Grants:Project/Rapid/UG BR/Education conference travel and UG meeting

The User Group Wikimedia in Brazil has members in many Brazilian federal states, which normally leads us to hold online meetings, since presential meetings are costly; nevertheless, in the specific circumstance that we describe below we have decided to apply for a simplified Conference Grant Rapid Grant. We expect the conference to take place in São Paulo, so funding is being requested for travel expenses and shared lodging for user-group members from other cities.

If grant application is successful grant recipient will be user:Sturm, who will be responsible for booking and buying flight tickets and hotel rooms. Since ticket and hotel prices might vary, we might have to consider eventually a margin of error in the budget that is described here.

statusFunded

Rapid Grants

Education conference travel and UG BR meeting

Support travel costs for active Brazilian Wikimedians to attend an education conference at the University of São Paulo, as well as a User Group meeting.

targetpt wp

start date03/11

end date03/31

budget (local currency)BRL 5.088 (this amount may vary as plane tickets' prices fluctuate); in dollars: US$ 1,590

budget (USD)please add the amount you are requesting (USD)

grant typeindividual

contact(s)• joalpegmail.com• celiofcfyahoo.com.br

organization (if applicable)• UG BR

website (if applicable)• wikimedianobrasil.org

friendly space expectations

ucc

privacystatement

Review your report

Goals and outcomes

Goals

• Develop a strategic plan for the incoming year for the UG Wikimedia in Brazil;
• Produce a document to be shared at the Wikimedia Conference, in Berlin, that three of our group members will attend;
• Attend lecture by LiAnna Davis (Wiki Edu Foundation) on educational uses of Wikimedia projects;
• Take part in edit-a-thon on scientific topics.

Context

1. What inspired your community to begin planning this event?

In this event, two lines of activity will coincide. On the one hand, this event will be an opportunity for working on relevant issues for the user group, especially the year-long strategic plan and a document to be shared at the Conference in Berlin. The context for working on these issues is especially important for this user group, since we are in the process of requesting chapter recognition. On the other hand, there is an expectation to have user-group members take part of a set of activities that volunteers from São Paulo city are organizing: a lecture on educational uses of Wikimedia projects with LiAnna Davis, a director of the Wiki Education Foundation, and an edit-a-thon on Mahematics and Neuroscience. Funding to bring LiAnna Davis to Brazil was secured from a Brazilian agency, and besides the activity focused to Wikimedians during her trip she will present on the Wikipedia Year of Science to an academic audience at the University of São Paulo; funding for the edit-a-thon has been granted by the Wikimedia Foundation as a rapid grant.

2. How does this event tie into other activities that your group has done?

On the one hand, strategic meetings are a regular practice of our group, especially in the context in which we have increased the level and scope of our activities and have applied for chapter recognition. On the other hand, the group has been especially active in improving scientific content on Portuguese Wikipedia, as reported on our meta page. This has involved outreach and education activities.

Measures of success

• Total of 15-20 participants

This set of activities has two main goals:

• to provide a training on educational uses of Wikimedia projects, focusing especially on fostering skills and providing resources to Wikimedians and students. The Brazilian education program is still modest, and the idea is to foster the ability to contribute to this program by people who are likely to believe Wikipedia belongs in education but do not know effectively how to put it into practice. Examples of topics our guest lecturer will tackle are: the challenge of developing an educational program when few educators are involved, and strategies to engage educators onto an education program. After this, we hope that at least two new education programs to be launched in one year. We will also learn from this training what the best resources for developing the education program in Brazil are.
• to provide a venue for deliberations on the UG Wikimedia in Brazil, in the context in which we prepare to go to the conference in Berlin and have requested chapter recognition. Right now, we face challenges associated to the dispersion of our group members, and we hope that this venue for deliberations will also be an opportunity to establish an intelligent practice to think of ways to overcome these challenges. We will also spend one day working on strategic plans for our user group this year. We hope that working on this strategic plan for one day will result in the following: a document to be shared in Berlin, a set of goals and timelines for the year, documentation on group tasks and people who will commit to these tasks.

Plan

Event Program

- 3/12: morning and afternoon section on strategy-building for the user group (strategic plan and document for Berlin)

- 3/13 (morning): Lecture by LiAnna Davis on educational uses of Wikimedia projects

- 3/13 (afternoon): Edit-a-thon on Mathematics and Neuroscience

Community Input

Discussion on strategic organizing has taken place on private channel of the user group, on a Slack.

Participation

1. Please describe the target audience for this conference or event.

Experienced Wikimedians of the UG BR (strategic meeting and training)

Undergrad students (training / no need for travel support)

General public (training / no need for travel support)

2. If you are requesting funds for travel scholarships, what criteria will be used to select scholarship recipients?

DOES NOT APPLY

Follow-up

DOES NOT APPLY

Budget

Wikimedians we are requesting travel and hotel support for are:

• User:Teles -- as of 2/10, Salvador-São Paulo roundtrip ticket cost was BRL 539, around 250 dollars including taxes
• User:Ixocactus -- as of 2/10 Ilhéus-São Paulo roundtrip ticket cost was BRL 845, around 340 dollars including taxes
• User:Chicocvenancio -- as of 2/10, São Luís-São Paulo roundtrip ticket cost was BRL 785, around 300 dollars including taxes
• User:Lechatjaune TBC -- as of 2/10, Porto Alegre-São Paulo roundtrip ticket cost was BRL 460, around 200 dollars including taxes

We are requesting three two-night shared hotel rooms for the event. The total is estimated in 80 dollars per room per day, in a total of: 480 dollars.

The total budget for the event amounts for: trips (1,110) and hotel (480) = 1,590 dollars

Discussion

Endorsements

Do you think this project should be selected for a Conference Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

1. CasteloBranco^msg 03:41, 27 January 2017 (UTC) This can help spread the initiatives on Education to other cities, by empowering our community members.
2. Ixocactus (talk) 04:31, 27 January 2017 (UTC) We can share experiences and will construct a strategic plan for the Group. Great iniciative!
3. Chico Venancio (talk) 12:21, 27 January 2017 (UTC) There is no substitute for face to face time in regards to organizing events and discussing strategic issues for the group.
4. Vinicius Siqueira (talk) 01:04, 31 January 2017 (UTC) Those meetings are key to the improvement of our activities in Brazil.
5. Sturm (talk) 16:55, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
6. Lechatjaune (talk) 13:17, 13 February 2017 (UTC)