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

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Goals

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Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Residency had multiple goals out of which most have been at least partly meet:

  • connecting and coordination of enthusiasts, experts and supporters was partly met as all of these became aware of each other, but did not necessarily meet due to COVID-19 pandemic measures and several delay (we still hope to do bigger coordination and events in September and October);
  • organizing of public programs and media activities to increase Wikimedia visibility in Rijeka/Croatia also mostly happened online and we are still to do major print media outreach (we still hope to do more in September and October);
  • support for participation and engagement inside the Wikimedia ecosystem partially achieved as only few people engaged with other projects than HR Wikipedia;
  • informing and educating the staff and community members about the Wikimedia was done, but more staff members should ideally be involved;


All in all Residency was partially satisfing and fulfilling. Rather then happy we feel content, considering that few times it felt like nothing is going to happen and plans changed many times.

It was a pioneering effort in Croatia and for the institituion that never had a professional 'in residence' or in any similar relation, so there was no template and workflow on either side. After the year of mostly remote online work (only one physical visit to Rijeka) with much coordination (especially multiple reschedualing) and administration overhead (finnancial work got more complicated due to loss of fiscal autonomy in pandemic) we could say that residency was neither sufficient nor fullfiling project.

There is a common understanding of need to follow up with more focused and intense activities now that finally physical events are not only an option, but also desirable by all.

Outcome

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Please report on your original project targets.

Number of

  • institutional entities and organizations connected: above 10 (network of regional libraries + few beyond)
  • all participants in all activities: above 50 (distributed across events with few overlaps)
  • expert participants in workshops and meetings: above 20 librarians
  • new and updated entries in Wikipedia (after checking and proofreading): 25 (50%, but we did few WikiData and Commons also created new and categorized better Wikipedia pages and Media on Commons)
  • media clips and media appearances: 2 external, 1 internal (we have #4 pending)
  • plans developed for future GLAM Wikimedian in residencies: 1 in Rijeka (tentativly 3 more)
  • plans developed for future projects: 1 (#2 is tentative)


We examined 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 in the most meaningful and sustainable way:

  • work with libraries should be done when possible with long notices *(at least 4 ideally 6 weeks in advance), as well as inside their existing and established forms of engagement (Month of Croatian book and Week of Children's book)
  • work of Wikimedians-in-Residence should be planned with multiple institutions (as individual institution has little capacity to deal with such program if this does not exist from before), practically with MMSU.hr (in Rijeka)
  • we worked on Open GLAM Croatia plan and adapting the approach of other projects to be more regional and generalized under a new name (from Wiki Loves Monuments in Dalmatia, to Wiki Loves Dalmatia and Kvarner) which will be re-activated and rebooted

WiR was distributed in different intensities over 12 months with over 10 coordination meetings (planned 3), 2 workshop (planned 1), 1 public event, 1 Edit-a-thon and only thing that got totally canceled was 1 scanning activity organized for and with expert or wider community groups depending on modality.

We created different sample and exemplary content and categories on Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata entries and Wikipedia pages, but also a workflow for releasing Open content for Children's House on separate web page (so multiple people can do it)

Learning

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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?
    • There was a common understanding of purpose that this is worth doing and especially now as Croatian Wikipedia has been moving out of its most dark period. There was somewhat of flexibility on all sides to not give up but adapt and remodel plans along the way.
  • What did not work so well?
    • There was a lack of wider and continious involvement with both staff and community of librarians.
    • There was a lack of motivation at times to do work between resident and coordinator as complexity of changes and situation was high.
  • What would you do differently next time?
    • Now with better understanding of what could be done in more welcoming atmosphere of Croatian Wikipedia and how it makes sense to plan follow-up wich is more specific and action limited (what RapidGrant was intended for). Also involving more than one instititution and more than one Wikimedian in Residence would make sense to increase capacities for actions on both sides. Host has meanwhile started a shared Artist-in-residence program with Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, as well as coordination with other city institutions in shared infrastructure of newly openned Children's House and these opportunities should be explored in follow-up.

Finances

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Grant funds spent

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

  • 14.900 HRK TOTAL (all values in brutto, with difference is compensated by library budget)
  • 700 HRK for banner: Wikpedia@20 and Croatian GLAM displayed on KulturPunkt.hr
  • 800 HRK for postproduction of video recording paid to Plakor Kovačević
  • 7.000 HRK for honoraria Wikimedian-in-Residence to Željko Blaće
  • 6.400 HRK for honoraria Wikimedian-in-Residence to Željko Blaće


Remaining funds

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Do you have any remaining grant funds?

There were no remaining funds and due to Croatian Kuna - USA Dollar fluctuation, there was a small minus that was compensated by the library budget

Anything else

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Anything else you want to share about your project?

  • Our first action announcement got deleted from Frontpage by a toxic admin of Croatian Wikipedia (that got globally banned later in 2020)

https://hr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Predlo%C5%BEak:Novosti&diff=5570553&oldid=5570516&diffmode=source

  • We did an interview on our plans for IFLA policy blog in 2020

https://blogs.ifla.org/lpa/2020/11/06/zeljko-blace-kristian-benic-wikimedian-in-residence-at-the-city-library-of-rijeka-croatia/

UPCOMING:

  • We plan a report and update on our plans for IFLA policy blog in early 2022