There's a new question of the week at Strategy wiki - http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Question_of_the_week

This week's question is:
The Wall Street Journal published an article last week detailing the
research of Felipe Ortega, indicating that the number of editors has
declined in recent years. Representatives from the Wikimedia
Foundation, meanwhile, noted that a different methodology indicates
that the number of active editors has in fact stabilized in the same
time period--as opposed to having declined.

Regardless of the methodological differences, there appears to be a
consensus that the Wikipedia community is becoming less friendly,
particularly for new users. A few relevant data points:

Ed Chi's research (at the Palo Alto Research Center) indicates that
new editors see 25% of their edits reverted
Comments left on the blog for the WSJ article indicate that a number
of editors have left because of unfriendly treatment from other
editors (e.g., edits reverted without explanations of why), and
comments on this Wiki have echoed this impression
Proposals on this Wiki have indicated that a good reward system for
contributions does not exist
Given all of the above, how could the community better reward
contributions and nurture new editors? How can the Wikimedia projects
become a friendlier and more welcoming place to share knowledge?

We'd love to have your input on the talk page of that question!

Philippe

____________________
Philippe Beaudette
Facilitator, Strategy Project
Wikimedia Foundation

philippe@wikimedia.org

mobile: 918 200-WIKI (9454)

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