Grants:Project/Rapid/Wikimedian in Residence - G.K. Rijeka 2020

statusfunded

Wikimedian-in-Residence - G.K. Rijeka 2020

WiR will focus on developing, growing and cultivating on Croatian Wikimedia community, resources and visibility in the City of Rijeka (2020 European Capital of Culture), as well as capacities and methods for open content work in Croatia with focus on GLAM for planning future work and partnerships with public institutions, civil society and private sector.

targetPrimarily Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, but also Wikidata, Wikivoyage and others to less extent.

start date10 22 May

end date30 22 May

budget (local currency)14.000 HRK

budget (USD)2.000 USD

grant typeOrganization

grantee• Kristian_Benić / Rijeka City Library

contact(s)• MAGAZIN@gkri.hr

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Project Aims and Goals

Briefly explain what you are trying to accomplish with this project, or what do you expect will change as a result of this grant. Example goals include, "recruit new editors", "add high quality content", or "train existing editors on a specific skill".

Applicant (Host)

Rijeka City Library is one of the biggest public libraries in Croatia, publicly recognized as the most innovative and active municipal library. Most important projects of the library are online magazine Magazine GKR, magazine for children Brickzine and GKR Lab, service focused on makers culture and 3D printing. Library has won national title Best Library 2019. As a leader in the field GKR wants to help the efforts of Wikimedia and Wikipedia enthusiasts to work on establishing a more sustainable, inclusive and diverse community and establish resources for development in Rijeka and Croatia. As there is no local Wikimedia chapter-affiliate there is little visibility and capacity for Wikimedians to work with Public institutions, Civic organizations and Private companies. Level of Croatian Wikipedia visibility is rather low and compromised (as linked from frontpage of Meta).

Context & Contributors

In 2020 Rijeka is the European Capital of Culture. Due to the ongoing global pandemic most public space events have been fully canceled or indefinitely delayed (bringing much anxiety and depression with local cultural producers). In these circumstances much of the general public and cultural professionals will pay more attention to both free (open) and communal (commons) online practices/resources.

This effort will be led by Z. Blace (experienced in media activism, curating and community organizing), with support of individual Wikimedians and media practitioners from 3 organizations in the 3 biggest cities of Croatia via Clubture Network collaboration of 3 NGOs: Multimedia Institute from Zagreb (localised CreativeCommons and promoted Free/Libre/Open code and content for 20 years), PaRITER from Rijeka (organized feminist editing marathons in 2017-18) and QueerANarchive from Split (works with communal archives).

Aims and Goals

By establishing this pioneering first Wikimedian-in-Residency project in Croatia, we would be:

supporting first efforts in connecting and coordination of enthusiasts, experts and supporters;
organizing public programs and media activities to increase Wikimedia visibility in Rijeka/Croatia;
also support participation and engagement inside the Wikimedia ecosystem;
informing and educating the staff and community members about the Wikimedia;

Much importance will be made on elaborating the values of open content, sharing, commoning and collaborative models of work (especially now against toxic social media networks), including reasoning behind logic and practices (like how to coordinate and contribute to the community and different Wikimedia projects). These will be both basic and novel (for Wikimedia in Croatia), as well as holistic efforts in addressing content, context, values and infrastructures together and experimental in terms of diversity of contributors, approaches and participants involved.

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other volunteers spend your time doing?

We will examine in which ways and how support and partnerships can be forged between individuals, groups and GLAM entities in Croatia to stipulate and advance Wikimedia work. Also what are their needs and how can these be accommodated in the most meaningful and sustainable way. We will share these findings publicly, but also put them in practice by making specific plans, mapping and organizing resources for the future (like establishing User Groups), but also acknowledge gaps and possibilities.

WiR will be set for a period of minimum of 6 working weeks distributed in different intensities between 3 and 12 months. Start will be more intense due to initiating different activities and then get reduced (finish, fold or transform) incrementally. The WiR will comprise at least, but not be limited to; 3 meetings, 1 workshop, 1 public event, 1 Edit-a-thon and 1 scanning activity organized for and with expert or wider community groups depending on modality.

The WiR will be responsible for:

Liaising between the WMF, community and the (GLAM) institutions and other entities to ensure understanding and synergies.
Organizing internal meetups and workshops with staff, members and partners associated with the institution to inform on Wikimedia.
Building credibility on Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects in Croatia.
Organize communal edit-a-thon and workshop materials for communities in Rijeka and Croatia.
Identifying potential sample lists of materials in the Public Domain (by Croatian Copyright laws and with keeping in mind US Copyright Laws).
Promoting activities through Media coverage in the partnership with the GLAM institutions and consequent work done by the community to bring more awareness to masses about Wikipedia and its sister projects.
Coordinating Edit-a-thons, scanning, OCR and proofreading events and bring Wikimedians on-site to work with staff on content creation and improvements.

Notes

NOTICE: All activities during pandemic will be exclusively online.

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.

Proposal is still not advertised publicly, but the project will use several media outlets of Rijeka City Library, partners and supporters, including both internal publications, newsletter, bulletin board and web magazine, as well as mainstream press, University and community media outlets. WiR will also research and outreach to local and regional wikipedians, initiate founding of User Groups on MetaWiki and email-lists on the list server of WikiMediaFoundation for sustainable and accessible coordination. We will also use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media/services of our own and partners for outreach and promotion.

What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?

By the end of the project, we will have a good overview of development plans, informative and educational media, as well as other resources to support future development.
We will have both higher number of informed and committed wikipedia editors and wikimedia contributors
With events like meetings, edit-a-thons and workshops will improve community engagement and visibility.
Most importantly, we will have established relations with different organizations, groups and among individuals in them through practical and capacity building activities so that they will assist each other in future collaborations as well.

This partnership will be an example for other GLAM collaborations for various Wikimedia projects in Croatia in the future.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets and feel free to add more specific to your project:

Number of institutional entities and organizations connected: 10
Number of all participants in all activities: 50
Number of expert participants in workshops and meetings:20
Number of new and updated entries in Wikipedia (after checking and proofreading): 50
Number of media clips and media appearances: 6
Number of plans developed for future GLAM Wikimedian in residencies: 2
Number of plans developed for future projects: 2

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).

Project is organized by the Rijeka City Library with Z. Blace as WiR, with partnering support from Clubture Network for collaborations with 3 organizations in 3 cities in Croatia: Multimedia Institute from Zagreb (that localised CreativeCommons and promoted Free/Libre/Open code and content for 20years), PaRITER from Rijeka (organized feminist edithons in 2017-18) and QueerANarchive from Split (works with communal archives) inside of HRW project.

WiR - Coordinates the outreach, networking, coordination and educational activities for establishing first (GLAM focused) collaborations and partnerships in Rijeka and Croatia, by organizing meetings, workshops and other public activities. It informs and educates professional staff and members of the library about Wikipedia and its sister projects. It also works on promotion and future planning of Wikimedia related activities and Croatian open content publishing.

Time allocation

Time divided in different tasks:

15 percent of time as liaison between the WMF, community and institutions to ensure future developments
15 percent formalizing the collaboration and discussions with the partner institution
30 percent organizing offline and online events
20 percent information and promotion work
10 percent establishing resources and finding exemplary open content
10 percent reporting

People involved

Host institution:

Kristian Benić, coordination and responsible staff member for technology projects
Z. Blace, artist/project manager in residence
media and program staff will also be involved

External people involved:

Volunteer(s) - from host institution, Clubture project and individuals committed to: Event organizing, Digitization, Proofreading, research for content gaps, upload of content on different Wikimedia Projects, and create articles on Wikipedia relevant to Rijeka and Croatia.
Consultant(s) - members of other Wikimedia projects and Wikimedia Affiliates, especially from Serbia and Belgium, as well as GLAMs and User groups
Lecturers & Presenters:
- Dr. Denny Vrandečić, co-founder of Croatian Wikipedia, developer of WikiData and Wikimedian-in-Residence at Google
- Dr. Nishant Shah, Director of Research and Outreach and Professor of Aesthetics and Cultures of Technology at the ArtEZ University of the Arts (NL)

Equipment and tech.

DIY book Scanner and people with knowledge on how to use it in Multimedia Institute in Zagreb

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

Expenses and taxes for Artist&Project manager at WiR 3*600 = 1800 USD
Workshop and event expense 2*50 = 100 USD
Miscellaneous (about 5% of total budget) = 100 USD
Total = 2.000 USD

Participants

organizer: Z. Blace looking forward to these activities --Zblace (talk) 10:23, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
volunteer: M. Bozicevic (Wikimedia educator)
other volunteers from 3 partnering organizations and individuals
volunteer: T. Medak (Creative Commons Croatia)
Volunteer M. Gricula #LookingForward Mala Gricula (talk) 19:23, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
Volunteer I look forward to participating in this project! Krumpirova Zlatica (talk) 11:39, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
Volunteer As the Croatian Creative Commons, we'll support the implementation and we'll promote the created content. CreativeCommons HR (talk) 11:16, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
Volunteer I'd like to help any way I can:) 93.180.96.246 17:44, 11 December 2021 (UTC)

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

I worked with Z. Blace on educational workshops for the Wiki software TamTam that I developed in Multimedia Institute Aerkalov (talk) 14:00, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
I support this proposal...excellent collaboration between Wikimedians and the library. RachelWex
It proposes a in important community based support structure for the Croatian community. Torrentofvultures (talk) 06:23, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
I support the project because it will help to broaden Wikipedia base with missing content and it will empower the Wikimedia community as well as establish network of individuals interested in creating in this platform. Drugarica (talk) 11:15, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
I support Zeljko's proposal. This is a beautiful proposal to defend and develop free culture in the context of the closure caused by the pandemic. FredSultan (talk) 07:37, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
Rijeka City Library is a well known early adopter in the digital space, and I strongly support this application to help us spearhead connections with local organizations in Croatia. denny (talk) 15:47, 18 April 2020 (UTC)
As a regular contributor of several language Wikipedia projects I look forward to see more diverse and inclusive content and people contributing to Wikipedia in Croatia. We really do need any help we can get to put it back to good use. MariOK (talk) 06:05, 19 April 2020 (UTC)
This is a fantastic initiative as Croatian Wikipedia is quite lacking in diversity of views and many of its articles are ideologically loaded. Hopefully the project can inform, educate, and inspire more users to join the discussion.Bruno Lovric
(y) 95.168.120.19 17:30, 19 April 2020 (UTC)
This is a much needed and well-planned project Fuzzyvagina (talk) 18:33, 19 April 2020 (UTC)
The Croatian Wikipedia is in dire need of projects like this. I wholeheartedly support this proposal. --AlokinP (talk) 07:15, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
As the Croatian Creative Commons affiliate, we have previously worked with both Željko Blaće and the City Library in Rijeka, on projects supporting the creation and diversity of free cultural works and endorse this project as a long-overdue extension of those activities. CreativeCommons HR (talk) 11:05, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
Krumpirova Zlatica (talk) 11:32, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
The project is well prepared and I look forward to participating in it. Krumpirova Zlatica (talk) 11:37, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
This project picks up on previous campaigns for better representation of non-mainstream views on the Croatian Wikipedia I've been involved in, and I am separately acquainted with Ž. Blaće from the time we worked together at Multimedia Institute. I fully endorse this project. Miranche (talk) 11:53, 20 April 2020 (UTC)
Z. Blace has an extensive experience of working with different communities and bridging between them. Clco (talk) 22:03, 20 April 2020 (UTC)