[Foundation-l] Fwd: [Wikimediaindia-l] Improving outreach efforts in India

Wed Feb 15 12:58:30 UTC 2012

See below for a great presentation of problems in conducting outreach
events and wiki workshop by Nitika Tandon.

It discusses events in India, but most of it is relevant for the whole world.

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

‎---------- Forwarded message ----------‎
From: Nitika ‎<ntandon at wikimedia.org>‎
Date: 2012/2/13
Subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Improving outreach efforts in India
To: Wikimedia India Community list ‫wikimediaindia-l at lists.wikimedia.org‬

Dear All,

The following is a post I've put up on the India Program page on meta
regarding outreach (Please
see:http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:India_Program/Outreach_Programs).
Please do comment on the page itself; I'm posting it on this mailing
list only to make sure it doesn't slip your attention.

We have conducted over 13 outreach sessions in the past one month and
have many more events scheduled to participate in over the coming
weeks. (Please see:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Outreach_Sessions).
 It's amazing that we're doing so many outreach events all over the
country to create awareness about Wikipedia, motivate attendees to
learn about editing and training newbies to contribute to Wikipedia in
their own special way.

The single biggest challenge is that we don't know the actual outcome
of these efforts in most cases, and the results are weak when we have
the data. I think most of us agree that outreach can be made to work
better. (For example, 2 outreach sessions conducted recently by the
Assamese community had about 80 participants, and 8 active editors
emerged - which is a hit rate of 10% - which is FANTASTIC!) For most
other sessions, the results have been closer to 1-2% or even lower -
which is depressing. What makes outreach work? How can outreach work
better? Is there anything you need from me?

Over the past 3 months, I have been working on building a handbook for
Outreach (Please see:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Program/Outreach_Programs/Handbook)
where you can get presentation material and tips. Please do go through
it and help me build it.

My post consists of 5 (deliberately) provocative statements on the day
of and the days after an outreach session. These are framed with the
objective of generating debate and suggestions.

THE DAY OF

Hypthesis 1: Don't Shoot the Puppy: Outreach is not being done
effectively and we aren't adequately introspecting on what we can do
better; instead choosing to lose faith in attendees

Should we discontinue general introduction sessions completely and
just convert everything into Wiki workshops? Every second of volunteer
time is precious and we need to make sure that every second is made to
count. The good sessions appear to be those where people are actually
shown how to edit - rather than just doing a song-and-dance about
Wikipedia.
The best sessions are those where people have actual hands-on editing
opportunity. Shall we limit the intro session on Wikipedia to just 15
minutes and then spend 45 minute on basic editing, 30 minutes on
hand-on editing and leave 30 minutes for Q&A?
Not everyone is a natural presenter and might need help on basic
outreach skills. Is there value and interest in a capacity building
roadshow where we help existing editors who want to improve their
outreach and presentation skills? Is it useful to pair up a good
presenter with a not-so-confident presenter when we are doing
outreach?

THE DAY AFTER

Hypothesis #2: Staying in Touch: We assume the job is complete after
the outreach session when in fact the journey has only just begun

Can we gather (basic) information about attendees (e.g., names,
usernames & email IDs?) so that we can stay in touch with them after
sessions?
Can we get feedback on sessions (duration, level of detail, quality of
presenters, etc.?) so that we can all improve? Do we need some sort of
CRM solution for this or will something like Google Docs suffice?
How do we get more folks to actually provide their contact details and
feedback? Which of the following will get higher response rates:
asking for these just before the end, immediately after the end or the
day after a session?

Hypothesis #3: Nudge-Nudge: Newbies struggle with the most basic
things - including which article to select

Should we send links to useful wiki pages and tutorial videos where
they can read up more about how Wikipedia works and how to edit
Wikipedia? Can we leave handouts on basic editing after all sessions?
Can we send them links to the actual presentations made at the
session.
Can we suggest / elicit potential articles that individual newbies
will work on after the workshop? Can we give them individual pointers
on what they can do with each article by reviewing them there-and-then
during the session?
Can we schedule a follow-up session (even if virtually using google+
hangout) to clarify any doubts about Wikipedia editing or otherwise -
maybe 2 weeks after a session?

Hypothesis #4: Loneliness - Newbies feel alone and the only time they
sense the community is when their edits get reverted

Should we not encourage them to join project pages (such as the
WP:INDIA) and/or the India mailing list and/or their city/language
mailing list to get involved with the community?
Can we involve them in COTM or conduct specific editathons for them?
Can we celebrate their successes and get newbies to talk to other
newbies about how they learnt stuff?

Hyptothesis #5: Black Hole: No one has a clue about the actual results
of outreach

Can we regularly monitor number & % of active editors after 1 and 3
months of conducting all events? Can we figure out % of mainspace
edits from these newbies after 1 and 3 months? Can this be analysed to
provide recommendations on how we can do things better?
Can we actively reach out to those who look like they are struggling?
Do we need a CRM tool for something like this?
Is it useful to track and attempt to co-relate age / profession /
subject (if student) / sex of participants to figure out what is
likely to give greatest results?

I have been working to see how can we overcome these challenges and
make our outreach efforts far more effective. I'd love to hear from on
the above. Some of you have been actively involved in outreach
sessions (attending or conducting or planning) an I'd like to know
your thoughts and suggestions which might serve as solutions for this
set of very real challenges.

Thanks

Nitika

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