providing the necessary time, support, and knowledge - such as coordinators, trainers, facilitators, etc | 5 | 5 | N/A | N/A |
| New content contributions per Wikimedia project | contents created or improved). Please disaggregate between Wikimedia projects and/or languages when that makes sense in the context of your organization.
Wikipedia: 830 new and improved articles Wikidata: 380 new and improved items Wikivoyage: 50 new and improved articles Wikimedia Commons: 1100 pictures |
N/A | 1059 | Wikipedia | Outreach Dashboard |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 2004 | Uploads on Wikimedia Commons | Categories on Wikimedia Commons
Outreach dashboard |
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | N/A | N/A | 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 | N/A | 1979 | 1979 total revisions on Wikidata and 56 articles on Wikivoyage | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
13b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | |||||
| Number of editors | |||||
| Number of organizers |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 1059 | Articles edited and created on Wikipedia. | Outreach Dashboard and category information |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 2004 | Uploads on Wikimedia Commons | Outreach dashboard and categories created on Commons |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 1979 | Revisions on Wikidata | Outreach dashboard |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 56 | articles on Wikivoyage | Outreach Dashboard |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | 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?
No
15. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future.
Yes, we still face the same challenge as last year in collecting data from the Outreach Dashboard. The complexity arises when simultaneous edit-a-thons and campaigns are underway, leading to contributors registering for multiple activities happening at the same time. Consequently, the Outreach Dashboard accumulates more data than corresponds to a single campaign or edit-a-thon.
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.
- Here is the link to the collaborators and organizations database and other documents we have created and collected for 2023.
Database of collaborators/organizations in Al&Ks https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Yrl3aXs-z0Q3ZUd4SXMRcYWXtDznQ4i83Dm7jCmBuWY/edit?usp=drive_web https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1GN2WBojGYKHZ6x16FR4_iRtKDhWZVSMdUV3Lh3uZPg4/edit
Part 4: Organizational capacities & partnerships
edit17. Organizational Capacity
| A. Financial capacity and management | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| B. Conflict management or transformation | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| C. Leadership (i.e growing in potential leaders, leadership that fit organizational needs and values) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| D. Partnership building | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| E. Strategic planning | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| F. Program design, implementation, and management | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| G. Scoping and testing new approaches, innovation | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| H. Recruiting new contributors (volunteer) | This capacity is low, and we should prioritise developing it |
| I. Support and growth path for different types of contributors (volunteers) | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| J. Governance | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| K. Communications, marketing, and social media | This has grown over the last year, the capacity is high |
| L. Staffing - hiring, monitoring, supporting in the areas needed for program implementation and sustainability | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| M. On-wiki technical skills | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| N. Accessing and using data | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| O. Evaluating and learning from our work | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| P. Communicating and sharing what we learn with our peers and other stakeholders | This capacity has grown but it should be further developed |
| 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.
Peer to peer learning with other community members in conferences/events, Peer to peer learning with other community members in community/ies of practice* (structured and continuous learning and sharing spaces), Peer to peer learning with other community members (but that is not continuous or structured), Using capacity building/training resources online from sources WITHIN the Wikimedia Movement
17b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build capacities? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of knowledge of available capacity building opportunities, Lack of staff time to participate in capacity building/training
18. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your organizational capacity has grown, and areas where you require support?
N/A
19. Partnerships over the funding period.
| A. We built strategic partnerships with other institutions or groups that will help us grow in the medium term (3 year time frame) | Agree |
| B. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to bring in more contributors from underrepresented groups | Strongly agree |
| C. The partnerships we built with other institutions or groups helped to build out more content on underrepresented topics/groups | Agree |
19a. Which of the following factors most helped you to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Permanent staff outreach, Board members’ outreach, Partners proactive interest
19b. Which of the following factors hindered your ability to build partnerships? Please pick a MAXIMUM of the three most relevant factors.
Lack of interest from partners, Difficulties specific to our context that hindered partnerships, Local policies or other legal factors
20. Please share your learning about strategies to build partnerships with other institutions and groups and any other learning about working with partners?
Some of the learning and strategies for working with partners are aligning missions, understanding partner priorities, and investing in long-term relationships. Effective coordination and open feedback are some other key recommendations. Choosing partners with complementary strengths and a genuine interest in shared goals enhances strategic outcomes. Overall, sustained success cultivated transparent communication, flexibility, and commitment to collaborative growth.
Part 5: Sense of belonging and collaboration
edit21. What would it mean for your organization to feel a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia or free knowledge movement?
For our User Group, the sense of belonging to the Wikimedia Movement means a shared commitment to open access and knowledge creation. It means proactively contributing to local and global communities dedicated to free information. To sum it up, it is about feeling an integral part of an interconnected network that values openness, diversity, and the powerful free accessible knowledge.
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?
Somewhat increased
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?
Somewhat increased
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.
Through different thematic events, whether in Education and Outreach programs, we focused more on Wikidiversity and projects for the LGBTQ+ community. This year, we developed 2 activities regarding the content creation for the LGBTQ+ group in Albania. We also dedicated more campaigns and events to the Earth and climate issues, such as the Wiki Loves Earth and Photowalk.
Supporting Peer Learning and Collaboration
editWe are interested in better supporting peer learning and collaboration in the movement.
27. Have you shared these results with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
Yes
27a. Please describe how you have already shared them. Would you like to do more sharing, and if so how?
Through newsletters via Education, GLAM, and CEE newsletter on Meta.
28. How often do you currently share what you have learned with other Wikimedia Foundation grantees, and learn from them?
We do this regularly (at least once a month)
29. How does your organization currently share mutual learning with other grantees?
Some of the channels of sharing our learning are: GLAM and Education Newsletters for each country on Meta. Additionally, we actively participate in diverse Telegram groups such as Glam-wiki global, WMCEEM, Crisis, and GLAM/Outreach.
Part 6: Financial reporting and compliance
edit30. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
34973.7
31. Local currency type
EUR
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.
3387.1 Euros
34b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
C. I am planning to send them back to the WMF
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?
Yes
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.
Yes
38. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.