Grants talk:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Conference Fund/Wikipedia Healthcare Conference 2025:Enhancing Global Collaboration and Quality in Healthcare Content

Dear Innocentbunny, dear organizers,

Thank you very much for submitting your proposal for a "Wikipedia Healthcare Conference 2025." It is encouraging to see an interest in bringing together Wikimedians who contribute to healthcare-related content. Indeed, there has not yet been a conference dedicated solely to this topic, despite the apparent need for collaboration in this area within the Movement. I’ve consulted two prolific Wikimedians, Netha Hussain and James Heilman, to provide more comprehensive feedback.

After reviewing the submitted proposal, I must be honest in saying that while the objectives are interesting and valuable for the Movement, the proposal comes across as very ambitious and lacks essential details to demonstrate that your team has the capacity to organize a conference of this scale.

Here are a few points I would like to raise:

• Firstly, it is unclear why you have chosen New York City as the host city for a 5-day conference, especially when the organizing team is predominantly (if not entirely) from South Asia. Although the possibility of using the UN Campus as a venue is mentioned, it is not clear if this represents an actual partnership with the United Nations office, nor whether it justifies the significant resources needed to host an event in one of the world’s most expensive cities.

• The organizing team appears to consist of 8 people, but there is no clear indication of whether the team or individuals have experience in organizing large-scale events, particularly in New York City. It would likely be beneficial to collaborate with the local Wikimedia affiliate, Wikimedia New York City, to ensure practical experience and smoother logistical planning.

• The overall scope of the proposed conference seems very ambitious, given that prior engagement has only taken place online. While the proposed activities are reasonable, the learning objectives are quite generic and do not focus sufficiently on the specific goals of the conference.

• The budget, while large, lacks sufficient detail for a conference of this size. Some budget items (e.g., scholarships) exceed typical Wikimedia standards, while others are underexplained (e.g., venue rental, pre-conference workshops that were not mentioned in the proposal, and translation services).

Given these concerns, I suggest withdrawing the proposal and working on a more scaled-down version. Rather than proposing a large-scale conference with a substantial budget, it may make more sense to start smaller, apply for a Rapid Grant, and cooperate with affiliates like Wikimedia Medicine (in terms of program) and other Wikimedia affiliates that have experience organizing events. If successful, you can then consider scaling up.

Since there have not been healthcare-focused events within the Wikimedia movement to date, I would recommend teaming up with other Wikimedia event organizers and organizing pre-conference days or healthcare-specific program tracks at other events. For example, two other larger conference proposals – WikiCon North America 2025 in New York City and WikiCon India 2025 in Bangalore – could offer opportunities for such partnerships.

Should you choose not to withdraw the proposal, I would kindly ask you to provide more details and elaborate your proposal substantially, and resubmit with those changes on Fluxx (the proposal is now open for editing). Deadline for submission is September 30. It will be then reviewed by the volunteer Conference Support Committee, and a final decision will be made by mid- to end October.

Best regards, --Cornelius Kibelka (WMF) (talk to me) 00:51, 17 September 2024 (UTC) Reply