Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2015/Training

This page describes an previous initiative to organize a training event early 2015 for Wiki Loves organizers. The training should make the organizing of both the international Wiki Loves (Monuments) competion(s) as well as the various national competitions more effective across the globe. This page serves as a thinking spot to figure out whether it would be a good idea (after all, it's quite expensive to get so much expertise aboard!)

The initiative was not submitted as grant request, and will not be executed.

Background

Looking back at the past few years of Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth and now also Wiki Loves Africa (all built upon the same philosophy), it stroke me that there is so much being learned in different countries, but that we are not always effectively sharing that among ourselves. Even if we share, it doesn't seem that the best practices make it actually to the implementation - I think there's room for improvement here, and that this could increase the outcomes (in many different ways) and reduce the costs (especially in volunteer organizing time).

In the first year that we organized the competition on a global scale, we had a very effective meeting (May 2011) with a bunch of people from countries that indicated they wanted to organize WLM later that year. Although much was to be improved, it helped to build an effective network of people helping each other to organize effective competitions - sharing skills, tools and inspiration. The discussions there were in my opinion a major component in the success of the competitions in 2011 and 2012 (in 2012 we also had a shorter meeting in Amsterdam).

At the same time we have seen the many challenges to get together an effective international team. While I want to applaud the wonderful work done by volunteers nationally and internationally, I had the impression that both at Wiki Loves Earth and later at Wiki Loves Monuments, a better international coordination could have helped the competition.

I would like you to ponder a bit with me, and think whether it would be useful to organize again a training meeting for a variety of organizers around the world, where skills and experiences can be transferred, best practices can be shared, the network of organizers internationally can be strengthened and the international coordination can be given a push in the beginning.

Goals

The goal of the meeting is to

• transfer between organizers of Wiki Loves-events:
  • knowledge
  • experiences and
  • best practices
• allow brainstorm for
  • solutions for problems
  • international coordination and
  • collaboration.

What are the realistic goals to set for the meeting (and the accompanying preparations/process)? What do we expect attendees to go home with? What skills should be transferred, for which topics would we like to collect & distribute best practices? For which topics is there the additional value for a physical meeting?

A helpful approach is to focus on what we would like to learn, what questions we would like to get answered. The following questions come to mind in that regard - some more abstract and theoretical, some very practical:

• Fundamental:
  1. What is the definition of Wiki Loves Monuments? What is the core, and what are possible extensions?
  2. What drives Wikimedian organizers of Wiki Loves Monuments/Earth/Public Art? What are characteristics of 'success'? Is there an effective and reliable way to measure? Is it the same in all countries?
• Best Practices:
  1. What are best practices for organizing a "Wiki Loves" event? Both in general and for a subset of contests (i.e. in a certain type of countries)
  2. What are concepts for successful events connected to Wiki Loves Monuments?
  3. Local (heritage) partners: how important are they, how can they be involved and how can their involvement be maximally used?
  4. Local other partners: What partners are possible, what are best practices to approach?
  5. Prizes: what is their function, role, advantage, challenges? What kind of prizes or incentives are better motivators? Can they kill intrinsic motivation (if yes, How to avoid it)?
  6. Burnout effect in organizers: Which WLM organizers (national, international, supporters, big teams, small teams, etc.) have the most risk of burning out? How to better avoid this undesired effect?
  7. Getting participants: What are the most effective ways to advertise the contest? Given that we already have the CentralNotice banners, which are an extremely powerful tool as a huge amount of people sees them everyday in Wikipedia, Is it actually useful to use additional (possibly paid) advertising methods?
• International:
  1. What infrastructure is necessary on an international level?
  2. How can local teams best be assisted in their work?
  3. How can we insure that there is a stable technical infrastructure that is also scalable and upgradable?
  4. How can we better coordinate among internationally based teams when conducting global scale events?
  5. Is paid staff necessary or desirable for the international competition?

Plan

To organize this effectively, it is first important that it is well defined what the goals of the meeting/training are. There is no single person that knows everything in this field, so the target group should be adjusted to these goals, and the invited people as well.

Tentative timeline and Schedule

This is a preliminary draft, which is open to changes as topics arise and are identified as important. For example, a session might be replaced by working groups instead.

Day 1

• 10:00 am to 11:00 am: Brief history of WLM/WLE/WLPA
• 11:00 am to 11:15 am: Take a tea/coffee
• 11:15 am to 1:00 pm: In-depth understand of process to organise WLM/WLE/WLPA - Part I
• 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm: Lunch
• 2:15 pm to 4:00 pm: In-depth understand of process to organise WLM/WLE/WLPA - Part II
• 4:00 pm to 4:15 pm: Take a tea/coffee
• 4:15 pm to 6:00 pm: Challenges faced so far for all Wiki Loves-events - Part I
• 6:00 pm to 6:15 pm: Enjoy some stroopwafels
• 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm: Challenges faced so far for all Wiki Loves-events - Part II

Day 2

• 10:00 am to 11:00 am: Best Practices - Part I
• 11:00 am to 11:15 am: Take a tea/coffee
• 11:15 am to 1:00 pm: Best Practices - Part II
• 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm: Lunch
• 2:15 pm to 4:00 pm: Take it technically
• 4:00 pm to 4:15 pm: Take a tea/coffee
• 4:15 pm to 6:00 pm: Q & A
• 6:00 pm to 6:15 pm: Enjoy some stroopwafels
• 6:15 pm to 7:00 pm: Any open agenda

Activity

As we see it currently, the event would be a peer-to-peer training with active facilitation. It would be an event of two full days, connected to (but not parallel) the GLAM-wiki conference to be organized in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The training would allow up to 40-50 participants, excluding trainers/invited experts.

The event would have to be interactive, well prepared and followed-up. Participants are not only expected to listen, but also to bring something to the table: they should prepare themselves well, engage actively and participate in the online activities heading up to the training. The meeting will take place in English.

Target group

As there is a limitation to the number of participants, it is important to settle clearly what kind of participation we are looking for. The most effective seems to be a healthy mix of different types of organizers, that all either have something valuable to bring to the discussion, or have a disseminating role in their region beyond their own group. Ideally, both. All participants are expected to be able to participate in English. Also, every participant is supposed to have some history with organizing a Wiki Loves event in one capacity or another - otherwise the difference would become too large.

At the same time, the mix element should be ensured on the following factors:

• Geographic (and cultural) spreading
• Experienced and less experienced organizers
• Different ways to organize Wiki Loves-events, and how it scales
• The years they organized it

Also, some dedicated experts may be invited, that can share specific views on the topic. They may be invited for the whole meeting or only a part of it. They may lead a part of the training/working group:

• How to collaborate effectively with cultural heritage organzations (expert from heritage organization)
• Experts with regards to the technical infrastructure Wiki Loves-events need
• Experts on Public Relations (Press)
• ...

Program

The program should be interactive and focused on outcomes. While there might be a few introduction sessions on very specific topics, in general there should be no introduction necessary at the training, but that should be mostly provided in preperatory materials.

The program can take many shapes, depending on the requirements to be formulated - it should not be set in stone yet. Think about round table discussions with the whole group, working groups to discuss specific issues, working groups to set guidelines/rules/outcomes, Q&A with experts etc.

Specific activities

1. How to meet the deadlines/Consequences if deadline is not met This is one of the biggest problem for WLM.
2. More prizes and more professional management This would make our competition more attractive.
3. Pilot WLM in Japan and Australia This two countries had tried to participate but gave up in the middle of the process. We should try to bring them back or let international volunteers help organize it as a pilot activity. The two are strategically important because of their population and geographical area. If you can get Japan/Australia in, Korea/New Zealand and other countries in the region may follow them. Alternatively, put the rest of the world together as if it is one national and find an appropriate eligibility inclusion criteria e.g. photos is used on a Wikipedia article.Same with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka when they tried during 2013 WLM.

Impact

The main impact is capacity building: the organizers that join the event should be better able to organize a Wiki Loves-event in their region, as well as help others in their environment to be a better organizer of this type of events.

Secondly, the whole process around this event will lead to better documentation, better introduction material etc.

Thirdly, the event will help strengthen the community of organizers, and help people to make connections to find help more easily in future instances when they need it. The organizers should become less dependent on an international team to organize the competition.

Finally, the event will help to organize the international Wiki Loves Monuments 2015 more effectively: rules can be agreed upon this way more easily, tasks can be divided and teams can be formed. Maybe the international team to be could use the being together to have a team meeting the day after the training event, to coordinate some follow-up.

All impact of this training/event will be indirect through various projects like Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Public Art and so: no additional editors, edits or photos are to be expected as main outcome. Refer this example for actual impact which is expected to result out of this.

Resources & Risks

Budget

Sr No	Title	Explanation	Amount (Amount in US$)	Units	Total Amount (Amount in US$)
1	Travel & Accomodation	Wiki Loves organisers from around the world with a healthy mix of experiences. Includes flight/train travel and hotel accomodation.	2000	10	20000
2	Professional Support	Experts talk about heritage, photography, nature, etc and may be also facilitate the meeting.	500	1	500
3	Unforseen		100	0	100
	TOTAL				20600

• Mentioned participation and amount is assumption here. Post we decide on number of attendees and the list, figures can be corrected accordingly.

General discussion

I would like to help make this possible!

1. Effeietsanders (talk) 21:46, 4 November 2014 (UTC) - I'm willing to help set up the plan and program, as well to facilitate most of the meeting.
2. Violetova (talk) 12:00, 7 November 2014 (UTC) - Willing to help
3. Romaine (talk) 16:16, 7 November 2014 (UTC) - willing to help out
4. Ynhockey (talk) 21:46, 17 November 2014 (UTC)
5. Mohamed Ouda (talk) 07:21, 19 November 2014 (UTC)
6. --Bachounda (talk) 00:27, 30 November 2014 (UTC) especially coordination and organizing of different contest ,in region of arabic country
7. Yarl ✉ 22:16, 2 December 2014 (UTC)
8. Vikoula5 (talk) 08:01, 3 December 2014 (UTC) want to help the contests to take place in 2015
9. Racso (talk) 06:04, 5 December 2014 (UTC)
10. -- ♪Karthik♫ ♪Nadar♫ 10:55, 5 December 2014 (UTC) Willing to take this up again for Asia; especially South Asia. Also, willing to facilitate up the grant session and aftermath if required.
11. Namayan (talk) 04:28, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
12. NickK (talk) 01:44, 13 December 2014 (UTC) — willing to help (and probably add some WLE experience as a member of WLE 2014 international team)
13. --Touzrimounir (talk) 20:00, 30 December 2014 (UTC)
14. --Saileshpat (talk) 13:45, 13 April 2015 (UTC) Would like to coordinate this event.
15. --Ammarah Khalid (talk) 16:56, 22 April 2015 (UTC) Would like to organise and coordinate this event in the country I am living in.

Other suggestions

Preparation needed

• What would be good (obligatory) preparations to ask of the participants (and even non-participants)?

1. Online IRC before the actual meeting so as to help understand and explore about all the participants and non-participants. -- ♪Karthik♫ ♪Nadar♫ 10:59, 5 December 2014 (UTC)