Grants:Project/Rapid/Jojit fb/2nd Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in Pangasinan/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2016-17 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

• To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Jojit fb/2nd Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in Pangasinan.
• 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 rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

Did you meet your goals?

Four (4) out of five (5) goals have been met. Three (3) of which exceeded the target outcome. Only one (1) goal did not fully meet expectations. The goal to have at least sixty (60) articles improved or created in any Wikimedia online projects has not been met. There were six (6) articles created and twenty nine (29) articles improved with a total of 147 edit count. The goal was 58.3% achieved. Some of the contributions in the English Wikipedia were reverted back due to lack of sources and other valid reasons. Furthermore, two (2) of the six (6) articles created were deleted due to lack of sources by an administrator in the English Wikipedia who is not part of the attendees or organizing team of the edit-a-thon. The edit-a-thon was part of Digital Influencers' Summit and it seems that the goal was partially achieved due to unfocused participants because the summit's main focus is the blogging activity. During the first day of the summit, the participants were supposed to write blogs but they were not able to, thus, they were instructed to do the blogging activity on the second day, which did not happen. But the second day should have been devoted to edit-a-thon. This has made the participants shift their focus from writing blogs to editing Wikimedia projects making them unfocused. The Wikimedia facilitators from Manila had no idea what happened on the first day of the summit. They only learned about what transpired on the first day when they arrived at the venue on the second day. On the other hand, the project lead, Jojit, may have just overestimated the fourth goal. Based on his experience, the most productive edit-a-thon, the 7th Waray Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, produced thirty one (31) new articles and the goal then was to create five (5) new articles only.

(Note: To learn more about how the project went, see the detailed project report. )

Are you happy with how the project went?

We are happy that the edit-a-thon pushed through but not satisfied with how it was conducted because it could have been better. Please refer to the answer to the question "What would you do differently next time?" below on points of improvement.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
1 event	1 event	An event where participants edited contents in Wikipedia and other related products was held last March 25, 2017 at Lingayen, Pangasinan. The target outcome has been achieved through the cooperation of the Provincial Government of Pangasinan, which co-sponsored the Digital Influencers' Summit where the edit-a-thon is part of the activities.
25 participants	47 participants	The target outcome has been achieved because there were eighty six (86) persons who attended the event but only forty seven (47) individuals participated in the edit-a-thon including a non-active Wikipedian who has forgotten his username.
15 new editors	36 new editors	The target outcome has been achieved because thirty six (36) participants have registered and edited contents in Wikipedia and other related projects including the inactive Wikipedian who has forgotten his user account and created a new one.
60 articles created or improved	35 articles created or improved	Six (6) articles have been created and twenty nine (29) articles have been improved with a total of 147 edit count. Only 58.3% of the target outcome has been achieved because the participants were not focused on editing Wikipedia. Before the edit-a-thon was announced, they were thinking of doing blogs as part of the summit which they should have done the day before the edit-a-thon. Two (2) of the six (6) articles created were deleted by an administrator in the English Wikipedia who is not part of the attendees or organizing team of the edit-a-thon.
21,000 bytes or characters contributed	29,824 bytes or characters contributed	The target outcome has been achieved because there were 29,824 bytes or characters were contributed to the Wikivoyage in English and Wikipedia in English, Tagalog, Ilokano and Pangasinan languages, as well Wikimedia Commons.

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

• What worked well?

1. With the conduct of this edit-a-thon, forty seven (47) participants from different sectors of society, including a non-active Wikipedian, were able to understand what Wikipedia and its related projects (with emphasis on Pangasinan Wikipedia) are all about and how they work. Thirty six (36) of them have edited Wikipedia using their newly created user accounts. Except for the inactive Wikipedian, the rest of the participants were new to Wikipedia or have not edited Wikipedia before the edit-a-thon.
2. While only a few of the participants brought laptops to the event, the rest of the participants were able to edit Wikipedia using their mobile phones.
3. Jojit and Bel used their own WiFi modem and tethering with their mobile phones to connect participants' gadgets to the internet which enabled them to edit Wikipedia. There were also other participants who brought their modems. These participants were given Internet load credits and were instructed to share their WiFi modems with other participants.
4. Upon creating user accounts, there were no participants who experienced the six-account limit per day per IP that Wikipedia imposes. This was due to the ample Internet connections with different IP addresses.
5. The English Wikivoyage, one of the target Wikimedia project, was heavily edited with 16,969 total characters contributed, which is 56.9% of the total characters contribution for this edit-a-thon.
6. After hearing the talk of Bel, two participants from the University of Luzon approached her and said that they were interested in conducting an edit-a-thon at their university.
7. There is at least one participant who continued to edit Wikipedia after the event.
8. The edit-a-thon was well funded by the Wikimedia Foundation and the Pangasinan Provincial Government. Swags and prizes for the edit-a-thon were provided by anonymous donors.

• What did not work so well?

1. Due to the two non-Wikimedia talks before the Introduction to Wikipedia talk, matters on Wikipedia and related projects were hurriedly discussed and the talk was cut short because lunch was served thereby missing some important matters that would have been imparted to the participants if the talk had been discussed properly and completely. The two non-Wikimedia talks before the Introduction to Wikipedia talk should have been delivered the day before the edit-a-thon according to the schedule of activities of the summit.
2. Since the edit-a-thon was just a part of the summit and something went wrong with the schedule of the summit, during the day of the edit-a-thon the participants were thinking of writing blogs instead of editing Wikipedia because they were instructed the day before. This made the participants shift their focus from writing blogs to editing Wikipedia during the edit-a-thon which somehow lessen the quality and quantity of the edits of the participants. Furthermore, one of the goals were just partially achieved due to unfocused participants.
3. Some edits in the English Wikipedia of some participants were reverted back and deleted after the edit-a-thon due to lack of references and other valid reasons. This indicates that matters on citation/references were not clear enough during the edit-a-thon.
4. The two other target Wikimedia projects, the Ilokano Wikipedia and the Pangasinan Wikipedia, were not heavily edited. Participants contributed only 1,571 characters on these two projects, which is only 5.3% of the total characters contributed in this edit-a-thon. One of the possible reasons why there was only few edits on these projects is that Pangasinan is a melting pot where various culture converged. People in Lingayen, Pangasinan most likely speak in Tagalog or English rather than in their native tongue.
5. There were only two persons who assisted and guided the overwhelming large number of newbie editors during the edit-a-thon. There were too many people asking for assistance and questions. This is one of the reason why some of the contributions were reverted because participants were not guided properly.
6. Despite being partially funded by the WMF, the edit-a-thon was not promoted by the summit's organizers. This was evident in the banners posted during the event where there was not even a single Wikimedia logo.
7. Some of the participants who used mobile phones to contribute were having a hard time editing the Wikimedia projects.

• What would you do differently next time?

1. The event organizers should properly coordinate with the team from Manila about the details of the event.
2. The edit-a-thon should be a separate and independent event.
3. The number of participants should be manageable. Maximum participants should be strictly up to thirty five (35) only.
4. Enough time should be allocated to the lectures and demonstrations to emphasize important matters.
5. There should be at least three (3) facilitators during the edit-a-thon.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

1. Prepaid internet load = PHP 500 (USD 10) — This expense is for internet load credits for the edit-a-thon participants.
2. Swags = PHP 0 (USD 0) — No grant money was spent because an anonymous donor provided key chains, stickers, Wikipedia offline DVDs and USB flash drives that were given away to participants of the edit-a-thon.
3. Food and drink = PHP 5000 (USD 100) — This expense covers only 40 persons. The expenses on food and drink for the rest of the participants were shouldered by the Pangasinan Provincial Government.
4. Bus travel expense of two veteran Wikimedia editors from Manila = PHP 1,428 = (USD 28.56) — Only two Wikimedians went to Pangasinan instead of three because Joel Encinas was sick. The bus fare was also cheaper than what was budgeted.

Total spent = PHP 6,928 (USD 138.56) (Note: 1 USD = PHP 50)

Remaining funds

Remaining funds from this grant have been returned to WMF in the amount of US$89.

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

The actual approved grant funds is USD 250 (PHP 12,500) but the actual wired money is USD 237.16 (PHP 11,858). Grant funds were received last March 28, 2017 and the amount was less due to bank charges. Thus, the remaining funds after subtracting the actual expenses (PHP 6,928 = USD 138.56) equaled to USD 98.60 (PHP 4,930). Jojit decided to return the remaining funds to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Before he returned the funds, he asked his bank about the charges that might incur upon sending money to the United States. He also queried the process of the wire transfer. According to the bank, the currency for wiring money to the US should be dollars and not Philippine peso. Jojit should buy dollars from another bank or other sources because his bank does not sell dollars. Bank charges shall include a service charge amounting to PHP 500 (USD 10) and a swap fee, which is 0.15% of the total money to be wired. Jojit told this development to the WMF personnel in charge of the grants and requested the he would be reimbursed for the bank's service charge. WMF approved his reimbursement request. Thus, the total amount to be returned is USD 88.60 (PHP 4,430).

Jojit bought dollars from another bank but the total dollars bought is USD 89 because the bank sells dollars without the cents. He then wire transferred the USD 89 to the WMF's bank account on April 6, 2017 11:55 am (Philippine Standard Time). The bank charges totaling to PHP 506.54 (USD 10.13) was debited to Jojit's bank account. Other charges might incurred when WMF received the money. After this, he emailed again the WMF personnel in charge of the grants about the wire transfer and asked if WMF already received the unused funds. They replied a day after and confirmed that wire transfer was successful.

(Note: 1 USD = PHP 50)

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

The detailed project report can be seen here: 2nd Wikipedia Edit-a-thon in Pangasinan