Grants:Project/Rapid/Edit-a-thon/Pittsburgh Redd-up-a-thon

statusWithdrawn

Rapid Grants

University of Pittsburgh/Pittsburgh Wikipedia Redd-up-a-thon

The Pittsburgh Redd-up-a-thon events are Wikipedia edit-a-thons with a Pittsburgh theme. Beyond improving Wikipedia pages related to our city, we strive to incorporate the excellent open resources held by our city's Universities and build a community of Wikipedians in Pittsburgh.

targetWikipedia:WikiProject Pittsburgh Wikipedia: Edit-a-thon/Pittsburgh Wikipedia Redd-up-a-thon

start dateNovember 2

end dateNovember 2

budget (local currency)$1500 USD

budget (USD)$1500 USD

grant typegroup

non-profit statusyes

grantee• TheLeaper

contact(s)• lbcollisterpitt.edu• BarbaraWVS

organization (if applicable)• University of Pittsburgh

website (if applicable)• http://openaccess.pitt.edu

friendly space expectations

ucc

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Project Goal

1. Recruit new editors
2. Increase skills for existing editors
3. Add or improve content
4. Pre-plan a possible chapter in Pittsburgh between Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh, and Duquesne University.

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:

1. Are you doing one editathon or training or a series of editathons or trainings?

We are doing one edit-a-thon at the University of Pittsburgh in the autumn, a second session at Duquesne University in the spring, and a third session in summer 2017 at a location to be determined. Events will be open to university members as well as the general public. These edit-a-thons will be focused on improving pages related to the City of Pittsburgh using resources from the university libraries.

2. How will you let your community know about the event? Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions.

We are coordinating this activity with Pitt's Wikipedia Visiting Scholar program.

We will send individual invitations to people who have identified themselves as Project:Pittsburgh participants.

The first event at Pitt will be part of our line-up of official International Open Access Week activities, a multi-university initiative. This will be widely reported upon and the schedule shared in local news outlets.

We will advertise the first event on Pitt's Facebook and through the University library's website and on screens in the library itself.

For the second event, we will contact all participants from the first event to invite them back. We will also advertise via Duquesne University's media relations team. For the third event, we will use the prior methods of contact as well as any media relations teams at the event location.

3. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event?

Yes. Barbara (WVS) will lead the advanced editing sessions and TheLeaper and others will lead the beginner sessions with help from Seattle and library staff.

4. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?

The events will be held in University libraries with access to computers (one in a computer lab, the other with devices that can be loaned), so participants will be able to bring their own devices or use ones at the locations. Wi-Fi will be provided for all participants.

We will have two concurrent sessions, one for beginning editors on the basics of editing Wikipeida, and one for advanced editors who already have some editing skills. For advanced editors, we will teach them how to use tools such as the WikiEd Editor and HotCat and Edward Betts Link Tool.

5. How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

Follow-up talk page messages, invitations to future events, offers for individualized training. If we have sufficient interest, we will attempt to start a Pittsburgh chapter.

6. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

We hope to turn these into regular events - at least one per year at both Pitt and Duquesne during the regular university calendars and a third in the summer time - and expand use of the Universities' collections such as archives, journals, and books.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets:

1. Number of events: 2 this school year (2016), 1 summer event, plus annual repeats of this event.
2. Number of participants: 50 for the first event; total 125 participants for 3 events
3. Number of new editors: 25
4. Number of advanced editors trained with tools: 10
5. Number of of articles created or improved: 50
6. Number of repeat participants (for projects that include a series of events): We hope that at least 20 participants from each event will return for the subsequent events.
7. Stubs promoted to Starts: 10
8. Submit Carnegie telegram to Frick from the Homestead Strike to DYK.

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

Organizers of the projects:

• Lauren B. Collister, University of Pittsburgh - coordinator for the Pitt event
• Gesina Philips, Duquesne University - coordinator for the Duquesne event
• Barbara Page, Wikipedia Visiting Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh - instructor and facilitator for both events
• Casey Monaghan, Wikipedia Visiting Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh - facilitator
• Staff of the University of Pittsburgh Archives Service Center and Gumberg Library - on hand during the event to provide support for using resources

Other sources of support:

• University Library System, University of Pittsburgh - providing the facilities and wi-fi connection for the first event
• Gumberg Library, Duquesne University - providing facilities and wi-fi for the second event

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.

• $1200: Catering the three events from the University of Pittsburgh catering services at approximately $8 per person at 50 people per event.
• $300: 200 give-away pins commemorating participation in the events (e.g. from this vendor). We intend to use these pins at all events and as a point of pride showing membership in the Pittsburgh Wikipedia editing community.

Total amount requested: $1500

• We would also appreciate some additional Wikipedia swag (e.g. stickers) for participants!

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

There is a lot of interest in this event among a group of institutions and many will benefit from it.

• I'll be attending this event. The Pittsburgh area has a dense academic population between Pitt, CMU, and Duquesne so there are people with education and library access that can contribute to the wiki. The library staff has been very supportive of Wikipedia outreach. These funds will ensure a successful event and might help grow a chapter here. Chris Troutman (talk) 19:11, 20 September 2016 (UTC)
• raise awareness of Pitt's ULS wikipedia projects. Increase the accuracy and references of articles relating to pittsburgh history Wcdst3 (talk) 18:31, 23 September 2016 (UTC)
• I think this is a great opportunity for the Pitt community to build our growing numbers of wikipedia editors with training for both new editors and those who have edited a little but could use information about the kinds of tools that wikipedia offers to make the writing and editing process easier. FrindleandInk (talk) 12:48, 26 September 2016 (UTC)
• it will be a great event Barbara (WVS) (talk) 10:00, 5 October 2016 (UTC)