Grants:Project/Rapid/alexisclements/NewYorkAcademyofSciencesWomeninScienceEditathon/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2016-17 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

• To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/alexisclements/NewYorkAcademyofSciencesWomeninScienceEditathon.
• 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

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

We successfully hosted our second editathon on November 12, 2016. At that editathon we accomplished our goal of recruiting new editors, including a number of women in science. We helped attendees, including existing editors, increase their skills. We added and improved Women in Science content. And we helped to celebrate the Wikipedia Year of Science.

However, we did not meet our targets as far as the number of participants. We believe this was largely due to the fact that our editathon took place four days after the results of the 2016 US Presidential election became known. We believe the election results impacted participation because we had over 50 people registered for the event in our registration system. In addition, a handful of people had noted their interested on the Wikipedia Meetup page for the event, and also 13 people were registered on the event page posted to Meetup by Wikimedia NYC. Despite this interest in the event, we had only 18 in-person and 3 remote attendees. This lower attendance meant that we were able to accomplish less in terms of editing and creating articles.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Project metrics

Project metrics	Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
1 event	1 event	We successfully hosted our editathon at the New York Academy of Sciences on November 12, 2016.
60 participants	21 participants	See second paragraph in Goals section.
20 new editors	7 new editors	See second paragraph in Goals section.
120 articles created or improved	34 articles created or improved	See second paragraph in Goals section.

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?

Our outreach for the editathon went well, reaching thousands of our Members and those in our network. We also reached out to a number of local science and educational institutions, including science museums and universities with whom we partner. In addition, I attended the Wikimedia NYC general meeting in September to talk about the event and meet other local Wikipedians.

Although our attendance was low, representatives from two different organizations, the New York Academy of Medicine and the World Science Festival, who are thinking about or planning to host editathons attended our event and were able to learn about hosting. We also spoke about the possibility of working together to host an editathon in 2017 together.

This year I made sure to have a much larger number and variety of print materials on hand that attendees could use as references for improving or creating articles, and this proved very helpful.

What did not work so well?

The primary thing that didn't work out well was attendance. We believe this was largely due to the timing of the event in such close proximity to the 2016 US Presidential Election, given that we had over 60 people who registered or expressed interest across three different platforms. Because attendance was much lower than hoped, it meant that we also missed our targets in terms of articles edited and improved.

What would you do differently next time?

Next time, we would partner with another organization, or multiple organizations, from the outset in order to ensure wider outreach and participation. We will also consider hosting the event on a weekday evening to see if that impacts attendance.

In addition, I would like to make sure that there is an overview talk about Wikipedia near the beginning of the event. While many present didn't need it, those who were brand new indicated to me that they would have really liked to have been given an overview by more than just those sitting at their table.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

The grant money was spent as indicated in the original application:

• Table and chair rentals for 100 people - $600
• AV & laptop equipment rental - $500
• Catering provided by our contracted caterer (coffee & tea service throughout the live event, as well as cookies throughout the event, plus the labor costs for the catering staff, and the rental and costs for all equipment/plates/cups/etc.) - $900

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

There are no remaining funds from this grant.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

I really appreciated the support of Wikimedia NYC. They were a fantastic partner on this event, as they were last year, and we couldn't have done it without them.