Wikimedia chapters/Reports/Wikimedia Oesterreich/March2014

Community Support

GLAM Meeting in Bremen

GLAM meeting in Bremen (Germany)

The third GLAM Meeting of the German speaking WM communities (GLAM Wiki) took place on 29 and 30 March 2014 in Bremen (Germany). Austria was represented by the volunteer Heinz Egger and Eveline Wandl-Vogt of the ÖAW (Austrian Academy of Sciences). They presented a new cooperation between WMAT and ÖAW. Connections to other WM projects, for instance Wikidata, were established.

WMAT would be happy to host one of the next GLAM Wiki Meetings in Vienna (Austria). The Austrian Academy of Sciences offered to provide the venue.

Wiki-Dialog

Wiki-Dialog is a collaborative project initiated and supported by Wikimedia Österreich, Wikimedia Deutschland and Wikipedia CH. It focusses on the German-language Wikipedia community and consists of a series of online seminars/workshops about topics concerning Wikipedians such as culture of welcome, conflict management and distortion of knowledge. After intense preparation proceedings and meetings in February and March 2014 - also involving expert Prof. Ilona Buchem (Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin) as a cooperation partner - the project was presented to the Wikipedia community on March 25th: de:Wikipedia:Wikimedia/Wiki-Dialog.

New Community Manager

After a thorough assessment of candidates Raimund Liebert succeeded Thomas Planinger as a new Community Manager. Thomas had established and maintained many programs and projects together with contributors to the WM projects and members of WMAT during 2013. Since March 1, 2014 Raimund resumed his work, proceeding with the preparations for Wiki-Dialog (see above) as his first task. He conducted a lot of conversations with active volunteers about their needs and ideas. At some meetings most of the active members of the communities got an impression and information about the support, WMAT can provide them.

Free Content Generation

Wiki Loves Earth

In March we continued our preparations for the international photo competition Wiki Loves Earth:

setting up a website as a landing page for the upload campaign in WM Commons
designing information material (folder)
mailings to potential partners asking for support (environmental associations)
putting together a jury
setting up a facebook page
gathering data on natural preserves and landmarks in Austria
accomplish lists of natural landmarks and preserves in the German speaking Wikipedia
adding information about the WLE photo competition and the lists to Wikipedia in German language

These preparations were a joint effort of volunteers, WMAT staff and a contractor (for web and information material design).

Reach Free Knowledge Awareness

Wikipedia meets University

Wikipedia meets University ...

... at the University of Vienna.

Wikipedia meets University took place at the University of Vienna on March 15th, attracting about 40 participants from the academic world and the Wikiverse. The event was dedicated to the discussion of Wikipedia's part in the Austrian university life – and to enhance future collaborations and new strategies. Wikipedia meets University was opened with six short speeches. Three scholars of the University of Vienna, the University of Innsbruck and the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences talked about their experiences in using Wikipedia and Wikiversity within the context of teaching and academic activities. Two representatives from the Austrian Wikipedia community and a member of the executive board of the Open Knowledge Foundation Austria added different approaches. This was followed by a panel discussion also including representatives from the students council and Wikimedia Österreich. On this basis, the participants discussed and developed a multitude of extensive cooperation ideas during a barcamp.

The feedback from the participants was very positive. The following results apply for self-declared Wikipedians and non-Wikipedians. On a 5-point scale, the general organization was rated with 4.9 points. The event as a whole got 4.7 points, its different parts from 4.1 points (panel discussion) to 4.7 points (barcamp). 80 % of the participants found the event informative and helpful for their handling of / work with Wikipedia, 20 % partly informative and helpful and 0 % not informative and helpful. The participants were invited to comment on certain topics on the feedback forms. Here are some hints and observations from these comments: to offer (online) platforms for immediate follow-up work; to invite more female speakers (only 3 were female); to have more than 45 minutes for the panel discussion.

Wikipedia meets University was conceived as an icebreaker and kick-off event which worked very well. Some of the cooperation ideas developed during Wikipedia meets University correspond to our own goals, e.g. launching a pioneer project to establish an expert network for one subject area.

Organisational Development

Board training workshop

Board training London 2014

Together with chapter representatives from WMUK and WMPL, WMAT decided to design a training workshop for trustees in the Wikimedia movement. The idea came up during Wikimania 2013, as a way to address some of the challenges that chapters originally sought to address via the WCA. The goal was to organize a workshop which will give board members of chapters and thematic organisations the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to do a good job regarding governance and chapter effectiveness. It is particularly focused on the needs of organisations which are making the challenging transition between being an entirely volunteer executive and an organisation with staff and budget. It draws on experience within the movement and best practice from outside the movement.
The workshop took place during the first weekend of March 2014 and was hosted by WMUK. WMAT was responsible for the program planing, the coordination of the presenters and facilitated the workshop on site. We conducted a survey among the participants in order to evaluate the workshop and it feedback was excellent: On the 5-point scores the workshop got a score of 4.5 in terms of how useful it is, and all the individual sessions ranged from 4.3 to 4.5 as well; in all cases at least 50% of participants gave a top score of 5. The next steps will be to present the learnings from the weekend at the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin, to conduct a survey on the resource needs of Wikimedia organizations and to offer a refined edition of the workshop as a pre-conference session of Wikimania in August.

FDC Impact report 2013

Last but not least, March was the month to finish the report of all reports, the FDC impact report for 2013. While some parts were unnecessarily repetitive, we think that the case studies and learning patterns are actually a great way to foster knowledge management and share our experiences with the wider movement. Check out our learnings here: Grants:APG/Proposals/2012-2013 round1/Wikimedia Österreich/Impact report form