Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia Ghana User Group/Weekly training–editathons/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/Wikimedia Ghana User Group/Weekly training–editathons.
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? Almost

Are you happy with how the project went? Yes

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

The project targeted both returning and new editors.

The new editors whose contribution was more of a priority are captured in this program within the outreach dashboard.

The returning editors are also captured in this program. It's worthy to note that some of the new editors later became returning editors but were not added to this list. Some of the returning editors also came for more than event.

Below is how well we did with our target:

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
5 events	3 events	Each event was supposed to host 10 participants to add up to 50 participants at the end of the 5-event program. However, 2 out of 3 events were oversubscribed (cost per head also increased) and by the third event we had 48 participants out of the 50 expected. Funds couldn't support holding two more events. Also venue agreements with Impact Hub had to be revisted because program run longer than discussed. We had to end the program to re-organise ourselves.
50 participants	48 participants	We made use of only 3 out the 5 events we wanted to have.
30 new editors	20 new editors plus 5 who got accounts but haven't edited since first meeting.	The project reached 33 new potential editors in the 3 events. – However, some could only create their Wikipedia accounts later because of the limit on number of accounts to be created per one wi-fi connection. This was a problem when over 20 people without accounts showed up at our first event. Till now we haven't been able to determine if they did create one later, or have edited all. Reaching recuits after departure from trainings is hard when they are not reachable by contacts they gave. – Another issue is people who show up without an editing device with the idea they can just sit in to listen.
20 return participation	15 return participation	We made use of only 3 out the 5 events we wanted to have.
25 Wikipedia app downloads at the end of grant period	25 Wikipedia app downloads at the end of grant period	It seemed easy for people to go to their app stores and quickly download the app, with little assistance, and with their own mobile data.
25 articles created/improved	At least 36 articles created/improved by new editors alone.	Trainer continued to assign articles to some participants beyond trainings hence the excess.

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? – The use of social media to publicize events worked well. It allowed people to discover the events. I think the movement should continue to take social media seriously and encourage and even train communities to take advantage of it.
What did not work so well? Nothing major went wrong. The issue with limits on creating accounts with one wi-fi network was a problem. However it is so for a reason. It prevented some participants from getting accounts on event days. With Art+Feminism events, steps are being taken to give event organisers special permissions to create accounts past the limit for participants. Perhaps the community will look into making that more liberal for reputable event organisers. The option of asking participants to create accounts before event dates never works.
What would you do differently next time? Anything to be done differently is contingent on WMF being willing to start a conversation about giving event organisers rights to create accounts for people.

Finances

Grant funds spent

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

Item	Budgeted	Spent	Explanation
Food and drinks	$165	$100.7	For some of the events we didn't spend all the budgeted amount on food.
Transport	$112.5	$45	Fewer events held, smaller volunteer transport cost
Internet	$107.25	$89.25	One mi-fi got a discount. Also internet bundles were not purchased as new devices came with some data.
Venue	N/A	$50	We had secured free space however the venue became inaccessible during the December holidays and Ghana's election 2016 period. An alternative venue had to be sought. We had to pay for that.
Total	$384.75	$284.95

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

Yes, $99.8. We would like to use the remaining funds in a our Art+Feminism event this March. We are putting together a rapid grant request.

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of US$99.80 were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/Rapid/Arts+Feminism_2017_–_Accra.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

No