2014 Activity Plan

This is based on the plan subm,itted to the FDC here/

Community

Volunteer Support

Volunteer support is the central key to growing our capacity and engagement with our community. An extensive volunteer programme has been established and a Volunteer Support member of staff appointed. She has created a working plan and we intend to commission a study into developing our volunteer base when capacity allows within the next year. A lot of the activities in this stream of activity will come from the proposals in our agreed volunteer activity programme – see the Volunteering Strategy. This budget has, as its fundamental aim, the ambition that initiatives come from our community. If staff support is needed in addition to financial support, it will be given.

Key elements include local activities focused on Wales and Scotland (Wales supported additionally by the Wales Manager and the Living Paths project); local activities in England: volunteer meetings, editathons, training for the volunteers (as per demand, e.g. media and photography workshops, to supplement our Train the Trainer courses and the continuing support through our Virtual Learning Environment); grants programme & scholarships. It has in the past and will continue to react to initiatives from the community.

Goals

Increase the number of active volunteers to 150

Ensure available volunteer equipment is deemed relevant and comprehensive by volunteers

Have >3,000 media files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons that are either generated by our pool of volunteer equipments or as a result of support from our project grants

>300 hours of use of our volunteer computer equipments

3 training opportunities organised, attended by on average 10 volunteers each, evaluated as useful by attendees (on top of the Train the Trainer)

We will aim to receive 25 Project Grants in a year and work with volunteers to make at least 80% application approved for funding

1 active meetup each per area per quarter

1 event in each area per quarter

Additionally, during the next 10 months (till July 2014), the Living Paths (Wales) project will:

Advertise its existence through Welsh language websites and newspapers

Publish 6,000 guides on editing Wicipedia

contact and work with 9 county councils which border the Coastal Path

publish more than 25 Welsh training videos on Wicipedia Cymraeg

ensure that 2,000 communities in Wales have a Welsh and English article

>400 articles on different elements of the Path (eg Points of Interests) available

representatives from >100 groups have been trained in wiki-skills

>500 Listings and links to Wikivoyage

Annual Conference and AGM

The Annual Conference has traditionally been the opportunity for members of the chapter, and anyone else interested, to discuss topics of interest and make the annual decisions at the AGM. In 2014 we have reduced the costs as Wikimania 2014 will serve part of this purpose.

Goals

We intend to attract 100 members to events at Wikimania and to our AGM

Good programme of discussions and presentations

Participants are encouraged to continue volunteering

Wikimania 2014

Wikimania 2014 will be held in August in London. WMUK has supported the bid and the implementation team. During the next eleven months we will be allocating staff time to supporting the team, especially in the areas of fundraising and communications. We will also be employing an administrator until February 2014 to assist the team.

Goals

Wikimania is an independent event run by the UK community but we aim to support it with staff and some financial resources.

We intend:

To welcome as many visitors to our offices before and during Wikimania as wish to come.

To have information packs about the chapter available for all our visitors

To have a stall in the Chapter’s Village and offer a programme of extra-conference activities.

Train the Trainers

As a part of Wikimedia UK's remit to support Wikimedia outreach projects and develop volunteer skills, we continue to deliver the Train the Trainers programme where volunteer Wikimedians are taught to deliver effective training. By the end of 2013-14 we would have had 50 trainers. With ambition to build our outreach programme, there is a need to continue delivery of this strand of work, particularly focusing on geographical areas that lack trainers.

Goals

2 training events held within one year

Trainers recruited from community in the targeted areas with sufficient attendance - at least 10 per session

High quality of participants ensured - indicating potential to deliver future events

Feedback systems indicate satisfaction from those being trained

All participants receive structured and informal follow-up support

Participants become active trainers supporting at least 2 Wikimedia UK events per year each

Events delivered professionally by the participants (assessed via feedback forms at events)

Development budget

The development budget seeks to support the day to day system administration of the Chapter’s IT infrastructure, including the hosting of its community and internal wikis, databases, email accounts and so on. This is vital to ensure as a movement entity we are managing data and donations in a secure and professional way. In addition, it seeks to solicit, develop and deliver community generated ideas for software projects that will support content production or improvement.

Goals

Ensure ongoing compliance with UK and EU data protection and privacy law through planned and ongoing changes to infrastructure and processes. Measured through:

Annual policy review and security audit, including certification of PCI compliance - Conducted by end of October, with all amendment to policy/infrastructure passed by the Board

Updated training log for existing staff and new starters - Updated quarterly and all new starters to receive training within one month, whether online or in person

Regular progress meetings between staff/technical contractors - No less than every five weeks

Regular meetings between staff/technical contractors/community members at Technology Committee - Minimum of six per year, at least two in-person

Time to progress/close bugs registered through bugzilla that refer to community projects - Initial response within 5 working days.

Number of community projects that are discussed at Technical committee and taken forward - Increase by 100% in 2014/15

Surveying community partners/wider community on responsiveness/effectiveness - over 50% ‘good’ or better on Chapter’s ability to assist/support/deliver.

Promoting free knowledge

GLAM Outreach

The aim of this programme area is extending the GLAM work through local and national events, lead by the GLAM Organiser and also resulting from initiatives from our volunteers and GLAM environment. We are also working with our community to find opportunities to improve content, secure material for open use, crosstrain editors. This is done through outreach activities, GLAMcamp-style events and partnerships with particular cultural institutions. We work to balance the GLAMs that are keenest to work with us against the geographic and subject preferences of our community. We have the knowledge of where our volunteers want us to run events, what particular subject areas and even specific museums they want us to arrange events at and are creating a balanced programme that is of interest to our members and of benefit to Wikimedia.

Goals

Assist GLAMs to digitise, release content, run image uploads - 4 initiatives a year with 100+ uploads

Run events engaging with GLAM experts (e.g. curators and archivists) - 4 a year, e.g. editathons to focus on articles of high importance

Smaller scale events for GLAMs - hold 2 events for GLAMs, bringing together 5-10 institutions each, 50% of which go on to run a project with WMUK.

Running activities with 10 new institutions/year. The database of connections consolidated to show the growth in connections.

Presence at (external) sector conferences and events - 4 a year, distributing materials and building contacts

Opportunities for volunteers (including the inactive ones) to contribute to the GLAM projects. A tool to reactivate editors and train them. Editathons are a great opportunity to cross train editors and promote good editing practices, especially in the use of reliable sources - 4 editathons bringing on average 10 volunteers in.

GLAM workshops - hold 10 GLAM related training sessions/editathons with a good geographic/topic spread in the UK, bringing in a 100 new contributors. These will include training for GLAM readers and volunteers. (Recruitment)

Develop approaches to keep contributors engaged with the project - So far our only metric on this is that of the experienced Wikimedians who took part in the first British Museum editathon in 2010, all 10 are still active and several became more involved in the movement after that event. (Retention)

Contact 100 inactive Wikimedians to invite them to GLAM events in their locale or in accordance with their interests. (Reactivation)

University and Education Outreach

Wikimedia UK is working with some of the country's most respected and innovative institutions to explore how Wikimedia projects can benefit UK education. In partnership with universities and support bodies, we are gradually establishing Wikimedia as part of the landscape of higher education, secondary education, and lifelong learning (as on the UK wiki). Extending the education work through local and national events, lead by the Education Organiser and also resulting from the initiatives from the volunteers. Working with our community to find opportunities to improve content, secure material for open use, train new editors. This is done through outreach activities, workshop/conference-style events, partnerships with particular education institutions.

Goals

Build relationships with Education institutions, increasing their awareness of Wikimedia projects, open knowledge movement, and how they can work with Wikimedia UK

A pilot project run with an organisation involved with education in schools with a view to developing strategies to promote wikis in schools

Run an EduWiki conference

Running activities with 10 new institutions/year. The database of connections consolidated to show the growth in connections.

Presence at (external) sector conferences and events - 3 a year

Distribution/production of the education brochure, aimed at university education practitioners, explaining the benefits of working with the Wikimedia projects - 300 copies circulated within a year

Working relations (joint event, joint publication) with 2 sector bodies such as Jisc (building on our 2013-14 project)

Opportunities for volunteers (including the inactive ones) to contribute to the Education projects - 2 editathons bringing on average 10 volunteers in.

Education workshops - hold 8 Education related training sessions/editathons with focus on new contributors. They will attract an average of 15 people each, 10 of whom will be new to editing. All will have made edits by the end of the session. All will be followed up afterwards to increase retention.

Student societies - working with 5-10 universities; presence at 5 Fresher’s Fairs; societies delivering 2 events/year each.

University classroom assignments - working with 2-3 universities on improving content created/edited by students for assessment.

Extending Reach

We seek to target groups and individuals normally under-represented in our community, by supporting outreach projects aimed at increasing participation in the Wikimedia movement (especially amongst women, or involving any minority ethnic, LGBT, linguistic or other community in the UK). We are working with our community to find opportunities to increase participation from the relevant groups, and improve the content in the under-represented areas on Wikimedia projects. This is done through outreach activities, partnerships with particular outreach institutions, on-wiki initiatives (such as Wiki Loves Monuments). Additionally, we are working with scientists, scholars, learned societies and funders to help experts improve targeted content areas of Wikipedia and its sister projects, bringing that expertise to the widest possible public, in the stream of work called Expert Outreach. Many scholarly societies are, like Wikimedia UK, registered charities whose mission includes informing and educating the general public. These common goals are advanced with internal training events, publications and public events. This work complements WMUK's partnerships with GLAMs and Education sector

Goals

Themed/audience focused workshops - hold 5 training sessions. They will attract an average of 15 people each, 10 of whom will be new to editing. All will have made edits by the end of the session. All will be followed up afterwards to increase retention. The programme succeeds in reaching people in target areas

Run larger-scale initiatives (such as Wiki Takes… and online projects) other than training sessions/editathons aimed at attracting new contributors, along the aims of Increasing Participation - 2-3 a year, involving 30 new contributors each

Expert Outreach - 1 expert training session delivered per quarter for 10 people new to Wikimedia

Majority of the editathons/workshops delivered are run in partnership with relevant institutions

Presence at diversity conferences and events - 2 a year

Expert Outreach - presence at 2 conferences a year; working relations with 10 scholarly or expert societies (e.g. AHRC, Cancer Research UK)

Run editathons with the aim to improve the under-represented areas on Wikimedia projects - hold 4 sessions. They will attract an average of 10 people each, possibly from the community. Targeted topics on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons worked on.

Merchandise and publications

Through the promotion of our work by publishing guides to what we do, education work, GLAM projects, Annual Review, How to Edit, [How to use Commons etc we offer online and in-the-hand material to enthuse newcomers and reinforce the learning we offer. Of course T-shirts, mugs and other merchandise work too to reward people, help them identify with our work, and help brand our workshops and conferences. We use the materials to support outreach events, activities, and the Wikimedia UK volunteer community in general.

Many of the materials we create will be based on existing resources, such as the contributing to Wikimedia Commons booklet produced by Sage Ross. Others, such as our GLAM booklet and Annual Review, will be created from scratch, with contributions from the community. Many of these resources, especially the GLAM booklet, will be of great benefit to the wider community and provide an excellent starting point for other chapters to create their own remixed versions. They will be created and printed/shared online as demand arises for existing publications, or as need is demonstrated, such as the GLAM booklet which is targeted for delivery in December 2013. The annual review will be delivered in time for Wikimania in August 2014. Our Communications Organiser will work on this with significant input and direction from the volunteer community.

Goals

Spending on publications and merchandise is on budget

Stock levels of all materials are maintained in line with community needs

All appropriate merchandise is offered to, and made available to, volunteers

The community is involved throughout the design and copywriting phases of production

All materials are reviewed by end of 2014-15 to ensure they are still accurate, relevant and required

Wikimedians in Residence

In the past year we have seen more and more galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) working with Wikimedia UK. Within the sector, the chapter is nurturing the drive to share collections and information to increase the sum of human knowledge. The UK Wikimedian in Residence programme is a powerful expression of this drive. We are now part-funding Wikimedian in Residence positions to support opportunities in particular areas. The number of positions depends on negotiations with partner institutions about how a Wikimedian in Residence fits with their organisation and how much support they will make available. These posts build strong bridges with institutions and also act as a focus for community involvement and development.

Goals

Every residency has own targets set and agreed with the institution, a template of which can be seen on the ‘Project Outcomes’ section of the Agreement (e.g. establishing a cooperation between Wikimedia UK and the Institution; Engagement with the Wikipedia community; Increased the number of contributors to Wikimedia projects; Facilitating content improvement of Wikimedia projects; Case study produced).

A good quality WiRs are selected, 5 active in 2014-15.

A clear programme of activities for each WIR established and delivered in consultation with the host institutions. Every agreement has the expected outcomes outlined so both parties know what success would look like.

All residents report regularly about their activities monthly or bimonthly.

Membership and public support

This programme refers specifically to the current costs of processing membership fees and donations by staff and our outside agencies such as Paypal.

Goals

Membership to increase to 400.

To collect all donations in a timely and efficient manner

All new members to receive a welcome within one working day

All donors to receive a thank you message within two working days

Gift Aid on applicable donations to be claimed on a monthly basis.

All payments to be reconciled on a monthly basis

All members and donors to receive regular e-newsletters informing them of the Chapter’s activities.