Grants:TPS/Hawkeye7/Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games

User name: Hawkeye7
User location (country): Australia
Event name: Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games
Event Web site: Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games
Event date(s): 7-16 March 2014
Event location (city): Sochi, Russia
Amount requested (remember to specify currency!): USD $13,400
Endorsements

Budget breakdown

Travel: USD $9,900 ($2,200 from Australia to Moscow, $1,100 from Moscow to Sochi economy class = $3,300 x 3 = $9,900)
Accommodation: USD $350 per night x 10 nights = USD $3,500 (7-16 March 2014)

This anticipates savings from booking well in advance. Consideration was given to arriving by boat, but it does not reduce the costs. We are not requesting funding for other expenses including meals, internet access, visas, ATM fees, telephone and incidental expenses.

Proposed Participation

This is a proposal to send three Wikimedians to the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, namely Hawkeye7, TaraMacphail and Bidgee. These are three Wikimedians with a solid track record in article creation and participation in this kind of event, including numerous workshops and conferences, and coverage of the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games. Hawkeye7 is an admin on Wikinews, where he has written over 50 articles, and has written over 25 Featured Articles, 70 Good Articles and 90 DYK articles on Wikipedia. He covered the London 2012 Summer Paralympics for Wikimedia. Bidgee is an admin on Commons, who has taken and uploaded over 7,000 photographs. He has experience in Winter sports photography from the North American Alpine Championships in 2012. TaraMacphail has uploaded thousands of images, presented a paper on HOPAU at a conference in 2013 and was a major contributor to the coverage of the 2012 Summer paralympics.

Attending this event as accredited media is key to developing the Australian Paralympic history project on a global level. Attendance as accredited media gives access to all the events, and a range of resources for media use, including transport, internet access and materials. It allows photography from designated special areas. It permits the Wikimedians to interview the athletes and officials. It allows us to attend media events and press conferences.

It is expected, based on experience in London, Denver and elsewhere, that the two journalist-historians will be working 14 hours a day. Every effort will be made to use Wikipedians back home to carry out as much work as possible, but it was found that two journalists were essential in view of multiple events occurring simultaneously, and the need to write and file articles as events are going on. London also demonstrated the need for an accredited photographer. An alternative photographer will be accredited in case Bidgee becomes unavailable. The Australian Paralympic Committee will only grant accreditation to Australian media. Wikimedia Australia is accredited as an Australian media organisation.

We are not asking the Australian Paralympic Committee for financial assistance, in order to avoid any accusations of COI. This is considered important in light of the Gibraltarpedia imbroglio.

Goal and Expected Impact

Participation in this event will raise the visibility and credibility of Wikimedia as a media organisation and pave the way towards participation at future Olympics and Paralympics. It will strength our ties with the History of the Paralympics in Australia (HOPAU) GLAM project and with the Australian Paralympic Committee. It is hoped that we can develop ties with the Russian Wikimedia community. Historically, the HOPAU project has led to increased user participation with a number of new female contributors, a mention of Wikipedia on the floor of the Australian Parliament, increased media and student use of Wikipedia for research purposes, 1 million page views on English Wikipedia during the Paralympic games, substantial image donations to Commons used across multiple projects, encourage other national groups to improve related content, increased participation on Wikinews and increased activity in covering disability related issues and sensitivity in making Wikipedia more friendly towards people with disabilities.

The deliverables to accomplish objectives would be:

10+ articles on English Wikipedia associated with winter Paralympic sport in Russia nominated for GA by the end of the March 2014;
Articles created about all notable Australian para-winter paralympians on English Wikipedia;
Updates to articles about notable Australian para-winter paralympians on English Wikipedia;
Translations of the para-alpine skiing, para-alpine skiing classification and at least three specific para-alpine skiing classification articles from English to Russian Wikipedia; (NB: Hawkeye7 can read and write basic Russian)
250 pictures uploaded to Commons for winter sport and Russian articles;
10+ of these pictures used on at least 10 articles in 2 or more languages for Wikipedia;
Photographs of all Australian Paralympic team members competing;
Photographs of at least three other national competitors for articles on English Wikipedia;
15+ English Wikinews articles of which at least 6 will be interviews, with at least 1 not being about a Australian

A report detailing the results obtained will be submitted by the end of March 2014. I am hoping to take at least one article all the way to Featured status, but it will not be possible in this time frame. It is noted that the English-language focus in London yielded a considerable amount of articles and use of materials on other language Wikimedia. Hawkeye7 has been involved in translating articles into German, and images taken by Bidgee and uploaded by TaraMacphail have found widespread use.

Supporting documents: London HOPAU Report, IPC Nor-Am Cup Report.