Grant:Laurel Historical Society 2016 Edit-a-thon

Personal information
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 * (1) What is your name? : Abram Fox


 * (2) What is your email address? : abramfox@gmail.com


 * (3) Do you currently reside in the United States? If not, please specify your country of residence. : Yes


 * (4) Are you requesting this grant on behalf of an organization or group? If so, please provide the name of the group. : On behalf of the Laurel Historical Society

Description of purpose
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 * (5) What is the purpose for which the funding will be used? : This grant will support the third edit-a-thon hosted by the Laurel Historical Society at the Laurel Museum, in Laurel, MD, on Sunday, September 25. The event runs from 10:15 am to 4 pm and we would like to provide lunch to all of our participants, upwards of 20 people. This edit-a-thon is being conducted in partnership with the Michelle Smith Center for Visual Culture (housed within the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology). Accordingly, our goal is to contribute additional content to Wikipedia and also to upload 19th century primary source documents from the historical society's collections to Wikimedia Commons. The requested funding will allow us to provide food and non-alcoholic drinks for participants purchased from a local, family-owned business.


 * (6) How does this purpose align with our mission? : We expect to include both new and experienced Wikipedia editors, and encourage Wiki contribution among the greater Laurel/metro DC community. This edit-a-thon will build on the output from our previous two edit-a-thons, which significantly increased the quality of information about Laurel and area topics available on Wikipedia. Laurel Historical Society members participate and we have found our edit-a-thons help empower community members to contribute their expertise with the world. Our previous efforts were also an encouraging example to area small museums of a GLAM partnership with Wikimedia (I delivered a presentation about it at the 2015 Small Museum Association Annual Conference), and we hope to further that end by continuing our successful event and welcoming members of the small museum community to participate as well. By partnering with the Michelle Smith Center for Visual Culture we will also be able to draw on the expertise on graduate students and faculty at the University of Maryland on academic topics as well as their technical expertise to help further our contributions to Wikimedia Commons.

Grant financials
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 * (7) How much funding do you need? : We are requesting up to $200 to cover food and non-alcoholic drinks for up to 20 people. We are also requesting the use of Wikimedia DC's wireless router so that we can enhance the Laurel Historical Society building's WiFi for participants.


 * (8) When will you need funding? : September 25. We are able to purchase all requested items and then request reimbursement.


 * (9) What specific costs will the funding cover? : Lunch and non-alcoholic drinks for edit-a-thon participants.