Wikipedia. Others struggle with the technical aspects of editing. Perhaps, the biggest challenge, however, is retention of editors following an initial training session or Edit-a-thon event.[1]
The main challenge when introducing new volunteers to Wikimedia projects is frequently apprehension or lack of confidence: Wikipedia is a large website, seen as an almost venerable institution, and its often misunderstood by the public; contributing to that large and mysterious project can be intimidating or simply unmotivating. Having a champion on hand to lend confidence to new contributors, helps speed through interpreting the project’s nuances and feedback systems. For example, its very useful to have someone with Wikipedia experience in new-contributor events to serve as interpreters. When more seasoned Wikipedia volunteers have first interactions with new editors, sometimes they are rather abrupt or less than welcoming. Having a human on hand to explain what a template means, or how to figure out if the critique of the new editor’s work is valid, provides in-person opportunities for modeling the community/social dynamic of developing content.
If you are planning on hosting an event to edit Wikipedia, it is also useful to make contact with a few experienced Wikipedians via their Wikipedia profiles; if you can get hold of editors with admin rights that’s even better. These editors will then be aware that a group of new editors is being trained and can offer appropriate online support -- such as patrolling new content to ensure that it won’t solicit poor responses from other editors.
In order to address these and other issues of building sustainable communities of local editors, most projects needs at least one champion. Such champions come in many guises, from enthusiastic outreach staff within libraries and proactive local community leaders to Wikimedian’s in Residence and online Wikimedia volunteers. As the Wikimedia community has grown and become more effective at outreach, we have found that it’s less important for these champions to fully understand Wikimedia projects, but more important is for them to have strong
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- ↑ A 2015 report from the Wikimedia Foundation shows that this number could be as low 5% at six months. See the report at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Evaluation/Evaluation_reports/2015/Editathons/Outputs. As the report notes, this does not represent all events -- only ones described through WMF grant reporting-- and our measuring strategies for generating these numbers may be inaccurate. We do have some evidence that sustained community activities have better retention results: in the Czech Republic, the public library did a training activity with senior citizens which used regular weekly trainings to get a 50% retention rate at three months: Dostál, Vojtěch. “Senior citizens learn to edit Wikipedia in the Czech Republic.” Wikimedia Blog, January 12, 2015. https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/01/12/czech-senior-citizens-learn-to-edit/. Librarians and other knowledge professionals also have higher retention rates, often returning to Wikimedia contributions after long periods of time to host events and do information literacy work alongside contribution. A number of projects since 2015, have shown continuous ability to bring repeated attention and participation from large communities, including Art+Feminism, Black Lunch Table and Afrocrowd in New York City, and #1lib1ref.
