Dear Wikimedia Research Community, We (Matthew Vetter & Brett Buttliere) are excited to announce a new initiative focused on external grantmaking and collaboration for Wiki related projects sponsored by the WMF general support fund (G-GS-2509-20319https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/General_Support_Fund/Strengthening_Wikimedia_Communities_Through_Shared_External_Grantmaking_Knowledge_and_Collaboration).
The Basics
The initiative consists of three main aspects:
1. facilitating a cohort-based learning program about grantmaking, 2. creating and sharing a database of Wikimedia related external grants which can be applied for. 3. finally, we will work to convene collaborative teams for grants where possible.
The basic idea is that over the learning program (10 colloquium sessions), participants will choose a grant, develop a project, and apply for that grant - using the cohort and group both for partnership making and feedback. Rationale While Wikimedia has a rich ecosystem of internal funding opportunities, funding needs have grown more than WMF makes available, creating a need to develop external funding opportunities. The Strengthening Wikimedia Communities Through Shared External Grantmaking Knowledge and Collaboration project is intended to help make that knowledge more accessible and shareable across the movement. Colloquium Sessions Colloquium sessions will combine short presentations from experienced grant-makers with discussion and hands-on activities designed to produce practical outcomes, including project pitches, funding strategies, concept papers, and proposal drafts. As a part of that, we wish to invite you to the first session: STRENGTHEN Colloquium #1: Introduction to the Program and Grantmaking Fundamentals 📅 September 4 ⏰ 4:00 p.m. EET / 2:00 p.m. UTC 💻 Online Please register to attend: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:STRENGTHEN1 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:STRENGTHEN1 The first colloquium will introduce the STRENGTHEN program and explore the basics of external grantmaking. The session will feature a guest presentation followed by discussion and workshop activities. Whether you have extensive grant writing experience or have never applied for external funding, we welcome you to join us. Get Involved We invite Wikimedia community members, affiliates, organizers, and anyone interested in strengthening the movement's capacity to pursue external funding to join us for this first colloquium. Register on the https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:STRENGTHEN1 meta event pagehttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:STRENGTHEN1. Sign up for the monthly emails to get updated information about grants and our program via this https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScD52JQYhYp84H5Id73JCvxHSqpKenC2xHuDlxOkMZTUfePCA/viewform?usp=dialog google formhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScD52JQYhYp84H5Id73JCvxHSqpKenC2xHuDlxOkMZTUfePCA/viewform?usp=dialog. Share Grant opportunities. To tell us about a grant you think could be relevant to a Wikimedia project or that you think someone from the Wiki community should apply for, visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScD52JQYhYp84H5Id73JCvxHSqpKenC2xHuDlxOkMZTUfePCA/viewform this google formhttps://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScD52JQYhYp84H5Id73JCvxHSqpKenC2xHuDlxOkMZTUfePCA/viewform. Add your name to the program's landing page on metahttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/STRENGTHEN. We hope you will be able to participate and contribute your experiences, questions, and ideas to the conversation. Warm regards, Matt Vetter and Brett Buttliere Program landing page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/STRENGTHEN https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/STRENGTHEN
Colloquium #1 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:STRENGTHEN1 https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event:STRENGTHEN1
Grant proposal page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/General_Support_Fund/Strengthening_Wikimedia_Communities_Through_Shared_External_Grantmaking_Knowledge_and_Collaboration https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Community_Fund/Gen...
Matt Vetter, PhD (he/him) Professor of English Dept. of Language, Literature, and Writing Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Connect with me on Zoom, https://iupvideo.zoom.us/my/dr.vetterzooms
Managing co-editor, Writing Spaceshttp://www.writingspaces.org/ Co-chair, CCCC Wikipedia Initiativehttps://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/wikipedia-initiative/
Available as open access ebook, Wikipedia and the Representation of Realityhttps://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003094081/wikipedia-representation-reality-zachary-mcdowell-matthew-vetter?_ga=189031735.1692740009&_gl=1*lff2jh*_ga*MTg5MDMxNzM1LjE2OTI3NDAwMDk.*_ga_0HYE8YG0M6*MTY5Mjc0MDAxMC4xLjAuMTY5Mjc0MDAxMi4wLjAuMA.. Google Scholarhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=u_UKDHgAAAAJ&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=u_UKDHgAAAAJ&hl=en profile
Dear Wikimedia Research Community,
I'm delighted to share All That We Touch: Wikipedia, a six-part documentary podcast series investigating what shapes the world's biggest encyclopedia, and how to use it better.
The series is hosted by me (Heather Ford), Dr Francesca Sidoti, and journalist and author Richard Cooke, and produced by the award-winning UTS Impact Studios. It draws on original research from the Australian Research Council-funded Wikihistorieshttps://wikihistories.net/ project.
Episodes:
1. Australia and Wikipedia: The bias in the map. A case study using 35,000 Australian place articles to show how editor demographics and platform rules produce geographic and colonial bias, and a story about the island of K’gari.
2. Wikipedia's three big fights: What knowledge counts? English-language dominance in a 300+ language platform, the politics of oral citation, and the inclusionist/deletionist wars that decide what gets to exist.
2. The 'Last Best Place on the Internet': Will Wikipedia survive AI? Featuring Richard Cooke and Dr Michael Falk on generative AI, machine-readable knowledge (Wikidata/Abstract Wikipedia), and whether Wikipedia's human-edited model can hold.
Bonus episodes:
4. Play along: The Wikipedia quiz. A true/false format unpacking common misconceptions about how the site actually works: who edits, how it's funded, and how content changes over time.
5. Research and teach with Wikipedia: In the classroom and library. Practical guidance for teaching Wikipedia literacy, relevant to teachers, librarians, and university educators.
6. Live panel: Working with First Nations and Indigenous content responsibly. Recorded live at WikiCon Australia, with lessons for editors working with any marginalised or orally-transmitted knowledge traditions.
Using it in class: Episode 5 was made specifically with classroom and library use in mind. It covers lateral reading, checking Talk pages, and the questions to ask before opening Wikipedia, and links to a full set of teaching resources in the show notes. All episodes have transcripts, so they work well as assigned listening or discussion prompts for media literacy, digital literacy, or information science courses.
Co-host Richard Cooke's forthcoming book, The Last Best Place on the Internet: A Human History of Wikipedia, shares its title with episode 2 and is well worth a read alongside the series.
Listen: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/all-that-we-touch/id6788245550 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1R2aYo0KuEAPnhom9UOzn6
We'd love for folks on this list to listen, share with students and colleagues, and let us know if you end up using any episodes in teaching. Feedback and classroom stories are always welcome.
Best wishes, Heather Ford Executive Producer and Host, All That We Touch: Wikipedia Professor, University of Technology Sydney
UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER: This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views of the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. Think. Green. Do. Please consider the environment before printing this email.
Lovely :) great as always to hear from you (all)!
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:25 PM Heather Ford via Wiki-research-l < wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Dear Wikimedia Research Community,
I'm delighted to share All That We Touch: Wikipedia, a six-part documentary podcast series investigating what shapes the world's biggest encyclopedia, and how to use it better.
The series is hosted by me (Heather Ford), Dr Francesca Sidoti, and journalist and author Richard Cooke, and produced by the award-winning UTS Impact Studios. It draws on original research from the Australian Research Council-funded Wikihistorieshttps://wikihistories.net/ project.
Episodes:
- Australia and Wikipedia: The bias in the map. A case study using 35,000
Australian place articles to show how editor demographics and platform rules produce geographic and colonial bias, and a story about the island of K’gari.
- Wikipedia's three big fights: What knowledge counts? English-language
dominance in a 300+ language platform, the politics of oral citation, and the inclusionist/deletionist wars that decide what gets to exist.
- The 'Last Best Place on the Internet': Will Wikipedia survive AI?
Featuring Richard Cooke and Dr Michael Falk on generative AI, machine-readable knowledge (Wikidata/Abstract Wikipedia), and whether Wikipedia's human-edited model can hold.
Bonus episodes:
- Play along: The Wikipedia quiz. A true/false format unpacking common
misconceptions about how the site actually works: who edits, how it's funded, and how content changes over time.
- Research and teach with Wikipedia: In the classroom and library.
Practical guidance for teaching Wikipedia literacy, relevant to teachers, librarians, and university educators.
- Live panel: Working with First Nations and Indigenous content
responsibly. Recorded live at WikiCon Australia, with lessons for editors working with any marginalised or orally-transmitted knowledge traditions.
Using it in class: Episode 5 was made specifically with classroom and library use in mind. It covers lateral reading, checking Talk pages, and the questions to ask before opening Wikipedia, and links to a full set of teaching resources in the show notes. All episodes have transcripts, so they work well as assigned listening or discussion prompts for media literacy, digital literacy, or information science courses.
Co-host Richard Cooke's forthcoming book, The Last Best Place on the Internet: A Human History of Wikipedia, shares its title with episode 2 and is well worth a read alongside the series.
Listen: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/all-that-we-touch/id6788245550 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1R2aYo0KuEAPnhom9UOzn6
We'd love for folks on this list to listen, share with students and colleagues, and let us know if you end up using any episodes in teaching. Feedback and classroom stories are always welcome.
Best wishes, Heather Ford Executive Producer and Host, All That We Touch: Wikipedia Professor, University of Technology Sydney
UTS CRICOS Provider Code: 00099F DISCLAIMER: This email message and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender expressly, and with authority, states them to be the views of the University of Technology Sydney. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. Think. Green. Do. Please consider the environment before printing this email. _______________________________________________ Wiki-research-l mailing list -- wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe send an email to wiki-research-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org