Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2013–14

This report describes the activities of Wikimedia District of Columbia during Fiscal Year 2013–14, covering the period from October 2013 through September 2014.

Programs

At the beginning of the 2013–14 fiscal year, Wikimedia DC realigned its program structure to reflect the three interconnected factors that make the Wikimedia movement a success: content, technology, and community. As described in Wikimedia DC's annual plan:

The aim of Wikimedia DC is to make free content available to the world. The development and promotion of technology gives us tools to distribute free content. Most importantly, building a vibrant community makes all of this possible.

Content

Over the course of the fiscal year, Wikimedia DC supported a total of 21 edit-a-thons in partnership with 13 separate cultural, academic, and professional institutions, including the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress, the University of Delaware, the University of Maryland, George Washington University, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Phillips Collection, the Laurel Historical Society, the D.C. Historical Society, the American Statistical Association, the American Chemical Society, and Frederick County Public Libraries.

Edit-a-Thons by Month	Edit-a-Thons by Partner Institution
1 2 3 4 5 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Women in the Arts Laurel Historical Society D.C. Historical Society American Statistical Association Library of Congress University of Delaware National Archives Frederick County Libraries George Washington University Phillips Collection American Chemical Society University of Maryland
Average Edit-a-Thon Attendance by Month
5 10 15 20 25 30 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

The edit-a-thons were attended by a total of 137 volunteer participants, who collectively made 1019 edits to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, adding a total of 290,453 bytes of content. Of these, 276 edits, corresponding to 64,599 bytes of content content, were made by newcomers, while 743 edits, corresponding to 225,854 bytes of added content, were made by experienced editors.

Edit-a-thon at the Smithsonian Libraries, October 2013
Edit-a-thon at the Laurel Museum, November 2013
Edit-a-thon at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, February 2014
Edit-a-thon at the University of Delaware, April 2014
Edit-a-thon at the Frederic County Public Libraries, June 2014
Edit-a-thon at the University of Maryland, August 2014

Scan-a-thon

Summer of Monuments

Technology

Over the course of the fiscal year, Wikimedia DC supported 3 hack-a-thons in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution and the National Archives and Records Administration.

Hack-a-thon at the Luce Foundation Center, November 2013
Hack-a-thon at the National Archives, April 2014
Hack-a-thon at the National Archives, April 2014

Community

Wikimedia DC partnered with Wikimedia New York City to organize the inaugural WikiConference USA. Approximately 250 people from throughout the United States, as well as a handful of Canadians, participated in the three-day event, which featured four keynote speakers and several panels, presentations, and discussions on all manner of topics affecting the Wikimedia community, including the gender gap, paid editing, on-wiki policy and procedure, and offline outreach.

Attendees at WikiConference USA, May 2014
Session at WikiConference USA, May 2014
Session at WikiConference USA, May 2014
Attendees at WikiConference USA, May 2014
Attendees at WikiConference USA, May 2014

Workshop Facilitator Training

Social events

Public policy

This year the chapter established a committee on public policy issues. Our chapter is getting involved in public debates on our issues of interest and expertise.

The committee launched with an immediate project, to draft comments for a panel at the US Copyright Office on proposed legislation on orphan works. These are works whose copyright holder cannot be identified or cannot be located, so permission to use the work cannot be obtained. Wikimedia DC participated in a roundtable panel at the Library of Congress, and we submitted official written comments to the U.S. Copyright Office on proposals to handle orphan works.

Wikimedia DC volunteers also met with House and Senate staffers on Capitol Hill for briefings on subjects of mutual interest, including copyright rules and support for making cultural content freely available online. Public Policy Committee member Jim Hayes presented a summary of these briefings at WikiConference USA, and we discussed ideas for future briefings with attendees at the conference.

In August, Wikimedia DC and the Cato Institute hosted a panel on Wikipedia editing for Congressional staff. The event received significant press coverage in light of the ongoing controversies surrounding Congressional editing. We later published a blog post on the subject of Congressional staff making edits to Wikimedia.

Members of the committee attended a Supreme Court case on software patents, Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, and we are accumulating expertise on this topic. In addition, our chapter joined the Congressional Data Coalition, we held an open government hackathon at the Sunlight Foundation.

Organizational development

Membership

At the end of Fiscal Year 2013–14, Wikimedia DC had 72 members, corresponding to a 18% increase from the beginning of the year.

Governance

During Fiscal Year 2013–14, Wikimedia DC continued to develop its governance practices as a key element of its organizational growth strategy. Over the course of the year, Wikimedia DC adopted several new policies, including an Advisory Committee Policy, an Ethics Policy, a Fiscal Control Policy, a Technology Access Policy, a Travel Policy, a Volunteer Policy, and a Whistleblower Policy, as well as amending a number of existing policy in light of the organization's changing circumstances.

Committees

Finances

At the end of Fiscal Year 2012–13, Wikimedia DC held ??? in assets, including both cash and capital assets, with no current liabilities. Over the course of the year, Wikimedia DC recognized revenues of ??? and expenses of ???.

Fundraising

In Fiscal Year 2012–13, Wikimedia DC raised a total of ??? from all sources. Of this amount, ??? (xx%) was received from the Wikimedia Foundation and ??? (xx%) was raised from independent sources. The independently-raised funding corresponds to xx% of total Wikimedia DC expenditures during the fiscal year.

Grantmaking

As part of our charitable activities, Wikimedia DC provides small grants to individuals, community groups, and nonprofit organizations to fund activities that align with our mission to advance general knowledge and to collect, develop, and disseminate educational content under a free license or in the public domain.

In Fiscal Year 2013–14, Wikimedia DC received six grant applications with a total value of $1,753.72 from individuals and organizations across the United States. Based on these applications, five grants (corresponding to 83.3% of the submitted applications) with a total value of $1,403.72 (corresponding to 80.0% of the total amount requested) were approved and funded. The grants provided by Wikimedia DC were used to fund activities and events in Laurel, Maryland; Brooklyn, New York; and Portland, Oregon.

Benefactors

Wikimedia DC programs are made possible in part by the generous contributions of our members. Member contributions are collected through a tiered sponsor membership program, which allows members to donate additional funds to support Wikimedia DC activities when establishing or renewing their memberships. Wikimedia DC expresses its sincere gratitude towards these sponsor members for their contributions:

Gold Sponsors: Kirill Lokshin, James Hare, Peter Meyer, and John Sadowski

Silver Sponsors: Georgina Bath, Elaine Meyer, Diane Shaw, Christopher Maloney, Vijay Goswami, and Sarah Stierch

Bronze Sponsors: Meghan Ferriter, Jim Carpenter, Peter Hess, Joshua Westgard, Jake Orlowitz, Stephen Katsurinis, Christopher Alhambra, Misty Sweet, John Rogers, Sage Ross, Christopher Licciardi, Jacqueline Taylor, Nicholas Papacostas, and Scott Miller

Measures of success

Our goal this year is to hold events with at least eight institutions, including at least two new institutions.

hold six events with the Smithsonian

at least 50 volunteers logging a total of at least 700 volunteer hours and creating or improving at least 175 articles.

r this year is to hold two scan-a-thons at the National Archives, yielding at least 50 digitized documents.

tal of three hack-a-thons this fisc

at least two technical projects.

of a stable set of online tools tha

t one edit-a-thon in this space, making use

holding two social events per month, inc

at least four flagship events, designe

Strategic impact

Wikimedia DC's Board of Directors has made a commitment to four strategic priorities, and took forward steps on them this year.

1. Foster a welcoming and supportive social environment for local and remote Wikimedia volunteers.

Our chapter adopted a Safe Space policy. We held several WikiSalons and evening meetups for face-to-face conversations.

2. Empower academic, cultural, and government institutions to contribute content and expertise to Wikimedia projects.

Our chapter held edit-a-thons and meetings with all these kinds of institutions during the year.

3. Promote women's participation in all aspects of the Wikimedia movement.

Our Workshop Facilitator Training focused on welcoming women to the Wikimedia projects.

4. Cultivate diversity of participation and content on Wikimedia projects.

We held edit-a-thons on a variety of subjects and welcomed editors of all kinds.