Hi all, We've published an analysis of the Travel and Participation Support Program.[1]
This program is a partnership between WMF, Wikimedia Deutschland, and Wikimedia Switzerland to fund travel for Wikimedians to attend non-Wikimedia events.[2] After 2 years of operation, we wanted to learn what's working and what's not.
Some key findings from the report include:
Opportunities:
*Travel funding provides opportunities to deeply connect participants to the movement and each other. *Participation Support demonstrates an opportunity to reach a range of new Wikimedia grantees, including women and participants in the Global South.
Recommendations:
*The volume of requests and grants made in this program must be increased in order to fully realize its potential; the scale of use is too small with the current scope and setup. *Program pages should be redesigned for ease-of-use and if possible with a bit of joy. *Publicizing the program should be a priority; blogs, social media, and on-wiki promotional campaigns to spread awareness of the program could help boost the number of requests. *Simpler application methods should be investigated in order to keep the process open to a range of applicants. *Scope expansion for the program should be considered, particularly to include Wikimedia events.
We hope to use the data in this report as a starting point to reimagine if/how we can better support Wikimedians to travel and participate in events. Please have a look at the findings and share your thoughts and ideas on the talk page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation_talk:Support/Analysis
Warm regards, Siko
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Support/Analysis 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Participation:Support