Grants:PEG/WM PH/Philippine WikiCon 2012/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Project and Event grant approved in FY 2011-12 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:PEG/WM PH/Philippine WikiCon 2012.

You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
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Failed to submit a full grant report and documentation within the prescribed period stipulated in the grant agreement.

Activities

The project was supervised by Emmanuel Ramirez & Roel Balingit and assisted by Jenna delos Reyes. Planning was done in coordination with WMPH President Jojit Ballesteros and WMPH Secretary Eugene Villar. (Photo documentation: [1])

February–May: General preparations: Sourcing and production of Wikipedia merchandise (notebooks, pens, foldable round fans, eco-friendly reusable bags, offline Wikipedia CDs. Scouting for venues.
March 3: Project lead presented to the Board the proposal to make the WikiConference back-to-back with the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
April 3: Project lead meeting with Mr. Bely Ygot, who is in charge of student volunteers.
April 9: First Project committee meeting with members of WMPH Board.
April 14: WMPH Board approved the proposal and fixed the date of the WikiConference and AGM to May 26.
April 20: The online registration form went live. Committee members continued their sourcing of materials to be used for the WikiConference/Annual Meeting.
April 21: Second Project committee meeting with members of WMPH Board.
April 26: Paperwork regarding the moving of the date of the AGM were prepared for submission to the Securities and Exchange Commission (as a regulatory requirement).
Saturdays of April 21, 28 and May 12, 19: Committee meetings were held to plan for the event, including meeting with volunteers/performers/ushers for the conference.
May 5: Third Project committee meeting with members of the Board and student volunteers.
May 7: Registration formally opens. Invitations to Wikipedia editors to the conference was facilitated by Romnick Coros by posting invitations on the talk pages of Philippine language Wikipedia editors (see sample post). Users who had at least 500 edits in tl and at least 100 edits in ceb, war, pam, bcl, pag, ilo, cbk-zam received such invitations in their talk pages, while aAn open invitation was likewise made on the English Wikipedia (see post).
May 10: Following corporate practice, formal invitations were mailed to WMPH member which contains the agenda of the AGM and the text of the propositions to be voted on and a standard proxy form in case of inability to attend. Non-Philippine based members received invitations by e-mail.
May 12, 18, 22, 23, 24: Materials sourcing
May 16: Last day of registration of participants seeking participation grants, two participants from Naga were approved for transportation and accommodation grants.
May 17: Paid downpayment for venue and caterer
May 22: Flights of two participants from Bikol booked
May 23: Hostel reservations secured
May 25: Arrival of participants availing participation grant. Setting up of venue.
May 26: D-day. See details below:

Philippine WikiConference 2012
	Plenary Area	Room 1	Room 2	Room 3
8:30-9:00	Breakfast / Onsite Registration
9:00-9:15	Opening of Philippine WikiConference 2012 by Roel Balingit
9:15-9:45	Wikipedia Historiography and the Wikimedia Movement by Meredith Ramirez
9:45-10:15	Wikipedia in the Philippines by Eugene Villar
10:15-10:30	Break
10:30-11:30	Chapter Projects by Emmanuel Ramirez & Roel Balingit	Challenges of Local Wikipedias by Eric Calica	Improving Philippine Content by Butch Bustria	Workshop: How to contribute to Wikipedia by Jojit Ballesteros
11:30-12:30	Wikipedia in Campuses by Roel Balingit	Building Regional Wikimedia Communities by Irvin Sto. Tomas	Editor Retention by Meredith Ramirez
12:30-1:30	Lunch at Kainan Au Gusto
1:30-2:30	Beyond Wikipedia: Contributing to Other Wikimedia Projects by Lee Bautista and Butch Bustria	Project Planning by Emmanuel Ramirez	Pre-Annual General Meeting Sessions
1:30-2:30		Project Planning by Emmanuel Ramirez	Membership Orientation by Jenna delos Reyes	Proposed Expense Policy / Revised Bylaws Open Discussion by Roel Balingit
2:30-3:15	Debriefing / Feedback / Closing of WikiConference 2012
3:15-3:30	Break / Onsite Registration for attendees of Annual General Meeting only
Annual General Meeting Proper Presided by Jojit Ballesteros, WMPH President
3:30-4:00	Call to order Validation of Quorum Agenda Reading of Minutes of previous Annual General Meeting Adoption of Minutes of previous Annual General Meeting Affirmation of Amendments in 2011
4:00-4:10	2011 President's Report
4:10-4:20	2011 Treasurer's Report
4:20-4:30	Presentation of Revised Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation
4:30-4:35	Adoption of Revised Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation
4:35-4:45	Presentation of Expense Policy
4:45-4:50	Adoption of Expense Policy
4:50-5:00	Call for Candidates/Presentation of Board/Auditor Candidates
5:00-5:15	Recess / Familiarization with Candidates
5:15-5:30	Election of Board Members/Announcement
5:30-6:00	Presentation/Open Forum about Strategic Plan (Deferred)
6:00	Adjournment
7:00	Socials/Dinner at Central BBQ Boy Grill

May 27: Return to Naga of Bikol participants.

Project goal and measures of success

Project goal

Gathering local Wikipedians/Wikimedians

The conference attracted 29 Wikipedia editors, which is by far the largest local gathering of Wikipedians in the Philippines. They had to chance to interact with fellow Wikipedians, discuss ongoing issues in Wikipedia that affects them or seek guidance from more experienced editors. Good practices were also shared among editors with regard to obtaining content and improving Philippine-related information.

Presentation of Chapter projects

WikiConference allocated two discussions (total of two hours) that focuses on the projects of the chapter. It then solicited advise on how it should be developed and how it could potentially spur interests especially among those who are not directly involved in Wikimedia projects.

Revival of other Philippine language Wikipedias

Though it hadn't gathered as much contributors to Philippine language Wikipedias as it had wanted, those present and the other potential contributors to these Wikipedia projects were very eager to help revive the local Wikipedias. The conference served as a channel for WMPH to solicit proposals and suggestions from non-Tagalog communities and had assured them of support as long as it will be in line with WMF mission and goals.

Organizational capability build-up

WMPH had wanted to test if it is capable of hosting a far more complex conference where several people will be in charge of their groups (during discussions). It was the first chapter project that had to fly-in non-Manila based participants and at the same time provide for their logistics. The WikiConference showed that the chapter is ready to undertake more complex projects

Measures of success

Below are the enumerated measures of success as stipulated in the grant proposal, of which 2½ out of the 4 enumerated measures have been met while 1 is still underway.

Attended by 50-60 participants, of which at least 30 are non-Manila based or contributors of Philippine language Wikipedias
- Attended by 50-60 participants — There were 54 participants who attended the back-to-back 2012 Philippine WikiConference/Annual General Meeting.
- Not done...of which at least 30 are non-Manila based or contributors of Philippine language Wikipedias — It was targeted to either have at least 30 participants from outside Metro Manila. Basing on the information submitted by the participants during registration, 38 are from Metro Manila, as against the 16 who are from outside the region, including two from the United States. This figure was barely half of the targeted number of non-Manila-based participants. On the other hand, though the contributors to Philippine language Wikipedias outnumber those who contribute exclusively to the English Wikipedia, the turn-out of 19 editors in Philippine Wikipedias was far below targets. (see tables below)

Location

Location	#
Metro Manila	38
Rizal	6
Laguna	2
Camarines Sur	2
La Union	1
Quezon	1
Pampanga	1
Zambales	1
United States	2

Contributorship

Contributes to	#
English Wikipedia only	10
Philippine Wikipedias (tl, ceb, ilo, pag, pam, bcl, war, cbk-zam)	19

Doing... Setting up of a Wikipedia campus organization within 6 months

The time frame for this measure has not yet expired, but preliminary talks have been made with students from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and San Beda College both in Manila, to set-up Wikipedia student organizations in their campuses.

10 additional new chapter members

On May 15, the Board approved three (3) new members, which was followed by seven (7) new members on August 26, 2012. This considering the fact that the Board has set more stringent requirements to determine if the applicants who have submitted their applications are really intent in pursuing their membership and participate in chapter activities, apart from it they should also be nominated by a member of the seven-man Board or has an established/extensive contribution history on any Wikimedia projects as based on their retrievable SUL info.

2 non-Manila based activities initiated by members from outside of Manila
- Naga/Bikol — Revitalization of Wikipedia communities outside the Greater Manila area has been among the priorities of the chapter. As a result, WMPH has communicated with interested Bikol Wikipedians primarily through User:Filipinayzd who had gathered fellow Bikol Wikipedia editors and some interested individuals. It resulted to the 3rd and 4th Naga meet-up on February 21 and April 15, respectively (Naga is about 377kms from Manila). Prior to February 2012, Bikol-based Wikipedians last met on October 2009. WMPH also provided material support to Bikol editors by allocating funds for them for the acquisition of a two-volume Bikol-English dictionary, and provided them a Bikol Wikipedia roll-up banner, which had to be made in Manila.
  - Open Web Day a joint project of WMPH and Mozilla Philippines was held upon the initiative and logistical support of Naga-based WMPH members at the Ateneo de Naga University on June 30, 2012. See: 1, 2.
  - Bikol Edithon was held on August 15, 2012 at the Canaman Municipal Library, where WMPH-provided Wikipedia promotional materials were also distributed to participants.
- Pampanga — An open invitation to conduct Wikipedia workshops in Pampanga for the revitalization of the Kapampangan Wikipedia was extended by one of the participants. Determination and timeline of activities would have to be scheduled and referred to the Outreach team of WMPH.

Lessons learned

What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects?

Back to back event — Initially the WikiConference was planned to be held in July, while the Annual Meeting was scheduled on May, based on the Bylaws, which it had to comply. The project lead saw the economy of creating a back-to-back event so it only had to fly-in participants who are based outside of Manila only once. Also, if the chapter exposes the WikiConference participants to the formal chapter meeting it could potentially invite them to pursue membership in the organization.
Keeping administrative expenses to below 30 percent is a strict requirement to become a certified NGO (which exempts donations to it from tax) in the Philippines. As annual meetings would be categorized as such, a greater proportion of expenses it could have incurred in a back-to-back meeting could be rationally classified as expenses for the conference itself.

Preparation time — The proposal to merge the WikiConference and Annual Meeting into a single-day event was presented two months prior to the scheduled Annual Meeting which is a regulatory requirement in the Philippines. However, the Board wasn't able to act immediately on the proposal until a month later due to legal uncertainties if such a move is permissible under Philippine corporation laws. After consulting with Atty. Bernes Guerrero, a pro-bono legal consultant of the chapter, the chapter should not encounter any hurdle in the future should it decide to move the annual meeting to a better or more preferred date. The month delay caused preparations to be squeezed into just four weeks of preparation and didn't allow the organizers to gather topics or proposals for discussions for the conference.

Courier expenses — Following standard corporate practice and regulatory requirements, invitations to Annual Meeting were sent WMPH members by courier, except those who are based outside the Philippines who received it by e-mail. In a growing organization such costs could be reduced by coursing official communication by e-mail. As a work around this regulatory requirement, the Board has since decided to solicit from its members their preferred mode of receiving official communication from the chapter. Members would be given the option to receive such communication (invitation to the Annual Meeting) by mail or e-mail and shall document their option for regulatory compliance purposes.

Estimating participants — Preparation was a challenge for the organizers especially the need to estimate the number of participants. The organizers provided an online registration form where 67 individuals registered. This was used as a basis to determine the amount of food to be ordered plus adding some provisions in case there'd unregistered participants who would only come on the day of the conference. Unfortunately 18 registrants didn't show up, while seven participants who have not preregistered came to the conference, the result was an oversupply of food.

Venue —The venue chosen was desirable as it had in the vicinity the lodging and accommodations for participants who flew-in and volunteers. The dining places were also nearby. The size of the breakout rooms was just enough for discussions, but there appears to be a lot of participants who are interested in Wikipedia workshops, but such number had to be capped due to limited number of available computer units.

Simultaneous discussions — During the preparation for the conference a participant who wasn't in favor of simultaneous discussion taking place voiced his concern as he would have wanted to attend all discussions. As it turned out, there were indeed participants who were more inclined to attend a particular topic over other discussions, while others preferred to socially interact with other participants and the organizers themselves to discuss project ideas and other partnerships.

Entertainment — The organizers partnered with a theater group of a university who wanted to have exposures outside their campus. They provided performances during intervals and the same time helped in ushering the participants.

Inactive editors — WMPH is determined to revive fledgling Philippine language Wikipedias. Based on available data, only the Tagalog Wikipedia is experiencing a sustainable growth in the number of editors, page views and articles. WMPH reached out to editors of other Philippine language Wikipedias (ceb, ilo, pag, pam, bcl, war, cbk-zam) by posting invitations on their talk pages, however only Bikol Wikipedia editors showed interest. Instead of relying on editors who have already hibernated from editing activity, it would be wiser for WMPH to initiate projects that would introduce Wikipedia in the localities where these languages are spoken to develop new breed of editors.

What impact did the project have on WMF mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?

Overall, the conference provided the chapter an opportunity to gauge the sentiment of the interested individuals and Wikipedians themselves. These would help WMPH formulate strategies and develop projects that would cater to their sentiments to make chapter projects more relevant and attune to what the community wanted to ensure that they actively and continually participate or contribute to the Wikimedia projects.

Demographics — Based on available information provided by the participants during registration:
- Average age of participants: 28.8 years old
  - Youngest participant: 17 years old
  - Oldest participant: 71 years old
- Women percentage: 35 percent

Reach (Increase participation) — After the conference one of the participants from Pampanga (about 90kms N of Manila) requested to conduct a similar conference and workshop in their area. Pampanga is home to Kapampangan language which has a Wikipedia project. This is a welcome development to revive fledgling Wikipedia projects and at the same time present it to a new audience (in place of inactive editors). There are numerous language organizations in the Philippines that advocate to preserve their ethno-linguistic identity which are threatened as more and more of their language speakers follow the mainstream and would rather be fluent in Filipino/Tagalog and English than their mother tongues. Enticing these advocates to use the Wikimedia projects to them as a repository for the preservation of their languages would be a new frontier for WMPH to venture into.

Reach — During the Editor Retention discussion, Wikipedians clamored for more informal meet-ups, rather than chapter centered meetings, which could actually be left to the Board and other members. Heeding to the call, a Wikipedian called for a the 17th Manila Meet-up on June 23 in Quezon City which was attended by five Wikipedians, there discussions about the future of a Filipino language Wikipedia was raised.

Quality — A photography group presented a proposal to partner with WMPH to provide free photography training that should result into quality photo contributions to Wikimedia Commons. They also offered to be present at WMPH projects seeing the need to have more photo documentation of the chapter's events and projects.

Quality — The chapter had made it known during the discussion on Improving Philippine Content that is has acquired resource materials (i.e. Filipino dictionaries, language studies) that members/contributors could borrow to assist them in coming up with articles.

Chapter/organization specific goals — The presence of a majority of members during the annual meeting that followed the conference allowed the chapter to pursue statutory changes it had to implement to enable it to comply with regulatory requirements. WMPH's Incorporation Articles and Bylaws were affirmed by the membership which paved the way to allow WMPH to become a certified non-government organization. Such a certification will ensure that donations to the chapter would be from Donor's tax.

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

Documentation of expenditures has been received by WMF.

Remaining funds from this grant have been returned to WMF in the amount of {{{amount}}}.

Did you send WMF documentation of all expenses paid for with grant funds?

Yes

Details of expenditures: Detailed expenses of Philippine WikiCon 2012.

Summary:

Category	Allotment (PHP)	Actual Expense (PHP)	Actual Expense (USD) ($1.00 = ₱42.85)
Meals and beverages	50,000	34,306.00^[1]	800.61^[2]
Venue	25,000	20,308.56	473.95
Office supplies	3,000	12,551.31	292.91
Offline Wikipedia CDs/Promotional materials	3,000	49,355.00	1,151.81
Participation grant	267,500	37,197.62	868.09
Laptop rental for Workshop	20,000	20,000.00	466.74
Incidentals	5,000	19,036.00	444.25
Courier of Annual Meeting invitations	—	4,330.00	101.05
Total	373,500	197,084.49^[2]	4,599.40^[2]

Will you be requesting re-allocation of remaining grant funding?

Yes, the remainder of ₱176,415.51^[2] ($4,117.05)^[2] will be requested for reallocation.

Will you be returning unused funds to the Wikimedia Foundation?

No, we intend to use it to augment the budget for other projects with the consent of WMF.

Note:: Exchange rate used was at the time Grant was received last May 22, 2012.

↑ Adjusted figure from ₱33,900.92. Erroneously reported the breakdown of the amount without tax (₱3,375.92) instead of ₱3,781.00, which is the actual amount paid in the same receipt submitted.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Adjusted due to inadvertent erroneous reporting of an item.

Additional requests and related proposals

Will you be requesting an extension or were you granted an extension?

N/A

Please link to related grant proposals here:

[1] Adjusted figure from ₱33,900.92. Erroneously reported the breakdown of the amount without tax (₱3,375.92) instead of ₱3,781.00, which is the actual amount paid in the same receipt submitted.

[adj-2] Adjusted due to inadvertent erroneous reporting of an item.

[1]

[2]