Grants talk:PEG/WM US-DC/Projects 2014/Report

Thank you for this report and congrats on exceeding almost all of your goals! It sounds like it has been a very busy and productive year for the chapter.

We have the following questions/comments on the report:

1. Great to hear you have so many new institutional partnerships. What are your plans to engage with these new partners?
2. It seems like your existing GLAM partners are very supportive of hosting editathons. The Smithsonian alone hosted 6 editathons last year! Have you discussed longer-term content release projects with these partners? Your 2015 proposal mentions this possibilty but does not go into specifics. The DC chapter is uniquely positioned in a GLAM-rich city, with significant opportunities for content partnerships. It would be great to see more of a concentrated effort to progress in this area.
3. What percentage of editathon participants came to more than one event? What strategy did you use to follow-up with participants after the event? Did you do (or are you doing) anything specifically to engage the 54 new editors?
4. Can you provide more information, or a link, to the 6 small grants that were made? We would be interested to know what type of activities these grants went towards and what your assessment of them is.
5. Please hold on to the remaining funds while your 2015 proposal is under discussion.
6. Note that we cannot accept the report or issue new grants until you have submitted your documentation of expenses.

Thanks, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 00:38, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Hello, Alex. To each of your questions and comments:

1. The plan is to host more edit-a-thons with these and other organizations we are connected to. Our partners appreciate these edit-a-thons as opportunities to learn more about Wikipedia and its community. Additional programs will be explored on a case-by-case basis, depending on the capabilities of these institutions and the opportunities they present. Our 2015 proposal describes a plan, for instance, to host training workshops with the Smithsonian Institution, which has been working with Wikimedia DC for the past three years. After our pilot with two programs this fiscal year, we will look into expanding it to more organizations.
2. We would like to explore content donation, and we have been experimenting with content donation as part of Summer of Monuments. There are issues surrounding copyright status, ability to digitize, etc., that complicate these efforts. For the time being we are focusing on motivating knowledgeable people to contribute to Wikimedia projects in areas relevant to their interests.
3. 24.8% of participants went to at least two edit-a-thons. We will develop a plan to reach out to our past attendees, including those who signed up at our events. We would be interested in hearing about the experience of others' in this regard.
4. The grants we funded:
   • Wikipedia Loves Libraries: Backstage at the Smithsonian (I don't think WMF funds were used for this)
   • 3rd Annual Wikimedia New England General Meeting
   • Cape Cod Wiknic and Photography Bonanza
   • Laurel Historical Society 2014 edit-a-thon (funded out of our edit-a-thon budget rather than our grant budget)
   • Wiki Loves Pride 2014 in Portland, Oregon and Brooklyn, New York.

   Our impression is that they helped to build our connections to Wikimedia organizers throughout the country, and we look forward to providing additional support (including support for measuring outcomes and organization-building).

5. Will do.
6. Our treasurer is working on processing several grant reports at once, and he will get documentation to you as soon as possible.

harej (talk) 19:32, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

Thank you for these responses. We will approve the report once the documentation of expenses has been received and approved. Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 23:39, 24 November 2014 (UTC)