8th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

The Sinirangan Bisaya Wikimedia Community (SBWC) in cooperation with the Division of Humanities of the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College (UPVTC) conducted the 8th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at the AS College Conference Room, University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College, Magsaysay Boulevard, Tacloban City on April 13, 2018 as part of the University's celebration of National Literature Month. The main objective of this undertaking is to improve and add content to Waray Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects. An edit-a-thon is an event in which people come together in a place to collaboratively contribute to online projects, in this case. the Waray Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects. This event was funded by generous donors. Two Wikimedia volunteers from Manila and a professor and likewise a Wikipedian from Leyte Normal University served as resource speakers. The volunteers from Manila also assisted in the conduct of the wiki editing activity. The Division of Humanites of UPVTC provided the venue and invited the participants who are junior and senior students of BA Communication Arts. This is the second edit-a-thon hosted by the UPVTC. The first was held in November 2016.

Activities

Pre-event

It was in November 2017 when discussions about a follow-up for the edit-a-thon at UPVTC were initiated between Prof. Joycie Dorado-Alegre of UPVTC and Michael Glen U. Ong, the SBWC coordinator. Prof. Alegre confirmed the final date of the second edit-at-hon at UPVTC and the plan to carry out the edit-a-thon started. It would be a whole-day edit-a-thon on April 13, 2018 and the participants would be composing of students taking up BA Communication Arts, just like with the previous edit-a-thon at UPVTC.

After the confirmation of the final date, Michael contacted Wikimedians Jojit Ballesteros and Bel Ballesteros to give talks and facilitate the edit-a-thon. Prof. Voltaire Oyzon of Leyte Normal University was also invited to talk and discuss about the Waray language at the event as he did in the 7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at the Philippine Science High School - Eastern Visayas Campus.

Actual event

The event pushed through on April 13, 2018 that was held at the AS College Conference Room of UPVTC, which was arranged by the Division of Humanities. Participants who are all BA Communication Arts students started to arrive at 8:00 am and the event was formally began when Jojit Ballesteros gave the welcome remarks.

In the morning, the first speaker, Prof. Voltaire Oyzon, a Wikipedian and a language expert from the Leyte Normal University, talked about the correct usage and grammar of the Waray language. There was a break and then it was followed by a presentation by Bel Ballesteros and she introduced Wikipedia and other related projects. After Bel's talk, Jojit Ballesteros demonstrated how to edit Wikipedia. He also showed the Internet-in-a-Box device, which contains offline versions of the English Wikipedia, Waray Wikipedia and other educational content that can be accessed through Wi-Fi. The device is a credit card sized Raspberry Pi 3 Model B single board computer acting as a server for those educational content.

After lunch break, the edit-a-thon began while they were being guided by Jojit and Bel. At one point of the edit-a-thon, it was announced that the cut-off for their contributions would be at 3:00 pm but they were free to edit until the end of the event. Just like with the previous edit-a-thon at UPVTC, the winners for this edit-a-thon were determined through judging their works' quality. The only difference is that the participants chose their entry for judging. In the last edit-a-thon at UPVTC, the first created article by the participant was the only one considered entry for judging. Although, the number of characters contributed of each participant was still counted by Jojit and Bel but there were no prizes for the top contributed characters.

The following criteria were used by Prof. Theresia Katherine Rojas, Prof. Maria Zenia Dulce-Mariveles and Dr. Victor N. Sugbo to judge the quality of the participants' outputs.

Criteria	Description	%
Well-referenced	Cites independent, reliable and verifiable sources	40%
Broad in scope	Addresses main aspects of the article	30%
Neutrality	Presents all viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias	20%
Well-written	Free from grammatical and spelling mistakes and written in clear and concise manner	10%
Total		100%

Schedule

Time	Activity	Speaker/Facilitator
8:00 am	Registration
8:30 am	Welcome remarks	Jojit Ballesteros, Wikimedian
8:40 am	An Winaray	Prof. Voltaire Oyzon, Wikipedian, Leyte Normal University
9:45 am	Morning break
10:05 am	Introduction to Wikipedia	Bel Ballesteros, Wikimedian
11:10 am	Demonstration on how to edit Wikipedia	Jojit Ballesteros
12:00 pm	Lunch break
1:00pm	Start of edit-a-thon	Jojit and Bel guided the participants on their work
3:00 pm	End of edit-a-thon and start of tallying the contributed characters and judging of the participants' contributions	Jojit and Bel tallied the contributed characters while professors from UPVTC namely Prof. Maria Zenia Dulce-Mariveles, Prof. Theresia Katherine Rojas and Dr. Victor N. Sugbo judged the participants' work
4:00 pm	Afternoon break
6:00 pm	Announcement of winners and awarding	Bel announced the winners of the edit-a-thon while SBWC Coordinator Michael Ong, Prof. Theresia Katherine Rojas and Dr. Victor N. Sugbo presented their awards. LIkewise, Jojit announced the total number of contributed characters.
6:10 pm	Closing remarks	Prof. Theresia Katherine Rojas, UPVTC
6:20 pm	Event ends

Participants and their output

Days before the event, participants were advised to create a Wikipedia user account. Some of them already had an account and were participants of the previous UPVTC edit-a-thon in 2016. The total attendees for the event is twenty-five (25) and only two persons did not participate in the actual edit-a-thon but all them had created or previously had an account.

Of the twenty-three (23) actual participants, sixteen (70%) of them were females. Likewise, six out of the top ten participants (60%) who contributed good articles in terms of the criteria used by the judges were females.

Prizes were given to the top ten (10) students based on scores the judges gave them. Students who placed 9th to the 6th (two participants tied for the seventh place), whose average scores ranged from 82.5% to 84.5%, each received offline Waray Wikipedia DVD. Meanwhile, students who placed 5th to 2nd, whose average scores ranged from 85% to 90%, each got the latest version of offline Waray Wikipedia in USB thumb drive. The top student participant whose average score is 91% has received offline English Wikipedia and the latest version of offline Waray Wikipedia in USB thumb drive and a LED foldable table lamp and power bank dual function gadget. Having scores above 80% means that the winners produced high quality outputs in terms of having reliable and verifiable sources, broadness in scope, neutrality and being well-written.

Name	Username	Gender	Contributions in characters within the edit-a-thon proper	Contributions in characters within the event	Created articles	Edited articles	Average score	Notes
Canillas, Gabriel G.	Cutie Bunny 143	Male	18,461	18,573	Buyogan Festival		91.0%	First place winner; participated in the UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016
Gerdy, Anna Mae B.	Namithevixen	Female	4,661	9,535		Marabut	90.0%	Second place winner
Oguin, Leander Louis O.	Nael Niugo	Male	Did not publish within the edit-a-thon proper	8,649	Mga Susumaton han Sulat, Sinirangan Samar		87.0%	Third place winner; participated in the UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016
Dacoco, Janeca Rae H.	Healoven	Female	7,936	7,936	An Katikangan han Tanauan, Leyte		85.5%	Fourth place winner
Evangelista, Jamie Belle V.	Jamiebve	Female	3,842	4,630	An Waray		85.0%	Fifth place winner; participated in the UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016
Cabonce, Jobelle B.	Job BC	Female	27,760	28,985	Ginikanan han Can-avid		84.5%	Sixth place winner; participated in the UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016
Balboa, Janella Mae O.	Jnllmljyblb	Female	2,116	2,116	Yolanda Shrine		84.0%	Seventh place winner
Manabat, Sean Christopher Y.	Scryma	Male	Did not publish within the edit-a-thon proper	2,947	Ambao fish sanctuary		84.0%	Seventh place winner, participated in the UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016
Dela Cruz, Camille Jane L.	Missmona101	Female	9,201	13,496	Balangiga: Howling Wilderness		83.0%	Eighth place winner
Robin, Julius Heil M.	Robinhoodieeeeee	Male	Did not publish within the edit-a-thon proper	2,036	Pasaka Festival		82.5%	Ninth place winner
Oriol, Alecs A.	Alecsoriol	Female	2,448	2,448	Pista ng Paru-paro		82.0%	Added article in Tagalog Wikipedia
Villamor, Sigrid Vera A.	Ssvvaavv	Female	5,134	5,134	Legend of Tacloban		81.0%	Participated in the UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016
Mora, Nelson Jr. B.	Enjaymora	Male	5,350	5,350	Benjamin Romualdez	Espiho	80.5%
Loberiano, Thea Loise T.	Thealoise	Female	2,107	2,107	Sarakiki-Hadang Festival		80.5%
Marcos, Jessa L.	Jessamae_02	Female	2,067	2,067	Tiklos		79.0%
Adona, Yedda Vicelle C.	Yedzoned	Female	3,287	3,287	Yellow Doors Hostel		76.0%	Participated in the UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016
Almaden, Kimverlyn L.	Kimverlyn Latina	Female	628	2,835	Karatong Festival		70.5%
Pingol, Kent Abbyson C.	Kent Pingol	Male	431	1,890	Anibong Memorial Marker		69.0%
Carillo, Haziel P.	Hazielpc	Female	Did not publish within the edit-a-thon proper	4,129	Visayan creation myth		68.5%
Gariando, Chelo N.	CheloNG	Female	4,548	4,566	An Istorya ni Sumadoy		65.0%
Gunda, Nerissa Mae A.	Nerissamae	Female	2,212	2,212	Barangay Dagum		64.0%
Esquierdo, Stephany B.	Scaredoo	Female	3,973	7,039	Bulad	Guiuan, Homonhon	60.0%
Ebio, Andre A.	Onion56	Male	6,440	6,440	Sambawan Island		58.0%	Participated in the UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016
Acebedo, Annika Carolina P.	annikacarolina	Female	-	-				Did not participate in the edit-a-thon proper
Yabora, Carisha P.	Carisha Yabora	Female	-	-				Did not participate in the edit-a-thon proper but participated in UPVTC edit-a-thon in November 2016

Lessons learned

What worked well

Good communication and coordination between and among the Sinirangan Bisaya Wikimedia Community (SBWC) and the Division of Humanities of the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College from the inception up to post edit-a-thon activities. This is the second time an edit-a-thon was hosted by the University. The first edit-a-thon was in 2016.
The edit-a-thon was well attended and productive courtesy of the University which invited the participants. As requested by SBWC, the Division asked the participants to create their Wikipedia usernames and encyclopedic articles beforehand. With these, participants were able to contribute 148,407 characters for the whole duration of the activity. This is more than the 66,366 characters contributed during the previous edit-a-thon hosted by the University in 2016.
The presence of a Waray language lecture by an expert adds substance to the output of the participants.
The venue and internet connection provided by the University were conducive to the event.
All participants are BA Communication Arts majors who can be considered good writers. Likewise, eight out of the 23 participants were part of the edit-a-thon that the University hosted in 2016. Five of them got into the top ten participants who were judged to have produced good articles based on certain criteria.
As in the previous edit-a-thon hosted by the University, the top ten participants were judged according to the quality of their output based on it having reliable and verifiable sources, broadness in scope, neutrality and being well-written and not by the amount of characters contributed, by experts in the Waray culture including but not limited to language and writing.

What didn't work

The event didn't start as scheduled because some of the participants came in late because they were still asking for permission from their professors to attend the event.
The two hours duration of the edit-a-thon proper seemed not long enough because four of the twenty-three participants failed to publish their work during the allotted time.

Outcomes and impact

Outcomes

The 23 actual participants of this edit-a-thon have improved Wikimedia projects by adding 21 new articles and improving 3 existing articles in Waray Wikipedia and adding one new article in Tagalog Wikipedia. Of these 21 new articles in Waray Wikipedia, 12 articles (57%) were scored 80% and above by the judges in terms of being well-referenced (40%), broadness in scope (30%), neutrality (20%) and being well-written (10%). Likewise, two of the three existing Waray Wikipedia articles that were improved have scored above 80%. The new article added in Tagalog Wikipedia scored 82%.

The participants also uploaded 5 new pictures to Wikimedia Commons which they used in the articles they added and improved in Waray Wikipedia.

In terms of contributed characters, this edit-a-thon has added an approximately 148,407 bytes which exceeds the 66,366 bytes contributed during the previous edit-a-thon hosted by this University in 2016.

To determine the number of contributed characters: (a) the facilitators of the event took note of the usernames of the participants; and (b) contributions were counted after the actual edit-a-thon with the use of "global edit summary" and the "recent changes" features of MediaWiki for each project that the participants have been editing. MediaWiki is the software behind Wikimedia online projects.

Progress towards targets and goals

Project metrics

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
There should be at least 15 participants for the event.	Aside from the SBWC and UPVTC partners, 25 BA Communication Arts majors attended the event but only 23 participated in the edit-a-thon proper.	The Division of Humanities of UPVTC led by Prof. Joycie Alegre invited participants for the edit-a-thon.
There should be 30,000 characters or equivalent to approximately 20 pages of printed text added in the Waray Wikipedia and other Wikimedia-related projects.	There were 148,407 characters contributed mostly in the Waray Wikipedia and a few in the Tagalog Wikipedia.	The participants actively participated in the edit-a-thon. They asked questions and followed instructions on how to edit Wikipedia.
There should be at least five (5) quality articles averaging above or equal to 80% based on the judging criteria set by the project team.	There are fourteen (14) articles that have scores averaging above 80%, two of which are above 90%.	The participants were asked to create encyclopedic articles beforehand and some of the participants had experienced edit-a-thon when the University had its first edit-a-thon in 2016.

Global metrics

For more information, see Global Metrics.

PARTICIPATION (COMMUNITY)
Metric	Achieved outcome	Explanation
1. Number of active editors involved	3	Three (3) active editors were with the project team; seven (7) out of 23 participants have participated in the previous edit-a-thon hosted by UPVTC in 2016, the rest were new or have never edited or contributed to Wikipedia before this edit-a-thon
2. Number of newly registered users	16	Sixteen (16) participants have created their user accounts and contributed content to Waray Wikipedia during this edit-a-thon.
3. Number of individuals involved	34	Three (3) individuals as the project team; five (5) individuals belong to the UPVTC organizing group; one (1) individual who is a Waray language specialist/professor as speaker; twenty five (25) students attended
CONTENT
4. Number of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages	5 new pictures	5 new pictures are uploaded in Wikimedia Commons and used in Wikipedia articles
5. Number of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects	22 articles added and 3 articles improved	21 new articles are created and 3 old articles are improved in the Waray Wikipedia and 1 new article is added in Tagalog Wikipedia
6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects	approximately 148,407 bytes added	Only the bytes added were considered
LEARNING QUESTION
7. Did your work increase the motivation of contributors, and how do you know? Yes, there is a possibility of another activity following this edit-a-thon that will improve Waray Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects as per discussion after the event.

Impact

Just like the edit-a-thon hosted by UPVTC in November 2016, this activity again focused on enhancing Waray Wikipedia by adding quality content. Of the twenty-one new articles added in Waray Wikipedia, twelve of them (57%) have scored above 80% as judged by professors from UPVTC using the following as criteria: having cited independent, reliable and verifiable sources (40%), addresses main aspects of the subject or topic of the article (30%), all viewpoints are fairly presented without any editorial bias (20%) and having written in clear and concise manner without any grammatical and spelling mistakes (10%).

In addition, with 70% of the participants and 60% of the top 10 participants are females, this edit-a-thon has somehow managed the gender gap in terms of participation in Wikimedia events and Wikipedia editing.

Presentation files

Presentation slides given by Bel and Jojit
Introduction to Wikipedia

Download the original file

Presentation file of the lecture given by Voltaire
An Winaray

Download the original file

Gallery

The project team with the people from Division of Humanities, UPVTC partners
From left to right: UPVTC partners - Prof. Zenia, Prof. Katherine and Rachel and the project team members - Michael, Bel (sitting) and Jojit
Michael and Prof. Joycie Alegre-Dorado (right)

Banners for the 8th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
Banner at the gate of the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College
The 8th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon is part of the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College's celebration of the National Literature Month
Banner at the venue of the activity, AS College Conference Room of the University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College

8th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College held on 13 April 2018

Morning session
Prof. Voltaire Oyzon giving a lecture on the Waray language
Bel Ballesteros introducing Wikipedia
Jojit Ballesteros demonstrating how to edit Wikipedia

Afternoon session

Edit-a-thon proper

Judging of Outputs by Professors of University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College
Prof. Theresia Katherine Rojas judging the participants' outputs
Prof. Maria Zenia Dulce-Mariveles and Dr. Victor N. Sugbo conferring with Michael Ong while judging the participants' outputs

Awarding of Prizes for the Top Ten Participants
Ninth place - Julius Heil M. Robin
Eight place - Camille Jane L. Dela Cruz
Seventh place - Janella Mae O. Balboa and Sean Christopher Y. Manabat
Sixth place - Jobelle B. Cabonce
Fifth place - Jamie Belle V. Evangelista
Fourth place - Janeca Rae H. Dacoco
Third place - Leander Louis O. Oguin
Second place - Anna Mae B. Gerdy
First place - Gabriel G. Canillas

Offline Wikipedias in Waray and English languages stored in DVDs and USB flash drives that were given away as prizes for the winners of the edit-a-thon. In addition that, a power bank (right) was given to the top winner.