Annual plan (2012–2013)

Strategic goals

Wikimedia District of Columbia is the bridge between the Washington community and the Wikimedia community. To that end, Wikimedia DC will undertake activities that work to enrich both communities.

Serving Washington, D.C.

Wikimedia DC is the incorporated chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation in the Washington, D.C. area. There is significant interest in Wikipedia in our area—from Congressional staffers editing articles on their superiors to the National Archives and Records Administration hiring a Wikipedian-in-Residence to help engage the Archives with the Wikimedia community. The first example demonstrates the need for an active Wikimedian voice in the area to inform the general public on best practices, and second example shows enthusiasm on the part of some to engage with our community.

This past year, we had the honor of hosting the international Wikimania conference. The momentum of this conference gave us the opportunity to build relationships with organizations in the area, including the Library of Congress and the Saylor Foundation. According to our group relations index, from Wikimedia DC's total endeavors we have made connections with 35 different organizations from several different sectors, including the technology, diplomacy, government and public affairs, academic, and cultural sectors. We look forward to exploring opportunities for outreach and collaboration with these entities. We also wish to eventually develop a database of potential donors and grant-making institutions to help grow and diversify our funding.

Of course, we should also build our community of enthusiastic Wikimedians here in the Washington area. As a member-based organization a strong and healthy membership is one of our fundamental goals. Community meetups are tried and true, and by holding them on a regular basis we can strengthen our ties as a community and recruit new people to join. Each new member is an opportunity to grow Wikimedia DC's connections to the broader metropolitan area.

The following are this year’s goals for local outreach:

Reorganize our contact database into different categorical sub-databases, with more information in each entry, including contacts we have hosted events with, contacts we could host events with in the future, and contacts that could potentially be donors.
Increase the total size of our contact database to 100 contacts by the end of the fiscal year.
Collaborate with at least two institutions per category by the end of the fiscal year. “Collaboration” is elaborated below but includes events open to the public as well as consultations, training, and contribution drives.
Hold regular bimonthly meetups featuring scheduled programming and lunch/dinner, with an average attendance of 25 people per meetup.
Increase membership to 150, including both new memberships and the renewal of existing ones. In recruiting members we should further focus on finding people who can help with organizing events.

Serving the Wikimedia community

As an organization experienced in putting on programming for the community and collaborating with cultural institutions, we have much to offer other Wikimedia-affiliated organizations, especially growing regional chapters. Additionally, by partnering with the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, we have contributed back to Wikimedia by uploading thousands of new pictures to Wikimedia Commons. Thus our program offerings should reflect a second purpose: in addition to serving Washington, D.C., we serve the Wikimedia movement at large with our direct contributions to the projects, a public better informed on the Wikimedia mission, and accumulated wisdom and experience that can be used to help develop the Wikimedia movement in the United States.

So that other Wikimedia-affiliated groups can learn from our experience, we should have a written summary of each activity we undertake. Take a standard edit-a-thon, for instance. We will want to know what costs were incurred, if any, as well as the number of people attending, the proportion of which were new editors, what articles were improved, as well as any general feedback from the organizers and attendees. Other groups interested in holding edit-a-thons should be able to learn from our experience and not re-invent the wheel.

To build our ties to the Wikimedia movement, our goals for this year are as follows:

Develop a standard outreach guide which helps Wikimedia DC and other organizations hold events. This guide will help us hold events as well as establish standard protocol for reaching out to other institutions.
Maintain a leading role in the movement for a nationwide federation of Wikimedia enthusiasts. Leadership in this role is of strategic interest to Wikimedia DC, and Wikimedia DC is in the best position to launch such an organization.
Become the main point of contact between government and cultural institutions in the D.C. area and the Wikimedia movement. As the local organization we are best suited to work with these partners.
Find two additional partners to make large contributions of content to Wikimedia websites. This can be in the form of large image uploads, large data contributions to Wikidata, etc.

Program areas

Academic and educational outreach: With the Wikipedia Education Program being spun off from the Wikimedia Foundation, we should work with them to coordinate outreach to academic institutions in our region. We should also coordinate with the Sunlight Foundation and other organizations working to provide data to the public to aid in developing Wikidata.
Cultural outreach: Galleries, libraries, archives, and museums have been a point of focus for the Wikimedia movement worldwide. Wikimedia District of Columbia seeks to increase awareness of the Wikimedia projects among cultural institutions in the D.C. area through editing/contribution workshops, by increasing the number of Wikipedians in Residence, and by procuring large media contributions from these institutions where possible.
Government outreach and engagement: Given that Wikipedia has been edited by federal employees in the past, it is in our interest in ensuring that those in the federal government who edit Wikipedia know how to do so properly. To that end, in 2013 we are interested in running workshops for federal employees who are interested in learning more on how to contribute to the Wikimedia projects. Wikimedia District of Columbia also seeks to remain current on legislative issues regarding information freedom and the Internet, and shall work to inform the public of the values of our mission where necessary. This includes working with government agencies and organizations that share our goals to make data available to Wikidata.
International and diplomatic outreach: As Wikimedia is an international movement, a healthy relationship with the many embassies in Washington helps us expand our scope of contributions to the projects. Wikimedia District of Columbia wishes to reach out with the embassies, hold events with them, and encourage them to contribute to the Wikimedia projects.
Public outreach and education: As evidenced by our successful Wikimania 2012 conference, there is widespread interest in Wikipedia in our region. Wikimedia District of Columbia is interested in fostering a community around this interest in Wikipedia, to increase awareness of the Wikimedia movement's goals and to increase interest in volunteering for the projects.

Planned activities and events

We seek to hold two main types of events: educational events, where we teach and inform on the proper use of the Wikimedia websites, including on how to edit, and networking/social events to bring the community together. We should aim to hold one educational event and one networking/social event per month, ideally on a consistent schedule (e.g., on the first and third Tuesday of each month). The list below should not be considered exhaustive; opportunities should be considered as they arise.

Educational events

DCPL Black History Month event
Some sort of Wikipedia training event for new Hill staffers
Women's History Month event
FEDLINK Outreach Initiative
Turn over a new leaf: how to work on biography articles
A panel or workshop at the Newseum
Embassy Outreach Initiative event

Networking and social

Meet Jimmy event
Cherry Blossom event
SAIS / CSIS editathon/panel/happy hour
Wikivoyage launch party

Fundraising

How are we going to raise money?

Governance

How will we mature as an organization?

Staffing

How will we find and use paid staff and/or volunteers?

Logistics and infrastructure

What do we plan in terms of office space, equipment, technology, etc.?