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Grants:PEG/User:DrMel/Wiki Edit-a-thon Work Parties/Report/Interim

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Interim report accepted
This interim report for a Project and Event Grant has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.



Project Status

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Are you complying with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?

Yes

Do you expect this project to be completed by the date specified in the approved grant submission?

Yes

Did you use any of the grant funds?

Yes

Activities and Lessons learned

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Activities

Each Edit-a-thon begins with social interaction and introductions over breakfast at 9 AM, before the library opens.

  • February 27, 2016: Edit-a-thon at Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Pwy, San Diego, CA 92108 Time: 9 AM – 1 PM
  • March 26, 2016: Edit-a-thon at Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Pwy, San Diego, CA 92108 Time: 9 AM – 1 PM

Upcoming activities:

  • Edit-a-thon April 23, 2016 at Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Pwy, San Diego, CA 92108 Time: 9 AM – 1 PM
  • Edit-a-thon May 28, 2016 at Mission Valley Library, 2123 Fenton Pwy, San Diego, CA 92108 Time: 9 AM – 1 PM
  • Starting in June, monthly meetings every 4th Saturday at San Diego Central Library

What has gone well:

  • Networking went well by word of mouth, by email to small wiki groups in San Diego, through Meetup, and through Facebook.
  • By being included in a group email sent to us by the Asian Pacific American wiki editors in San Diego, Marc Chery, of the San Diego Central Library, reached out to us. MChery@sandiego.gov
  • Each edit-a-thon has registered new Wikipedia contributors.
  • Documenting our Edit-a-thons is easy on Meetup and Facebook.
  • Documenting our planning time is easy on Google Calendar.
  • We have created an email address to use publicly, wikisandiego@gmail.com
  • We have made direct contact with women Wiki editors in Sweden, “Kvinnliga huvudpersoner på Wikipedia” https://www.facebook.com/groups/1545277915760440/ and they are interested in a form of exchange.
  • On February 27, seven contributors participated in the Edit-a-thon.
  • On March 26, nine contributors participated in the Edit-a-thon, despite that this was Easter Eve.

What has not gone as well:

  • Disseminating information about Edit-a-thons is less efficient on On-wiki sites than on Off-wiki sites. This is because only registered wiki volunteers know about the On-wiki sites.
  • Networking with other Wiki groups is easier through Off-wiki sites, especially with non-English groups.

Changes

  • The San Diego Central Library will be sponsoring us with a meeting place and marketing beginning in June, 2016. Through the library we will come in contact with a wider audience, and for that purpose, we have registered a designated email address: wikisandiego@gmail.com
  • We have begun using Google Calendar to document not only Edit-a-thons but also planning meetings and conference calls between the organizers of the group.
  • Our pre-Edit-a-thon social interaction and introductions will be held in the library café beginning in June, 2016. This social aspect underlines the friendly, supportive, open-minded atmosphere that we strive for in all our meetings. This is one reason we have used the phrase “work party”

Outcomes and impact

Original project goal

From our grant proposal: "During the first half of 2016, we plan to host three wiki editathons, focused on topics in applied psychology, especially those that relate to helpful concepts and knowledge for improved quality of life. As part of our editathon process, we want to continue development of a "best practices" guide for others who want to host their own editathons on topics of their choosing. We expect to engage people in our local San Diego and Southern Californian communities for face-to-face meetups, and simultaneously include people from other locations on specific editathon dates. We intend to pay special attention to recruiting female participants. We also expect to work with speakers of other languages, especially Spanish. And we intend to pay special attention to the development of Wikipedia Simple articles that can be contributed to and more easily read by the ESL community."

Do you expect to reach your project’s goal? Yes.

Progress towards targets and goals We will complete the 3 editathons proposed in this project by the end of April 2016. Thanks to the community organizing work of Deborah Fronco, we are now in a position to continue monthly wiki editathons in San Diego, hosted by the downtown San Diego library. This is a greater accomplishment than we had expected. While this is tremendous, we have not yet made as much progress as we’d hoped on some of the other aspects of our originally stated project goals. Our focus in the first two editathons has been on building initial editing skills for new wikieditors who want to work on articles they are most interested in, so we have not been pushing them toward the specific articles we were looking at in Applied Psychology, in Spanish and on Simple English wikipedia. We have also not yet made a concentrated effort at recruiting women to participate, but our participants to date have been more women than men.

Measures of success Our active group has grown from seven to nine members, and is still growing. We have received queries from Asian Pacific American wiki-editors in San Diego, Cell Biologist wiki-editors in San Diego, and Microbiologist wiki-editors in San Diego. This was unexpected. Deborah Fronko, who attended the February 27 Edit-a-thon as a participant, has become a co-organizer of the group. Marc Chery of the San Diego Central Library has reached out to our group, and the library will be sponsoring us with meeting space and marketing beginning in June, 2016. We will benefit from the marketing on the library’s website and electronic totems, and from print material the library produces. The library is conveniently located close to a major transit hub in San Diego, and the library will provide parking vouchers for participants who drive cars. This will make access to our edit-a-thons easy for participants from all parts of San Diego County. Wiki Editors of San Diego, our group, is active on Meetup and on Facebook, where we disseminate information, document activities, and reach out to new participants.

Project metrics (as of April 11) Feb 27 Mar 26 Apr 23

      1. Total # of participants: 7 9 tbd
      2. of female participants 5 6 tbd
      3. of return participants - 5 tbd
      4. of new users 4 4 tbd
      5. of articles created or improved 6 9 tbd
      6. of good and featured articles created or improved 0 0 tbd
      7. of participants editing 3 months after the event tbd tbd tbd
      8. of participants who are active editors 3 months after event tbd tbd tbd

An overall assessment of how our project is going according to these measures We are off to a solid start and now have the systems in place to keep the momentum building. Participants so far have been very engaged and enthusiastic about continuing to participate, grateful for the opportunity to develop new skills and to participate in Wikipedia at a level beyond what they’d previously done as readers.

While doing this project, have you decided to track any other measures of success not listed in your grant submission? No additional measures being monitored at this time. We are open to suggestions.

Impact Drawing from the experiences of our three existing wiki editors, we now have engaged eight new people into the wonderful world of wiki editing. We are also very excited to have been able to leverage these 3 editathons into an ongoing monthly activity in San Diego, supported especially by the San Diego library.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

Expenses

Number Category Item description Unit Number of units Actual cost per unit Actual total Budgeted total Currency Notes

  1. Online Services Meetup.com Subscription 6 months 1 59.94 59.94 60 USD Allows us to promote editathons to locals in San Diego and beyond
  2. Online Services SurveyMonkey.com subscription 1 Year 1 228.00 228.00 228 USD Allows us to collect participant responses during and after wiki editathons
  3. Food & Beverages IHOP Meetup Feb 27 1 1 60 60 60 USD Pre-editing food for participants
  4. Food & Beverages IHOP Planning Meeting Mar 15 1 1 25.24 25.24 25 USD Planning meeting for D & M
  5. Food & Beverages IHOP Meetup Mar 26 1 1 95.46 95.46 95 USD Pre-editing food for participants
  6. Office Supplies Costco Laser Toner Cartridge 1 1 87.89 87.89 90 USD Print materials for marketing & participants

Total amount spent so far: Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project so far (include currency) As of April 11, 2016, we have spent $556.53 of the $750 granted.

Based on your spending, will you need to request any changes to your budget? No. Rocky92591 (talk) 11:45, 13 April 2016 (UTC)

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