I've faced this many times, and I think most of us who do outreach work have faced this. I've had people asking me first thing: "What's the pay like?". Its quite difficult to convince people who approach it with that mindset. I've not always succeeded, but what I usually do is tell them the example of English Wikipedia and its enormous reach; I go on saying "Hey, doesn't your son use Wikipedia for his assignment? Did you know its written by people like you and me? You can write too, and your knowledge will reach millions across the world".

Sometimes, I encourage people to write about their Hometown, or upload pictures of it. Geography is one of the easier things to work on.

Swaroop Rao (MikeLynch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MikeLynch)

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 22:31, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < parakara.ghoda@gmail.com> wrote:

Sorry guys, looks like Google chopped off the bottom of my mail again. What I said was, when I asked my friend to contribute to the Tamil Media Contest, he told me- when I'm not getting paid for all my photos, why should I upload? Anyone who's gone thru similar experiences and can help me out?

On 12/16/11, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikanth05@gmail.com wrote:

...

Heya all. I just wanted to share this quick mail with you and get your feedback. Over the past two years, I've actively been part of Wiki outreach efforts. Thru meetups, volunteering for the Bangalore Samskrit academy, trying to convince friends, classmates etc. I've had a lot of negative experiences with people askin me- What's in it for me? Mere liye kya hai? Ennaku enna kadaka porthu? I get laughed at when I say I'm doing gu voluntarily. Infact recently, when I tried to get a friend to contribute to our

-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan, Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers Gang, Ukkadam, Coimbatore. My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05

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-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

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LOL, I Have even used scorn, though thats not Wikipedian. Works once in a while too too!

Warm regards,

Ashwin Baindur ------------------------------------------------------

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 11:00 PM, Arun Ganesh arun.planemad@gmail.comwrote:

I stopped telling people to contribute a long time back. now i do a google image search for 'indian grandmother' and tell the person thats my grandmom in the first result. now they ask me how they can contribute.

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 10:53 PM, Swaroop Rao raul.swaroop@gmail.comwrote:

...

I've faced this many times, and I think most of us who do outreach work have faced this. I've had people asking me first thing: "What's the pay like?". Its quite difficult to convince people who approach it with that mindset. I've not always succeeded, but what I usually do is tell them the example of English Wikipedia and its enormous reach; I go on saying "Hey, doesn't your son use Wikipedia for his assignment? Did you know its written by people like you and me? You can write too, and your knowledge will reach millions across the world".

Sometimes, I encourage people to write about their Hometown, or upload pictures of it. Geography is one of the easier things to work on.

Swaroop Rao (MikeLynch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:MikeLynch)

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 22:31, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < parakara.ghoda@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Sorry guys, looks like Google chopped off the bottom of my mail again. What I said was, when I asked my friend to contribute to the Tamil Media Contest, he told me- when I'm not getting paid for all my photos, why should I upload? Anyone who's gone thru similar experiences and can help me out?

On 12/16/11, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikanth05@gmail.com wrote:

...

Heya all. I just wanted to share this quick mail with you and get your feedback. Over the past two years, I've actively been part of Wiki outreach efforts. Thru meetups, volunteering for the Bangalore Samskrit academy, trying to convince friends, classmates etc. I've had a lot of negative experiences with people askin me- What's in it for me? Mere liye kya hai? Ennaku enna kadaka porthu? I get laughed at when I say I'm doing gu voluntarily. Infact recently, when I tried to get a friend to contribute to our

-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan, Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers Gang, Ukkadam, Coimbatore. My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05

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-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

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-- j.mp/ArunGanesh

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Oh, and by the way. Try Googling for Tamil Wedding in images. The first result should be a result of the Tamil Media Contest. Perhaps, this could be more ... Err ... Encouragement?

On 12/16/11, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.ghoda@gmail.com wrote:

Swaroop, yes I know. I personally do enjoy editing the article on my native town and adding photos about it. Wish others would follow me. Arun, that's pretty much a Commons Venture. I've tried that a lot. Most of my pictures are first page results on Google. Try Googling Nice Road or Chittode Junction. But it hasn't helped me that well.

-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

Thanks for your suggestions Barry. I have, in the past come across several first time editors online, whose edit, while not a perfect one, shows a lot of potential. Thankfully, we've got Twinkle and the whole WikiLove set of tools to welcome these guys, but still there are some Bullies around.

On 12/16/11, Barry Newstead bnewstead@wikimedia.org wrote:

This is a great question Srikanth and links to some of the thinking that Shiju just shared about the challenges for Indic language projects. [1]. My feeling is that editing Wikipedia isn't for everyone, but there are a lot of people who it is or could be for. Our challenge is to really connect with those who will find joy in the experience and not worry about those who think sharing knowledge freely is a strange form of insanity. ;)

I have limited experience, but in my travels in India, I think the greatest challenge is in basic awareness of how Wikipedia works. I'd say that over 90% of non-Wikipedians in India that I've met have no idea that they can edit Wikipedia or that Wikipedia is not written by paid staff (many also have no idea we have Indic language projects, not to mention 20!). These are generally not stupid people and our challenge is to inform them. If we inform millions, we'll find thousands (that's all we really can expect from global experience) to try editing in all of our projects. So the question I've been pondering is how do we explain the basics of who we are to millions rather than to 25-50 people who might show up for a workshop.

From there our challenge is to welcome those who feel like trying it out, orient them to the norms of the environment, help them when they make mistakes and encourage them to stick with it, even if they aren't perfect. As the editor trends data shows, our greatest opportunity and challenge lies in helping those who show up and want to edit...succeed! [2] There is some neat work going on to look at ways we can improve our interaction with newcomers, particularly by making their interaction feel more human-to-human rather than human-to-template.[3]

My 2 paise.

Best, Barry

[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Indic_L... [2] Only 10% of new editors stick around for a year these days http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enwp_retention_vs_active_editors.png and about 85% don't even last 3 months http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enwp-jan-cohorts--10-1-.png [3] An example of work that Steven and Mariana are working on building from WMF's Summer of Research: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/11/21/you-have-new-messages-improving-communi...

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 10:01 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < parakara.ghoda@gmail.com> wrote:

...

Oh, and by the way. Try Googling for Tamil Wedding in images. The first result should be a result of the Tamil Media Contest. Perhaps, this could be more ... Err ... Encouragement?

On 12/16/11, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.ghoda@gmail.com wrote:

...

Swaroop, yes I know. I personally do enjoy editing the article on my native town and adding photos about it. Wish others would follow me. Arun, that's pretty much a Commons Venture. I've tried that a lot. Most of my pictures are first page results on Google. Try Googling Nice Road or Chittode Junction. But it hasn't helped me that well.

-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

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-- Barry Newstead Chief Global Development Officer Wikimedia Foundation

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

2011/12/17 Barry Newstead bnewstead@wikimedia.org:

I have limited experience, but in my travels in India, I think the greatest challenge is in basic awareness of how Wikipedia works.

That's true for the whole world. A particular problem for India is that many people to whom i spoke, all of whom knew English, don't know that a. There's a Wikipedia in their language. b. It is possible to read and write their language on the computer *they already own*.

By creating technologies like Narayam and WebFonts the i18n team is making Wikimedia projects more technically accessible to speakers of these languages, but work is still needed to be done in raising awareness. One of the ways to do it is to convince Indians who know English to make the choice to contribute more to projects in languages of India for the sake of the people who don't know English. I call this "the software localization paradox": The situation today is that in a technological project like ours people who know English are best suited for building the groundwork for people who don't, but too often, people who know English just contribute to English projects.

-- Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי http://aharoni.wordpress.com ‪“We're living in pieces, I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore‬

Hi Srikanth & everyone else,

This is a really good question and one that I've been thinking about and working on as we look at outreach in general.

From my discussions with various editors and my observing and participating in outreach sessions, I think the biggest challenge when we do outreach is "why to contribute". Of course, "how to edit" is essential - but unless someone believes there is a strong enough reason to participate, it's unlikely they're going to get involved or stay involved after a couple of exploratory edits. From my conversations and readings, the motivators of existing editors are any or a combination (or variants) of "promoting free knowledge" or "sharing knowledge in general" or "improving education" or "passion for their languages" or "interest in a particular subject (e.g. astronomy or railways or butterflies.) However, my opinion is that it is relatively complex to convey these in an initial outreach session. It's best to motivate and train and support potential newbies to join the movement and community - and allow them to discover for themselves what is the inspiration for them (especially because it is likely to be unique to that individual.)

Personally, i think there are a number of really compelling answers to the "What's in it for me?" question - and I do want to share my take on it. I'm dividing my answer into students and faculty/institutions. (The tone I'm using is what can be used when actually answering the question.) These answers are a little clinical and conceptual but I've found they work - and I believe they will provide an adequate incentive to try and learn a little bit more about editing and to hopefully become regular editors.

Academia - Students

It improves your writing skills. Writing skills are essential when you move ahead in life either to do further studies or to work. Our education system (unfortunately) doesn't adequately teach writing skills and we all struggle when we have to write a formal report or research paper. When you move into the working world, you'll find that you can be as good as you are at your work but unless you are able to write those written reports properly, you'll always find it hard to succeed. It will help your critical thinking. Concepts like Neutral Point of View (which you will sometimes see in Wikipedia being referred to as NPOV) help you see all sides of a story. In your future careers, you need to consider the pros and cons of anything - because only that way will you be a better professional. If you're into software, look at the article on waterfall development model and how it looks at pros and cons. If you're in economics, look at the article on the Euro bailout and see how it looks at all the multiple complex issues involved. Very little in life is purely good or totally evil; we need to be neutral and consider all sides. You will find this incredibly useful in both your personal and professional lives. This thinking will help you decide who to vote for in elections or which version of Lok Pal you support or which IPL team to follow! This thinking will help you understand your subjects even better. It'll strengthen your research skills. Editing a wikipedia article requires you to do a lot of referencing (or what wikipedia sometimes calls "citations".) This means you need to look beyond just the wikipedia article and research online references and also go into that forgotten room called the library and look up books or journal. This is a skill you cannot live without if you are writing a thesis or working on a research project. It teaches you how to collaborate! Editing wikipedia is magical. You add some content and someone from some other part of the class or school or town or country or somewhere else in the world adds a little bit more and makes your contribution that much better. The days of sitting alone under a tree and having an apple fall on your head and discovering gravity are over. In today's world, we will need to collaborate to achieve anything. If you're into biotechnology, you might be based in Hyderabad but the team you are part of might have someone in Scotland or Brazil- from a different culture and with a different accent - but you need to work together. Wikipedia helps you learn how to collaborate! It gives you a global audience of - literally, thousands! If you submit a class report, the maximum audience is 2; 1 being you and 1 being your teacher. After your paper is marked, it will normally be thrown away. If you edit a wikipedia article, it is there *forever* and the audience can be any number from the 500 million who read wikipedia every month! You can show your article to you mother and grandfather and friends! If you upload pictures to Wikimedia Commons, you will have an audience so much bigger than the 500 friends on Facebook who will see it. So many more can see your talents and appreciate your work! It'll boost your chances in admissions or scholarships or placements. Imagine if you are a mechanical engineer and you are one of 100 students in your batch applying for jobs with the best engineering companies who come to campus. Everyone is likely to submit a resume saying they are the greatest engineer ever born - but it's difficult for any one to stand out and shine. If you were to put a line in your resume that you have edited 5 articles on heating and cooling systems, there is a very high probability that this would jump out at the recruitment team of the companies and the will actually read your article (if they haven't already.) It can be so much fun! You can make new friends - from all over the world.. You can write about subjects that you are interested in (whether it is movies or your hometown or sarees or mythology or cricket or whatever!) It think it is really important that we drive this message as passionately as we can because this is something that can resonate so loud and for so long!

Academia - Faculty & Education Institutions

Students with all the above result in much more motivated classes. One thing that teachers constantly say is that they one thing they want is engaged students. I've had teachers tell me that if they are in a class and they see their students involved and trying to learn and active, it is the best thing that can happen to them - and the rest of their day goes well! It improves your individual and college's academic reputation. In the Indian context where there is relatively lower emphasis on academic research papers by faculty members, supporting your students on Wikipedia articles helps you (rightfully) claim that you contributed to these articles. That increases your academic standing and helps attract better students and faculty and partnerships and recruiting companies. It supports the advancement of education - for students in your class and colleges and around the world. You have devoted your lives to education and this is a great way of promoting it.

I wanted to share my perspectives because I really believe that the "why" needs to be addressed.

Thanks for starting a great message thread, Srikanth.

Nitika

On 18-Dec-2011, at 1:37 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan wrote:

Subha, most of those bullies are editors with zero constructive edits or IP based vandals. Sadly. Erik, yes, I consider Giving to Wiki as giving back to Society. Thanks for the links. Time to read during my month long Wiki break. Ravi, Bala told me that physical outreach programs had very poor success rates. I concur with him. Prad, I agree. That's how Manish and I became friends. But still doesn't explain how to get new guys.

-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

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Wow Nitika, thank you for talking out time to write such a detailed reply to this thread. I agree completely, we learn, we enjoy. It is indeed magical. There are perfect examples as part of this mailing list itself. The only problem, however is getting across this thought to newcomers. : )

On 12/18/11, Nitika ntandon@wikimedia.org wrote:

Hi Srikanth & everyone else,

This is a really good question and one that I've been thinking about and working on as we look at outreach in general.

From my discussions with various editors and my observing and participating in outreach sessions, I think the biggest challenge when we do outreach is "why to contribute". Of course, "how to edit" is essential - but unless someone believes there is a strong enough reason to participate, it's unlikely they're going to get involved or stay involved after a couple of exploratory edits. From my conversations and readings, the motivators of existing editors are any or a combination (or variants) of "promoting free knowledge" or "sharing knowledge in general" or "improving education" or "passion for their languages" or "interest in a particular subject (e.g. astronomy or railways or butterflies.) However, my opinion is that it is relatively complex to convey these in an initial outreach session. It's best to motivate and train and support potential newbies to join the movement and community - and allow them to discover for themselves what is the inspiration for them (especially because it is likely to be unique to that individual.)

Personally, i think there are a number of really compelling answers to the "What's in it for me?" question - and I do want to share my take on it. I'm dividing my answer into students and faculty/institutions. (The tone I'm using is what can be used when actually answering the question.) These answers are a little clinical and conceptual but I've found they work - and I believe they will provide an adequate incentive to try and learn a little bit more about editing and to hopefully become regular editors.

Academia - Students

It improves your writing skills. Writing skills are essential when you move ahead in life either to do further studies or to work. Our education system (unfortunately) doesn't adequately teach writing skills and we all struggle when we have to write a formal report or research paper. When you move into the working world, you'll find that you can be as good as you are at your work but unless you are able to write those written reports properly, you'll always find it hard to succeed. It will help your critical thinking. Concepts like Neutral Point of View (which you will sometimes see in Wikipedia being referred to as NPOV) help you see all sides of a story. In your future careers, you need to consider the pros and cons of anything - because only that way will you be a better professional. If you're into software, look at the article on waterfall development model and how it looks at pros and cons. If you're in economics, look at the article on the Euro bailout and see how it looks at all the multiple complex issues involved. Very little in life is purely good or totally evil; we need to be neutral and consider all sides. You will find this incredibly useful in both your personal and professional lives. This thinking will help you decide who to vote for in elections or which version of Lok Pal you support or which IPL team to follow! This thinking will help you understand your subjects even better. It'll strengthen your research skills. Editing a wikipedia article requires you to do a lot of referencing (or what wikipedia sometimes calls "citations".) This means you need to look beyond just the wikipedia article and research online references and also go into that forgotten room called the library and look up books or journal. This is a skill you cannot live without if you are writing a thesis or working on a research project. It teaches you how to collaborate! Editing wikipedia is magical. You add some content and someone from some other part of the class or school or town or country or somewhere else in the world adds a little bit more and makes your contribution that much better. The days of sitting alone under a tree and having an apple fall on your head and discovering gravity are over. In today's world, we will need to collaborate to achieve anything. If you're into biotechnology, you might be based in Hyderabad but the team you are part of might have someone in Scotland or Brazil- from a different culture and with a different accent - but you need to work together. Wikipedia helps you learn how to collaborate! It gives you a global audience of - literally, thousands! If you submit a class report, the maximum audience is 2; 1 being you and 1 being your teacher. After your paper is marked, it will normally be thrown away. If you edit a wikipedia article, it is there *forever* and the audience can be any number from the 500 million who read wikipedia every month! You can show your article to you mother and grandfather and friends! If you upload pictures to Wikimedia Commons, you will have an audience so much bigger than the 500 friends on Facebook who will see it. So many more can see your talents and appreciate your work! It'll boost your chances in admissions or scholarships or placements. Imagine if you are a mechanical engineer and you are one of 100 students in your batch applying for jobs with the best engineering companies who come to campus. Everyone is likely to submit a resume saying they are the greatest engineer ever born - but it's difficult for any one to stand out and shine. If you were to put a line in your resume that you have edited 5 articles on heating and cooling systems, there is a very high probability that this would jump out at the recruitment team of the companies and the will actually read your article (if they haven't already.) It can be so much fun! You can make new friends - from all over the world.. You can write about subjects that you are interested in (whether it is movies or your hometown or sarees or mythology or cricket or whatever!) It think it is really important that we drive this message as passionately as we can because this is something that can resonate so loud and for so long!

Academia - Faculty & Education Institutions

Students with all the above result in much more motivated classes. One thing that teachers constantly say is that they one thing they want is engaged students. I've had teachers tell me that if they are in a class and they see their students involved and trying to learn and active, it is the best thing that can happen to them - and the rest of their day goes well! It improves your individual and college's academic reputation. In the Indian context where there is relatively lower emphasis on academic research papers by faculty members, supporting your students on Wikipedia articles helps you (rightfully) claim that you contributed to these articles. That increases your academic standing and helps attract better students and faculty and partnerships and recruiting companies. It supports the advancement of education - for students in your class and colleges and around the world. You have devoted your lives to education and this is a great way of promoting it.

I wanted to share my perspectives because I really believe that the "why" needs to be addressed.

Thanks for starting a great message thread, Srikanth.

Nitika

On 18-Dec-2011, at 1:37 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan wrote:

...

Subha, most of those bullies are editors with zero constructive edits or IP based vandals. Sadly. Erik, yes, I consider Giving to Wiki as giving back to Society. Thanks for the links. Time to read during my month long Wiki break. Ravi, Bala told me that physical outreach programs had very poor success rates. I concur with him. Prad, I agree. That's how Manish and I became friends. But still doesn't explain how to get new guys.

-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

---

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Nitika, the plus points you gave are really well thought out & well-expressed. Wikipedians can use these in outreach. Great work, keep it up!

Warm regards,

Ashwin Baindur ------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 3:50 PM, Arjuna Rao Chavala arjunaraoc@gmail.comwrote:

Hi Nitika,

On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 11:55 AM, Nitika ntandon@wikimedia.org wrote:

...

Hi Srikanth & everyone else, --cut--

i think there are a number of really compelling answers to the "What's in it for me?" question - and I do want to share my take on it.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts in a nice and comprehensive way, which I am sure will be useful to all our community involved in outreach activities.

I feel that sharing of the experiences of experienced Wikipedians involved in the outreach events will be much more effective in communicating the message. I use the nicely produced Wikipedia promotion videoshttp://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:September_2010_Wikipedia_Videosapart from sharing my own experiences in the events that I participate.

Cheers Arjuna Rao Chavala

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Nitika, while you're at it, also try and look into what may get us more women editors. I have a bunch of reasons and ideas which may someday, come out.

On 12/19/11, Nitika ntandon@wikimedia.org wrote:

On 19-Dec-2011, at 4:05 PM, Ashwin Baindur wrote:

...

Nitika, the plus points you gave are really well thought out & well-expressed. Wikipedians can use these in outreach. Great work, keep it up!

Stay tuned to this channel. I'm working on something that i'd love to have your (and everyone else's) help and inputs on.

Thanks Nitika

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No, no offline. Please switch to Wikipedia-in-en if you must but not offline. Its too important a debate to waste offline.

Warm regards,

Ashwin Baindur ------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Nitika ntandon@wikimedia.org wrote:

On 19-Dec-2011, at 5:35 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan wrote:

...

Nitika, while you're at it, also try and look into what may get us more women editors. I have a bunch of reasons and ideas which may someday, come out.

Sure Srikanth! I'd love to get more women editors onboard. And I'd love to hear your ideas. Let's discuss this offline - I'll write to you separately on this one. _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

Hi Srikanth,

If you get laughed at doing something voluntarily, just return a friendly smile, that might in due time be remembered better than any well verbalized rationale.

If you're looking for some inspiration yourself, here are some thoughts, and I willfully take the risk of sounding bombastic, which I hope at least puts a smile on your face :-)

You might be interested to read about Maslow's theory of self-actualization. I first read about it as a student decades ago, as a metaphor it grabbed me and it keeps coming back from time to time. Wikipedia tells me there is a large cultural component in his ideas. For me finding a balance between different needs always remains a challenge, but certainly it is not either/or, selfishness or altruism. Even more, how to draw the distinction? Sometimes altruistic motives will bring you personal rewards, and vice versa. I'm not sure even much of what I do is altruistic at all, I just have fun doing it.

John Adams said " I am a revolutionary so my son can be a farmer so his son can be a poet. ... " We are marching in the front rows of a digital revolution. [2] Later people will listen to our stories, and envy us, if they don't already.

If you haven't read Eric Raymond's "The Cathedral & the Bazaar" on open source movement, I can heartily recommend it to you. Best section for me was "Homesteading the Noosphere" [3] [4] which discusses how selfishness and altruism can both be served at the same time by contributing in a 'gift economy'.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wikipedia_Revolution [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homesteading_the_Noosphere [4] Essay online: http://catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/homesteading/

Cheers, Erik Zachte

-----Original Message----- From: wikimediaindia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimediaindia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Srikanth Ramakrishnan Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 6:02 PM To: Wikimedia India Community list Subject: Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] What's in it for me?

Sorry guys, looks like Google chopped off the bottom of my mail again. What I said was, when I asked my friend to contribute to the Tamil Media Contest, he told me- when I'm not getting paid for all my photos, why should I upload? Anyone who's gone thru similar experiences and can help me out?

On 12/16/11, Srikanth Ramakrishnan rsrikanth05@gmail.com wrote:

Heya all. I just wanted to share this quick mail with you and get your feedback. Over the past two years, I've actively been part of Wiki outreach efforts. Thru meetups, volunteering for the Bangalore Samskrit academy, trying to convince friends, classmates etc. I've had a lot of negative experiences with people askin me- What's in it for me? Mere liye kya hai? Ennaku enna kadaka porthu? I get laughed at when I say I'm doing gu voluntarily. Infact recently, when I tried to get a friend to contribute to our

-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan, Sathyamangalam-Gobichettipalayam Star Gazers Gang, Ukkadam, Coimbatore. My Commons uploads, now exceeding 75. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:ListFiles/Rsrikanth05

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-- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan. Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

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hi,

Only 2 practical things I've done:

1. Sit with them and edit the article that *they* enjoy editing at a WikiAcademy. 2. See if their interested in becoming friends on Facebook/Twitter and see if we can become 'edit buddies' and share the joy.

I haven't measured effectiveness but that's more because I have lesser time than the other person's enthusiasm or lack of it.

Some have become long term friends like Pranav (User:AroundTheGlobe), whom I met just 11 months back face 2 face. :) and some like Srikanth himself whom I've never met :)

Pradeep User:Prad2609 Handheld

On 17/12/2011, Ravishankar ravidreams@gmail.com wrote:

+1 for Eric and Barry.

Though we can list benefits like better writing skills, networking with similar people, global audience for our content, it is very hard to make someone a returning contributor based on these. Global / Indian education program is a good example. Even after intense and direct outreach, the conversion rate there is less.

I have done 10+ physical outreaches and the conversion rate is very very less. Outreaches are very much a branding exercise to increase awareness about Wikipedia. Not everyone can and will become a poet or a musician or an environmentalist or a human rights activist even if we do 100s of workshops. The same holds true for Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is a social cause in which the right contributor finds joy instantly. It is similar to the joy a kid feels at seeing a ball. You need not educate a kid about the ball but you just have to introduce it. People asking "what's in it for me in Wikipedia" are similar to people who ask "what's in it for playing". Almost 90% of very active Tamil Wikipedia editors jumped at the project once such a thing existed.

So, we should not worry about the people who ask "Why". Just spread the message to as many people by mass media ( *Even a TV ad campaign will be worth the spending* ) and focus on the people who ask "How". There are many such people who can relate with the cause of Wikipedia but they just don't know that it exists and they can contribute.

Ravi