*-- tl;dr --*
We share our lessons learned from this year's edition of the Wikimedia
Accelerator UNLOCK: Be inspired by our successes and failures of designing
and implementing a new program for Free Knowledge!
*+++*
Dear Wikimedians, dear all,
Today we are excited to share with you our core lessons learned from the
past year!
This year, we finished up the second edition of the Wikimedia Accelerator
program UNLOCK <https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock/> [1]. We supported five
project teams with brilliantly new ideas for Free Knowledge with coachings,
mentoring, and tons of input from experts within our movement and beyond
that helped them bring their ideas to life.
Throughout the second edition of the UNLOCK Accelerator we made it our
mission to evaluate often and experiment continuously as a means to learn
from new and previous challenges. In one comprehensive document we would
like to share our core lessons learned with you, with the intention of making
freely available what went particularly well and what we might change in
the future in designing and implementing an accelerator program.
For instance, did you know that eradicating a jury meeting for the
selection process of the participating teams and going fully virtual ended
up not working as planned? And while the participants were much more eager
to engage in cross-team setups than last year, it wasn’t the thematic theme
of the program (Re)Building trust in the digital age
<https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock-blog/rebuilding-trust-in-the-digital-age/>
[2] that they bonded over most? We share the full inside scoop of what
worked and what simply didn't.
We hope to get a conversation going. Perhaps we will also inspire someone
who can use our recommendations as a helpful resource in the development of
their own work.
Download here
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UNLOCK2021_Lessons_Learned_ENG.pdf>
[3]
The basis of this document are 1:1 feedback sessions as well as anonymous
surveys with the participants of the program, regular debriefs and
retrospectives with all persons involved in the program implementation
(e.g. coaches, jury members, organizational and communication team), as
well as our own evaluation sessions following each milestone of the program.
Enjoy the read and get in touch if you want to learn more!
Best,
the UNLOCK team
(Kannika, Lucia, Mia)
[1] https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock/
[2] https://www.wikimedia.de/unlock-blog/rebuilding-trust-in-the-digital-age/
[3] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UNLOCK2021_Lessons_Learned_ENG.pdf
--
Lucia Obst (she/her)
Projektmanagerin UNLOCK Accelerator
*We accelerate your ideas. Together we build the future of Free Knowledge.*
www.wikimedia.de/unlock <http://www.wikimedia.de/unlock>
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23–24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
https://wikimedia.de
Hi all,
We're excited to announce the launch of the Wikimedia Research Fund
[1] with the goal of diversifying the network of Wikimedia researchers
globally and supporting the Wikimedia Movement in deeper understanding
of the projects, decision making, and building new
technologies.
We're sending you this email because you yourself may be interested to
apply for the fund. We also would like to ask you to raise awareness
about the fund in your local communities. Many of you have knowledge
of important open research questions for your communities, or have
connections to research institutions or researchers who may be
interested to do more on the Wikimedia projects.
The deadline to apply is January 3, 2022. We intend to give funds of
value USD 2k-50k.
More info at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Research_%26_Tech…
.
Big thanks to Emily Lescak for all her behind-the-scenes work to make
the launch of the Research Fund possible, and to the Community
Resources team at the Wikimedia Foundation for giving us the
opportunity and the funds.
If you have questions, please reach out to us at
research_fund(a)wikimedia.org, meta [2], here, or in one of our
upcoming office hours [3]! :)
Best,
the Research Fund committee chairs
Benjamin Mako Hill (University of Washington)
Leila Zia (Wikimedia Foundation)
[1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Research_%26_Tech…
[2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants_talk:Start
[3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Programs/Wikimedia_Research_%26_Tech…