Grants:Project/Rapid/Project/Semester Funding for Workshops and Events in Spring 2018/Report
- Report accepted
- To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Project/Semester Funding for Workshops and Events in Spring 2018.
- You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
- You are welcome to Email rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.
Goals edit
Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?
We met some of our stated targets but fell short on others. We feel that our most significant accomplishments this semester were in building relationships with faculty members, other Wikimedia groups, and other student organizations on campus. As a group, we edited over 750 articles which far surpassed our goal of 100. We've retained a strong group of regular editors, however, we failed to draw in new members, and this is where we fell short of meeting some of our goals.
Highlights from this semester include hosting two Edit-a-Thons, networking with several groups at OSU, several presentations about Wikipedia (including an interview with the school newspaper), sending a participant (Blervis) to Wikimedia Conference 2018 in Berlin, and working to create a sustainable club that continues operating into the future.
We're not entirely happy with how the project went overall.As we look ahead to Autumn 2018, we hope we can gain momentum, host more successful events, continue building new relationships and reinventing the club to be more interesting to new members and those unfamiliar with Wikipedia.
Outcome edit
Targets edit
| Target outcome | Achieved outcome | Explanation |
| Number of total participants: 55 | Number of total participants: 20 
|
This number represents the number of unique participants in Wikipedia Connection's edit-a-thons, and weekly workshops. The vast majority are Ohio State University students. This number was lower than expected due to the rescheduling of an anticipated edit-a-thon as well as some scheduling errors. Recruitment and attempts to attract participants to events also proved difficult. |
| Number of articles created or improved: 100 | Number of articles created or improved: 772 (8 created) 
|
This count of articles includes articles edited in participants free time during the semester, as well as articles improved during edit-a-thons (such as 8 articles during our Spanish & Portuguese edit-a-thon). |
| Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 10 | Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 14
|
This number represents the images uploaded by all of our members throughout the year. These consisted of original works, as well as images taken from other sources with appropriate copyright status for uploading. |
| Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects: 5 | Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects: 9
|
Several images were uploaded, most of which were used on articles. |
Activities and Statistics edit
- General Stats
- Visit our outreach dashboard course page at [1] for more in-depth statistics and lists.
- 20 participants throughout the semester.
- At least 762 articles edited (see [2]).
- At least 111,000 words added.
- 14 images uploaded to the Commons.
- Weekly Workshops
- 12 workshops
- Each week consisted of training, questions, planning, etc.
- Steady regular attendance by members
- Some weeks focused on specific subjects such as bots, data, and science
- Introduced and emphasized the importance of Wikidata, as well as strategies for improvement
- Outreach to local community members and instructing new editors
- 7 attendees
- 22 edits
- 8 articles improved
- 2 New Articles
- 9 attendees
- 15 edits
- 8 articles improved
- 1 New Article
- 2 Commons Uploads
- Outreach
- In class presentation to INST4850
- Presentation in OSU's Science Cafe lecture series
- Interview with The Ohio State University's student newspaper
- Attendance at Wikimedia Conference 2018
Select gallery edit
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Editors at the Spanish and Portuguese edit-a-thon Event Page -
Editors at the Arts + Feminism edit-a-thon Event Page
Learning edit
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?
- Our organization sent a representative (Blervis) to Wikimedia Conference 2018 in Berlin.
- Several outreach activities helped to spread knowledge of our name and purpose among the larger student community. This falls under the umbrella of employing diverse advertising strategies to promote our activities.
- We were able to improve a large number of pages, exceeding our stated goal by more than 600. This figure includes Wikidata edits, a major driver for edit count, and considers edits at both our Weekly Workshops and Edit-a-Thons.
- Wikipedia Connection continued bring a small, but loyal, group of editors together at Weekly Workshops.
- Our leadership team met weekly (schedule permitting) to discuss deadlines, forms, and events. This practice was instituted following our Autumn 2017 report, in which we identified a lack of regular officer meetings as an opportunity for improvement.
- What did not work so well?
- Two of our officers faced reduced availability during this semester because they were working internships in the Columbus area, putting them off campus much later in the day than we had planned.
- We did not communicate and advertise our events in advance as much as we would have liked.
- New membership: We did not have nearly as many new editors as planned in our goals. We had significant trouble converting one-time Edit-a-Thon attendees to longer-term members.
- Unfortunately, we were not able to host our planned Byrd Climate Change Edit-a-Thon, which had previously been postponed due to scheduling issues. Difficulties in communicating with the outside group regarding the nature of the event, the venue, and other important topics contributed to this challenge.
- What would you do differently next time?
- We've previously considered revamping our Weekly Workshops to appeal to people with more interest in editorial (as opposed to technical) aspects of Wikipedia. When registering as a Student Organization at Ohio State, we specifically highlighted this goal and are continuing to develop ideas in this direction.
- We should have planned our Edit-a-Thon events further ahead. This would have enabled potential attendees to "save the date" in advance. Planning "backup" or "extra" events in advance could also have helped alleviate last-minute planning caused by an event being cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.
- As an organization, we need to think about how we can better advertise ourselves. This includes leveraging social media and less-traditional recruiting methods.
Finances edit
Grant funds spent edit
- We hosted 13 Weekly Workshops costing a total of $413.65 (average of ~$31.82 / workshop). Each workshop included pizza, delivery fees & tips, beverages, and tableware. The weekly workshop costs were lower than estimated because we always over estimate the weekly cost and look for funding outside of Wikimedia grants. After the fall semester, we lowered our weekly workshop budget and was able to stay within that budget, which was a success.
- We hosted two edit-a-thon with other organizations, costing a total of $189.34 This events consisted of food, delivery fees & tips, beverages, and tableware. These events were underbudget because we partnered with other organizations and overestimate in our budgets to leave room for food accommodations, unexpected expenses, etc.
The total amount spent for the Spring 2018 semester was $602.99.
A full breakdown of spending and receipts has been shared with the Wikimedia Foundation and can also be found here.
Remaining funds edit
Do you have any remaining grant funds?
A budget of $925 minus the spent $602.99 gives a remaining fund value of $322.01.
Since Wikipedia Connection will be continuing its activities in the fall of 2018, we ask that these funds be kept for the next Rapid Grant we will submit in August 2018. We plan to use this money in the fall for advertising at our fall student organization fair, weekly workshops, edit-a-thons, and new outreach events.
Anything else edit
Anything else you want to share about your project?
As always, Wikipedia Connection is proud of what we accomplish as a rather unique student organization at Ohio State University, and we can't do it without the support (whether it be financial, knowledge, or personal) from the Wikimedia Foundation, as well as everyone else who has helped us along the way.
For the future, we are attempting to reshape the club, offering a more novice friendly club to discuss the issues brought up by Wikipedia, such as fake news, privacy, freedom of speech, and many others in addition to editing and outreach activities. We hope this will help to increase membership as well as serve as an important forum to discuss internet issues. This is a transitional time, and we hope with the above changes, more advertising, more focused outreach efforts we can expand the presence of our club on campus and the community, as well as increase our output. The increasingly active Ohio Wikimedians User Group also exists and is building relationships throughout the state, as well as providing a place for Wikipedia Connection members to get support (as well as transition into as they graduate) - which is great! We're excited for the growth of the Wikimedia movement in Ohio and what the future will bring.
Remaining Funds Report edit
A Grant Request for Fall 2018 was filed in early September 2018, with the expectation that it would be approved and the remaining funding from the spring applied to the new fall grant. Unfortunately the grant was not approved until December 2018, after the semester had concluded. As a result, the Fall 2018 grant was withdrawn, but the money leftover from the spring was still spent. This section accounts for this extra money from the spring semester.
Description of Activities edit
Due to the limited funding, we were not able to host all of the events mentioned in our Fall 2018 funding proposal. We chose to prioritize our weekly workshops over Edit-a-Thons.
This semester saw a change in how we planned and managed our weekly workshops. We gave each workshop a more specific theme intended to spark discussions among members. Examples included the right to be forgotten, copyright, and Wikipedia vandalism. We were excited to welcome some new faces to our organization, though we still missed those who have graduated. Our members also had good experiences at WikiCon 2018, which was hosted in Columbus.
Our outreach dashboard documents relevant metrics. It shows that 10 members affiliated with Wikipedia Connection created 4 new articles and made more than 2,000 edits affecting almost 2,000 articles. Looking back at the goals we set during Fall 2018, we were able to meet some but not others. As noted above, we had 10 total registered editors, but this is short of our goal of at least 10 new members. In addition, we were not able to achieve goals related to Edit-a-Thons because we did not host Edit-a-Thons.
Finances edit
Grant funds spent edit
- We hosted 8 Weekly Workshops costing a total of $205.66 (average of ~$25.71 / workshop). Each workshop included pizza, delivery fees & tips, beverages, and tableware. The weekly workshop costs were lower than estimated because we switched to a cheaper restaurant and used coupons to further reduce the cost. We were forced to stop short of our goal of 13 weekly workshops due to running out of funds from the spring, and a lack of approval of our fall grant.
- We hosted oneedit-a-thon, costing a total of $77.93 This events consisted of food, delivery fees & tips, beverages, and tableware. This event was underbudget because there was only one. We were forced to eliminate all other edit-a-thon attempts due to lack of funding as mentioned above.
The total amount spent for the Spring 2018 semester was $283.59.
A full breakdown of spending and receipts has been shared with the Wikimedia Foundation and can also be found here.
Remaining funds edit
Do you have any remaining grant funds?
A remaining fund amount of $304.01 minus the spent $283.59 gives a remaining fund value of $20.42.
Since Wikipedia Connection will be continuing its activities in the spring of 2019, we ask that these funds be kept for the next Rapid Grant we will submit in January 2019. We plan to use this money in the fall for advertising at our spring student organization fair, weekly workshops, edit-a-thons, and new outreach events.