Grants:TPS/NickK/Wikimania/2018/Report

Welcome back from Wikimania 2018!

Participant

NickK

Ukrainian Wikipedia

Outcome

Option 1: Shared Experience: What is one way you shared something from your experience with your community (either locally or globally), after the event?

I documented my learnings from Wikimania with specific applications for the Ukrainian community at Wikimedia Ukraine wiki: wmua:Вікіманія 2018 (page jointly prepared with other Ukrainian Wikimedians). Some things I have shared already attracted interest of other community members (e.g. one Wikimedian got interested in experience of working with senior citizens I learned at Wikimania).

Like last year, too many things happened at Wikimania, and I will not be able to name all of them without missing something. Thus, as last year, I will stick to top-3 format.

Learning Days discussions bring a lot of fun!

The three most useful things I learned at Wikimania were:

1. Community Capacity Map. This new project sounds like what we really need for CEE, and we are already working on integrating it to Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2018. This is equally important for my local community (Ukrainian) and for my regional community (CEE) to make sure we are identified as a good partner on things we are good at and we can share and that we are also identified as willing to learn things we want to develop and we are not good at yet.
2. Diversity and Equity. As these notions are key to Wikimedia 2030 strategy, it was very useful to learn about what they mean and how we can use them in our context. For me it was one of the most valuable outcomes of the Learning Days. In particular it was important to learn how we can measure different dimensions of diversity and how we can include equity in our programme design.
3. Wikipedia Cultural Diversity Observatory. This is the most useful outcome from the poster session for me. I followed this project as a member of Project Grants committee, and now it was a pleasure to see it live. In my view, this is a dimension of diversity that we do not pay enough attention to: that while Wikipedias are universal encyclopaedias, we still have a very uneven coverage of some topics. This would be a useful tool both locally for Ukrainian thematic weeks and regionally for CEE Spring or similar.

Making presentation about Demystifying Grants

The three most useful things I shared at Wikimania were:

1. 2018-20 Strategy working groups. I was a part of the team in charge of setting composition of these working groups with a final stage of selection during Wikimania. It was an interesting and a very impactful task, as we had to make sure that our working groups represent all dimensions of Wikimedia movement and that members of these groups will be able to deliver specific recommendations in their areas. It was a long discussion but we got a result that we can really be proud of.
2. Demystifying Grants presentation together with Woubzena Jifar during Learning Days. It was an opportunity to share my experience of both applying for WMF grants and reviewing grants proposals and help others be better at grantmaking. It was my first presentation together with a WMF staff member, and I found that presenting two different points of view on the same issue was useful for the audience.
3. Write an article for Wikipedia Birthday poster during the poster reception. Wikimedia Ukraine is running a project encouraging people to write an article for Wikipedia Birthday (called Wikimarathon or Wikiflashmob). I wanted to present this project as it is very scalable and can be both a small low-cost project or a large nationwide project and it made a real impact. There were several dozen people who were interested, and I would be glad if some of them will reproduce it in their wiki.

Connections

Group photo of CEE Wikimedians at Wikimania

As in previous years, I met a lot of people (clearly over a hundred, and probably even more). I know some of them for several years, having met them at various events, I have worked on-wiki with others and met them in real life for the first time, and I have met some new people I never worked with before. I will also try to make a top-3, although it is hard:

1. WMF staff. In my different roles from checkuser to chapter board I have connected with several WMF staff members to discuss ongoing relevant projects. For example, I discussed anti-harassment tools with Trevor and Sydney and showed them how we currently work on this in Ukrainian Wikipedia; I briefly discussed language engieering with Amir and C. Scott, particularly regarding Crimean Tatar Wikipedia which now has a brand new alphabet switch; I also discussed some challenges with Trust & Safety and Legal teams, particularly regarding some long-time abusers in Ukrainian Wikipedia. Discussing these issues in person allowed longer, faster and more productive discussions than could be done online.
2. Previous and prospective grantees. Having worked on the Project Grants committee for two years, it was a pleasure to have less formal discussions with people who applied for grants or who want to do so. This included successful grantees like Marc Miquel from Catalonia whose Wikipedia Cultural Diversity Observatory is a success I really want to learn about. This included grantees who were not that satisfied like Pavanaja from India with whom we discussed how to make his proposal on developing Tulu Wikipedia better and increase his chances to get funding next time. This included also prospective grantees like two Javanese Wikipedians who were interested on how they can start outreach activities for their small community or several African communities (notably from Tanzania and Uganda) who just started developing their user groups. These discussions are really inspiring as it helped me see how our grants make a real impact.
3. Central and Eastern European (CEE) Wikimedians. Of course I have already met more than a half of them before, but still it was very important to meet them in Cape Town. As a member of Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2018 team I had my last opportunity to meet a significant part of the CEE community in the same room and discuss with them on how the meeting will be organised, what they should do and what they should expect. I am very pleased that this discussion was very productive as we see a high interest to this event in the region this year.

Anything else

My slides are linked above: Demystifying Grants presentation and Write an article for Wikipedia Birthday poster.

I would also like to thank organisers for letting us have a free day before Wikimania, this was really useful to do some sightseeing and have a good rest from a long flight before the conference.

Thank you for the scholarship!