Wiki Loves Africa 2016/Participating country event guidelines


Guidelines to submitting a Country Engagement Plan for Wiki Loves Africa 2016 edit

The following are suggestions to consider before submitting a Country Engagement Plan from teams across Africa to participate in the Wiki Loves Africa 2016 competition.

  • Timeline for contest : 1st of December 2016 - 31st of January 2017
  • Theme for 2016: Music and Dance
  • Deadline for submitting your country's engagement plan: 15th of September.
  • To submit your country team's proposal: Write it up on meta and add a link to this section.
  • Countries supported : 10 african countries for a budget around 800 to 1000 USD each (see details below). Selected countries announced at latest September 30th.

Wiki Loves Africa 2016 is very interested in having new groups and countries on board. Here are some guidelines to being involved as a country team:

  1. a cohesive plan of events from December 2016 to January 2017 (and perhaps slightly beyond);
  2. an event and communications budget that should be between 800 USD to 1000 USD for each country (stronger programs will be expected to have higher budgets requests); As an exception, budgets of up to 1200 USD could be considered, but it is expected that the planned program should include post-contest integration events (edit-a-thons, writing contests etc.);
  3. a list of the core team members (including email addresses) along with the tasks they will manage;
  4. a list of possible partners and targets for local support and funding (in-kind or monetary);
  5. a list of local GLAM or content partners who are already involved in the subject of the theme and ready to be involved; and
  6. an idea of how to encourage quality submissions, e.g. an alliance with local photography groups, etc..
  • For events, please consider the following options:
  1. a press launch, if you feel it is necessary;
  2. an event aimed at introducing Wikimedia projects to a new audience that could potentially contribute and add to the user group team - a hub, interest group, school/ university, etc.;
  3. an event in a different part of the country - if it can be justified by capturing a new audience or specific group relevant to the theme;
  4. a demonstration by a local photography group aimed at encouraging quality photographs before a wikitakes or photo hunt event;
  5. a photo hunt party;
  6. a collaboration with local artists, or musical event, or heritage institution;
  7. a post-competition (or late in the competition) edit-a-thon or cat-e-thon to improve the usage of the images that have been submitted, and improve articles that the images could be related to.

Categories for the budget submission edit

All expenses proposed in the budget should belong to one of those categories. If you are ensure where an expense belongs, please ask. If you think a category is missing, ask for help.

  • En français
    • Communication - Marketing (flyers, tee-shirts, roll-up banner, guide, stickers…)
    • Achats publicité (publicité Facebook, encart pub, temps radio etc.)
    • Papèterie hors communication marketing (papier, encre…)
    • Internet et Tel
    • Réception (location, frais de repas, matériels, nourriture et boissons)
    • Déplacement (train, bus, voiture et essence…)
    • Frais de mission
    • Cadeaux (aux gagnants)
    • Prix (cadeaux) en espèces
  • In English
    • Communication - Marketing (advertisement, flyers, tee-shirts etc.)
    • Marketing Campaign
    • Stationary apart from marketing
    • Internet and phone expenses
    • Events (food, drinks, rent, air-conditioning, projector)
    • Travel (train, bus, car, fuel)
    • Salaries and stipends
    • Gifts (books, amazon vouchers, prints etc.)
    • Gifts in cash

Expectations edit

Please note: In the 2014 and 2015 contest there were two points or criticisms that were noted:

1) The general quality of pictures could be (should be) improved
2) The usage of the images on Wikipedia pages stayed low (=compared to other contests) at 6%

Quoting Alex Wang (WMF)

We support the proposal to fund 10 national teams. (...) We understand having a local prize, post-contest event to incorporate photos and more travel are possibly all good uses of resources. We are able to support up to $1,000 per team, depending on the quality of their proposal and use of funds in previous years (if applicable). Alternatively, you can focus on providing more resources to fewer countries to better understand how the addition of local prizes, more travel, and post-contest events impact participation, content, and community building.
While we understand article writing is not a core focus of the project, photo usage is an important measure of the encyclopaedic value and quality of photos. Photo use was relatively low last year. We encourage teams to use additional funding to hold post-contest events focused on integrating new content.
With up to $1,000 per country, we would like to see local teams prioritise the events or materials they produce. It may not be that each local team has increased travel, prizes, and events. We look forward to doing a retrospective after this year and thinking more about how to increase coverage about these topics so the content submitted during WLA can be used more on wiki and participants continue to be engaged.

Related links edit

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