[Foundation-l] Promoting non-en Wikipedias (was In defence of Google)

[Łukasz Garczewski]

On 1/21/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> So what can small Wikipedias (say, under 100,000 articles) do to
> achieve these effects - breadth and being up-to-date - as well? Are
> there other tacks they should try taking to achieve greater public
> awareness?

Thank you for mentioning this, David.

I suppose I wouldn't be a good ChapCom member if my first reply to
this question was other than "START A CHAPTER!"

The problem with promoting Wikipedias in languages other than English
is that the promotion is not very effective if done in English. The
impact is far greater if the communication is done in the native
tongue of the journalists and readers/viewers. Also, some of you might
be surprised how much the "hot topics" of Wikipedias may differ from
one language edition to the other - the English-language press team is
simply not prepared to tackle questions on a per project level. Only
active contributors to that specific project can do that.

So, my advice to the editors of the various Wikipedias is: If you want
to help promote Wikipedia in your language, think about starting a
chapter. If you have any questions regarding that, see:
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Local_chapter_FAQ
* http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Step-by-step_chapter_creation_guide
(other helpful documents are on the way, stay tuned)
Or contact ChapCom directly (see
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chapters_committee for more info on how
to do that)

We hope for a Wikimedia chapter in every country on earth, and then
some (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Wikimedia_local_chapters_map.png).
And we're here to help YOU achieve that. :)

-- 
Łukasz Garczewski [[m:User:TOR]]
Chapters Committee member