Application or grant stage: grant in progress

Applicant or grantee: Wikimedia New York City

Amount requested: $99,987 ($99,987)

Amount granted: $80,000 ($80,000)

Funding period: 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018

Application created: 1 June 2017

Recommended application date: 1 June 2017

Midpoint report due: 15 January 2018

Final report due: 30 July 2018

Application edit

Background edit

Link to these documents, for the upcoming funding period, only if you have them.

Link to your organization's staffing plan, for the upcoming funding period. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City/Staffing_plan/2017-2018
Link to your annual plan, for the upcoming funding period. TBA
Link to your strategic plan, which includes the upcoming funding period. TBA

Please add your grants metrics to this sheet. Note that requirements for shared metrics have changed for grants starting 1 January 2017 or later. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_qZxJ7B9U_Eo6pMG55ox-zCHppM9-lubQm0jKI2tn6g/edit#gid=1303720227

Programs edit

Please describe any changes to your programs for the upcoming funding period, including the addition of new programs or any programs you are no longer doing. Include your rationale for any major changes to your programs here.

A major addition to our programing this year is the fiscal sponsorship of Wikipedia Asian Month, with a request for $6,000. This is a month long online editathon that is aimed at promoting Asian content in Wikipedia. The first edition of Wikipedia Asian Month was held in November 2015, so this is the third iteration. Each of the participating communities runs a local Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on their own language Wikipedias, which promotes the creation or improvement of the Wikipedia content about Asia except their own country. The participating community is not limited to Asia. The person most responsible for the project is AddisWang, and this program addition is at his request.

Please use the templates provided to add information about each program you are planning for the upcoming funding period.

Program 1: Meetups

The events and activities in the WM NYC Meetups Program will engage existing contributors and new contributors in building community and in content creation and donation, with the aim of increasing and improving quality content on the Wikimedia projects, through meetups, edit-a-thons, education programs, community tech hackathons, and partnerships with cultural and scientific organizations.

Salons and Wikipedia Day

36 new contributors continue to make 5+ edits per month, 12 months after participating in an event, and 36 existing contributors report increased engagement as a result of their attendance at meetups and edit-a-thons or their participation in education and GLAM activities.

This will be done by 45 Wikipedia meetups of any sort in 2017-18 (15 for salons and similar, 15 for editathons and similar, and 15 for presentations with external partners), each of which will have at least 10 participants of any kind or 5 new users. Activities at meetups can be live Wikimedia contributions or training. All meetups will be facilitated by an experienced chapter member WM NYC is looking to increase participation among diverse, under-represented populations. In addition to supporting initiatives to address the gender gap, WM NYC is looking to increase participation among groups in the New York City area, like members of African diaspora communities, and specific cultural campaigns like WikiArte, Wiki Loves Pride, etc.

Wikipedia Day is a local (greater New York City) one day unconference and birthday celebration for Wikipedia, in line with the global Wikipedia Day (on meta) and Wikipedia Day (on EN-WP). It is a chance to introduce Wikipedia to those interested enough to participate in the event. Wikipedia Day 17 (January 2018) will be a modified unconference, with dedicated plenary sessions (organized on our meetup page), lightning talks to the whole assembly, and open space sessions. The Lightning Talks and Open Space will be determined during the event itself. The cost is estimated to be about $170 for the Wikipedia birthday cake, and up to $3,430 for food and beverages. The venue cost will be an inkind donation. Wikipedia Day 2017 celebrated on January 15, 2017, had about 230 participants, 100 first timers, and about 40 from outside NYC. In total, more than twice our estimate. Our Wikipedia Day unconference is the largest annual event targeted to the Wikimedia community in New York City.

Cultural partnerships

Wikimedia NYC will continue to collaborate with the many local and international organizations that call New York state its home. Specifically, Wikimedia NYC plans to collaborate with the following organizations-

University and College partnerships

Educational programs via support for WikiEdu efforts will include 5 schools will participate in Wikipedia Educational Programs with workshops or classroom assignments, 5 course pages will be created documenting student and class participation, 50 students will join as new users, 50 articles will be edited by participants in the education program.

CUNY (LaGuardia Community College, Baruch College, The Graduate Center, New York City College of Technology, Hunter College, Queens College)
La Guardia and Wagner Archives (at LaGuardia Community College)
Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY
Barnard College
School of Visual Arts
Rockefeller University
Fordham University
New York University
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Columbia University

Technology

General:

We will support 10 events a year of community tech hackathons and other initiatives, working with local editors, developers and universities and the Wikimedia Foundation technical collaboration team, channeling developing talent. We aim to develop new and improved tools and workflows for community-related projects, especially those that benefit underserved areas.

Video documentation:

We have an initiative to produce high-quality video of our events, and interviews/storytelling with our program participants. The goal of this is to show the human face of local wiki collaboration, with people from diverse communities and areas of experience, and encourage those interested in starting up in other regions. Wiki NYC will do this for 3 events in 2017-18.

Example event - Art+Feminism 2017 - Commons:Category:Art and Feminism March 2017 at MoMA oral history, stories from 25 participants

Contributor to a global movement

We will support five international programs related to these program activities through hosting either main node or satellite events. Support entails creating event pages that often serve as the main event page for global nodes, outreach, networking, resource sharing. There is a particular budget for Wikipedia Asian Month. International events include:

Program 2: Afrocrowd

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.

Afrocrowd exceeded goals in 2016-1017 and after 2 years of focusing on organizing monthly editathons has gained recognition and virality in the target community in the United States. It is now fashionable for cultural actors in the target community in NYC and beyond to add an editathon to conferences or programming. In 2017-2018, Afrocrowd aims to maintain its United States program while capacity building in the United Kingdom and collaborating with African user groups on a project documenting monuments to the transatlantic slave trade in Africa, the Americas and the UK. Afrocrowd also aims to begin identifying and surveying Wikipedians and Wikipedian communities or organization in the Caribbean, a region to which both its founder and its Program Manager have natural ties.

By June 2018:

Goal: Maintain existing community in the United States and support factors of growth

Continue to work on integration and cross-fertilization of existing Afrocrowd community to the broader movement
- 4-5 Afrocrowders attend Wikimania 2017, especially Linda Foster, one of our most prolific members
4-5 Articles in blogs, local or national press (one under way in Barnard Magazine)
Hold an editathon or translathon per trimester
Generate a monthly newsletter of US and UK editathons and Wikipedia events of interest to the target group
Continued maintenance of mailing list and launch and maintenance of a cross-continental Afrocrowd google group
Support and encourage Wikipedia-related efforts by members of the community
- at least one trainee editor organizes editathon independently
- Develop toolkit and Training video for those in target group who want to hold editathons independently
Continue fostering awareness of Afrocrowd and of our availability as a resource nationally and globally through near daily engagement on social media
- Measure: Over 50 new people in target group follow us on Social Media

Overall on-wiki measures:
- About 100 articles or photos uploaded for the year (including some in other languages spoken in the African diaspora)
- Over 100 people attend editathons
- Over 100 people hear presentations at conferences or when we are invited to present
- Over 100 people edit Wikipedia with us

Goal: Support establishment of an Afrocrowd community in the UK

Monthly meeting and ongoing email contact with Kelly Foster, experienced London-based Wikipedian and Afrocrowd organizer in the UK
Attendance, in-person meeting and joint presentation with Kelly at Wikimania 2017 in Montreal
Collaborate on adaptation of US model to UK
Serve as an ongoing resource to Kelly and offer support for navigation of the broader Wikimedia bureaucracy
Explore and research expansion to other European metropolises with large afrodescendant community such as Paris
Collaborate with Kelly on the creation of an Afrocrowd user group

Goal: Establish a cross-continental program for documenting monuments to the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Explore logistics for collaboration between Afrocrowd (UK and US) and two user groups in Africa
Research US Monuments to transatlantic slave trade and availability on Wikimedia Commons
Depending on findings, add 10-15 photos of non-documented monuments to WkiCommons, possibly culminating in event or contest

Goal: Research Wikipedians in the Caribbean

Create a list of Wikipedians in the Caribbean and open channels of communication
Explore mechanisms to help foster networking of Wikipedians in the region

Known Calendar Items

2017

June: Detroit, Michigan Allied Media Conference / AfroCROWD RADLam Oral history capture and Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
July: BLERD Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
August: Wikicon North America Attendance and Wikimania Conference Presentation
October: AfroCROWD Tutorial Video production
December: Kwanzaa Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at African Burial Grounds 12/27

2018

January: Wikipedia Day 1/16
February: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Annual Edit-a-thon
March: Collaboration with Art + Feminism

Staff and contractors edit

Please describe any changes to your staffing plan for the upcoming funding period. These should include increases in staff or contractor hours, new staff positions, or staff positions you are removing. Include your rationale for any staffing changes here.

The Afrocrowd Project Manager position will expand from 0.4 FTE to 0.5 FTE, and 35% of their time will be dedicated to a role as Internal communications manager for the chapter.

For each new staff or contractor position, please use the template provided to add information about each new staff or contractor you are planning for the upcoming funding period (or to describe significant increases in hours or changes in job descriptions for existing staff). You are not required to provide this information for existing staff where no changes are required.

Wikipedia Asian Month is new to WM-NYC this year, and the proposed budget is here:Wikipedia Asian Month/2017 Budget with the position descriptions here:Wikipedia Asian Month/Position Description. These are not considered employee or contractor staff positions, rather international community members being offered a subsidy/honorarium. No other changes.

Budget and resource plan edit

Link to a detailed budget for the upcoming funding period. This budget should include all of your organizations expenses. Please specify which expenses will be covered from your APG.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FDmIgwIQQpLn60_eEkUxBHiYqkpl6JBxdk9KZ7PbGXc/edit#gid=1918491000

Midpoint report edit

This is a brief report on the grantee's progress during the midpoint reporting period: 1 July - 31 December.

Program story edit

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

Wikimedia NYC aims to connect the peoples and institutions of the New York Metropolitan area with Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and the larger free culture movement. This year is particularly significant for the Chapter as it marks the ten year anniversary of the chapter and its first edit-a-thon, arguably the first edit-a-thon anywhere.

Since it was established, the Wikimedia NYC chapter has aimed to:

partner with libraries, museums, and educational institutions that share its work in providing access to knowledge.
to increase the representation of marginalized peoples in the content of Wikipedia and in its community of editors
to support the larger free culture movement through Wikimedia projects

The Chapter demonstrates these commitments at our monthly WikiWednesday Salon and Skillshare, our regular edit-a-thons, and our partnerships with higher education and GLAM institutions. Of the 26 events held between July 1st and December 31st, we wish to highlight three that are representative of our local and global activities.

Wikipedia Asian Month

The Wikipedia Asian Month is an international initiative to add new and improved Wikipedia articles on Asia and Asian cultural topics. The primary organizers at 1 for the whole project report 7,458 articles submitted for Wikipedia Asian Month 2017 with 668 participants internationally. Wikimedia NYC is proud to be the fiscal sponsor of this international project, which aligns with its commitment to the people of the New York Metropolitan Area, which includes the second highest concentration of Asians in the USA at over 1.8 million.

Wikimedia NYC supported this international initiative with a local Wikipedia Asian Month Edit-a-thon at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on November 19, 2017. Attendees contributed to both Wikipedia and Wikidata, and the Chapter used this opportunity to record a series of videos which can be used to further promote this work specifically and Wikipedia more broadly.

The Met said that the "...initiative provides potential to seed new articles about Asian artworks, artwork types, and art traditions. These can be illustrated with thousands of its recently-released images of public domain artworks available for Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons from the museum’s collection spanning 5,000 years of art. The event is an opportunity for Wikimedia communities to engage The Met's diverse Asian collections onsite and remotely."

Propaganda kimono
Rural art in Central India
Met supports wiki editing
Chinese tombs
event report
came from other wiki event

World AIDS Day Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Wikimedia NYC supports events of all sizes, and, in doing so, establishes relationships with new partners and projects which then grow into larger initiatives. In November, the Chapter held a World AIDS Day edit-a-thon at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center located in the West Village. Attendance was modest at 7 editors, but the event marks its an important step in establishing more regular programming about LGBT+ issues in addition to the annual Wiki Loves Pride edit-a-thon. It also served as a model during initial outreach conversations with New York Public Radio, which has expressed interest in co-hosting an edit-a-thon at SXSW with its podcast Nancy, promoted as “stories and conversations about the queer experience today.” Wikimedia NYC is well positioned to serve as a leader in LGBT+ initiatives.

Board Retreat and Strategic Planning Process

As the Wikimedia NYC Board supports the ongoing activities of the Chapter, it is planning for its future as well. In July of this year, it launched a strategic planning process at a day-long retreat held at the Ace Hotel. The meeting was open to board members, partners at AfroCrowd and invited guests. It was facilitated by Chuck Bell, a Programs Director for Consumers Union with experience assisting nonprofit organizations with their governance.

This meeting was the first time the Board met to discuss its vision and goals at length. In an effort to include a broader representation of the chapter membership in this process, a series of committees were established to coordinate various organizational aspects of the Chapter and to invite direct responses to a strategic plan. As part of an iterative process, the board will invite comments in February and March and approve a final draft in May.

WMNYC Board Members
Brainstorming
Objectives and strategy
Action Commitments blackboard notes
Facilitating while brainstorming mission and strategic plan
Organizing post it notes while brainstorming
Participants

Progress edit

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 form your proposal.