Submissions/WikiProjects: yesterday, today and tomorrow

This submission is on the wait list for Wikimania 2013.

Submission no.: 5071
Subject no.: C7 or T5

Title of the submission: WikiProjects: yesterday, today and tomorrow

Type of submission: Presentation

Author of the submission: Jonathan T. Morgan

Country of origin: United States of America

Affiliation: University of Washington, Wikimedia Foundation

E-mail address: jmo25uw.edu

Username: Jtmorgan

Personal homepage or blog: jtmorgan.net

Abstract

The WikiProject may be one of our community's greatest innovations. In 2013 many WikiProjects on the English language Wikipedia are thriving, but others are inactive or semi-active and many, many more fail to get off the ground in the first place. Assuming we want to keep WikiProjects around, how do we support them better? In this presentation I will share recent findings from a two-year long mixed-methods study of over 100 projects and suggest some strategies for reviving dormant WikiProjects and keeping active ones humming along.

Detailed proposal

WikiProjects have garnered a lot of positive press over the years. The Signpost runs a regular featured project spotlight; a passel of academics have studied what makes projects tick and what they do for Wikipedia; more recently, even our esteemed Deputy Director has gotten into the action. However, despite the valuable role WikiProjects play in engaging new editors, scaling consensus, encouraging contribution by subject matter experts and encouraging collaboration , there's still a lot we don't know about WikiProjects. For example:

...why do some projects fail and others succeed?
…how do WikiProjects and the work they do change over time?
…how are WikiProjects organized in other languages, or on other Wikimedia projects?

There's compelling evidence to suggest that there's more than one way to run a WikiProject, and that WikiProjects don't necessarily need to be huge and well-organized (yes, I'm looking at you right now, Military History!) to engage editors and perform valuable work. However, many projects struggle with low levels of participation, a lack of leadership. And even active projects know the pain and anguish of seeing their editing and recruitment drives fall flat even as their work backlogs continue to mount.

There are a bevy of promising new tools and features in the Wikimedia Foundation development pipeline that will support WikiProjects in the future, but is there anything we can do right now? What can we learn from today's triumphs and yesterday's trials to help build a brighter tomorrow? In this presentation I will share some insights from two years of my own research on WikiProjects and my experience launching and participating in one active WikiProject, the Teahouse. I will propose some actionable strategies and share a few simple tools that may help other Wikipedians keep the projects they love happy and healthy for years to come. And I will invite you to work with me to keep this conversation going: WikiProjects have a excellent track record of developing new solutions to old problems. Let's see if we can come up with some solutions to the problems that WikiProjects face.

Track: WikiCulture and Community

Length of presentation/talk: 25 Minutes

Language of presentation/talk: English
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Wikiproject Participation & Mentorship (WSOR 2011 research sprint)
Visualizing WikiProject Activity (WSOR 2011 research sprint)
Wikiprojects as Virtual Teams (University of Washington research study)

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Daniel Mietchen (talk) 23:31, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, yes, yes! Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:22, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sbouterse (talk) 22:47, 25 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Phoebe (talk) 22:42, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Sharihareswara (WMF) (talk) 02:09, 1 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
SarahStierch (talk) 16:06, 3 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Multichill (talk) 15:01, 4 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
sats (talk) 15:44, 8 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Mitchan14 (talk)
Waldir (talk) 04:07, 19 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]