Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/WikiOutdoor Training 2024/Final Report

Conference Fund Final Report

Report Status: Under review

Due date: 30 November 2024

Funding program: Conference Fund

Report type: Final

Application

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General information

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  • Title of proposal: WikiOutdoor Training 2024
  • Username of applicant: Полупрофесионален Шофер
  • Name of organization: N/A
  • Amount awarded: 24033.74
  • Amount spent: 21974.44 USD, 1302575 MKD

Part 1: Understanding your work

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1. Did your event have any impact that you did not expect, positive or negative?

The training resulted in immediate positive impact by encouraging participants to actively plan expeditions and promote this training within their communities. This resulted in the following activities:

2. What do you think will be the long term impact of this conference?

The training will have to encourage more participants to use the new skills and knowledge to conduct expeditions and share the learning with members from their communities. Furthermore, it is expected that the idea of making this training a recurrent event will be kept alive, and participants from other communities will be interested to organise it.

3. Would you say that your work improved participants’ ability to apply new skills and knowledge?

Yes

3a. If yes, please describe how and why you think this was successful. Please describe why you think this is the case.

Given that the event was training with many practical sessions concerned with different aspects of conducting expeditions, we strongly believe that participants learnt new skills and knowledge that they can readily apply. For instance, the workshop on expeditionary research and planning helped participants learn the process of conducting expeditions in greater detail, while the workshop on photography for expeditions delivered knowledge about producing documentary pictures during expeditions. Participants were enabled to use these skills during the expedition that was conducted on the second day of the training.

4. Please use this space to upload media and other files that help tell your story and impact. You can also provide links to them.


Field to type in URLs.

More information on the outcomes and impact of the training can be found on the following page:

5. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with the support of this Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals.

Our efforts during the Fund period have helped to...
A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups
B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community Agree
C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups
D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives Neither agree nor disagree
E. Encourage the retention of editors Neither agree nor disagree
F. Encourage the retention of organizers Strongly agree

6. Please share resources that would be useful to share with other Wikimedia organizations so that they can learn from, adapt or build upon your work. For instance, guides, training material, presentations, work processes, or any other material the team has created to document and transfer knowledge about your work and can be useful for others. Please share any specific resources that you are creating, adapting/contextualizing in ways that are unique to your context (i.e. training material).

  • Upload Documents and Files
  • Here is an additional field to type in URLs.
Some useful links to resources and learning from the event are the following:

7. Is there anything else you would like to share about how your efforts helped to bring in participants and/or build out content, particularly for underrepresented groups?

As the second day of the training included a practical implementation of the skills and knowledge learnt on the first day, participants had the opportunity to produce content that was later added to the Wikimedia projects. The content was mostly in the form of pictures from underrepresented places and objects.

Part 2: Your main learning

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8. Were there any major challenges or things you found difficult that you would like to share? What would you do differently next time?

There were three main challenges during the training.

  • Firstly, the event had high logistical demands as six sport utility vehicles carrying the participants had to be transported to and from the Prespa Region. This required a careful and detailed plan in advance, and some of the organisers had to travel back and forth a couple of times.
  • Secondly, it was difficult to lead a convoy of seven vehicles during an expedition. This resulted in a significant slowdown of the place at which the expedition was conducted, so the number of documented places and objects was lower than during a conventional expedition organised with one vehicle.
  • Thirdly, the weather conditions were a major risk as unfavourable weather would have resulted in cancellation of some activities. This risk was mitigated by scheduling the event at the end of the summer when the weather is not excessively hot and the number of sunshine hours is still higher with lower probability of rain showers.

9. Was there any non-financial support that the Wikimedia Foundation could have provided that would have better supported you in achieving your goals?

No. The main request from the Wikimedia Foundation was to financially support the training, whereas the know-how on organising the event was provided by the organising team.

10. What would you recommend on a local and/or regional level as the best next step to leverage your success and momentum?

We advised participants that they should share the new skills and knowledge within their communities following the event. Moreover, we maintain communication with all participants in order to monitor the impact of the training.

11. Please add any 3 operational recommendations for future events organizers.

The main three operational recommendations for future organisers of this event are the following:

  • identify an underrepresented region that can host the event
  • carefully plan and supply all the necessary logistics for the event
  • create a communication channel to easily communicate with participants

Part 3: Metrics

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12. Open Metrics reporting

In your application, you defined some open metrics and targets (goals). You will see a table like the one below with your metric in the title and the target you set in your proposal automatically filled in.

Open Metrics Summary
Open Metrics Description Target Results Comments Methodology
Number of participants We aim to have at least 25 participants, containing: scholarships attendees, core organising team, logistical members and self funded members 25 26 Three of the selected participants could not attend the training due to visa issues. N/A
Number of outdoor activities in which participants will be involved one year after the event We will ask the participant within the year following the event with survey regarding the activities they took in their local communities on this topic. 5 0 This is a forward-looking metric that can be calculated one year after the event. So far, one participant has submitted a microgrant request to support an expedition in Turkey. N/A
Number of represented communities Represented communities from Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia 10 12 Members of three additional communities were selected but could not attend the training due to visa issues. N/A
Number of covered objects during the event During the specific day of the outdoor training the objective will be to cover at least 50 buildings, monuments, rivers, lakes, mountains, etc. 50 46 The calculated metric includes places and objects that were covered during all outdoor activities at the graining. These include the casual exploring, the astroexpedition, the wikiexpedition and other group outdoor activities. N/A
Number of uploaded content After the day of the outdoor training, participants should upload images, edit articles and Wikidata items in total number of at least 300 content pages 300 626 The calculated metric includes all files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons in the "WikiOutdoor Training 2024" category, which is accessible on the following link: N/A

13. Were there any metrics in your proposal that you could not collect or that you had to change?

No

13a. If you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results, please describe and add any recommendations on how to address them in the future. Also mention why you felt you had to change some metrics.

N/A

14. Here are the templates of registration and survey tools that the Wikimedia Foundation has developed so that you can use in your conference fund work.

1. Standard Registration Form, 2. Post-event participant survey, 3. Follow-up (3-month) participants’ survey

14a. Please share the result(s) with us, provide the link(s) or summarize the main result(s) and insight(s) from them.

N/A

14b. If you used other forms, please share them with us, as these forms might be useful for others to use.


Part 4: Financial reporting and compliance

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15. & 16. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.

1302575 MKD

17. Please state the total amount spent in USD.

21974.44 USD

18. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.

Upload a financial report file.


Please provide a link to your financial reporting document.

The financial report is available on the following link:

As required in the fund agreement, please report any deviations from your fund proposal here. Note that, among other things, any changes must be consistent with our WMF mission, must be for charitable purposes as defined in the grant agreement, and must otherwise comply with the grant agreement.

19. If you have not already done so in your budget report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal.

N/A

20. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?

Yes

20a. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.

The unspent amount is 73,324 MKD (US$ 1,236.98). This amount is mostly a result of the savings from unpurchased flight tickets for the three participants that could not attend the training due to visa issues.

20b. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?

B. Propose to use them to partially or fully fund a new/future grant request with PO approval

20c. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.

We intend to use the unspent funds as additional financing for the event commemorating the 10-year anniversary of Wikiexpeditions that we plan to organise in April 2025. This event will consist of an exhibition, lectures and panels for the general public. So far, we requested only 600 euros for this event in the application for Wikimedia MKD's annual grant; however, following more careful considerations, we found out that we might need additional financing to organise a bigger event that would have farther outreach to the general public.

21. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?

Yes

22. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?

Yes

23. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.

Yes

24. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here.