Internal:IP/Editing events

Over the last five years, Wikimedia DC has worked with over 40 institutions of knowledge, organizing over 80 editing events. Editing events are how Wikimedia DC connects with its diverse array of partners, which include libraries, museums, professional societies, universities, and other organizations that promote the development and distribution of knowledge. They uniquely add a human element to Wikipedia, making it possible for the Wikipedia community to connect to its peers in a way Wikipedia could not do alone.

With the combined efforts of our local editing community and these organizations, we have made over 3,700 edits to Wikipedia, representing two million bytes' worth of edits to over 1,200 individual articles. We have also contributed over 200 files to Wikimedia Commons. For the work we have accomplished to date, there is more work to be done. In 2016–17, Wikimedia DC will focus on scaling up our current operations to maximize the value of the editing events we host with partner institutions.

Goals

Our goals for editing events in 2016–17 are:

• To host editing events with at least 25 institutions, including 5 new institutions and 6 outside the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area;
• To develop a pool of at least ten volunteers who assist with at least one editing event each; and
• To develop and standardize our editing event-related workflows, including event planning, work list curation, online promotion, and post-event follow-up with the institutions and event participants.

Resources

Beginning in 2016–17, our editing events will be supported by our Institutional Partnerships Manager, who will be working on a 0.5 FTE basis. The role of the Manager is to serve as a point of contact between Wikimedia DC and our institutional partners, to assess the needs of our institutional partners, to build new relationships with institutions, and to work with institutional partners to identify opportunities to engage the Wikimedia community. The Manager will identify, work with, and organize volunteers to accomplish the program goals. The Manager and volunteers will also have access to a budget for certain event planning and volunteering expenses.

• Staffing: $26,000 ($25/hour * 20 hours * 52 weeks)
• Event refreshments: $5,000 ($200 per event * 25 events)
• Regional travel: $1,800 ($300 per event * 6 events)
• Stickers and buttons: $50
• Total: $32,850

Non-monetary resources include online and offline volunteers, tools for event planning and metrics capture, and the Wikipedia Requests work list curation tool.

Outputs

We expect at least 25 events, including six outside of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and five with new institutional partners. The investment of resources as described above will allow us to increase the number of institutional partnerships we have and will let us host more events outside of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, consistent with our strategy. The Institutional Partnerships Manager, in addition to the direct work of planning and executing events, will be expected to standardize the process and work more closely with our institutional partners in identifying opportunities to improve the Wikimedia projects.

Outcomes

With more investment in our editing events, we expect higher levels of productivity at events due to better coordination and planning. To this end, we expect one million bytes of content on Wikipedia to be changed in this fiscal year. We also expect to have a net increase in institutional partners, including more partners at Levels II, III, and IV compared to the past fiscal year.