Grants:APG/Proposals/2014-2015 round1/Wikimedia Nederland/Impact report form


Purpose of the report

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This form is for organizations receiving Annual Plan Grants to report on their results to date. For progress reports, the time period for this report will the first 6 months of each grant (e.g. 1 January - 30 June of the current year). For impact reports, the time period for this report will be the full 12 months of this grant, including the period already reported on in the progress report (e.g. 1 January - 31 December of the current year). This form includes four sections, addressing global metrics, program stories, financial information, and compliance. Please contact APG/FDC staff if you have questions about this form, or concerns submitting it by the deadline. After submitting the form, organizations will also meet with APG staff to discuss their progress.

Global metrics overview - all programs

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PROGRAM 1:COMMUNITY AND PARTICIPATION

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Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 834 a detailed breakdown of global metrics per activity is given in the sections below
2. # of new editors 4
3. # of individuals involved 873
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 1390


PROGRAM 2: CONTENT

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Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 214 a detailed breakdown of global metrics per activity is given in the sections below
2. # of new editors 60 of these, 5 still active
3. # of individuals involved 523
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 85,888
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 4260 we have conscientiously tried to determine the number of articles added or improved. However, in some cases this could only have been done by manually going through lists of user contributions. This, we did not do.


PROGRAM 3: COMMUNICATION

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Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved n.a.
2. # of new editors n.a.
3. # of individuals involved
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 359
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 88


Context

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Image from a content donation by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library): the city of Utrecht. where Wikimedia Nederland is based

For Wikimedia Nederland the year 2015 was remarkable, successful ánd challenging. It included an international conference, new partners and new lines of activity, royal recognition, a huge amount of media-attention, and staff changes. The number of activities we organised grew by 25%, and the number of people taking part by a staggering 100%. More importantly, our impact grew as well: more articles written or improved, and more content uploaded.

One of the 1025 drawings donated by illustrator Jos Zwarts. This image of a hen harrier is in use on six different Wikipedias


2015 2014
events organised 49 39
participants in these events 1,062 584
articles added or improved 4,501 3,003
content uploaded 87,637 36,826


Here are some of the most important developments in 2015:

  • We organised the three-day international GLAM-Wiki conference for 145 participants in April.
  • We welcomed the Rijksmuseum as a new GLAM partner and restarted the partnership with the Tropenmuseum (a museum of world culture and colonial history).  
  • A survey among editors of the Dutch language Wikipedia provided fascinating and sometimes worrying insights in community health.
  • The prestigious Erasmus Prize, was awarded to the international Wikipedia community and presented by King Willem Alexander. This lead to an unforeseen series of activities and a lot of favourable media attention.
  • The Gender Gap working group really got going, is creating momentum and enthousiasm, and is adding content on women to Wikipedia.
  • We started our education programme, cooperating with universities and a college training translators.
  • Our GLAM-partners continued to donate valuable content to Wikimedia Commons.
  • Two museums tested an app developed by WMNL to provide additional information for their visitors via Wikipedia-articles.
  • Three Board members left and three new ones joined. Two staff members left and two new ones joined.

GLAM Wiki 2015 conference in Den Haag: group photo
King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands in conversation with WMDE chairman Tim Moritz Hector at the Erasmusprize Ceremony in the Amsterdam Royal Palace
Radio Oranje broadcast on first allied troups entering Netherlands in 1944. Donated by Institute for Sound and Vision
Events organised by Wikimedia Nederland participants
10 January - Editathon bird sounds, Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum 10
15 January - WikiMeet with Jimmy Wales, Amsterdam 30
17 January - New years Reception, Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum 80
7 March - International Womens Day Writing event , Amsterdam 10
7 March - International Womens Day Writing event , Maastricht 4
8 March - International Womens Day Writing event Opzij, Amsterdam 23
9-14 March - Open educationweek, Amsterdam University 50
12 March - Editathon Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht 13
28 March - Mediatraining, Utrecht 7
10-12 April - Glam Wiki 2015, Den Haag 145
17 April - Wikipedia in the curriculum, Utrecht University 40
6 May - 22 July - Editor Training Maastricht University 13
21 May - Wikimeeting, Utrecht University 17
22 August - Editor training National Park Utrechtse Heuvelrug 8
1-30 September - Wiki Loves Monuments 120
19 September - Wiki Takes Dudok Editathon, Hilversum 26
19 September - Design Derby Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam 7
4 October - Birdwatching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 30
10 October - Editor training IVN, Amsterdam 8
13 October - Editor training, Universiteit Utrecht 11
26-10 t/m 1-11 - Jac. P. Thijsse writing challenge 13
1- 30 November - Erasmus Prize international writing challenge 12
22-26 November - Exhibition historic Encyclopaedias, Amsterdam University 80
25 November - Erasmus prize ceremony and WikiMeet, Amsterdam 77
28 November - Wikimedia Conference Nederland, Utrecht 140
Wikisaturdays (22x) en Gendergap saturdays (4x) 168


Of course, we also encountered some obstacles:

Developing activities in support of the smaller Wikimedia sister-projects proved difficult. Developing a programme of activities aimed at improving community health - and engaging the community in this - took more time and effort than we had envisaged. Recruiting new editors remains complex. Although the amount of content donated by partners grew exponentially, the extent to which the donated content is used on Wikipedia and other projects was in some cases disappointing.

In the following sections, the events of, and lessons learned in, 2015 are described in detail. We use color-coding to mark progress:

activity successful: results meeting/exceeding expectations
some problems: delays or disappointing results
activity unsuccessful or abandoned
activity not yet started or no data available as yet

Programme 1: Community and participation

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The aim of the programme Community and Participation is to create the best possible conditions for maintaining and improving the quality of the Wikimedia projects by the editor-communities. Wikimedia Nederland does this by:

  • giving support to editors through mini-grants, scholarships, covering the costs of subscriptions and literature
  • organising activities that contribute to a constructive working atmosphere: organising real life events, providing training in communication and conflict resolution, and helping new editors find their way into the community


Social Climate

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Assessing and improving community health

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Community health is key issue of concern for Wikimedia Nederland - and most other chapters. How can a chapter help create and maintain active, effective and sustainable editing communities? Together with Wikimedia Israel we developed a framework setting out parameters of community health and identifying angles for ways in which a chapter can develop activities to reinforce these parameters.


Community profile NLWP

Health check: a survey

To find out how the Netherlands' editing community itself assessed its state of health, we commissioned a survey. In June 2015, logged-in users saw a site-notice on the Dutch Language Wikipedia with a link to the survey. In total, 451 editors completed the survey, which we consider a good result. The results were thought provoking, to say the least.


The survey findings:

New editors: A large majority of editors recognizes the importance of a continuous influx of new editors and feels that new editors are welcome. To ensure that new editors will not drop out, care and guidance of newbies must be improved.

Diversity: Only 11% of the respondents are women. Everyone recognizes, to a greater or lesser extent, the disadvantages of limited diversity among the editors. There is large support for the theory that low participation of women negatively affects the coverage of topics in Wikipedia. The atmosphere on Wikipedia is most often cited as a cause for low participation of women; women mention it much more often as a cause than men.

Work Atmosphere: Opinions are divided about the work atmosphere on the Dutch Wikipedia. However, there are more editors dissatisfied with the atmosphere than satisfied. The atmosphere is most frequently characterized as quarrelsome and distrustful, and quite often also as constructive and aggressive. A large group of editors on the Dutch Wikipedia has on occasion been approached in a manner that is considered inappropriate; a small group admits to having approached others in an inappropriate manner themselves.

Conflicts and Conflict Resolution: The number of conflicts is seen as high by the editors. Two in five editors state that in the past six months they have been involved in a situation that felt like a conflict.There are different opinions on the resolution of the conflicts. There are more editors who indicate that conflicts are only sometimes or (almost) never solved in a good way, than those who say this usually or always happens in a good way. What is also striking is that a fairly large group has no opinion on the number of conflicts and/or solution thereof.

Egos and stubbornness are considered to play a major role in the emergence of conflict. Rules/guidelines and moderation by trained people are often put forward as a solution.

Communication: The dialogue (communication) between editors is fragmented across many channels and occurs in particular via talk pages. The editors rarely communicate with each outside of Wikipedia, either in person or online via social media. Wikimedia mailing lists, blogs, newsletters or notice pages are not frequently read, and attendance of Wikimedia-organized events in the Netherlands or abroad is limited.

Wikimedia Nederland: A large majority of respondents is familiar with Wikimedia Nederland and about a quarter of the respondents is currently also a member. (This is not representative of the overall population of editors - we estimate 10% of active edtiors are members) Generally, the respondents are satisfied with the (kind of) work WMNL does.

The full report (in English) can be found here.


Discussion and follow-up activities
We published the results of the survey on an NLWP-projectpage, announced it via a mailing list and De Kroeg (Village Pump), and asked the community for their reaction. No more than 15 editors reacted to the results. However, also no-one questioned their validity. Such a silence was unusual (the NL-Wikipedia community usually does not hold back in expressing its opinions) - and we were not quite sure what to make of it.

The survey was intended to be the beginning of our work on community health. After the summer break we started a dialogue with the community to determine what action - if any - should and could be taken to improve key issues such as working climate and conflict resolution.

Our original plan was to start activities aimed at improving community health in the last quarter of 2015. But progress in determining which activities this should be, was slow and difficult. We posted messages on the Wikipedia project page, approached moderators and arbcom-members via their mailinglists and organised discussion session during Wiki-Saturdays. Here again, we encountered silence - and a reluctance to become involved. Only a very small number of people came forward and joined in the discussion. However, this group of 3-4 people were knowledgeable, motivated and willing to put time and energy into a community health programme.

In the conversations we had with them, it became clear that the concept of the community managing its own performance as a community is more or less alien. Interaction between editors is focussed on managing Wikipedia, i.e. on issues related to editing, content and software. Dealing with social and inter-human aspects, and actively intervening in these, is to a certain extent an alien concept. Although editors can be quite harsh in their dealing with one another, there is paradoxically also a huge acceptance of - and tolerance for - behaviour and communication that in other social settings would receive rebuke. However, not everyone thrives in such a climate and we know from the survey that especially female editors see the working environment as one of the reasons for the gendergap.

We got the impression that among editors there is a fear to stand out from the crowd by taking part in activities aimed at improving community health, and thus become the target for criticism and harassment. (Indeed this is one of the reasons mentioned for the falling number of people volunteering to become moderators on NL-Wikipedia). Also, moderators and ArbCOm members tend to see it as out of their remit, and already have quite a heavy workload to deal with.

We found it hard to create momentum in the community for activities aimed at improving community health. In the end, we decided to start with a basic training programme to increase skills in dealing with problems and obstacles in online communication. We commissioned an expert in e-coaching to develop a one-day training, followed by the option for online exercises and guidance. The training will take place April 2, 2016.

We will continue working on community health because we feel it is a vital issue in establishing a sustainable and diverse editing community, which intern is essential for maintaining an unbiassed and diverse Wikipedia. But we expect this to be a process of trial and error, and that it will take some experimentation to come up with an approach that will really work.

Brainstorming with the community about a communication skills training
Output



editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved bytes
survey editors 452 - 460 - - -
Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
At least 200 members will complete survey na 452 editors completed survey target met --
At least 10 active online community members will be interviewed na interviews planned for Q3-4 75 editors responded to open questions in survey because of extensive response to open questions we decided not to do additional interviews
At least 15 editors, mods or admins take part in a training course 15 took part in one-day seminar activity planned for Q3-4 design of training course commissioned progress in getting community support for follow-up actions on community health was slow and difficult. The course is postponed until early 2016
At least 75% of participants express increased level of skills and confidence -- - - -



Organising real-life events and meetups

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Creating opportunities for editors in real life is considered a good way to improve social climate and reduce the chance of conflicts escalating. As one Wikipedia editor put it 'It is very rare to end up in a screaming row on Wikipedia with someone you have once had coffee with.' Organising events - or supporting community members in organising them - is one of ways in which Wikimedia Nederland wants to help create a positive working environment on Wikipedia.

  • New years reception

Th Institute for Vision and Sound hosted Wikimedia Nederland's annual New Year's reception. The meeting was attended by more than 80 members, donors, Wikipedians and other interested parties.

New Years Reception at Institute for Sound and Vision : a look behind the scenes
  • Wikimeets

On January 15, the Royal Academy of Sciences organised a seminar on Wikipedia and research with Jimmy Wales as one of the keynote speakers. WMNL held a Wikimeet afterwards so that Wikipedians attending the seminar could meet Jimmy - and vice versa. It was attended by 25 people. Following the Erasmusprize ceremony on November 25, 75 Wikipedians from the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany and Austria met at a floating Chinese restaurant in Amsterdam to celebrate. The following day, the WMNL office opened its doors for any Wikimedians still in the country (and provided them with lunch).

  • Wiki-Saturdays
Christmas themed stroopwafels, hand-carved by a Wikipedian for the last Wiki Saturday of 2015

The WMNL office was open on 22 Saturdays throughout the year. By now, the WikiSaturday has become an established and well known phenomenon in the Dutch community. People come to the WMNL office for working group meetings, to talk with staff or Board members or just to 'hang out' with other members of the community. A new development is the gendergap Wiki-Saturday: once a month members of the gendergap working group are present to welcome (new) female editors. In total, there were 168 visitors (65 individuals) to the Wiki-Saturdays, ten of whom attended for the first time.

editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved bytes
New Years reception 60 - 80 - - -
Wiki Meets 110 - 110 - - -
Wiki Saturdays 160 - 168 - - -
Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
Host 20 Wikisaturdays with 150 attendees 22 events, 148 attendees 10 hosted, 68 attendees 22 events, 168 attendees --
Convene annual Wikimedia Nederland Conference in November, 150 participants, 40 first time 103 participants Event planned for November 27. 140 participants, 66 first timers -
125 editors registered via 'met in real life page' -- 66 editors registered -- Some doubts about the effectiveness of this tool.


Supporting editors and supporting volunteers

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Financial support is an easy, but effective tool to assist volunteers. Wikimedia Nederland continued its scholarships and small grants programme.

  • Scholarships

We provided scholarships to volunteers from the Netherlands to attend the International Hackathon in Lyon, Wikimania in Mexico City, the Wiki-Source conference in Vienna and WikiData events in Berlin and Helsinki. In total 10 scholarships were provided. In addition, we reimbursed in-country travel costs for 17 volunteers.

  • Small grants programme

We accepted several requests for support from the community:

  • purchase of a 360-degrees camera
  • microphones for the voice-intro project
  • organising the Europeana fashion editathon
  • purchase of a book on stained glass art to improve coverage of this topic on Wikipedia
  • attendance/accreditation of a photographing Commons volunteer at events to take portrait photographs
  • travel and stay of three volunteers to attend a meeting of the Brussels Free Knowledge Advocacy Group
  • support for the SOIMA conference in Brussels on sound and image heritage
  • prizes for the annual Wikipedia-writing competition

An interesting development was that for the first time the Arbitration Committee referred to the WMNL small grants programme in one of its rulings, as a possible way for an editor to get access to reference works and improve the quality of his articles.

How the small grants programme helped one Wikipedian improve content on WIkipedia en Wikimedia Commons
"About ten years ago I started writing for Wikipedia. I specialized a bit on Dutch sculpture and write about sculptors, but also about their work: from Sacred Heart statues and other statues in public spaces, to war memorials and funerary monuments.
Koninginneraam: the Queens Window from the Academy Building in Groningen

When I wrote about a sculptor who also designed stained-glass windows, I noticed that there is little information available online about this topic. I read the book "Stained glass in the Netherlands 1817-1968", which not only describes the history, but also contains nearly 150 biographies of glaziers. It is a weighty tome that went over my budget. I knew about the small grant programme and therefore knocked on the door of Wikimedia Netherlands. I got the book delivered to my home soon after the approval of my request. And thus began my mini-project stained glass.

Commons already had some 370 photographs that had been made for this book and had been released by the National Office of Cultural Heritage. The majority of those, however, were not used on Wikipedia. I have grouped the photos together in one category, sorted them by location and researched the names of the glaziers. The images of stained-glass windows that I found in the categories of (church) buildings, I also linked to the appropriate artists as far as possible. I have created about seventy new artist categories. A time-consuming puzzle, but fun.

On nl.wikipedia, I added images to existing articles,substantially added content to a dozen articles, and so far have written sixty new articles about glaziers and memorial windows. Some examples: Ted Felen, Gunhild Kristensen, Lambert Lourijsen, J.H.E. Schilling and Atelier F. Nicolas and Sons. The book was a valubale source.

The work on this mini project is not limited to sitting behind my laptop: I venture out to create new images and have uploaded over fifty photos for my article on the colorful memorial windows in the Groningen Academy Building. The project is still ongoing, I will continue to write and photograph for a bit ....." User: Ronn

  • Mediatraining

Seven volunteers (including two from Wikimedia Belgium) took part in a one-day training organized by WMNL on working with the media. They learned about framing messages, dealing with tricky questions and practiced being interviewed on camera. In November, there was a follow up for the two people who would be most closely involved in dealing with the press concerning the Erasmus prize ceremony. Click here to listen to (and see) Lodewijk Gelauff being interviewed live for the popular radio show 'Met het oog op morgen.'

  • Press-accreditation
Writer P.F. Thomèse - photographed at a literary festival. Image used on Fr, Fy and NL Wikipedia

We assisted two volunteers in obtaining press-accreditation to take photographs at events and festivals.

Stéphane Lafleur photographed at the Rotterdam Filmfestival. Image used on Fr, En and Ru Wikipedia


Community support editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved bytes comments
Hachathon scholarships 3 - 3 - - -
Wikimania scholarships 3 - 3 - - -
Other scholarships (WikiSource and WikiData events) 4 4
Participation in Brussels meeting Free Knowledge Advocacy group 3
Small grants: equipment (2x) 4 - 4 175 -
Small grants: fashion editathon 8 4 12 13
Small grants: support for SOIMA conference 2 2
Small grants: Wikipedia writing competition 15 15 12
Small grants: book purchase 1 1 48
Accreditation for events (2x) 2 2 1215 80
Media training 7 9
Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
Redesign programme of support by April 2015 na Postponed to Q3-4 to make use of results of editor survey - --
Promote community support programme by at least three outreach activities na see comment above -- --
20 requests for support received 10 applications Small Grant Programme, 14 applications for scholarships, 1 application support organization Hackathon 6 applications for scholarship, 2 press accreditation, 3 small grants 10 scholarships, 8 small grants, 2 accreditation Number of scholarships considerably lower than 2014 because of smaller WMNL delegation at Wikimania
at least 4 requests for support for projects other than Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons na no request received -- --

Supporting the sister projects: a dilemma

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One of our aims for 2015 was to increase support for the smaller sister projects, meaning other projects than Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. We provided support to volunteers working on Wiki-Source and Wiki-Data, mainly thorugh the scholarship and small grants programme.

Several of the Dutch language sister-projects have (very) small communities. In some cases, the communities involved are content with this situation. In other cases, one or more active editors turn to WMNL for support in expanding and developing 'their' project . WMNL in principle supports all Wikimedia-editors, whichever project they are working on and however small or large the community behind that project is However, In practice, very few of WMNL resources go towards support for the 'smaller sisters' Wikiversity, WikiBooks, WikiQuote and Wiktionary.

Why is this so? It does occasionally happen that a volunteer turns to WMNL, asking for support for a plan related to one of the sister projects. But the underlying expectation often is that the resources of WMNL will compensate for the lack of an active community (or the lack of interest in that community) to implement the idea. This is rarely the way it works: WMNL is hesitant to invest heavily in an activity that cannot count on the involvement of editors, unless it has the clear potential to draw in more volunteers and create positive momentum in the smaller communities/projects. In that case, the proposed activity should at least be acceptable to the community.

Another issue we encounter is that it is difficult to assess whether the idea put forward is indeed beneficial for the project, or whether it reflects the personal interests of the volunteer proposing them. There is no substantial or diverse community of editors to help us carry out a reality check or peer review.

As a result, we are in a form of deadlock. The communities remain small, and some active editors are annoyed that WMNL 'only supports Wikpedia, Commons and WikiData'. Wikimedia Nederland is somewhat frustrated at the lack of supportable activities proposed by the smaller sisters, which automatically result in a focus on Wikipedia, Commons and WikiData.

Programme 2: Content

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This programme adds and improves content to the Wikimedia projects. Wikimedia Nederland works towards these objectives via:

  • Increasing active involvement in Wikimedia projects
  • Cooperating with partners from the GLAM and education sectors
  • International cooperation.


Improve content and editor involvement in Wikimedia projects

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Working around thematic priorities: an evaluation

Two years ago, WMNL started an experiment. We introduced thematic priorities to our programmes. We wanted to find out whether our impact in terms of content improvement and editor recruitment would increase if we focussed our activities on specific themes over a longer period of time.

The themes we chose were nature&wildlife and WorldWar II. We selected those themes because:

  • we knew some of our existing GLAM-partners had relevant knowledge and content, and could contribute
  • there were Wikipedians actively working on these topics, some of whom were active Wikimedia volunteers
  • content in the Wikimedia projects related to these topics could still be improved
  • there were volunteer-organisations (amateur historians and ecologists) who might be interested in cooperating.

How did the experiment go? Interestingly enough, the two thematic areas developed quite differently.


Project nature and wildlife

There now is an active working group of volunteers working around the theme of nature and wildlife, which is becoming increasingly self-supporting. Apart from the working group, there are a number of editors who contribute to the project online on ad-hoc basis, for example when content donations have to be processed.

Several GLAM partners have made content donations, including partners not primarly focussed on nature such as the National Library and Institute for Sound and Vision.

Birdwatching in the Rijksmuseum. Wikipedians gathered in the Rijksmuseum to identify images of birds from the museum's extensive collection of prints. The images will be uploaded to Commons

GLAM partners have said that they appreciate having a clear framework for their content donations, especially partners with wide and large collections. The thematic focus on nature also led to new partnerships with Naturalis ( the musuem for natural history) and Soorten.nl. the association of NGOs/volunteer organisations working on species data collection. Naturalis appointed a Wikipedian in Residence and Soorten.nl is in the process of doing so.

Editor training for nature enthousiasts

Recruiting new editors remains difficult: attempt to motivate volunteers active within ecological NGOs to become Wikipedians have so far not been hugely successful. We will try again within the framework of the cooperation with Soorten.nl. However: it is encouraging that one Wikipedian who became active via Project Nature was voted newcomer of the year and has made a substantial contribution to Wikipedia.

Museum Naturalis donated drawings of bird-species from Indonesia.

In general, 'Project Nature' is developing as we had hoped when we started the experiment of working on thematic areas: it is becoming a self-sustaining programme involving off-line volunteers, the wider editing community and external partners. And in producing output in terms of improved content.


Project World War II

Project World War II ideveloped in a different way than Project Nature. There is no clear working group of volunteers, and we are not cooperating with volunteer organisations as we are in Project Nature. (We did reach out to several groups of amateur historians, but did not get a positive reaction). Rather, there is a small number of highly active editors who individually work online, processing content donated by partners institutions such as NIOD - Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the Institute for Sound and Vision and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library).

The Bevrijdingsmuseum (Liberation museum donated images of 'everyday' objects from World War II, such as this chamber pot made from a German helmet

It would be incorrect to say that Project World War II failed: content has been added and improved, and the project focussing on Verzetskranten (the newspapers of the resistance movement during World War II) is a great example of adding and reusing Wikipedia-content. (see our 2014 impact report for more details). But the objective of setting up a self-sustaining programme involving volunteers, editors, and partners did not really materialise.

Looking back, we think there were two factors in play:

  • large scale content donations concerning World War II are tricky because of copyright issues. A lot of the materials are not yet in the public domain. We know that content donations can be an effective katalyst for a wide range of onwiki and off wiki activities. Project Nature has benefited from this.
  • because of staff changes at WMNL, there was not always a designated project coordinator for project World War II. It is important that there is someone who feels responsible for keeping things moving, and developing initiatives during slow periods. This does not have to be a staffmember, but there has to be someone.

Conclusions

All in all, we think working around a specific theme for a longer period of time can be an effective way of adding to and improving content to the Wikimedia-projects. It can energise editors to take initiatives - both on and off wiki - and reach out to existing or new partners. The impact on editor recruitment is less clear, but this just may take longer. Content donations can play a key role in getting things moving. and it is important that there is someone who can act as project coordinator. We will continue with project nature in 2016. We will continue our partnership with NIOD but will not continue with project World War II. Instead we wll introduce a new theme: the Netherlands and the world, focussing on the Dutch footprint (especially in the global south) through colonialism and trade.

Nature&Wildlife: activities and results

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editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved comments
Content donation Butterfly Foundation: information on damsel and dragonfly species from their databasewas released under a CC license 4 - 4 - 59 The Butterfly Foundation donated text rather than images
Editathon Bird Sounds: the institute for Sounds and Vision hosted an editathon to add recordings of birds sounds to WP articles 4 3 10 - 136
Content donations museum Naturalis: from May to December a Wikipedian in Residence worked at the museum and uploaded materials from their huge collections 1 1 72,814 791 It is intriguing that the use made of these images is so low
Editor Training focussing on National Park Utrechtse Heuvelrug 5 3 8 7 1 new editor still active
Editor training Heimans and Thijsse Foundation 5 3 8 4 1 new editor still active
Writing event about nature conservation pioneer Jac. P. Thijsse 13 13 34
Donation of drawings by illustrator Jos Swart 1 2 1024 59
Birdwatching in the Rijksmuseum. Wikipedians gathered in the Rijksmusem to help identify birds depicted on prints. 25 30 Because of technical (metadata) problems, materials have not yet been uploaded.
Total 58 9 64 73838 1090
Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
Four online or offline activities held 6 events 1 editathon, 1 online writing event 2 editathon, 1 online writing event, 2 editor trainings number of activities in 2014 higher because of Wiki Loves Earth
1 Wikipedia editing group set up in volunteer organisation n.a. first steps made to setting up group in IVN - no permanent editing groups established
100 participants in activities 150 20 64 2014 includes participants in WLE photo-competion; most activities planned for Q3-4
150 WP articles improved or created 396 articles improved 154 1090 articles improved or added --
Content added to WikiSource and Wikimedia Commons 2099 images donated 1902 images added to Commons 73.838 images added to Commons --
5 new editors still active after six months 1 new editor 3 new editors, too soon to assess retention 9 new editors. 2 still active but for 4 others too soon to assess --


World War II: activities and results

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editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved Comments
Content Donation Beeld en Geluid 'Radio Oranje'. This Institute for sound and vision donated recordings from World War II broadcasts by London based radiostation 'Radio Oranje' 2 - 2 267 59
Underground newspapers: 2 - 2 - 40 (see comments) The project has produced some 700 stubs of articles on resistance newspapers. These have not yet been placed in the main name space. They are gradually being converted into real articles.
Articles on resistance fighters and WW II events 8 - 8 - 348 Articles created by editors involved in project WW II
Content donation Bevrijdingsmuseum (liberation museum): the museum donated images of objects from everyday life during World War II. The photographs were made by the musueums volunteers. 2 203 11
Totaal 12 14 469 458


Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
Four online or offline activities held 1 2 off line activities 2 off line activities to stimulate use of donated content Example
Wikipedia editing group set up in volunteer organisation - - - No longer priority for this activity as no volunteerorganiations engaged
100 participants in activities 15 editors 25 editors contributing 25 editors Activity is focussing very much on core group of productive volunteers
150 WP articles improved or created 1049 articles improved or created 106 articles added and improved as direct result of project; 311 articles on WW II improved in total 150 articles improved as direct result of project, 348 improved in total --
Content added to WikiSource and Wikimedia Commons 2095 images uploaded, 1 monography released 182 radio files donated 267 radio files and 203 images oploaded --
5 new editors still active after six months na na na Mobilising new editors no longer priority for this activity


WikiLovesMonuments

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Wiki takes Dudok: a photo-drive in the townhall of Hilversum, designed by architect Dudok.

In September, we organized Wiki Loves Monuments for the fifth time. Photographers could upload their photos of cultural heritage to Wikimedia Commons.  In the Netherlands,  more than 4,000 images were uploaded.  Special attention was paid to buildings designed by Dutch architect  Willem Dudok (1884-1974). We cooperated with the Hilversum Museum and the Dudok Architecture Centre.

For years, Wiki Loves Monuments has been the WMNL flagship-project. It has been instrumental in mobilising volunteers and creating awareness of the Wikimedia-projects among the general public. Still, we have decided not to include it as a separate project in the 2016 workplan. We see the number of participants and the number of images donated falling, especially the number of images of monuments of which no photographs were available previously. Also, we see that enthousiasm among volunteers to play an active role in organising events to support WikiLovesMonuments is declining.

During the WMNL general assembly in September 2015, the challenge was launched to find a new 'Wiki Loves' idea: an activity with the potential to make people enthousiastic about contributing to the Wikimedia-projects and generating valuable new content. WMNL has reserved funds and staff time to support such a new idea.


Wiki Loves Monuments: the winning image
editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved
Wiki Loves Monuments Month 8 120 4139 1481
Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
4 online or offline activities n.a -- 1 --
700 people involved n.a. -- 120 --
150 new articles n.a. -- -- --
3000 images donated n.a. -- 4139 --
5 new editors n.a. -- no data --


Gender gap

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On NLWikipedia, the number of female editors is low: 11%. When surveyed, the Dutch Wikipedia community expressed the opinion that this affects the content of Wikipedia: the information on women and on issues that are usually found interesting or relevant by women is assumed to be less thorough than that on other topics.

Art and feminsm work in progress at Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht

A group of female Wikimedians has set itself the goal to change this - with the support of Wikimedia Nederland - and is making great strides:

  • Around International Women's Day, there were three writing sessions, including one at the editorial office of feminist magazine Opzij. The instruction on how to edit Wikipedia was streamed, so that people who could not come to Amsterdam still had a chance  to participate. Although there was some negative feedback from community members during the writing sessions, none of the articles produced was deleted.
  • Once a month, members of the Gendergap working group are present on WikiSaturday; women and men who are interested  can drop in to discuss things, to seek advice or just chat with other wikipedians.
  • There is a gendergap facebook group, which helps (new) editors working on biographies of women.
  • The Gendergap working group has drafted a friendly space policy, which was approved by the WMNL board. For all events organized by Wikimedia Nederland it is expected that participants adhere to this policy.



Gendergap? How a Wikipedian became involved in changing things

User:Ciell has been a Wikipedian for many years, contributing to the project as an editor and in other roles. She is one of the driving forces in the gender gap project. She explains how a ball gown (or rather, the lack thereof) inspired her to become involved.

"Visiting Wikimania 2012 in Washington, I wondered: what was this 'Gendergap' thing the global community was talking about? The WMF raised concerns about the difference between the percentage of woman contributing to Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. I went to the talks about the subject and wondered: could this be the same for the Dutch language Wikipedia? In 2013 WMNL conducted a survey, which concluded that of all the participents in the Dutch Wikipedia only 6% identified herself being female. That means that 94% was male.
There now is an article about the ball gown on NL-Wikipedia.

Looking further into the subject, I stumbled about the Dutch article 'Baljurk' (ball gown, which actually said that a ball gown was a ornament of a building in Den Haag. Eight years after the Dutch language Wikipedia started and we didn't even have a decent article on a ball gown. I was perplexed and this for me was the moment I decided to dedicate myself to the project.

The Dutch Wikimedia projects need more female editors and need more articles about female interests to overcome the gap that truly exists.In 2015 WMNL took another survey: the percentage of female editors had gone up to 11 percent. WMNL facilitates a small working group with monthly gatherings at the office in Utrecht, covering expenses for female gatherings, and great office support in networking with partners.

There is still a lot of work to be done, but I believe that together we can close the gap by reaching out to females through relevant platforms, by organizing workshops, organizing appealing events, like editathons and writing sessions and especially by spreading the word and convincing others: yes, there is a gap, but yes, you can help out!"


Textile project

Partly as a result of the development of the Wikipedia in the Museum app, and partly as a result of the work of the gendergap working group, a new project is emerging focussing on textiles. A group of representatives from Dutch cultural institutions, with support from WMNL, has initiated a project to improve Wikipedia articles about textiles, primarily on Dutch Wikipedia. It appears that articles about basic textile techniques (weaving methods, types of fabrics, materials used for the production of textiles) still need a lot of improvement. WMNL volunteer Hay Kranen gave a workshop on (editing) Wikipedia at the Textile Museum in Tilburg. Other partners involved will be the Museum Catharijneconvent (Museum of Religious Art), the Amsterdam University Museum and the Tropenmuseum (Museum of world cultures and colonial history). More information in the project page on Dutch Wikipedia.

editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved
Gender gap editathons March 11 16 37 - 174
'List-based' writing activities throughout the year 5 5 - 120
total 16 16 42 - 294
Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
Six online or offline activities na 4 editathons 4 editathons, 4 Gender Gap Wiki Saturdays -
100 participants na 60 participants - -
Cooperation with two new partnerorganisations na 2 (ATRIA en OPZIJ) - --
Gender gap group feels adequately supported by WMNL na - - -



GLAM partnerships and Wikipedians in Residence

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Wikipedians in Residence: one residency and funds raised for another

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Our aim for this year is to establish two new residencies. Hans Muller started as Wikipedian in Residence at the Museum Naturalis on May 1. In cooperation with two partners from the field of nature conservation, we managed to secure a grant of € 30.000. This will be used to fund a Wikipedian in Residence focussing on improving content on plant and animal species on Wikipedia and other projects. This residency will start in the spring of 2016. We are also cooperating with the Foundation Gelders Heritage (an association of heritage institutions in the province of Gelderland) to fund a Wikipedian in Residence support small regional GLAM institutions in 2016.

Content donations by GLAM partners and editathons

The National Archive and Royal Library continued to regularly donate content throughout the year. (Other content donations are listed under the various projects).


editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved
Content donations National Archive general 2 - 2 238 -
Content donation National Archive civil engineering works 2 - 2 523 49
Content donation Royal Library (Koninklijke Bibliotheek): Three atlasses 2 - 2 3158 276
Content donation Royal Library: parliament 2 - 2 512 17
Dutch-Belgian Design Derby Museum Boymans van Beuningen 5 2 7 20
Total 13 2 15 4431 362


Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
All institutions in 2014 WiR programme continue contributing to Wikimedia projects n.a. 7 out of 18 have contributed 7 out of 18 The libraries that were part of the Wikipedian in Special Residence programme 'shared two Wikipedians in residence'. The residencies were short (only two months) and this appears to be insufficient to lay a good foundation for a WikiGLAM programme
Set up and support network of contact persons at former WiR-host institutions n.a -- -- --
Organise four meetings of WiRs and contact persons n.a. - 2 meetings held for half of the year, we did not have a GLAM coordinator. To a certain extent, the programme of course suffered because of that
2 new WiR's appointed in 2015 n.a WiR appointed at Naturalis Funding raised for 2nd WiR



Analysing content donations

Content donations are an important way for GLAM partners to contribute to the Wikimedia projects. It is also a fairly straightforward way. Over the past years, Wikimedia Nederland's partners have added a treasure trove of rare, relevant and beautiful images to Wikimedia Commons. It is interesting to have a look at how many of these images are being used.

  • Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library)
Images donated: 9592 - Number of times used: 3100 - Distinct images used: 982 (10.24%)
  • Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (Institute for Sound and Vision):
Images donated: 9355 - Number of times used: 9690 - Distinct images used: 3401 (36.35%)
  • Nationaal Archief (National Archives):
Images donated: 15247 - Number of times used: 37661 - Distinct images used: 7576 (49.7%)
  • Museum Naturalis (Museum of Natural History)
Images donated: 276998 - Number of times used: 4371 - Distinct images used: 3301. (1.19 %)
  • Tropen Museum (Now: Museum of world cultures)
Images donated: 50831 - Number of times used: 18833 - Distinct images used: 7974 (15.6%)


The number of images used, and the number of times they are used over the various Wikimedia projects, varies. Of course this only a limited indicator of the use made of the donated images. They can be downloaded and used intensively for publications, teaching or research - and this would not show up in the statistics. But some tentative conclusions can be drawn regarding their use in the Wikimedia-projects:

  1. Images from specialised collections (Naturalis) do less well on Wikipedia than more general images. Reasons: fewer articles, and more expertise needed to link image to appropriate article?
  2. Images from historical collections (National Library) do less well than images from contemporary collections (National Archives, Sound and Vision). Reasons: there is a shortage on Wikipedia of public domain images related to recent history?
  3. Images related to the global south do well (Tropenmuseum). Reason: as editing communities in other parts of the world grow, the demand for good quality images relevant to other parts of the world increases?

For the future, we want to experiment with smaller, more focussed content donations. Also we want to explore options to link images to articles beforehand and will reinforce our efforts to make the editing community (in the Netherlands and worldwide) aware of donations. We are discussing the option of 'digitizing on demand' with some of our GLAM-partners. This could prove especially relevant for the 'Netherlands and the world' programme that we want to start in 2016, which will focus on freeing content held by Dutch institutes that is of interest to other parts of the world. Of course we will continue to support partners who want to donate large collections. In 2016 we will organise a training in the use of the GLAMWikiToolset.



Museum Catharijneconvent for religious art donates high resolution images

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On 24 February, more than 2,500 high-resolution photos of the artifacts from the permanent collection of the Museum Catharijneconvent were added to Wikimedia Commons with metadata being added to Wikidata. On March 12, an editathon took place to promote the use the images on Wikipedia. This event was covered by a local newspaper.

Editathon on religious art in Catharijneconvent
editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved
Content donation 2 - - 2636 50
Editathon 2 11 16 - 148
total 4 11 16 2636 198


Wikipedia Collections: Wikipedia-touch screen information for museums

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Wikipedia Collections internet kiosk at the Textile Museum

WMNL developed an app called Wikipedia Collections that makes it easy for museums to provide extra information for their visitors. Via a tablet, visitors can access a number of pre-selected relevant Wikipedia articles - in different languages. The app is designed to present the Wikipedia articles in an attractive way, with a lot of attention for images. The app is integrated in an internet kiosk which clearly indicated that this information originates from Wikipedia. Two of these kiosks are now being tried out in museums in the Netherlands: the Catharijneconvent Museum for religious art in Utrecht and the Textile Museum in Tilburg. All code of the project was made available under an open source license at WMNL's Github account.

We think the app can be of use to smaller museums with limited resources for education and communication. In 2016, we are starting a programme 'The Netherlands and the world', focussing on freeing content held in the Netherlands that is particularly relevant for the global south. We think the app could play a role in that programme as well.

editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved bytes
Wikipedia Collections 2 n.a 500 n.a. n.a n.a


Working with (public) libraries

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WIkipedia helpdesk manned by volunteers at Amersfoort public library

Throughout 2015, the Royal Library, WMNL, and several public libraries were exploring the possibility of a pilot project on Wikipedia in the Library; a project very similar to the succesful Catalonia’s Network of Public Libraries. We reached out to Amical to discuss their experiences. The project would build on our experiences in the Wiki Loves Eemland library project.

The challenge remained to find a mode of cooperation that was beneficial to the Wikimedia projects and the public libraries. Some of the libraries' ambitions would not go down well with the editing community, such as adding direct links from Wikipedia articles to books in the central catalogue. Because of copyright issues content donations by public libraries are not very likely. We also explored involving a third party (a local history group). Their knowledgeable volunteers could add content to Wikipedia, and the library has reference works which could be used. However, the groups we approached did not consider this to be a priority, and were also somewhat afraid that their volunteers might 'defect' to Wikipedia. By the end of the year, there was agreement to start a pilot in five public libraries focussing on adding images to Wikimedia Commons. We know from our experience with Wiki Loves Monuments, that this is a low-threshold way to contributing. The pilot will start in 2016. Before July 2016 we want to make a go- no go decision whether or not to continue prioritising work with public libraries.

As a direct result of GLAM Wiki 2015 we investigated whether the Wikipedia Library could set up a branch in the Netherlands. We asked the editing community for their opinion and got only limited response. Our own small grants programme also supports the purchase of reference works and subscriptions to journals and databases. Over the past years, only a small number of such requests has been received. We know from the editor-survey that a large number of editors have higher education and paid employment. Also, the Netherlands has a well-developed network of public libraries which also provide access to specialised collections. This leads us to assume that at the moment, access to literature is not a real obstacle to editing.

Our GLAM and education partners in 2015
  • Atria, Amsterdam
  • Dudok Architectuur Centrum, Hilversum
  • Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid, Hilversum
  • ITV - Hogeschool voor tolken en vertalen, Utrecht
  • IVN, Amsterdam
  • Jos Zwarts (tekenaar)
  • Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag
  • Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
  • Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht
  • Museum Hilversum
  • Nationaal Archief, Den Haag
  • Nationaal Bevrijdingsmuseum, Groesbeek
  • Nationaal Park Utrechtse Heuvelrug
  • Naturalis, Leiden
  • NIOD instituut voor oorlogs-, holocaust- en genocidestudies
  • Openbare Bibliotheek Eemland
  • Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
  • TextielMuseum, Tilburg
  • Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam
  • Soorten.nl
  • Stichting Praemium Erasmianum
  • Universiteit van Amsterdam
  • Universiteit Maastricht
  • Universiteit Utrecht
  • De Vlinderstichting, Wageningen

WikiPortret: making it easier to upload portrait images for Wikipedia articles

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Portrait of singer Marianne Cornet, made available under open license and uploaded by her record company using the WikiPortret tool

WMNL volunteers upgraded and improved the WikiPortret wizard, which makes it even more easy to upload a portrait photograph to illustrate biographies on Wikipedia. In the second half of 2015 we shared this tool with the the wider community, also providing a translation. The tool has been available since 2008 - since then already 2885  images have been uploaded. Of these, 86% are in use, which is an extraordinarily high percentage. In 375 new portraits were added. We are also seeing that professional quality images are uploaded via WikiPortret by p.r.-firms and record companies who want to have good portraits of their artists on Wikipedia.


editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved
Wikiportret 3 - 40 375 310



Increase content donations by GLAM-partners to WikiSource

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We have explored the possibility of uploads to WikiSource with NIOD, the institute for war, holocaust and genocide studies, and with the CBS, the government statistics office. We have also consulted the community. Many of the publications and data from these organisations were already in the public domain. The editing community knew of them and used them, and uploading to WikiSource did not appear to provide any added value. Interestingly enough, some of NIOD's publication are uploaded to Commons rather than WikiSource.

Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
25 documents of major importance uploaded to WikiSource in Q3-4 2015 1 - -- --
Cooperation with volunteer project digitizing historic documents adds content to WikiSource by Q4 n.a. - - --


Education

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In 2015 we developed the first projects in our education programme. We followed two lines: an internship programme with the College for Translators and Interpretors, and a more traditional education programme where groups of students edit as part of their curriculum.

ITV (a college for interpreters and translators) is now offering translation from French, German, Spanish, Italian, English and Russian Wikipedias to Dutch as an internship option for their students are available to translate articles. In January, we posted a call for translation requests on NL-Wikipedia and got a very positive response from the community. Two trainees worked during 2015, for Russian and German respectively. They are only translating articles suggested by Dutch Wikipedians. The Wikipedian who requested the translation remains responsible for processing the translation and creating the new article. More information, and the first translated articles are available on the projectpage. Because of the positive response from the community to the translation programme, we will explore in 2016 whether we can develop similar partnerships with e.g. colleges training musicians, illustrators or photographers. Our education programme will focus on students acquiring professional skills as well as on academic knowledge.

Education programme: editor training at Maastricht University

At Maastricht University (NL), a bachelor research course titled On Expedition was organized from February till June 2015. During the course, students were assigned to read and analyze a travel report from the collection of the Maastricht Jesuit Library. In addition, they were invited to contribute some of their acquired knowledge to Wikipedia and, if relevant, donate digitized illustrations from the books to Wikimedia Commons. The course was attended by international students, which resulted in articles on the Dutch, French, English and German Wikipedia. Utrecht University and Wikimedia Nederland cooperated in the classes ‘Remembering in a digital world’. Students explored the role of historians in a time when everyone can explore the past using digital media. They investigated Wikipedia as a platform and wrote an article themselves. A group of active WMNL volunteers play a crucial role as coaches and trainersin the education programme. They are now also acting as ambassadors among the student population.

We approached several other universities as well. Most were interested and generally positive about the idea of working with Wikipedia. But to move to the next phase it is essential that there is at least one lecturer/teacher who is enthousiastic and sees a concrete opportunity for his classes. Once one series of classes has been completed successfully, there is a good chance that the programme will be repeated and become a fixed part of the curriculum.

We will continue the education programme in 2016. We think it has promise and the potential for scaling. To achieve that, we think a part-time programme coordinator is essential. In 2016, one of our priorities will be to obtain external funding to cover the costs of the programme. In adddition, we will focus on developing materials to support teachers who want to integrate Wikipedia in their classes.

editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved
Maastricht University 4 9 13 46
Translation Internship 6 2 10 3
Utrecht University 3 11 14 18
Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
2 pilot projects in cooperation with institutes for higher education completed before September n.a 2 projects completed 3 projects completed --
40 students take part, each making at least 5 edits n.a. 15 students/400 edits 22 students we stopped counting edits
35 articles added or improved n.a. 49 67 --




International Cooperation

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EU Advocacy Group and Freedom of Panorama

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Wikimedia Nederland, like most other chapters based in EU Member States, is involved in and support the work of the Brussels based Free Knowledge Advocacy Group. In March, the work of this group was presented on the Wikimedia-blog. Wikimedia Nederland is also one of the nine chapters financially contributing to this programme. In addition, Wikimedia Nederland took over administrative support of 'our man in Brussels' Dimitar Dimitrov, who had previously been under contract with Wikimedia Deutschland.

A group of WMNL volunteers interested in copy-right law is monitoring developments in EU legislation and provides input from the Dutch context. In June, unexpected developments in the European Parliament resulted in a proposal which could seriously have limited Freedom of Panorama in a number of EU countries, including the Netherlands. At the request and with the support of the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group, Wikimedia chapters sprang into action to create publicity in their countries and lobby 'their' members of the European parliament. WMNL has been active in creating awareness of the proposed harmonisation of copyright throughout the EU, and in particular of the proposed changes in regulations on the so-called “freedom of panorama” (blogpost, press release, together with Kennisland). A letter urging Dutch MEPs to take action on this matter has also been sent. An overview of publicity on this matter can be found here.

Facilitate involvement of members of Dutch Wikimedia community in international events

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Wikimedia Nederland was represented at the international Hackathon, the Wikimedia Conference in Berlin, Wikimania in Mexico, the WikiSource conference in Vienna and the WikiData Anniversary Celebration in Berlin. Board and staff are also in frequent contact with the newly established Belgian chapter. Where possible, we work together.

Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
7 people take part in Wikimania 17 3 volunteers, 2 board, 2 staff - Because of travelcosts to Mexico delegation much smaller than in London
WMNL delegation attends Wikimedia Conference 2015 3 people Chair, Boardmember and ED - -
Participate in and support work of EU Free Knowledge Advocacy Group - financial and administrative support continues WMNL 'hosts' D. Dimitrov
Develop two activities in partnership with WMBE - 2 - WMBE participated in media training and stakeholder survey
Contribute to at least 2 international activities concerning nature, monuments, World War II or Gender gap - 1 2 WMNL participated in Art&Feminism programme and WikiLovesMonuments international.


editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved bytes
international activities 20 n.a 30 n.a. n.a. na.
Lily Knibbeler, director of the National Library opening GLAM-WIKI 2015
Coffee break!
Plenary session



GLAM Wiki 2015 conference

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Even Erasmus got caught up in GLAM-WIKI 2015.

On 10, 11, + 12 April, 145 participants from 32 countries came to The Hague for the GLAMWIKI 2015 conference. The National Library and the National Archives provided the venue for this event. Aim: to exchange ideas and experiences, give and get inspiration and send out the message that cooperation between GLAMs and Wikimedia is important. The atmosphere was lively and creative: already during the conference new ideas were born.

We are happy with attendance of the conference, with the degree of participation of all participants and their diversity. We had 147 participants - from 32 countries and six continents. 40% were women. The success above can largely be attributed to the skills and attentiveness of the programme committee. This consisted of representatives from all over the world, with a majority of women. The programme committee was consciously keen to host presenters who were as diverse as possible, both from a global and a gender perspective.

The conference’s partners were very active and supportive. Our hosts (National Library and National Archives) were extremely hospitable and enthusiastic. Europeana went to great lengths to promote the conference among its large network and has used the conference as a catalyst for fine-tuning its strategy in collaboration with the Wikimedia movement.

The preparation time for the conference was very short because final approval of the budget was much later than expected (Late January). Therefore the programme committee had to be pragmatic in building the programme and the process was as interactive and participatory as originally hoped. Also, the timespan to arrange visas was very short and we ended up having two attendees who did not manage to get a visa in time. There was not a group of dedicated local volunteers behind the initiation and organisation of the conference. The volunteer programme committee functioned well, but mainly worked online because the team was extremely international. GLAM-WIKI 2015 was mainly initiated and organized by the WMNL office. This was unlike the experience we had when organising the International Hackathon in 2013, when a group of Netherlands based volunteers was extremely active.

We enjoyed organising GLAMWIKI and are happy with the way it went. It did, however, take up a lot of our resources in the first half of 2015. That is one of the reasons why Wikimedia Nederland decided two years ago (after hosting the international Hackathon in 2013) that we would only organise a big international event once every two years.

The videos of all the presentations are available and several presentations are on Commons.

NB: GLAM Wiki 2015 was funded through PEG, and was not included in the Wikimedia Nederland APG. We have now submitted our grant report which contains full details. The text above is a summary of this report.

editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved bytes
GLAM Wiki 2015 65 n.a 145 n.a. n.a n.a


Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
GLAM Wiki 2015 will be successfully organised in April 2015 n.a. achieved n.a See Grant report



Explore the role of WMNL in software development

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This activity was included in the Wikimedia Nederland workplan as a result of a discussion started by Erik Moeller about the role chapters could play in movement software development. Since then, a lot has changed at WMF related to engineering and community support. The WMNL community is active in software issues, as indicated by the development of the Wikipedia in the Museum app and the Wiki-portrait tool. We will continue to support such activities, but will not focus on software development as such.

Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year) Comments
At least one community event concerning software development will be organised or supported by WMNL na - na -
Decision reached about the feasibility of WMNL involvement in software development before development of 2016 workplan na - decision made -



Programme 3: Communication

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Programme 3 aims to increase understanding of - and appreciation for - the mission and activities of the Wikimedia movement and Wikimedia Nederland with important stakeholders. These include the editing community (although these are obviously also targeted in programme 1), the WMNL membership, (potential) cooperation partners, donors and the general public.

What do people in the Netherlands know about Wikipedia?

Survey among general public

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Simultaneously to the survey among editors, Motivaction carried out a survey among a representative sample of the Dutch population to assess their awareness of and appreciation for Wikipedia. The results could be compared with a similar survey done two years ago:

What do people think about Wikipedia

Awareness and use of Wikipedia are high, as is satisfaction.

  • Awareness and the number of users of Wikipedia have increased significantly in recent years (2013-2015). Four in five Dutch people now know about, and use, Wikipedia.
  • Levels of use of Wikipedia have not increased. It is possible that new users use Wikipedia less intensively.
  • More than one tenth of Dutch people said they had installed the Wikipedia app. That is a very high number.
  • In general terms, a large majority thought the articles were very readable and easy to use. The number of people who thought this was slightly down on 2013.

Awareness of matters relating to Wikipedia is falling

  • These are matters such as: the fact that everybody can post and edit articles, that all text and photos are freely available and that Wikipedia does not have any profit motive.
  • This may also be linked to the arrival of new users who, for the time being, may be less well-informed.

Slight increase in willingness to contribute

  • There was a slight increase in the willingness to contribute between 2013 and 2015. The main reasons people would not wish to write or edit an article continue to be that people are not interested and/or would not know what to write about.

The full report can be found here. We are going the use the results to determine our future communication programme.


Making the most of a very special occasion: Erasmus Prize awarded to Wikipedia community

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On 15 January (the 14th birthday of Wikipedia) the Erasmus Prize Foundation announced during a seminar in Amsterdam that Wikipedia will receive the Erasmus Prize 2015. The prize is awarded annually to a person or institution that has made an exceptional contribution to culture, society or social science. This announcement already led to a flurry of press interest for Wikipedia, a lot of which was handled by WMNL. Two of our volunteers appeared alongside Jimmy Wales in a very popular late-night talk show, there were several interviews on national radio, and dozens of national and local media (print and digital) used our press release.

Official invitation to the Erasmus Prize award ceremony

Throughout the year, we collaborated with the Erasmus Prize Foundation in the preparation of the official presentation of the award in November. We were acting as a liaison to the Wikipedia community, the actual winner.

This did not get off to a very promising start. There was some confusion among the Dutch Wikipedia-community about who was deciding (1) how the award ceremony would be organised, (2) how the sum of money which went with the prize would be spent and (3) which volunteers and editors would receive the prize on behalf of the community. In De Kroeg (the Village Pump) people tended to assume that the answer to all these questions was 'Wikimedia Nederland' and were not reluctant to voice their resentment at not being consulted. In actual fact, these issues had been decided by the Erasmus Prize Foundation and WMF. However, we managed to clear that up.

One of the challenges was to help facilitate the attendance of a sizeable contingent of Wikipedians at the award ceremony in the Royal Palace. Which Wikipedians should have the honour of being there, and how to reconcile the wish for anonimity of many Wikipedians with the demands of security and protocol? In consultation with the community, we managed to develop a procedure which satisfied all. We also were able to use the opportunity to recognise our GLAM partners and some of our donors for their support by ensuring that they were also invited.

The peak of activity was in the week of 23 - 28 November: which we dubbed the week of Wikipedia. The week started with a scientific conference on Wikipedia for researchers, students and other stakeholders, organized by the Royal Academy of Sciences. The Amsterdam university library put on a special exhibition of historical encyclopedias from their collection with special viewings for Wikipedians.

Wikimeet November 25

A writing challenge on previous winners of the Erasmus prize resulted in 88 articles added or improved on various Wikipedias. Our GLAM partner the National Archives donated press photographs of previous award ceremonies and laureats.

The highlight was of course the award ceremony on November 25. King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands presented the prize to three community representatives, including Dutch Wikimedian Lodewijk Gelauff. About 75 Wikipedians from the Netherlands and abroad were present in the Royal Palace. For those present, it was a very special and even moving event. Wikipedians tend to be very critical of each other, themselves and even the amazing encyclopaedia they have created. To be part of an event recognising and honouring Wikipedia at this level and in this setting, was extraordinary. (Click here to see the video about Wikipedia shown at the award ceremony).

Again that week, there was huge media interest for Wikipedia, from an item in a well-watched tv programme about the royal family, to articles in national newspapers and interviews on popular radioshows. Between them, Lodewijk Gelauff and WMNL ED Sandra Rientjes gave 12 interviews on November 24 and 25.

After the ceremony, Wikimedia Nederland organized a Wikimeet for Wikipedians who had come to Amsterdam. The following days, the Utrecht office was open for any foreign visitors who remained in the Netherlands for the Wikimedia Conference Netherlands on 28 November.

editors involved new editors individuals involved new images articles added or improved
85 - 110 359 88

Media attention

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Media attention for Wikimedia peeked in January and November because of the the Erasmus prize. Other highlights were an in-depth article about women and Wikipedia in leading feminist magazine Opzij, and an article in a national newspaper about page-patrol featuring an interview with volunteers Edo and Sjoerd. Publicity peeked again in June, when an unplanned, EU-wide lobby campaign started to oppose a limitation of freedom of panorama, and in November for the Erasmusprize award ceremony. All in all, we were quite happy that we had invested in a media-training for staff and volunteers earliers in the year. A full overview of media-coverage can be found here.

Newsletters, social media and reporting

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We published 10 newsletters, reports on Meta and our annual report. Then number of recipients of the newsletter grew by 25% to 1367, followers on Twitter by +31% to 2060, and sessions on the website by 260% to 205.591.

Annual plan target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) End of year Comments
At least 100 WMNL members, 400 members of the editing community and a representative sample of the general public will have taken part in the survey n.a. 452 editors, including 103 WMNL members, and a sample of 530 individuals n.a
A working group of staff, board members and community members will draft a communication strategy (incorparating the outcome of the survey) which will act as a framework for all WMNL communication n.a. postponed until 2016
The number of our followers on Facebook and Twitter, visitors to the website, and people subscribing to our newsletter will increase by 25%
In November 2015, we will organise an event to present the 2016 annual plan and the 2016-2018 strategy to WMNL’s external partners, which will be attended by 75% of all invitees. n.a. postponed until Q1 2016 because of workload as a result of Erasmusprize
At least five members of the Dutch Wikimedia community will complete a media-training by October 2015 n.a. 7 individuals trained follow up training for 2
On at least five occasions throughout the year, proactive contact from WMNL to the media will result in positive media coverage n.a. 3 occasions 5 occasions Especially positive media response to announcements concerning Erasmusprize and Freedom of Panorama.
The number of individual donors from the Netherlands responding to the banner-fundraising campaign, and the total amount raised, will increase by 10% Impossible to assess progress even for 2014 fundraising campaign as WMF will not release data
editors involved new editors indiv. involved new images/media articles added/improved bytes
Communication n.a. n.a. Between 3000 (those addressed 'by name') and 800.000 (the viewers of RTL Late Night) n.a. n.a. n.a

Revenues received during this period (6 months for progress report, 12 months for impact report)

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Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

Table 2 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

  • Please also include any in-kind contributions or resources that you have received in this revenues table. This might include donated office space, services, prizes, food, etc. If you are to provide a monetary equivalent (e.g. $500 for food from Organization X for service Y), please include it in this table. Otherwise, please highlight the contribution, as well as the name of the partner, in the notes section.
Revenue source Currency Anticipated Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Anticipated ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Explanation of variances from plan
DONATIONS Euro 4,500 2,651 12,999 1,610 17,236 34,496 5,909 45,293 A donation of € 12,000 was received in Q2, and another of €10,000 in Q4.
CONTRIBUTIONS Euro 4,500 2,556 723 432 806 4,517 5,909 5,931
FUNDING Euro 110,000 0 0 0 144,430 0
WMF GRANT Euro 304,000 177,333 0 126,667 304,000 399,154 399,154
TOTAL REVENUE Euro 423,000 182,540 13,722 128,709 18,042 343,013 555,399 450,379

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Revenue for the movement, but not for Wikimedia Nederland

In cooperation with one of our partners, we managed to secure a grant of € 30,000 for a Wikipedian in Residence working on species information. This grant will not be handled by WMNL but by the partner, but it should count as revenue raised for the Wikimedia movement.

In kind contributions:

  • Venues for New Years reception, Wikimedia Nederland Conference and GLAM Wiki 2015. In total, we guestimate the value to be €10,000.

Spending during this period (6 month for progress report, 12 months for impact report)

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Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.


Table 3 Please report all spending in the currency of your grant unless US$ is requested.

(The "budgeted" amount is the total planned for the year as submitted in your proposal form or your revised plan, and the "cumulative" column refers to the total spent to date this year. The "percentage spent to date" is the ratio of the cumulative amount spent over the budgeted amount.)
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Expense Currency Budgeted Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Budgeted ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Percentage spent to date Explanation of variances from plan
COMMUNICATION & PARTICIPATION euro 61,000 2,342 4,349 4,283 21,782 32,756 80,093 43,008 54
CONTENT euro 27,500 15,220 23,097 21,908 3,328 63,553 36,108 83,445 231 Unforeseen costs related to events concerning Erasmusprize. Also overrun of activities concerning Wikipedia in the Museum, for which funding was received in 2014
COMMUNICATION euro 23,500 3,546 11,946 7,146 1,248 23,886 30,856 31,362 101.64
TOTAL PROGRAM COSTS euro 112,000 21,108 39,392 33,337 26,357 120,194 147,056 157,815 107.32
STAFF SALARY COSTS INCLUDING TRAVEL euro 201,094 67,272 57,197 54,035 45,230 223,734 264,038 293,762 111.12 One-off personnel costs, including recalculation of pension premiums
OPERATIONS euro 81,900 15,361 19,437 20,630 23,386 78,835 107,535 103,103 96.26
TOTAL ADMINISTRATIVE AND OTHER NON PROGRAM COSTS euro 282,994 82,633 76,634 74,665 68,677 302,569 371,573 397,273 106.92
TOTAL COSTS euro 394,994 103,741 116,026 108,022 94,974 422,763 518,627 555,088 107.04 N/A

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Explanation: WMNL ended the year with a deficit of € 75.071. The reasons for this were:

  • APG grant lower than requested, which could not be compensated from other funding sources
  • Unforeseen expenses related to events concerning Erasmusprize. Also there was an overrun of activities concerning Wikipedia in the Museum from last year, for which funding was received in 2014

During the course of the year, the Board decided not to invest stafftime in external fundraising, but rather focus on the delivery of the programme and generating impact. This decision also took into account the comments made by the FDC concerning the reserves held by WMNL.

Compliance

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Is your organization compliant with the terms outlined in the grant agreement?

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As required in the grant agreement, please report any deviations from your grant proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes

Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Grant funds as outlined in the grant agreement? Please answer "Yes" or "No".

  • Yes

Signature

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Once complete, please sign below with the usual four tildes.

Resources

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Resources to plan for measurement

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Resources for storytelling

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