Wikimania 2021/Scholarships/Wikimedia Community User Group Tanzania/Report

For the EA 11 Wiki communities general report please visit here

Introduction

This report higlights the participation of Wikimedia Tanzania members to the main Wikimania 2021 virtual event that was held between 13th-17th August 2021, along with its local two post-Wikimania events that were held in 16th and 17th October, 2021.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Yes, we met our goals and we are very happy that everything went fine. The project went really well and we are grateful for everyone who played their respective roles to make this happen.
This was our first time to see so many people from Tanzania participate in Wikimania Conference and its related post Wikimania events. Moreover, this was the first time for us (Wikimedia Tanzania)to organize and apply the Wikimania scholarship fund on behalf of 10 other East African Wiki communities, this was a very good experience and we learned a lot along the way in terms of organizing regional and international events.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets. Please be sure to review and provide metrics required for Rapid Grants.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
Increase the number of Tanzanian participants to Wikimania Conference and its post-Wikimania events	We were able to recruit at least 63 participants who registered to participate in post-Wikimania events in Tanzania.	31 Wikimedians residing around Dar es salaam signed up to attend our in-person event and the rest joined online, generally atleast 57 people participated in our 2 days Post Wikimania events and some re-watched Wikimania recorded sessions.
Raise awareness about Wikimania	We were able to explain and raise awareness about the Wikimania conference as well as other global events such as Wikiindaba.	This was a really eye-opening session for most of the participants as it was the very first time attending Wikimania for the majority of them.
Support the participants to attend the Wikimania and Post Wikimania events	Due to the delay in the Wikimania grant, we were most able to support participants to attend the local post Wikimania events and the support for them to re-watching Wikimania recorded sessions on Youtube.	People were able to attend both 2 local post Wikimania events as well as we urged them to rewatch the recorded sessions before the events and after the events. We gave chance for the participants who attended the virtual Wikimaniato to do presentations on what did they capture for the benefit of newbies and all who didn’t make it to the actual main Wikimania virtual event.

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

What worked well?

The fact that so many people did show interest and to actually register and participate in Wiki global events like Wikimania was something good.

1.Having a Hybrid (Online and In-person event at the same time) was a great experience and we recommend this to happen even to the global Wikimania perspectives.

2.The weather condition in 16th-17th October 2021of was good, so we didn’t have internet problems and power cut issues hence participants were able to follow up on the event well.

3.Availability of COVID 19 preventive measures such as face masks, keeping distance, and clean running water was helpful to do a safe in-person event.

4.Internet support was of great help for more participants to participate in local post Wikimania events a well as re-watching of the main Wikimania event recorded sessions.

5.Community members being able to present what they captured during Wikimania event was an indication of activeness in following up what happens during Wiki conferences.

What did not work so well?

1.The delay of the fund caused some participants to be not able to attend the actual main Wikimania event.

2.It was a difficult and relative long process to send the fund to some of the countries such as Somalia

3.Some local events didn’t happen on the exact dates that were planned, hence there was a delay of individual communities to submit their reports

4.Some individual communities needed guidance in reporting hence the delay in reporting time

5.Some said the tool used during Wikimania REMO was generally good and intersting, however they thing more education on how to use it should be given if it were to be used in future.

What would you do differently next time?

1.Early organizing of similar programs to yield timely and more effective results

2.Early grant application to make sure community members are supported in a convenient time.

3.Host some more knowledge/capacity building on reporting skills to the new/emerging communities.

4.More emphasis for community represenatives to maintain communication to the organizing community (this helps to avoid communication break down when there are some variations to the local communities in relation to the intial plan)

5.More knowledge should be given about the tools to be used for conferences. The earlier the better as well as having a local tech guy to support local participants will help.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

Food, drinks, snacks, refreshments=320
Internet (data packages)=422
Logistics=195
COVID 19 precautions resources=65
Stationeries (notebooks, pens, sticky notes, markers, flip charts, Wikimania Banner)=160
Hiring and purchase of small hardware expenses to support access (webcams, microphones, head/earphones, and speaker)=373
Childcare support=300
Venue=400 (for the whole day event)
Post-Wikimania debrief follow up session=364
Video production and editing support=207
Administrative/operational costs to distribute funds to community members (transfer fees, administrative costs/operational costs such as distributing funds to other communities, logistics, bank charges/mobile money charges/travel and documentation)=904

TOTAL=3710 USD

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

No, all the fund was used for the project.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

Yes, Wikimedia Tanzania offers its special thanks to WMF, events grant team for funding this remarkable conference support in Tanzania. Most of the participants strongly recommended that the program can be sustained within the East Africa region toincrese people's participation to Wiki activities and conferences.