Grants:Project/Rapid/MurielMary/Auckland Museum Editathon/Report

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Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went? We were very happy with how the event went. The WikiCon was the largest assembling of Wiki editors in New Zealand's history with 30 people attending.

In addition to the project targets listed below the WikiCon organising committee also had the aims of:

developing the skills of editors of Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons

The attendees registered for the event were 12 self-identified newbies and 18 experienced editors of a variety of Wikimedia platforms. The programme was planned to accommodate both groups. In particular the initial presentation by User:Ambrosia10 Editing through the lens of Auckland Museum content https://zenodo.org/record/5111087 covered the main Wikimedia platforms and a number of useful tools for editors of any experience. Concurrent editing sessions were also arranged to cater for the two types of attendees and to encourage the newbies to give it a go and feel well supported.

encourage the development of a regular meetup for interested editors located in Auckland

This was encouraged and achieved. User:Einebillion shared her experiences facilitating the Wellington meetup and gave useful tips. A newbie editor was training in setting up event pages and the first date of the meetup set up and commitments made by Auckland editors to attend.

continue to grow the partnership with Auckland Museum to support the Museum in their Wikimedia Foundation activities.

Auckland Museum staff welcomed the WikiCon attendees and gave two presentations - one on their forward plan https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WQIUlR7HI1fA8gp21uMwsaaBoASmGVkXmuSvWnLIA0k/edit?usp=sharing and one on their New Zealand History Curriculum project https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Wikipedia_and_the_Aotearoa_New_Zealand_History_Curriculum

expand knowledge about Wikimedia Foundation and its platforms (Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons etc) and the editing skills required into underrepresented communities – women, Māori, Pacific

User:Einebillion presented on the Wikimedia Foundation and how the User Group fits within the administrative arm of the Wiki Movement. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14Iua5ZuNnOP3cUusTJoz7KBKOv1ot6LI0gc5nR0CQ8A/edit?usp=sharing

create content using the resources of the Auckland Museum archives and library

Attendees were introduced to what resources Auckland Museum could offer via the presentation by User:Ambrosia10

discuss the further development of the Aotearoa New Zealand User Group, including future strategy and operational matters

While the group was introduced to the User Group and the forward plan to incorporate as a charitable non-profit, no further strategic work was completed as there was concern that the newbies would be overwhelmed with the level of information. Instead a timeslot in the Aotearoa Online meet up was devoted to discussing this further and all editors at the WikiCon were encouraged to attend.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets. Please be sure to review and provide metrics required for Rapid Grants.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
1 Event	1 Event	The event was two-day WikiCon. The planned programme ran with limited changes and to time. Attendees were satisfied with the event.
Number of participants 30	Number of participants 30	We had 31 registrations and 1 attendee that had not registered. There were two cancellations - one due to family commitments and another due to illness
Number of new editors 5	Number of new editors 12	We had 12 participants self identify as "newbies" - either people that had not edited before or who had accounts but had not edited in some time or with any regularity. Two newbies sessions run with two experienced editors to reintroduce Wikipedia editing were programmed to run concurrently with information exchange / editing time for more experienced editors. This concurrent streaming of activities was very positively received. By the end of the weekend all attendees had a final editing session all together with people information sharing and helping familiarise others with not only Wikipedia but also Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource tips and tricks.
Number of articles created or improved 20	Number of articles created or improved 7 created 169 edited	A dashboard was set up to record the edits of the event. Only 10 editors joined. https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/courses/Wikimedia_User_Group_of_Aotearoa_New_Zealand/WikiCon_Aotearoa_Auckland_2021_(9am_17th_July_-_18th_July_2021)?enroll=
Number of photographs uploaded to Wikimedia Commons 50	Number of photographs uploaded to Wikimedia Commons:13	New images uploaded were taken and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons
Number of photographs used on Wikimedia projects: 15	Unsure how many photographs have been used on Wikimedia projects	This wasn't tracked by the group.

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

What worked well?

The organising committee were particularly pleased at the numbers of newbies attending who left with a better grasp of editing and a forward plan and ways of getting support - through knowledge of and commitment to attend the Auckland meetup and the other user group events happening over the next few months but and also online support groups and channels for those that wanted a quick reply to questions. A lot of effort has been given during the event to new editors or editors that had not engaged with Wiki platforms since signing up at a previous event and converting them into regular contributors. The focus was not only on "how to edit" but also on "how to encourage people to continue to edit after leaving the event". The organising committee remain positive that there will be a successful outcome in response to these efforts.
The catering was excellent
The programme went really well with a combination of targeted presentations and 90 minute slots for editing / sharing on a more casual / catch up basis.
The wifi was strong
The presentations and breakout sessions were well pitched at attendees
The event had a successful hummmm as people met each other, conversed and learnt from each other
The Auckland Museum staff were incredibly supportive
We encouraged people to move around tables to meet one another. This really helped when we were encouraging the establishment of a further meetup.
We set a $NZ10 registration fee in order to discourage time wasters. This was reduced from the $NZ20 registration fee from the Hokitika event. The high commitment to attending and low drop out rate shows that this technique of putting a nominal registration amount to recognise value is useful.

What did not work so well?

There was one hearing-impared attendee who had difficulty hearing one of the softly-spoken presenters. There was no availability of microphones or a sound system in the venue nor had there been any consideration as to accommodating the hard of hearing or disables. This was not a question directly asked of the attendees in the registration process.
There was limited use of Te Reo or acknowledgement of tikanga (Maori protocols) during the weekend.
The room set up did not have any power outlets at tables so people had to recharge their laptops during breaks. There were plenty of power outlets in the room just no extension cords or powerboards available at each table.
It was not permitted to have snacks in the meeting room so a number of spot prizes that couldn't be distributed within the room. This was mitigated by prize distribution occurring at break time in the catering room.
There was a worry that if the size of the group exceeded 30 pax that the rapid grant funding would not cover the catering bill and the sundries we had budgeted for. This constrained how big a push for further attendees occurred in the run up to the WikiCon.

What would you do differently next time?

Include in the registration process a question identifyind disabilities so we can ensure accessibility barriers are minimised.
Plan for and assign responsibilities for ensuring tikanga is followed
Physical inspection of venues to ensure that the room can cater to power requirements of multiple devices.
Consider applying for larger grants than rapid grants for future WikiCon New Zealand events.
It was interesting that a number of in-person comments during the weekend indicated that some attendees thought the event was being organised by the Wikimedia Foundation professional staff with Auckland Museum rather than the volunteer-run User Group sub-committee. This was taken as a compliment on the professionalism of the event management even though the attendees that thought this had very high expectations of the day and what was possible to arrange on the fly and in response to their feedback. We will consider how we communicate who is organising the event at the next WikiCon in Wellington.

Finances

The Expenses Budget included:

Catering Total = NZ$2,282.75

Sticker printing NZ$40

Prizes NZ$96

Travel subsidies NZ$800

Social media advertising NZ$150

Website advertising NZ$150

After currency conversion, the actual amount received for the Rpaid Grant was NZ$2,655. There was an additional $57 surplus from the Hokitika event in March 2021, which was transferred to this event.

Grant funds spent

We spent the grant funds for this event (NZ$2,655 plus the NZ$57 balance from the previous grant) on:

Catering (the total catering invoice = NZ$2,812.90)

We also received NZ$10 registration fees per attendeee, and used this NZ$300 (less fees for using an online app for registrations) to cover the remainder of the catering bill. We also received private donations, and a donation from Internet NZ, which were used to cover the costs of sticker printing, prizes, travel subsidies and online advertising.

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds? No, all grant funds have been spent.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project? The organising subcommittee asked attendees to fill in a survey on the final afternoon. Attendees were also emailed with the survey link after the WikiCon was completed. 18 attendees completed the survey. Survey results with comments can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1veY6HUS2dvQov_QUSjL8SZDcOL8rJa29UmM-o3vrq0Y/edit?usp=sharing