Grants:PEG/Katie Filbert - Wikimedians in DC/WikiXDC/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2010-11 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:PEG/Katie Filbert - Wikimedians in DC/WikiXDC.

You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email grants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Compliance and completion

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?: Answer YES or NO.

YES

Is your project completed?: Answer YES or NO.; YES

Did you use any of the grant funds?: Answer YES or NO.; YES

Activities and lessons learned

This section describes what the grantee did, and what the grantee learned from implementing the project. This section should be useful to others implementing similar projects and is an opportunity for the grantee to reflect on the project's performance.

Activities

Provide a detailed list of activities performed to complete this project, descriptions of these activities, and the amount of time spent on each activity. This section should also include a list of participants, or a link to pictures, blog posts, or videos from the project or event.

held day-long event at National Archives with wikimedians in DC (and from elsewhere) and National Archives staff (~100 attendees, including AOTUS) to 1) celebrate occasion of wikipedia 10th anniversary 2) learn more from each other about what archives do / what wikimedians do.

I mostly organized everything, though Jyothis helped and archives staff helped with logistics. See signpost and [1] for photos.

Lessons learned

What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects? Consider the following questions and respond with 1 - 2 paragraphs.

What went well?

event went very well see signpost
helped initiate collaboration between Wikimedians and the National Archives. We had a Wikimedian in Residence at the archives for several years and now he is full-time staff doing Wikipedia-related stuff there. We have held numerous events there since. [2] We uploaded tens of thousands of images from the archives [3]
helped focus wikimedians on doing more organized activities, such as organizing wikimania 2012 (and starting a chapter). [4] [5] [6]

What did not go well?

Organizing catering / food at the archives is complicated and more expensive than expected. You can't just order pizza or bring stuff (e.g. donuts). -- might work with a smaller group, say of 20 but not 100. We were required to used an official caterer which is more expensive. The caterer also runs the cafeteria in the archives, though the cafeteria is closed on the weekends. This means additional staff time (cost) for them to serve us on the weekend.

We originally wanted to get lunch for everyone but ended up only being able to afford refreshments (breakfast / donuts / coffee / cookies / snacks) which were still plenty expensive but fit in budget. We scheduled time for a lunch break for people to go places in the neighborhood (enough options) but concerned about "losing" people (e.g. decide not to come back). The event program was interesting enough that this was not a problem and doing lunch this way was ok.

What would you do differently if you planned a similar project?

I would like to order pizza! I just don't think we can do that for this amount of people. For glam camp (~20 people) such was possible. We would budget more if we really wanted to provide lunch.

We did organize Wikimania and experience of doing this smaller event was helpful. Obviously ordering pizza for 1500 people is not practical so we had to do catering for Wikimania. We had a more realistic idea of what catering costs and that helped with budgeting for Wikimania.

Project goal and measures of success

This section should reference the project goals and measures of success described in the approved grant submission. See Grants:PEG/Katie Filbert - Wikimedians in DC/WikiXDC to review the goals and metrics listed in the approved submission.

Project goal

Provide the project goal here.

With the event, we launch our collaboration efforts with NARA, building upon the work done by Carl Malamud & DC area volunteers with the FedFlix project (see en:Wikipedia:WikiProject FedFlix) and inspired by Liam Wyatt's "Wikipedian in Residence" experience at the British Museum. The event is a chance for our group to learn more about NARA and vice versa, and we can discuss how the collaboration can take shape in the months going forward.

As we move forward, we may be able to leverage contacts we have with the University of Maryland (e.g. http://mith.umd.edu), bring in student volunteers, and possibly have a summer intern (hired by NARA) to work on furthering the collaboration. The possibilities are almost endless, but what were able to do depends on getting DC area Wikipedians interested in getting involved in the collaboration (and our ongoing Smithsonian collaboration efforts). WikiXDC is an important step towards making this all happen!

As well, this one-day event can be a precursor for our group organizing a GLAM-Wiki DC conference in the late spring or early summer (May or June). In being involved with such collaborations and activities, we are also moving towards forming a chapter in DC, though we also have and will continue to have strong collaboration with Wikimedia NYC in some form.

Did you achieve your project goal? How do you know your goal was achieved? Please answer in 1 - 2 paragraphs.

Yes

We organized collaboration between Wikimedians and the National Archives. We had a Wikimedian in Residence at the archives for several years (originally summer intern) and now he is full-time staff doing Wikipedia-related stuff there. We have held numerous events there since. [7] We uploaded tens of thousands of images from the archives [8]

We were not so successful getting student volunteers but the Wikimedia community (local and remote) has been quite engaged in the photo uploads, scanathons and other activities. The GLAM-Wiki (glam camp) conference was instead held in NYC and there was another glam camp in DC in 2012.

We also formed a chapter.

Measures of success

List the measures of success exactly as provided in the approved grant submission, and evaluate your project according to each measure listed there.: n/a
Provide an overall assessment of how your project went according to these measures.: n/a TEXT
If you were to plan a similar project, would you measure it differently? If yes, please explain how.: n/a

Impact

This section ties this project to Wikimedia's broader goals, and shows what the project accomplished.

What impact did this project have on WMF's mission and the strategic goals? Please answer in 1 -2 paragraphs and include specific measures of impact such as the number of readers or editors reached by a particular project, or the number of articles edited or improved.

Stabilize infrastructure
Increase participation
Improve quality
Increase reach
Encourage innovation

uploaded tens of thousands of images, increased participation among archives staff and the local DC community.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

we spent everything on refreshments + had additional donations ($300 from NARA Foundation, + cupcakes donated from a local shop) to make things work in the budget. Without the extra help, we would have had do to just breakfast / coffee.

Documentation

Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grants at wikimedia dot org, according to the guidelines here? Answer "Yes" or "No".: n/a

Expenses

Please list all project expenses in a table here, with descriptions and dates. Review the instructions here.

These expenses should be listed in the same format as the budget table in your approved submission so that anyone reading this report may be able to easily compare budgeted vs. actual expenses.

Note that variances in the project budget over 10% per expense category must be approved in advance by Project and Event Grants program staff. For all other variances, please provide an explanation in the table below.

entire amount was spent on catering. Unfortunately we couldn't do pizza, bring in coffee / donuts from outside, as NARA security / rules do not allow that for this size of event.

Total project budget (from your approved grant submission): $1500 + additional donations / sponsorships.

Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission, this total will be the same as the total project budget if the Project and Event Grant is your only funding source): $1500

Total amount spent on this project (this total should be the total calculated from the table above): $1500 + additional donations / sponsorships

Total amount of Project and Event grant funds spent on this project (this total will be the same as the total amount spent if the Project and Event Grant is your only funding source): all of it

Are there additional sources of revenue that funded any part of this project? List them here.: $300 + in kind donation of cupcakes + event space / NARA staff time

Remaining funds

Are there any grant funds remaining?: Answer YES or NO.; no

Please list the total amount (specify currency) remaining here. (This is the amount you did not use, or the amount you still have after completing your grant.)

no

If funds are remaining they must be returned to WMF, reallocated to mission-aligned activities, or applied to another approved grant.

Please state here if you intend to return unused funds to WMF, submit a request for reallocation, or submit a new grant request, and then follow the instructions on your approved grant submission.

n/a