I think that we need to engage editors & to be
consistent in our follow-up.
In October, we had the largest monthly meetup that I have been to. We did
not have a one in November because several of us did a panel at Mako's
class
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Program:University_of_Washington/Interpersonal_Media_%28Fall_2014%29>
instead. In December, we teamed up with the 3rd Monday Techno-Activist
folks for the year-end holiday party instead of a meetup. In January, we
did meet on a 2nd Tuesday, but at UW, not the café. In hindsight, I
realized that anyone used to Café Allegro & not likely to travel elsewhere
would have not attended our meetup for three months. I am not implying that
we need to meet there every month since we have UW's schedule to consider,
but we should consider our schedule at Café Allegro.
I thought of few things as a result of the 'I Love To You': Critical
Wikipedia / Art+Feminism Edit-a-thon. Next time, & thereafter, we should
have CWUG flyers & a means to join our user group. We could not have done
that in time for this event, but we can do it going forward.
The event begged for a follow-up. Since ten groups co-sponsored the event,
it is unclear who owned this. I would like to work collaboratively with
someone on either the Draft:Feminist Hackerspaces or the Women Writers'
Suffrage League articles. However, none of us created a contact list to
coordinate those interested in editing these articles further.
I agree with Sage here in that “bringing newcomers into the online wiki
community (after) local outreach events” is the hard nut to crack. I think
that we may be able to engage editors by doing two types of “deep dives”:
1. Topical
2. Going beyond the basics
The first entails topic-specific editing sessions or following up on
previous edit-a-thons. Maybe that means a series of meetups or organizing a
focus group, perhaps with an experienced Wikimedian who is willing to take
part. Examples include art & feminism, GLAM, or regional interests, like
the list being drafted at
The second is sharing our expertise. Most teaching edit-a-thons don't go
beyond the basics. Maybe we need some “200” level sessions where we explore
further into one aspect of Wikimedia/Wikipedia, like:
- how to add images & galleries to articles
- infobox templates
- citation templates
- Commons, how it works, & how its licensing differs from Wikipedia
- what are namespaces & how they function
- other language Wikipedias, & the how & what of translating articles
- other Wikimedia projects, for example, Wikivoyage, Wikidata,
Wikispecies, etc.
- what exactly are WikiProjects & what are their templates doing on an
article's talk page?
This list is neither meant to be exhaustive nor exhausting, but a
springboard. Maybe we can encourage casual editors to go beyond the
occasional, casual edit by showing them what is possible.
Yours,
Peaceray
On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 11:54 AM, Sage Ross <ragesoss+wikipedia(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
If the point is to demonstrate that we have an
organized volunteer
community (in order to get funding to do the projects we really want
to do) then I think we'd be better off focusing on outreach to active
Wikimedians instead.
We know that we *don't* know how to really bring newcomers into the
online wiki community via local outreach events — this is the big
unsolved problem for every chapter and user group. So building up our
nominal volunteer base via events that we know don't really work, just
so that we can reach the participation numbers that WMF is looking
for, seems like putting the cart before the horse. I suggest that we'd
have a much easier time if we started by refining the planning work
we've done so far into a concise vision for where we want to go, and
then using that to recruit active editors in our region. "Here are the
big things we want to do, and what they will mean to you." (Press
credentials! Wikimedia-in-Residence opportunities! Hanging out with
other editors to talk shop and complain about everything that's wrong
with Wikipedia!)
To the extent that we can "develop a volunteer base" by doing things
we already want to do, that's great. But I don't want to plan our
activities around chasing metrics; that leads down the same
well-trodden path that so many other ineffectual chapters have already
gone down.
-Sage
On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 4:30 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,
If the plan is to have us focusing on developing a volunteer base, I
think
that natural places for us to start would be UW
(including UW libraries,
archives and museums), the Seattle Public Library, and the King County
Library System.
To that end, how would people feel about making some of our editing
workshops more externally focused on training new editors, probably
with the
use of VisualEditor from the start? For example,
we might consider
having
one social unconference type meetup like we have
had at Cafe Allegro
each
month, and one outreach-focused editing training
and editathon
combination
event at an institution that is well placed for
recruiting.
I am also thinking that we could have one event each month in Seattle,
and
one event each month on the eastside, with the
locations alternating
for the
unconference-social and the
workshop-edititathon.
We could also try a variety of focuses for the workshop-content
contribution
events. For example, instead of or in addition to
content improvements
on
English Wikipedia people might be interested in
photo uploads or
editing for
Commons, technical events such as the CDSW
events, or subject-matter
focused
events such as highlights of particular subjects
at libraries or
museums.
What do you think? I'm brainstorming ideas here. I think some variety
would
be good, but if we're also interested in
recruiting new long-term
contributors then we might also want some continuity, so I'm trying to
find
the right balance, especially with our limited
volunteer resources. If
we
expand our volunteer base then it will be easier
for us to have a
broader
range of events.
I'm cc'ing Alex and WMF Evaluation here to see if they have suggestions.
I'll incorporate everyone's input here into the revised draft goals and
budget. Some of the tasks that we had originally planned for this year
may
be moved to next year since WMF is unwilling to
fund them this year.
Thanks,
Pine
This is an Encyclopedia
One gateway to the wide garden of knowledge, where lies
The deep rock of our past, in which we must delve
The well of our future,
The clear water we must leave untainted for those who come after us,
The fertile earth, in which truth may grow in bright places, tended by
many
hands,
And the broad fall of sunshine, warming our first steps toward knowing
how
much we do not know.
—Catherine Munro
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