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Grants:PEG/WM CA/Quebec Programs 2012/Report

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Report accepted
This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2011-12 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.
  • 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

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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

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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

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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.

Contribution Day

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Contributors working during the Contribution Day at the Université Laval on February 18th, 2012.
 
Lunch with all voluteers.
Description
A Contribution Day is one of the Quebec Committee event where Wikipedia editors gather in order to significantly contribute on an article and to fraternize with local Wikipedians and ultimately recruit new editors.
Dates
18th February, 2012 (10h - 17h).
Participants
Asclepias, Benoit Rochon, Boréal, Cantons-de-l'Est, ChristianT, Cortomaltais, Fralambert, Letartean, Seeris, Simon Villeneuve.
Summary
All day on February 18th, 2012, a dozen of the most active contributors of French Wikipedia gathered in a room of the Université Laval and improved the article w:fr:Jean Talon. Quebec Committee of WMCA send a message on Wikipedia and announced it on social networks, so people from Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Quebec City and as far as Chicoutimi, attend this "Wikipedia party". We are working togheter since many years on Wikipedia, but we never had the chance to all meet face to face; and this activity allowed us to fraternize. The Contribution Day also helped to cool down some tensions that was existing on WP, and theses fall off on a face to face meetup.
Participants divided tasks:
  • researchers: collect books, find the passages of interest, add sources and references, etc.
  • editors: write the encyclopedic text, build the bibliography, etc.
  • media: find free illustrations, high quality scanning, upload to Commons, etc.
Results
Links

International Scientific Conference on ICT and Education

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Presentation in Quebec City by Quebec Committee members
 
Video of the presentation
 
Students at work at the educational project in Québec.
Description
Organized by the Interuniversity Research Centre on training and the teaching profession (CRIFPE), International Scientific Conference on ICT and Education brought together over 600 participants from 30 countries and encompassed nearly 250 presentations and workshops as well as many commercial exhibitors.
Time frame
May 3rd and 4th, 2012.
Participants
Benoit Rochon, Simon Villeneuve, Antoine Letarte.
Summary
Quebec Committee, a working group of Wikimedia Canada for French-speaking contributors, gave a 40 minutes presentation to an audience of teachers and other stakeholders interested in the use of ICT in education. In response to online training under the APOP and personal experience using Wikipedia in the classroom, teachers who are members of Wikimedia Canada gave a lecture to explain how to efficiently use Wikipedia with students. The teachers presented their educational projects on Wikipedia. A video was produced and is now available under a free license on Commons.
Results
The attendees of the conference, mostly teachers interested in Wikipedia, were grateful for the work done by Wikipedians and the Wikimedia Foundation. During the question period, several stakeholders indicated that their students used Wikipedia extensively for their work and the teachers were happy to demystify the functioning of the collaborative encyclopaedia. The CRIFPE exceptionally agreed to put the video of the conference under a free license for free and add us to their "Gold Partners". During the year 2012, we have seen several educational projects emerge across Quebec initiated by teachers who attended the conference; for instance, since an English Second Language teacher start an educational project at the CEGEP of St-Hyacinthe, where student learn English by translating articles and/or start new articles from scratch. Over 70 CEGEP students have participate to Wikipedia since then.
Links

Forum mondial de la langue française

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Stand of Wikimedia Canada and Wikimedia France.
 
Simon Villeneuve answering Catherine Barthélémy questions.
 
Prime Minister of Canada, Premier of Québec and mayor of Quebec City during the openning of the FMLF.
Description
In 2010, during the 13th Sommet de la francophonie (Francophonie Summit) held in Montreux, Switzerland it was decided that a Global Forum of the French language should be established. The first forum was held in Quebec City in 2012 and it was an unique opportunity for Wikimedia Canada and Wikimedia France to hold a workshop and a conference about Wikimedia projects together. It was the first time that people speaking French from around the World met to exchange on the French language.
Time frame
From July 2nd to July 6th, 2012
Participants
Adrienne Alix, Simon Villeneuve, Antoine Letarte, Olier Raby.
Summary
Antoine Letarte from Quebec Committee and Adrienne Alix from Wikimedia France were invited on a panel to speak about the state of Wikipedia in French. Simon Villeneuve, a Quebec Committee member, was invited to another panel. Cantons-de-l'Est was also at the stand. All the four answered visitors questions and gave very short introduction to Wikipedia to many people at the stand: how to contribute, what is Wikipedia, etc. During the two panels, topics discussed were:
  • What are the barriers to the accessibility of digitized knowledge in your area or industry?
  • The development of digital technology has enabled it to reduce delays experienced by some groups in your region in access to knowledge or not, he put more focus on the problems of access to knowledge which existed (maintenance or widening gap of the digital divide).
  • Can we speak of a north-south equity in accessibility?
  • How to ensure equitable manner to democratize learning in the digital age?
  • What are two or three solutions implemented by governments and institutions of the Francophonie to address the main problems identified?
Results
This activity increased the reach of the organization and raised awareness of our activities in the Francophone community. In addition to the representation of Wikimedia Canada at this major and global forum was important, we were able to meet people from many countries and from all disciplines. We were also able to explain Wikimedia projects goals and how it works to many visitors at the stand, but also within two different panels in relation with education. It was also a great opportunity to meet people from Wikimedia France and talk about future collaborations. An interview was given with Radio-Canada (CBC in French) and Wikimedia Canada had an opportunity to talk about the movement in Canada on national radio.
Links

Wikipedia Takes Quebec City

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The winning picture from the WTQC contest, as decided by a jury of photographs from different photo clubs
 
Video of the presentation given in Washington during Wikimania 2012
Description
Wikipedia Takes Quebec City was the first Wikipedia Takes Your City event organized in Northern Quebec. Such events have the goal to gather photographs to increase the local content available on Commons about a particular city or region.
Time frame
June 16th, 2012 (9 h to 18 h).
Participants
35 local photographers
Summary
On June 16th, people from Quebec City gathered for the Wikipedia Takes Quebec City competition. Organized by local volunteers, the contest took place at the Cégep Limoilou in downtown Quebec City. 30 people went all around the capital city to take quality and useful pictures. On a perfect day for photography, participants took over 5,000 pictures of which 1,071 were uploaded on Commons after a selection by the users. The competition was aimed more at quality images than at quantity of images illustrating things on a list. The winners were selected in the summer and were announced by the end of August. It was particularly hard to choose a winning picture and portfolio because of the great quality of the images taken by the participants. Two great winners were declared in two categories: best picture and best portfolio and each won an iPad. Also, two runnerups received prizes for their uploads of the second and third best pictures.
Results
The event was a success on many levels. First, many participants from the competition became regular Commons users. In particular, users Mcturcotte and Malimage are now active uploaders and contributors on Commons and French Wikipedia. Second, the event received a good media coverage in the regional medias and helped build bridges with many people in the Quebec City community (Cégep Limoilou, local antenna of Radio-Canada, other media partners such as Le Soleil and Vox, local tourism bureau, etc). Participants were informed of the existence of the competition by different means, suggesting a good communication strategy. Also, the contest was innovative in its ways. Users uploaded the pictures on Commons themselves, giving them a great opportunity to be initiated to Wikimedia projects. A conference about free-licenced photography was also given in the morning to all participants. Finally, Commons received a very nice set of free-licenced images about Quebec City and its surroundings. Some images received the Quality Image status on Commons. However, we had a high content to expense ratio for the event and seek to reduce the expenses proportionally to the size of the event in future planning exercises.
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    One of the runnerups
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    Second runnerup
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    Letartean giving a presentation before the contest
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    Benoit Rochon showing participants how to upload pictures on Commons
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    Slides from the presentation given in Washington during Wikimania 2012
Links

Wiki Loves Monuments in Canada

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Promotional poster for WLM 2012 in Canada
Description
Wiki Loves Monuments is the largest photo competition in the World. It brings many pictures of historical monuments and heritage sites from around the World to Commons for free reuse.
Time frame
September 2012
Participants
395 photographers, and organizers
Summary
During the summer of 2012, Wikipedians have prepared lists of historic places in Canada (English) and Liste des lieux patrimoniaux du Canada (French) for Canada's participation in Wiki Loves Monuments. During the entire month of September, amateur photographers could upload their images of historic sites recognized by the Canadian government and thus enlarge the free licensed image collection on Wikimedia Commons about Canada.
Results
Within few weeks, we got over 5,500 photos of Canada related to the country's history, 395 participants, in addition to promoting the free media repertoire, Wikimedia Commons, and other Wikimedia projects as well as Wikimedia Canada.
Links
Top 10 finalists
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    Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel - Marguerite-Bourgeoys Museum, Montreal, Quebec.
    First place: 594.5 points. First canadian prize and goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: Jazmin Million

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    Québec Bridge National Historic Site of Canada, Quebec City, Quebec.
    Second place: 593.5 points. Second canadian prize and goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: Canonnica

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    The bank street bridge over the Rideau Canal, Ottawa, Ontario.
    Third place: 593 points. Third canadian prize and goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: Gregvgregv

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    Freeport Bridge, Kitchener, Ontario.
    Fourth place: 569 points. Finalist goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: Ian Furst

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    Montreal Clock Tower, Montreal, Quebec.
    Fifth place: 565 points. Finalist goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: Michael Vesia

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    Halifax Public Gardens National Historic Site of Canada, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
    Sixth place: 557.5 points. Finalist goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: Markjt

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    Old Skeena Bridge, Terrace, British Columbia.
    Seventh place: 555 points. Finalist goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: Chasehamilton2012

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    Former Ottawa City Hall, Ottawa, Ontario.
    Eighth place: 550 points. Finalist goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: Murckraker

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    Cabot Tower, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
    Ninth place: 543.5 points. Finalist goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: William Zimmerly

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    Orpheum Theatre National Historic Site of Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia.
    Tenth place: 542.5 points. Finalist goes to the international jury for the 2nd round.
    Photographer: MichaelThoeny

Lessons learned

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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?
  • Contribution day is a really great activity that bring local wikipedians to work together IRL; old disputes are erased afterwords. We did few other days like this, and we decide to invite also outsiders that don't know Wikipedia, so with a little training, we recruit more voluteers; newcomers are always very motivated, it's fun to see!
  • At the International Scientific Conference on ICT and Education, teachers were thanking us to make Wikipedia work so well, and also help them to understand how it works. We use a powerpoint that we create based on recurent questions. We were very surprised by their openness.
  • Forum mondial de la langue française, we didn't expect that it would be that big with so many people from all horisons. We had tables with computers to introduce Wikipedia to participants. We noted that many Africans were very interested in Wikipedia. The collaboration with Wikimedia France helped to bridge with the project participants and Afripedia. Those meetings are very useful for the Wikimedia movement.
  • Wikipedia Takes Quebec City, first introduce Commons to photograph amateurs. We decide to invite photos clubs instead of random people, so the quality of pictures were much more higher than any other photo event we organize in the past. We also notice that prizes were not that important for them, because only the fact that they were doing this for Wikipedia (Commons) was a great feeling. Leading us to the conclusion that we can improve the cost effectiveness of this activity by reducing the prize cost to participant ratio.
  • For Wiki Loves Monuments in Canada we were glad to bring Canadians on Flickr to participate, even if it was more work. The best pictures came from Flickr, and that gave us the opportunity to talk about free licence to photographers.
What did not go well?
  • During the Contribution day, we were working on an article and tried to make it featured, but it is too ambicious. Twelve people on the same item causing conflicts editing, we had to work on different sections.
  • At the International Scientific Conference on ICT and Education, we didn't planned so many questions for the teachers, we should have make more room for this, at least 45 minutes. Also, the Conference organizers place us at the end of the afternoon, so there was not as many people than in the morning.
  • At the Forum mondial de la langue française, evreything went pretty well; many if more wikipedians could be there it would have help others to go for lunch, etc. People had to stay at their positions all day for four days.
  • Wikipedia Takes Quebec City was well done, but we should have use more Twitter/Facebook; we sent a lot of press releases but that was not enough. Also, after the scavenger hunt, we can't ask people to upload their pictures on the spot; the best is to show them once with a projector, and they can do it themselves at home afterwards. Relatively speaking, the cost paid to acquire new photos was relatively high when you divide the execution cost by the number of new pictures.
  • Wiki Loves Monuments in Canada was organised by international team, but I have a good suggestion for others: don't organise this alone, a country should at least have between 3 and 5 wikipedians to organise this.
What would you do differently if you planned a similar project?
  • For the next Contribution days, we will partner with organizations. For example, at the Day of Mile End, we contacted the historical society of Mile End and employees of the library where we were doing the event. The result is that we had some new contributors who could find sources easily, others who knew the story of the Mile End and we created a lot of links with the community of free culture and the library network. So for future Contribution days, we will always find an association related to our theme, because we no longer work on only one article, but several articles around a theme.
  • It is unclear how likely the event participants are to become long term contributors of the Wikimedia movement. Future events should put a priority on developing the volunteer base over creating content. This should be discussed at a future chapter strategic planning session and the ideas integrated into future events.

Project goal and measures of success

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This section should reference the project goals and measures of success described in the approved grant submission. See Grants:PEG/WM CA/Quebec Programs 2012 to review the goals and metrics listed in the approved submission.

Project goal

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Provide the project goal here.
  • To recruit new volunteers and promote development of content in the province of Quebec, Canada for the Wikimedia movement.
  • Promote awareness of the Wikimedia Canada chapter and its commitment to support French language culture.
  • Present Wikimedia Canada as an accessible chapter to Quebec residents.
  • Increase photo and video about Canada available on Commons.
  • Gain access to Canadian classrooms by recruiting leaders in the education community.
Did you achieve your project goal? How do you know your goal was achieved? Please answer in 1 - 2 paragraphs.
Yes, please see "Results" section for each event described above.

Measures of success

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List the measures of success exactly as provided in the approved grant submission, and evaluate your project according to each measure listed there.
  • Feedback from the audience about the presentations. (Antoine for WP Takes Quebec and others to speak about the engagement activities and audience interaction. Also teachers at the International Scientific Conference on ICT and Education came to us and congrat us for our work on Wikipedia...)
  • Contact with more francophone community participants, where activities allow people from all over the province to get togheter. For instance, WP Takes Quebec, Contribution Days, backstage tour at the biodiversity center, etc.
  • Progress towards a program for movement content in the classroom, like creating an "in class exrcises page", but also outreach with the inter-universities physical project, English second language project, etc.)
  • Accumulation of volunteers for francophone activities.
    • Engaged with over 400 people in the community, conversion rates to long term contributors or WMCA volunteers are still unknown.
  • Increased movement GLAM content.
    • Over 6000 culturally significant photographs contributed to Wikimedia Commons
  • Progress towards implementing QRPedia in Montreal
    • Program component not executed
Provide an overall assessment of how your project went according to these measures.
  • The Wikimedia movement, as a community orientated organization, has become better known in Quebec.
  • Increased awareness of the organization has improved our credibility and opened doors with external organizations in Quebec.
  • Some new volunteers were acquired through engaging the public and awarding the prizes.
  • The content of Canadian monuments on Wikimedia Commons was significantly expanded and improved through the upload of 5,500 images as a direct result of these activities. And for Wikipedia Takes Quebec City participants upload over 1,000 pictures of Quebec city.
  • Around 35% of the participants to these two photo contests kept on uploading afterwards.

Impact

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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

These funds were not used to stabilize infrastructure.

Increase participation

All of the events directly engaged a Canadian and in some cases, international audience. Wikimedia projects can be daunting for the uninitialized, by speaking publicly about the projects and how people can get involved we are drawing more contributors to Wikipedia. This impact was discussed on a case by case basis which each events discussion in section 2 and other sections of this grant report.

Improve quality

We are improving editor effectiveness with our contribution days. It gives Canadians an opportunity to meet with WMCA volunteers who have experience with Wikipedia. These in-person interactions provide a forum for editors to ask questions and learn from each other.

Increase reach

Through our attendance at the French Language forum and the Scientific Conference on Education, we were able to provide guidance to these conference attendees how Wikimedia projects can integrate with their program goals. It was also a opportunity to receive feedback from these groups on how they see Wikimedia projects fitting with their own efforts. It is a goal of Wikimedia Canada to find partnerships that benefit external organizations and enable Wikimedia projects to spread their respective constituencies.

Encourage innovation

Wikimedia Canada volunteers receive a great deal of feedback from the groups that participated with us in the events. Receiving ideas and gauging the perception of our programs from these contacts is a great way for us to focus our future plans and innovate new strategies.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

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International Scientific Conference on ICT and Education
(2 days)
Description Budget Actual
Transportation $300 $122
Per diem meals $150 $119
Lodging $200 -
Other - $199
Total $650 $440
Forum mondial de la langue française
(5 days)
Description Budget Actual
Transportation $350 $434
Per diem meals $1,250 $552
Lodging $650 $109
Total $2,250 $1,095
Contribution days
(twice a year)
Description Budget Actual
Transportation $350 $516
Lunch $75 $118
Other - $8
Total $425 $642
Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 Canada
Description Budget Actual
Prizes total amount $2,000 $1,174
Total $2,000 $1,174
Wikipédia prend Québec
Description Budget Actual
Transportation $300 $69
Per diem meals $150 -
Hall + security guard 8 hours $500 $616
Prizes total amount $2,000 $1,882
Other - $710
Total $2,950 $3,278
QRpedia projects (GLAM Collaboration)
Description Budget Actual
Material for labels $150 -
Transportation $100 -
Total $250 -
Total amount requested
8,600 USD (8,525 CAD + Fees)
Description Budget Actual
Grand Total $8,525 $6,628
Surplus (Shortfall) $1,897

This section describes the grant's use of funds

Documentation

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Documentation of expenditures has been received by WMF.

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".
Will do so shortly.

Expenses

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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 WMF Grants Program staff. For all other variances, please provide an explanation in the table below.

Please see financials chart above, which details budgeted versus actual results by category and event.


Total project budget (from your approved grant submission)
$8,525 CAD
Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission, this total will be the same as the total project budget if the WMF grant is your only funding source)
$8,525 CAD
Total amount spent on this project (this total should be the total calculated from the table above)
$6,628 CAD
Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project (this total will be the same as the total amount spent if the WMF grant is your only funding source)
$6,628 CAD
Are there additional sources of revenue that funded any part of this project? List them here.
No

Remaining funds

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Remaining funds are retained by the grantee with WMF's permission until until a decision may be delivered on WMCA's open grant request. After this date, please return any remaining unused grant funds to WMF following the instructions at Grants:Return unused funds to WMF.
Are there any grant funds remaining?
Answer YES or NO.
Yes (surplus is shown in financials table above)
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.)
$1,897 CAD
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.
Re-allocate funds based on pending grant application
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