2019:Community Growth/Small grants for great results

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This submission has been accepted as a lightning talk.

Community Growth/Small grants for great results

Description

This session is about involving new people by giving them a chance to experience Wikimedia world with small project activities. Microgrants are the perfect way to show someone who didn’t contribute to Wikimedia projects so far, how easy it is to do that. They have several advantages - everyone can apply it in their own community (even if they don’t have money), you don’t need a great amount of money, you don’t face high level of risk and most importantly people continue their work on Wiki projects after the projects end. They even submit more complex projects with higher levels of responsibilities. We think this is something worth sharing with other affiliates because it’s a model which can easily be implemented.

Relationship to the theme

The organisers of the community growth space believe that the space will address the following Sustainable Development Goals:

• 9 Industry, innovation and infrastructure
• 10 Reduced inequalities
• 11 Sustainable cities and communities
• 16 Peace, justice and strong institutions
• 17 Partnerships for the goals.

This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner: This session will address to the question of reduced inequalities. Microgrants are allowing us to give the chance to literally everyone with the idea to submit the proposal and try to contribute to the sharing and promoting free knowledge.

Relationship to the space

The organisers of the space and the community have identified a number of topics they wish to address in this space. Please explain how your proposal its into these topic areas.

As a reminder, the proposed topics are listed at 2019:Community Growth

This session will address the topics of the Growth space in the following manner: Microgrants are not just about recruiting new people and increasing the number of community members. This is a proactive approach that has lead us to loyal volunteers, volunteers who feel like they’re a part of something bigger, locally and globally. By giving microgrants, we’re evolving our community. This is why it is important to share this model so other affiliates can apply it. It doesn’t have to be money, you can give people books, tickets for the show where they can photograph artists, subscription for the magazines etc.

Session outcomes

At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved:

Hopefully we will hear other examples from the audience and inspire participants to try giving microgrants in their own affiliates in order to strengthen their community. They will have the knowledge about the right way to conduct the microgrants process from setup to wrap up. Participants will be familiar with our lessons learned, so they don’t have to make the same mistakes.

Session leader(s)

• Ivana Madžarević (User:IvanaMadzarevic)
• Miroslav Loci (User: :Mickey Mystique)

Session type

Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:

• Other

We would like to start with a short presentation (10-15 minutes), followed by Q & A and a discussion.

Requirements

The session will work best with these conditions:

• Room:

Room with a projector, and chairs around tables for easy discussions.

• Audience:

Active and proactive community members who are willing to bring something back to their affiliates. Ideally those would be the Wikimedians and Wikipedians with good organization skills.

• Recording:

This session is appropriate for filming and sharing under an open license.

• Time requested:

15-20 minutes for the presentation plus 10-15 minutes for Q & A. (sum 30 minutes)

Relationship with the organisers of the space

The organisers of the community growth space wish to provide any necessary support to presenters and participants that they may need and also wish to have an active role in shaping the content of the space to maximise the benefit of all attendees. Please let us know if you would appreciate any help, and if you consent to constructive suggestions from the organiser team that would allow the largest amount of people to share and benefit from each other's contributions.

• I would be interested in receiving help in shaping my submission: YES.
  • In particular, I would need the following type of help or advice:
• I consent to the organisers of the space contacting me to discuss alternative ways to present my knowledge (for example, merging two proposals into a common presentation, a panel debate instead of a lightning talk, etc.), or ways to modify and improve my proposal (for example by ensuring a gender diversity on panels) : YES.
• If my proposal is not selected for a presentation, I would be interested in presenting my proposal in the form of a poster in the Community Growth space: NO.
• I consent to my proposal being proposed to organisers of other spaces if it would be a good cross-over topic or if it fits better into the other space's scope: YES.