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Grants:PEG/Wikipedia Connection/Semester Funding for Workshops and Events

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statusfunded
Wikipedia Connection/Semester Funding for Workshops and Events
Wikipedia Connection is a student organization at The Ohio State University. We are requesting funds to help run the organization's events, including weekly workshops, periodic edit-a-thons, and other activities that get students involved with improving Wikipedia on a regular basis.
targetEnglish Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons
strategic priorityIncrease participation
start dateJanuary 1
start year2016
end dateMay 3
end year2016
budget (USD)1,529 USD
grant typeGroup
non-profit statusNo
creator• SuperHamster
contact(s)• SuperHamster (kevinpayravi@gmail.com)• Addis Wang
organization• Wikipedia Connection
endorse
created on21:34, 29 October 2015 (UTC)

Goal

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Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful (2–3 sentences).

The funding will go towards weekly workshops, edit-a-thons, and other events/projects. The result of this semester-long project is expected to be:

  • Editors: Introducing Ohio State students to editing Wikipedia and supporting existing ones.
  • Content: Producing content for Wikipedia through weekly workshops, edit-a-thons, collaborations, and photography sessions.
  • Education: Educating students and staff about Wikipedia: how it works, how to edit, its reliability, etc.

Plan

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Activities

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Involvement fair poster from Fall 2015
 
Wikipedia Workshop

Wikipedia Connection is a student organization at The Ohio State University focusing on introducing students to editing Wikipedia; hosting regular events to keep students engaged with editing; and collaborating with the University and others on various projects to improve Wikipedia. Some of our planned activities and events for the Spring Semester include:

  • Student Involvement Fair: Key event to attract new members on January 14, 2016.
  • A celebration event for Wikipedia 15 on January 15, 2016.
  • Weekly workshops (typically 1.5 hours each) for students to meet together, edit, and get help. These have been occurring regularly during Fall 2015 in study rooms in Ohio State's libraries; we will be continuing these.
  • Edit-a-thons:
    • Our first edit-a-thon, the Buckeye Edit-A-Thon, occurred in September, 2015 with a focus on improving articles on Ohio State and Columbus. We're planning on hosting a similar edit-a-thon next semester.
    • We're also hosting the Art+Feminism edit-a-thon in March, and are planning on working collaboratively with other interested student organizations on campus.
  • Collaborate with University departments and libraries to improve Wikipedia.
    • One planned project is collaborating with the Ohio State University Archives to upload public domain content and access archived materials to research for Ohio State-related articles on Wikipedia. The Archives have already expressed interest in this.
  • One Wikipedia Take Ohio State (or Columbus) during the Spring to photograph the newly-renovated campus. Hopeful collaboration with photography interest groups on campus. It will associated with a small edit-a-thon afterward to apply the contributions to Wikimedia Project.
  • Ask for photo donations from various Ohio Sate departments, including the Sports Department for Ohio State athletes who have articles on Wikipedia.
  • Other potential projects include:
    • Wikipedia meet Ohio Congress: Working with assistants of Ohio Senators and Representatives to improve content on Wikipedia. The project will be similar to work done by Wikimedia DC.
    • Working with interested professors and lecturers on implementing Wikipedia in the classroom as part of the Wikipedia Education Program.

Impact

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Target readership

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Fit with strategy

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What crucial thing will the project try to change or benefit in the Wikimedia movement? Please select the Wikimedia strategic priority(ies) that your project most directly aims to impact and explain how your project fits. Most projects fit all strategic priorites. However, we would like project managers to focus their efforts on impacting 1-2 strategic priorities. Examples of strategic priorities can be found at here.

We expect our organization to cover all three strategic priorities, but the following are the priorities we think will be most directly impacted by us:

Increasing participation
  1. Onboarding and educating new editors with a plan for follow-up and mentorship (e.g. workshop and edit-a-thon series).
  2. Constructing a community environment on campus to increase the feeling of belonging inside the Wikipedia community.
  3. Building a platform that offer easy communication between University faculties and Wikimedia Movement, to seek more opportunities to spread the idea of Wikimedia movement.
  4. The club itself will give us the chances to cooperate with other clubs on campus.
  5. Although Wikipedia Connection is a student club, we are welcome other Wikipedians join our event, especially for those who live in Central Ohio area.
Increasing quality
  1. Increasing accessibility to reliable sources for editors (digitization of public domain material from Ohio State's archives).
  2. Wikipedia Take Ohio State University will contribute photos around OSU campus and Columbus to Wikimedia Project. The associated edit-a-thon will integrated these contributions to Wikipedia.
  3. Two edit-a-thons will contribute more content and improve the articles on Wikipedia.

Measures of success

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Please provide a list of both quantitative and qualitative criteria that will be used determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed. See the PEG Program Resources for suggested measures of success. Note: In addition to your project-specific measures of success, you will also be asked to report on some Global Metrics at the end of your final report. Please keep this in mind as you plan, and we'll support you as you begin your project.

  • Attendance it taken at all meetings and events. We will track the following for each events:
    • Number of attendees
    • New vs. returning members
  • We will maintain counts required by the Global Metrics. Since this project involves a series of many meetings, workshops, and events, counts will be taken for individual events and for the semester as a whole.
    • Existing active editors
    • Newly registered users
    • Number of individuals involved
    • Number of new images/media added to article pages
    • Number of new images/media uploaded to the Commons
    • Number of edits made to articles (aiming for all participants to edit in each workshop, and to continue edits outside of workshops)
    • Number of articles added or improved on Wikimedia projects (1 - 2 new articles and 7+ articles improved per weekly workshop; 5 - 10 new articles and 20+ articles improved per edit-a-thon)
    • Number of bytes added to or removed from Wikimedia projects
  • Most club members sign up for our semesterly course, which makes tracking participant edits relatively easy.

Expected impact

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Last semester, our events had the following turnout and impact:

  • The Buckeye Edit-a-Thon brought together 15 students and staff to edit articles. 6 of the attendees had never edited Wikipedia, and most had very little experience otherwise. In 2.5 hours, after an introductory presentation, 67 edits were made to 19 articles (2 of which were newly created).
  • Weekly 1.5 hour workshops were held for students to edit together and receive help. These workshops had attendances of anywhere between 3 and 10, with an educational presentation and editing occurring at each one.

Through the above events, we had a direct impact on ~20 students and several faculty members. With the grant, the hope is to continue to support our current editors, and to host more frequent and larger events to expand our reach:

  • We will host at least two edit-a-thons, with 20-40 attendees each.
  • Our photography event(s) would result in 50+ photos illustrating the newly renovated campus.
  • Collaborations with University student organizations, departments, and Ohio's congress would result in new editors, photos, and research material to improve Wikipedia with.

Through all these events, we estimate our organization will directly impact at least 40 students through educating them about Wikipedia and introducing them to editing. The number may be higher based on the popularity of our events, and whether we support any Education Program courses this upcoming semester

Resources and risks

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Resources

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Our organization structure involves a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and outreach manager with delegations of responsibilities. We also have a faculty advisor, Brian Leaf, who serves as an Assistant Professor and Instructional Design Librarian with the library's Research and Education. All club members (with officer ranks) are listed at on our organization page.

As an official student organization of The Ohio State University, we also have a variety of resources easily available to us, including access to University administration and open office hours with fiscal managers. Ohio State's new Research Commons has expressed interest in supporting our events, and are happy to provide venues and other support. We have also been in contact with the Wiki Education Foundation, who have been helpful to us in the past with advice and resources.

Risks

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As a relatively low-budget project run by a university student organizations, our project is fairly low-risk. Some risks include:

  • While support from University faculty and staff is available, the club is primarily student-run, leading to a gap in experience with management, finances, etc.
  • A lack of participation and interest from students.

Budget

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Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here. See Budget Guidelines. Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table

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Activity Item Cost / Unit Units Total Notes
Student Involvement Fair Presentation board, supplies and other costs N/A N/A $20 Funded by the Ohio State Resource Room
Wikipedia 15 celebration Cake $30 1 $30
Wikipedia 15 celebration Tableware N/A N/A $5 Forks, napkins, etc.
Weekly Workshop Food, beverage and other costs to host weekly workshops $30 14 $420
Edit-a-thon Catering $250 2 $500
Wikipedia Takes Ohio State (Photography) Organizer t-shirts $16 7 $112 Shirts for organizers
Wikipedia Takes Ohio State Bottle Water $6 2 Cartons (24 Bottles) $12
General Poster stand $30 1 $30
General Advertising through bus ads and university papers N/A N/A $100 Funded by the Ohio State Operating Fund
General Color prints for advertising club & events $.20 200 $40 Funded by the Ohio State Resource Room
Potential Project Used for potential project for "Wikipedia Meet Ohio Congress" etc N/A N/A $200 for whole semester
Advertising Social media advertisement on Facebook N/A N/A $50 for whole semester
Unforeseen 10% to cover the unforeseen expense N/A N/A $170
Total N/A N/A N/A $1,689

Total cost of project

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$1,689

Total amount requested

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Total amount requested from the Project and Event Grants Program.

$1,689 - $20 - $100 - $40 = $1,529

Additional sources of revenue

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Additional sources of revenue, other than the Project and Event Grants Program, that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded.

Additional funding may be provided by the Ohio State University in three forms: (We will apply and use this funding as the priority source)

  • Operating funds, which are used for general operation of the organization in the year (up to $200). These funds are limited to use in the following category:
    • Advertising/Promotion/Printing
    • Bank Charges
    • Books/Subscriptions
    • Dues/Fees
    • Equipment/Facility Rental
    • Food (recruitment or marketing events only)
      • Only Coca-Cola products may be purchased
    • Membership Awards
    • Office/Consumable Supplies
    • Travel/Transportation
  • Programming funds, which are used to host programs and events on campus.
  • Resource room funds, which is a free $250 allocation given per year for student organizations to use on resources such as printing, signage, and balloons.

Non-financial requirements

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See a description of non financial assistance available. Please inform the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) of any requirements for non-financial assistance now.

Educational materials have already been provided courtesy for WikiEdu; requests in the future for more material may be made.

We're requesting several accessory items from the Wikipedia Store. These items will be given out as raffle prizes to participants in our events (such as two edit-a-thons and photography event), and as awards to editors who reach certain milestones throughout the semester or during events.

Discussion

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Community notification

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You are responsible for notifying relevant communities of your proposal, so that they can help you! Depending on your project, notification may be most appropriate on a village pump, talkpage, mailing list. Please paste a link below to where the relevant communities have been notified of this proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. Need notification tips?

Endorsements

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Do you think this project should be selected for a Project and Event 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.

  • Rimmel.Edits (talk) 18:28, 15 December 2015 (UTC)
  • Dynamic group led by a pair of solid community members with good real-world organizing experience. I am hopeful for their model of grassroots student activism to help advance free knowledge at their university, and more broadly in the state of Ohio. --Pharos (talk) 03:41, 25 December 2015 (UTC)
  • I strongly support funding this group. They've shown themselves to be a strong addition to the Wikipedia community and the funding they're asking for is very reasonable and will go a long way towards encouraging fellow students and others to edit and improve Wikipedia, as well as improving Wikipedia's image in the educational community. Tokyogirl79 (talk) 06:57, 30 December 2015 (UTC)
  • The planned activities, resources, and budget seems reasonable. The team responded to questions and shows a willingness to learn from questions and suggestions. This geographic location can benefit from a local group of volunteers. Sydney Poore/FloNight (talk) 18:47, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
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