Call for participants: Program Evaluation and Design workshop in Budapest

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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 and 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.
With this in mind, we are pleased to announce the first Program Evaluation and Design Workshop, on 22-23 June 2013 in Budapest, Hungary.
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.

The first Program Evaluation & Design workshop will be held in the shadows of the Buda Castle, Budapest, Hungary

Our long-term goals for the workshop are:

  • Participants will gain a basic shared understanding of program evaluation
  • Participants will work collaboratively to map and prioritize measurable outcomes, beginning with a focus on the most common programs and activities
  • Participants will gain increased fluency in common language of evaluation (i.e. goals versus objectives, inputs and outputs versus outcomes and impact)
  • Participants will learn and practice how to extract and report data using the UserMetrics API
  • Participants will commit to working as a community of evaluation leaders who will implement evaluation strategies in their programs and activities and report back at the pre-conference workshop at Wikimania 2013
  • …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-Wiki.
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 and 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 galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAMs) and related organizations
  • Wiki Takes/Expeditions where volunteers participate in day-long or weekend events to photograph site specific content
  • Wiki Loves Monuments, which takes place in September
  • Education program and 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, the WikiCup  and other challenges – often engaging experienced editors to improve content.

Contributors who play an active role in planning and executing programs and activities as described above in the Wikimedia community are highly encouraged to apply. Your experience and knowledge will make this workshop a success!
Hotels, flights and other transportation costs will be the responsibility of your chapter; the Wikimedia Foundation will provide the venue, handouts, breakfasts, 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 email me after you apply – we have a small amount of money set aside for those cases.
Remember, 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 Stierch, Program Evaluation and Design Community Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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#19977

I wonder how could Wikimedia improve how to share this teachings of the workshop goal more widely, instead of the need to have a meeting in person.
Is someone thinking on recording the presentations and discussions of this conference, and having future periodic online meetings?

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#19978

Hi Tom! Participants were surveyed at the chapters meeting and a “real life” meeting was seen as bringing great value to developing this new program. So, we decided to have our first workshop in person! I agree with them – as nothing makes more of a lasting impact, or can provide more inspiration, than an in person meeting full of people who truly desire to develop this skillset for a lasting impact on the community and movement as a whole. We’ll look into recording the workshop. I hope that instead of having to record them, we’ll be able to just… Read more »

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#19979

I will try to make my response as short as possible but here’s my input: I can envision Wikipedia following the approach that many classrooms and businesses are doing today to supplement education/ conference meetings. A virtual conference, with enough support can put the Wikimedia Foundation at the forefront of technology while giving them the opportunity to start thinking beyond the years ahead of them. The Wikimedia Foundation can create multiple rooms across several cities, states, countries that project multiple screens, a camera capturing a group of participants, and surround sound where participants can see and provide live feedback to… Read more »

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#19980

Jesse: “those that can’t afford a trip to Hungary (such as a student like me.)” – This is an offer to pay for you to undertake such a trip.

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#19981

Just wanted to know if any prerequisite criteria required to attend this workshop?? and sadly I cannot find the link for applying.

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#19983

Hi there Niraj. The post is there, under a Google Form in the blog. IF you are highly active as a program leader in the programs listed above, you are eligible to apply. You can apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11yCoOls5ae8FqAXIdp9Tua76ilVQGUNKWMVSktCQBRU/viewform

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#19982

Hi! Thanks, Sarah for this Invitation! 😉 It will nice to meet you at Buda! ^-^

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#19984

Hello Sarah, just to begin with, I am delighted to see a workshop proposed by WMF for local/chapter people. Thumbs up and please deliver this one and more! However, to decide whether I am a right person to submit (or to whom I should market this workshop) I need to know who is precisely the target of this workshop. The reason of my confusion are: “program evaluation” title and the WMF program evaluation workshops in Milan (where an European workshop with your program director was proposed/forecasted) vs. your wording in this call for participation. Here I am puzzled. On the… Read more »

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#19985

This sounds like a lovely event – good luck with it. I second the call for teleconferencing – encouraging people from many other parts of the world to participate in this and similar events. At least live streaming if not two-way video.
And I agree with Aegis Malestrom – that it would be good to specify which group(s) of program organizers and evaluators are expected. And possibly to invite people from both camps.

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