I agree with Stirling's thoughts below. Recruitment and retention are
both important, perhaps even (dare I say it?) more important than how
we handle a fledling request for Hopi, and we could focus more on both
of them.
==Recruitment==
On meta, Zanimum and Spm have begun discussing a college promotion
campaign, which sounds like a wonderful idea to me:
*
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_college_promotion_campaign
We should combine this with some kind of mailing-list and
bulletin-board campaign, beginning with lists and forums which focus
on academic matters. Be careful not to spam lists indiscriminately;
it is important to begin such campaigns by attracting serious
contributors.
*
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_online_promotion_campaign
Finally, it would be nice to coordinate a promotion campaign with a
membership drive; and a membership drive, in turn, with the promotion
of Wikimania (one of the natural benefits of being a Foundation member
might be reduced fees for attending Foundation events).
It would help to have formal specifications for what membership and
Wikimania-registration interfaces will look like (both will involve
dealing with personal information beyond anything we currently ask of
users).
If you've been working on these projects privately, or have thoughts
on how they should be set up, please edit/comment on their specs:
*
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Specs
==Retention==
It would help to find out what each contributor likes and hates about
the site, what interests them, whether they have explored some of the
other projects (as I think Sabine was noting recently, Wikipedia
itself is not as welcoming as other projects for many)
I am working on a survey that I would like to send around to users,
for fun; but also to provide a better framework for finding groups of
co-editors (to save users from filling up meta with sporadic "Lists of
Wiki[pm]edians by attribute".
What else could we do to support the spirit of fun and discovery that
comes so naturally to a bare wiki?
++ SJ
Stirling wrote:
As well, the problems of retention and wider
recruitment need to be
dealt with now, otherwise by the time people realize there is a problem
it will be too late