Grants:Project/Rapid/MurielMary/Auckland Museum Editathon

Develop the skills of editors of Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons
Encourage the development of a regular meetup for interested editors located in Auckland.
Continue to grow the partnership with Auckland Museum to support the Museum in their Wikimedia Foundation activities.
Expand local knowledge about the Wikimedia Foundation and its platforms (Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons etc) and the editing skills required into underrepresented communities – women, Māori, Pacific
Create content using the resources of the Auckland Museum archives and library
Discuss the further development of the Aotearoa New Zealand User Group, including future strategy and operational matters

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:

1. Are you doing one editathon or training or a series of editathons or trainings?

This event is the second of three in-person events that the Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand is organising in 2021. The first one was in Hokitika in March and the third one is in Wellington in November.

2. How have you let relevant Wikimedia communities know about this proposal? You are required to provide links to on-wiki pages to inform these communities about your proposed work. Examples of places where this can be done include community discussion pages, affiliate discussion pages, or relevant project talk pages.
You may also provide information about external social media channels you may be using.

The event has a wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiCon_Aotearoa/Auckland_2021

It has been communicated to

* the Wikimedia User Group of Aotearoa New Zealand page

* the Aotearoa New Zealand Online Meet Up at the four previous monthly meetings for January, February, March and April 2021

* the Wellington Meet Up at the four previous monthly meetings for January, February, March and April 2021

* the attendees of Auckland meetups such as Wikipedia:Meetup/Auckland_10 Auckland Meet Up of 1 May 2021 and Wikipedia:Meetup/Auckland_11 Auckland Meet Up of 21 May 2021

* the New Zealand Wikipedians Notice Board

The Aotearoa New Zealand User Group will also be promoting the event on its social media channels. We actively maintain a Facebook (both a public page and a closed group) and Twitter presence.

3. How will you let participants know about the edit-a-thon? In what ways will you be communicating with them?
For example, these can include on-wiki spaces, social media channels, mailing lists, messaging apps, or physical/online gatherings.

We will promote the event on the User Group Facebook public page, the User Group Facebook group, with the User Group Twitter account, on the WikiProject NZ noticeboard, and through mailing lists of previous participants at editathons or meetups. We will also issue a press release for local and national newspapers, and invite local and national media to cover the event.

We have also asked our co-hosts Auckland War Memorial Museum to reach out using their comms channels to promote the event to community groups.

4. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event? Please provide links to the usernames of these individuals.
For example: User:I JethroBT

Yes.

These editors organised and led the Wikipedia 20 event in Hokitika in March 2021.

Ambrosia10

This editor is experienced with training newbies and has skills in Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons as well as knowledge of a number of useful tools. We anticipate there will be other experienced editors attending this event as a number of regular attendees of the Aotearoa Online Meetup have expressed interest.

5. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?

Yes. Less experienced participants will be provided with training prior to the sessions on creating and uploading content for Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons. Participants will be encouraged to attend with their own laptops, however essential equipment needed will be miniml e.g. a regular smartphone. The event is planned to be held in the Auckland War Memorial Museum library which will have available physical and digital resources to assist with editing and teaching sessions. The programme will be a mix of presentations, formal one-to-one training in editing, as well as informal time for socialising and sharing knowledge with each other.

6. How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

We will distribute an online survey to capture feedback on the event. During the event participants will be encouraged to join at least one of the User Group communication channels (Facebook, Twitter or mailing list). We will also keep in touch with new editors via emails and newsletters and by connecting them with mentors. We will monitor their needs and provide support via talk pages so that we can retain them in the editing community.

7. Are you running any in-person events or activities? If so, you will need to complete the steps outlined on the Risk Assessment protocol related to COVID-19. When you have completed these steps, please provide a link to your completed copy of the risk assessment tool below:

This will be an in-person event within New Zealand. New Zealand currently has no community transmission of COVID19 see: https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-system/alert-level-1/

The completed Risk Assessment during COVID19 for the Auckland Museum WikiCon shows a Risk Assessment score of 8 and a Control Percentage of 91.07%.

8. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

This funding is necessary to provide the organisers with resources to attract participants. The venue is being provided for free, as are the speakers and trainers. We need this funding to provide food, prizes and support for those that need travel assistance or digital inclusion assistance. Although we want to attract new editors from the Auckland region, we also want our experienced editors from around the country to attend and contribute to the discussions about further developing the User Group and its strategy. As Auckland is the most expensive city in New Zealand to visit, we expect the participants who come from outside the city to need travel and/or accommodation assistance.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets:

Number of events: 1
Number of participants: 30 (we have spaces and will cater for 40 but believe we'll get around 30 pax if the advertising works)
Number of new editors: 5
Number of articles created or improved: 20
Number of photographs uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 50
Number of photographs used on Wikimedia projects: 15

Resources

What resources do you have? Include information on who is organizing the project, what they will do, and if you will receive support from anywhere else (in-kind donations or additional funding).

Auckland War Memorial Museum is providing the venue with no hire fee, contributing staff time to promote the event, present, and help with the event on the day and is also contributing to the cost of the catering
Internet NZ is offering scholarships for people to attend who might not otherwise be able to.
The Hokitika event in March 2021 had unspent funds of NZ$57 which can be transferred to this event.

What resources do you need? For your funding request, list bullet points for each expense and include a total amount.

Catering for morning tea x 2 $NZ13.50 x 60 pax (30 per day) + $30 delivery + GST = $931.50

Catering for lunch x 2 $NZ14.00 x 60 pax (30 per day) + $30 delivery + GST = $966

Catering for afternoon tea x 1 $160 x 2 + $15 delivery + GST = $385.25

Catering Total = $NZ2,282.75

Sticker printing $NZ40

Prizes $NZ96

Travel subsidies $NZ800

Social media advertising $NZ150

Website advertising $NZ150

See income/expenses plan here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MYctVDd5CNqNtWtURp5ujGxaZQaTj9PXNaD8DgXxzLQ/edit#gid=1978135824

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

The Hokitika conference was a great success. Attendees took away what they've learned and I see this being implemented in their volunteer work. The Auckland conference will further strengthen that. But beyond that, the Auckland conference is likely to have far reaching consequences due to its focus on collaboration with the GLAM sector. As Auckland is the most populous city in New Zealand, GLAM representatives will find it easy to attend. Once those attendees understand the numerous benefits of collaborating with the Wikimedia volunteer community, it is likely that this will give access to all sorts of databases and digital assets that are currently locked up. I therefore strongly endorse this conference and suggest that funding support should be forthcoming. Schwede66 (talk) 18:44, 29 April 2021 (UTC)
I attended the recent West Coast Wikicon held in Hokitika in March. This was well run, and was a great learning opportunity for me as a relatively inexperienced editor. I greatly appreciated meeting more experienced editors, and picking up many new tips and techniques. I am certain that the Wikicon planned for Auckland will be a success. It will be a great opportunity to build the community of editors in New Zealand’s largest city, to increase awareness and engagement with the Wikimedia platforms, and to create new content. Marshelec (talk) 20:18, 29 April 2021 (UTC)
I attended the Hokotika meeting and am looking forward to the Auckland one. The GLAM focus will be so useful for demonstrating to GLAM representatives the purpose of engaging with the Wikimedia community. I also think that as this event is the second of three planned for this year, it will greatly help to cement some of the connections made in the user group. We are distributed around the country, and many of us met for the first time in Hokitika. DrThneed (talk) 21:26, 29 April 2021 (UTC)
I too attended the recent West Coast Wikicon and hope to extend the contacts and connections I made during that conference at the Auckland event. The Auckland event be an opportunity to allow editors from around New Zealand to continue to engage with Auckland Museum content and their efforts to actively reach out and support the editing community both in Auckland and around New Zealand. The Auckland event will hopefully also provide an opportunity to reach out to communities less well represented in various Wiki projects encouraging and empowering members of those communities to contribute to wiki projects. As a result of the "travel bubble" I am also hoping that some of our Australian colleagues will make the journey over to New Zealand, thus extending the support and knowledge network of editors. I therefore strongly endorse this funding application and the conference itself. - Ambrosia10 (talk) 02:48, 30 April 2021 (UTC)
I support this conference and in particular, goal 4 to expand local knowledge about editing skills required into underrepresented communities such as women, Māori, and Pacific. I work with some members of these communities and would encourage them to attend, and it would make it easier to entice them if there were incentives such as catering. The opportunity to make in-person connections is a valuable way of spreading awareness about Wikimedia platforms and providing scaffolded support for newcomers. - Catsandthings (talk) 23:53, 1 May 2021 (UTC)
I support this conference. This is a key output of the strategic planning of the Wikimedia User Group of New Zealand for 2021. As a User group we've gone from strength to strength during and since the Covid Lockdown here in New Zealand. The West Coast WikiCon was the first time many of us had met in person and we're looking to use this opportunity to build on those relationships and skill sharing. Our co-host and venue is the key GLAM institution engaging with Wikipedia here in New Zealand and leveraging that relationship will be pivotal to convincing other GLAM orgs to work with us in a proactive fashion. It's also important to the User Group that we link in with Auckland editors and support and encourage them to join the User Group. There in active user group participation in Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and the West Coast but, as the most populous city in New Zealand, Auckland is under represented. We hope this conference will change this. Einebillion (talk) 05:12, 2 May 2021 (UTC)