Grants:Project/Rapid/alexisclements/NewYorkAcademyofSciencesWomeninScienceEditathon

statusFunded

Rapid Grants

The New York Academy of Sciences/Women in Science Edit-a-thon 2016

Last year the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) hosted its first, pilot Women in Science edit-a-thon. This year, as Wikipedia celebrates the Year of Science and NYAS is celebrating its 200 year anniversary, we want to host a second edit-a-thon this year but go bigger.

targetYear of Science
WikiProject Women in Red
WikiProject Women scientists

start dateNovember 1

end dateNovember 30

budget (local currency)2000

budget (USD)2000

grant typeOrganization

non-profit statusYes

grantee• alexisclements

contact(s)• aclementsnyas.org• mceresnyas.org

organization (if applicable)• The New York Academy of Sciences

website (if applicable)• http://www.nyas.org/

friendly space expectations

ucc

privacystatement

Create your report

Project Goal

1. Recruit new editors, especially Women in Science
2. Increase skills for existing editors
3. Add or improve content related to Women in Science
4. Celebrate Wikipedia Year of Science initiative

Project Plan

Activities

Tell us how you'll carry out your project. Be sure to answer the following questions:
1. Are you doing one editathon or training or a series of editathons or trainings?

We are planning a single, live 4-hour editathon focused on adding and improving articles about female scientists. We will also encourage virtual participation in the event throughout the month of November. This editathon will build upon NYAS' first, pilot Women in Science edit-a-thon.

2. 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.

This year's live event will be open to the general public and not be limited to Members of the Academy.

• We will be advertising to our mailing list of over 80,000 people encouraging them to participate live or virtually (learn more about our email newsletters here: www.nyas.org/subscribe).
• We plan to publicize the event across our social media channels. You can a few examples of how we did it last year, which included the use of the hashtag #WomenSciWiki on Twitter.
  • Our social media channels include our primary Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and LinkedIn. We will also use the feeds of our Global STEM Alliance (our K-12 science education programs): Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• We are also working with members of Wikimedia NYC to bring experienced editors and additional people to the event.
• We'll also be reaching out to other local science organizations (exs. American Museum of Natural History and New York Hall of Science) and universities (exs. New York University and Columbia University) to encourage them to participate at our live event, virtually, or by hosting satellite events of their own.

3. Do you have experienced Wikimedia editors to lead the event?

As mentioned above, we are working with members of Wikimedia NYC to bring experienced editors to the event.

4. Do participants have the equipment or skills needed to participate and contribute high quality content? If not, how will you support them?

Participants will be encouraged to bring laptops, but we will also provide a number of laptops at the event. We will host a training session at the beginning of the event. Training materials and editors will be present throughout. In addition, we'll have numerous print sources on hand so that participants can draw information from them for editing and adding articles. Last year we found it very useful to create a list of female scientists affiliated with the Academy in advance of the event, along with links to potential information sources, on our Meetup page. We will do that again this year to help provide people with specific articles to add or improve.

5. How will you engage participants after the event(s)?

We will thank all registered participants by email following the event. We'll be active on social media during and after the event. We'll be producing content for our own website ahead of and after the event. And we'll also engage participants on the Meetup page for the event, encouraging them to continue to support the Year of Science, Women in Red, and Women Scientists Projects.

6. Is there anything else you want to tell us about this project?

We were excited to pilot this idea last year. Doing a small event helped us learn a lot about how edit-a-thons work and what makes them succeed. We're excited to expand this year and help make even more improvements and additions to Wikipedia, particularly during your Year of Science and as we launch our 200th anniversary celebration.

Impact

How will you know if the project is successful and you've met your goals? Please include the following targets:
Event will build upon 2015 editathons results (listed below)

2016 event

1. Number of participants: 60
2. Number of new editors: 20
3. Number of of articles created or improved: 120

• New articles created: 20
• Articles improved: 100

2015 event

1. Number of participants: 15
2. Number of new editors: 4
3. Number of of articles created or improved: 35

• New articles created: 7
• Articles improved: 28

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).

* The money we're asking for will only go toward covering direct costs, such as laptop rental, snacks, gathering published resources on women scientists, etc. - outlined below.

• The New York Academy of Sciences will also provide the following in-kind support for the event:
  • Marketing and Public Relations (press release, press outreach, custom emails and email list usage, PDF flyer design, webpage and registration for the event, and staff support for each of those items) - $7,000 in support
  • Room Rental (usage of room, front desk staffing, HVAC) - $6,500 in support
  • AV staffing - $550 in support

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

• Table and chair rentals for 100 people - $600
• AV & laptop equipment rental - $500
• Catering provided by our contracted caterer (coffee & tea service throughout the live event, as well as cookies throughout the event, plus the labor costs for the catering staff, and the rental and costs for all equipment/plates/cups/etc.) - $900

Endorsements

Community members are encouraged to endorse your project request here!

• Qualified Endorse BrillLyle (talk) 14:19, 25 July 2016 (UTC)
  • Qualified Endorse based on alignment with Women in Science / Women in Red / Wikimedia NYC initiatives
  • However: Request for more information is listed on Talk page. Request that the grant writers respond to these questions.
  • Additional concerns:
    • Estimated attendance seems high especially in contrast to last year's event attendance. This is not a proven event and the expectations seem high with no clear justification of this expectation.
    • Closed nature of event last year is not in keeping with my personal view of Wikipedia editathon events. Concern is not about requiring registration and/or restricting access due to physical location as MoMA and other entities require this and in NYC this seems reasonable. Concern is that it seems that NYAS is not interested in engaging with non-NYAS members. If this is true, I think the event should be re-classified and re-presented as an internal workshop. Which begs the question as to whether WM should fund an internal workshop that is closed.

-- Erika aka BrillLyle (talk) 14:26, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

•  Support Thank you for the follow up response. -- Erika aka BrillLyle (talk) 20:20, 26 July 2016 (UTC)
•  Support Many thanks for the answers posted today to the discussion page. These allow me to offer this proposal my full support. NYAS is well-positioned in the science community, and this event fits well with the Year of Science and related projects like Women in Red's Women Scientists ongoing virtual event. I endorse this proposal and, as a board member of Wikimedia NYC, I look forward to supporting the event in November. --Lange.lea (talk) 19:46, 26 July 2016 (UTC)
•  Support This project will provide world class subject experts an event in which to create/improve articles on Women in Science with the help of experienced WP editors. As such, it is aligned with the WMF mission. Becksguy (talk) 05:43, 31 July 2016 (UTC)