Grants:Project/Rapid/Rossella Vignola (OBC)/Wiki4MediaFreedom edit-a-thon

statusFunded

Rapid Grants

OBC Transeuropa/Wiki4MediaFreedom edit-a-thon

An edit-a-thon in Belgrade to boost the availability of accurate knowledge on media freedom and pluralism of the media in Europe in the largest open encyclopedia worldwide

targetEnglish Wikipedia; Serbian Wikipedia; Italian Wikipedia

start dateNovember 21st

end dateNovember 21st

budget (local currency)EUR 550

budget (USD)US$ 605,11

grant typeorganization

non-profit statusYES

grantee• Rossella Vignola (OBC)

contact(s)• vignolabalcanicaucaso.org• segreteria@balcanicaucaso.org

organization (if applicable)• Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa)

website (if applicable)• www.balcanicaucaso.org

friendly space expectations

ucc

privacystatement

Create your report

Please see the sample Editathon/Training application before drafting your application.

Project Goal

Choose one or more of the following goals. You can add or delete goals as needed.

1. Add or improve content
2. Recruit new editors
3. Socialize with community members

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:
1. Are you doing one edit-a-thon or training or a series of edit-a-thons or trainings?

We are planning one edit-a-thon to be held in Belgrade on November 21st. The edit-a-thon is called "WIKI4MediaFreedom" and will be focussed on improving the availability of accurate contents on topics related to media freedom and pluralism, including some of the most concerning issues affecting the media systems in Europe today, namely transparency of media ownership; media concentration; access to public information and censorship and self-censorship. Particular attention will be given to the media freedom situation in South-East European countries.

2. How will you let your community know about the event? Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions.

The idea and the design of the edit-e-thon have been widely discussed in consultations held among the main organizers, i.e. Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa and Wikimedia Serbia. Also, we have created a dedicated page on meta.wikimedia: the page is in English, but soon will be translated also into Serbian and Italian too. The proposal will be notified to the Italian Wikipedia community through the newsletter of Wikimedia Italia. Further on, the notification of the event has been posted on the FB group “Central Eastern European Wikipedia Community” where feedbacks have been asked to the members of the Group. Wikimedia Serbia will also post the event on its communication channels, including Wikimedia Serbia blog and webpage; FB; Twitter and Instagram channels. A news has been published on the portal of OBC Transeuropa in Italian and English. Finally, each partnering organization will carry out traditional press work for the media. An EventBrite page has been created to facilitate participants’ registration.

3. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event?

The event will be led by Rossella Vignola (Italy), Miroslav Loci (Serbia) and Niccolò Caranti (Italy). Rossella is a Wikipedia editor since March 2015; she has been trained by a Wikipedian in Residence hosted at Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa in the frame of a GLAM project implemented in cooperation with Wikimedia Italia. Since then, she has been continuing to engage in curating contents on media freedom and pluralism in Wikipedia. She has participated to several Wikimedia's events, including Wikimania2016 and two Wikipedia edit-a-thons (in Milan and Trento).

Miroslav is a Wikipedia editor since 2013, and a sysop on Serbian Wiktionary. Currently engaged as a lecturer in the training seminars "Applying Serbian Wikipedia in teaching and learning." Seminar is accredited by the Institute for Advancement of Education and is intended for teachers in primary and secondary schools. As a board member of WMRS, he participated in organizing many local events, such as edit-a-thons, training courses, meetups and local conferences.

Niccolò is a Wikipedia editor since 2006, a sysop on Italian Wikipedia since 2007 and sysop on Wikimedia Commons since 2013. He has organised 2 edit-a-thons in Trento and and took part in several Wikimedia-related events.

Furthermore, at least four more experienced Wikipedia editors from the Serbian chapter and two OBC Transeuropa’s editors trained within the GLAM project will support participants in editing and help in the event logistics.

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

Participants will bring their own laptops: this will be clearly specified in the event’s page as well as on the invitations and in all relevant promotional materials that will be created. Our local partner, Wikimedia Serbia, will make available 2-3 laptops in case of need. The edit-a-thon will be hosted at the Belgrade’s Impact Hub in a fully equipped room which includes: a stable Internet connection, a full space setting, projectors, sound system and small office materials. The Wiki4Mediafreedom edit-a-thon aims at gathering media freedom activists, journalists, media experts and a group of experienced Wikipedia volunteers: experts and Wikipedians will therefore work together and complement each other’s expertise to ensure the quality of contents that will be created. Participants will be provided in advance with the list of entries to be created / improved / translated along with a selection of relevant quality sources to be used as reference. Both lists will be prepared by the curators of the Media Freedom Resource Centre, a curation digital platform on media freedom and pluralism in Europe. Those sources will be listed in the event’s page published in meta.wikimedia and distributed in printed copies at the beginning of the event.

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

Posts reporting about the edit-a-thon will be proposed to community blogs, newsletter, mailing lists and Facebook groups. As happened with the mobilisation of the multilingual Wikipedia community in the translation action on the occasion of the liberation of Azeri investigative journalist Kadija Ismailova which involved the Wikipedians of the Central Eastern Europe Wikimedia Community FB Group , further engagement of the edit-a-thon’s participants will be stimulated on specific occurrences such as the Human Rights International Day (10th December) or the World Press Freedom Day (3rd May). Participants will also be notified on every relevant initiative that will be carried out in the frame of Wiki4MediaFreedom project, including online calls for translating contents or when a new quality article on the edit-a-thon’s topics will be created. Finally, we are planning a follow up (poster session or edit-a-thon) to be held at the WikiCon 2017 which is in the process to be organized in Italy.

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

The event aims at fostering new alliances between the Wikipedia and open knowledge community on one side, journalists and media freedom experts on the other. Freedom of expression and information is a fundamental right highly relevant for both these communities, and they can best contribute advocating for it by joining forces to raise public awareness on its importance and endangered situation across Europe. The edit-a-thon is a follow up to a GLAM project implemented in 2015-16 by OBC Transeuropa in cooperation with Wikimedia Italia as a part of the action European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.

The GLAM aimed at enriching and systematizing the articles on media freedom and pluralism in Europe in several linguistic versions and training / assisting OBC Transeuropa’s staff to allow them to contribute autonomously in Wikipedia beyond the end of the Residence. The Wiki4MediaFreedom initiative has been presented in a poster session at Wikimania2016 held in Esino Lario in June 2016.. Organized in cooperation with Wikimedia Serbia and with the support of Wikimedia Italia, the edit-a-thon will be transnational and multilingual. Participants from different nationalities are expected to attend and contents will be edited in English, Serbian, Italian and any other language participants will choose.

Impact

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

1. Number of events: 1
2. Number of participants: 30
3. Number of new editors: 15-20
4. Number of of articles created or improved: 15-20
5. Number of repeat participants (for projects that include a series of events) -

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).

4 people from OBC Transeuropa’s staff, including 3 Wikipedia editors, will attend the event, supporting participants in editing and helping in the events logistics. 6 experienced Wikipedia editors (5 from Serbia and 1 from Italy) will take part as volunteers. Travel to Belgrade and accommodation expenses for the Italian team is funded by the European Union through the project European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.

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

• Food and drink for participants = EUR 80
• Room’s rent: EUR 450
• Miscellaneous (printing cheatsheets, etc.) = EUR 20
• TOTAL AMOUNT = EUR 550

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

• Great initiative! I'm going to participate as a volunteer and i support this grant request! --Jaqen (talk) 11:19, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
• An interesting cooperation between Italian and Serbian WM chapters, together with including a group of international editors, including journalists and students. I will participate as well, and I support this grant request! --Mickey Mystique (talk) 14:15, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
• Great opportunity of collaboration between chapters and an interesting editathon on a very sensible argument. --CristianNX (talk)
• I'm so happy that OBC wants to make an edit-a-thon in Belgrade, Serbia. I think it would bring good results in terms of great cooperation between two chapters and free content on Wiki projects. I support this grant request. --IvanaMadzarevic (talk) 16:02, 2 November 2016 (UTC)
• very happy to see this project and this collaboration moving forward. I have been Wikipedian in residence at OBC in 2015, their commitment to media freedom makes them a great ally for Wikimedia and events like this one are a good way to spread activism and build transnational contacts. -- Dans