Wiki Loves Monuments/2013/Grant report

Compliance and completion

Did you comply with the requirements specified by WMF in the grant agreement?: Yes.

Is your project completed?: Yes.

Did you use any of the grant funds?: Yes.

Activities and lessons learned

This section describes what the grantee did, and what the grantee learned from implementing the project. This section should be useful to others implementing similar projects and is an opportunity for the grantee to reflect on the project's performance.

Activities

Provide a detailed list of activities performed to complete this project, descriptions of these activities, and the amount of time spent on each activity. This section should also include a list of participants, or a link to pictures, blog posts, or videos from the project or event.

Visa

Collecting data for invitation letters in the registration form;
Keeping contact with the embassies for information;
Booking flights for delegates needing the visa;
Writing invitation letters and preparation of WMIT documents required;
Agreement with a private courier for international shipping;
Sending WMIT documents and invitation letters signed via private courier;

Time spent on the activity: from late February 2013 till a few days before the conference due to some issues with the Italian Embassies in Philippines and Bangladesh.

Accommodation

Checking availabilities and prices of hotels and hostels in Milan;
Checking hostels and hotels' standards by visiting them in person;
Booking hostels and hotels;
Writing emails to all the delegates asking their accommodation preferences.

Time spent on the activity: from January till April 2013.

Location & catering

Checking availabilities, prices and standards with congress centers, hotels, open and industrial spaces;
Visiting several possible venues;
Selecting and booking the Grand Visconti Palace, chosen venue for the event;
Communication to the catering service of the location;
Making a dedicated contract for Wi-Fi coverage;
Managing communication with the hotel management for the logistical organization before and during the days of the conference.

Time spent on the activity: from December, 2012 till the end of the Conference.

Volunteer management

Looking for volunteers;
Getting in touch with them, manage their accommodation and travel tickets;
Meeting with volunteers to arrange task and assignments for the days of the conference;
Organization of the volunteers during the conference.

Time spent on the activity: March/April 2013.

Public transport

In order to provide public transport tickets for the participants we made an agreement with the local public company in Milan (ATM).

Time spent on the activity: a couple of weeks.

Stationery & others

Badge Conception: graphic design and printing;
Production of the attendee kits: badge, conference programme, city maps, folders, blocks, public transport tickets;
Equipment: computers and printers (rented), seek provider for general computer and electronic materials.

Time spent on the activity: March/April 2013

Scholarships

Writing emails to the participants who were granted scholarships;
Collecting data and booking flights.

Time spent on the activity: from late February till the end of March 2013.

Social Events

Checking availabilities, prices and standards in order to arrange a welcome event and a social dinner;
Agreements with Frida Club (welcome event) and Carslbergol Restaurant (social dinner);
Collecting events registrations from attendees.

Time spent on the activity: about three weeks.

Registrations

Collecting registrations from attendees on Eventbrite.

Time spent on the activity: one hour per day every day.

Links

Lessons learned

What lessons were learned that may help others succeed in similar projects? Consider the following questions and respond with 1 - 2 paragraphs.

What went well?

The "warming up" event with facilitators.

The attendees were divided in groups of 4-5 people each and they had to find a way to throw an egg out of a window and don't make it break; building some kind of "device" to protect the egg using only straws and tape (provided by the facilitators).

People really seemed to enjoy this moment, and all the several groups were really engaged by the task. We saw a lot of cooperation and a lot of smiles: people were really excited, and this definetely help the conference to start in a good mood.

Transportation

Transportation also was facilitated by the choice of place of the organizers: all the venues were situated along a metro line, and this helped a lot all the attendees, in reaching easily the place they were supposed to be.

Social events

Many people thanked the organizing team for their warmth (yay! :-) )

Very broad participation

For the first time perspective Wikimedia thematic organizations participated.

Venue and food

Feedback from attendees were especially positive on the venue and the catering. People like to lunch outside in the garden, which helped social contacts. Presence of wine has also been praised.

What did not go well?

Program/schedule

Last minute changes to the program caused much trouble both for organizers and attendees

Facilitation

The facilitators received a low evaluation in general, the reason for this was found in the lack of knowledge of our movement

Some problems with accomodation in the hostel

A room in the hostel got flooded during the night, causing obvious issues for the attendees sleeping in the room. The hostel staff has been a bit slow in helping people out.

Wi-Fi

The wireless connection at the venue had some issues the first and the second day of the conference. The organizing committee had the technician come in place and fix the issue for the whole time of the conference.

Cultural walk

Due to an unforeseen storm, the cultural walk has been canceled and thus an important socializing event had been missing.

What would you do differently if you planned a similar project?

Program and facilitators

Spend more time on drafting the program and receiving more feedback from the community on it beforehands, this would also benefit the facilitators.

Logistics

Try to set a strong deadline for registrations and a deadline for until you are able to take care about flights

Publish the more detailed "How to get there" guides on meta

Social events

It's very important to have moments for people to chat and speak in a more informal way. Socializing events as the "Cultural walk" (canceled for the storm) should have a back up plan (i.e. a tour inside a museum).

Scholarship

There's the need to clarify more what is included in the scholarships.

Project goal and measures of success

This section should reference the project goals and measures of success described in the approved grant submission. See Grants:Wiki Loves Monuments/2013 to review the goals and metrics listed in the approved submission.

Project goal

Provide the project goal here.: The goal of the project was to "have a great [Wikimedia] conference and a unique opportunity to exchange knowledge and know-how between different organization".; The conference was structured on three days, from Friday 19th April to Sunday 21st April, plus, on Thursday 18th, thematic meetings on Wikipedia Education Program and Wiki Loves Monuments and Wikimedia Chapters Association. The complete program can be found here. For the first time, the conference also comprised the participation of prospective Wikimedia thematic organisations.; In parallel, the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees held a two-days meeting, there were also meetings of the Affiliation Committee.

Did you achieve your project goal? How do you know your goal was achieved? Please answer in 1 - 2 paragraphs.: In our perspective, the goal has been achieved, although it's not easy to measure the effectiveness of communication and knowledge sharing between people, at least not in the few weeks after the event. We strongly believe that these meetings help the Wikimedia movement to grow organically, as sharing knowledge and competences is paramount for chapters, user groups and the Wikimedia Foundation itself to get feedback and learn from others successes and failures. We are still collecting the evaluation survey results (which we started later than expected).

Measures of success

List the measures of success exactly as provided in the approved grant submission, and evaluate your project according to each measure listed there.: "A key aspect in evaluating the success of the conference will be the number of represented countries and, in our opinion more importantly, the number of new attendees and newly attending chapters (which receive a crash-course instigation and inspiration to further Wikimedia's mission throughout the year)." (read the complete grant request)

Provide an overall assessment of how your project went according to these measures.: Wikimedia conference reached is goal of reaching a wide audience, we have seen a greater presence of Wikimedia Foundation staff members, the novelty of thematic organizations. We are also very happy in the with the involvement in Wikimedia Italia itself as we were able to have 14 people working full time on the conference for four days, including WM-IT staff members (a special thanks goes to Patrick from WM-CH for having volunteered and help us with this big project). Here we present the breakdown of the attendees by affiliation and role:

[[:File:WMConfParticipantsBreakdown.png|600px|center|Breakdown of the 150 registered participants in WMCOnf 2013, this are 37 people more with respect to WMCOnf 2012 (+32%)]] From the WMConf 2012 attendees list we were able to infer that 15 people represented 6 associations (new and perspective chapters, perspective thematic organizations) that never participated to a Wikimedia Conference before. We are waiting the results of the evaluation survey to have a more throughout analysis of the results of this conference.

If you were to plan a similar project, would you measure it differently? If yes, please explain how.: We are late with the evaluations survey (we have already sent it, but we are waiting to collect all the results). This should definitively be anticipated in a future edition of the event.

Impact

This section ties this project to Wikimedia's broader goals, and shows what the project accomplished.

What impact did this project have on WMF's mission and the strategic goals? Please answer in 1 -2 paragraphs and include specific measures of impact such as the number of readers or editors reached by a particular project, or the number of articles edited or improved.

As stated before, we strongly believe that these real life meetings of Wikimedians help the Wikimedia movement to grow organically, as sharing knowledge and competences is paramount for chapters, user groups and the Wikimedia Foundation itself to get feedback and learn from others successes and failures.

Stabilize infrastructure
Increase participation
Improve quality
Increase reach
Encourage innovation

Wikimedia Conference 2013 Strategic Goals

Stabilize infrastructure

The more chapters and thematic organizations are effective and efficient, the more the overall Wikimedia mission will be accomplished. Wikimedia Foundation needs local partners to collaborate with, and reliable partners to whom important task can be delegated. As per the spirit of collaboration which is at the foundation our movement we should try to be inclusive, furthermore centralizing in one single organization all the efforts the Wikimedia mission demands is more can have collateral effects (e.g. disengagement of local communities which could perceive our goals as distant and not pertaining to them).

Strong chapters and groups can run national and local campaigns, targeting local cultures and languages. They can promote better the Wikimedia mission, and raise awareness on Wikimedia projects and ideals.

During the Wikimedia Conference people have been able to share their experiences, to discuss of to join efforts and how to replicate in their local communities the good ideas and the best practices they could hear from other Wikimedians. An incomplete list of the topic discussed comprises partnerships and collaborations with Education institutions (e.g. schools, universities) and Cultural institutions (e.g. GLAM,) and Wiki Loves monuments.

Encourage innovation

The more Wikimedia people share their experiences, the more the best ideas and projects will follow. It's very important to understand what Wikimedians do in their country, region or even city, as this gives momentum to the best projects and enrich the diversity of Wikimedian activities. Diverse and rich environments are the best place for innovation to happen, furthermore this kind of personal contact, i.e. talking to other people in person about what you achieved with your Wikimedia activity is a huge boost of motivation. We could experience that during the "State of the movement" session with many chapters and organisation being very proud of what they achieved, but also with other seeking for help and discussing problems (the most dangerous seems to be "volunteer burnout").

Reporting and documentation of expenditures

This section describes the grant's use of funds

Documentation

Did you send documentation of all expenses paid with grant funds to grants at wikimedia dot org, according to the guidelines here? Answer "Yes" or "No".: Yes

Expenses

Please list all project expenses in a table here, with descriptions and dates. Review the instructions here.: These expenses should be listed in the same format as the budget table in your approved submission so that anyone reading this report may be able to easily compare budgeted vs. actual expenses.; Note that variances in the project budget over 10% per expense category must be approved in advance by WMF Grants Program staff. For all other variances, please provide an explanation in the table below.; Alessio

Total project budget (from your approved grant submission): € 146.394,20

Total amount requested from WMF (from your approved grant submission): € 131.394,20 requested; € 90.000 approved

Total amount spent on this project (this total should be the total calculated from the table above): € 112.326,49

Total amount of WMF grant funds spent on this project (this total will be the same as the total amount spent if the WMF grant is your only funding source): € 90.000

Are there additional sources of revenue that funded any part of this project? List them here.: Wikimedia Italy : € 15.000; Wikimedia Deutschland : € 30.000 to fill the gap between the balance and the approved grant; Wikimedia Poland: allocated € 6.000, spent unknown amount. They bought some flight tickets for scholars by themselves ,so their contribution stays out of this report.

Remaining funds

Are there any grant funds remaining?: NO.

WMIT contribution: € 15.000
WMF Grant: € 90.000
WMDE contribution: € 30.000

Final project expenses : € 112.326,49

Remaining amount € 22.673,51

Since Wikimedia Deutschland stated that they were funding the project to fill the gap between the budget and the approved grant, Wikimedia Italia's Board thinks that the whole remaining amount of € 22.673,51 should be refunded to Wikimedia Deutschland itself.