Grants talk:Project/WM BE/Public facing activities 2017/Final

Update on remaining funds

Hello Romaine and Geertivp, Just noting here that WMF confirms receipt of 1,449.50 EUR, your reported unused funds. Thank you! JTud (WMF), Grants Administrator (talk) 18:32, 6 December 2018 (UTC)

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Hello Romaine and Geertivp. Thank you and all of WMBE's board and volunteers for their efforts to organize such a diverse and large number of activities in 2017. The sheer number of events is very impressive! In looking back at your original goals for the grant it seems that overall you have accomplished what you set out to do -- grow a stable organization, enable volunteers to organize projects, develop long-term relationships with partner organizations, and increase content about Belgium on the Wikimedia projects. Below are some comments and questions that came up as we read the report:

1. Writing weeks sound like a really effective way to increase content about Belgium on Wikipedia and while I haven't read your program plans/reports from 2018, I hope this has continued to be a good activity for you to engage in.
2. Do you have an update on the large image donation you were working on?
3. It's great that so many volunteers (39) were able to attend conferences over the project period. What would you say are the main benefits of attending these conferences -- is it networking, knowledge sharing, exposure to new ideas or trainings, partnership development, etc.? We're always interested to hear stories from conferences to understand the value it holds for participants.
4. Congratulations on supporting the passage of Freedom of Panorama. The photos from the contest are beautiful and make me want to visit Durbuy someday in the future :)
5. The fact that you organized so many activities shows that there are more volunteers taking an active part in the chapter's activities. While we understand building this volunteer base is a slow process and not without challenges, it seems like you are really making progress.
6. We hope that being in the APG program has meant that you have had more of your translation needs met.
7. We understand that GLAM partnerships take a very large investment of time and energy and that the pay-off can often be slow. Developing relationships takes time. Are there specific partners that you are especially excited about and that have committed to a more longer-term engagement?

Thank you again for all your work. Transitioning the chapter to stable existence is a huge accomplishment and on top of that you were able to organize a lot of activities that resulted in good impact. We appreciate your efforts. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 18:20, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

Hi Alex Wang (WMF),

1. Yes, also in 2018 this is part of the annual plan. Coming Monday starts the next double writing week about the German-speaking Community of Belgium. (project page) To stay informed about future writing weeks, I have created a delivery list for it at: Global message delivery/Targets/WritingWeek.
2. There have been various image donations. Sadly the biggest one also got delayed in 2018. I recently spoke with a staff member of the institution, he indicated that they are overworked. I will try in 2019 again.
3. Over the years I have seen the best examples of projects in other countries. How to find them? The best way of getting a sense of what ideas there are elsewhere we can copy are the conferences, like for example the Poster and Art Reception in the Friday evening of Wikimania in Cape Town. With a colleague board member I went along the various boards to see which ones we may be able to adopt ourselves locally and discussed them. Another thing that I strongly value is the feeling not being alone striving for the ideals of free knowledge, but but that there are everywhere around the world people that do this. This can easily be forgotten when people work only locally and do not see what others do and happens elsewhere in the world. Over the years I have been to various conferences which gave me a great deal of insight and practical experience in doing things. When I see new people joining Wikimedia Belgium, they do not have that experience and there is not an easy way to transfer the knowledge and feeling I have. By having them go to Wikimania, they can experience it themselves. - I must say, the 39 volunteers only very limited went to Wikimania and other big conferences, because you did not allow us to spend budget on. The international conferences were paid from other sources, including mostly other chapters. The most participation of these 39 volunteers was in local seminars and events. These events are mainly used for networking and partnership development. We need to be seen at these events as partners expect us there and to keep the idea of collaboration alive. I think networking is an important thing for a chapter to do, as this enlarges the chance on collaborations and on being taken into consideration. With networking I mean structural networking, not just "walking around" at events but approaching it in a strategic way and making building a network as a standard task at any activity (including creating list of people who want to stay informed). Networking and being present, together with working with partners, has led to the result that the Flanders Government has written a vision report in what collaborating with Wikimedia is described as important way to reach out to the public, meaning that it is coming policy for institutions to open up their knowledge.
4. It is an important limitation that has been lifted in our country. It is natural for everyone to share photos of buildings online, now they do not have to think any more about when the architect died. Also in the past, the missing FoP created a lot of insecurity about what can be uploaded and what not, resulting in that people do not even take the chance to upload images. Luckily that has been lifted.
5. There are multiple levels present in this subject. Connecting with volunteers to grow a base of people who can do something is one. The second is to get people that take initiatives and do not wait for the other to come with projects of ideas. This whole subject seems very wide present in the movement globally.
6. No it did not. In general the APG program resulted in improvements, but the translation issues are still there for a part as this was not funded. Even while we limit it as much as possible, translations seem to be the least favourite thing to do in the community, while we are forced to have it in a country with to main languages and three language areas. Also it requires coordination, something we have limited available.
7. In general any partnership is for a longer term, because of the situation in many institutions that it takes a lot of time and bureaucracy before it starts and grows. We are particularly happen to work with one organisation that has a larger network and we often work together with for various years already.

I would not have described out chapter as being unstable in 2016, as it was practically only one person who caused issues we had to deal with and costed us a lot of time. We are happy that these days are far behind us and moving forward in growth and great projects. Thank you for your support in the past years! Romaine (talk) 08:04, 9 December 2018 (UTC)