Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikipedia Connection/Semester Funding for Workshops and Events in Fall 2017/Report

Report accepted
This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2017-18 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

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 900 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 transitioning to an all-new group of officers, planning a major edit-a-thon for the Spring, attending an outside edit-a-thon in Cincinnati, and hosting an edit-a-thon of our own.

We're not entirely happy with how the project went overall. We fell short of some of our goals this semester and struggled with keeping our goals in mind when planning events and workshops. We experienced difficulty transitioning to new leadership as Kevin Payravi (SuperHamster) and Maria Rimmel (Rimmel.Edits) graduated in spring 2017. As we transition into the spring and the next semester, we hope we can gain momentum, host more successful events, and continue building new relationships on campus such as the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center and the Dept. of International Studies.

Outcome edit

Targets edit

Target outcome Achieved outcome Explanation
Number of total participants: 85 Number of total participants: 22   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 several edit-a-thons as well as some scheduling miscommunication with the University. Looking into new semester, this area is our main focus of improvement.
Number of articles created or improved: 100 Number of articles created or improved: 926 (0 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 12 articles during our United Nations Day Edit-a-thon.
Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 100 Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 5   This number represents the images uploaded by all of our members throughout the year. This number is lower than expected because we did not have a photo uploading competition as we did last semester.
Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects: 10 Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects: 3   A majority of images uploaded this semester were added to articles. Due to a lower number of files uploaded, our goal number could not be reached.


Activities and Statistics edit

General Stats
Visit the course page for more in-depth statistics and lists.
  • 22 participants throughout the semester.
  • At least 926 articles edited (see course page).
  • At least 104,000 words added.
  • 5 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
United Nations Day Edit-a-thon.
  • 12 attendees
  • 23 edits
  • 12 articles improved
NIOSH Edit-a-thon
  • Two Representatives attended this edit-a-thon in Cincinnati, OH, and assisted with editing and training of new editors.
Coordinated with the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center
  • Began planning an edit-a-thon with the scientists and librarians at the center, scheduled to take place February 6th 2018

Select gallery edit

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 two representatives (IronSphere97 and Blervis) to the NIOSH edit-a-thon at the CDC in Cincinnati.
    • Networking: In the fall, we formed new relationships with faculty and staff at OSU, the Byrd Research Center, University of Michigan, and NIOSH.
    • We were able to improve a large number of pages, exceeding our stated goal by more than 800. A major driver was participation in the Wikidata project.
    • Weekly attendance was consistent at 7 members.
    • As a leadership team, we gained an understanding of the commitment needed to put on larger edit-a-thons and develop deeper relationships.
  • What did not work so well?
    • Due to a miscommunication between previous and current officers and the university, we were unable to attend Ohio State's annual involvement fair this Autumn. Better documentation of the officer handover process would help this.
    • Understanding the time frames needed to fully put on an event, and this includes not communicating or planning far enough in advance to significantly reach out to people about the event.
    • New membership: We did not have nearly as many new editors as planned in our goals, and this is mostly due to the leadership team's difficulty in transition, planning, and lack of advertising.
    • We were unfortunately able to host only one edit-a-thon during Autumn 2017. Our planned second edit-a-thon was delayed to Spring 2018 due to scheduling concerns from the group with which we are partnering to plan the event.
    • We did not have many photo uploads, and this was mostly due to our team's lack of keeping goals in mind when planning. Since we didn't focus events around our goals, we failed to have any photo upload initiatives take off and therefore a lack of uploads.
  • What would you do differently next time?
    • We've since started documentation between the leadership to organize and share important financial and administrative deadlines in order to not miss out on organization funding or university exposure. This will prevent missing the April deadline for the August involvement fair.
    • While we plan on continuing to employ "traditional" recruiting methods, such as flyers, we have observed that hosting themed events (e.g., the Spanish and Portugese edit-a-thon) in partnership with larger student organizations can be more effective.
      • Additionally, reaching out to community groups such as the Ohio History Connection to partner in events.
    • We need to explore and utilize more effective and advertising such as physical (fliers in buildings, campus bus advertising), online (Reddit, Facebook, email list servs) and in person (involvement fairs).
    • Being more goal oriented:
      • Explicitly focusing our events around our goals. By keeping these in mind, we can plan future events to focus on areas in which we are lacking.
      • Every week, write down things that we accomplished (new relationships, meetings, etc.) to better gauge where we are in the semester.
      • In the future, we should have more ideas for potential edit-a-thons so that we can have backup plans in case of scheduling issues.
    • Leadership team needs to meet regularly (weekly) in order to do administrative planning.

Finances edit

Grant funds spent edit

  • We hosted 12 Weekly Workshops costing a total of $368.23 (average of ~$30.69 / 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. Next semester, we're lowering the budgeted weekly workshop cost to $35/meeting which should be more than enough to cover food and delivery even with expansion.
  • We hosted one edit-a-thon, costing a total of $82.35. This event consisted of food, delivery fees & tips, beverages, and tableware. This cost was much less than our budgeted edit-a-thon costs because we did not need to rent a space or purchase stickers or giveaways, and we utilized university resources for other expenses such as parking, advertising, and printing materials.

The total amount spent for the Fall 2017 semester was $450.59. This was much lower than expected mostly due to our Polar Edit-a-thon date being pushed back by the Byrd Center which will now be taking place in February.

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 $1,135 minus the spent $450.59 gives a remaining fund value of $691.69.

Since Wikipedia Connection will be continuing its activities this spring, we ask that these funds be kept for the next Rapid Grant we will submit in the coming months. We plan to use this money for several edit-a-thons in the spring but also for increasing our advertising costs significantly. Reflecting back, one of the mistakes that our new leadership team did this fall was not keep our goals in mind when planning events, which led us to fall short of our participation goals. This spring, we hope to turn that around by doing more events in partnership with other organizations like ACM-W to support new editors and advertising our club through less traditional student organization methods like Facebook and Reddit.

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of $691.69 were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/Rapid/Project/Semester_Funding_for_Workshops_and_Events_in_Spring_2018.

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.

While transitioning from the past leadership has been a challenge, but we're hopeful to make some changes this spring to turn that around. Most importantly, we plan to keep our goals explicitly in mind when planning events in order to meet those; this involves more advertising and collaborating with student organizations, faculty, and the library to broaden our audience of new editors. We have several exciting edit-a-thons in the planning stages for next semester and plans for classroom engagement. 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.