Grants:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia New York City/2017-2018
- Application or grant stage: grant in progress
- Applicant or grantee: Wikimedia New York City
- Amount requested: $99,987 ($99,987)
- Amount granted: $80,000 ($80,000)
- Funding period: 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018
- Application created: 1 June 2017
- Recommended application date: 1 June 2017
- Midpoint report due: 15 January 2018
- Final report due: 30 July 2018
Application
editBackground
editLink to these documents, for the upcoming funding period, only if you have them.
- Link to your organization's staffing plan, for the upcoming funding period. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City/Staffing_plan/2017-2018
- Link to your annual plan, for the upcoming funding period. TBA
- Link to your strategic plan, which includes the upcoming funding period. TBA
Please add your grants metrics to this sheet. Note that requirements for shared metrics have changed for grants starting 1 January 2017 or later. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_qZxJ7B9U_Eo6pMG55ox-zCHppM9-lubQm0jKI2tn6g/edit#gid=1303720227
Programs
editPlease describe any changes to your programs for the upcoming funding period, including the addition of new programs or any programs you are no longer doing. Include your rationale for any major changes to your programs here.
- A major addition to our programing this year is the fiscal sponsorship of Wikipedia Asian Month, with a request for $6,000. This is a month long online editathon that is aimed at promoting Asian content in Wikipedia. The first edition of Wikipedia Asian Month was held in November 2015, so this is the third iteration. Each of the participating communities runs a local Wikipedia Edit-a-thon on their own language Wikipedias, which promotes the creation or improvement of the Wikipedia content about Asia except their own country. The participating community is not limited to Asia. The person most responsible for the project is AddisWang, and this program addition is at his request.
Please use the templates provided to add information about each program you are planning for the upcoming funding period.
Program 1: Meetups
The events and activities in the WM NYC Meetups Program will engage existing contributors and new contributors in building community and in content creation and donation, with the aim of increasing and improving quality content on the Wikimedia projects, through meetups, edit-a-thons, education programs, community tech hackathons, and partnerships with cultural and scientific organizations.
Salons and Wikipedia Day
36 new contributors continue to make 5+ edits per month, 12 months after participating in an event, and 36 existing contributors report increased engagement as a result of their attendance at meetups and edit-a-thons or their participation in education and GLAM activities.
This will be done by 45 Wikipedia meetups of any sort in 2017-18 (15 for salons and similar, 15 for editathons and similar, and 15 for presentations with external partners), each of which will have at least 10 participants of any kind or 5 new users. Activities at meetups can be live Wikimedia contributions or training. All meetups will be facilitated by an experienced chapter member WM NYC is looking to increase participation among diverse, under-represented populations. In addition to supporting initiatives to address the gender gap, WM NYC is looking to increase participation among groups in the New York City area, like members of African diaspora communities, and specific cultural campaigns like WikiArte, Wiki Loves Pride, etc.
Wikipedia Day is a local (greater New York City) one day unconference and birthday celebration for Wikipedia, in line with the global Wikipedia Day (on meta) and Wikipedia Day (on EN-WP). It is a chance to introduce Wikipedia to those interested enough to participate in the event. Wikipedia Day 17 (January 2018) will be a modified unconference, with dedicated plenary sessions (organized on our meetup page), lightning talks to the whole assembly, and open space sessions. The Lightning Talks and Open Space will be determined during the event itself. The cost is estimated to be about $170 for the Wikipedia birthday cake, and up to $3,430 for food and beverages. The venue cost will be an inkind donation. Wikipedia Day 2017 celebrated on January 15, 2017, had about 230 participants, 100 first timers, and about 40 from outside NYC. In total, more than twice our estimate. Our Wikipedia Day unconference is the largest annual event targeted to the Wikimedia community in New York City.
Cultural partnerships
Wikimedia NYC will continue to collaborate with the many local and international organizations that call New York state its home. Specifically, Wikimedia NYC plans to collaborate with the following organizations-
University and College partnerships
Educational programs via support for WikiEdu efforts will include 5 schools will participate in Wikipedia Educational Programs with workshops or classroom assignments, 5 course pages will be created documenting student and class participation, 50 students will join as new users, 50 articles will be edited by participants in the education program.
- CUNY (LaGuardia Community College, Baruch College, The Graduate Center, New York City College of Technology, Hunter College, Queens College)
- La Guardia and Wagner Archives (at LaGuardia Community College)
- Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY
- Barnard College
- School of Visual Arts
- Rockefeller University
- Fordham University
- New York University
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Columbia University
Technology
General:
We will support 10 events a year of community tech hackathons and other initiatives, working with local editors, developers and universities and the Wikimedia Foundation technical collaboration team, channeling developing talent. We aim to develop new and improved tools and workflows for community-related projects, especially those that benefit underserved areas.
Video documentation:
We have an initiative to produce high-quality video of our events, and interviews/storytelling with our program participants. The goal of this is to show the human face of local wiki collaboration, with people from diverse communities and areas of experience, and encourage those interested in starting up in other regions. Wiki NYC will do this for 3 events in 2017-18.
- Example event - Art+Feminism 2017 - Commons:Category:Art and Feminism March 2017 at MoMA oral history, stories from 25 participants
Contributor to a global movement
We will support five international programs related to these program activities through hosting either main node or satellite events. Support entails creating event pages that often serve as the main event page for global nodes, outreach, networking, resource sharing. There is a particular budget for Wikipedia Asian Month. International events include:
Program 2: Afrocrowd
Please add text or a link to a page with details on your program progress. This should including reporting against each of the SMART objectives from your proposal.
Afrocrowd exceeded goals in 2016-1017 and after 2 years of focusing on organizing monthly editathons has gained recognition and virality in the target community in the United States. It is now fashionable for cultural actors in the target community in NYC and beyond to add an editathon to conferences or programming. In 2017-2018, Afrocrowd aims to maintain its United States program while capacity building in the United Kingdom and collaborating with African user groups on a project documenting monuments to the transatlantic slave trade in Africa, the Americas and the UK. Afrocrowd also aims to begin identifying and surveying Wikipedians and Wikipedian communities or organization in the Caribbean, a region to which both its founder and its Program Manager have natural ties.
By June 2018:
Goal: Maintain existing community in the United States and support factors of growth
- Continue to work on integration and cross-fertilization of existing Afrocrowd community to the broader movement
- 4-5 Afrocrowders attend Wikimania 2017, especially Linda Foster, one of our most prolific members
- 4-5 Articles in blogs, local or national press (one under way in Barnard Magazine)
- Hold an editathon or translathon per trimester
- Generate a monthly newsletter of US and UK editathons and Wikipedia events of interest to the target group
- Continued maintenance of mailing list and launch and maintenance of a cross-continental Afrocrowd google group
- Support and encourage Wikipedia-related efforts by members of the community
- at least one trainee editor organizes editathon independently
- Develop toolkit and Training video for those in target group who want to hold editathons independently
- Continue fostering awareness of Afrocrowd and of our availability as a resource nationally and globally through near daily engagement on social media
- Measure: Over 50 new people in target group follow us on Social Media
- Continue to work on integration and cross-fertilization of existing Afrocrowd community to the broader movement
- Overall on-wiki measures:
- About 100 articles or photos uploaded for the year (including some in other languages spoken in the African diaspora)
- Over 100 people attend editathons
- Over 100 people hear presentations at conferences or when we are invited to present
- Over 100 people edit Wikipedia with us
- Overall on-wiki measures:
Goal: Support establishment of an Afrocrowd community in the UK
- Monthly meeting and ongoing email contact with Kelly Foster, experienced London-based Wikipedian and Afrocrowd organizer in the UK
- Attendance, in-person meeting and joint presentation with Kelly at Wikimania 2017 in Montreal
- Collaborate on adaptation of US model to UK
- Serve as an ongoing resource to Kelly and offer support for navigation of the broader Wikimedia bureaucracy
- Explore and research expansion to other European metropolises with large afrodescendant community such as Paris
- Collaborate with Kelly on the creation of an Afrocrowd user group
Goal: Establish a cross-continental program for documenting monuments to the Transatlantic Slave Trade
- Explore logistics for collaboration between Afrocrowd (UK and US) and two user groups in Africa
- Research US Monuments to transatlantic slave trade and availability on Wikimedia Commons
- Depending on findings, add 10-15 photos of non-documented monuments to WkiCommons, possibly culminating in event or contest
Goal: Research Wikipedians in the Caribbean
- Create a list of Wikipedians in the Caribbean and open channels of communication
- Explore mechanisms to help foster networking of Wikipedians in the region
Known Calendar Items
- 2017
- June: Detroit, Michigan Allied Media Conference / AfroCROWD RADLam Oral history capture and Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
- July: BLERD Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
- August: Wikicon North America Attendance and Wikimania Conference Presentation
- October: AfroCROWD Tutorial Video production
- December: Kwanzaa Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at African Burial Grounds 12/27
- 2017
- 2018
- January: Wikipedia Day 1/16
- February: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Annual Edit-a-thon
- March: Collaboration with Art + Feminism
- 2018
Staff and contractors
editPlease describe any changes to your staffing plan for the upcoming funding period. These should include increases in staff or contractor hours, new staff positions, or staff positions you are removing. Include your rationale for any staffing changes here.
- The Afrocrowd Project Manager position will expand from 0.4 FTE to 0.5 FTE, and 35% of their time will be dedicated to a role as Internal communications manager for the chapter.
For each new staff or contractor position, please use the template provided to add information about each new staff or contractor you are planning for the upcoming funding period (or to describe significant increases in hours or changes in job descriptions for existing staff). You are not required to provide this information for existing staff where no changes are required.
- Wikipedia Asian Month is new to WM-NYC this year, and the proposed budget is here:Wikipedia Asian Month/2017 Budget with the position descriptions here:Wikipedia Asian Month/Position Description. These are not considered employee or contractor staff positions, rather international community members being offered a subsidy/honorarium. No other changes.
Budget and resource plan
editLink to a detailed budget for the upcoming funding period. This budget should include all of your organizations expenses. Please specify which expenses will be covered from your APG.
Midpoint report
editThis is a brief report on the grantee's progress during the midpoint reporting period: 1 July - 31 December.
Program story
editPlease link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period.
- Wikimedia NYC aims to connect the peoples and institutions of the New York Metropolitan area with Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and the larger free culture movement. This year is particularly significant for the Chapter as it marks the ten year anniversary of the chapter and its first edit-a-thon, arguably the first edit-a-thon anywhere.
Since it was established, the Wikimedia NYC chapter has aimed to:
- partner with libraries, museums, and educational institutions that share its work in providing access to knowledge.
- to increase the representation of marginalized peoples in the content of Wikipedia and in its community of editors
- to support the larger free culture movement through Wikimedia projects
The Chapter demonstrates these commitments at our monthly WikiWednesday Salon and Skillshare, our regular edit-a-thons, and our partnerships with higher education and GLAM institutions. Of the 26 events held between July 1st and December 31st, we wish to highlight three that are representative of our local and global activities.
Wikipedia Asian Month
The Wikipedia Asian Month is an international initiative to add new and improved Wikipedia articles on Asia and Asian cultural topics. The primary organizers at 1 for the whole project report 7,458 articles submitted for Wikipedia Asian Month 2017 with 668 participants internationally. Wikimedia NYC is proud to be the fiscal sponsor of this international project, which aligns with its commitment to the people of the New York Metropolitan Area, which includes the second highest concentration of Asians in the USA at over 1.8 million.
Wikimedia NYC supported this international initiative with a local Wikipedia Asian Month Edit-a-thon at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on November 19, 2017. Attendees contributed to both Wikipedia and Wikidata, and the Chapter used this opportunity to record a series of videos which can be used to further promote this work specifically and Wikipedia more broadly.
The Met said that the "...initiative provides potential to seed new articles about Asian artworks, artwork types, and art traditions. These can be illustrated with thousands of its recently-released images of public domain artworks available for Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons from the museum’s collection spanning 5,000 years of art. The event is an opportunity for Wikimedia communities to engage The Met's diverse Asian collections onsite and remotely."
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Propaganda kimono
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Rural art in Central India
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Met supports wiki editing
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Chinese tombs
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event report
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came from other wiki event
World AIDS Day Wikipedia Edit-a-thon
Wikimedia NYC supports events of all sizes, and, in doing so, establishes relationships with new partners and projects which then grow into larger initiatives. In November, the Chapter held a World AIDS Day edit-a-thon at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center located in the West Village. Attendance was modest at 7 editors, but the event marks its an important step in establishing more regular programming about LGBT+ issues in addition to the annual Wiki Loves Pride edit-a-thon. It also served as a model during initial outreach conversations with New York Public Radio, which has expressed interest in co-hosting an edit-a-thon at SXSW with its podcast Nancy, promoted as “stories and conversations about the queer experience today.” Wikimedia NYC is well positioned to serve as a leader in LGBT+ initiatives.
Board Retreat and Strategic Planning Process
As the Wikimedia NYC Board supports the ongoing activities of the Chapter, it is planning for its future as well. In July of this year, it launched a strategic planning process at a day-long retreat held at the Ace Hotel. The meeting was open to board members, partners at AfroCrowd and invited guests. It was facilitated by Chuck Bell, a Programs Director for Consumers Union with experience assisting nonprofit organizations with their governance.
This meeting was the first time the Board met to discuss its vision and goals at length. In an effort to include a broader representation of the chapter membership in this process, a series of committees were established to coordinate various organizational aspects of the Chapter and to invite direct responses to a strategic plan. As part of an iterative process, the board will invite comments in February and March and approve a final draft in May.
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WMNYC Board Members
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Brainstorming
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Objectives and strategy
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Action Commitments blackboard notes
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Facilitating while brainstorming mission and strategic plan
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Organizing post it notes while brainstorming
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Participants
Progress
editPlease add text or a link to a page with details on your program progress. This should including reporting against each of the SMART objectives form your proposal.
Program 1: Meetups
Salons and Wikipedia Day
Goal | Status | Description |
---|---|---|
45 Wikipedia meetups of any sort in 2017-18 (15 for salons and similar, 15 for editathons and similar, and 15 for presentations with external partners), each of which will have at least 10 participants of any kind or 5 new users. | 58% |
26 total Meetups held, or presented at, in the first six months, an average of 4.3 per month (or about once per week), ~15 participants per event. |
15 salons and similar | 73% |
|
15 editathons and similar | 60% |
|
15 events with presentations with external partners | 100% |
Wiki NYC is exceptionally fortunate in the Wikimedia community in that almost every event which Wiki NYC presents has multiple external partners providing donations of staff labor, advertising, venue space, free media, non-free media access, catering, and venue space. |
* metrics were generated using the outreach dashboard
List of editathons and events from July 1, 2017 - December 31, 2017
- ArtAndFeminism Edit-a-thon + Wikidata Hackathon @ Artsy, Saturday July 8, 2017
- Great American Wiknic: Annual Wiki-Picnic @ Governors Island Sunday, July 9, 2017
- Global STEM Alliance Summit @ New York Academy of Sciences. Wednesday, July 19, 2017
- WikiWednesday @ Babycastles, Action=History @ Ace Hotel Sunday, July 30, 2017,
- AfroCROWD BLERD City Wikipedia Editathon Sunday, July 30, 2017
- 2017 Summer Youth Assembly @ the United Nations. Friday, August 11, 2017
- AfroCROWD DEFCON 201 r00tz Digital Securities Conference Wikipedia Editathon Saturday, August 5, 12:00pm-5:00pm in @ The Newark Museum
- WikiConference North America 2017 August 9-10 2017, Montreal (WikiTrain!)
- Wikimania 2017 August 11-13 2017, Montreal
- Action=History @ Ace Hotel, Sunday, September 24, 2017
- WikiWednesday / Chapter Annual Meeting @ Babycastles, Wednesday, September 27, 2017
- Design studies @ Parsons School of Design, Tuesday, October 3, 2017
- LaGuardia Community College Translatathon 2017 Wednesday, October 11, 2017
- Wikipedia @ Open House New York / Weekend Photo Competition, Sunday October 15, 2017
- WikiWednesday @ Babycastles Wednesday, October 18, 2017
- Open Access Week editathon @ Stony Brook University in Long Island, Tuesday, October 24, 2017
- City Tech NYC Editathon, Wednesday, October 25, 2017
- WikiWednesday @ Babycastles, Wednesday, November 15, 2017
- Wikipedia Asian Month editathon @ Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sunday, November 19, 2017
- World AIDS Day 2017 editathon @ The Center, Thursday, November 30, 2017
- Wikidata training @ Fordham, Friday December 8, 2018
- Black Lunch Table @ The 8th Floor Saturday, December 9, 2017
- Design studies @ Parsons School of Design Tuesday December 12, 2017
- workshop at UN Department of Public Information Wednesday December 13, 2017
- WikiWednesday @ Babycastles Wednesday, December 13, 2017
- AfroCROWD Street Culture Wikipedia Edit-a-thon and Year End Celebration Saturday, December 16, 2017
Cultural partnerships
University and College partnerships
Technology
- Video
- Presentation by Sam from Online SOS at WikiWednesday (November) - https://vimeo.com/244013127
- 2017 Summer Youth Assembly at the United Nations
- Internet in a Box and Kiwix
Various individuals in Wiki NYC supported the development of an offline Wikimedia content distribution program.
Wiki Project Med called for the development of medical content in Wikimedia projects. Medical programs in Wiki NYC, including university partnerships overseen by Consumer Reports, always invited student editors to share information in any language to be a part of this program. The Wikipedia:Offline Internet Resources for Latin America program included content development and deployment of devices.
Following Wikimania 2017 various Wiki NYC participants convened with others in upstate New York at the OFF.NETWORK conference to advance the development of Internet-in-a-Box, Kiwix, content development with Wiki people for translation, and deployment of the devices with the support of regional Wikimedia community groups.
- bluerasberry (5 August 2017). "Sharing Wikipedia offline medical information in the Dominican Republic". The Signpost.
- bluerasberry (23 October 2017). "Offline Wikipedia developed at OFF.NETWORK Content Hackathon". The Signpost.
Contributor to a global movement
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WikiConference North America
Program 2: Afrocrowd
AfroCROWD Program Story:
There are many stories to tell about AfroCROWD this grant period, so much has happened! For the first time, AfroCROWD was able to bring several AfroCROWD editors, including our new UK organizer, Kelly Foster, to Wikimania, and WikiConference North America, both in Montreal. They not only participated in the events as part of the audiences, as they did in support of our program manager, Sherry Antoine who keynoted at WikiConference and presented at Wikimania, but they helped lead. AfroCROWDers spoke on panels, lead discussion groups as part of the unconferences and met and connected with Wikimedians from across the movement and across cultures. They have continued to stay involved back in New York and within Wikimedia NYC. The community has appreciated them and the work of AfroCROWD. Here is a taste of some of those sentiments told first hand:
AfroCROWD and Librarians
“Thank you for making an excellent and inspiring guest presentation during the Wikipedia + Libraries online training program. Our participants are lucky to have heard from you both". The presentation was very well done – extremely inspiring and documenting the excellent work of AfroCROWD! We’re so happy to be able to celebrate your accomplishments.”---Monika Sengul-Jones OCLC · Wikipedian-in-Residence, WebJunction
This is a true success story. Active AfroCROWDer Rajene joined AfroCROWD after attending our Black History Month event at the Schomburg. She said after seeing a video link we had with African Wikipedians in Ghana whom AfroCROWD partnered with after WikiIndaba, Accra, she decided to become active. This summer, she joined us at her first Wikimania and as you can see from the note above, as an experienced librarian, she and AfroCROWD manager Sherry Antoine, lead a successful online training Wikipedia session for librarians on Webjunction for OCLC. In our final edit-a-thon of 2017, she even served as a Wikipedia Coach to help new users get started.
AfroCROWD and Columbia
AfroCROWD has begun a partnership with the renown Columbia University Oral History Masters program in a project we developed to get first-hand narratives from notable people of the African Diaspora onto Wikimedia Commons. Hear from Columbia University graduate Student Dian Zi talking about her experience with AfroCROWD during the project.
“As a first-generation immigrant, I often fall into a particular fear of losing my culture and my language, and it has made me more sensitive and curious about other people's fights of defending their cultures and languages. With the support from Wikimedia and AfroCROWD, I had the opportunity to conduct oral history interviews with distinguished members of endangered ethnic and linguistic communities who are actively preserving their minority cultural and linguistic communities. By interviewing Maari, Wynnie, and James, I was able to face my ignorance of other cultures and languages, and allow myself to become a humble listener of their stories. Although they were telling personal stories from different corners of this world, they were talking about the same topic - that no culture is an island, and our society can't afford to lose any cultures anymore. I was grateful to see the complexity and inclusivity of civilizations that surfaced from their stories and this project, which has become a unique addition to the significant work embarked on by Wikimedia and AfroCROWD.” ---- Dian Zi, Columbia University interviewer, AfroCROWD Marginalized Ethnic, and Linguistic Groups Oral History Project.
Here are some of the activities this Grant periodː
- AfroCROWD recognized by AfroLatino Festival, which honors our founder Alice Backer with the 2017 Cultural Heritage Preservation Award, July 2017
- AfroCROWD Edit-a-thon @ BLERD City (Black Girl Nerd) Conference, New York City, July 2017.
- AfroCROWD Keynotes at Wiki-Conference North America in Montreal, Canada, August 2017
- AfroCROWD presents a panel discussion at Wikimania, August 2017
- AfroCROWD creates the AfroCROWD Marginalized Ethnic and Linguistic Groups Oral History Project in partnership with the Columbia University Oral History Masters Program, September 2017
- AfroCROWD helps organize with Wikimedia New York City, the Beta Translatathon with CUNY LaGuardia Community College professors, October 2017
- AfroCROWD leads Wikipedia training session for Webjunction OCLC Librarians with AfroCROWDer Rajene Hardeman, October 2017
- AfroCROWDers are guests on radio show Legacy if 1804 hosted by AfroCROWD founder, Alice Backer, October 2017
- AfroCROWD participates in the Wikimedia Diversity Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, November 2017
- AfroCROWD begins filming for planned video tutorials (set to be completed in early 2018)
- AfroCROWD Street Culture Wikipedia Edit-a-thon and Year-End Celebration. Saturday, December 2017.
Furtherː metrics spreadsheet / goals progression.
Pressː Here is a list of some of the AfroCROWD press activity this grant period.
Inverse-Jan 8, 2018
Legacy of 1804 Radio Show Hosted by AfroCROWD Founder Alice Backer October 20, 2017
The Guardian-Oct 5, 2017
Poynter (blog)-Jul 6, 2017
We also established a few new partners over the last few monthsː
- BLERD City
- Columbia University Oral History MA Program
- Webjunctoin
Photosː Take a look at these AfroCROWD Photos from some of our events.
Video tutorialsː AfroCROWD began filming for tutorial videos which are due to come out in early 2018.
Connection and collaborationː We have also connected with groups at Wikimania, Wikiconference NA, and Wiki Diversity Conference to collaborate on upcoming projects to focus on among items, linguistic focused edit-a-thons, and Black History Month.
In the last two and a half years of development, this grant period has been one focused heavily on qualitative development and organizing and developing deeper collaborations, partnerships, learning and sharing best practices and pacing in order to develop stronger programs and initiatives. We expect this period to pay off handsomely in the qualitative and in turn, overall development of our programming in the coming months.
Spending
editPlease report your organization's total spending during the reporting period, or link to a financial document showing your total spending.
- $29,776
Final report
editThis is the final report for your grant, describing your outcomes from the period {{{reportingperiodfinal}}}.
Program story
editPlease link to one program story that showcases your organization's achievements during the reporting period.
Learning story
editPlease link to one learning story that shows how your organization documents lessons learned and adapts its programs accordingly.
Results
editPlease add text or a link to a page with details on your program results. You should report on each of the objectives you included in your Simple APG application.
Program 1: Meetups
Salons and Wikipedia Day
During the 2017-2018 grant period, Wikimedia NYC surpassed its goal of 45 Wikipedia meetups by 164%, with over 48 edit-a-thons, 15 presentations with external partners, and 11 WikiWednesday Salons. Based on data available in the Program and Events Dashboard, events averaged 21 total editors, including 10 new editors.
WMNYC’s annual Wikipedia Day celebration is one of its largest events and welcomes the widest range of participants, from longtime contributors to Wikipedia and the free culture movement to local educators to members of the public that don’t know what to expect when they sign-up to attend. This year, Wikipedia Day marked ten years since the founding president was first elected, and the programming celebrated the Chapter’s growth during this time. It included panel presentations from educators, Wikipedians-in Residence, and projects that have grown with the support of the WMNYC community (i.e. AfroCROWD, Art + Feminism, Black Lunch Table). With an eye towards the future of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia movement, WMNYC also invited speakers that may challenge ideas and invite attendees to grow. These included a presentation on implicit bias, the dangers of online community, and the policies of Wikipedia itself. Videos of most presentations are available via the Internet Archive.
In 2017, Wikimedia NYC committed to supporting 36 new contributors continue to make 5+ edits per month, 12 months after participating in an event. The Chapter did not meet this goal, but it also came to realize that the goal it set does not adequately track the type of community engagement it fosters. Based on the numbers available via the 47 programs captured in the Program & Events Dashboard, Wikimedia NYC had over 350 editors return to events this year. Of 468 new editors, 27 attended more than one Wikimedia NYC event. A graphical representation of event attendance is temporarily available here.
Cultural partnerships
Wikimedia NYC continues to collaborate with the many local and international organizations that share its commitments to education, diverse communities, and public access to knowledge. The 62 WMNYC sponsored edit-a-thons and workshops this period reflect 42 collaborations with educational and GLAM institutions. Other collaborations range from a global campaign with the Swedish Consulate at the United Nations to working with 500 Women Scientists, a newly formed non-profit that aims to increase the representation of women working in STEM.
WMNYC was particularly proud to see the culmination of its almost ten year relationship with the Metropolitan Museum of Art celebrated at the Met Open Access Event in February, celebrating one year since the release of 375,000 images into the public domain. This daylong event included a Wikidata Edit-a-thon with guests from Wikimedia DC, as well as a panel discussion with Katherine Maher (WMF) and Loic Tallon (The Met).
University and College Partnerships
Wikimedia NYC continued partnering with librarians and educators at colleges and universities, from hosting public facing edit-a-thons to working directly with students and faculty as a part of their coursework. During the 2017-2018 grant period, WMNYC directly supported courses at the following nine colleges:
- Baruch College
- Borough of Manhattan Community College
- Fordham University
- Hunter College
- LaGuardia Community College
- The New School
- New York City College of Technology
- Queens College
- Touro College
The seven programs captured in the Programs & Events Dashboard reflect that 193 participants edited 724 articles and created 184.
While Wikimedia NYC surpassed projected numbers, its greatest achievement was the development of a more formalized approach to translating content on Wikipedia as part of one’s coursework or a public facing event. The technical details of what WMNYC refers to as a translate-a-thon are detailed below, but its importance to partnerships with NYC’s linguistically diverse communities cannot be overstated. As an example, Wikimedia NYC partnered with Professor Shelly Eversley at Baruch College to train students to create and edit original articles about artists. However, during the workshop, students moved beyond composition and began translating these articles into the languages they speak at home, including Japanese, Russian, Ukranian, Spanish, and Bengali. This was not part of the assignment, but the initiative of students who identified a need across Wikipedias and in the work we were doing together. Professor Eversley shared her reflections about this experience at Wikipedia Day (00:40 - 13:04).
Technology
Wikimedia NYC facilitates the growth of technical projects that support Wikimedians’ organizing work through collaborating with global partners and hosting local, community focused initiatives. Through the space generously donated by the Ace Hotel, WMNYC holds monthly hackathons as part of its Action = History series.
In addition to the contributions details in the midpoint report, Wikimedia NYC and AfroCROWD held its first formal translatathon at LaGuardia Community College this fall, followed by additional translatathons at LaGuardia and Long Island University this spring and summer. The first Wikipedia Translatathon (a first for both LaGuardia Community College and WMNYC) had 84 in person attendees and 6 remote participants from France, all working on creating 46 articles and editing 197 articles. Students enrolled at LaGuardia Community College come from 150 different countries and speak 96 different languages, such as Tagalog and Nepali. The articles they wrote covered 22 different languages and a wide range of topics. The Chapter dealt with the technical challenge of using the Content translation extension in a public computer lab, finding target Wikipedias it works with and those it doesn’t, getting dashboard to count edits in different projects, and locally installing writing system support for a variety of languages. The Chapter also fixed a bug related to Hindi in the discovery tool for translations, and a bug in Burmese that cut off the bottom of letterforms in section headings.
Video documentation
In addition to the videos documented in the midpoint report, Wikipedia Day was recorded by the Internet Society and available via the Internet Archive. All talks were recorded if the speaker provided permission to do so.
Contributor to a global movement
As a local node in a global movement, WMNYC participated in or provided the primary support for at least eight international projects, as well as the 2030 Movement Strategy. The midpoint report detailed WMNYC’s leadership in Wikipedia Asia Month, not only through local activities and supporting the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s global subproject for Asian art topics, but as fiscal sponsors to the project itself.
Art + Feminism
The Art + Feminism movement has exploded since it first launched in 2013 with critical support from Wikimedia NYC members, including Richard Knipel and Dorothy Howard. This global project directly aligns with WM-NYC’s commitment to encouraging marginalized peoples to contribute to Wikipedia, and WM-NYC actively supports and organizes Art + Feminism events alongside the global campaign. In 2017-2018 year, Wikimedia NYC supported 18 Art + Feminism edit-a-thons in the New York metropolitan area in addition to other edit-a-thons organized as part of WikiWomen’s History Month.
Wiki Loves Pride
Wikimedia NYC historically holds one annual Wiki Loves Pride Edit-a-thon at the Museum of Modern Art. With a growing interest in organizing events that focus on LGBT+ topics, WM-NYC co-sponsored an edit-a-thon with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center as part of World AIDS Day this fall, as well as a LGBT+ themed edit-a-thon at the prominent SXSW event, in collaboration with the podcast Nancy and New York Public Radio. An intensely productive editing session with Nancy fans, librarians from the University of Texas graduate school worked from a detailed list of entries identified as especially needed. While MoMA was unavailable for the annual event this June, WM-NYC returned to Jefferson Market Library (just a few blocks from the historic Stonewall Inn) this July and looks forward to growing its efforts in this area.
Supporting the Growth of New User Groups
As part of its commitment to diversity, Wikimedia NYC serves as a local incubator for new projects that address underrepresented content and communities within the Wikimedia Movement. This grant period, AfroCROWD branched its activities to London and Los Angeles, and is evolving to become its own Wikimedia user group. Wikimedia NYC looks forward to continuing to support AfroCROWD’s work through co-sponsoring local edit-a-thons and serving as its fiscal sponsor in 2018-2019 grant period.
At WMNYC’s invitation, WikiTongues presented at several events and became more engaged with the Wikimedia Movement. Through this support, it is now its own user group.
Program 2: AfroCROWD
Program story
Program story from this grant period that shows something important about our program outcomes:
The story of AfroCROWD Wikipedia editor Linda Fletcher is an example of how AfroCROWD works: it is the story of how a novice visitor to an AfroCROWD edit-a-thon in Harlem, New York, became the originator of one of the most read articles during a historic day in May 2018 and has continued to grow with the Wikimedia Movement as a Wikimedia Coach and most recently, speaker and trainer.
This is the Story as seen in the GLAM Newsletter May_2018
Learning story
Learning story from this grant period that demonstrates what we learned and how we used that to improve:
AfroCROWD learning pattern on flexibility during workshops
Sometimes when running a program, it is important to be flexible enough to go with the natural flow of the group you are working with. AfroCROWD held its first translate-a-thon in June, 2018 after working with the original group led by professors and organizers at LaGuardia Community College who began the initiative months before. We learned a lot from that initiative, and thankfully the organizers furnished us with tips, which were very helpful. Regardless of this, each event has its own nuances. It could be as simple as, in this case, the needs of the professor to have students work on specific topics together and our desire that they engage in the process of learning to be singular editors as well. The space was very packed with both volunteers and students, and resources like the amount of time and the flow of people coming to the event were challenges. We also had the happy surprise of many more volunteers than expected and wanted to be sure to keep them engaged and make the most of their valuable time.
We learned that going with the flow allowed the event to remain fun and in the end, a very successful event. We also used group work as had been done in the original translate-a-thon, to engage the students in what the professor was hoping would center on projects they were already working on in class. To allow this to conform to our needs, we had each group member research a separate part of the topic the professor required within each group. We also had one member of the group report on their progress at the end. This exercise worked well and kept the students engaged in both what the professor wanted and our hope of their involvement as singular editors. Group work also allowed students to spread out together so that the space was better maximized. We found that engaging the volunteers in singular tasks like double checking attendance, coaching and individually helping students from each group also helped the event go very smoothly and supported the quality of the outcomes. We quickly learned that although a fantastic model existed for this iteration of the translate-a-thons, that we had to be flexible with the flow of the students and the professor rather than stick to any rigid plan we had prepared.
Achievements
Our achievements for each one of our programs according to the objectives we set in the application:
These are the numbers from the AfroCROWD Dashboard Campaign
Progress report
Please see Worksheet on AfroCROWD's progress to date on all of the program objectives for this grant cycle.
AfroCROWD video tutorial series:
Be one of the first to check out the new AfroCROWD video tutorial series made especially for brand new editors (low resolution copy pending high resolution upload).
Events
Quote from new AfroCROWDer and Wikipedian who recently joined us at an event in Harlem captures some of what we hope everyone feels after an AfroCROWD event:
"Thank you [for] welcoming me into the Wikipedia community! I learned a lot and can’t wait to start writing articles 👍🏾" --- and we can't wait to see her again!
Click here for a List of AfroCROWD's events
Here are some photos and videos the feature some of the activity of AfroCROWD this cycle:
AfroCROWD was excited to help organize the UN and Embassy of Sweden Wiki Gap event with Wikimedia Sweden and the Wikimedia NYC community. We were excited when the UN Youth Envoy mentioned AfroCROWD in this great video from the day. UN Youth Envoy mentions AfroCROWD in her widely watched Wiki Gap video.
Gallery of some of AfroCROWD's activity this cycle:
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We love that Jimmy Wales is an AfroCROWDer! Jimmy Wales Wears AfroCROWD T-Shirt at Knight Foundation event on Wiki Tribune, 2018
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AfroCROWDers at BLERD City Conference Edit-a-thon, 2017
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AfroCROWD Schomburg Black History Month Event 2018
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AfroCROWD's Alice and Sherry join the African Wikipedians planning meeting at WMCON 2018
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AfroCROWD UK organizer Kelly Foster leads un-conference presentation at Wikimania in August, 2017
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AfroCROWDers at Wikimania 2017
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AfroCROWD Street Culture Wikipedia edit-a-thon Oct., 2017
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AfroCROWDers on Legacy of 1804 Radioshow, 2018
The expanding AfroCROWD Team:
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AfroCROWDers Speak at Wikipedia Day NYC, 2018
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AfroCROWD and WikimediaNYC fam with Prof. Boban at the LIU Translate-a-thon (that's new AfroCROWD Wiki Oral History Project intern and Columbia Oral History Grad student Darold in the hat)
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AfroCROWD UK Organizer Kelly Foster (C) poses with AfroCROWD founder Alice Backer and program manager, Sherry Antoine in NYC, August, 2017
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New AfroCROWD LA Organizer Kai Smith (L) poses with Sherry and Camilla at the Wikimedia Diversity Conference, 2018
We are grateful for a fantastic year, with many new horizons met and much growth! We look forward to the coming year.
Chapter Infrastructure
Leadership
After nearly ten years of service to Wikimedia NYC, Richard Knipel stepped down as its President in September 2017. Knipel’s service to the Wikimedia NYC community is unmatched, leading the Chapter from its founding in 2009 to an established, vibrant non-profit. Wikimedia NYC recognizes Knipel’s service, and is thrilled that he continues as an active member of the Chapter and its Board.
Wikimedia NYC held its annual Chapter meeting in September to elect a new board. In accordance with its bylaws, the Board then elected officers. After serving on the Board since 2015, Megan Wacha is the new President of Wikimedia NYC.
Wikimedia NYC Board
The Wikimedia NYC Board improved its internal communications this year by establishing a monthly board meeting one week before the Chapter’s monthly WikiWednesday Salon & Skillshare. Previously, meetings were typically scheduled on an as-need basis immediately before or after WikiWednesday. This made it difficult for board members to attend and fully contribute. By moving to a monthly online board meeting, the Board has established a more formalized, consistent means of communication to discuss issues.
In addition to the monthly meetings, board members participate in an optional, weekly “office hours” in a private Slack channel. Board members have found this a more effective means of communicating and taking action between meetings.
Staffing
Wikimedia NYC chose not to contract a specialized metrics position after implementing the Program and Events Dashboard, a specialized metrics tool develop by Wiki Education Foundation. The Chapter previously expressed the need for a generalized tracker for edit-a-thons, beyond classroom use, and, through these conversations, WikiEdu began the tool as a side project in 2015. It has since been widely adopted by chapters and user groups around the globe, and its further development by Wiki Education is now supported by the Wikimedia Foundation.
Prior to this implementation, chapter volunteers and/or a staff person were engaged in a labor intensive process to extract global metrics for WMNYC programming. Moreover, the Chapter was unable to investigate additional metrics aligned with its mission (i.e. subject representation of articles). During the 2017-2018 grant period, the Chapter was learning to implement the Dashboard effectively, and recognizes that a number of events and associated metrics were lost. This experience was used to develop the Learning Pattern attached to this report, as well as the associated Wikimedia NYC Program & Events Dashboard Implementation Plan. The Chapter looks forward to continuing to improve its metrics processes in the coming grant period.
Strategic Planning
Throughout the 2017-2018 grant period, Wikimedia NYC’s Board conducted its first strategic planning process. The resulting Strategic Plan 2018-2010 establishes a strong foundation for the Chapter moving forward. With this, and the report from the finance and governance review, the Board looks forward to continuing to build its infrastructure and capacity in the support of free knowledge.
Spending
editPlease link to a detailed financial report for your spending during the grant period. This should be in the same format as your detailed budget from your Simple APG application.
Please include the total amount of Simple APG funds you spent during the grant period.
- $62,889