Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/TexasWP at SXSW 2025 (ID: 22894808)
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Applicant Details
edit- Main Wikimedia username. (required)
Sj
- Organization
N/A
- If you are a group or organization leader, board member, president, executive director, or staff member at any Wikimedia group, affiliate, or Wikimedia Foundation, you are required to self-identify and present all roles. (required)
I'm a group leader of a Wikimedia User Group (submitted to the Affiliation Committee).
- Describe all relevant roles with the name of the group or organization and description of the role. (required)
Founder of a regional group (New England Wikimedians), contact for another (Wikimedians for Offline Wikis)
Main Proposal
edit- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be the Meta-Wiki page title.
TexasWP at SXSW 2025
- 2. and 3. Proposed start and end dates for the proposal.
2025-03-01 - 2025-04-01
- 4. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
United States of America
- 5. Are your activities part of a Wikimedia movement campaign, project, or event? If so, please select the relevant project or campaign. (required)
Not applicable
- 6. What is the change you are trying to bring? What are the main challenges or problems you are trying to solve? Describe this change or challenges, as well as main approaches to achieve it. (required)
We want to bring together the many active Texan wikimedians around work on Commons, WP, and Wikisource, and to make space for the many wiki-related activities happening at SXSW. Texans at WCNA noted they wanted to get together more often in person, and that Austin was a good gathering point; meanwhile we have had a wikimedia presence at SXSW for a number of years and want to connect that with local networks in Austin.
New England Wikimedians has a few Texan expats and has organized a variety of national events in the past, and are supporting this initial meeting. We have local contacts w/ media orgs including The Texas Tribune, who are interested in attending an event.
Building on experience from the past two years, we will also connect experienced editors with interested newbies attending SXSW, in a cozier setting than that of the conference proper. SXSW has always been a place where some editors meet and socialize, but we are trying to more actively reach newcomers and partners who use but rarely contribute media and edits.
Venue_: We are sharing a venue that will host a range of wiki events during the period of March 7-15, only a few blocks away from the main conference events and the Tribune. Other events happening in the building include WikiPortraits, partner meetings w/ Creative Commons, the Internet Archive, and groups from the WMF.
Timing_: We will concentrate events in the evenings and on a weekend day. Travel_: We will subsidize travel for Texans coming in from across the state, including gas and parking. Lodging_: We will subsidize lodging for up to 6 people coming from outside Austin Outreach_: We will use geotargeting banners to broadcast to Texas Wikipedians, both editors and readers.
- 7. What are the planned activities? (required) Please provide a list of main activities. You can also add a link to the public page for your project where details about your project can be found. Alternatively, you can upload a timeline document. When the activities include partnerships, include details about your partners and planned partnerships.
Sat, March 8: A Wiki Futures workshop, coordinated with Creative Commons, with participants from Internet Archive, Wikimedia, and others. Brainstorming the libraries, tools, services, and knowledge we want to bring about over the next decade, and how to prepare for opportunities and risks we face. (update: CC confirmed this fits Saturday, at the end of a day of their own planned events)
Mon, March 9: A meetup for Texas Wikimedians, with intro sessions for editors and photographers, and a photo walk.
Fri-Sat, March 14-15: A hackathon at the end of that week, focused on tool use and AI. With invited presentations by local devs and other contributors, including sessions on gaps in coverage of the state, tool use and development, uploading and editing media, and using Wikidata.
Meetup themes: ~ Community - a potential Texan user group, a calendar of regional events, a contact list for universities and cultural institutions ~ Editing - 1-2 intro to editing workshops, which we've run at other state-level events; focused on regional knowledge gaps. ~ Photography - A photo walk for locations and monuments missing photos, and introducing WLM. ~ Tools - An intro to cool tools, with a hackathon for developers (2 half days)
- 8. Describe your team. Please provide their roles, Wikimedia Usernames and other details. (required) Include more details of the team, including their roles, usernames, Wikimedia group, and whether they are salaried, volunteers, consultants/contractors, etc. Team members involved in the grant application need to be aware of their involvement in the project.
- Sam Klein / User:Sj is a Houstonian and founder of New England Wikimedians, the oldest regional meetup in the U S.
- Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (User:rosiestep) is a Visiting Scholar at Northeastern University (Boston), co-founder of Women in Red, and outgoing member of the WMF Board.
- Kelly Doyle Kim ([[user:Kelly Doyle)) will facilitate sessions on working with GLAMs and the gender gap. She was recently the Open Knowledge Coordinator for the Smithsonian, running a range of public programs and training sessions.
- Kevin Payravi (User:SuperHamster) is regularly found in DFW and a co-organizer of WikiConference North America and Wiki Loves Monuments in the United States.
- Kolby Webster is a regular facilitator of WikiPortraits and other film-related events, and will also be helping maintain the venue we are using.
- 9. Who are the target participants and from which community? How will you engage participants before and during the activities? How will you follow up with participants after the activities? (required)
The main target populations for this project are:
- Texas Wikipedians, present and future (including newcomers in the greater Austin area, and underrepresented communities)
- People who have attended past https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_meetups_in_Texas
- Interested SXSW attendees, both editors and readers. Over 50,000 pass through Austin over 10 days.
- Targeted SXSW speakers who might be subjects for an editathon
We will have a Lu.ma that has people who RSVP, to follow up with people afterwards, and will trial the new Events tools on-wiki.
We are discussing collaborations with Equis Labs and AfroCROWD to connect with local communities.
- 10. Does your project involve work with children or youth? (required)
No
- 10.1. Please provide a link to your Youth Safety Policy. (required) If the proposal indicates direct contact with children or youth, you are required to outline compliance with international and local laws for working with children and youth, and provide a youth safety policy aligned with these laws. Read more here.
N/A
- 11. How did you discuss the idea of your project with your community members and/or any relevant groups? Please describe steps taken and provide links to any on-wiki community discussion(s) about the proposal. (required) You need to inform the community and/or group, discuss the project with them, and involve them in planning this proposal. You also need to align the activities with other projects happening in the planned area of implementation to ensure collaboration within the community.
Discussion at WCNA this year in Indianapolis; discussions on Meta with other Texan contributors; and on Commons with the Wiki USA photographers. As past WCNA organizers we also have existing relationships with local museums and organizations like the Texas Tribune, where staff have been curious about learning how to edit, and the state history museum.
Wikimedians have organized events in Austin for many years, and wiki panels have been a recurring feature at SXSW. In 2024 we planned a week-long studio hosting a range of events, which is returning this year providing a cast of supporting editors for tech and photography workshops.
- 12. Does your proposal aim to work to bridge any of the content knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
- 13. Does your proposal include any of these areas or thematic focus? Select one option that most applies to your work. (required)
Open Technology
- 14. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select one option that most apply to your work. (required)
Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background
- 15. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select one that most applies. (required)
Identify Topics for Impact
Learning and metrics
edit- 17. What do you hope to learn from your work in this project or proposal? (required)
We hope to help Texas Wikimedians build momentum towards a regular user group with recurring events and points of contact for anyone doing projects in the state.
In addition, we hope to see if these Wikipedia trainings can give more interested users and readers an understanding of how they + their friends can contribute media, sources, data points and articles.
Additionally, we will get feedback on the process of account creation and tool use for the cool tools we are sharings, and may run a survey of attendees with input from research teams. This will help inform future sessions and tool design.
- 18. What are your Wikimedia project targets in numbers (metrics)? (required)
| Other Metrics | Target | Optional description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 100 | Attendees hearing the workshops or participating in the hackathon.
70 newcomers and 30 returning participants. 50 new accounts created. |
| Number of editors | 50 | Attendees contributing substantively to a project or codebase over the course of the week: photos, edits, data points, or code. |
| Number of organizers | 4 | At least 2 people at each event, and 2 facilitating use of the space while we are there. |
| Wikimedia project | Number of content created or improved |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 50 |
| Wikimedia Commons | 50 |
| Wikidata | 100 |
| Wiktionary | |
| Wikisource | |
| Wikimedia Incubator | |
| Translatewiki | |
| MediaWiki | |
| Wikiquote | |
| Wikivoyage | |
| Wikibooks | |
| Wikiversity | |
| Wikinews | |
| Wikispecies | |
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
- Optional description for content contributions.
This is a flexible estimate that we hope to exceed. We have potential contributors who want to contribute to other Projects as well. At the wiki futures session at the start of the week, and at the hackathon, we also hope to solicit a) dozens of potential future directions, services and milestones for our knowledge ecosystem over the next ten years, and b) dozens of potential content, compute, and financial partners.
- 19. Do you have any other project targets in numbers (metrics)? (optional)
No
| Main Open Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
- 20. What tools would you use to measure each metrics? Please refer to the guide for a list of tools. You can also write that you are not sure and need support. (required)
The outreach dashboard where appropriate; related changes for a tasklist and photowalk list.
Financial proposal
edit- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_lUaZgIFuhLVkdH1s6D-nAclFBVAQBtZo6t6cGsnqB4/
- 22. and 22.1. What is the amount you are requesting for this proposal? Please provide the amount in your local currency. (required)
5000 USD
- 22.2. Convert the amount requested into USD using the Oanda converter. This is done only to help you assess the USD equivalent of the requested amount. Your request should be between 500 - 5,000 USD.
5000 USD
- We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
Yes
Endorsements and Feedback
editPlease add endorsements and feedback to the grant discussion page only. Endorsements added here will be removed automatically.
Community members are invited to share meaningful feedback on the proposal and include reasons why they endorse the proposal. Consider the following:
- Stating why the proposal is important for the communities involved and why they think the strategies chosen will achieve the results that are expected.
- Highlighting any aspects they think are particularly well developed: for instance, the strategies and activities proposed, the levels of community engagement, outreach to underrepresented groups, addressing knowledge gaps, partnerships, the overall budget and learning and evaluation section of the proposal, etc.
- Highlighting if the proposal focuses on any interesting research, learning or innovation, etc. Also if it builds on learning from past proposals developed by the individual or organization, or other Wikimedia communities.
- Analyzing if the proposal is going to contribute in any way to important developments around specific Wikimedia projects or Movement Strategy.
- Analysing if the proposal is coherent in terms of the objectives, strategies, budget, and expected results (metrics).