Grants:Conference/Falanster/Wikicamp2017

statusFunded

Conference & Event Grant

Falanster/Wikicamp2017

Organize a Wikicamp for new and experienced wiki-editors in Belarus. July, 2017.

targetbe.wikipedia.org, be-tarask.wikipedia.org

strategic priorityIncreasing Participation

amount-local~~9600 USD~~ 4800 USD

amountplease add the amount you are requesting (USD)

typeorganization

nonprofitYes

creator• svetit

contact• falanster.by

gmail.com• falanster.by

gmail.com

organization• Youth non-governmental organization "Falanster"

website• https://falanster.by

give feedback

endorse

Friendly space expectations

index

Goals and outcomes

Goals

Please list three to four priorities that the community has identified that they want to focus on at this conference. These should be specific and actionable.

Build connections between experienced and new participants of the wiki-movement.
Discuss future online and offline community self-governance.
Increase and foster technical and humanitarian knowledge of participants.

Context

It is helpful to get an understanding of why this event is important to your community, and what experiences you have had in the past. Please answer the applicable questions below.

1. What inspired your community to begin planning this event?

The Belarusian wiki community has not had any events of this kind before where wikimedians from all Belarusian regions could meet up.

We prepared community for gathering and discussing of current issues, challenges and making plans for future development.

As an organizer team, we want newcomers to be shown a range of activities that can be possible to do within the Wikimedia movement.

2. How does this event tie into other activities that your group has done?

1. Falanster's wiki-activists with wiki-editors made about 5 wiki-expeditions and trainings for local and topic communities in the Belarusian towns and villages during years of 2015-2017. More than 15 workshops and lectures about Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in the different cities and towns of Belarus were held during 2015-2017. More than 300 people took part in these events. This activity warmed up the wiki-movement in small local communities, spread news and widen people's knowledge about Wikipedia. So not only the capital - Minsk - has wiki-activity as of today.

2. Among participants of events mentioned above, there are people who began to edit Wikipedia or are ready to start. It is important to make the next step: connect these people with the wiki-community.

3. This year the Belarusian wiki-community is planning to participate in the CEE-Spring and Wiki Loves Earth contests. Also we begin to make regular meetups of the wiki-club for beginners.

3. If your community has hosted a similar conference in the past, what outcomes and benefits have you seen from past conferences?

We have keen enthusiasm to organize the first nation-wide event of this kind.

4. Please list the focus priorities identified in the report from the last conference organized by this community. What progress have you made in those areas?

-

5. If your community has hosted a similar conference in the past, what key lessons were learned, and what would you like to improve on?

Our community has never hosted the events like that before. Nevertheless we (the Falanster NGO) are experienced in organizing similar (non-wiki) events and conferences and we want to take into account the following moments:

1. Engage new non-wiki-volunteers in a preparation and organization process.

2. Motivate two Belarusian wikimedians (be. and be-tarask.) to collaborate during the preparation and organization process.

3. Offer some follow-up events for wiki-beginners after the Wikicamp finish to strengthen the result.

Measures of success

Please provide a list of both quantitative and qualitative criteria that will be used to determine how successful the project is. You are welcome to modify, delete or add to the metrics listed below so they reflect the goals of your event.

The camp will take place ~~7-10~~ 5-6 days in the mid of July, 2017.
About 20 participants in total (about 10+ newbies, and 5 experienced) + wikimedian guests (about 5 2-3 people).
Organizational team of 5 volunteers (logistics and economic management, exploration of participants (surveys, polls), project reporting, project coordinating, teacher-organizer, communications and PR).
70% of new projects initiated as a result of skills learned and ideas shared at the conference (during the summer-fall 2017). We will help with the project idea creation and planning.
70% of newbies begin to use tools learned at the conference, actively participate in wiki-community (traceability: outreachdashboard.wmlabs.org).
Gender equality with 50% of female and 50% of male participants (It is a big challenge but we think it is possible to achieve).
About 10 participants will make a workshop or moderate sessions.
Make a post-event survey and collect about 10-15 survey results.
~~Experienced wiki-users will be mentors and supervisors for wiki-newbies and their projects~~. - We will add this activity in the another project (by using rapid grand schema) in autumn.
The topic of self-organization inside the wiki-community will be discussed. New approaches will be offered and already used approaches will be improved.
1-5 of new tools (Wikipedia pages) or communication channels created to better collaborative work participants and the greater community. - We will discuss and improve a community portal.

Plan

Venue and Logistics

Friendly space policy

Please link to the friendly space policy that your community will be using for this event.
Do you need or want guidance on how to implement a friendly space policy?

We (Falanster) usually make events in a friendly way (as we considered it). It means that there is a tolerance atmosphere: no discrimination by gender, age, nationality, experience, religion and so on. It is an atmosphere with a positive way of speaking, using humor, supporting non-conflict and pro-creative communication.

Usually we make a detailed description of the event with requirements for participants (for example - all the participants should attend the prepared sessions not to spend time for non-camp activities). These requirements are interconnected with all activities and the program itself. So we unite those people who are ready to attend the event with this exact schedule and who are ready to participate actively.

Venue

We are looking for a place that meets the following criteria:

20+ people
About 2 hours distance from the capital (Minsk)
Fast Internet connection

Here is the chosed place for the camp: http://www.z-seminar.by/

Event Program

Please give a brief outline of the conference schedule or program and any events or activities you are planning for participants. The timing, topics and format of each session should be finalized and published on Meta six weeks before the event.

Collecting the best practices of wikicamps from Armenian wikimedians we are going to organize a 7-10 days Wikicamp. The program will consist of an educational part and a part for active leisure time. Every day about half of the day there will be an educational part and the second half of the day there will be numerous community-building activities.

Educational (official) program will consist of the following topics (or similar):

How to write a good (featured) article?
Importance of small edits in Wikipedia.
How to upload and categorize photos in Wikimedia Commons?
Online and offline work in wiki-community.
Computer literacy. 12 best practices for Wiki-projects.
Belarusian language in wiki-technologies.
How to organize a wiki- workshop, club or contest?
Creation of wiki-templates and bots (essentials).
What is open culture and why it is important?
Lecture or workshop from the foreign guest.

 Topic with priorities

We will ask the wiki-newbies to prepare their own project during the wikicamp, which will be implemented in local community during the three months period after the Wikicamp. The project can be a wiki-club, a set of wiki-workshops, a wiki-lecture, a photo contest or any other related activity.

The rest of activities will be games for community building, art, music, sports activities and workshops. Also we are planning a small wiki-expedition around the hosting place.

Community Input

Grant reviewers will be interested to read how the planning discussion developed and who was engaged. Please link below to all of the places where discussion about this conference are happening, i.e. talk pages, Facebook groups, meetup pages, notes from meetings. The most central, up to date, and relevant page should be highlighted in BOLD letters.

The project description on the Wikipedia.
A poll about topics that will be interesting to make on the Wikicamp.
A pad with minutes (notes) and Presentation (February, 2017) about the Wikicamp points, organization process and so on. These notes describe this grant application (in belarusian).
Organizational workflow on trello.com. The second column from the left. Here are wiki-volunteers who are ready to implement exact tasks.
We will actively use Falanster's equipment and facilities to improve the camp providing a projector, laptops, network routers, bicycles and related tools.

Participation

It is crucial that most participants have a minimum level of Wikimedia experience so that they can engage actively in workshops and discussions. Please answer all applicable questions below.

1. Please describe the target audience for this conference or event.

1. Newbies in Wikipedia. People who already edited Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons/and other Wikimedia projects and want to learn more.

2. Experienced wiki-editors. Editors who can share their experience with newbies.

2. If you are requesting funds for travel scholarships, what criteria will be used to select scholarship recipients?

A participant should correspond minimum two criteria:

1. Pupils, university students, or non-working persons.

2. Contribution to wiki-projects (Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, etc.).

3. Offering lectures and workshops during the Wikicamp.

4. Volunteering during the Wikicamp and helping in the organizational process.

5. Want and fit to be a camp teacher-organizer.

It could be a part-scholarship for several participants who can not stay during the whole Wikicamp.

Also we are going to take an affordable fee: for secondary school students (20 BYN), for university students (30 BYN), for working people (40 BYN). We plan to use this sum for further support of wiki projects for local communities.

3. If your conference has an outreach component, how will you ensure engagement with these participants after the conference, and what impact do you see them having on the projects?

1. Each wiki-newbie will develop her/his own idea (as a project) for implementation during the summer-fall 2017.

2. Each experienced user will supervise two newbies as a mentor and helper.

3. The successfully implemented projects of wiki-newbies will be awarded in November 2017.

4. Are you thinking about inviting WMF staff to attend or participate in the event? If yes, please list individuals or teams who you may want to invite, or describe how you would like WMF staff to be involved in the event.

Yes we plan to invite 1-2 persons from WMF staff and now select them for invitations. The most wanted topics to be covered are community building and a source and project management for it.

Follow-up

Please describe how you plan to follow up with event participants after the conference.

Each wiki-newbie will sign up on https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/. (Also all participants will continue communication on wiki forum, on facebook(wiki group)).
Each wiki-newbie will have a mentor and helper to implement his or her project and to participate in a wiki-community actively.
In November we will summarize the activity of every participant and will award the most active of them.

Resources and risks

Describe the resource potential for successfully executing this project and the key risks/threats.

Resources

Organizing team

Team	User Names
Wikicamp Grant and report	Svetit, Da voli
Logistics	Ihar Dorinel
Conference Program	Mr. Zabej
Scholarships	Consulina
Communications	KarlKori, Consulina, Da voli
Volunteer Coordinators	Mr. Zabej
Economic manager (food, stuff, etc.)	Svetit

Also we consider as resources the following points:

The intention of the Belarusian wiki-community to have this meetup.
Connections with the secondary school teachers from different Belarusian regions. This can help to find the teacher-organizator and to engage pupils and university students from small towns and villages.
Good grant-history with the Wikimedia Foundation.
Detailed discussion of the Wikicamp organizational process.
Organizational and in-kind donation from the "Falanster" youth NGO.

Risks

Examples of risks, along with how you would minimize or overcome them, are:

Skill gaps in project leadership team (e.g. no financial management experience)
Components of the measurement process that are hard to quantify

Examples of how to minimize these risks include:

Recruiting volunteers with desired skills to project leadership team.
Working with the WMF Learning & Evaluation Team to develop an appropriate measurement and evaluation plan.

1. Bad (slow) internet connection on the Wikicamp place.

How to minimize the risk:

Come to a Wikicamp place and check the internet connection in advance (before contract on a place).
Take own 3G-modems, routers.

2. Wiki-newbies will not implement their projects after the Wikicamp.

How to minimize the risk:

During the application process to define talents of each newcomers and focus on the talent.
Motivate newbies to be active with their projects and Wikimedia projects starting from the camp days.
Work with each of them on the project creation, use individual approach to find the idea and role that is interesting for the participant.
To follow adequate criteria for their ideas in a scope of SMART (specific, measurable, attainable/assignable, realistic and time-bounded) approach for each project.

3. The team of organizers becomes tired and burned out.

How to minimize the risk:

Make detailed tasks, track them and develop a clear timetable for the preparation in order to other volunteers can continue any tasks in a case of some team-member burns out.
Share core team responsibility with volunteer pool for non-urgent and non-important tasks (it is making warming up for new team members). Definitely, it is necessary to make a strong volunteers' call at the early stage of preparation.

Budget

Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here. See Budget Guidelines.

Event budget table

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Cost per unit	Total cost	Currency	Notes
1	Transport	Train, bus or car				~~500~~ 300	USD	Cover the tickets from towns and villages to Minsk and transportation of all the participants to the camp place. Preliminary familiarization visit to the camp place to check the conditions.
2	Accommodation	A village house or a hostel for ~~10 days~~ 5 days	per person per day	20	12.5	~~2500~~ 1250	USD	Accommodation during the Wikicamp. For all exceeding a number of participants (or part time) we offer tents for living outside.
3	Food	Breakfasts, lunches, dinners per ~~10 days~~ 5 days	per person per day	20	12.5	~~2500~~ 1250	USD	Ideally we want to cook food ourselves for meet the amount for 25 persons
4	Coffee pause and drinks	Coffee, tea, cookies, etc.	3 coffee pause a day	30	10	~~300~~ 100	USD
5	Drinks	Water	< bottles of water	10	10	~~100~~ 50	USD
6	Transport	For guests and organizators				400	USD	Includes transport for foreign guests.
7	Logistics for persons of culture		1-2 persons			~~100~~ 50	USD	We can invite Belarusian musicians/artists to make a small event for participants.
8	Logistics for wiki-expedition	Small wiki-expedition around the event place				50	USD
9	Stuff for community building workshops	T-shirts, bags, colors, brushes and etc.				~~400~~ 300	USD	Also stuff for making a camp banner.
10	Books and souvenirs as awards					~~500~~ 200	USD
11	Toilet paper, napkins, other similar stuff					50	USD	Some stuff to provide a comfort conditions for people.
12	Firewood, coal, and refreshments	For a picnic				50	USD	Community-building picnic.
13	Mobile and internet connections					300	USD	Costs for communication (calls between organizers and participants). Costs for internet on the Wikicamp place.
14	Stationery	Notes, pens, markers, flipcharts and etc.				~~250~~ 200	USD
15	Multiplication of collected experience by wikimedian newcomers					~~500 + 300~~ 0	USD	It can be gifts and stuff for organizing local wiki projects. 300 USD is an amount we are going to collect with attendee fee.
16	Present for teacher-organizator					~~300~~ 150	USD	The person will be awarded after the Wikicamp (some souvenir) if her/his contribution is considered excellent, otherwise we will use this sum for projects support
17	Other	Unforeseen expenses, project administration, venue for organizing team meetings, etc.				~~800~~ 400	USD

 Updated budjet

Total cost of event: ~~9900 USD~~ 5190 USD

Total amount requested from the Conference and Event Grants program: ~~9600 USD~~ 4800 USD

Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this event, and amounts funded

300 USD in registration fees from participants.

Please confirm that you are aware that changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

YES

Discussion

Endorsements

Do you think this project should be selected for a Conference Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

It can be a good point for wikimedian community development in Belarus. So I strongly believe that is right time to do and community is ready for such kind of collaboration. Mr. Zabej (talk) 09:30, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
This is a good initiative to attract potential editors Хомелка (talk) 10:52, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
I think taking a wiki-team outside their normal surroundings and putting them into a new environment will force them to think outside the box.Consulina (talk) 14:22, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

I suppose that this event will help potential and existing Belarusian editors to get and extend their knowledge. They will be able to meet each other in personal and generate new ideas working & communicating together. Helaku-88
It's useful for communicate with new wiki-users. Hanylka (talk) 21:40, 24 February 2017 (UTC)
In my opinion, it is crucial to create this camp because such events is core element in our community's development. I'm sure, it will play an enormous role in our local community's progress. Ihar Dorinel
I believe that this will be a great meeting point for both newbies and experienced editors, as well as an opportunity for Belarusian community to gain publicity and motivate new volunteers. Hannabaradzina (talk) 15:19, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
This initiative is very important. It can result in good effect provided that organizers and participants reach all planned targets. DobryBrat (talk) 18:17, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
It will be very important event for wiki-community of Belarus. KarlKori (talk) 06:59, 26 February 2017 (UTC)
It's ok! Raviaka Ruslan (talk) 15:11, 26 February 2017 (UTC)
The organisers have a proven track of successful Wikipedia projects and initiatives. Face-to-face events are important for developing collaborative working across both Belarusian wiki-communities (be. & be-tarask.). Nieszczarda2 (talk) 12:47, 27 February 2017 (UTC)
Looks like a useful event to train administration & collaboration skills, to grow culture of self-governing. Participants from isolated areas can witness the power of Wiki-movement, and some of them can start growing as its potential leaders in the future. I'm ready to be responsible for some logistics and communication issues as per this Wikicamp. Da voli (talk) 20:57, 1 March 2017 (UTC)
This project will be helpful for further development of the community of Belarusian Wikipedia and will increase the number of potential editors. Дзяніс Тутэйшы (talk) 15:22, 4 March 2017 (UTC)
This project will contribute to the development of the Belarusian Wikipedia community by attracting new editors and increasing the experience of those already connected to the project. Baccy (talk) 16:21, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
Support, it will be very helpful for future. --Artificial123 (talk) 18:01, 21 March 2017 (UTC)
This initiative will contribute to the development of self-government for wiki-community of Belarus. --JerzyKundrat (talk) 06:15, 25 March 2017 (UTC)
First wikimeeting in Belarus? Great! ;-)--Nickispeaki (talk) 21:04, 27 April 2017 (UTC)
It's very important to develop community in Belarus and Wikiproject in Belarusian language. --Visem (talk) 14:59, 8 May 2017 (UTC)
Last year I visited wikimeetup in Minsk where I had a chance to meet with volunteers from Belarus and I think this project to be very important for Wikimovement development in this country --Нестеренко Оля (talk)

For grantees

If you are the grantee or representative that wrote this grant submission, you may request changes by using these links:

Create a request for an extension of the approved project completion date.
Create a request for changes to the approved project budget.

This will be a crucial opportunity for belarussian wikicommunity to meet and exchange the experience. Tohaomg (talk) 17:24, 2 July 2017 (UTC)