Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Wikimedia Community Ireland Annual Grant 2022/Midpoint Report
Report Status: Accepted
Due date: 15 January 2023
Funding program: Wikimedia Community Fund
Report type: Midterm
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General information
editThis form is for organizations receiving Wikimedia Community Funds (General Support) or Wikimedia Alliances Funds to report on their mid-term learning and results. See the Wikimedia Community Fund application if you want to review the initial proposal.
- Name of Organization: Wikimedia Ireland Company Limited by Guarantee
- Title of Proposal: Wikimedia Community Ireland Annual Grant 2022
- Amount awarded: 45445.22 USD, 45636.56 EUR
- Amount spent: 19533.49 EUR
Part 1 Understanding your work
edit1. Briefly describe how your strategies and activities proposed were implemented and if any changes to what was proposed are worth highlighting?
- Inclusivity and diversity
With pandemic restrictions being lifted, we have been able to return to offering in-person events, however, we have found with some vulnerable groups there is a hesitancy to return to in-person while there is still risk of COVID infection. We have reflected on this further in Q5.
Discussions have begun with Dublin Pride and other Pride organisers about holding events in 2023 to improve the coverage of relevant topics on Wikipedia and sister projects. Dublin Pride takes place in June, but there are a number of other Pride and related events earlier in the year that could have Wikimedia event(s) with them.
With the public events we have co-hosted, such as with the Dublin History Research Network, the event was hybrid to allow wider access to the event outside of the Dublin area but also for those not comfortable attending in-person events.
Education During this period we were able to return to full activities for the first time since early 2020. In particular, our education work with universities has continued, continuing to work with lecturers and educators we have built a relationship with. With two continuing partnerships with UCD and DCU, we have worked closely with the lecturers to ensure that the integration of Wikipedia editing into their modules aligns with stated learning outcomes and to make the learning experience on Wikipedia as fruitful as possible.
Irish language The WikiWomen Erasmus+ Project has served as an important incubator and catalyst for more interaction with the Irish speaking community. The on-going creation of Irish language outreach material will form an important resource as we build on these initial interactions. We have reflected further on this in later questions.
Competitions and campaigns The photography competitions, Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Earth, remain a keystone element of our on-going outreach and an accessible entry point for new or inexperienced contributors to Wikimedia projects.
2. Were there any strategies or approaches that you feel are being effective in achieving your goals?
- Increasing the visibility of our work both locally and internationally appears to be developing an awareness of our group which has led to some new and emerging opportunities for WCI. A key element of this was our partnering with international Wikimedians in hosting the first Wikimedia+Libraries Convention in Maynooth, Ireland, in July. This event was attended by a diverse set of Wikimedians and librarians from across the world and the Wikimedia community. It not only resulted in greater awareness of the Wikimedia movement within tertiary education in Ireland, but also of the work of WCI with the wider Wikimedia movement.
More proactive engagement with organisations such as Local Government Management Agency (agency which oversees public libraries) and the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) have resulted in developing those relationships further. In particular, with the DRI we have been invited to take part in a working group focused on developing a set of recommendations for aligning practices across the cultural heritage sector with the FAIR principles for data sharing.
Continuing our practice of drawing in more established allies and partners who are experts in their fields has also been beneficial to the perception of our campaigns such as WLM and WLE. Including heritage professionals within the judging panels has resulted in the potential for more outreach with Wikimedia events in early 2023.
We have discovered that in more challenging areas, relating to diversity and inclusion, it is important to have continuous conversations and interactions with related groups, individuals and organisations, regardless of the uptake of Wikimedia events or outputs. We are still in the process of building trust and understanding of Wikimedia projects, and this is not something we can set the pace of. We must establish ourselves as allies first, before we can be accepted as partners.
3. What challenges or obstacles have you encountered so far?
- Capacity continues to be one of our greatest challenges given the number of ongoing projects we are taking part in, and the calendar of events and campaigns we have created over the years. With 1 staff member and a small group of volunteers with the ability to support our projects, the group is limited in what opportunities they undertake, for example at times relevant Wikimedia movement events taking place simultaneously with events in Ireland or elsewhere. Also relying solely on volunteers for Irish language outreach continues to be a challenge for the group, and is something that the Erasmus+ Project has helped to alleviate in the short term. As a result, we have not translated the Reading Wikipedia in the Classroom course into Irish yet, and will not have capacity to do so this year, but it remains a longer term goal to use this resource in Ireland.
We are still feeling the effect of the pandemic on our level of engagement with GLAMs specifically. Most GLAMs are still catching up on delayed programming from pandemic restrictions and lockdowns, which has resulted in less capacity for Wikimedia events. In early 2023 we plan on re-engaging with these past partners to attempt to reestablish these relationships and to offer Wikimedia events that would compliment their planned programming and input into any emerging events in the future.
This lack of capacity in partners is something we have felt to a lesser extent in our educational outreach, but we have noticed that establishing new relationships with educators and library staff has been slower than in the past. We understand that it is due to similar reasons that we find in GLAM, exasperated further by the emerging cost of living crisis and budget restraints that affect the ability to take on additional activities.
4. Please describe how different communities are participating and being informed about your work.
- As has been the case for a number of years, our greatest source of community outreach is through our photographic competitions. Having completed our 9th year of Wiki Loves Monuments, the competition continues to be a popular outlet for photographers of all levels in Ireland. Wiki Loves Earth offers an unique opportunity to run an all-island competition, and again we saw participation from Northern Ireland in 2022. Unlike WLM, WLE can be run across the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland with a number of listed, protected sites in the border areas in both jurisdictions.
Through the WikiWomen Erasmus+ Project our interaction with the Irish language community has continued to grow more organically than in the past. As we are actively partnering with a school, our growing relationship with the teachers and students has resulted in our integration into the Irish language community through that work. As we continue with the project and communicate the results within Ireland, that network and our visibility to Irish language groups, communities and institutions will also develop. As the first Erasmus trip will take place in March this year, we aim to use that event to engage with Irish language media and news outlets to promote this work further.
Presentation on the WikiWomen Erasmus+ Project at Celtic Knot 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Uzj_QFJo0 Blog post about the WikiWomen Bootcamp for educators (in Basque): https://wikimedia.eus/2022/07/wikiemakumeak-erasmus-programan-irakasleentzako-ikastaroa-egin-dugu/
5. Please share reflections on how your efforts are helping to engage participants and/or build content, particularly for underrepresented groups.
- Through the WikiWomen Project we have been working with teachers and students in the Irish language school, Colaiste Oiriall. The work undertaken by the students has already seen an increase in the representation of women on Irish language Wikipedia, Vicipéid. The resources we are collaborating on with the project partners will be an invaluable tool for further outreach.
Increasing representation of minoritised Irish content on English language Wikipedia is a longer process. In particular where the majority voices on content relating to minority topics remain dominant and where the editing community are slow to embrace more nuanced source materials. Regarding the LGBTQIA+ community in Ireland, discussions have started on fully exploiting newly digitised material from the early 2000s (a period that often lacks sourcesl) on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.
For the Traveller community, it is our hope to build on our use of Wiki Loves Folklore as well as the new Wiki Loves Living Heritage to give this community and their allies outlets to collaborate with Wikimedia projects that are not centred on English language Wikipedia. Commons and Wikidata are potentially better entry points for documentation of culture relating to the Traveller community and for increasing visibility and understanding. This process must be led by the Traveller community, however, so how these conversations emerge over 2023 will dictate how this collaboration develops.
6. In your application, you outlined your learning priorities. What have you learned so far about these areas during this period?
- As outlined, our main interest is in learning from and expanding our definitions of impact from our work. Within our education outreach, and in particular with our work in the Irish language, this is focused on raising awareness of Vicipéid as well as Irish language content on other Wikimedia projects. From the WikiWomen project alone, we have seen a marked increase in activity on Vicipéid as existing editors collaborate on the new articles about women being created. Initial concerns we had about the ability for the Vicipéid community to deal with the student’s first edits have been allayed and gives us confidence in further similar outreach and editing activities.
Through our work with the Hunt Museum, we are exploring more joint opportunities around the use of Wikidata and Wikibase in their context. These conversations emerged from the connections made at the European GLAMwiki Coordinators meeting, and some initial discussions have been had around the possible use of WikiBase with Irish institutions such as the Hunt. Our increased understanding of Wikidata and Wikibase will be important as we try to support this work going forward. Building capacity around Wikidata will be an area of improve in Ireland.
7. What are the next steps and opportunities you’ll be focusing on for the second half of your work?
- Since the end of pandemic restrictions we have found that GLAMs are catching up on their delayed programming and have not had the resources to work with us in the same way as pre-2020. We will focus on re-establishing connections and previous partnerships with campaigns such as Wiki Loves Living Heritage, Wiki Loves Pride, and Art+Feminism. We have not held the intended number of events with accessibility facilitation, so integrating this into our work for the next 6 months will be a priority.
Part 2: Metrics
edit8a. Open and additional metrics data.
| Open Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual asset impact | Monitoring the upload and use of images from GLAM institutions in Ireland to Commons and their rate of reuse across Wikimedia projects. This will be captured by monitoring the number of images in selected categories (eg Category:Collections of the Hunt Museum), the related page views, and rate of image usage. | N/A | 0 | For the Hunt Museum collection (Category:Collections of the Hunt Museum), out of 426 images, 67 distinct images are used 158 times. In January 2022 the images were viewed a total of 270,053 times. In December 2022 this had risen to 287,965 views.
For the National Library of Ireland (Category:Images from the National Library of Ireland), out of 2320 images, 865 distinct images are used 2894 times. In January 2022 the images were viewed a total of 2,850,161 times. In December 2022 risen to 3,076,912 views. |
GLAMorous and GLAMorgan |
| Photography campaigns | Monitoring and promoting the relevant use of images from the various Wiki Loves campaigns across Wikimedia projects. This will be captured by monitoring the use of images from selected categories (eg Category:Wiki Loves Earth 2021 in Ireland) and the related page views. | N/A | N/A | Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2021, out of 367 images, 27 are in use on Wikimedia projects, and were viewed 8,807 times in December 2022.
Images from Wiki Loves Earth 2022, out of 600 images, 26 are in use on Wikimedia projects, and were viewed 2,979 times in December 2022. Images from Wiki Loves Monuments 2022 in Ireland, out of 1125 images, 69 are in use on Wikimedia projects, and were viewed 2,410 times in December 2022. |
GLAMorgan |
| Facilitated events | The running of 5 events with facilitation or other relevant support, such as Irish Sign Language interpretation or captions. | 5 | 0 | These events are planned for 2023, focusing on campaign outreach relating to, for example, Wiki Loves Pride. As discussed in the report, initiated these events has been slower than anticipated in 2022. | Event organisation. |
| ' | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| ' | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | Organisers from allied or aligned organisations that continue to host or facilitate Wikimedia workshops either independently or in collaboration with WCI. | 4 | 2 | As of January 2023, two new interested organisers have contacted WCI about either holding events with WCI or incorporating Wikimedia outreach into their existing activities. | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | Workshops or events held with groups identified as representing minority or marginalised groups in Ireland. | 3 | 0 | As discussed in the reporting, organising these events has proved challenging in 2022, but we will continue our outreach to relevant organisations in 2023. | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | 3 new novel activities | 3 | 1 | A hybrid workshop took place in October 2022 entitled Writing the City of Literature: Dublin Wiki Hackathon, focusing on historical depictions of Dublin in fiction. Participants worked across Wikimedia projects and language Wikipedias. | Events and Outreach Dashboard |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
8b. Additional core metrics data.
| Core metrics | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 30 participants in inclusivity and diversity workshops and events
220 participants in educational outreach workshops and events |
250 | 146 | 140 participants in educational outreach workshops and events. We will continue this outreach with education to work towards the 220 intended participants, while working on the additional metric of 30 participants in events relating to inclusion and diversity. | Events and Outreach Dashboard |
| Number of editors | 20 newly registered editors in inclusivity and diversity workshops and events
190 newly registered editors in educational outreach workshops and events 60 newly registered and 10 returning participants in Wiki Loves Monuments 40 newly registered 10 returning participants in Wiki Loves Earth 10 newly registered 10 returning participants in Wiki Loves Folklore |
320 | 236 | Inclusivity and diversity workshops and events are being planned for 2023
136 newly registered editors in educational outreach workshops and events 19 newly registered and 22 returning participants in Wiki Loves Monuments. Like many organisers for WLM, we have a pattern of returning winners and mass-uploaders to WLM yearly, and this year reflected that. We are planning additional outreach and events for the 10th WLM in Ireland in 2023 to work on diversifying and broadening participation. 46 newly registered 13 returning participants in Wiki Loves Earth. These numbers are inline with our hopes for the WLM and WLE competitions in 2023. Wiki Loves Folklore is planned for February and March 2023 |
Events and Outreach Dashboard |
| Number of organizers | 5 organisers in inclusivity and diversity workshops and events
5 organisers in educational outreach workshops and events |
10 | 3 | 0 organisers in inclusivity and diversity workshops and events
3 organisers in educational outreach workshops and events - organisers of the Writing the City of Literature: Dublin Wiki Hackathon who wish to continue to collaborate on future events and Meghan Dowling who undertook the Wikimedia UK Train the Trainer course in December 2022. |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target | Results | Comments | Methodology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | 40 content pages in inclusivity and diversity workshops and events
100 content pages in educational outreach workshops and events |
140 | 114 | 65 content pages in inclusivity and diversity workshops and events - this work relates to articles about women created on Vicipéid as part of the WikiWomen Erasmus+ Project.
49 content pages in educational outreach workshops and events |
Events and Outreach Dashboard |
| Wikimedia Commons | 1000 images uploaded to Wiki Loves Monuments
500 images uploaded to Wiki Loves Earth 250 images uploaded to Wiki Loves Folklore |
1750 | 1724 | 1124 images uploaded to Wiki Loves Monuments
600 images uploaded to Wiki Loves Earth 0 images uploaded to Wiki Loves Folklore |
Wiki Loves Competitions Tools |
| Wikidata | 20 content pages in inclusivity and diversity workshops and events
40 content pages in educational outreach workshops and events |
60 | N/A | 0 content pages in inclusivity and diversity workshops and events
0 content pages in educational outreach workshops and events None of our events have encompassed editing Wikidata as an output yet, but it is hoped that with sustained outreach with GLAMs in 2023 that this work will be brought into these events. |
Events and Outreach Dashboard |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
9. Are you having any difficulties collecting data to measure your results?
- N/A
10. Are you collaborating and sharing learning with Wikimedia affiliates or community members?
- Yes
10a. Please describe how you have already shared them and if you would like to do more sharing, and if so how?
- Rebecca and Meghan attended the Wikimedia Summit in Berlin in September.
Rebecca took part in the European GLAMwiki Coordinators meeting on 14-16 September, presenting 2 lightening talks. Rebecca has continued to be a member of the group looking to develop The Capacity Exchange pilot platform, being interviewed for the WikiMove podcast: https://www.wikimedia.de/wikimove-site/podcast/episode-5-peer-support/ Along with Dr Crystal Fulton and Dr Marta Busillo, Rebecca convened a focus group as part of the conference schedule entitled Wikipedia in the Higher Education Classroom: A Fishbowl Discussion to Share Experience and Model Practice with presentations from Dr Sharon Flynn, Dr Elaine Sissons, and Dr Ruth McManus. Further focus groups have been convened since, and it is planned to publish this research in the near future.
11. Documentation of your work process, story, and impact.
- Below there is a section to upload files, videos, sound files, images (photos and infographics, e.g. communications materials, blog posts, compelling quotes, social media posts, etc.). This can be anything that would be useful to understand and show your learning and results to date (e.g., training material, dashboards, presentations, communications material, training material, etc).
- Below is an additional field to type in link URLs.
WikWomen student learning materials (currently being translated into Irish): https://learninghubfriesland.thinkific.com/courses/wikiwomen-en Librarians Aloud Irish podcast interviewing Laurie Bridges about Wikimedia+Libraries Convention in Ireland 2022: https://soundcloud.com/librariansaloud/librarians-aloud-episode-028-laurie-bridges Wiki Update podcast interviewing Alice Kibombo about Wikimedia+Libraries Convention in Ireland 2022: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0jnFj8qYNSlWKpRpTrBmZK Live episode of the podcast The World According to Wikipedia recorded as part of Wikimania 2022: https://wikimania.wikimedia.org/wiki/2022:Submissions/Live_recording_of_the_podcast_The_World_According_to_Wikipedia
Part 3: Financial reporting and compliance
edit12. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency.
- 19533.49
13. Local currency type
- EUR
14. Please report the funds received and spending in the currency of your fund.
- Upload Documents, Templates, and Files.
- Provide links to your financial reporting documents.
15. Based on your implementation and learning to date, do you have any plans to make changes to the budget spending?
- No
15a. Please provide an explanation on how you hope to adjust this.
- N/A
16. We’d love to hear any thoughts you have on how the experience of being a grantee has been so far.