Grants:Simple/Applications/Wikimedia New York City/2020-2021
- Application or grant stage: grant in progress
- Applicant or grantee: grantee
- Amount requested: US$57,210.00
- Amount granted: US$52,210
- Funding period: 1 JULY 2020 - 30 JUNE 2021
- Midpoint report due: 15 January 2021
- Final report due: 30 July 2021
Background
editAnnual Plan
editBudget Plan
editStrategic plan
edit- In progress. Wikimedia NYC Strategic Plan 2018-2020 remains in effect until a new plan is implemented.
Introduction
editWikimedia NYC is committed to connecting New Yorkers and New York institutions with Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and the larger free culture movement. Across the globe, people and their communities are grappling with the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, as of this application, New York City is at the epicenter. For Wikimedia NYC, this means that we aren’t merely looking to move offline events to online ones, but we are grappling with what it means to support free culture in the midst of a pandemic while prioritizing our own physical and emotional health. The Wikimedia Foundation has recognized that its employees cannot be expected to fulfill all personal and professional obligations under such circumstance and has compassionately moved its workforce to halftime with full time pay. As an entirely volunteer organization, members of Wikimedia NYC are grappling with how to fulfill our commitment to the Chapter’s mission while simultaneously maintaining our personal and professional lives in the midst of a pandemic. The number one priority of our leadership and our members must be to protect and take care of ourselves and each other during this time. Thus, we are developing an annual plan that prioritizes our work building out the organizational infrastructure of the Chapter as our primary goal (something which provides a bit of flexibility in time and personal resources), with funds allotted to support events that maintain connection, whether that’s in person or online.
Wikimedia NYC’s strategic planning process for 2020 - 2025 was delayed due to unforseeable circumstances during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. With approval from WMF, we hope to commence that work in May and continue it into the next fiscal year. In the meantime, the Wikimedia NYC Board is using the Strategic Plan 2018-2020 to guide its direction in the year ahead.
Programs
editChapter Membership and Community
This program area focuses on growing and supporting the Wikimedia NYC membership in order to sustain the activities of the Chapter and the communities it supports. Creating a welcoming and inclusive space is central to this work. In 2018, Wikimedia NYC began a more focused commitment to inclusivity by developing a revised Code of Conduct and associated trainings. Out of this work, we discussed our roles in a neurodiverse community and the ways in which some points of conflict reflect differences in communication styles and needs. For this reason, Wikimedia NYC aims to provide education and foster more awareness around neurodiversity. we will host two workshops so Wikimedia NYC organizers learn more about the autism spectrum and how to create a more welcoming space for all.
We will know we are successful when:
- Twenty organizers affiliated with Wikimedia NYC attend at least one of two trainings.
Partnerships
The partnerships program area has historically provided support for programming and content contributions in collaboration with institutional partners. While some partners will offer remote edit-a-thons, others will not have the capacity to do so. To continue our connection with the institutional partners and the people that work there, we will develop new ways of engaging with our partners.The Chapter aims to create opportunities for our partners to connect and learn from each other during this time; to grow best practices and build community so they are motivated by new ideas and projects when the pandemic is over. To do this, WMNYC will recruit facilitators to work with a designated domain area (i.e. libraries), identify the needs of professionals in those areas and then facilitate conversations to address them. It is our hope that these groups will not only deepen the partners relationship with Wikimedia NYC, but grow Wikimedia NYC’s capacity to support them as both relationships and best practices are developed and shared.
We will know we are successful when:
- Wikimedia NYC launches two focused discussion groups to bring partners working in a particular domain together.
- Wikimedia NYC has facilitated at least eight discussion sessions with a total of 30 participants each.
Outreach and Education
The outreach and education program area focuses on activities that promote and advance the work of the Chapter and its vision for open knowledge. Wikimedia NYC has hosted public facing edit-a-thons and meetups for over ten years, and is one of the most active volunteer chapters doing this work. The Chapter respects efforts to shift offline edit-a-thons to online ones, and that these can be incredibly effective at mobilizing existing Wikipedians. However, offline events in New York City are intended to create a welcome space for new editors, and this cannot be replicated in a Zoom call. Thus, while the pandemic will reduce the number and nature of events and meetups hosted, we hope that experimentations in the virtual realm will provide an opportunity to expand the Wikimedia NYC community and deepen the public’s relationship with open knowledge.
During the 2020-2021 fiscal year, Wikimedia NYC aims to offer flexible programming in online and, eventually, offline spaces. In addition to WikiWednesday and our annual Wikipedia Day celebration, programming will engage a broader audience by offering a new speaker series on topics related to Wikimedia and the larger free culture movement. The Chapter has already started this work and, during the 2019-2020 fiscal year, is offering an online symposium on Wikipedia and COVID-19. Not everyone has the time or inclination to become an active Wikipedia editor, but focused events may deepen their understanding of and engagement with the project through this series.
While in person edit-a-thons are on pause, Wikimedia NYC aims to find ways of connecting with editors who have previously attended an edit-a-thon or shown interest in doing so. Continuing its work developing Wikimedia NYC’s web presence, the Chapter will hire a consultant to develop tools that will allow improved communication channels and integration across Wikimedia NYC’s sites. For instance, this effort, title BoroBots, may look to synchronize communications between enwiki, meta, and the chapter website. It should be as easy as possible to create a new event and publicize it using both onwiki and offwiki venues. Information pages on one of our wikis should never be out of date, relative to what’s published elsewhere. We anticipate that the person in this role will work 140 hours, including regular check-ins with Wikimedia NYC leadership.
We will know we are successful when:
- Wikimedia NYC has hosted 20 online events to connect New Yorkers and the wider public to Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and the larger free culture movement.
- 600 people have participated in Wikimedia NYC programming.
- At least one new bot is developed to improve communication channels with new and existing Wikipedians.
Grant Metrics Reporting
editMetrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.
Midterm report
editProgram story
editThe home of the first edit-a-thons in the Wikimedia Movement, Wikimedia NYC’s activities have centered on in-person events since its founding in 2009. With the global pandemic, it is committed not to just moving edit-a-thons online, but finding ways for people to stay connected. This fall, an event with the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one example of how the Chapter aims to offer deeper connections while we are physically apart: https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Newsletter/September_2020/Contents/USA_report
Program Progress
editChapter Membership and Community
editThe Chapter Membership and Community program area focuses on growing and supporting the Wikimedia NYC membership in order to sustain the activities of the Chapter and the communities it supports. More specifically, it focuses on creating a welcoming space for all. The 2018 initiative to develop a new Code of Conduct revealed the need for greater awareness and education around neurodiversity. Wikimedia NYC aims to address this by offering two workshops during this grant period. We have identified potential presenters and will schedule these sessions for the spring.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Twenty organizers affiliated with Wikimedia NYC attend at least one of two trainings. | 5% |
Presenters have been identified and we will host the trainings this spring. |
Partnerships
editThe partnerships program area has historically provided support for programming and content contributions in collaboration with institutional partners. In an effort to build out the capacity of its existing partners and free the Chapter to conduct more focused outreach, Wikimedia NYC aims to create opportunities for our partners to connect and learn from each other during this time; to grow best practices and build community so they are motivated by new ideas and projects when the pandemic is over.
Recognizing the strain our partners are currently under, Wikimedia NYC chose to temporarily postpone the recruitment of two facilitators to work with a designated domain area (e.g. libraries). However, the call for proposals has been crafted and we look forward to releasing it soon. It’s possible we may not reach the goal of eight discussion sessions in the grant period, but a foundation will be established for the work ahead.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Wikimedia NYC launches two focused discussion groups to bring partners working in a particular domain together. | 50% |
Events with two new partners thru December, with additional partnerships being established now |
| Wikimedia NYC has facilitated at least eight discussion sessions with a total of 30 participants each. | 0% |
Events with two new partners thru December, with additional partnerships being established now |
Outreach and Education
editThe outreach and education program area focuses on activities that promote and advance the work of the Chapter and its vision for open knowledge, including public facing edit-a-thons, meetups, and the annual Wiknic and Wikipedia Day celebrations. As we continue our remote work, Wikimedia NYC aims to reimagine what has been solely in person events for over a decade for the online environment.
WikiWednesday is the Chapter’s monthly salon, where Wikipedians and those interested in Wikipedia come together to share projects and skills in a fun, informal setting. While overall attendance is down, we’ve welcomed a growing number of veteran Wiki-Yorkers who aren’t typically able to join us because they live in a different region of New York. In order to encourage new or aspiring editors, we’ve also invited guest speakers such as the creators of the Wikipedia fan accounts on instagram, @depthsofwikipedia and @wikipediapictures. This conversation ultimately led to co-sponsoring an edit-a-thon together in January. While the results of that work will be included in our final report, we are excited to share the answers we received when we asked 300+ people why they signed up:
- "I just want to give back to Wikipedia because it’s done so much for me."
- "I want to be able to research bovids and help other people with similar interests!~☆"
- "I’ve been falling down Wikipedia rabbit holes for over a decade and want to help others do the same."
- "Wikipedia is my only reliable source of joy and I want to give back!"
The edit-a-thon is central to Wikimedia NYC’s activities, but we also recognize that our members, our partners, and the wider public are experiencing zoom fatigue, and that an online event can’t replace what we do in person. Wikimedia NYC has significantly reduced the number of edit-a-thons it holds and is experimenting with new formats. However, we are on track for meeting our annual goals, and have collectively edited 623 pages across different language Wikipedias and projects. We continue our commitment to growing local knowledge by partnering with smaller organizations, and have been thrilled to support User:Wil540_art and Sure We Can to offer multiple multilingual edit-a-thons on pressing topics such as the census and COVID-19.
In addition to synchronous edit-a-thons, Wikimedia NYC is experimenting with different models for remote edit-a-thons. These include multi-day edit-a-thons where attendees connect in chat channels using tools like Slack or Discord (as we did with Kundiman this spring) to synchronous edit-a-thons that include a special talk to encourage deeper engagement with the topic. This fall, for instance, Wikimedia NYC co-sponsored a fashion edit-a-thon with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which included presentations from museum staff to attract attendees and deepen their connection to the topic. A description of this event is include in the Program Story. Conversations are in progress for additional edit-a-thons during the second half of the grant period, and we are pleased to see more prospective partners contacting us through OTRS following Wikimedia NYC’s site redesign last year.
In August, Wikimedia NYC hosted the 10th annual Great American Wiknic, a virtual socially-distanced iteration of the US wiki-picnic movement that we helped to launch in 2011. The first hour was a national livestream with nine panelists from across the country sharing photos and stories of their local Wiknics past, and also a presentation by our first ever Wiknic artist-in-residence Sara Clugage covering the art history of picnics and outdoor dining. Fifty or more Wikimedia editors participated live, and more than 200 have watched the recording since. The second hour had regional breakouts for the New York area, New England, the Midwest, and the West as an opportunity to promote more localized discussions when volunteers have not been able to meet in person recently.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Wikimedia NYC has hosted 20 online events to connect New Yorkers and the wider public to Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and the larger free culture movement. | 45% |
|
| 600 people have participated in Wikimedia NYC programming. | 76% |
|
| At least one new bot is developed to improve communication channels with new and existing Wikipedians. | 0% |
This project was not funded. |
Operations
edit
Like the Wikimedia movement, the Wikimedia NYC chapter is at a crossroads. Its governance, the shape of its partnerships, relationships with its members, and goals for the years ahead are all on the table. And so while we look to 2030 and participate in the conversations on a global level, we also look to what our needs are locally. We look at our history as the originator of the edit-a-thon and Wiki Loves campaigns, an incubator for projects like Art + Feminism and AfroCROWD before they grew into the global campaigns they are today, and as a resource for the many partners and new editors we engage with each year. And we ask, where do we go from here? So while it is not a defined goal for this grant period, the Wikimedia NYC Board of Trustees contracted Barretto Consulting, LLC and is currently undergoing a strategic planning process.
The Chapter is also focused on building its organizational capacity. Some of this work is happening with the two facilitated groups detailed in the Partnerships program. However, after our fiscal growth became too much for our previous volunteer treasurer, we are also continuing to improve our financial and governance processes through our work with Jitasa and improved internal processes. We continue to improve the documentation of our work in order to prepare for more equitable distribution of labor.
Spending update
editPlease link to a detailed financial report for your spending during the first half of your 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:
- $4947.93 USD/Local currency
Grant Metrics Reporting
editMetrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.
Final report
editProgram story
editIn the past, Wikimedia New York City celebrated Wikipedia Day each year with a large conference bringing together New York Wikimedians, academics, artists, journalists, and the larger movement. Due to the pandemic, we were unable to hold an in-person event, but still wanted to plan something special for Wikipedia’s 20th anniversary.
Like many other Wikimedia organizations, one of the great challenges for WMNYC is how to effectively communicate what we do to the public. We have become skilled at planning events, training new users, and communicating the importance of Wikimedia projects, but WMNYC as an organization sometimes gets lost in conversations about our work, and most people who participate in one activity do not have a strong sense of what else we do. To that end, we have long wanted to produce a video introducing the public to WMNYC. Wikipedia's 20th anniversary provided a great occasion to finally take that on.
The idea began with "20 Wikimedia New Yorkers talk about Wikipedia's 20th anniversary". We sought to contract a videographer to edit together 20 interviews into a short 5-minute video. After exchanges with several possible candidates, we decided to work with long-time Wikimedia videographer Victor Grigas. Victor came to NYC for a couple days to film as many interviews as we could arrange, as well as some B roll. While all interviews were conducted safely, outdoors, we also told potential interviewees that they could record something on their own and send it to us for inclusion.
We were glad for Victor's expertise, and through our collaboration settled on a new idea: two videos. One video would stick to our original idea of 20 interviews. It would be longer than originally intended, but more adequately captures the diversity of our members' activities within the movement. This long version would be our "event" video to celebrate Wikipedia @ 20, played in its entirety during our remote Wikipedia Day celebration. A second, much shorter video would be based on the same footage but designed to provide an introduction to our chapter not just on Wikipedia Day but beyond.
Even when working with someone as talented and experienced as Victor, the planning, production, communication, logistics, and collaboration involved amounted to significantly more work than any of us anticipated, but the end result was worth it. We now include the short version of the video ("Welcome to Wikimedia New York City") alongside not just our main meetup page, but on our WikiWednesday pages and other events. Both versions of the video are displayed to the right.
Learning story
editLearning pattern: Using a chapter Discord server
Programs Impact
editIntroduction
editIn spite of the pandemic’s detrimental effect on the lives of the New York City community, the Chapter continued its obligations undeterred, if in a somewhat diminished capacity so as to conform to the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines to prevent spreading COVID-19. As explained in more detail below, the chapter successfully moved its regular community-focused events (e.g. WikiWednesday, Wikipedia Day) online and also experimented with new types of community interactions, such as the Roundtable Series, that took advantage of the stay-at-home rules. Outreach and education also gained new traction with our remote programming, as we hosted well-attended virtual edit-a-thons and even began a new photography event series, Wiki Loves NYC Parks. The chapter was also able to make solid progress in its strategic planning, its governance, and its financial processes.
Chapter Membership and Community
editThis program area focuses on deepening the relationships between members and the Chapter and each other through community-focused events, the monthly WikiWednesday Salon, and our annual Wiknic and Wikipedia Day celebrations.
Our ability to meet in person continued to be limited by the COVID-19 pandemic during this fiscal year. In lieu of a large Wikipedia Day conference, we held an interactive online variety program celebrating 20 years of Wikipedia. The highlight of the event, which was streamed live on YouTube and has received more than 1,100 views, was the debut of the new chapter video described in our Program Story above. The annual Wiknic (Wikimedia-themed picnic) is a cherished Wikimedia New York City tradition which has likewise been affected by the pandemic. We began the fiscal year with a live virtual Wiknic, joining the national community of Wikimedians for the first hour before hosting a smaller regional broadcast with 21 attendees. We did hold two smaller outdoor gatherings in 2021: a hacknic and a craft-themed meetup coinciding with WikiConference North America.
We continued to hold monthly WikiWednesday Salon and Skill Share events online via Zoom. Attendance averaged 16.3 people at these events, where our community gathers to learn about recent events, talk about upcoming events, ask questions about Wikimedia projects, share what they have been working on, and socialize with fellow Wikimedians.
Beginning in May 2021, Wikimedia New York City launched a new community project with WikiProject New York City: a monthly article collaboration. The first project was the article about Stuyvesant Farm, a historic estate in what is now New York City. The page was created and improved to Good Article status thanks to this collaboration. The following months focused either on individual articles like trees of New York City or Grand Prospect Hall (which was also improved to be a Good Article) or larger topics like Coney Island and pizza of New York City. For these latter two subjects, a small group of editors met for a field trip to a relevant location, taking photos for Commons and learning about more about the topics.
Due to the continued strains placed upon chapter leadership and our community by the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to complete our goal for organizers to attend neurodiversity training. We remain committed to the importance of such training for organizers within our community and hope to revisit this in the future.
The Learning Story above details our implementation of a Discord server to facilitate collaboration and connection between members of our community. We continue to utilize and experiment with this technology to plan, host, and supplement events, in addition to facilitating communication among members.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Twenty organizers affiliated with Wikimedia NYC attend at least one of two trainings. | 5% |
Presenters were identified, but the Chapter was unable to move forward do to circumstances outside of our control. We remain committed to growing in this area. |
Partnerships
editThe partnerships program area supports programming and content contributions in collaboration with institutional partnerships, and, in recent years, Wikimedia NYC has focused its efforts on establishing relationships with a geographically and financially diverse range of institutions in order to expand its support of local knowledge and the principles of knowledge equity. This work continued over the course of the grant period and Wikimedia NYC successfully established new relationships with smaller entities such as GenSpace and the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS).
In sAPG 2020-2021, the primary focus of the partnerships program area was to connect current and prospective partners with each other, offering an opportunity from them to connect and learn from each other, growing a community of practice around specific content areas. Wikimedia NYC issued a call for proposals from its community, and selected proposals focusing on two areas: Libraries and Archives, and Craft.
31 participants joined the Libraries and Archives Roundtables. All participants were familiar with the concept of an edit-a-thon and motivated to host them, but there was a range of experiences with Wikipedia itself. Our facilitator found that the biggest hurdle for participants was fear: “fear that they don’t know how to edit well enough, fear that they won’t be able to translate their knowledge into lessons, fear that they’ll be asked questions they can’t answer.”
About 25 participants joined the Craft Roundtables, working with the Textile Society of America and also various local craft groups. Outcomes included the establishment of WikiProject Craft on English Wikipedia, and inspired by that, WikiProject Applied Arts on Wikidata. The Signpost published Is writing Wikipedia like making a quilt?, which was republished on Diff. We had short presentations at Wikidatacon and WikiConference North America, where we also had the in-person crafting session in the park with volunteers and WMF staff. WikiProject Craft was also subsequently the subject of several sessions by our collaborators at Philadelphia WikiSalon.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Wikimedia NYC launches two focused discussion groups to bring partners working in a particular domain together. | 100% |
Facilitators were contracted to lead one group focused on Crafts and another on Libraries + Archives |
| Wikimedia NYC has facilitated at least eight discussion sessions with a total of 30 participants each. | 100% |
Both groups hosted multiple events with a total of 25 and 31 participants respectively. |
Outreach and Education
editThe outreach and education program area focuses on activities that promote and advance the work of the Chapter and its vision for open knowledge. While the Chapter had hoped to resume in person edit-a-thons during the sAPG 2020-2021 grant period, it planned to continue to experiment with remote events that expand the Wikimedia NYC community and deepen the public’s relationship with open knowledge. Over the course of the grant period, Wikimedia NYC hosted 51 events in collaboration with a wide range of new and existing partners, with over 1,100 attendees. As in previous years, Wikimedia NYC continued to foster its relationships with existing partners while also seeking new partnerships to work in new content areas.
After inviting the creators behind the @DepthsofWikipedia and @PicturesofWikipedia Instagram accounts to speak at a WikiWednesday Salon in October, the Chapter was impressed with the far reach of the @DepthsofWikipedia account audience, many of whom are based in the New York area. In January 2021, we collaborated with the @DepthsofWikipedia Account to host a four day virtual edit-a-thon, with a kick-off training event on January 7. Unlike previous edit-a-thons, the event did not have an established theme. We asked registrants to share why they wanted to learn how to edit Wikipedia, and responses ranged from curiosity to a desire to edit a specific area of interest to wanting to give back to Wikipedia. As one registrant wrote, “I owe Wikipedia a solid.” Over 300 people registered for the training, 107 people joined the outreach dashboard, and 87 editors joined a Discord channel in order to ask questions, share their work, and otherwise join a community of people who want to share their love of Wikipedia. Wikimedia NYC has been thrilled to see the @DepthsofWikipedia creator continue to grow her work within and outside of Wiki spaces (the account even has its own Wikipedia article!).
A new partnership with Brooklyn-based non-profit and community based biology laboratory, GenSpace, along with In Those Genes, and Black in Genetics, offered another opportunity for Wikimedia NYC to experiment with its approach to remote programming. For this event, attendees would be invited to write and edit articles highlighting prominent Black geneticists, including health advocates, researchers, genetic counselors, and other professionals. In order to generate additional engagement for the topic, the edit-a-thon was paired with a watch party and panel of the documentary film Human Nature, which describes the gene editing process of CRISPR. Patient David Sanchez and geneticist Tshaka Cunningham, both of whom appear prominently in the film, were invited to speak at the event and to respond to the representation of these issues on Wikipedia.
Towards the end of the fiscal year, we formed a new partnership with the Prospect Park Alliance, a nonprofit which sustained Brooklyn’s most popular public park. We ran a photo contest highlighting the multiple habitats and diversity of flora and fauna in the park: the Prospect Park Nature Photography Contest, the first of what we hope will be many Wiki Loves NYC Parks events. A total of 476 photos were submitted by 73 people, nearly all of whom were newly registered. A panel of three judges determined winners in multiple categories. The photo of three pond slider turtles (Trachemys scripta) to the right won first place overall, and all of the winners are displayed on the contest winners page on Wikipedia. We received great feedback from participants and our new partners at the Prospect Park Alliance, who expressed how useful it was to have a new trove of freely licensed media they would be able to draw from.
| Goal | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Wikimedia NYC has hosted 20 online events to connect New Yorkers and the wider public to Wikipedia, Wikimedia, and the larger free culture movement. | 100% |
The Chapter hosted 45 online events covering a wide range of topic areas |
| 600 people have participated in Wikimedia NYC programming. | 100% |
Over 1,100 people attended WMNYC events during the grant period |
| At least one new bot is developed to improve communication channels with new and existing Wikipedians. | 0% |
This project was not funded. However, the Chapter maintained its commitment to technical development, and hosted a Hacknic, an outdoor hacking event in a local park. |
Operations
editIn the continuing effort to create the proper strategic development beneficial to our members, the Wikimedia NYC Board of Trustees contracted Barretto Consulting, LLC and is currently undergoing a strategic planning course of action. Our process has taken us through pertinent and critical reflections on the nature of our unique position as New Yorkers and we have entered the research phase of the strategic plan. Surveys to our individual and partner stakeholders will launched in January 2022 and serve to bond stakeholder perceptions and needs to our coming work.
The Chapter has also focused on reviewing and strengthening its organizational capacity, as well as continuing to improve our financial and governance processes. COVID-19 provided a significant barrier to the organizational activities of the Chapter, such as report submission. However, it led to a rebalancing of responsibility that ensures a more sustainable support system across the leadership. Through our work with Jitasa and Baretto Consulting, LLC, we continue to strengthen documentation of our work as well as collect and collate key understandings of membership needs.
Spending update
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:
- 37,437.99 USD/Local currency
Grant Metrics Reporting
editMetrics, targets and results: grants metrics worksheet here.