Wikimania 2022/Scholarships/Wikimedia South Africa/Report

Goals

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

Yes

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

Targeted outcomes

We organised our in person conference both in Cape Town and Johannesburg with the Festival Edition theme in mind. From the initial grant application we planned to host small in-person events with the following targeted outcomes:

• anticipated to have 30 participants for the events in both cities ( 15 in each City)
• we planned to support 5 participants with childcare services.
• 7 participants were to receive hardware support.
• 26 participants were to receive data packages to support their participation to join the main conference online.

Achieved outcome

All of our targeted outcomes were met and even more! Some of the achieved outcomes are as follows:

• We hosted the in person events in Cape Town and Johannesburg
• We've had 70 participants ( over 30 in each city) who were coming and going during the course of the events.
• We've sponsored 3 child care services.
• We've bought 20 headset which were distributed to our community members in Johannesburg and Cape Town to help join the online event.
• We ran editathons in Both Cape Town and Johannesburg. (Our programme can be viewed here)
• We hosted events in Cape Town and Johannesburg where community of practice related issues discussed.
• We've handed scholarships to enable participants from other provinces to attend the in person event in Cape Town.

Overall outcomes

See also: Wikimania 2022 Cape Town Report

After announcing the events on our social media platforms and website we've had more than double the response from our community member who showed great interest in attending the events in both Cape Town and Johannesburg. We also were privileged to host CEO Maryana Iskander in Cape Town which generated much interested from the media and other stakeholders to want to attend. Unfortunately, we had to limit the number of attendees due to space and had to request for reallocation of funds from our Annual Plan Grant to support the events because of the unexpected interest.

The event in Johannesburg took place only for a day - on Saturday, 12 August, while in Cape Town it spanned over a three days period overlapping with the international Wikimania event. The mini report for the Cape Town event can be viewed HERE.

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?

• Skills sharing during our edithons, hackathons and panel discussions.
• We were able to align our conference with the Festival Theme by having a pianist perform in Johannesburg and had an eventful reception where we welcomed CEO Maryana in Cape Town.
• We've produced a Zulu dance video which was played in the main conference event and our in person events.
• Both events were dominated by librarians and academics, this gave us the opportunity to form partnerships
• Both events were attended by people who are new on Wikipedia, the general public and experienced Wikimedians.
• There was ample food for everyone.
• Although we had more than double the number who attended but we've had discounted prices on most services like venue, catering and entertainment.

What did not work so well?

• Venue was small both in Johannesburg and Cape Town due to number of people we initially anticipated and we had to limit the number of people who attend.
• In Johannesburg we were reallocated to a bigger venue on the eve of our event by the GLAM institution while we've already announced and limited participants to a smaller venue.
• We had to prioritise other items over others due to budget constrains, we also had to request for budget reallocation from our APG to subsidize the Wikimania budget. This was due to flying some members of our communities across cities, although they paid for their own ground travel and accommodation. Here is a report from one of the travel scholarship recipients.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Target outcome

Achieved outcome

Explanation

List of Planned Activities and Expenses

No.	Item	Quantity	Rate	Amount in USD
1.	Childcare services (or similar family services)	3	130	390
2.	Travel support to attend in person conference (only flight, no ground travel or accommodation)	3	260	780
3.	Administrative or operational costs to distribute funds	1	250	250
5.	Small hardware expenses to support access	7	20	240
6.	In-person meetups that coincide with Wikimania activities (food, beverage, meeting space)	2	333	667
7.	Video production support	2	670	1340
8.	Printed artwork, conference swag/merchandise for event participants	2	160	380
8.	Live perfomance/pianist	1	100	100
9.	Total			4147

In pictures

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Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

• No

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

We consider our in person events successful due to the more than double the number of participants who attendant, we also note the support, skills and community of practice shared by community members during our hackathons, panel discussion and editathons. Also, we've seen an increase in networking opportunities and interest in people who wanted to join our community because of the value add of belonging to an affiliate.