I am pleased to announce the first Program Evaluation and Design Workshop!

• When: 22–23 June 2012
• Where: Budapest, Hungary

The application process is now open. We have only 20 slots available for this workshop and the application deadline ends on May 17th. This two-day event will be followed by a pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013. Ideally, applicants would commit to attending both events.

Why are we offering this workshop? Over the next couple of years, the Wikimedia Foundation will be building capacity among program leaders around evaluation and program design. A better understanding of how to increase impact through better planning, execution and evaluation of programs & activities will help us to move a step closer to achieving our mission of offering a free, high quality encyclopedia to our readers around the world.

What will take place at this and the following workshops? Our long-term goals are:

1. Participants gain a basic shared understanding of program evaluation
2. Participants will work collaboratively to map and prioritize measurable outcomes, beginning with a focus on the most commopn program & activities
3. Participants will gain increased fluency in common language of evaluation (i.e. goals versus objectives, inputs & outputs versus outcomes & impact)
4. Participants will learn and practice how to extract and report data using the UserMetrics API
5. Participants will commit to working as a community of evaluation leaders who will implement evaluation strategies in their programmatic activities and report back at the pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013
6. …and participants will have a lot of fun and enjoy networking with other program leaders!

We will publish a detailed agenda for the event in Budapest soon on meta.

Which programs & activities are we going to focus on? During the workshop in Budapest, we will only have a limited amount of time. Therefore, we will be focusing on the some of the more common programs & activities:

• Wikipedia editing workshops where participants learn how to or actively edit (i.e. edit-a-thon, wikiparty, hands-on Wikipedia workshop)
• Content donations through partnerships with GLAMs & related organizations
• Wiki Takes/Expeditions where volunteers participate in day/weekend events to photograph site specific content
• Wiki Loves Monuments which takes place in September
• Education program/classroom editing where volunteers support educators who have students editing Wikipedia in the classroom
• Writing competitions which generally take place online in the form of contests, WikiCup, and challenges – often engaging experienced editors to improve content.

Who should apply? Community members who play an active role in planning and executing programs & activities as described above in the Wikimedia community. Your experience and knowledge will make this workshop a success!

What about the costs for travel and accomodation? Hotels, flights and other transportation costs will be on your chapter; the Wikimedia Foundation will provide the venue, handouts, breakfasts and light lunches, and a dinner for all participants on Saturday. If you're not affiliated with a chapter and cannot afford to attend the event, please send me a private email – we have a small amount of money set aside for those cases.

Applications are open until May 17. You can apply via this Google Form.

Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to a great group of participants!

-Sarah