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Grants:APG/Proposals/2015-2016 round1/Wikimedia Israel/Progress report form

< Grants:APG | Proposals | 2015-2016 round1 | Wikimedia Israel



Purpose of the report

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This form is for organizations receiving Annual Plan Grants to report on their progress after completing the first 6 months of their grants. The time period covered in this form will be the first 6 months of each grant (e.g. 1 January - 30 June 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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We are trying to understand the overall outcomes of the work being funded across our grantees' programs. Please use the table below to let us know how your programs contributed to the Global Metrics. We understand not all Global Metrics will be relevant for all programs, so feel free to put "0" where necessary. For each program include the following table and

  1. Next to each required metric, list the outcome achieved for all of your programs included in your proposal.
  2. Where necessary, explain the context behind your outcome.
  3. In addition to the Global Metrics as measures of success for your programs, there is another table format in which you may report on any OTHER relevant measures of your programs success

For more information and a sample, see Global Metrics.

Metric Achieved outcome Explanation
1. # of active editors involved 201
2. # of new editors 1226
3. # of individuals involved 3464
4. # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages 235
5. # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects 656 new articles

532 articles improved 1578 WikiGnomings (under 500 bytes) 11,321 articles categorized Out of these 3 new articles, 3 articles improved and 7 WikiGnomings on ARWK Wikidate: 70,000 items

6. Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects
7. # of images uploaded to wikicommons 767
8. # of new training tools 4 developed

2 were adjusted and translated to English

3 were adjusted and translated to Arabic

9. # of Lectures and workshops conducted 42


Telling your program stories - all programs

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Please tell the story of each of your programs included in your proposal. This is your chance to tell your story by using any additional metrics (beyond global metrics) that are relevant to your context, beyond the global metrics above. You should be reporting against the targets you set at the beginning of the year throughout the year. We have provided a template here below for you to report against your targets, but you are welcome to include this information in another way. Also, if you decided not to do a program that was included in your proposal or added a program not in the proposal, please explain this change. More resources for storytelling are at the end of this form. Here are some ways to tell your story.

  • We encourage you to share your successes and failures and what you are learning. Please also share why are these successes, failures, or learnings are important in your context. Reference learning patterns or other documentation.
  • Make clear connections between your offline activities and online results, as applicable. For example, explain how your education program activities is leading to quality content on Wikipedia.
  • We encourage you to tell your story in different ways by using videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g.), compelling quotes, and by linking directly to work you produce. You may highlight outcomes, learning, or metrics this way.
  • We encourage you to continue using dashboards, progress bars, and scorecards that you have used to illustrate your progress in the past, and to report consistently over time.
  • You are welcome to use the table below to report on any metrics or measures relevant to your program. These may or may not include the global metrics you put in the overview section above. You can also share your progress in another way if you do not find a table like this useful.
Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
Example Example Example Example Example

Wikipedia-Community Support

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Table 3

Program (1) # of newly registered users (2) # of active editors involved (3) # of individuals involved (4a) # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages (4b) # of new images/media uploaded (optional) (5) # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects (6) Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects
Community Support 270 610 930 170 1040 620
H1 23 57 871 20 643 11,437

Meta-objective: Extending the support and keeping active editors of Wikimedia projects motivated
Since December 2015, the position of Community Coordinator has not been filled. The ED and the board have invested precious time in recruiting the best coordinator but the right candidate has not yet been found. This lack of staff calls for a reevaluation of the work plan for 2016. Some components of the work plan have been suspended until a new community coordinator joins the team and others have been divided among the rest of the staff and volunteers.

The absence of a key point person to the Hebrew Wikipedia community has not hurt the good communication that was built during the last few years.

Tightening the bonds between community members through face-to-face gatherings

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
3 social gatherings 3 social gatherings took place in 2015 Wikipedia’s 15th anniversary was celebrated in a gathering attended by 60 Wikimedians. The event included short lectures in different subjects that were given by Wikipedians. On July, a gathering to celebrate the 13th anniversary of Hebrew Wikipedia is planned. -
6-8 editor meetings 6 editors meetings held. - - Activity did not start due to shortage of manpower.
10 tours titled "A Thousand Words" 6 tours held and attended by 118 Wikimedians 3 Thousand Words photography tours held and attended by 41 Wikimedians 2 additional tours planned for July and August. Additional tours will be set later on. -
Feedbacks from experts for at least 10 Featured articles One article passed to external expert Six articles By requests from the community Three articles passed to an external expert and received opinion.

One article being processed with an external expert; no experts found yet for two articles.

Mini grants 3 grants approved 2 grant applications submitted. One application denied, the other approved.

Grant application in the framework of the Photographing Public Figures Project for lighting services, make-up and professional studio photography, for photographing 20 reporters and broadcasters, in cooperation with one of Israel’s largest radio stations.

The photography grant outcomes will be incorporated in Wikipedia during the next 6 months. -
Providing financial support for 2 article writing contests In 2015 WMIL supported PhysiWiki & Statistipedia contests A categories improvement drive took place, in which 11,321 articles were categorized. - See elaboration below.
Increasing participation of contributors - - - Activity did not start due to shortage of manpower.
Increase skills of key individuals in community to deal with conflicts - - - Activity did not start due to shortage of manpower.
Leading a move for the renewal of community tools - - - Activity did not start due to shortage of manpower.

In the last week of June a category improvement drive on Wikipedia was arranged by a Wikipedian and was supported by the chapter. The theme of the improvement drive was to merge and split categories. Thirty Wikipedians and a bot took part in the campaign which led to the improvement of 11,321 categories!

Expanding the diversity of editors in Wikimedia projects communities

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
support for Wiki-Women group Ongoing activity from previous year 70 articles composed by the Wiki-Women group - See elaboration below.
photographing images of women in their workplace New activity Preliminary attempt took place, but generated no outcomes. Photography consent will commence between secondary school students, combining photography of women in their workplace. See elaboration below.
A writing contest of articles about women A total of 68 articles were written during the contest of 2015. 2nd Women articles composition contest - “Create Value Contest”. 40 articles created. 32 participants took part in the contest, among them 50% women and 20% new editors - See elaboration below.
Cultivating a community of editors in the Arab Wikipedia An Arabic editing group was established in University of Haifa. The group terminated its operation due to organizational difficulties. We will focus on article creation by Arab speaking secondary school students. See elaboration below. See more about Arabic activity in the Education Field.

Bridging the gender gap through

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  • Photographing images of women in their workplace
There was an attempt to incorporate the activity in one high-school gender studies class. The students participated in an introduction lecture about Wikipedia and its gender gap, and prepared a list of occupations they would have liked to photograph. However, the attempt did not succeed. It did help us to understand some of the difficulties such project might arise, and we would like to implement the lessons in the future. During Q2, a photography contest between different secondary school students majoring in photography should commence. The activity of photographing women in their workplace will be part of the contest. The contest outcomes will be available on early 2017.
  • Wiki-Women group
During the first half of 2016 the Wiki-Women group was active online. There are more than 530 members in the Facebook group. A few times a week women post questions concerning editing, ideas for new articles and links to newspaper articles that are related to women or feminism. Facebook is a great platform for WMIL to share news with the group members about international activities concerning the gender gap, to invite them to WMIL activities and more. The main challenge we are facing now is expanding the number of women who lead the group. Today only one volunteer runs most the online activities and all the offline activities. The staff, of course, supports her and the group but it is clear that there is an immediate need to expand the number of organizers.
For the 2nd half 2016 three edit meetup are already planned. The meetings will be once a month at a WMIL office. We hope that regular meetings will encourage women to edit more and to strengthen the ties between the members of the Wiki-Women group.
  • A writing contest of articles about women
This is the 2nd year WMIL has held a writing contest about prominent women Create Value Contest (a word play in Hebrew, also means “create articles). Last year after the contest, we invited the community to give feedback. Overall the comments were good. The comments touched on the lack of variety of occupations and backgrounds of the women and a lack of wikification in some of the articles.
A month before launching the contest we invited the community to suggest names of women to write about. The response had been great! More than 250 names were suggested! From that, a list of 150 names was generated. During the contest, the staff and volunteers answered questions via Facebook and email.
A total of 40 articles were written during the contest. The number is lower than we expected. The following reasons may explain the decrease in participation from last year:
  • Low media coverage. Last year the contest got significant media coverage but there was little interest this year. Only one reference was published.
  • About 50 subjects were chosen by participants who eventually did not write articles. The organizers reached out to these participants a few times during the contest and encouraged them to participate. Many “good” subjects were blocked and this possibly withheld the participation of more contributors.

Cultivating a community of editors in the Arab Wikipedia

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The Arabic editing group stopped operating due to difficulty in recruiting new participants, and low availability of the instructor. According to a strategic decision we have made, when working on Arabic Wikipedia, we now focus of promoting creating articles by Arabic-speaking secondary school students.

Wikimedia initiatives- Community Support

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Table 3

Program (1) # of newly registered users (2) # of active editors involved (3) # of individuals involved (4a) # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages (4b) # of new images/media uploaded (optional) (5) # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects (6) Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects
Community Support 495 91 586 50 5000 402
H1 16 13 48 154 added

61 improved

Wikidate 70,000 items

Meta-objective: Extending the support provided to active Wikimedia projects' editors and keeping them motivated

Forming and stabilizing an independent Wiktionary community

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
1-2 social gatherings of Wiktionary editors One community gathering First of its kind gathering for developing new bots for Hebrew Wiktionary. The community started planning a community gathering to celebrate the 13th Wiktionary anniversary on August. See elaboration below.
A course for new editors 10-sessions course. A 10 sessions course took place - 12 participants, out of which 6 have remained highly active three months after graduation. A process of thinking and conclusion drawing will be initiated before launching the next course. See elaboration below.


Following the last community gathering held in 2015, in which policy discussions were held concerning the Hebrew Wikitionary future, and developmental needs were mapped. The community asked to promote the issue of the incentive's technical infrastructure, and expanding the circle of active volunteers in the current maintenance tasks. Wikimedia Israel connected the Hebrew Wiktionary bureaucrat with the active Wikipedia developer, and they planned the development gathering together. In March 2016, a development and bot programming gathering for Wiktionary was held, with 10 participants (from Wiktionary community and from Wikipedia community), who learnt, among else, how to operate and run existing bots, and started working on developing new bots. Since this was a first-of-a-kind gathering of the Wiktionary community, during the gathering, a list of needs and future development tasks was formulated.

Continued development of Wiktionary bots was conducted in the first developers gathering, taking place following the Wikimedia Hackathon.

celebrating the end of the second Wiktionary Course

On January we opened the second Wiktionary Course jointly with the Academy of the Hebrew Language, this time, also with our old partners in the National Library, Jerusalem. The course took place in the National Library, providing us with high-quality sources and the appropriate facilities.

Five volunteers took part in leading the course, and a veteran community member was employed as paid course coordinator.

12 participants started the course, ten graduated successfully, and six have remained highly active editors in the community three months after the end of the course. We have celebrated the end of the course with a tour in an exhibition of ancient Passover Haggadas, and an exhibition of historic dictionaries.

In preparation of the next Wiktionary Course, and in light of the beta version launch of visual editor, we asked the active editors of the Wiktionary to test the visual editor interface. In the Wikimania convention 2016, a work meeting in this matter was held, jointly with the visual editor’s developers, with the aim of improving the new interface and integrating it in the next course’s curriculum.

During May-June, a first article improvement drive took place in Wiktionary, dealing with words from poem of Rachel Bluwstein. 10 editors participated in the drive (including 5 editors from the Second Wiktionary Course, and a veteran editor who returned to editing after a long period of absence). 25 new articles were composed in the article improvement drive.

Our efforts were successful in terms of expanding the community and number of active editors, with 50% rise in the number of very active users and 73% rise in the number of edits per month. Nevetheless, this reviving community has yet to develop a leadership that can push the project forward without massive support from the chapter. In our view, this state of affairs is not favorable and it is on our agenda to find better solutions with the community.

Recruiting developers and building a community of developers in MediaWiki

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In the beginning of April 2016 we had the privilege of hosting the International Wikimedia Hackathon. The event took place in Hansen House, Jerusalem. 120 participants of 18 countries took part in the event. 37 projects out of the wish-list were concluded, and work started on additional 35 projects. For further reading - Wikimedia Hackathon finds in Jerusalem a fertile ground for experimentation and also 2016 International Hachathon - final report.

For WMIL it was a great opportunity to forge a community of volunteer developers. We put a lot of effort to recruit local developer and to partners: Before the Hackathon, a preparation meeting took place for local developers, with training session on the MediaWiki platform, so that the new developers can integrate quickly and easily in the Hackathon. During the meeting, an introduction lecture was presented, concerning MediaWiki development, gadgets and user scripts. 11 developers participated in the meeting.

Wikimedia Israel initiated a project to convert the National Library of Israel's authority records into Wikidata claims. The Authority records are "facts" about people and places from Israel and the Jewish diaspora, coded into the Library's catalogue over the course of more than one hundred years. Many of the facts there are not reflected in Wikidata still, or are missing in Hebrew.

The initial step of the project, developed during the Jerusalem Wikimedia Hackathon (31 March - 3 April), was a success - we have linked more than 10,000 Wikidata persons have been enriched with NLI catalogue number, effectively enabling their future enrichment with facts from the catalogue, and a further 70,000 persons were automatically linked by the Mix'N'Match tool. Further work, taking place in regular development meetups at Wikimedia Israel offices, involves the encoding of different facts (dates of birth/death, profession, etc.) into Wikidata. The work is carried out by Wikimedia Israel's development volunteers and is aided by NLI employees.


Note: With the lack of a community coordinator, the connection with the Wikisource editors community grew weak, and no additional texts were catalogued or added using the OCR software.

Content & Education

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Table 3

Program (1) # of newly registered users (2) # of active editors involved (3) # of individuals involved (4a) # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages (4b) # of new images/media uploaded (optional) (5) # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects (6) Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects
Content 1340 75 1415 320 670 750
H1 667 89 1,637 215 124 386 added

471 improved

1,578 WikiGnome‏ (under 500 bytes)


Meta-Objective: Improve content and contributors involvement in Wikimedia projects

Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
Increasing the involvement of new editors and improving the quality of contents This activity was not part of working plan for 2015 - - Activity did not start due to shortage of manpower. However, an indicator for measuring quality of articles was developed, helping us to realize this goal in the future (see below).
Expanding the project for photographing public figures 170 photos uploaded, out of which 112 incorporated in articles. During the first 6 months: 15 images taken and 99 photos released following an initiated request to media companies. 72 photos incorporated in articles so far. - See details below


The photographing public figures project is running smoothly. Beside reaching out to individuals and taking their pictures, the leading volunteers reached out to media companies (television channels: Channel 10, Channel 2 and Radio 103FM) and encouraged them to release images of reporters and broadcasters. The response has been great. Most of the images were freed of their copyrights and others were taken by the volunteers. Another photographer joined the project. A total of 114 images added to WikiCommons.

  • Dana Weiss, a journalist & broadcaster, channel 2
    Dana Weiss, a journalist & broadcaster, channel 2
  • Amnon Abramovich, a journalist, channel 2
    Amnon Abramovich, a journalist, channel 2
  • Branu Tagania, reporter, channel 2
    Branu Tagania, reporter, channel 2

Photographing Knesset (Israeli Parliament) members: WMIL was inspired by a project “Wikipedians in the European Parliament” where Wikipedians and photographers shot professional photos of EU PMs. We believed a similar project in the Knesset will bring tens of quality images to Wikipedia but more important will expose the idea of free content and open knowledge to the Israeli MPs.

We met with the spokesperson of the Knesset and the Knesset speaker. Unfortunately, they were not enthusiastic by the idea of a photographing event in the parliament house. But they were willing to consider releasing images of Knesset members past and present. WMIL sent a request letter and since then we have been in touch with the spokesperson with no success.

Wikimedia Israel and Channel 2 (television channel) have a long and evolving partnership. It started three years ago on the 10th anniversary of HEWP. For an entire week, five of the most senior Channel 2 reporters were taught to edit Wikipedia by Wikimedia Israel’s volunteers. Then, each recorded a short video telling about their (positive) experience editing Wikipedia on various topics. Almost three years later, Channel 2 will release more than 100 videos under open license. Videos that cover footage from important historical events from the last 20 years regarding Israel, the Middle East as well as international events. They will be integrated into the relevant Wikipedia articles, hopefully in as many languages as possible. In the near future Channel 2 will release more videos according to requests from the Wikipedia community. The innovativeness of this project is twofold: A commercial TV channel that releases videos under an open license and the increase of professional videos in WikiCommons. We hope that other commercial TV channels will follow suit. See details in the Wikimedia blog.

Secondary Education

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Meta-objective: Development of an Educational Program with the aim to broaden the knowledge and active participation of the education community in Wikimedia projects.

Expanding the activity with gifted and talented students

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
Continued activity with 4 gifted classes The objective was not measured in 2015. 100% of the schools and educational organizations that were working with WMIL on 2015 have chosen to continue working with us on 2016.

Among the classes we work with this year, two classes were participated in 2015 activity.

- Usually, the curriculum of the education organizations presents different goals for each academic year. Therefore, integrating a given group of students in our article-writing program, year after year, is challenging. Thus, out of 11 schools and educational organizations continuing the cooperation, 10 have chosen to hold article writing only in new classes, which did not yet participate in our program.

See elaboration below.

Equipping the students of 10 gifted classes across Israel with editing skills 16 gifted classes took part in our editing workshops. During the first 6 months, 21 gifted classes participated in a Wikimedia Israel activity. - See elaboration below.
At least 140 new articles will be created by gifted and talented students 94 articles were written or significant expanded by gifted students. 240 articles were written and 99 articles were significantly expanded. The students were also engaged in WikiGnoming in 308 articles. - -
95% of the students’ contributions were successfully incorporate into the mainspace. 85% of the articles were incorporated into the mainspace. 99% of the new articles, or article expantions, were incorporated into the mainspace. Only three contributions were deleted or reverted. - -
At least 80% of the articles will meet the assessment for student assignments This activity was not part of work plan for 2015 - Quality of the students’ articles will be assessed at the end of 2016. -
The editing tutorial courseware will be integrated into at least 60% of classes This activity was not part of work plan for 2015 Out of 22 classes working in Hebrew, 18 classes (about 82%) using at least one of the Chapter’s training tools. Data is lacking for the other classes.

One class worked in Arabic, when the Chapter still did not have designated training tools for this language. That situation is now changed.

- -
Developing and pursuing further advanced activities for at least 15-20 gifted students who will have excelled in editing during the school year of 2015-16 This activity was not part of work plan for 2015 - The activity is planned for H2. Building up a method for advanced Wikipedia editing, to be tested on a group of 15-20 gifted students



Wikimedia Israel’s article writing program for gifted students - A huge success!

The Be'er Sheva Educational Initiative: students in an editing workshop

During the first 6 months of 2016, Wikimedia Israel’s article writing program for gifted students operated in 20 schools and education organizations, and included about 650 students. The project was led by the education coordinator and six of the Chapter’s education volunteers, together with 30 leading educators. About 20 additional volunteers took part in the program, as online consultants (see details below).

100% of the secondary schools and education organizational participating in 2015 in the article writing by students program have chosen to continue working with us on 2016. For seven of those schools and organizations, this is the third year of cooperation with Wikimedia Israel. For seven of the teachers, this is the second or third year of participation in the program. The number of volunteers involved in leading the project has doubled compared to last year (6 vs. 3).

These figures reflect a steady trend of perseverance of partners in the program, and increase of its scope. The trend it expected to manifest also in the next half of 2016. Perseverance and constant growth are made possible thanks to three main reasons:

  • We have identified in the Israeli education system components that provide an opportunity for convenient integration of the article writing program: using alternative means of assessment, besides tests; introduction of project-based learning processes (PBL) , leading to outcomes in the “real” world; programs focused on developing language and academic skills; and programs that has elements of contribution to the community.
  • We have developed an extensive set of auxiliary tools for teachers participating in the program, to support them in processes of planning, teaching and assessment, while leading their students to write articles
  • We make sure to give our partners fast and comprehensive solutions and personal guidance, while they lead their students to write articles.

Out of the total articles created or expanded by gifted students, 99% were integrated in the article namespace. This high percentage continues now for the second year, and is an outcome of our involvement in several key points of the educational process:

  • Teacher training, in which we provide the teachers in-depth familiarity with the Wikipedia environment and practical tools for responsible guidance of the students in the article-making process.
  • Formulating lists of writing subjects for the article-writing projects: Our involvement at this stage of the process enables us to guarantee, with high certainty, that the writing subjects chosen will not only correspond to the teacher’s pedagogic goals, but also to the notability rules of the Hebrew Wikipedia community.
  • Participation in feedback processes - We encourage teachers to consult with us while providing feedback to the students, and pass to us a sample of the students’ drafts so that we can provide important points for grading the projects.Quality assurance for the drafts before moving them to the article namespace - we encourage students to upload their content to Wikipedia as drafts. Before moving the content from draft to article namespace, Wikimedia’s representatives review it, make sure it complies with the customary Wikipedia rules, and help with its adjustment to the rules.


Twelve-graders write about Particle Physics

A photo of an experiment module model that was created and incorporated in the hebrew article about Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer by one of the participating students

Twenty five 12-graders from the Leo Beck Education Center, Haifa, have created rich articles about particle physics, led by Mr. Kobi Schwartzboard, a physics teacher and director of the science and technology field in the Leo Back Education Center.

The students participating in the project have visited the CERN center for particle study, on the Swiss-French border. In the center, they got to know up-close different facilities and experiments, and took high-quality photos in the framework of a school photography contest.

The students have incorporated the knowledge and photos they brought with them in 13 new articles about particle physics, based on academic sources. When required, the students have created designated illustrations incorporated in the articles.

The project concluded with a festive event, that included, among else, an exhibition of the new articles together with a QR code, enabling to view them in Wikipedia.

A Wikipedian who is part of the senior faculty in the Physics Department, Bar Ilan University, assisted the project. When the project was concluded, that Wikipedian wrote the teacher: “I observe your activity in the project jointly with Wikipedia and in teaching physics in general with awe and admiration! Good job!” Additional Wikipedians have expressed their appreciation of the project’s outcomes.

An illustration that was created and incorporated in the hebrew article about Quadrupole magnet by on of the participating students

Local media has also expressed great interest in the project, and in one of the published reviews a participating student spoke of her experience:

“The first feeling I had when I heard I would be writing a Wikipedia article was fear, I couldn’t understand how I, a 16-year-old kid without prior experience, can write an article for Wikipedia. We’ve read papers, browsed dozens of websites concerning the article and translated from English to Hebrew. The work was really hard, we were able to face the difficulties and studied a lot... I underwent a significant learning process. And I’ve learnt about myself that I can cope with difficulties and fear, receive help from those around me, and that I can do anything if I want to”.
- Haifa Municipality Magazine “Ironet”, volume 593.

Sample articles: experiment ALICE, experiment ATLAS ,magnetic trap.

The cooperation with the Leo Beck Education Center includes various projects, and we intend to continue and even expand it in the coming school year.


Receiving Online Assistance from Experts

Different volunteer consultants supported the students’ article writing program:

Over 20 Wikipedians specializing in writing in a certain field supported the program, while helping to formulate lists of topics for writing that correspond with the notability requirement and the pedagogic goals of the schools; consulting about appropriate information sources; and involved in drafting and feedback processes. Two of these volunteers are researchers from Bar Ilan University’s senior faculty.

An additional researcher, from the Weitzman Science Institute, advised the students concerning accuracy of an article in the field of physics, and helped them to write it.

A few quotes from students who met Eli Shany, a Wikipedian who volunteered to guide their class in a Wikipedia editing project:

  • "Eli completely changed the way I thought of Wikipedia. He made me see this website as a serious encyclopedia. Through him, I realized the responsiblity of each editor for Wikipedia".
  • "I enjoyed listening to Eli's answers to the questions asked about Wikipedia. He is a professional. I realized that Wikipedia was first and foremost an encyclopedia, that writing an article requires reliable sources and that the writing must be objective."


Students Edit the Arabic Wikipedia

"Students Edit the Arabic Wikipedia" is a new WMIL initiative. The program is based on the extensive knowledge and experience WMIL has gained during the past three years, working with Hebrew-speaking gifted and talented students.

The Israeli education system has a special curriculum and special schools for Arabic-speaking students. In these schools, the major teaching language is Arabic, while Hebrew and English are taught as second and third languages. Our success with the article writing program in Hebrew encouraged us to start a similar program for Arabic-speaking students and find creative ways implement it. In addition, an Arab PhD candidate, whose thesis is about the Arabic Wikipedia and participated in the Arabic editing group initiated by WMIL last year, was very enthusiastic about the idea and willing to help us.

WMIL staff and volunteers were not familiar enough with the Arabic-speaking schools' curriculum, so as a first step, the ED met with key figures at the Ministry of Education and with school principals. These meetings were also used to introduce the program and its benefits to the educators, as well as to present WMIL's successes with Hebrew-speaking students. The educators showed interest in the program and we all decided to start a pilot. The superintendent of the Gifted Education Program at the Ministry of Education made a contact between us and five schools. Three schools were interest in the program. Fortunately, the PHd candidate and several Arabic-speaking volunteer agreed to join in and help us run the pilot.

In April we organized a around-table meeting with ten school principals, researchers and other key figures of the Arabic-speaking education system. In this meeting, we presented Wikimedia Israel’s article writing program and invited the educators to offer feedbacks and remarks. We received wonderful feedbacks, which encouraged us to start the Arabic version of this program. In two of the three aforementioned schools only few articles were written and integrated in the ar-wp article namespace. We plan to continue our work with these schools once the new schoolyear begins in September with the hope to see better results next year. Beside the pilot, the ED contacted a major Israeli foundation that showed interest in supporting the project and will hopefully provide funds. The expansion of the program depends on these funds. Our work with the schools that have already joined the pilot will, however, continue in any event. We are also in the course of adapting instructional material about Wikipedia editing for Arabic-speaking schools, which means both translating them from Hebrew into Arabic and including information relevant to the Arabic Wikipedia and to the Arabic-speaking public.

Turning to a more profound activity with teachers in order to shift opinions and stances, to expand the use of Wikimedia and to contribute to its projects

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
An additional cycle of teachers’ training About 200 teachers in 7 curriculum subject have successfully graduated the training. 191 teachers in 11 curriculum subjects have successfully graduated the training, among them 181 teachers graduating from the basic training and 10 teachers graduating the pilot for an advanced training. An additional cycle will start, beginning at November. In addition to the online teachers’ training for which data appears above, Wikimedia Israel approaches teachers via additional channels (see details below).


Reaching out to as many teachers as possible: Wikimedia Israel works with education professionals in the secondary education via 4 channels:

1. Online training, acknowledged by the Ministry of Education: In 2015 we started operating an online teacher training program concerning use of Wikipedia and its pedagogic implementation, developed and led by the Ministry of Education, the Center for Educational Technology (CET) and Wikimedia Israel.
This training program started operating in 2015 and has continued also to 2016. In this year, the course was opened for 11 curriculum subjects: in five out curriculum subjects the training has been continuing for the second year, and in additional five curriculum subjects this is the first time the course operates.
Feedback from the training participants testifies of their high satisfaction with the training contents, and that they actually adopt Wikipedia as a pedagogic tool. However, as part of constant improvement processes, we now work with CET to further develop the course, while focusing on two objectives: better correspondence of the training to each of the participating curriculum subjects, and incorporating a broader variety of applicable suggestions of Wikipedia-based educational activities.
In one of the continuous curriculum subjects, a new cycle of the existing training did not begin, and instead teachers were offered to take part in an advanced training: in which the teachers were invited to actively experience composing an article in their curriculum subject. 10 teachers have successfully experienced the pilot, developed with the help of a leading teachers’ instructor from the Ministry of Education who turned into a prominent partner of Wikimedia Israel. Following the pilot, we understood that many teachers find that the task of article writing requires too much effort, or is irrelevant to their work since it is hard to integrate article writing in their classes. As a result, we have decided, jointly with our partners, to open each year small cycles of advanced training, in which teachers from different curriculum subjects that are highly motivated to write Wikipedia articles will participate.
2. Frontal training courses: Beyond the training courses mentioned above, Wikimedia Israel has developed and independently conducts designated training for education professionals participating in the gifted students’ article writing program. These courses take place during the summer months, in a frontal meeting followed by a videoconference.
During the first half of 2016, 30 education professionals were recruited for this training. WMIL developed for the courses a workshop for teachers and three unique tools for planning an educational article-writing project (see details below).
Due to high demand to the training course days and the students’ article writing program, we were forced to stop registration to them for the time being.
3. Conventions and exposure gatherings: Wikimedia Israel’s representatives participate in conventions and gatherings for education professionals with the goal of raising awareness to Wikipedia and its numerous pedagogic implementations, and recruit participants to the Wikimedia Israel education programs. During the first 6 months of 2016 we have met about 75 education professionals, including principles, pedagogic coordinators, librarians in education institutions and leading teachers; this, in the framework of two exposure events for education professionals.
4. Inclusion in teachers’ training tracks: In 2016 as in previous years, Wikimedia Israel was included in academic training tracks of education professionals in Israel. In 2015, we were included in two academic tracks for teacher training, in each we were involved in one course. During the first half of 2016, each of two tracks continued to cooperate with us in one course, and in addition we joined additional 3 academic tracks for teacher training, in which we were involved in a total of five courses. Overall WMIL were involved in seven courses attended by 200 student teachers. The outcomes of this cooperation is included in reports of our academic activity, some of them included in the report for this half-year, and some will be presented in the concluding report for 2016.
During the first half of 2016, Wikimedia Israel reached out to 500 education professionals via these 4 channels.

Academia

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Extending activities in academic institutions

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
Continuation of the Wikipedia Assignment activity in 9 academic courses, led by volunteers 10 lecturers joined the program. The program operates in 12 courses (out of which, seven are new), and five continuing from previous year. Additional lecturers and courses are expected to join the program, led by volunteers. -
Approaching 2-3 research associations This activity was not part of work plan for 2015 Approaching two societies: the psychology, and information studies society. There was no interest in promoting the subject. Continued approach to academic societies. -
Presenting the Wikipedia Assignment Program to decision makers in 1-2 universities A meeting was held with seven lecturers from the School of Communication at the College of Management, including the Dean. - A preliminary offer for activity in several courses, in one academic institute, under the Rector’s sponsorship, is currently under review. -
Expanding the academic activity to additional 6 courses This activity was not part of work plan for 2015 As part of the working plan to expand activity in the academia, five courses are now part of the pilot. All of them are new cooperation Background information on the program was sent to additional lecturers who showed interest. -
One course in a Translation Department This activity was not part of work plan for 2015 Two translation departments were approached. - At this stage, articles translation task cannot integrate in the curriculum of the translation departments.


Due to shortage of hired personnel in Wikimedia’s team simultaneously to producing the International Hackathon, there was delay in the overall development and implementation of the work plan of Wikipedia Assignment program. The main delay is in the infrastructure development (website and tools for instructors and students). But the volume of activity grew: 17 instructors took part in the Wikipedia Assignment program (compared to ten instructors in 2015). Their students wrote 236 articles and expanded 347 articles (compared to 120 articles and expanded 30 articles).

Wikipedia Course: “Skills for Producing and Consuming Knowledge”

In the framework of the “Kelim Shluvim” Program (connected vessels, in Hebrew), an undergraduate, cross-campus elective course Tel Aviv University

In 2013, the first for-credit elective course that focuses on contributing to Wikipedia was launched at Tel Aviv university (TAU). The course, which is called Wiki-Med, focused on teaching medical students how to create high quality medical content, and resulted in 170 new articles, which received over 3 million views thus far. Drawing from its success, Shani Evenstein, a Wikipedian and educator who designed and led Wiki-Med, has developed a new elective course that will accommodate all undergraduate students, from all disciplines studied on campus. The course has been approved by the Vice Rector, making Tel Aviv University the first academic institution worldwide to allow all its undergraduates to take a for-credit Wikipedia course, thus recognizing the importance of a Wikipedia training to students on an institutional level.

The course was launched in October 2015 and was led by Evenstein, with partners from the Orange Institute for Internet Studies and the School of Education at TAU. Academic emphasis was put on active learning and improving academic and digital literacies. Students were taught not only how to better consume information, but also how to actively participate in its creation. The course included introductory sessions to Wikipedia and the free knowledge movement, technical editing sessions, and discussion sessions on critical issues. Those included copyrights, neutral point of view, encyclopedic writing vs. academic writing, the power of the community, collaborative learning and creation of knowledge, information biases, Wiki in education and Wikidata. Since diversity and collaborative work are key elements in the wikiverse, it was important to Evenstein that the community takes an active part in the course, both in class and online. Guest lectures included key members from the He-Wiki community, as well as from the international community. This way, the students had the opportunity to interact with a greater range of contributors to the Wikimedia movement.

30 students have completed the course successfully, writing together 70 articles. Each student has expanded one stub and wrote a new one. In addition, students participated in a peer evaluation process, and presented in class a reflection on their learning experience at course end. Students reported a positive and meaningful learning experiences, or as one student put it, “this course was one of the most important and interesting courses I took during my B.A. studies. I think every undergraduate should participate in such a course. What we’ve learnt here is important and will be helpful to us in the future, not only in academia, but in our daily lives.” Some unexpected results were that at least three students became active Wikipedians and continued contributing to Wikipedia after the course. In addition, the Wikidata session, which was run for the first time in Israel, was voted by students one of the most interesting and remembered session. This was of particular importance to Evenstein, who believes it is crucial to expose students to Wikidata, as it has the potential to change research as we know it. As a result, Wikidata will be incorporated deeper into the syllabus in future iterations of the course.


Running the course was a complex task, with challenges that included ongoing administrative tasks and high level of availability to students’ questions and needs. In addition, a high level of heterogeneity in class was evident, not only since students came from varying backgrounds and disciplines, but also since they had varying levels of computer skills, digital skills, academic skills and writing skills. The team had to cope with this diversity and address students’ varying literacies level. However, the course staff attest that heterogeneity was used as an advantage: in addition to supporting students, accountability and responsibility of students were highlighted. Students expanded their horizons and sharpened skills while working with others, building on the community created in the class, through peer review, self-assessment and feedback from staff. The different iterations of reviews and feedback ensured high-quality and comprehensive articles.

No doubt, additional courses and lecturers collaborating with Wikipedia and implementing it into their curriculum expand the awareness and impact of Wikimedia on the academic world. Awareness leads to better consumers and more contributors, as well as to new partners and collaborations. So what’ next? Moving forward, the course will re-open in the coming year, with the hopes of increasing the number of participants and thus its impact.

For further reading: Tel Aviv’s new university course is dedicated to contributing to Wikipedia By Shani Evenstein.


Training

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Table 3

Program (1) # of newly registered users (2) # of active editors involved (3) # of individuals involved (4a) # of new images/media added to Wikimedia articles/pages (4b) # of new images/media uploaded (optional) (5) # of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects (6) Absolute value of bytes added to or deleted from Wikimedia projects
Content 700 17 1000
H1 520 42 908 164 450

Meta-Objective: Improving the training infrastructure for Wikimedia initiatives

Development, implementation, and dissemination of training tools for promoting editing throughout Wikimedia projects

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
Tools for the general public Launched

courseware for self-learning of Wikipedia editing.

- Improved version of the courseware will be launched on September. -
Expanding the use of the educational courseware 800 unique users used the courseware. 866 unique users used the courseware. - -
Tools for the schools and the academia Seven tools developed for secondary education and the academy. Two of the tools developed in 2015 were translated into English and distributed to the international community.

Three of the tools developed in 2015 were translated into Arabic and distributed to the international community (see below). Four additional tools written in Hebrew were developed or improved (see details below).

Unitary design for WMIL variety of teachers’ tools, and launching them as one kit.

Developing a tool concerning copyright. Developing a toolbox concerning encyclopedia writing (in subject of notability, article structure, choosing information sources and neutral writing).

-

The courseware for Wikipedia editing proved to be very successful. Using the coursewere rquires entering the username on Wikipedia. From this information we learn that 866 people used the courseware, 450 new articles were written following the usage of the courseware and 164 images were uploaded. The figures in the first table of this report include most of these new articles. Some may have been left out of the statistics due to our limited ability to trace new activity that is not directly related to the chapter. The productivity of the courseware, i.e. the number of new articles created following its usage, came almost as a surprise even to us. In light of this information we think the development of such tools should be on our top priority.

Courseware: Continued Improvement and Development

Since the courseware’s launch in mid-2015, Wikimedia Israel team has been gathering feedback from users and education volunteers using it. During this half of 2016, we started improving it, to make the courseware even more effective and friendly, according to the conclusions we have drawn.

In its improved version, the courseware will be composed of four mini-courseware, all accessed from one landing page:

  1. Getting to know the Wikipedia interface and the visual editor toolbar
  2. Editing articles and user pages
  3. Adding photos
  4. Using talk pages

The first three mini-courseware are based on existing materials to be updated and improved, while the fourth part (using talk pages) will be an entirely new development.

The new version of the tool is expected to launch on the second half of 2016.

Designated Tools for Education Initiatives

During the first 6 months of 2016, WMIL has continued to develop and improve designated tools for teachers leading article writing projects. The following are the main tools we have developed and improved:

Tools in Hebrew

  • A basic layout of a yearly program for an article writing project: This tool, first developed in 2015, is substantially improved and expanded, to allow teachers to plan projects more accurately and effectively.
  • Project card: This tool was also intended to help teachers plan article writing projects. The tool helps teachers create a summary “ID card” that includes all material parameters relating to the project they lead.
  • Resource locator for the project: This tool help teachers to define resources that may help article writing projects. It helps teachers identify such resources around them, and plan how they should be recruited to the project and included in it.
  • A workshop provides the teachers with practical tools to lead articles writing projects.

Tools in Arabic

  • Article content creation guide: The guide was published to the international community in different channels, together with two other educational tools has been adopted and translated to Arabic. A summary explanation of these three tools in included later on. We hope that these three tools, as well as additional tools developed in Arabic, will allow us to significantly expand our education program to the large public of Arabic speakers in Israel.

Article Quality in Wikimedia Israel’s Enterprises:

Measurement System and Assessment Indicator


Introduction

Wikimedia Israel is aimed at contributing to the creation of high-quality content for Wikimedia’s initiatives.

In the education and academic programs, constituting the majority of our initiative, as well as in additional initiatives we lead, we make sure that each and every article is reviewed by professionals and professional volunteers. Among those involved in inspecting the articles are linguistics experts, content experts and Wikipedia editing experts. They take part in the programs pursuant to their roles in the education system, the academy or professional bodies, or voluntarily participate in the Wikipedia community.

The absorption rates of the initiatives’ outcomes - almost 100% - partially testify of their quality. However, so far we had no systematic method to measure the quality of the outcomes.

We are happy to announce that at the end of a construed thought process, we developed a measurement system and indicator for assessing outcome quality. At this stage, the indicator relates to outcomes of one type: new Wikipedia articles, constituting the majority of outcomes in our work. Later on, we would like to develop assessment indicators for additional outcome types, such as translated and expanded articles.


Measurement System

Quality measurement is a challenging task: naturally, quantitative data does not “capture” the quality of articles. For example, an article could have a seemingly appropriate number of words, internal links and categories, but once read, is found to be unclear, badly translated from another language, etc. Similarly, an article may include an impressive number of information sources, but when inspected, it is soon revealed that the reliability or relevance of these sources is doubtful.

Therefore, the measuring system we have developed is based on reading the article and scoring it by human, rather than computer-based, evaluation.

Assessment will be conducted based on a detailed indicator, presented below.


Methodology

Non-computer based, human evaluation requires prolonged, in-depth reading of the outcomes. Therefore, it will be applied to a sample of the initiatives’ outcomes.

The sampling frame (sample population) will be all articles created in the initiative. The sample type will be simple random sample: the tested articles will be randomly chosen by the reviewer from the sampling frame.

At this time, the sample will consider 15-20% of the articles in each initiative, and at least 3 articles out of the article list in each course.

The lower the variance in scores among articles (i.e., the difference between high-quality articles and low-quality articles is less extreme), the more we can determine the sample is representative.

For that end, we wish to hold a pilot, and start with sample testing of the articles based on the quality measures during 2016.

Assessment Indicator

Using the Indicator

  • The indicator encompasses five areas of assessment. For each of these five areas, the reviewer will rate the article on a scale of 1 to 100. For that end, the reviewer will use a description of three different performance levels in each area.
  • The indicator determines the weight of each area in the final weighting of the data. After scoring each of the five measured areas, the reviewer will weigh them, and rate the article on a final scale of 1 to 100.
  • The quality of articles will be determined by their score: 75-100 = high-quality; 50-75 = pass; 1-50 = requires improvement.
  • After scores for all sample articles are determined, we will measure the percentage of high-quality articles out of all articles; this, while relating to all Wikimedia Israel’s initiatives, and separately for each initiative.
Area and weight Detailed requirements Green: high performance level Yellow: medium performance level Red: Low performance level
Content (25%)
  • Good coverage of the topic
  • The article reviews the vital information for understanding the topic.
  • The article does not present redundant information.
  • The article reviews a large part of the vital information for understanding the topic.
  • Some redundant information is presented.
  • Some of the vital information for a basic understanding of the topic is lacking.
  • A large part of the information is redundant.
Structure (20%)
  • Coherent and logical structure
    (for example: chronological, from general to specific, from important to minor, from universal to local)
  • The article has a logical and coherent structure.
  • The article structure is reflected in division to paragraphs and sections.
  • The paragraph titles fit their content.
  • Structure is mostly logical and coherent.
  • The article structure is usually reflected in division to paragraphs and sections.
  • The paragraph titles reasonably fit their content.
  • Structure is illogical and incoherent.
  • Division into paragraphs and sections does not correspond to the article structure.
  • The paragraph titles do not fit their content.
Writing style (15%)
  • Clear and concise language
  • Neutral-scientific writing
  • Grammatically correct
  • The article is written in clear and concise language.
  • The article is written in a manner that expresses facts, rather than the author’s opinions.
  • In case of several important approaches to the topic, the neutrality rules in Annex B are maintained.
  • Medium-high register is used.
  • The article does not contain material grammatical errors.
  • The language of the article is reasonably clear and concise.
  • Mostly, the article is written in a manner that expresses facts, rather than the author’s opinions.
  • In case of several important approaches to the topic, the neutrality rules in Annex B are slightly violated.
  • Medium-high register is used, except extraordinary cases.
  • Grammar is reasonable, except extraordinary cases of material errors.
  • Some parts of the article are unclear and/or too long.
  • In several cases, the article includes the author’s opinions.
  • In case of several important approaches to the topic, the neutrality rules in Annex B are violated.
  • Register is relatively low.
  • The article includes material grammatical errors.
Using resources (25%)
  • Using relevant and reliable information sources
    (books published by a reputable publishing house, lectures and papers published by experts, etc. - compared to unacceptable sources such as personal blogs and social media)
  • Indicating the details of the information sources in footnotes
  • The entire information is based on published sources that are diverse, reliable and relevant.
  • The information items include footnotes indicating their source.
  • The information sources details highly or fully correspond to the customary Wikipedia rules of presentation.
  • The majority of information is based on published sources that are reliable and relevant.
  • Usually, the information items include footnotes indicating their source.
  • The information sources details reasonably correspond to the customary Wikipedia rules of presentation.
  • Information is not based on published sources that are reliable and relevant.
  • Usually, the information items do not include footnotes indicating their source.
  • When details of the information sources are presented, it is made in a manner materially deviating from Wikipedia’s customary rules.
Suitability for Wikipedia (15%)
  • Suitability to the customary Wikipedia article structure
  • Links to existing or potential Wikipedia articles
  • Photos, graphs and/or visual aids
  • Categories for topic attribution in Wikipedia
  • The article text contains many links to other Wikipedia articles in a manner that may assist the readers.
  • Visual aids are attached to the article to illustrate the topic, without violation of copyright laws.
  • Categories for topic attribution in Wikipedia are indicated at the end of the article.
  • Structure highly corresponds to the customary Wikipedia structure (see Annex A).
  • The article text contains some links to other Wikipedia articles in a manner that may assist the readers.
  • Categories for topic attribution in Wikipedia are not indicated at the end of the article.
  • Structure mostly corresponds to the customary Wikipedia structure (see Annex A).
  • The article text does not contain links to other Wikipedia articles, or contains links that do not assist the readers.
  • The article contained photos or other elements that were deleted due to violation of copyright laws.
  • Categories for topic attribution in Wikipedia are not indicated at the end of the article.
  • Structure does not correspond to the customary Wikipedia structure (see Annex A).

Appendix I: Article structure

A Wikipedia article is normally structured to include the following parts:

  1. Lead – a section in the beginning of the article that summarizes its content. The lead usually includes only information that is found elsewhere in the article.
  2. Body – the main content of the article, usually divided into sub-sections.
  3. Final sections – these sections are meant to provide additional relevant information, particularly information about external sources of information. The referece section should always appear at the end of a Wikipedia article, and it is recommended to add at least one of the other final sections, in this order:
  • See also / further reading: a list of links to related Wikipedia articles, lists or portals.
  • References: this section should always be included. This is a list of the sources on which the article is based, particularly those mentioned in the inline citations. This section allows the reader to verify the information in the article, hence its importance.
  • External links: a list of relevant links to pages on websites other than Wikipedia.

Appendix II: Maintaining impartiality when presenting a controversial issue

When there are several significant approaches to the topic, or several major points of view from which it can be described, the following rules should be maintained:

  1. All significant points of view will be presented in the article. However, views that are very marginal (“fringe theories”) should not be included.
  2. The mainstream approach will be given precedence, namely, it will be described first and in more details.
  3. The choice of sources will not be influenced by the writer’s preference for one of the approaches.


Cultivating and professionalizing the Instructional Team

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
Maintaining an ongoing contact between education Coordinator and the team of education volunteers Ongoing personal connection was maintained between the volunteers and the education coordinator.

3 meetings of the volunteer team and the education coordinator took place: 2 face-to-face meetings and one videoconference. It was decided to move to a format of videoconferences.

Ongoing personal connection was maintained between the volunteers and the education coordinator.

The education coordinator initiated contact with a Wikipedian who led an educational initiative, independently of the Chapter’s activity, and started supporting him. 3 online meetings of the volunteers and the education coordinator took place (see details below).

Ongoing personal connection continues between the volunteers and the education coordinator.

Three online meeting and one face-to-face meeting of the volunteers and education coordinator are planned.

-
Scheduling and implementing a training course in order to expand the instructional team This activity was not part of work plan for 2015 - During the second half of 2016 a course for instructor training will be executed. -

Training the trainers: Videoconferences of the Education Volunteers

In 2015, we have decided to change the format for meetings of the volunteers’ team and the education coordinator, from face-to-face meetings to videoconferences in smaller teams. The change was meant to make it easier for volunteers to participate in the meetings, and give each of them more space for personal expression. To test the feasibility of the change, we held a pilot videoconference in December 2015 , which succeeded.

Education volunteer in one of their video conferences

Accordingly, at the beginning of 2016, the volunteers were divided into two groups, each of them including 6-7 participants, meeting in regular times, according to the preferences of the members.

During the first 6 months of 2016, 3 videoconferences took place by the planned format. Out of the relevant volunteers, almost 80% participated in at least one videoconference. One of the volunteers is a new member of the education team, successfully integrated in it.

The videoconferences were dedicated to mutual updates among the education volunteers and peer learning focused on stories “from the field”. Among the issues discussed:

  • How can we maintain cooperation with education institutions, year after year?
  • How should we support the process of choosing writing topics in educational initiatives for creating new articles?
  • What advice and tools should be provided for educational initiatives for expanding existing Wikipedia articles?

To enable free flow of information in the team, the meetings were recorded in minutes and distributed among all education volunteers.

International Cooperation

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Target Last year (if applicable) Progress (at end of Q2) Projected (end of year) Comments
Publicizing educational training materials to the international educational community - Three instruction materials were translated and adopted into Arabic and distributed in different reporting channels.

Two tools were translated into English and published in different channels - see details below.

Translation into Arabic of the lecture outline accompanying the Wikipedia Introduction Presentation, and distributing it to the community abroad. -
Ongoing publicizing, on international platforms, of the Chapter’s activities 6 publications were published in the international blog 1 International publication published: Community digest: “No matter how old you are, you can edit Wikipedia and be recognized for it” - By Shai Katz and Ed Erhart. - -
Connecting the local community with the Wikimedia Movement 18 publications of international knowledge were sent to the mailing list of chapter's members and volunteers. Nine updated of international activity were included in Wikimedia Israel’s bi-weekly newsletter. We will continue with biweekly updates. -
Participation in Wikimania Two board members and the ED participated in Wmcon15.

Wikimania - ED, two Board members and two volunteers participated.

Two board members participated in Wmcon16

Three staff, two Board members and five scholars took part in Wikimania.

- The Israeli delegation to Wikimania took an active part in the convention: three lectures and two discussions were held by Chapter volunteers and team.

Translation and Distribution of Educational Tools:

A Guide to Writing Articles about Awards Winning Scientists
A Guide to Writing Articles about Awards Winning Scientists
Article content creation guide
Article content creation guide
  • Article Assessment for Student Assignments

In 2015 we have developed an indicator intended to assist teachers in our education program to assess articles composed by secondary school students. During the first half of 2016 we translated the indicator into English and distributed it among the international Wikimedia community using different platforms (Wikimedia Commons, Facebook, international distribution list of the education field, and even distributing hard copies in Wikimania). We were pleased to receive positive feedback on our tool, and discover that our colleagues in the Argentinian Chapter have chosen to translate it into Spanish and make it available to the thousands of teachers participating in WMAR online. The indicator developed was used as basis for developing another tool: a tool for measuring quality of articles, in which we would like to use to assess the quality of outcomes generates from our activity (see below).

  • Teachers Guide (mentioned in the 2015 impact report as “Activity booklet”)

One of the tools for teachers developed in 2015 and achieving great success was “Wikipedia in Class” - a booklet for teachers that includes a list of skills and qualifications that may be developed and encourages by writing in Wikipedia and a broad variety of “Wikipedian” activities that you can implement in class. Approaching Wikimania 2016 in Esino Lario, we have translated this tool into English . The booklet, distributed in the convention, has earned enthusiastic responses.

  • Introduction to Wikipedia Presentation

In 2015, we have prepared a professionally-designed presentation and elaborated lecture outline for an introduction to Wikipedia lecture; this, with the purpose of enabling the Chapter’s education team and education professionals as well as lecturers in general, provide students in-depth knowledge of Wikipedia. At the end of 2015 we have adopted the presentation into Arabic, and on the first half of 2016, distributed it to the international community in different channels: The Education Newsletter, the education mailing list and the “Wikipedia Education Program” Facebook group.

In the second half of 2016 we will complete translation and distribution of the lecture outline that accompanies the presentation.

The tool is based on the Scientist article content creation guide composed and translated in 2015, but has a much broader subject-matter: it guides teachers and students how to create content of articles in any subject. This tool was developed in the first half of 2016, and distributed to the international community through different channels: distribution of hard copies in Wikimania, The Education Newsletter, the education mailing list and the “Wikipedia Education Program” Facebook group.

  • Technical presentation to study Wikipedia editing using the visual editor

In 2015 we have developed in the Chapter a presentation that supports students in moving outcomes from MS-Word documents to the Wikipedia article namespace. In 2016, we have translated the presentation into Arabic and distributed it to the international community in a variety of channels: The Education Newsletter, the education mailing list and the “Wikipedia Education Program” Facebook group.


Number of media publications:

  • 19 mentions and media publications about Wikimedia and the activity of Wikimedia Israel during the first half.
  • Fifteen general publications and four publications about the Hackathon.

Wikimedia Hackthon:

Revenues received during this six-month period

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Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

US$1=ILS 3.935

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
revenues from private donations ILS 2,033 450 14,240 14,690 2,033 3,733
revenues from sponsorships ILS 0 0 0 0 0 0
Funds ILS 30,496 0 41,700 41,700 30,496 10,597
revenues from membership fees ILS 381 100 540 640 381 163
WMF ILS 211,944 486,500 0 486,500 211,944 123,634
revenues from collaborations ILS 21,194 30,000 0 30,000 21,194 7,624
revenues from courses ILS 305 1,200 0 1,200 305 305
In Kind ILS ‎363,000 - - 0 92,249 0 In kind donations will be calculated at the end of the year
TOTAL (not including In kind) ILS 1,046,900 518,250 56,480 574,730 266,048 146,056

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


Spending during this six-month period

edit

Please use the exchange rate in your APG proposal.

US$1=ILS 3.935

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.)
Expense Currency Budgeted Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Cumulative Budgeted ($US)* Cumulative ($US)* Percentage spent to date Explanation of variances from plan
Strengthening and cultivating the relations between the Chapter and the Wikimedia community ILS 189,980 20,241 13,848 34,089 48,280 8,663 18
Communities support (Wikimedia Initiatives) ILS 48,000 13,529 12,627 26,156 12,198 6,647 54
Developing human and technological infrastructure to promote the creation of openly licensed materials ILS 8,000 0 0 0 2,033 0 0
Establishing meaningful collaborations with knowledge-centric institutions ILS 211,380 48,510 46,688 95,198 53,718 24,193 45
Improving the training infrastructure for Wikimedia initiatives ILS 103,480 31,994 22,004 53,998 26,297 13,722 52
Raising public awareness to the importance of open data and to the public domain and its expansion ILS 49,500 12,318 10,577 22,895 12,579 5,818 46
Strengthening our involvement internationally - sharing experience with, and learning from the international Wikimedia community ILS 64,100 2,785 33,727 36,512 16,290 9,279 57
Promoting activity in Arabic ILS 13,700 0 1,350 1,350 3,482 343 10
Marketing and Advertising ILS 9,500 976 2,054 3,030 2,414 770 32
General and administrative expenses ILS 364,800 88,696 110,779 199,475 92,706 50,693 55
TOTAL ILS 1,062,440 219,049 253,654 472,703 269,997 120,128 44

* Provide estimates in US Dollars


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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