Grants:Project/Giantflightlessbirds/New Zealand Wikipedian at Large
Project idea
What is the problem you're trying to solve?
Although we’re part of the Global North, New Zealand is underrepresented in general in Wikimedia projects, because of our isolation, small population, and small editing community; in many ways coverage of NZ in Wikipedia is 5–10 years behind corresponding articles on Northern Hemisphere countries.
There is little visible Wikimedia presence in New Zealand; although there are individual editors doing good work, there is no organised editing community, and little opportunity for interested editors to learn and meet others. While there have been some organised edit-a-thons (most organised by me), the lack of a community means new editors often stop contributing. Even something as simple as regular meetup groups as follow-ups from Wikipedia training workshops would make a difference in editor retention.
There has only ever been a single short Wikipedian in Residence placement in the New Zealand. Consequently, while individuals in the GLAM sector, research institutions, or universities might be interested in what Wikimedia projects has to offer, these has been a shortage of experienced editors able to spend the time working with them on a strategy to engage with Wikipedia and the Commons.
What is your solution?
For the problem you identified in the previous section, briefly describe your how you would like to address this problem. We recognize that there are many ways to solve a problem. We’d like to understand why you chose this particular solution, and why you think it is worth pursuing. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
Based on my Wikipedia outreach work of the last few years and regular discussions with GLAM sector institutions, I think both these problems can be tackled with a full-time, visible Wikipedian supporting both individuals and institutions. I am applying for support to undertake a series of short (2 to 6 week) Wikipedian-in-Residence positions throughout New Zealand for one year, with two objects:
- Run public Wikipedia/Commons editing workshops and edit-a-thons, and organise a series of follow-up meetups, organised by a joint Facebook group, to provide support for new editors.
- Work with a wide variety of GLAM, science-communication, and research institutions throughout New Zealand, so that each one has both made a visible contribution to one or more Wikimedia projects and has developed a Wikimedia strategy that can be used as an exemplar for similar institutions.
Throughout the year of being a "Wikipedian at Large" these activities will be shared online and on radio, TV, and print media to both educate the public about how Wikimedia projects work and inspire other institutions to engage with them.
Project goals
What are your goals for this project? Your goals should describe the top two or three benefits that will come out of your project. These should be benefits to the Wikimedia projects or Wikimedia communities. They should not be benefits to you individually. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.<br/
The main benefits to the Wikimedia community will be:
- Immediate improvements in New Zealand coverage in Wikimedia projects, by helping heritage and research organisations host edit-a-thons and public Wikipedia workshops, and release appropriate image collections to Commons
- The creation of an editor support network in New Zealand’s four main cities (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin) through a Facebook group and offline meetups, with the long-term goal of establishing a self-sustaining editing community.
- Long-term participation of New Zealand organisations in Wikimedia projects by helping them write a Wikimedia engagement strategy, and by training and supporting the key staff who will drive continued Wikipedia activity.
Project impact
How will you know if you have met your goals?
For each of your goals, we’d like you to answer the following questions:
- During your project, what will you do to achieve this goal? (These are your outputs.)
- Once your project is over, how will it continue to positively impact the Wikimedia community or projects? (These are your outcomes.)
For each of your answers, think about how you will capture this information. Will you capture it with a survey? With a story? Will you measure it with a number? Remember, if you plan to measure a number, you will need to set a numeric target in your proposal (e.g. 45 people, 10 articles, 100 scanned documents). Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
As "Wikipedian at Large", I will organise short placements in a wide range of institutions in the four main centres in New Zealand. This grant will provide support, and each institution will need only supply a workspace and access to a computer that can work on their network. I currently have offers to host a short term Wikipedian in Residence from:
- Landcare Research National Arthropod Collection (Auckland)
- Toi Whakaari National Drama School (Wellington)
- New Zealand Geographic magazine (Auckland)
- Auckland War Memorial Museum (Auckland)
- Otago Museum (Dunedin)
I am negotiating potential placements with:
- NZ Department of Conservation (Wellington)
- Royal Society Te Apārangi (Wellington)
- Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of NZ (Wellington)
- National Library of New Zealand (Wellington)
- Canterbury Museum (Christchurch)
- Zealandia (Wellington)
Public activities will be followed by face-to-face meetups for participants; coffee editing catchups or "wikibrunches", which will function as as social event as well as support group for beginning editors. Editors keen to continue organising meetups will be identified and supported to help make these self-sustaining.
Long term impact of this grant could be measured as follows:
- Tracking the use of host-institution Commons items in Wikimedia projects. This can be summarised on the "Wikipedian at Large" project page and updated monthly for a year, then annually, so host institutions can track directly the impact of the Wikipedian’s residency and add it to their annual reports.
- Establishing regular in-person meetings of Wikipedia editors in NZ’s four largest cities, logged in the Wikipedia Meetups in NZ template.
- GLAM, research, and education organisations begin developing Wikimedia strategies; the target will be for 12 organisations to have developed a strategy as a result of this project.
Do you have any goals around participation or content?
The last three Wikipedia edit-a-thons I ran were:
- NZ Species (2016) at the National Museum Te Papa in Wellington, which had 15 attendees and 7 remote attendees (almost all new editors), created 20 articles, and improved 19
- Women in Science (2017), hosted in Wellington by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, had 33 attending (2 remotely), created 22 biographies, and improved 15
- NZ Insect Cards in Auckland (20 new editors, 2 experienced admins, 67 articles created or improved).
Based on these results, reasonable targets for public edit-a-thons/workshops, assuming at least one per temporary residency or one a month, are:
- Total participants: 300
- New users: 250
- Pages created or improved: 575
In addition, I would aim to organise at least two editor meetups in each of the four main centres, with at least eight Wikipedians attending on average.
The newly-created Wikipedia New Zealand Facebook group has only a dozen members: the goal would be to have at least 200 active NZ members after a year.
Project plan
Activities
Tell us how you'll carry out your project. What will you and other organizers spend your time doing? What will you have done at the end of your project? How will you follow-up with people that are involved with your project?
Each placement will be 2–6 weeks (longer by arrangement). Hosting organisations will be required to supply a workspace, access to their network or access to a computer with same, and a venue with wifi for public events. During each placement, as well as running Wikipedia and Commons training for staff and helping the organisation develop a Wikimedia strategy, we have provisionally agreed on the following projects:
Otago Museum
- Running a series of public editing events to commemorate the Museum’s 150th anniversary, focussing both on local history and iconic objects and images in the collection.
- Presenting on "Wikipedia in Natural History Museums" at the Society for Preservation of Natural History Collections conference.
Auckland Museum
- Organising a panel and discussion with Māori and Wikipedians on the future of Māori-language Wikipedia and the Māori content on English-language Wikipedia.
- Arrange the uploading of biology type specimen photographs to Commons, for volunteers to incorporate into or create species pages in a targeted edit-a-thon.
Landcare Research
- Help Landcare release the Des Helmore archive of insect line drawings into Commons, as well as their backlog photographic archive, under a CC-BY license.
- Organise an Insects edit-a-thon to add these to Wikipedia pages.
- Run a Wikidata workshop with scientists to discuss the benefits and obstacles towards moving NZ taxonomic output from Wikispecies to Wikidata.
Toi Whakaari
- Running an edit-a-thon to ensure that all notable graduates of the NZ Drama School have Wikipedia profiles and that their graduation from the school is mentioned in this.
- Work with the Toi Whakaari librarian to add no-known-copyright material from their theatrical ephemera collection (programmes, posters) to the Commons.
NZ Geographic
- Develop a plan and recruit volunteers to release available photos from NZ Geographic’s archives to the Commons.
- Run a targeted edit-a-thon on Kauri dieback disease to support a recent magazine feature on the subject, which lamented that the disease had no Wikipedia page (since rectified).
Similar types of projects will be developed as additional institutions and organisations agree to host me as a Wikipedian. In addition, I’ll be approaching at least three professional meetings or conferences and offering to run a Wikipedia introductory workshop focussed on their discipline.
My current standard practice is to survey all participants in Wikipedia events for feedback, and asked them for permission to use their edits when calculating analytics. These surveys also ask if they’re interested in attending further events or attending face-to-face meetups; those who agree will now also be invited to join the Wikipedia NZ Facebook group. I will maintain a opt-in MailChimp email list, used only for geographically-appropriate event and meetup notifications; general discussion will happen in the Facebook group or at meetups.
Budget
How you will use the funds you are requesting? List bullet points for each expense. (You can create a table later if needed.) Don’t forget to include a total amount, and update this amount in the Probox at the top of your page too!
Support
For one year of living expenses and accommodation around New Zealand
- US$40,500 (NZ$55,000)
Travel
To approximate the vehicle travel for one year of placements, I’ve used the mileage Auckland–Dunedin return (3000 km), plus two ferry crossings (NZ$400), x 2, at a standard public service mileage rate of NZ$0.70/km
- US$3,680 (NZ$5,000)
Conference registration
To enable attending and presenting at at least three conferences in the course of the year.
- US$880 (NZ$1,200)
Swag
Wikimedia Store pens, pencils, buttons, and pins to use as event prizes and helper rewards
- US$200 ($NZ271)
Community engagement
Community input and participation helps make projects successful. How will you let others in your community know about your project? Why are you targeting a specific audience? How will you engage the community you’re aiming to serve during your project?
As a side-effect of my various Wikimedia activities, I seem to have become the most well-known Wikipedian in NZ, and – as there’s no chapter in NZ – the public face of Wikimedia by default. I’m certainly not the most experienced editor in the country, but am good at dealing with the media – my high point was an long interview with NZ’s foremost radio broadcaster and interviewer Kim Hill in 2016, for Wikipedia’s 15th birthday, in which I had a opportunity to explain how Wikipedia works, its history, and its future; possibly the most in-depth media coverage the Wikimedia Foundation has ever had in New Zealand. I’ll continue working in this way, arranging radio, newspaper, and TV publicity of Wikipedia events and institutional projects during the course of the year.
Social media outreach will be directly through my personal Twitter account, the Wikipedia NZ Facebook group, and notices on Wikiproject NZ noticeboard and other Wikiproject groups; indirect social media will be through the various feeds of host institutions.
I will present on the "Wikipedian at Large" project at the National Digital Forum meeting at Te Papa in Wellington, the main venue for GLAM sector projects in NZ. I’ll also arrange at least two other conference presentations/workshops, similar to those I gave to the 2016 Curators’ Hui and the 2017 Science Communicators of NZ conference.
Get involved
Participants
Please use this section to tell us more about who is working on this project. For each member of the team, please describe any project-related skills, experience, or other background you have that might help contribute to making this idea a success.
- Giantflightlessbirds: I'm a scientist, museum curator, and former university teacher. For the last few years I've been active in running Wikipedia events and promoting it as an outreach tool in the museum community. I provide Wikipedia support for the Critter of the Week project, a collaboration between Radio NZ and the Department of Conservation.
- Volunteer I would be happy to assist Mike both virtually and in person with any edit-a-thons he organises. I would also be keen to attend any meetups organised in my city and to assist and support new volunteers on their editing journey. Ambrosia10 (talk) 04:06, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
- Volunteer I would also be able to support edit-a-thons and support new volunteers (as I previously did at the women in science meetup). As one of the de facto coordinators of the New Page Patrol project on the English Wikipedia, I can help out a lot with discussing topic notability and suitability with new editors. Insertcleverphrasehere (talk) 11:23, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
- Volunteer I also am happy to assist both virtually and in person with edit-a-thons and meetups. I am an experienced Wikipedian and administrator based in Auckland and willing to travel within the upper North Island.-Gadfium (talk) 21:52, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
Community notification
Please paste links below to where relevant communities have been notified of your proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions. You are responsible for notifying relevant communities of your proposal, so that they can help you! Depending on your project, notification may be most appropriate on a Village Pump, talk page, mailing list, etc. Need notification tips?
Endorsements
Do you think this project should be selected for a Project Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project below! (Other constructive feedback is welcome on the discussion page).
Support Mike is correct when he states that New Zealand is under represented in Wikimedia projects. I also believe that if successful with this grant application he can help rectify this. Mike is well known throughout the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) sector in New Zealand as a Wikipedian and is well placed to both educate and inspire New Zealand based organisations and individuals to share their knowledge and content with the various Wikimedia projects. I attended one of his workshops when I was first attempting to edit Wikipedia and his support and encouragement has ensured my continued enthusiastic participation with English Wikipedia, Wikicommons and Wikidata. New Zealand is in dire need of more editors as well as Wikipedians in residence. If successful, this proposal has the potential to show organisations the benefits of collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation and the various projects it oversees. Not only would the Wikimedia projects benefit from this collaboration, the organisations themselves would benefit as the visibility of their content would improve. Most importantly, New Zealanders would have easy access to, and the ability to reuse, information and content that currently is difficult or impossible to find online. I therefore wholeheartedly support this application. Ambrosia10 (talk) 04:01, 1 February 2018 (UTC)- Support New Zealand projects are very underrepresented. I recently took it upon myself to work on the Treaty of Waitangi, and got it to good article status, but it had languished for 15 years as a sub-C class article (as a Top-importance NZ article). There are many other such articles that need the support of a community that we simply don't have in New Zealand. Editors in New Zealand are fractured and uncoordinated, and there simply are not enough of us. Edit-a-thons and other such outreach is incredibly important to the future of New Zealand coverage on wiki, including someone to negotiate release of many of the high quality copyright free image collections held by museums around the country onto Commons. Mike is well respected in the right circles, and an amazing guy to work with (having met in person). If successful, this proposal would help develop coordination among New Zealand Wikipedians and improvement of content on New Zealand topics in the long term. I therefore support the nomination as well. Cheers, Insertcleverphrasehere (talk) 11:23, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
- Support New Zealand articles are often poorly developed: over half of all assessed articles are stub class, and over half of articles rated as Top importance by Wikiproject New Zealand are C class or less.(Source) Mike has a great ability to get new users involved in Wikipedia. I've attended one of Mike's workshops and was impressed with his presentation and helpfulness to the participants. This grant will enable Mike to significantly boost the New Zealand editing community.-Gadfium (talk) 21:48, 1 February 2018 (UTC)
- Support I support this nomination as a number of New Zealand articles will be greatly improved through this project and wiki editing events held around the country will encourage new editors, in turn enriching more New Zealand related wikipedia articles. Furthermore, if this grant was successful, an active New Zealand Wikipedia group would be of great benefit, not only for support for new editors but a space for experienced editors to find solidarity. Thanks,Speggle22 (talk
- Support Mike's been around New Zealand wikipedia for awhile and seems to be very good at organising events for newbies. He and I organised a 2014 event for en:Wikipedia:GLAM/National_Digital_Forum (prior to all his efforts above) and he's a natural. Since then, of course, he's stepped up to developing and running workshops by himself and his knowledge of wikipedia editing and norms has matured. Not sure I can commit to much editing, because at the last event of his I attended (en:Wikipedia:Meetup/Wellington/Women in Science) I committed to a large piece of work (writing BLPs of every female professor in the country) that isn't finished yet (see here for progress). Stuartyeates (talk) 03:53, 2 February 2018 (UTC)
