Thanks for your insights Kerry. Maybe you could make a Wikipedia userpage
for these suggestions in the same way that Andy has done (on his Wikidata
userpage linked earlier). I especially like (and recognize!) your comments
about the average "wikipotential" of newbies who may be good writers,
footnoters, googlers, and so forth. Cut & paste of urls is also something
people rarely need to do who share stuff on mobile these days. In fact, the
whole concept of having more than 4 or 5 tabs open may be foreign to most
people (and in my case, I generally have more than 25 tabs open at any
given point in time).
On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 10:57 AM, Kerry Raymond <kerry.raymond(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
emselves to capable with IT because they can send and
receive email and
lookup things in Google. And, for what they normally want to do, their
skills are just fine. But Wikipedia demands higher skills which most of us
take for granted as “normal”. Some examples of assumed knowledge:
· Using when you edit Wikipedia, you often have your edit session
in one tab of your browser and one or more other tabs open with the
material you are about cite (or maybe in a separate browser window if you
have the screen real estate available) . Some people do not understand
about multiple tabs or multiple instances of the browser, nor how you
switch between them.
· Copy and paste. You and I probably just CTRL-C/V without a
thought. Some people not only do not know the keyboard accelerators nor the
right-click menu way of doing copy/paste, they just don’t understand what
you even mean by copy and paste. They may not understand about “selecting
text” which is the first step for copying. Also worth noting, some people
do understand what copy and paste is, but only within the context of one
application or one document. They do not realise they can copy and paste
between documents or between different applications (but they usually think
you are amazing when you show them that they can do it!). As you can
imagine, doing a citation is a very difficult if you can’t copy and paste
the title and the URL etc.
Tip: if you have to teach copy and paste to someone, teach them to select
text right to left (end to start) not left to right (start to end), for
some reason I don’t understand many people find this is easier and more
accurate (not sure if it is something to do with the hand or the brain). I
was told this and I experimented and I think it is true (works better for
me anyway). It also has the practical benefit that if you overshoot you
will probably pick up an extra space at the front rather than a punctuation
mark at the end and generally the extra space is less harmful in the copy
and paste than the extra punctuation.
· URLs. Again, when we cite from a web page, we need a URL. Some
people don’t know what you mean by a URL. The event is not the time to
explain it stands for Uniform Resource Locator nor what on earth that means
anyway. Try using the “web address” or “web page address” (sometimes the
issue is just vocabulary), sometimes the problem is more conceptual. A lot
of people get to web pages from bookmarks, search engine results or by
navigating along a known sequence of links; they do not realise there is a
direct way of addressing them. It seems some people have either never
noticed the URL in the address bar of their browser or decided it is of no
relevance to them. Some browsers also hide parts of the URL, e.g. http://
which doesn’t help people’s understanding of them and of course some things
displayed in your browser are not persistent web pages and the contents of
the address bar is not a true URL. The event is not the time to attempt to
explain any of this. Try to teach them the absolute minimum they need to do
their current task (usually constructing a citation) and plan to
double-check their URLs later in case they didn’t get it right. If people
can’t distinguish between the URL and the name of the web page, use the
analogy of a library catalogue which tells you the name of the book and its
location on the shelf (a URL is the “shelf location” within the Internet).
If you have plenty of volunteers, it may be worthwhile allocating one to
ongoing handholding with a person who don’t understand stuff that we see as
“basic IT skills”. They will probably go very slowly and not achieve a lot
in the event but at least if someone helps them, they will get something
small done and let them go home feeling good about the experience. Be
patient and try not to make them feel stupid or inadequate. There are
probably plenty of things they know how to do that we do not. They are at
your event in good faith.
And just before anyone accuses me of ageism, I should point out that I am
a retired person (so obviously well aware of ageism) and the people with
these very low IT skills in my sessions have always been older people. This
is not to say every young person is great at Wikipedia writing, but they
generally do possess basic IT skills if they turn up at a Wikipedia event.
While experience with using word processors and spreadsheets does not
necessarily imply that people will have the skills I mention above, it does
suggest they are using a computer for content production which **tends**
to demand more skills than replying to an email and web browsing.
Don’t use the sandbox or subpages more generally. The “/” thing is very
Unix. If people have prior exposure to DOS, then they will know what “\”
means but probably not what “/” means. Subpages needs a certain conceptual
understanding of a hierarchical file system. Your event is not the time to
teach this. You don’t need a “sandbox” for practice, just let them practice
on their user page by adding some material about themselves (home town they
live in, their hobbies, and their paid editing disclosure!). Then get them
to bold/italicise the text, add some headings, put their hobbies in a
bullet list, and then link their hobbies to the relevant Wikipedia
articles. The only thing you can’t so easily teach in the User Page is
citations (there’s no reason to cite anything about the information they
have added) but I do a “let’s pretend” citation there anyway because I
don’t want them doing it for the first time in a mainspace article.
Tip: if you are using the Visual Editor for the event (and of course you
should be), it is worth knowing that the Visual Editor is clever when it
comes to copying and pasting. So if people want to develop bits of their
article content on their User Page and then copy over to the real article,
that works just fine with the Visual Editor (the source article must be
open in the VE when the copy is done, that’s the main way to get it wrong)
as it always carries the citations across correctly (which isn’t the case
in the source editor when there is reuse of existing citations).
Finally, it is very important to understand that people who attend events
are committing to the duration of the event and not necessarily beyond it.
So do not expect that people will return to their work after leaving the
event, other than to show it to other people. Even if people enjoyed the
event, it does not mean they will continue as Wikipedians. Do not set your
expectations to be otherwise. I have bumped into people from time to time
after events and from this I am aware that people do get value from the
event in terms of understanding how Wikipedia is written, how citations are
expected, that it isn’t the Wild West of information where anything goes,
etc. Even if they don’t continue to contribute, I like to think that they
will use Wikipedia more realistically because they better understand how it
is created and that they will share that “literacy” with their friends and
hopefully donate as well (I always stress that Wikipedia is the world’s
most accessed not-for-profit website that depends entirely on many small
donations from individuals).
Kerry
*From:* Cultural-Partners [mailto:cultural-partners-bounces@wikimedia.ch] *On
Behalf Of *Kerry Raymond
*Sent:* Wednesday, 12 July 2017 5:05 PM
*To:* 'Wikimedia Chapters cultural partners coordination - closed list' <
cultural-partners(a)wikimedia.ch>gt;; 'Wikimedia & GLAM collaboration
[Public]' <glam(a)lists.wikimedia.org>rg>; 'North American Cultural
Partnerships' <glam-us(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
*Subject:* Re: [cultural-partners] What advice do you connect new editing
event organizers with?
I generally use the phone to talk to the organisers. You really need to
know what they are thinking about doing (or, worse still, have already
advertised doing) in order to advise them correctly. The things I strongly
recommend are all about risk management. Events are just full of “Wikipedia
risk” (there’s normal event risk, but I’ll assume everyone knows that).
If there are likely to be a lot of new people (almost always the case),
you will have a number of problems. First, try to get them to create
accounts in advance because of the restriction on new accounts from the
same IP address in one day. However, a lot of people won’t have created the
user account beforehand (didn’t read that email, too busy, didn’t know how)
and half of the others who did will have forgotten their username and/or
password and need to do it again. So, in advance, get one of your more
experienced users to get themselves the account creator privilege to bypass
this problem (it has saved the situation for me a number of times). Other
ways around it are to get people to sign up on their phones (not using the
wifi in the room but through their ISP).
If planning to create new articles (almost always the case), there can be
problems with notability and conflict-of-interest topics. Do not say to a
room of newbies “write about whatever you like” as it ends badly. It is
generally better if the organisers draw up a list of topics that are likely
to be notable in the chosen topic space (ideally with two citations to
demonstrate notability) and ask the participants to pick one of those
topics rather than say “write about whatever you want”. Also newbies are
very poor at finding existing articles so they may write a 2nd article on
the same topic (again, doesn’t end well). In my experience, most newcomers
go blank at the thought of picking their own topic, which is then leads to
picking some topic with which they have CoI or lacks notability. I find
newbies actually prefer to be given a topic (I often get them to draw the
topics from a lucky dip box sometimes interspersed with a few fun ones
like “you win a chocolate, draw again” just to lighten the mood).
If planning to create new articles and there are new (or newish) people,
then remember that the first new article is often an unpleasant experience,
doubly so if they end up in Article for Creation (a pit of doom from which
few emerge alive as contributors). If I have that situation (almost always
the case), I will have created stubs in advance (usually just 2 sentences
and 2 citations for notability), so newer users don’t have to create any
article, just expand it. Is this a lot of work? Yes. Does it avoid
problems? Absolutely.
The other thing with freshly minted stubs is that they are not on anyone’s
watchlist. While alerting other editors via watchlist may bring helpful
assistance, it more often brings reverts, nasty talk page messages and
other newbie-discouraging things. If you are not creating new articles but
expanding existing articles, I would suggest sticking with smaller and
less-read articles as this reduces the likelihood of active pagewatchers.
Also, it is easier for a newcomer to add content to an under-developed
article than to a better article article (there is just more scope).
Remember, your participants want to be able to go home and show the family
a Wikipedia article and say “look, I added this!” so it needs to survive
long enough for bragging rights!
If the theme of the event is likely to involve Living People or medical
topics, I am tempted to say re-consider the event. Seriously, you have to
hammer home the citation requirements in these areas. Note that there are
other WikiProjects whose standards are very high but perhaps in different
ways (what is or isn’t a reliable source etc). Try to ensure you do have an
experienced editor in that topic space at least available to give advice in
advance unless you want a session of revert pain.
You may also have paid editing if the people are
employees/contracters/board members etc of the organisation
hosting/organising the event or if the themes for the content creation
relate to the organisation. Paid editing MUST be declared under the Terms
of Service and don’t make exceptions for “it’s the weekend” or “I’m on
leave this week”. The easiest way to disclose is to put it on their user
page “I am an employee of Foo Inc”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid-contribution_disclosure
When in doubt (e.g. interns, volunteers and one contract finishing and
another starting in a week), I advise to err in favour of disclosing the
relationship. This isn’t a pillar, a policy, a guideline, or an essay or
something for the community to decide. It’s the Terms of Service for
contributing laid down by WMF. Non-negotiable! If people do not like it
(and there will be some who won’t, mentioning privacy etc), they are free
to leave.
I also have the CoI discussion. If people have drawn a topic that they
might have CoI with, they should redraw. Given the set of topics, the theme
of the event, and any organisation involved, you may have to explain the
CoI line differently with some concrete examples. With academics, I usually
say no immediate colleagues in their own institution, no collaborators at
other institutions, not their own PhD supervisor/students. But to say “no
to anyone in your field” when the theme is the field makes it impossible to
run the event; this is why you have to understand the situation in advance
to work out a reasonable position on what it/isn’t CoI given the nature of
the event.
Next is CopyVio. Many people think anything on the web is fair game (which
is obviously not the case) but even among people who do have a basic grasp
of copyright, you get lines like “my university won’t mind” (which is often
quite true in practice, but if the webpage doesn’t have a suitable license,
sorry!). Similarly people in organisations like historical societies view
the collection of the society as communal property and happily say it can
be reused but in fact they have a bundle of material with no known
providence so you can’t even assess its likely copyright status. Ugh!
Latecomers. Yep, some people won’t arrive on time. The problem if they
arrive late is that they won’t have heard what you just said about Paid
Editing, Conflict of Interest and CopyVio. In an ideal universe, you have
plenty of other volunteers to assist you with getting the late comers up to
speed. If you don’t have plenty of volunteers (almost always the case), I
don’t have a good solution for you (apart from having everything you’ve
just told everyone else written on a bit of paper to hand to them) and you
should expect some issues to arise from that as they won’t read it. I don’t
know if it relates to some inherent aspect of latecomers, but their
subsequent editing is often more problematic than those who arrive on time
(whether it be dangerous over-enthusiasm “I’ll just delete all this content
and start again” or a complete lack of any observable IT skills “I can’t
find the letter Y on the keyboard”). All you can do is encourage the
organisers to urge people to arrive early to set up their account; you
can’t turn away the latecomers (as much as I would like to at times).
Next. Use the Visual Editor. No “ifs” and “buts”. If you have newbies,
teach them the Visual Editor. You will have to turn on the Visual Editor
for them as it is not turned on by default with new accounts (I have been
told it is but I have run enough events to know it isn’t!). Preferences >
Editing > Editing mode: Show both tabs! (as beguiling as some of the other
options may seem, do not be tempted by them, it will lead to them being
“locked out” of the Visual Editor sooner or later – I don’t know if this is
a bug or what, but it happens). What, **you** don’t know how to use the
Visual Editor? Well, I didn’t either once upon a time and so I said “Right,
from now on, I will only edit in the VE and I will persist even though it
is different to what I am used to and what my fingers are “programmed” to
do and a slightly different way of thinking about an article, and I will do
it until it is automatic because I can’t teach others if I am not fluent
myself”. So I forced myself to learn it and found that it is actually a
much nicer tool to use (with the exception of doing a lot of template work
but even that is getting better). I now use VE for most of my editing,
switching only into source editor for heavy-duty template work, or fixing
broken syntax etc. I am not telling you to use the VE because I prefer it,
I am telling you to use it because people learn it and remember it 10 times
more easily than the source editor syntax. It really is a game-changer for
bringing newbies on board.
Once you have the room off and running with their editing, keep stressing
two messages. One: add text with citations. Two: Save frequently. The first
is obvious I hope. The second is because your event is probably stressing
the local WiFi and sooner or later some hiccup leads to someone losing an
hour’s work. Generally by the time they have screamed for help, they’ve
pressed random buttons and it’s too late to recover the situation. But try
to Ctrl-A Ctrl-C (or Apple equivalent) whatever’s in their text box if it’s
still on-screen and remember you may be able to get it by using the BACK
button on the browser. From that point, you have some chance of recovery
(although you probably should do the recovery).
Similarly if they get edit conflicts (usually some Manual of Style fanatic
wanting to fix the spacing or the length of a dash), take control and fix
it for them. The event is not the time to explain edit conflicts and what
to do about them. This is another good reason for working on articles with
no pagewatchers. Note, event organisers are often not familiar with edit
conflicts so don’t let them ask people to all write on the same project
page with their user name and article. Get them to email it instead. This
is something to sort out in advance with them (they may be thinking that
people can work in pairs on an article or other bad ideas). This is why I
say TALK to them rather than point them at some documentation; you don’t
realise just how little event organisers know until you talk to them.
Again, in my copious spare time during the event (ha ha!) I try to send
out the Welcome messages to the new users and “thank” them for a couple of
their more substantive edits. All good life-affirming stuff to do. If I
don’t get time during the event, I do it as soon as possible after the
event. Also, as soon as possible, I also do a check and tidyup of the
articles worked on to remove any really big problems. Again it helps ensure
their work survives for bragging right purposes.
Kerry
*From:* Cultural-Partners [mailto:cultural-partners-bounces@wikimedia.ch
<cultural-partners-bounces(a)wikimedia.ch>] *On Behalf Of *Alex Stinson
*Sent:* Wednesday, 12 July 2017 6:34 AM
*To:* Wikimedia Chapters cultural partners coordination <
cultural-partners(a)wikimedia.ch>gt;; Wikimedia & GLAM collaboration [Public] <
glam(a)lists.wikimedia.org>gt;; North American Cultural Partnerships <
glam-us(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
*Subject:* [cultural-partners] What advice do you connect new editing
event organizers with?
Hi All,
I am hoping to add an Editing Events organizer training to the Programs
and Events Dashboard in the coming months. I know there is a lot of
documentation for editathons out there, including but not limited to what I
have listed at:
https://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Sharing_
Knowledge#Editathons . What is your favorite piece of documentation (any
language) for new Editathon runners?
Cheers,
Alex
--
Alex Stinson
GLAM-Wiki Strategist
Wikimedia Foundation
Twitter:@glamwiki/@sadads
Learn more about how the communities behind Wikipedia, Wikidata and other
Wikimedia projects partner with cultural heritage organizations:
http://glamwiki.org
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