Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia Community User Group Malta/Art & Feminism Edit-a-thon/Report
- Report accepted
- To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia Community User Group Malta/Art & Feminism Edit-a-thon.
- 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
editDid you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?
This was the first time that Art & Feminism was held in Malta, therefore this project represented a novel challenge in terms of introducing the concept of Art & Feminism to the local cultural community. Furthermore, it served to encourage local cultural sector to research into a particularly under-represented artistic community. The edit-a-thon was a success on multiple levels - it introduced the concept of documenting cultural heritage and performance amongst a new audience (primarily composed of contemporary artists and cultural operators) and enabled the creation and improvement of a number of articles related to Maltese artists. On the whole, the project met its goals, both in terms of audience engagement and attendance, as well as in terms of quality of the content created.
Outcome
editPlease report on your original project targets.
| Target outcome | Achieved outcome | Explanation |
| 25 participants | 22 participants | Although the total number of participants was slightly lower than the target, we believe that this is still a positive outcome, particularly as the vast majority of editors had never actively engaged with Wikimedia platforms. Some of the new editors who participated have also taken their enagagement further by taking more active roles in other Wikimedia projects and activities (such as Wiki Loves Monuments). |
| 8 new editors | 18 new editors | A significant number of participants were new users and opened Wiki accounts in the run up to the Art & Feminism workshops. This indicated that the project was highly successful in tapping into new audiences and engaging people who had previously not been active on Wiki platforms. |
| 5 articles created/improved | 33 articles created/improved Outreach dashboard | The large number of articles edited indicated great engagement on behalf of many of the editors who attended the workshop. The articles created were of high quality and significant improvements were made to a number of existing articles. |
Learning
editProjects 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?
(i) Engagement with the project was very positive, with a broad range of participants attending both the workshops themselves as well as the activities held in the run up to the workshops. Many of these participants had never been involved in wiki editing before, nor had they participated in other activities organised by the Maltese wiki community. This indicates that this project was highly successful in appealing to new audiences and in broadening the appeal of active engagement across wiki platforms.
(ii) The quality of content created was generally of a high standard. Many of the articles edited were initially of fairly incomplete, requiring significant research and background work in order for them to be improved in a correct manner. Although this may have been a daunting task for a first-time editor (as most of the participants were), the work carried out was of a very high quality.
(iii) This project was highly successful in forging new collaborations with individuals and organisations operating within the Maltese artistic and cultural sector. Art & Feminism was a collaboration with Blitz, an independent contemporary art space. This was the first time that Blitz had collaborated with the local wiki community, however it has led to further collaborations on other projects, such as Wiki Loves Monuments.
- What did not work so well?
Although a number of activities (intended to develop basic editing skills amongst new editors) were held before the Art & Feminism workshops themselves, more work could have gone into the preparatory stages, particularly in terms of selecting articles to be edited and carrying out the necessary background research into obtaining relevant material for these specific artists. There were a number of participants who wished to write about particular artists, but were unable to do so because they did not have the material at hand to establish the artist's notability. By investing more time and energy into the preparatory phase of the project, this issue could have been minimised.
- What would you do differently next time?
As mentioned above, we would invest more effort in obtaining sufficient research material prior to the workshops themselves, in order to ensure that notability can be established. Furthermore, we would dedicate more time to explaining the concept of notability to new editors, as a number of them struggled to understand which artists were to be considered notable (and how to establish their notability within the articles being edited or created), and which artists were not notable within this particular context.
Finances
editGrant funds spent
editPlease describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.
Travel expenses for Wikimedian - €190.83
Remaining funds
editDo you have any remaining grant funds?
Remaining total: €609.17
We would like to utilise these funds towards awards for participants in Wiki Loves Monuments in Malta 2018. These funds could help greatly in rewarding individuals for their contributions to documenting Malta's cultural heritage through the third edition of Wiki Loves Monuments in Malta.
Anything else
editAnything else you want to share about your project?