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Co-lead a non-profit that hires Wikipedia translators

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ORGANIZATION: Open Knowledge Association (OKA)

  • Spots available: 3
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OKA (Open Knowledge Association) is a Swiss tax-exempt non-profit organization dedicated to improving Wikipedia and other open platforms. We provide Wikipedia training and monthly stipends (grants) to full-time and part-time translators to edit Wikipedia. We currently fund ~15 full-time translators (split among 20+ active translators).

OKA is led by a single volunteer, myself, during my free time (10% activity). Since its launch two years ago, the non-profit has seen tremendous growth and we have stabilized our operations such that most of the translators are self-sufficient (incl. picking their own work and training/reviewing each other's work). However, I would like the project to grow even further and make our non-profit self-standing, so that it doesn't entirely depend on a single individual.

I am therefore looking for one or more volunteers to co-lead OKA. The amount of time required and the nature of the tasks depends entirely on what you're interested in doing and how much time you're able to invest. Tasks could include, for example:

  • Day-to-day team management (supervising the 3 "managers" who oversee the rest of the team, spot checks of articles quality)
  • Operations improvement (internal processes, e.g., for translation, hiring)
  • Fundraising
  • Communications (e.g., external relations with the Wikipedia community)
  • Software development (e.g., Wikipedia plugins to automate more translation and admin tasks)
  • Ads Campaigns management (~120k annual ads credit from Google)
  • Financial management (e.g., payment of monthly stipends to translators and other bills)
  • Accounting and other administrative work (e.g., annual filings)

We're looking for people willing to spend anything from 2 to 10 hours a week, depending on how deeply involved you'd like to be. No previous experience is required. While we are based in Switzerland, we're open to people based anywhere in the world.

Note that we're already financially self-sufficient and able to cover the stipends of our ~15 translators team without additional fundraising.

More information at http://oka.wiki and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OKA

More opportunities with Open Knowledge Association (OKA)

No additional volunteer opportunities at this time.

About Open Knowledge Association (OKA)

Location:

Ch. de Chamoyron 1b, St-Legier, Vaud 1806, CH

Mission Statement

We are a non-profit organization dedicated to improving Wikipedia and other open platforms. We provide monthly stipends to full-time contributors and translators. We pragmatically prioritize work that generates the most impact. To maximize returns on our donors’ funds and decrease systematic bias, we hire content writers from countries underrepresented among Wikipedia editors. Our processes are public. Our work is transparent. Our freelancers have a high-level of autonomy. We are based in Switzerland and recognized as a tax-exempt organization with a public utility purpose.

Description

Wikipedia relies entirely on volunteers to create and maintain its content. That often works well, but there are tasks that volunteers don’t enjoy doing, and topics where volunteers are missing. For example, articles in topics such as Science, technology, and Finance are lacking compared to topics such as History, Geography, and Humanities. Content from non-anglophone countries is underrepresented. Hundreds of thousands of high-quality articles are not translated. Additionally, while the English version contains ~7m articles, other languages such as Spanish and Portuguese, spoken by hundreds of millions, have less than a third of that amount, with an often much lower quality. There are thousands of such articles in our backlog that are waiting to be translated. With targeted funding, these opportunities can be addressed for high impact with very limited costs. With as little as $400, we can hire a full-time (40h per week) university-educated translator in Latin America.


CAUSE AREAS

Arts & Culture
Education & Literacy
Media & Broadcasting
Arts & Culture, Education & Literacy, Media & Broadcasting

WHEN

Mon Nov 18, 2024 - Sun Feb 16, 2025
09:00 AM -

WHERE

1806Switzerland

(46.49616,6.90446)
 

SKILLS

  • Business Development & Sales Management
  • Accounting
  • Program Management
  • Management
  • Donor Management
  • Translation

GOOD FOR

  • People 55+

REQUIREMENTS

  • Must be at least 18
  • Orientation or Training
  • 4 to 10h per week

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