[Foundation-l] Rodovid.org, family tree wiki, wishes to become a wiki project

[Robert Scott Horning]

Benjamin Webb wrote:

>I have not yet recived any real reply about this project. I would like to
>hear from someone whether it could actually become a wikimedia project, and
>what would need to happen before it could. Any comments would be apreciated.
>
>Benjamin Webb (User:Bjwebb on wikipedia, meta, commons, wikibooks, rodovid
>and wikitree)
>
>P.S. It has a meta page at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Rodovid.org
>  
>
What really needs to happen now is to refine the proposal page and get 
it into a position that spells out in clear langauge what all of the 
objectives of the project are, and perhaps even what some initial 
policies might be.

I would suggest comparing it to the following pages for a similar level 
of completeness before you get much further:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity/Modified_project_proposal
http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews&oldid=87446  (to 
compare to how Wikinews did its proposal back elsewhen)

After this, the proposal pages need to be translated into at least four 
other major Wikimedia languages like Russian, Spanish, French, Chinese, 
etc.  The full list of suggested langauges is at: 
 http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/New_project_policy

Afterward a voting page needs to be set up and some advertisements for 
voting on the project need to be put on Goings-on for Meta and several 
Village Pumps on various projects.  For the Wikiversity vote, I set up a 
series of ads to be translated on 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikiversity/Vote

This really made it easy to go to the various Wikimedia websites and 
drop a note informing people that the vote was taking place.  The idea 
here is that you need to involve as many Wikimedia users in the decision 
making process as possible, and to remember that not everybody speaks 
English.  Indeed the non-English speaking group of Wikimedia users is so 
substantial that it really makes no sense to start a new major project 
without a major effort to get input from these other language groups.

After that, you should have a legitimate answer or some solid input from 
Wikimedia users in general over if the idea is a good one or not.  Due 
to the nature of this project, widespread input is especially 
recommended.  Mind you, all of the above steps are outlined in the 
official New Project Policy, as approved by the Wikimedia Foundation 
board.  The examples I cite are from successful projects that at least 
have the attention of the board and very substantial community support.

If you want some assitance on this, feel free to e-mail me privately or 
hit my user talk page on Wikibooks (the best way to get ahold of me). 
 Most members of the special projects committee (of which I'm not a 
part) would also be willing to help you out as well in terms of general 
assistance or to answer questions about this process.

-- 
Robert Scott Horning