Grants:Project/Rapid/UG BR/Neuromathematics Edit-a-thons at USP/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/UG BR/Neuromathematics Edit-a-thons at USP.
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? Are you happy with how the project went?

Edit-a-thon in March

We held an edit-a-thon on Neuroscience and Mathematics on March 13, at the University of São Paulo. This was the third edition of this edit-a-thon, as we also had this event in 2015 and 2016. The official page of the edit-a-thon provides evidence we were able to set up a successful event; it is important to note that prior to this edit-a-thon we had a conference by LiAnna Davis (Wiki Edu), who spoke on the educational uses of Wikimedia projects. Two journalists attended this edit-a-thon; we were able to disseminate efficiently the event prior to the marathon.

Edit-a-thon in June

We held a follow-up edit-a-thon on Neuroscience and Mathematics on June 29, at the University of São Paulo. This was the fourth time we have organized this event. This event, whose official page is to be found here, was a good opportunity to bring experienced and new editors together.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Edit-a-thon in March

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
1 event	2 events	We held an independent conference on the educational uses of Wikipedia with LiAnna Davis
15-20 participants	24 participants	Though we were not expecting many new users, the event attracted 8 new editors.
15-20 articles created or improved	24 articles created or improved	Articles created or improved are listed on the Outreach Dashboard.

Edit-a-thon in June

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
1 event	1 event	This is the expected outcome of this activity
15-20 participants	16 participants	Though we were not expecting many new users, three new editors came to the event.
15-20 articles created or improved	73 articles created or improved	Articles created or improved are listed on the Outreach Dashboard.

Learning

Edit-a-thon in March

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?

We were positively impressed by our outreach capacity --this is similar to our understanding from last year edit-a-thon report. This time journalists who attended the edit-a-thon were interested in the marathon but also the conference by LiAnna Davis. It was a good fit to have a conference and a practical activity, as people felt this was a day-long opportunity for developing their Wikimedia skills. LiAnna Davis herself has produced a report of her visit to Brazil, mentioning the edit-a-thon. The director of the Institute of Mathematics attended the conference and the edit-a-thon and sent out to his whole department a message to say how much fun he had with this activity and encouraging professors and researchers to get involved with us.

I was also happy to read a spontaneous report from an attendee.

We were able to distribute outreach material that was sent out to us by the WMF grant officer. Thanks!

What did not work so well?

We might have reached our limit capacity to have people in our space for the edit-a-thon. We can sit 20 people, but to have 24 people in the room was tight. Many people who came to the event only registered minutes before the edit-a-thon, so we could not have predicted the total number of people who was attending. As more people than we had expected showed up, we ran a bit short on snacks.

What would you do differently next time?

As we have a second edit-a-thon planned in this grant, we are looking for a larger room. This might lead us to postpone a bit our event. I will contact the WMF to see if this can be arranged.

We were happy to be advised by the grant officer to reduce the dissemination of posters. Had we had sustained a large dissemination strategy, we would have been unable to have people in the room for the edit-a-thon. (I am putting this comment here, just because of context, but this is also relevant for what worked well, as instructions from the officer were important to make us scale down the activity and actually being able to make it a success.)

Edit-a-thon in June

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?

This activity was particularly interesting as Mike Peel, the editor who came up with the idea of edit-a-thons, attended our activity. He was not feeling well, but I think it might have been good for him to see how his idea has traveled the world. A museum director also came up for the edit-a-thon, and we had the chance to discuss the possibility of a GLAM initiative with her.

What did not work so well?

As we have reported to the program officer, we were a bit afraid our venue would not be able to fit as many people as might show up, and we were less ambitious with our dissemination strategy. In the event in March, our room was just too full. We were unable to find an alternative venue, so we had the event where it took place last time. This time it was OK, as "only" 16 people attended, but had we had 5 more we might not have been able to fit them in our lab. We should come up with a solution for this.

What would you do differently next time?

I think this time the edit-a-thon worked well. We might want to think about organizing it earlier in June, as this week was exam week for many undergrads.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Edit-a-thon in March

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

We have sent out receipts of our expenses to the WMF grant team. We have spent:

BRZ R$ 410 with printing material to advertise our activities

BRZ R$ 800 with beverage and snacks

Edit-a-thon in June

We have sent receipts of our expenses to the WMF grant team. We have spent:

BRZ R$ 122 with printing material to advertise our activities

BRZ R$ 800 with beverage and snacks

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

Remaining funds have been used or will be used for other approved mission-aligned activities. This use has been requested in writing and approved by WMF.

We have BRZ R$ 130 remaining, which is around US$ 38 according to today's exchange rate. We would like to use remaining funds for similar activities to be held in the coming semester, associated to our user-group simple APG proposal (funded).

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?