Grants:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil/2017

Grant stage: completed
Grantee: Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil
Amount granted: US$20,000 (US$20,000)
Funding period: 1 July 2017 to 31 December 2017 31 January 2018
Final report due: 30 January 2018 2 March 2018

Application

Background

These two requests are required of first-time applicants. In future years, you can use reports to substitute for these requirements.

  1. Link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements in the past year.
     

GLAM case study

The Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil has developed a global reference GLAM initiative, that is highlighted as a best practice at the Outreach:Digitization portal. This GLAM initiative has focused on the collection of the University of São Paulo Museum of Veterinary Anatomy.

This small-scale GLAM initiative --to date the largest and most successful GLAM initiative to be run in Brazil-- has had major achievements:

More information on this GLAM initiative is also available on media pieces.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
[1] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/August_2016/Contents/Brazil_report
[2] https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/September_2016/Contents/Brazil_report
[3] http://wikimedianobrasil.org/imagens-de-modelos-anatomicos-esqueletos-e-animais-taxidermizados-para-uso-livre/ (in Portuguese)
[4] http://wikimedianobrasil.org/glam-490-mil-visualizacoes-de-imagens-de-anatomia-veterinaria-em-agosto/ (in Portuguese)
[5] https://www.nexojornal.com.br/expresso/2017/02/24/Quais-museus-brasileiros-est%C3%A3o-liberando-uso-de-imagem-de-seus-acervos (in Portuguese)
[6] https://motherboard.vice.com/pt_br/article/como-as-imagens-do-museu-de-anatomia-veterinaria-da-usp-foram-parar-na-wikipedia (in Portuguese)
[7] https://difusaoneuromat.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/neuromat-e-museu-de-anatomia-veterinaria-da-usp-reunem-se-na-tentativa-de-viabilizar-o-relicenciamento-de-colecao-de-fotos-do-museu/ (in Portuguese)
[8] http://www.arede.inf.br/imagens-de-modelos-anatomicos-esqueletos-e-animais-taxidermizados-para-uso-livre/ (in Portuguese)
[9] http://portal.cfmv.gov.br/portal/noticia/index/id/4824 (in Portuguese)
[10] http://jornal.usp.br/ciencias/ciencias-biologicas/riqueza-de-imagens-do-do-museu-de-anatomia-veterinaria-entra-na-wikipedia/ (in Portuguese)
[11] http://www.huffpostbrasil.com/2016/10/21/wikipedia-professor-aula-_n_12490616.html (in Portuguese)

  1. Link to one learning story you have created or contributed to, that demonstrates how your organization documents and applies learning.
     

Advanced Training on Editing Wikimedia Projects

In the first half of last December, the Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil in association with and support to the CEPID NeuroMat, a leading research institution at the University of São Paulo, promoted a three-day-long advanced training on how to contribute to Wikimedia projects, mostly focusing on how to edit on hard-science topics. This activity was attended by 12 editors.

This training was highlighted on a post at the Outreach Newsletter (in English) and at the UG blog.

The major relevance of this activity is that it contributes to disseminating skills to improve scientific entries on Wikimedia projects in Portuguese. As in many Global-South countries, the general low level of scientific culture is associated to poor-quality Wikimedia projects in terms of science content.

This training is systematically documented on Wikiversity, as each section has a specific page. This is important as the general goal is to allow for replication of this activity, including by training attendees. Sections are listed below:


  1. Training presentation
  2. Wikimedia projects
  3. Wikipedia five pillars
  4. Relevance and reliability
  5. Creative Commons licenses
  6. Wikimedia communities
  7. Teaching with Wikipedia
  8. Studying with Wikipedia
  9. Edit-a-thons, GLAMs, contests


As a major concern for our UG and for other communities, during the training a specific discussion on the gender gap in the Wikimedia movement took place.

Link to these documents only if you have them.

  1. Link to your organization's staffing plan. This organization is not requesting staff.
  2. Link to your annual plan. *
  3. Link to your strategic plan. *

Please add your global metrics to this sheet. Contact APG staff if you need access. Please visit this worksheet to add your global metrics targets and progress.

Programs

GLAM Outreach

Context

 
The Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil has led the largest GLAM initiatives in Brazil and more generally in the lusophone community. Collections of museums from the best university in Latin America --the University of São Paulo-- have been systematically brought to the projects. One of these initiatives has become a case-study reference for the community. These GLAM initiatives have been associated to outreach and education activities --the largest and most successful outreach and education programs in Brazil.
  • At least 3,264 images have been added to the Commons as part of GLAM and education programs led by the User Group in 2017 alone;
  • GLAM initiatives have been continuously documented and have brought media attention, as reports from 2016 and 2017 bring evidence of;
  • GLAM initiatives have been done in parallel with outreach activities, especially edit-a-thons;
  • GLAM initiatives were organized and developed with institutional partners, that have provided support for Wikimedians-in-residence and student workers. These WiR and students workers were the first ever to be granted support for in Brazil;
  • GLAM initiatives have been achieved with support from the WMF GLAM team, especially for the use of GLAM tools. One of the initiatives we have run was selected to be a pilot test of a new tool being developed by the community, GLAMpipe.

A worth-reading note on a GLAM initiative the UG has been running with the University of São Paulo Museum of Mathematics was published at the Wikimedia blog, as it brings up learning processes and practices that can be useful for the global community. (In English.)

Sample of images uploaded to the Commons through UG-led GLAM initiatives:

Sample of resources produced in the context of UG-led GLAM initiatives:

Highlight

 
Considering this background and given the learning curve our group has gone through, we have partnered up with one of the largest museums in Latin America, the Museu Paulista, in order to progressively upload their 110,000-object collection to the Commons. This activity will be done in parallel with outreach and education programs to improve content on other Wikimedia projects.
  • Official document of partnership with Museu Paulista;
  • Education program confirmed with 156 students of Journalism from Faculdade Cásper Líbero, one of the most prestigious Communications School in Brazil;
  • Alongside image upload and written content production, a fundamental outcome from this GLAM initiative is that in a partnership with the museum staff and university professors there is the expectation to provide audio descriptions of paintings, to increase accessibility of Wikimedia content.

Other museums the UG has partnered up with are the Museum of Education and Toys and the Museum of Geosciences. It is worth mentioning that most of the work with the Museum of Geosciences will probably be developed through a project grant request, that is currently being assessed.

SMART objectives

Museu Paulista

 
Planning meeting with Museu Paulista director and staff
The GLAM initiative with Museu Paulista is a long-term project, and this term we are requesting funding for a pilot activity, that was agreed in a sequence of meetings with the museum director. This initial funding will contribute to establishing the structure for achieving this long-term work, that aims at uploading the full collection of this museum onto the Commons (the collection has a total of 110,000 objects).

As this is one of the largest museums in Latin America, and definitely one of the most famous in Brazil, we expect this work to attract media attention. This will be an opportunity for outreach and dissemination for potential partners. To some extent, the expected impact of the initiative finds a parallel with the current New York City Metropolitan Museum GLAM initiative.

Contributions to Wikipedia and uploads of audio descriptions will mostly be generated in the context of an education program and an outreach activity. Details of the education program that is associated to this GLAM initiative are provided in the specific area for education in this grant request. Details of the outreach activity that is associated to this GLAM initiative are provided in the specific area for outreach in this grant request.

As this being a large-scale GLAM initiative, we face some technical challenges, such as the need for diagnosing and developing scripts for data extraction and scrapping from the museum database. The museum metadata appears to be set up in three different databases, using different technologies, and we intend to use the pilot activity we are requesting funding for to establish efficient procedures for the large-scale upload we are considering. Data extraction and scrapping in the museum databases is not the kind of work volunteers from our community can achieve, as this requires for instance: (1) setting up a standardized template for metadata for each of the tools the museum keeps data records on; (2) developing and running a script to identify errors in standardized records; (3) developing scripts to extract metadata from the different databases, after standardization; and (4) pairing extracted metadata to images to be uploaded. These items are examples of tasks, as the full planning process for this work, is still at an early stage --we cannot really move forward without having professional support. The expectation is that we rely on this pilot to devise the most efficient strategy to set the massive upload we are aiming at. It is worth noticing that, though the Museu Paulista holds a major collection --which has been the object of hundreds of scientific publications--, it is a low-budget, public museum, that does not have in its staff someone that could engage with the kind of activities we have listed here; tasks that are listed in this section will have in part to be done at the museum.

Volunteer activity will encompass OTRS procedures, standardization of templates for the Commons and massive upload. As with other GLAM initiatives we have run, we will communicate with the WMF GLAM program officer and the community to set up the best strategy for this massive upload.

A University of São Paulo grant received by Joalpe will provide support for one two-month student worker for this project.

So, from July to December, we expect that our work with Museu Paulista will produce:

  • 200-500 image uploads to the Commons (pilot activity)
  • at least 150 articles created or improved on Wikipedia in Portuguese (as part of education program and outreach activity)
  • at least 150 new users registered onto the projects (as part of education program and outreach activity)
  • at least 70 audio files uploaded to the Commons, providing an audio description of paintings (as part of education program and outreach activity)
  • one edit-a-thon, to be held in September, during the celebration of the Independence of Brazil (as part of outreach activity)
  • at least 6 media pieces on the GLAM initiative

SMART objectives that are provided below do not include expected results for the education program and outreach activity associated to this project.

Main focus: New content for Wikimedia projects, specifically Wikimedia Commons, on Brazilian history and cultural heritage

Measure of success: Image upload, image use, learning process for full-collection upload, media pieces

Activities:

  • Image upload planning and execution;
  • Process-thinking through the pilot to establish efficient upload strategy for long-term high-volume content upload;
  • Set up and execution of media strategy and outreach.

Needs:

  • Technology: support for professional services for extracting museum metadata (a specific script will have to be developed to automatize data extraction/scrapping);
  • Strategy: resources for snacks for two or three full-day meetings with museum staff to develop long-term strategy;
  • Education program: details are provided in the respective section of this grant request
  • Outreach activity: details are provided in the respective section of this grant request

Museu de Geociências

 
Planning meeting with the Museu de Geociências director
Image upload associated to the GLAM initiative with Museu de Geociências will likely be supported through a project grant, currently being evaluated by the project grant program. This is a one-year project to fill the gap of content pertaining to Brazilian geology, with the expectation of uploading around 2,000 high-quality images; a realistic measure for one-term achievements is that we will be able to reach one third of the expected outcomes. Wikipedia content production and outreach activities are not considered in the project grant, and our expectation is that funding for these activities are funded through this simple APG.

Museu de Geociências is a University of São Paulo institution, recognized as one of the most important collections of geosciences in Latin America.

Contributions to Wikipedia will mostly be generated in the context of outreach activities. Details of the outreach activities that are associated to this GLAM initiative are provided in the specific area for outreach in this grant request.

A University of São Paulo grant received by Joalpe will provide support for two two-month student workers for this project.

So, from July to December, we expect that our work with Museu de Geociências will produce:

  • 500-1,000 image uploads to the Commons (being funded via project grant)
  • at least 400 articles created or improved on Wikipedia in Portuguese
  • two edit-a-thons at the Institute of Geosciences, most likely on Rock formation and Brazilian dinosaurs

Main focus: New content for Wikimedia projects, specifically Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia, on geosciences

Measure of success: Image upload, image use, articles created

Activities:

  • Image upload planning and execution (this will be done in the context of a project grant);
  • Wikipedia entry creation and improvement;
  • Set up and execution of edit-a-thons.

Needs:

  • Outreach activity: details are provided in the respective section of this grant request

Museu da Educação e do Brinquedo

 
Object in the collection of Museu da Educação e do Brinquedo
The GLAM initiative with Museu da Educação e do Brinquedo is a small-scale activity, focusing on uploading high-quality images of the museum collection and improving content on Wikipedia in Portuguese pertaining to this museum area.

Museu da Educação e do Brinquedo is a University of São Paulo institution, recognized as pioneer collection on the science of ludicity.

A University of São Paulo grant received by Joalpe will provide support for one two-month student worker for this project.

So, from July to December, we expect that our work with Museu da Educação e do Brinquedo will produce:

  • 40-100 image uploads to the Commons
  • at least 25 articles created or improved on Wikipedia in Portuguese

Main focus: New content for Wikimedia projects, specifically Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia, on ludicity

Measure of success: Image upload, image use, articles created

Activities:

  • Image upload planning and execution;
  • Wikipedia entry creation and improvement.

Needs: No grant resource is expected for this GLAM initiative, as work will be guaranteed with third-party support.

Education program

Context

 
 
The Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil has organized the largest education programs in Brazil and in the lusophone community. Three UG members are university professors and have led the education program in Brazil, with little or no support; at least 13 education programs were run by them since 2014. These programs rank amongst the largest of the world. A major challenge that the UG faces is how to sustain these large programs, as they require intense community engagement, and outreach to other professors and educational institutions. Education programs that are done out of the realm of the support from the UG are normally poorly organized, eventually causing community disruption and frustration from the perspective of the instructor, or very small and erratic --we believe we can take up the role of contributing to improve the quality and continuity of programs we are not working with yet and bringing new instructors to the projects.

The Outreach Dashboard has become an effective mechanism to keep track of education-program achievements. Programs that were organized and supported by the UG are available on the specific user-group Outreach Dashboard campaign page.

 
A strategy for outreach has been to provide training for developing advanced skills for educators and researchers. The UG has set up two of these programs, again with little or no support.

Highlight

As stated above, challenges the UG faces are twofold. Firstly, there is the challenge of sustaining ongoing education programs. In the Brazilian context, professors who choose to work with the projects face serious constraints, as many --if not most-- university directors do not consider Wikimedia assignments as legitimate assignments. This tends to bring a double burden to professors. Our best practices show us that the successful education programs depend on the embedding education programs onto the community, that works along the educator to work with students. In order to make this happen we have identified as key elements to provide resources for educators but also to develop a friendly space for students within the community, which goes with supporting within projects the idea that Wikipedia belongs in education.

Secondly, the UG faces the challenge of outreach. This outreach has two main targets: instructors who have already used, normally with poor results, the projects associated to their class activities; and professors who have not worked with the projects and who we might orient about why and how to develop successful education programs. A way of doing this is to increase our participation in meetings at universities; since 2014, UG members have given talks or lectures in at least 13 universities, in 6 states. We believe we can scale up this activity with support.

Along with sustaining and increasing education programs we either lead or support --as shown in the metrics table--, we believe the actions we list below can contribute to improving the Wikimedia education context in Brazil:

  • the UG should provide sufficient resources so that instructors are trained on how to use the Outreach Dashboard;

* the UG should provide micro-grants to contribute to fostering education and outreach programs in areas we are currently covering poorly. These micro-grants would go through an evaluation process, that will take into consideration the legitimacy and viability of each proposal, in a similar manner of what is done through the Rapid Grant assessment process.

SMART objectives

Faculdade Cásper Líbero education program

 
UGBR member David Alves talking to students at Faculdade Cásper Líbero
The Faculdade Cásper Líbero education program, that is one of the largest education programs running in the world in terms of articles created or improved and enrolled students, will focus in the semester of interest for this grant request on content production associated to the GLAM initiative with Museu Paulista. Four Journalism undergraduate cohorts will be involved, with a total of around 165 students.

The GLAM initiative with Museu Paulista is a long-term project that aims at uploading to Wikimedia Commons the full collection of this museum and improving content pertaining to the museum collection on Wikipedia in Portuguese. The GLAM initiative is described in details in the section on GLAM initiatives in this grant request.

The expectation is that contributions to Wikipedia and uploads of audio descriptions will mostly be generated in the context of an education program and an outreach activity. As listed in the specific topic on the Museu Paulista GLAM initiative the expectation is that from July to December our work with Museu Paulista will produce at least 150 articles created or improved on Wikipedia in Portuguese, at least 150 new users registered onto the projects and at least 70 audio files uploaded to the Commons, providing an audio description of paintings.

Given the volume of students and work associated to this education program, ideally we will provide 5 two-hour training workshops for each cohort (an expected total of around 20 workshops): three more specific for editing Wikipedia and two more specifically focused on contributing to Wikimedia Commons. Furthermore, additionally to the instructor's direct work we expect to have at least one Wikimedian to provide professional services in leading specialized workshops for this education program. Workshops will encompass topics such as Wikimedia-project training, GLAM strategies and empowerment of contributors, audio description techniques, media literacy and reliable sources and advanced contributions to Wikimedia projects for communications professionals.

Main focus: New content for Wikimedia projects, specifically Wikimedia Commons and Wikipedia, on Brazilian history and cultural heritage

Measure of success: Media uploads, accounts created, articles created

Activities:

  • Education program planning and execution;
  • Wikimedia-related workshops editing workshops;
  • Wikipedia entry creation and improvement;
  • Audio descriptive files creation and upload.

Needs:

  • Education program support: support for 20 workshops, providing stipend for workshop lecturer.

Outreach Dashboard training

We understand that a key aspect to improve education programs in Brazil is to provide resources for using the Outreach Dashboard. With this in mind, we intend to share our expertise with the use of this resource for a larger audience through a training section, to be held in São Paulo with live streaming. Video from the training and any multimedia resource that is used will be made available on Wikimedia Commons.

So, from July to December, we expect to set up and promote one introductory training section for the Outreach Dashboard and produce:

  • one training section with at least 20 attendees (in place and in the direct streaming)
  • one video from the training to be uploaded on the Commons
  • at least one multimedia resource on the Outreach Dashboard to be uploaded on the Commons

Main focus: Community capacity development, education program improvement

Measure of success: Training (local and streaming), one video, one multimedia resource

Activities:

  • Training planning and execution;
  • Training content production (multimedia resource);
  • Streaming of training;
  • Content upload.

Needs:

  • Streaming: streaming crew for a one-day training section, including filming and online facilitation
  • Support resources: Snack and beverages for attendees of training section in São Paulo

Micro-grants

In order to avoid redundancy, details of the micro-grant initiative, that encompasses our education program strategy, are provided only on the section pertaining to community support.

Community support

Context

 

We find the Wikimedia community in Brazil to be underserved in terms of events, meet-ups, outreach of grant programs and the knowledge on how to do more "offline activities" in support of the Wikimedia movement. It is our intent to create this program to support the community with a focus on that area, but to leave the program open to other possible support as the community gives us feedback on what is needed and what it wants to do. The main tool in the program will be microgrants (up to R$1000 BRL, initial limit) to community members. Moreover, although our group has activities in several Brazilian states, we intend to use the microgrants as a mechanism to boost activities outside the southeast region, thus favoring communities of editors who are in registers farther away from what is called in Brazil the Rio-Sao Paulo axis. We seek to increase our representation in underrepresented areas, especially the North and Northeast regions of the country. We will seek tactics to increase the representativeness of the different regions and locations within Brazil and will try to evaluate them and improve them over the next few years. Another point is the disproportion of gender in the Wikimedia movement is still a matter of concern. We must continue to strive to reduce this disproportion and the resulting impact on content.

We have sustained a robust flow of events and meet-ups in nine Brazilian states, thus bearing national representation. This grants us the ability to outreach far beyond any other organization has ever been able in a country as wide as Brazil. We have also participated in university and civil-organization events, normally leading conferences and workshops.

Highlight

The key aspect of what we have called "Community Support" is to be able to organize relatively cheap, effective events to respond to relevant needs of the community. At least three activities appear to be especially relevant in this context: discussions on the gender gap, Wikidata and regional differences in Brazil. The discussions on the gender gap and regional difference are meant to improve the health and diversity of our community. The Wikidata training is especially important to bring more Brazilian participation onto this fundamental project.

  • At least 1 enlightening talk with the OpenStreetMap community and the potentialities for Wikidata synergy (funded for this activity was requested via Rapid Grant)
  • At least 1 enlightening talk in order to establish new strategies to reduce the gender gap: thinking beyond edit-a-thons
  • At least 1 enlightening talk in order to establish new strategies to reduce the geographic gap in Brazil

* At least 4 non-Rio-Sao Paulo axis granted

  • Other projects to be promoted from community request, with our approval

Sample of images uploaded to the Commons illustrating the many activities we have carried out and/or supported over the years --these are brought as an illustration of the process through which we have acquired skills to be able to handle what we plan to achieve:

SMART objectives

Micro-grants

 
UG member Marília Carrera talks on Wikipedia at research center at the University of São Paulo (São Paulo), in May 2017
In the preliminary review of this grant application, the grant program officer informed us we were not allowed to request support for the micro-grant program, but that can can set it up in a future grant. We have still decided to let it visible on this request as it illustrates the kind of activity we would be leading when we are authorized to request funding for this program.

Aiming at diversifying places where our activities take place --Brazil is a very big country, and UG members are present in at least ten localities-- and fostering an empowered community from within, we have come up with the idea of offering micro-grants to our community. These grants would be assessed by our group, normally focusing on low-risk activities in areas where we lack larger programs and activities. It is worth noticing that two of our members have been involved in Wikimedia grant-assessment committees.

To some extent, this appears to be a strategy to respond quickly to local demands, especially from impoverished and somewhat marginalized areas in the Brazilian Northeast, and to be able to support activities that are presented to us in Portuguese and when proponents are unable because of language difficulties to open an RG request. Eventually, this low-risk, low-cost strategy could reduce work load associated to the RG program, as assessment would be made by local community members. This could be a replicable initiative, as we can probably learn globally from this experience.

We are considering grants that will range from US$ 100 to US$ 350.

As listed above, we have already come up with three ideas of enlightening talks that would be of interest. These are meant to provide a general idea of what we are thinking, as the expectation is that we hear from our community what they think they can do to improve our movement. It is again very important to stress that a general goal here is to diversify our audience from what is know the Rio-São Paulo axis, in which activities are already being developed.

We expect to have 13 microgrants with at least 30 participants in the funded events in total impacting at least 30 content pages and resulting in at least 3 blog posts in our blog.

Main focus: Small-scale, low-risk and low-cost activities for and from the Brazilian community

Measure of success: Promoted activities

Activities:

  • Micro-grant project elaboration;
  • Micro-grant project dissemination;
  • Proposal evaluation;
  • Event funding support;
  • Event follow-up.

Needs:

  • Key resource: funding resources for supporting the micro-grant project.

Enlightening talks

We believe that some themes are strategic to the Wikimedia movement and therefore deserve a closer look and debate on the best ways to be addressed. Thus, we thought of promoting events open to the community, but at the same time we could invite strategic people to present proposals and possible solutions to the challenges we face. Three topics that we think fit in this context are: synergy between OpenStreetMap (OSM) databases and Wikidata; Gender gap: going beyond the edit-a-thons and how to spread to movement beyond the Rio- São Paulo axis. As are asking a specific RG for the first Enlightening talk, in this APG we plan to run both second and third proposed topics above.

We expect to have two enlightening talks with at least 15 participants each funded by this program. Snacks will be provided for attendees; we will need a rented room for these talks, ideally with a simple mechanism of video recording. As some lecturers might need logistical support --i.e., taking a roundtrip cab ride, buying a train pass--, we are accounting for this kind of costs as well.

Measure of success: People attending to event / Strategical orientations reported

Activities:

  • Two thematic enlightening talks

Needs:

  • Key resource: room rent; snacks for attendees; invited lecturers support

General outreach

 
Second Edit-a-thon das Minas, a gender and feminism thematic edit-a-thon, both supported by the UG Wikimedia in Brazil

Context

This program will encompass activities around outreach not in other programs. Edit-a-thons, photo Walks, blog maintenance, partnerships etc. Although an affiliate organization (AO) is not the representative of the Wikimedia movement, it must be a true part of this movement, with long time and active members and channels to dialogue with this community at all times. A good and healthy relationship with the other members of the Wikimedia movement (remembering, of course, that all members of this user group are part of this community) is a condition not only desirable but crucial to the smooth running of the activities. Thus, in this APG we think of several lines of activities that seek not only to bring more editors and quality content to the projects, increasing in number and heterogeneity our community, but also allowing the creation and maintenance of channels of communication between the activities of the user group and the existing editor community. The Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil has successfully maintained a series of communication channels through which thousands of people have contact with the our activities planning and results. And we can tell it both for our own communication channels, such as our official website, or even through other websites and portals we support, such as ARedeEduca, one of the largest technology and education portals in Brazil, or through scientific dissemination blogs like the Traço de Ciência. Beyond our communication activities and despite our preference for non-competitive collaborative activities, our group recognizes that photo contests are an activity consolidated by the Wikimedia movement and, therefore, we plan to organize a photo contest called "Wiki Loves your Town", focusing on small and medium Brazilian cities (below 200 k inhabitants) that usually do not have much media on Commons. Assuming a contest with this cut, we do not expect such a high number of contributors, but we still think it a good topic to collect photos from several Brazilian municipalities that still have few or no relevant photographs.

Highlight

Again, as we are all long-time Wikimedians that have organically built an organization from within our community we have been able to develop relevant skills to understand challenges our community faces. A fundamental aspect we believe we must work on is being able to communicate successfully with our community, partners and potential partners, to develop stronger bonds and general network of interest. This is also important as we can proactively act to devise events to empower our community members; off-wiki events have the potential to foster our community bonding and the level of solidarity within our community.

Our UG has sustained the largest number of community events, such as edit-a-thons, and community-targeted communication, through blog posts and on-wiki mass messages, in the lusophone community. We believe an organization like ours may become a reference and rally point for the community, for instance providing guidance to resources to improve community work.

  • We plan to have specific events planned to deal with gender gap and generate more content coverage about feminism. At least one of the edit-a-thons planned for this period will be related to this theme. As well as outreach to groups connected to this issue.
  • The underrepresented of regions in Brazil will also be addressed in this program (as well as in the Community Support), having events in at least two regions of the country in these six months.
  • This program will support institutional partnerships with groups, governments and institutions outside of GLAM, such as the current talks with the government of Bahia, Maranhão and the cooperation with the project Mapas Culturais to use Commons to host media content for the users of the software (mainly photos of cultural institutions).
  • At least 2 photo-walks with monitor
  • At least 7 edit-a-thons
  • At least 5 activity bulletins
  • At least 3 reports on Wikimedia Newsletters
  • At least 30 blog posts

* 1 photo contest

Sample of images uploaded to the Commons illustrating the many activities we have carried out and/or supported over the years:

SMART objectives

Edit-a-thons

 
UG member Chico Venancio at an edit-a-thon at UEMA, São Luís, in April 2017
Our user group promoted most of the successful edit-a-thons in Brazil in the recent years. This kind of event is a low-cost, low-risk opportunity for brining new and experienced editors onto a specific activity, normally around a specific topic or area of interest.

We expect to promote at least 7 edit-a-thons. As we are requesting support for 7 edit-a-thons, and might come up with more requests, eventual unexpected edit-a-thon requests could eventually be supported via the micro-grant project, if edit-a-thon requests are successful.

So, from July to December, we expect to promote 7 edit-a-thons that will impact at least 45 content pages, have at least 70 participants and result in 7 blog posts in our blog:

  • 3 edit-a-thons in São Paulo, focusing on historical and cultural heritage (mentioned in the Museu Paulista GLAM initiative) and on geosciences (mentioned in the Museu de Geociências GLAM initiative);
  • 2 edit-a-thons in São Luís, focusing on architecture and cultural heritage;
  • 2 edit-a-thons in Salvador, focusing on free knowledge and gender.

Main focus: New content for Wikimedia projects, specifically Wikipedia

Measure of success: number of events, number of attendees, articles created and improved

Activities (for each edit-a-thon):

  • Edit-a-thon planning and execution;
  • Edit-a-thon attendees follow-up;
  • Edit-a-thon report.

Needs:

  • Dissemination: resources for outreach (posters, WMF pins);
  • Logistical: room rent;
  • Support: snacks for attendees.

Photo-walks

 
Resource developed by independent editor Rodrigo Argenton with support from UG members for educational photographing
A key aspect in our work has been the development of resources and activities for image production with a consistent perspective with the educational aspect of Wikimedia Commons --i.e., one project on museums in São Paulo and one project on monuments and sculptures in São Paulo, in 2017. Photo-walks are a low-cost, low-risk means of fostering good educational quality contributions to the Commons.

We expect to promote at least 2 photo-walks, with guidance from one experienced Wikimedia Commons contributor and one professional photographer. As this activity is planned as a walk, Commons contributor will talk to attendees during the walk on the projects; professional photographer will provide support for improving photography skills. As we are requesting support for 2 photo-walks, and might come up with more requests, eventual unexpected photo-walk requests could eventually be supported via the micro-grant project, if photo-walk requests are successful.

The two activities we are requesting fund for are a pilot, as we believe that in the medium range this kind of activity could occur more often. We expect at least 100 high quality pictures, with at least 30 promoted ones at any level.

So, from July to December, we expect to promote 2 photo-walks:

  • 2 photo-walks in São Paulo, focusing on historical and cultural heritage

Main focus: New content for Wikimedia projects, specifically Wikimedia Commons

Measure of success: number of events, number of attendees, uploads

Activities:

  • Photo-walk planning and execution;
  • Photo-walk upload;
  • Photo-walk attendees follow-up;
  • Photo-walk report.

Needs:

  • Dissemination: resources for outreach (posters, WMF pins);
  • Logistical: rally point for gathering and uploading;
  • Guidance: support for professional photographer;
  • Support: snacks for attendees.

Photo contest

In the preliminary review of this grant application, the grant program officer informed us we were not allowed to request support for a project coordinator; without this support we are unable to promote this event. We have still decided to let it visible on this request as it illustrates the kind of activity we would be leading when we are authorized to support a project coordinator.

In line with our UG current investment in promoting activities to improve content pertaining to the Brazilian reality onto the projects, we intend to promote a photo contest entitled Wiki Loves Your Town, so that people in small and mid-size cities and towns in Brazil (below 200,000 inhabitants) produce content to fill the specific gap around small and mid-size cities and towns in the projects. The main focus of the photo contest is, specifically for this grant, Wikimedia Commons; we expect to promote edit-a-thons pertaining to this initiative in 2018, so they are not listed as part of this grant request. Organic use of images on other Wikimedia projects besides the Commons might occur, and this is not accounted for as an expected metric for this grant request.

In order to increase interest in this photo contest, we will offer prizes for participants, especially considering the quality of images contributed to the contest. The quality will be assessed by UG members and editors who are experienced Wikimedia Commons contributors.

We expect at least 500 uploads and 150 newly registred users in the context of this photo contest.

A caveat that is worth mentioning is that normally images that are uploaded in this kind of contest are of low educational quality, thus not having the possibility of being used in the projects, and as same-topic contests occur every year are likely to be redundant contributions. Our goal is to go beyond this limitation and develop targeted photo contests, assessing previously gaps in the projects that can be filled through this kind of initiatives.

So, from July to December, we expect to promote 1 photo contest:

  • 1 photo contest, provisionally called Wiki Loves Your Town

Main focus: New content for Wikimedia projects, specifically Wikimedia Commons

Measure of success: number of uploads

Activities:

  • Photo contest planning and execution;
  • Picture assessment for prizes;
  • Photo contest report.

Needs:

  • Prizes: funding to provide a reward for best pictures;
  • Coordination: support for a three-month project coordinator for photo contest.

Organic communications

What we have called here organic communications refers to systematically providing accounts for the Brazilian and global community about what we have achieved in programs and activities we expect to run from July to December. This is a set of activities we have already been running normally and though we do not expect specific funding for them we believe it is important to stress our commitment to provide general access to learning processes and results. Organic communication outputs are of three sorts: activity bulletins (or mass messages) that are disseminated on Wikipedia in Portuguese every other month; reports on Wikimedia newsletters (i.e., education and GLAM newsletters) or the Wikimedia blog; and posts on our blog, which is the best available resource from the community available, though it receives no funding support.

So, from July to December, we expect to promote the following organic communication activities:

  • at least 5 activity bulletins
  • at least 3 reports on Wikimedia Newsletters
  • at least 30 blog posts

Main focus: Communicating learning processes and achievements of the UG

Measure of success: number of uploads

Activities:

  • Communication resource planning and execution.

Needs:No funding support is being requested for this activity.

Staff

This organization is requesting neither staff nor contractors.

Operating expenses

OBJECTIVES: to obtain specialized support whenever necessary in the tasks described above

Needs:

  • Funding for accountant, taxes and banking services
  • PR and design services (media outreach, poster design etc.)
  • General promotional material (pins, stickers etc.)
  • Server and domain costs

Budget and resource plan

Link to a detailed budget (that also includes a plan for raising the resources you need). For this, please see: Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil/Budget/2017

Midpoint report

This is a brief report on the grantee's progress during the midpoint reporting period: 1 July - 30 September 2017.

Program story

Please link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period.

Here is the text you may use to add a story or link!

Progress

Please add text or a link to a page with details on your program progress. This should including reporting against each of the SMART objectives from your proposal.

See Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil/Report/2017/Simple APG

Spending

Please report your organization's total spending during the reporting period, or link to a financial document showing your total spending.

Here is where your spending notes/explanations are.

Final report

This is the final report for your grant, describing your outcomes from the period 1 July - 31 December 2017.

Program story

Please link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period.

See Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil/Report/2017/Simple APG

Learning story

Please link to one learning story that shows how your organization documents lessons learned and adapts its programs accordingly.

See Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil/Report/2017/Simple APG

Results

Please add text or a link to a page with details on your program results. You should report on each of the objectives you included in your Simple APG application.

See Wikimedia Community User Group Brasil/Report/2017/Simple APG

*

*

Spending

Please link to a detailed financial report for your spending during the grant period. This should be in the same format as your detailed budget from your Simple APG application.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H9uI8OS9bH9V2dVi_tyAvBA-bgFZEAl-hVkABKjoiwQ/edit#gid=0

Please include the total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period.

US$ 12,923