Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia Ghana User Group/re:publica Accra/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2018-19 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/re:publica Accra.
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.

Introduction

The re:publica Accra conference happened from 14 – 15 December 2018 in Accra – Ghana. As a conference dedicated to digital societies, Wikimedia Foundation was an official partner and the user group attended as an exhibitor at the Digital Rights Lounge of the conference, a facilitator of Wikimedia workshops on Wikipedia and Wikidata, and also to start a petition for Freedom of Panorama (FOP) in Ghana. Ghana currently has no FOP.

The CEO of Wikimedia Foundation was also invited as a keynote speaker as she had attended re:publica in Berlin previously. However she could not make it.

To handle the conversation on FOP, we invited Douglas Scott (Discott) of Wikimedia ZA, who has experience in petitioning for Freedom of Panorama in ZA to lead a session on the topic, so a similar petition can be started in Ghana.

Goals

Our goals were not entirely met but we are happy.

Outcome

Our Impact

Goal	Targeted Outcome	Outcome	Comments and Learning
Number of total participants	60	53	We engaged with hundreds who attended the conference, at our stand and gave them Wikimedia branded stickers for purposes of brand awareness. The stand also had volunteers who engaged people on Wikipedia and Wikidata and FOP and our petition, However, we will put the number of those whom we engaged in the session rooms for Wikipedia and Wikidata at 53. For a conference of its size we could have attracted more people into sessions however other sessions of other topics were running at the same time.
Number of articles created or improved (if applicable)	Each participant will make at least a contribution each	Participants could not make edits	It was a talk/presentation, rather than a hands-on workshop due to limited time and late attendees.
Freedom of Panorama session & petition	A session on FOP which will call for FOP in Ghana.	See comments and learning column	The session was led by Douglas Scott (Discott) and had more than 20 participants. Following the conference, a petition is currently up for signing and will be later delivered this year to the Chief of Staff at Ghana's presidency where many petitions usually go for action.
Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons (if applicable)	Not given	We have pictures from all Wikipedia and Wikidata sessions that happened at republica Accra. It also has pictures from activities that happen at our stand during the conference days. 68 photos where taken and uploaded on Wikimedia Commons under this category.	–
Number of photos used on Wikimedia projects (if applicable)	Some of the photos uploaded on Commons will be used to improve the article of re:publica.	–	User:Owula kpakpo will handle this.

What we have learnt


Partnerships and conferences	Logistics	Volunteering	Structuring Our Events
Affiliates have to be clear of what can be achieved when they agree to join/partner with conferences based on how much time and space organizers are willing to give for participation. If this is not established, affiliates' time, energy and money can get misplaced. We planned for workshops months ahead when the partnership was established. But getting to the event itself when things were clearer, we had to settle for a presentation instead.	The user group is looking into acquiring laptops for secretarial/administrative work. The collection of emails/phone numbers as well as displaying slides and other demos for a long time have been done on volunteer's personal laptops. This time it didn't work out. Collected contacts had to be written on paper and they have to be typed out later by group leaders. A laptop can ease that burden.	The group will have to hold workshops to groom volunteers. As we accept to join such big events, we are going to need them. We want the grooming to focus on handling funds, dealing with service providers, filing expenses, photography, social media and uploading to Commons, proper conduct when supervising a stand dedicated to receiving conference visitors etc While we are looking to improve volunteerism, we will have to start looking at engaging paid project administrators. At least an honorarium will be a good incentive.	The 53 people we registered as part of our promise to engage them in subsequent events, will be given the chance to join our next funded event around Art+Feminism. The group policy now is this: For all events we organize ourselves or conferences we are invited to: : All events classified as editing workshops (hands-on) targeting new editors must last at least 4 hours of contact. That said, 1-2 hours of presentation and 2 hours of hands-on work. All events classified as presentations targeting new editors should last at least 1 hour. At conferences with large numbers and concurrent sessions, we should target few people for sessions, and target more people for stands/booths. They seem to attract more traffic and should be fitted and designed to make impact.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Item	Description	Quantity	Unit Price GHS	Amount Budgeted GHS	Amount Spent GHS	Comments
Data for MTN 4G WIFI Router	Data cost only	2	289	578	199	Only 1 bundle was purchased
Food	Light brunch and lunch break for 10 volunteers for 2 days	10 volunteers	60	600	600	–
Water	Water for 2 days	3 boxes	20	60	0.00	No purchase was made
T-shirts	T– shirts for instructors, volunteers, prizes for top contributors out of the 60	15	25	375	725	Volunteers needed t-shirts so number had to be increased
Pullup Banner	Pullup banner for our lounge at re:publica	1	400	400	800	We needed an additional banner for visibility due to the layout of the conference venue
Stickers	Stickers for workshop participants	400	¢2.00	800	1,000	Additional stickers were needed for community and Wikipedia brand visibility
Graphics Design	Designing works for printing for republica	N/A	N/A	300	300	–
Extension sockets		3	100	300	200	We bought 2 instead of 3. The conference organizers provided 1.
Volunteer transportation	Transportation for conference preperation and activities	N/A	N/A	3050	1241	Fewer trips were made
Cost of phone calls	Communication between user group organisers, trainers, other partners	N/A	N/A	100	100	–
Miscellaneous				707	21.73	Bank charges
			Total in GHS	7,270.00	5186.73

Remaining funds

GHS 2083.27. We would like to use the remaining funds for Art+Feminism 2019.

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of 2,083.27 GHS / ~US$397 were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedia_Ghana_User_Group/Art+Feminism_2019.

Anything else

Freedom of Panorama session

Wikipedia session
Wikimedia Souvenirs
Volunteers at our stand
Wikidata session
Visitor to our stand
Wikimedia session participant
Visitor to our stand
Wikimedia session participants
Wikimedia session participant
Douglas at our stand
Participants
Participant with conference schedule
Participants
Participants
Opening ceremony
A session
Participants
Mayor of Accra with organizers
Facilitator
Exhibitors