Activities/Kick-start grant/Report
Project Goal: Kick-start grant to get Wikimedia UK going. The full grant application is at [1].
The grant ran from June 2009 until June 2010. However, it resulted in a number of opportunities that were only realised after the completion of the grant (and which were funded from other sources). We have included them in this report for completeness.
Note that the grant was modified on 3 September 2009 (email correspondence between Tom Holden, WMUK, and Jennifer Riggs, WMF), as follows:
- Under "Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools":
- "Computer" change to "Computer and peripherals" and reduce by £250 ($427.50)
- "Travel" change to "Travel and shipping" and reduce by £250 ($427.50)
- New category "statutory checks" (for the mandatory criminal records bureau checks) allocate £500 ($855)
- Under Content generation projects
- "Advertising" change to "Advertising and travel"
Description of actual activities:
- 1) Charity status
The amount of funding in this grant took us over the limit that would meant we could be considered by the Charities Commission for recognition as a charity within the UK. This gave us a great head-start into the process of applying for charity recognition, over that which would have been necessary had we waited to participate in the Winter 2009/2010 fundraiser. Although we are still in discussions with the charity commission, we are hopeful that we will be recognized as a charity in the near future.
- 2) Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools
Unfortunately, this activity did not get started during the grant period due to the time constraints of the interested volunteer. Although we are hopeful that we will be able to start a schools project in the future, this is very much pending the sourcing of another interested volunteer.
- 3) Content access projects
Throughout the course of the grant, we met with a number of UK-based organisations to discuss possible partnerships to share content and experience. These included the Public Catalogue Foundation, Tate Gallery, the Courtauld Gallery, the Museums and Library Association, the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Archives.
These discussions lead on to the participation of various museums in Britain Loves Wikipedia, the Wikipedian in Residence scheme at the British Museum, the GLAM-WIKI conference held in November 2010. It also started a number of other discussions that may lead to partnerships in the future.
- 4) Content generation projects
The 'Britain Loves Wikipedia' photography/scavenging hunt competition was held in 20 museums across the UK, and resulted in over 550 photographs that are now available on Wikimedia Commons. This grant enabled the production of leaflets for the event.
- 5) Attending the chapters conference
Mike Peel was able to attend the chapters conference in Berlin in 2009 as a result of this grant. Unfortunately, due to the eruption of the volcano in Iceland, Andrew Turvey was unable to attend (although expenses were incurred as a result of his planned attendance). Mike participated in a large number of the discussions at the meeting, including a meeting with Sue Gardner to discuss the strategic aims of the chapter.
- 6) Attending free content conferences
This part of the budget covered the travel costs incurred in attending the 'Digital Treasures' conference in Birmingham (by Mike Peel and Zeyi He). It also covered one member's attendance of the Open Knowledge Conference in London in April 2010.
What lessons were learned that could help others succeed in similar projects?
- 1) Charity status
This is a long process that takes a lot of effort to complete. It also fundamentally requires the involvement of lawyers, particularly if there is disagreement between the original aims of an organisation and the interpretation of the appropriate governmental organisation. In hindsight, it would have been most beneficial to have asked for funds to hire lawyers from the start.
- 2) Schools project
We learned that it is very important to have multiple people committed to a project, such that there is not a bottleneck if one person turns out to be unavailable. Unfortunately, we were not able to experience much more with this.
- 3) Content access partnerships
The discussions that we participated in represent the first step in working with these organisations, but there are a lot more steps in the future to fully partner with them (this is still ongoing). In all cases, these future steps should be anticipated and planned out as much as possible.
- 4) Content generation projects
Such large-scale projects require a considerable commitment from the organisation running them. We were fortunate that we had this commitment for Britain Loves Wikipedia, however it is difficult to envision having this again for future events without the support of paid staff. A wide breadth of experience is also vital: in this event, we lacked the knowledge of how best to publicise it, which lead to a smaller number of participants (and hence a smaller number of photographs) than was desired.
- 5) Attending the chapters conference
It is difficult to plan for the eruption of volcanoes. ;-) Aside from this: attendance of the chapters conference is very helpful (almost critical) to develop a Wikimedia chapter. The experiences of other chapters, and the discussions with interested and experienced volunteers and WMF staff, are essential to guide a chapter in its development.
- 6) Attending free content conferences
To be completed.
What impact did the project have on WMF mission goals of Increased Reach, Increased Quality, Increased Credibility, Increased and Diversified Participation?
- Increased Reach
The activities that we have been involved in with GLAM organisations have increased Wikipedian's
- Increased Quality
(Point to the articles improved as a result of the Wikipedian in Residence)
- Increased Credibility
(Association with the British Museum? Link to NYT article)
- Increased and Diversified Participation
(Participation of curators at the BM?)
Detail of expenditures:
| Project | Expense | Value (GBP) | Value (USD) | Expenditure (GBP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Encouraging Wikipedia use in schools | Computer | 714.87 | 1,202.50 | 0 |
| Travel | 714.87 | 1,202.50 | 0 | |
| Statutory checks | 476.58 | 855 | 0 | |
| Content access projects | Travel, refreshments | 953.16 | 1,630 | 519.40 |
| Content generation projects | Advertising and travel | 953.16 | 1,630 | 660.58 |
| Attending the chapters conference | Travel, accommodation | 476.58 | 815 | 572.08 |
| Attending free content conferences | Travel | 476.58 | 815 | 25.00 |
| Total | 4,765.80 | 8,150 | 1,777.06 | |
The unspent budget thus totals 2,988.74 GBP (approximately 4,600 USD at today's currency conversions). We will return this money to the Wikimedia Foundation upon their acceptance of this report. Note that the final amount of money in USD will depend on the currency conversion rate on the day of the transfer.
Amount underspent in US Dollars:
$??? (Tom to complete)
Will you be requesting re-allocation of remaining grant funding?
No. Due to the participation in the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 fundraisers, we now have sufficient funds to finance initiatives independently.