Thanks for the comments guys - please keep 'em coming. I've got a lot of post-event stuff to do today, but I want to combine your wisdom and observations into a report.
It was absolutely critical to have volunteers, and that we had so many (for such long shifts!) was what made this successful.
I'll look forward to digesting all the comments and reflecting. I'm not sure all the volunteers are on the SF list... so I'll send out an email soon to all folks who came.
Thanks - here's to more public presence for Wikimedia, the volunteers, and the projects!
Jay Walsh Head of Communications WikimediaFoundation.org +1 (415) 839 6885 x 609
Jon wrote:
On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 12:08 PM, William Pietri william@scissor.com wrote:
Brion Vibber wrote: Turnout was much greater than we expected, and everybody seemed to have a great time!
Personally, I had a great time, and will definitely do booth duty again next year.
A few thoughts:
It was great to hear the stories people had to tell about Wikipedia. I think it would be wonderful to record some of them for various purposes. The people gushing about Wikipedia were a great reminder to me that what we do really matters in the daily lives of millions. The people with particular issues put a human face on problems that are often reduced to abstract acronyms in our world (ones that came up on my shift: WP:BAND, WP:NOT, WP:BLP, WP:NPOV, WP:COI). And the responses I got to asking, "What did you use Wikipedia for?" would be fabulous to show to potential donors, so they know how big an effect it has. The number one answer I got when I asked what people used Wikipedia for was a brief pause followed by an exclamation: "Everything!" The best one was a couple who looked at one another, laughed sheepishly, and said: "To settle arguments!" Most people don't believe they can edit. Over and over, I told people that all it took was two mouse clicks and a little typing. No making an account, no logging in, just seconds to fix a spelling error or a confusing sentence. They were always surprised. It would be great to have a one-page handout that says "You Too Can Edit Wikipedia!" and gives a simple introduction. If that's been done already, let me know; otherwise I'll put it on my to-do list. There are a ton of subject matter experts out there who would like to contribute, but will never become Wikipedia editors. Some are bemused by Wikipedia, some frustrated. We should find a way to capture their contributions as primary sources, raw material for our army of editors to work from. The common misconceptions and puzzlements about Wikipedia are indeed common. I'd love to put together a common list of frequently asked questions from events like this. At the very least, volunteers could prepare themselves with ready answers. But a series of handouts might eventually evolve from that. I gave my card to several people. Some were people who would be valuable contributors. Others were people who had article issues (BLP, deleted articles, concern about corporate COI and POV-pushing). I wanted all of them to have somebody to get them over the hump next they got stuck in our sometimes-overwhelming operation. I'm not so scalable, but perhaps we could have cards for some OTRS-like queue to get good people more help than can be provided by a booth volunteer. Overall, I had a lot of fun. Thanks to Jay, Cary, and the others who made this happen.
William
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I agree. Lots of fun! I'll definitely help next time around. I also have a few comments from my experience:
- Most people know what Wikipedia is and how to use it. I think there
may have been a total of 1 person an hour that stopped in (and I talked to) that didn't know what it was.
- Agreeing with William on the fact that alot of people don't
understand editing. Either they were scared, thought they weren't knowledgeable enough or simply thought they shouldn't.
- It was great to have the book - I made sure everyone who thought
they couldn't edit for one reason or another took a copy since it had a little section on how to get started. Since there probably wont been little books to give away - 1 page flyer's or pamphlets would be good. Along with "how to" they should include useful starting info like "Be Bold" and where to go for help.
- Also maybe flyer's/pamphlets for some of the other big projects,
like Commons. I think a decent number of people were really interested in what Commons was.
- It would have also be nice to have some small table top posters w/ a
list of all the projects and what they are about. Additionally a run down of facts & figures would be nice (# of registered users, # of articles, etc)
- Tip jar was good ^_^
- Again - with what William said - the biggest complaint I heard from
people who had edited at least once: was being scared off. Mainly from having their changes immediately reverted - and generally it was from over zealous editors who were "protecting" their article (rightfully or not). This isn't anything new - but none these people knew where to go to get help or be heard. Honestly I didn't know so my suggestion was the Talk page.
- I think this exists somewhere: but a quick flash video of how to
edit w/ very basic formatting. Something that could be played on demand for people to give them an idea of how truly easy it is to edit. Run on little laptops on the front tables.
Side note on stickers:
- Whom ever dropped off the [citation needed] stickers is AWESOME and
were, by far, the most popular sticker.
- I still think we should have little commons stickers (like the
wikipedia ones) to affix to Camera's. Ok - that might just be me...
- The project stickers were very popular. I snuck off with a few at a
time (so as to not waste them) and they disappeared very quickly.
-Jon "ShakataGaNai"
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