Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikipedia Asian Month 2019: Preparation/Report
- Report accepted
- To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikipedia Asian Month 2019: Preparation.
- 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.
This is the grant report for the preparation of "Wikipedia Asian Month 2019", consisting of goals and expenses related to preparing for the November event. Please visit Wikipedia Asian Month 2019 project page and Wikipedia Asian Month User group 2019-2020 annual report for more details.
General overview
editBackground
editWikipedia Asian Month 2019 is an online article contest on Wikipedia focused on promotion of Asian content in different languages. The project is run across various language-specific Wikipedias and other project websites of the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikimedia movement), however, some specific actions are held in some countries and Wikimedia communities with local organisers.
Wikipedia Asian Month was created and developed, and is managed by the principals at Wikipedia Asian Month User Group, it is the official user group. Actions in each country are supported by several international organizers, participating Wikimedia affiliates (Chapters, User groups) and volunteers and their supporters, the dozens of editors that organize the event on their local language editions of Wikipedia community , and the thousands of participants.
The first iteration of Wikipedia Asian Month competition began in 2015 and each year, the article counts and participating communities have diversified and expanded. In the past three years, over 27,142 high quality articles have been added in more than 63 language Wikipedia by more than 2,767 Wikipedia editors.
Program
editEach participating community runs a month-long online edit-a-thon on 1st November to 31th November. In consideration of a week-long internet block in Iran, Wikipedia Asian Month 2019 contest has been extended for a week past November. The articles submitted till 7th December 2019, 23:59 UTC are accepted by the Fountain tool of the participating wikis.
The local language Wikipedia to create new content about Asia except their home country. Participation is not limited to Asian communities. The rules in a nutshell: create new articles relating to Asia (people, places, culture, etc.), 3,000 bytes and 300 words minimum, with sources, during November 2019. Lists do not qualify.
As a part of friendship and culture exchange of Wikipedia Asian Community, participants who create at least four articles receive a special Wikipedia Postcard from another participating community and the highest contributor from each local Wikipedia gets the honor of Wikipedia Asian Month ambassador.
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Postcard Recipients Distribution of Wikipedia Asian Month 2019:
We received the mailing address of 437 Wikipedians.
Goals
editDid you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?
Broadly speaking, we were successful at preparing for Wikipedia Asian Month 2019. We managed to meet most, but not all, of the goals defined in this grant (as elaborated on below). Overall, we are very happy with how the project went, and provided very positive results:
- This year, we had a record total of 59 editions of Wikipedia projects sign up to participate. As was done in previous years, we are pleased to have been able to draw in hundreds of editors to create over 9,000 articles related to Asia. Almost 800 editors created at least one article for Wikipedia Asian Month, and 470 of those editors created at least 4 articles (the requirement to receive a Wikipedia Asian Month postcard).
- We also began the important process of restructuring our leadership to have a new international team, distributed workload, and better collaborative tools and documents.
We continue these efforts and hope to be more effective. We also did have the pleasure of on-boarding a new group of volunteers to help organize. As always, we would like to thank the volunteers for helping us in different phases of organizing Wikipedia Asian Month 2019.
Outcome
edit| Target outcome | Achieved outcome | Explanation |
| Recruit/strengthen the international organizing team. |  |
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| Set up protocols and document our organizing procedures. | |
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| Engage with Wikimedia communities including different language versions of Wikipedia, Wikisource and Wikivoyage etc. to expand local participation and recruit local organizers.
Reach out to 200 community and/or offline event organizers, as well as previous participants. |
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| Promote Wikipedia Asian Month at Wikimania 2019, and at other Wikimedia gatherings. |  |
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| Compile a series of guides for local/regional Wikipedia Asian Month activities organizers, include offline event guide and online editiathon hosting guide. | |
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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?
- Despite not accomplishing everything we wanted to, we were able to meet the majority of our goals, adequately prepare for, and host Wikipedia Asian Month 2019. We recruited/strengthened the international organizing team and were able to onboard 59 language versions of Wikipedia to participate in Wikipedia Asian Month 2019.
- What did not work so well?
- Some of the line items, we simply were not able to dedicate the proper time and resources to pursue, such as the offline event guide and online edit-a-thon hosting guide and translation. Many of the main organizers of Wikipedia Asian Month had other Wikimedia and external dedications during the busy autumn season (such as preparing for Wikimania and regional conferences; running their respective affiliates, of which all our international organizers are involved in; school and work; etc.).
- Not every organizer reads the regulations and it does increase the difficulty for us to count Wikipedia Asian Month article numbers.
- We do need one to two part-time staffs to take care of all the routine posts, manage the MassMessages on Wiki and track Fountain tool status. That will be ideal to apply a grant for human power in the future.
- What would you do differently next time?
- For 2020/2021, I think there are several main points to tackle to have an even more successful preparation:
- As we had changes in leadership this year, transitioning and streamlining the process proved to be a challenge. We will provide and conduct more training material and sessions to international organizers and local organizers.
- On-board more international organizers early and asking help from communities to get the translation done asap.
- Delegate responsibilities early to ensure all team's roles and tasks are followed through.
Finances
editGrant funds spent
editPlease describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.
| No. | Item | Budgeted (USD) | Cost (Local) | Cost (USD) | Receipt Number(s) | Notes |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | T-shirts, Stickers & Pins (includes shipping, regional team may apply in a separate grant) | $300 | N/A | N/A | N/A | Wikimedia Taiwan helped us to cover this part | |
| 02 | Advertisements on Social Media (Facebook, Twitter) | $100 |
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R03-13 | ||
| 03 | Infrastructure | $1,050 | N/A | Google Suit: $263.09 | G01-G12 | In the end, we found that Google Suite is enough for us. We only spend money on this. Most of our international team members choose to use their own emails not Wikipedia Asian Month ones. | |
| 04 | Bank Transfer Fees | $100 | NTD 275 | $9.77 | R01-R15 | Bank informed me of the bank transfer fee on the phone. | |
| 05 | Unforeseen | $100 | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| Total amount received from Wikimedia Foundation: $1,650 (USD) | |||||||
| Actual cost grand total: $366.35 (USD) | |||||||
* Receipts have been shared via Google Drive with the Wikimedia Foundation Rapid Grants team.
Remaining funds
editDo you have any remaining grant funds?
We have $1,283.65 (USD) in unspent funds, which will be returned to the Wikimedia Foundation.
Anything else
editPlease feel free to check our annual report for more details.
Images about Wikipedia Asian Month 2019
editEvents
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Postcard
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