[Foundation-l] Wikimedian Demographics on Wikiversity

[Casey Brown]

I really like it so far, now I'm off to take it. :-)

On 1/21/08, John McC <sb_johnny at yahoo.com> wrote:
> As an aternative to the (apparently stalled) Wikimedia
> Census, I'd like to get some input (and participation)
> for the Wikimedian Demographics resource on
> en.wikiversity.
>
> The surveys are carried out using templates, which
> include instructions when loaded onto the page... the
> best way to understand it is to just try it out:
>
> http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikimedian_Demographics
>
> The resource is primarily for participants to learn
> about how surveys and polls are created, administered,
> and analyzed, but obviously the data collected can be
> used for the same purposes as the Census data would
> have been. The wider scope allowed on Wikiversity will
> also (hopefully) attract respondents who are less
> interested in topics specific to the Wikimedia
> Foundation by permitting surveys on everything from
> politics to sociology to education.
>
> Rather than written responses, WMDG uses templates
> which automatically create "answerboxes" (which look
> suspiciously like userboxes) and categories that
> reflect the answers. Users can then use tools like
> DynamicPageList to interpret the data (though we hope
> later to have better interpretation tools using either
> the main toolserver or perhaps the wikiversity sandbox
> server).
>
> The first round of surveys includes:
>
> 1. A basic survey about the level of participation in
> the Wikimedia wikis, mailinglists, and so on
> 2. A set of surveys about nationality, residence, and
> travel
> 3. A (very stubby) survey about operating systems
> 4. A short survey about subjects specific to
> en.wikipedia
> 5. A survey about the 2008 US Presidential elections
>
> The goal is to make it easy, educational, and fun for
> anyone to create more surveys, and so one of the
> current tasks is to make a few more "survey creation"
> templates, because the #if/#switch variables used to
> create the surveys  can be rather mind-bending for
> those not familiar with template scripting. The first
> of these (which creates yes/no questions) seems to go
> down easily, and the "add country" template on the
> nationality, residence, and travel is also quite easy
> to use.
>
> Input would also be useful on survey questions of
> specific interest to the foundation itself, such as
> fundraising or other "Wikimedia-wide" issues (just
> remember they have to be of the multiple choice or
> yes/no varieties). The ability to attract readers
> (rather than just editors) might be a good use of the
> "anon" sitenotices as well.
>
> I plan to start announcing this on the various
> "Village Pumps" of the English and "babel" projects
> over the next few days (it's probably better to let
> the other-language Wikiversities address the
> "other-language" projects).
>
> -SB_Johnny
>
>
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-- 
Casey Brown
Cbrown1023

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