Hello Wikidatans,
I have been very vocal about the lack of documentation -- and critical need
for documentation regarding Wikidata.
I haven't had a chance to watch the recent intro to Wikidata video that
Asaf did here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVrAx3AmUvA but I think it is
in essence and concept as an approach pretty much inadequate as well.
Newbies need something more simple than this, that isn't a talking head
talking at them.
Not super thrilled this is a crowd-sourced effort. I think this should be
created by Wikidata and should be as graphic and simple as possible. It
should be a somewhat professionally produced type of output, similar to the
basic Wiki intros I use at editathons:
- 5 Pillars -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Five_pillars
- Intro to Wiki (self-paced, takes 10 minutes each track) -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Introduction
- Wiki Tutorial with very helpful videos -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial
As I try to say to myself, Keep It Simple, Stupid.... :-) I'm saying that
about myself, not anyone else.... But yeah.
The biggest problem:
This approach and output would require a different, less technical approach
to Wikidata, which has been a consistent issue -- at least for me --
regarding Wikidata's approaches and the willingness of the large majority
of participants to care about end user issues, especially folks like me
coming from English Wikipedia.
I think it's important to question who the audience of these materials are
going to be.
Is it for Wikipedia editors (again apologies, I'm assuming English
Wikipedia)?
Is it for newbies attending editathons and learning how to edit?
Is it for tech folks who can handle a lot more higher level database and
data manipulation concepts?
I don't know. I am I guess not a beginner when it comes to Wikidata but I
still feel inadequate and frustrated oftentimes with the interface and
knowing stuff. And I use Wikidata ALL THE TIME.
So my 2 cents on this.
I wish I could participate in person at the event -- although I might have
a contrarian perspective, as usual.
I would also like to help more actively on this, as it is so important to
me personally.
I would be happy to help if I can in any way.
Erika
Please excuse incoherence, not a lot of sleep lately
*Erika Herzog*
Wikipedia *User:BrillLyle <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BrillLyle>*
On Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 6:03 AM, Léa Lacroix <lea.lacroix(a)wikimedia.de>
wrote:
Hello all,
As you know, the Wikimedia hackathon
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2017> will take place
on May 19-21 in Vienna.
During this event, we will organize a documentation sprint to help
volunteers to improve the user-level documentation for Wikidata.
During these 3 days, you'll be able to join (IRL or remotely, at any
moment) to work on improving and translating the help pages. We suggest a
focus on these 3 topics:
- Beginner documentation about Wikidata
<https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T159216>
- Lua for Wikimedians <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T159217>
- Wikibase installation <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T159218>
We will also organize some workshops (translation tools, illustration...)
to help you build a better documentation.
You will find all the information on the related page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2017/Wikidata_documentation_sprint>.
If you're interested, feel free to add yourself in the attendees list.
We're now building a list of simple tasks that volunteers could work on
during the event. If you have any ideas, parts of the documentation that
should really be improved... feel free to add your ideas on the talk page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Hackathon_2017/Wikidata_documentation_sprint>,
or if you feel comfortable with Phabricator, directly create subtasks of
the tasks listed above.
Thanks a lot, and maybe see you there!
--
Léa Lacroix
Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de
Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg
unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt
für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
_______________________________________________
Wikidata mailing list
Wikidata(a)lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikidata