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

On Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 6:03 AM, Léa Lacroix <lea.lacroix@wikimedia.de> wrote:
Hello all,

As you know, the Wikimedia hackathon 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:
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. 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, 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.

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