Grants:PEG/MEDASSET/Wiki Loves Sea Turtle Monuments

Not funded

This grant submission from an organization in 2013-14 was not funded by the Wikimedia Foundation.

Prior to 2011, reasons for not funding this submission were communicated in private and may not be available on the discussion page. For more information about a particular request, please contact the grantee directly or send your questions to grants at wikimedia dot org.
Beginning in 2011, reasons for not funding this submission are communicated publicly on the discussion page of this submission.
Since this grant request was not funded, no report is required and no further action is required from the grantee.

Basic information

Grant request details

Are you an organization, a group, or an individual?: Organization
Please provide your name, or the name of the group or organization requesting this grant.: MEDASSET -- The Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles
Please provide the name (or username) of the main contact for this grant request. You do not need to disclose your legal name publicly.: JennyMed
For groups and organizations only: Please provide the name (or username) of a second contact for this grant request.: Emmaplatoff
Please link to any relevant documents, including your website if you have one.: http://seaturtlemonuments.medasset.org; http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sea_Turtle_Monuments

Project details

Official project name: Wiki Loves Sea Turtle Monuments Global Photo Hunt
Project start date: This is the date you begin work on your project. Please include a month, day, and year. You must include a project start date.; Oct 1, 2014
Project completion date: This is the date you finish work on your project. Please include a month, day, and year. You must include a project completion date.; June 1, 2015
Please describe the project in a few sentences: “Wiki Loves Sea Turtle Monuments”, inspired by Wiki Loves Monuments, aims to document the historical significance of sea turtles and promote awareness of their endangered status by cataloguing monuments dedicated to sea turtles worldwide. To this end, we will hold a photography competition and exhibition to encourage travelers and sea turtle fans to upload their images of monuments.

Financial details

Please request your grant in your local currency. WMF is able to grant funds in many currencies.

Amount and currency requested: €21,660
Please provide an equivalent amount in US dollars using the exchange rate provided by Oanda on the date you open this request: $29,453

For organizations only

This section only needs to be completed by organizations requesting grants. Individuals and groups that are not incorporated do not need to complete this section.

Are you an incorporated organization able to provide local proof of nonprofit status within your country? For-profit organizations are not eligible to receive grants through the PEG program.

Yes
Does your organization currently employ or engage any fulltime or part-time staff or contractors? If yes, please tell us how many staff or contractors you employ or engage, along with their functions or a link to your staff page. For example, "2 full time program managers and 1 part-time contractor accountant at 50% FTE each.": 5 full time (3 administrative, 2 programmes); 1 part time; http://medasset.gr/en/meet-medasset/board-staff

Goals and measures of success

Project goal

Please briefly describe what will be accomplished if the project is successful.

Project goal: Our goal is to use Wikimedia to document the significance of sea turtles throughout history by creating an encyclopedic reference of sea turtle related outdoor monuments. The Global Photo Hunt and exhibition will raise the profile of sea turtles and increase awareness about their endangered status while also cataloguing important cultural heritage artifacts.

Measures of success

Please provide a list of measurable criteria that will be used determine how successful the project is. You will need to report on the success of the project according to these measures after the project is completed.

Measures of success
We will measure our success by the achievement of the following goals

Triple number of contributions/ contributors
International involvement: contributions/ contributors from every continent
50+ entries in the contest
High quality artistic photographs
Press coverage
Bring in new contributors to Wikimedia (not sure how to measure that)
Make noise about Wikimedia in MEDASSET's home country, Greece, a country with only 3 User Group members, currently displaying the following: "We are currently on an urgent call for supporters"

Project scope and activities

This section describes what will happen if this project is funded. Who will do what, and when?

The project manager will work closely with MEDASSET volunteers and full time staff.

List of activities

October 1-15: Prepare contest rules/ set up judging panel / establish partnerships with likeminded organizations/ set up Wikimedia competition category

October 15-30: Write press release / update press mailing list / create banners and other electronic promotion material/ update logo

October 31st: Send press release

Nov. 1-March 15, 2015: Competition open for entries (reason for holding competition during winter vs summer is so travel media which typically have less copy and ads during winter, will be more inclined to promote the Global Photo Hunt) / Continuous update of Wikimedia category, social media, website / Continuous flow of information to journalists, partners / Begin to organise exhibition, opening night event and awards: Communication with possible exhibition venues, finalise awards, purchase frames

March 15- 31st: Judging panel receives entries and meets to select 25 images to be exhibited and 3 to receive awards

April 1-15: Communicate with winners and all contestants / write press release / invite Greek and foreign press to exhibition opening event / Prepare 25 selected images for printing / Write and print captions for each image to be displayed / Create poster for exhibition

April 18-24: International Sea Turtle Symposium, Antalya Turkey: Publicity opportunity. Production of video—sea turtle experts from countries where wining photos derived from, speak about importance of species in their culture. (No travel budget necessary as MEDASSET representatives will attend event)

April 15-June 1st: Duration of exhibition / Continue the flow of information to journalists / Create map of all sea turtle monuments inspired by this one

Budget

Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here.

Grantees are subject to line-item scrutiny of expenses. Changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.

Project budget table

Number	Category	Item description	Unit	Number of units	Cost per unit	Total cost	Currency	Notes
1	Project Management	Project Manager Compensation	1 month	9	1,300	11,700	EUR	includes Greek taxes and insurance; based on a €1,000 monthly salary
2	Advertising	Facebook	1 daily post	120	2	240	EUR
3	Contest prizes	1st Prize: travel to Athens for exhibition opening event; 3 night stay in hotel, airfare		1	3,500	3,500	EUR	Maximum amount to be spent--will change slightly based on winner's country of origin
4	Contest prizes	2nd Place		1	1,000	1,000	EUR
5	Contest Prizes	3rd Place		1	500	500	EUR
6	Entertainment costs	Refreshments for opening night		1	200	200	EUR	food and beverages
7	Equipment	Photo frames	1 frame	25	30	750	EUR	Following exhibition, frames will be stored at MEDASSET office in Athens and used for future exhibitions
8	Publishing	Photo captions--mountboard, printing/cutting		1	30	30	EUR	displayed with photographs at exhibition
9	Technical support	Video production			1,000	1,000	EUR	equipment rental, shooting, editing
10	Technical Support	Website hosting		1	20	20	EUR
11	Technical support	MEDASSET staff	1 month	9	30	270	EUR	web/graphics
12	Technical support	Exhibition Installment--professional company hire	professional company hire	1	300	300	EUR
13	Venue				0	0	EUR	Free venue will be sought out
14	Bank Fees	Bank Transfer	1	1	5	5	EUR
15	Overhead Costs	Office use, in house printing (paper/toner)				2,145	EUR	11% of total budget

Total cost of project: €21,660

Total amount requested from the Project and Event Grants program: €21,660

Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded: none

Non-financial requirements

See a description of non financial assistance available. Please inform Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) of any requirements for non-financial assistance now.

Requests for non-financial assistance: Requesting supplies for outreach from Wikimedia Foundation

Resources and Risks

Resources

This section is used to highlight your potential for successfully executing this project. Usernames:

JennyMed, Emmaplatoff, Emmacaretta, J_C_Chandler

Onwiki evidence of community support (such as a project about this discussion):

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sea_Turtle_Monuments

the many photos already uploaded to the page

Endorsements from community members or movement groups: "I've spent some time on Wikimedia Commons looking at your collection and there is a lot of work already done. Congratulations," - Álex Hinoko, experienced Wikipedian also collaborating with Europeana

"Interesting and niche project!" - Nicole Emmenegger, Project Co-ordinator, Europeana

Special skills or qualifications this potential grantee or project lead brings to this project:

Experience engaging the public proactively:

Throughout our 25 years of operation MEDASSET has mobilised the public to participate in its campaigns, via events, petitions, letter writing campaigns, etc. During summer 2012, we organised 3 successful events within European Fish Weeks and informed over 2,000 Greek citizens about the need to end destructive fishing practices, engaged them in asking Greek decision makers to vote for a new European policy that will lead to sustainable fisheries.

The Join in and Clean Up Campaign (2011-ongoing) aims at raising public awareness on waste reduction, proper disposal, and recycling and to encourage community involvement, especially among schools and youth groups. Since its launch, over 12,000 volunteers mobilised, removing 18.5 tons of debris.

Education:

“The Mediterranean Sea, A Source of Life Education Kit” (2003) is a tool for teachers that aims to engage children from all over the Mediterranean region in creative activities, instilling knowledge, environmental values and a sense of regional identity and responsibility. It exists in three languages (English, Greek, Arabic), and was created with financial assistance from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, UNEP/MAP (Greece) RAC/SPA (MAP)(Tunisia) and the Prince of Wales Foundation (UK).

www.euroturtle.org: Launched in 1997, it is the first website in Europe to be exclusively devoted to sea turtles in the Mediterranean; a result of collaboration between King’s College, Taunton and MEDASSET.

Online media:

In 2012, our poster "You See the Difference. A Turtle Does Not" about the devastating effects of marine litter to the marine environment went viral on Facebook and has since been viewed by over 2 million people worldwide. As a result of its viral success, it has found a permanent home in: The Vienna Museum of Natural History, the InstitutOceanographique of Monaco, and the National Aquarium of Plymouth (UK), among others.

Evidence of past success in executing similar projects:

Since 2010, MEDASSET has held 3 exhibitions at the Athens International Airport: one professional underwater photography exhibition, one amateur photography exhibition which was the result of an online contest, and one graphic design exhibition which was the result of a student contest, to present the Mediterranean flora and fauna as well as the imminent dangers they face: climate change, invasive species, pollution, over-fishing, ecosystem destruction.All three exhibitions were hosted for free for 3-4 months and all have travelled to other parts of Greece to be exhibited.

In 2008 MEDASSET held a sea turtle artifact exhibition at the Lalaounis Jewelry Museum in Athens, featuring the Founder’s personal collection of sea turtle artifacts from around the world.

Risks

This section is used to identify key risks or threats that would prevent you from achieving your project goals and how you would mitigate those risks and threats.

Lack of interest from contributors. To respond to this we will focus on targeting our communications to travel writers and photographers, universities, etc. We will use widespread and well-focused advertisements and publicity to ensure awareness of the project.

Not finding free venue for exhibition. In addition to the Athens International Airport, which has granted us free use of the “Culture and Environment Center” three times to date, there are other options to be examined. For example, we will look into centrally located hotels like the Athens Hilton and the Plaza, art galleries and museums.

Not receiving contributions from every continent. While we are aware that receiving contributions from so many parts of the world is an ambitious goal, we are confident that our methods for doing so will be successful. We plan to target the international community with advertisements and other publicity efforts. Furthermore, the large presence of sea turtles in the continents that are currently worst represented on our website (Africa and South America) makes us confident that, with increased media presence, we will receive contest entries from those places as well.

Identifying monuments that depict sea turtles vs. tortoises. Already we find that users are uploading photographs of tortoises and not sea turtle monuments in our category. For the purposes of the contest, we will provide clear instructions on how to recognize one species from the other. Even so, we may still encounter problems with above since art is often abstract, and artists are often not interested in true and exact representations. Our expert judges will make the make final call concerning which monuments will be eligible and which will not.

Impact

In the sections below, please describe how the project is related to the Wikimedia mission and Wikimedia's strategic priorities.

Fit to strategy

How will this project support the key organizational objectives of

increasing reach (more people will access or contribute to Wikipedia or our other projects), participation (more people actually contributing), quality (more content, more useful content, or higher-quality content), credibility (more trust in our projects), organizational maturity and effectiveness (how it will move you or the Wikimedia community forward), or financial sustainability (how it will help you achieve more in the long run)?

This statement should address at least one of the strategic priorities listed here specifically. See Project and Event Grants program criteria for decision making.: This project will support several of Wikipedia’s key organizational objectives. Our Global Photo Hunt, which will be advertised across the web and social media platforms, has the potential for widespread interest. The subject of our project—sea turtle monuments—bridges the gaps between many online communities, including both those involved in sea turtle conservation efforts and those involved in digitalization of cultural heritage artifacts. This high level of international involvement and publicity will increase both reach and participation on Wikipedia; the increased number of submissions will yield an ever better, more thorough catalogue of sea turtle monuments worldwide. The attractive contest prizes will appeal to experienced photographers, resulting in artistic photographs and a high level of overall quality. In turn, the encyclopedic documentation of sea turtle monuments will aid both the Wikipedia organization and the conservation movement. Ultimately, successful completion of this project will render MEDASSET more visible and credible, with more followers and supporters.

Benefits

If the project will benefit a specific online community, please tell us.: This project will benefit several online communities. In addition to bringing to the attention of new audiences the Wiki Loves Monuments project, it will promote Wikimedia in general. We are in contact with Europeana and hope to add the images we receive to their catalogue of cultural artifacts, promoting their efforts to digitalize important heritage sites. Finally, it will benefit MEDASSET’s own conservation and advocacy efforts by raising awareness about the cultural and environmental significance of sea turtles.

Please provide a brief statement about how the project is related to other work in the Wikimedia movement. For example, does the project fit into a work area such as GLAM, education, organizational development, editor retention, or outreach?: Our project shares the goals of publishing and publicizing important cultural artifacts with successful Wikimedia initiatives such as GLAM and Wiki Loves Monuments. This effort would provide more content to be shared and used in both those projects.

If successful, will the project have the potential to be replicated successfully by other individuals, groups, or organizations? Please explain how in 1–2 sentences.: If successful, this project could be easily replicated. Anyone involved in Wiki Loves Monuments, for example, could emulate the project’s aims by creating a similarly specific subcategory of monument and organizing an international contest and exhibition; also, other conservation groups could follow our example and create their own pages and even competitions, designed to promote awareness of other endangered species.

Please list other benefits to the movement here.: This project will benefit the movement by bringing Wiki Loves Monuments and Wikimedia as a whole to the attention of new communities (travel writers and photographers, conservation groups, sea turtle groups). These new audiences, after participating in our project, will likely become lifelong Wikimedia users and contributors.; Our project will also help resolve some of Wikipedia’s shortcomings. Research has shown that women form a small minority of Wikipedia’s editors; our organization’s supporters are largely female, and we expect to bring a lot of female contributions to Wikimedia. Our project will also dispute the commonly held belief that Wikipedia is difficult to use and not user-friendly, as many people who were formerly uninvolved with the website easily learn to contribute to it.