Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Understanding our past:using Wikipedia as a tool to support local history in Tāmaki Makaurau

Support from members of the Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand editing community

Support I strongly support this funding application. This application fits within the strategic goals of Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand in that it will increase the number of trained editors in the Auckland region and also build on the usefulness of Wikipedia for schools in the Auckland region looking for resources to assist with teaching the new History curriculum. James Taylor and Wikipedian in Residence Marty Blayney have been in close contact with the committee of Wikimedia Aotearoa New Zealand and the wider community of editors in New Zealand to develop this application. The work they are doing in developing templates and workflows, improving content, providing support for a regular Auckland meetup of editors, as well as this funding proposal to build on previous work in addition to training 4 new editors as part of this application should be supported by the funding committee. Einebillion (talk) 01:09, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Support I too support this funding application for the reasons expressed above by Einebillion. I have been particularly impressed with the Wikipedian in Residence, Marty Blayney's work in developing templates and workflows to improve English Wikipedia for use by schools in the Auckland region who will be looking to teach the new History curriculum. This work is and will continue to guide editors around the New Zealand keen to emulate Blayney's efforts. This funding proposal is also particularly welcome as if granted it will involve training 4 new editors in the Auckland region. -Ambrosia10 (talk) 03:02, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

Support Wikimedia Aotearoa is one of the most productive groups. WMF should be ramping up funding in accordance with the strategic plan. --Slowking4 (talk) 20:51, 4 October 2022 (UTC)

Support this work. Stuartyeates (talk) 21:10, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

Support I have observed and connected to some of their past work and have been very impressed. In addition the team is extremely well set up to make lasting and impactful additions to New Zealanders access to relevant local knowledge and history and this is a step in this. The timing of this project and focus around the very recent change to the curriculum makes it more relevant and will support educational people (teachers and staff in schools) and places (schools, tertiary, other related institutions and organisations such as branch libraries). Pakoire (talk) 09:31, 11 October 2022 (UTC)

Support This is a timely application by a very well-respected organisation. Teachers will be looking for reliable resources for the compulsory Aotearoa New Zealand Histories Curriculum, which rolls out across high schools in 2023.Noracrentiss (talk) 07:04, 15 October 2022 (UTC)

Support strongly. This project has the potential to be a major asset for Aotearoa as it has wider applications beyond the immediate need of the secondary school history curriculum. Gaining traction on this project across the many localities and suburbs that make up Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland) is an important first step to improving Wikipedia coverage across the whole country. I am always keen to support iniatives that give tools to people to develop critical thinking and this project is certainly one of those. Beeswaxcandle (talk) 08:30, 16 October 2022 (UTC)

Support for the reasons outlined by User:Einebillion. Very impressed by what that team has already done, and I look forward to what they could achieve when funded. Schwede66 (talk) 23:11, 16 October 2022 (UTC)

Follow-up Questions from ESEAP Funds Committee

Dear Auckland War Memorial Museum,

Thank you for providing your written responses to additional questions from the ESEAP Funds Committee. We are also sharing the PDF document for visibility.

Regards, Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 04:22, 5 December 2022 (UTC)

General Support Fund proposal approved in the amount of NZD 52,160

Congratulations! Your grant is approved in the amount of NZD 52,160 with a grant term starting 1 January 2023 and ending 31 December 2023. If you require a time extension to the above duration, you can get in touch with your programme officer during the implementation phase.

Your application has been reviewed favourably by the ESEAP Funds Committee

With this grant, we hope to support your efforts in bridging content gaps on wikipedia, welcoming more diverse contributors into the movement and establishing a stronger presence in Auckland, New Zealand.

We’ve also included further observations and recommendations on the application from the review process. For more details, refer to the summary table below.

Next steps

• Let’s continue having regular conversations over the course of your grant implementation. Do set up a regular schedule to connect with your ESEAP Programme Officer based on your needs.
• The reporting requirements for the grant can be found here and templates are available here. Timelines for reporting can be found in your grant agreement or on Fluxx. All reports are to be completed and submitted via Fluxx.

Once again, Congratulations!

We thank you for your participation in the grant application process and hope to continue to journey with you as you embark on a new year of project implementation.

Categories from Proposal Review Framework	General Observations about Application	Suggestions and Recommendations from ESEAP Funds Committee and Programme Officer
General Clarity (e.g. vision, change, strategy, learnings)	(TB) The bringing in of many paid editors is a significant inclusion and one that has caused tension on en.wiki in the past. The need to get ahead of these issues should be clearly understood throughout this process. (NF) This applicant will involve new people to join Wikimedia Movement. They are aware what kind of topic that lack in their community and they decided to fill the gap.	While the ESEAP Funds Committee has no objections to the application, the Committee would like to highlight that hiring student interns to learn editing and contribute to Wiki projects is not a common practice. The Committee recommends working closely with Aotearoa User Group New Zealand to a) better understand the culture and practices of the Wikimedia community and manage any feedback online about the project and b) to have a clear process of recruiting a diverse range of students particularly more Maori, Pasifika to engage with Wikipedia in your project.
Impact potential and strategic alignment(e.g. strategy, activities alignment with knowledge equity, movement strategy, welcoming underrepresented communities, community support)	(EW) The proposed proposal is indeed geared towards bringing new participants to the local Wikimedia community and specifically asking for participation from participants, but lacks clarity on how to retain them after the program ends. (TL): I hope to have a plan to keep the students after the summer break.	From your earlier written responses, the ESEAP Funds Committee understands that summer students will be encouraged to join the User Group, and depending on their interests, you will likely introduce summer students to current members of the user group if they share passions. It would be useful to also track retention and share how you are engaging students post internship in your learning report.
Organisational capacity and budget(e.g. budget, learnings, strategies for engagement)	N/A	N/A
Learning and evaluation(e.g. learnings, metrics)	(EW): Given that the Wikimedia movement does not support paid editing in principle, if it still decides to grant scholarships to students, the evaluation of its distribution and effectiveness should be based on more reasonable evaluation indicators, such as giving them the obligation to organise activities for museums as evaluation indicators; instead of As at present, it is not reasonable to give them scholarships in the expectation of adding (improving) Wikipedia articles and adding pictures as indicators of student participation.	From your earlier written responses, the ESEAP Funds Committee understands that you will have some quantitative measures for the students, which could be around organising events and creating or significantly enhancing content pages. A requirement of the Summer Studentship programme is also a presentation about their work and a short essay around their learnings, and you would be happy to share this via different platforms, such as the blogs. It would be useful to also track these in your learning report as well
Others	N/A	N/A
Categories from Proposal Review Framework	General Observations about Application	Suggestions and Recommendations from ESEAP Funds Committee and Programme Officer

JChen (WMF) (talk) 09:31, 7 December 2022 (UTC)

Grant Extension Request Approved

Dear Auckland War Memorial Museum,

Thank you for reaching out via email. Your request for an extension to the project duration has been approved. The new grant end date is 29 February 2024 and your final report is due on Fluxx on 30 March 2024. Thank you.

Regards, Jacqueline JChen (WMF) (talk) 04:22, 14 February 2024 (UTC)