The future of Wikimania

As the Wikimedia movement has grown and changed over time, so too has its annual, global conference Wikimania. The number of bids for next year’s event is a record low, with only two cities vying for the opportunity to host the event.

Perhaps this is signalling a change. Is the problem that groups of Wikimedians around the world (of which there are many) are logistically unable to play host to such a large group of people (last year’s conference in Washington, D.C. was the largest yet with around 1400 people in attendance)? (Granted the state of the global economy is doing little to help, too.)

Back in 2005 when the first Wikimania was organised in Frankfurt, the global community was not of the same size as it is at the moment. Last year, there were many global conferences about Wikimedia – aside from Wikimania: things like WikiSym, GLAMcamps, and large multinational WikiConferences (WikiConference India, for instance had many attendees).

So is it time for a new type of event? The downward trend may well continue as people feel unable to follow a hugely-impressive and well-attended event (like DC was last year, and the London bid – if it wins – promises to be for 2014).

One new model could be to only have a global Wikimania every other year, with large, conferences being organised every other year (for example an American conference, and a separate Eurasian conference, and others). This could well remove the appeal of Wikimania for some (that is, travelling to, and meeting editors from foreign climes).

Something will change very soon, either the increase in people attending these conferences will level off, there will be more emphasis placed on regional events, or Wikimania will change, greatly.

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Edit: February 17 2013

The coordinator of the 2014 London bid made some comments on Twitter.

@TheRockDrum I'd be wary of drawing such conclusions at this stage. Perhaps there will be lots of bids next year? Last year had plenty.

— Edward Saperia (@edsaperia) February 16, 2013

@TheRockDrum notably also WMF is changing how it deals with Wikimania; hiring an event manager for one.

— Edward Saperia (@edsaperia) February 16, 2013

Interesting points. Join in the conversation in the comments below or on Twitter (I’m @TheRockDrum).

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GLAMcamp London

I love me a good GLAMcamp and when I was given the opportunity to spend a weekend at the British Library with some general GLAM-Wiki types, I jumped at the chance. I wanted to try and share the essence of the event with you in this post, rather than the nitty gritty of what happened. If that’s more your thing, head over to the WMDE blog and check out Kilian Kluge’s fantastic post there.

Like with all GLAMcamps, I think that this weekend was just as much about the social aspect of the Wikimedia movement.¹ We’re a community that operates almost exclusively online (although outreach projects like GLAM are an exception to that) and events such as this are a fantastic way to refresh your interest in the community, meeting people you’ve worked with online can make future interactions with them much easier.

Two attendees discuss general GLAM-ourousness at the British Library.

It was fantastic to meet up with people I’d talked with at Wikimania and others who hadn’t been able to make it to DC. We also went to Platform nine and three quarters at King’s Cross. Which was pretty awesome.

One of the biggest outcomes of the event was planning for a GLAM Bootcamp. This was meant to be a way of “Making more Multichills“; it came from the idea of some sort of one-to-one training (in which Maarten would take trainees into the forest for training in Freedom of Panorama and rabbit-skinning, or something).

Anyway, GLAMcamp was great – as always. Where next?

Footnotes:
¹ Still not MySpace, though!

10 ways to help new editors

The WMF are currently doing their damnedest to get new people editing the Wikimedia projects. Or – more accurately – they’re trying to get new editors to stay once they’ve signed up. It’s no easy task, though; despite repeated encouragement to not bite newcomers, at times it’s hard to remember that there’s a real person on the other end of that username or IP and that the first message that they’re left on a talk page is often the difference between them continuing to edit, or moving on and forgetting about contributing.

So, while I’m no expert, I’ve put together a list of little things (in no particular order) that individual editors, not the WMF or chapters, can do to help.

1. Assume good faith: When leaving a new user their first message it’s important that they’re welcomed, even if their only action has been what looks like a test – to see if “it really lets me edit”. Thank them for deciding to try out editing and encourage them to get more involved. Do try and avoid either giving them a curt brush-off or hundreds of links to messy introduction pages. Consider whether templates they’re receiving are friendly – and if not, be bold and improve them. 🙂
2. Keep your signature under control: While I don’t feel as strongly as some when it comes to user signatures, it’s best to try and avoid making them too fancy. It should at the very least link to your userpage and talk page and, if you’re feeling especially adventurous, your contributions too. It shouldn’t be too wild – signatures should all look uniform. If a talk page features lots of messages with wildly-different signatures at the end it can only make things more confusing.
3. Avoid acronyms when talking to new editors  (or AAWTTNE, for short): Experienced editors remember to AGF and are well aware of the 3RR, and we know all about DYK and AfD – but do the new users? This is even more confusing if they don’t speak English as a first language and using jargon such as these TLAs can – and does – exclude people.
4. Invite them to the Teahouse: The Teahouse project (named after the “Will you have a cup of tea, Father” guideline, as I refer to it¹) aims to provide a friendly space where new editors can interact on a forum with editors new and old alike and get help. The pilot went really well for several reasons; it was all about human interaction (it’s genuinely worrying how many people’s first talk page message is a warning from a bot) and… it looks like a properly-designed website. A decent interface really matters, huh.
5. Don’t just point them to the bureaucracy – actually help: If they’re contesting a deletion (and they’re not in the wrong), don’t just give them a link to Deletion review. Chances are that if they’re new they have a snowball’s chance in Hell² of working out how to use such a process. Offer to help by letting them do it, but guiding them through the process. 🙂 Even if the article’s been deleted correctly, explain to them why – maybe they’ll channel their energy into positive things and work on content on wiki (or write about something that is notable!).
6. Adopt them, or help them find an adopter: So there’s this thing on Wikipedia called adopt-a-user where experienced editors “adopt” someone who needs help and teaches them the ropes. It’s helpful to have someone teach you what to do rather than having to trawl through loads of policies and guidelines and such like. More info here.
7. Show them some #wikilove: There’s an extension installed – give it some use; congratulate them when they do something good to encourage them!
8. Encourage them to use Userboxes etc.: Even though “it shouldn’t matter” allowing people to identify with subcultures makes them feel more at home; it makes editing Wikipedia more fun. We know it’s not MySpace, but perhaps we can learn something from social networks. 😉
9. Teach them the tricks of the trade: It’s unlikely that anyone will be able to pick up how stuff works on the English Wikipedia just by reading through page after page of acronyms and general rubbish. I find that WP:42 sums up the citing-your-sources thing pretty well, for instance. It’s worth showing them where the useful places to find information or help.
10. Your suggestions! Please comment below with ways you think that members of the editor community can help newcomers to Wikipedia. It was discussed a lot at Wikimania this year and is a really important issue for the future of the movement. 🙂

Footnotes:
¹ Context is everything: This should provide some context
² We actually have a policy guideline essay about this on the English Wikipedia: WP:SNOWBALL 

My Wikimania 2012

So I’ve been in Washington, D.C for the past few days for Wikimania 2012. I’ve never been to a Wikimania before so it’s been really interesting and exciting.

It all began on Thursday evening at the Library of Congress. I was told that it was meant to represent all the world’s knowledge and it did that pretty well; the intricate paintwork and marble that covered the roof and walls brought a brightness to the old building. There was a small music group (2 violins, double bass, accordian) playing and a seemingly bottomless supply of food brought out by bow tie-wearing waiters and waitresses. I got to chat to loads of cool people (some Wikimedia-y, some not) and eat some good food.

The Capitol at sunset, from the LoC. (not my photo)

Thursday, the first day of the main conference began with Mary Gardiner’s keynote. She made several good points about editor retention and increased participation (hopefully I’ll have a blogpost vaguely related to this, soon). Jimmy’s “State of the Wiki” presentation included some of his choice fundraiser banner parodies and gave out his now-annual “Wikipedian of the Year” and “WMF employee of the year” awards.

There were loads of good talks on various topics. The only problem I’ve noticed with the conference is a lack of chairs in the non-theatre rooms.

In the evening, I went to a GLAM networking event at the Newseum. I started talking to some men from the Library of Congress but I got confused when they started debating the difference between modern and contemporary art. Apparently the early 20th century is modern and since then is contemporary. I don’t even… what?

Jonathan Morgan draws a dinosaur on his badge during Wikimania 2012.

There were more good talks on Friday and at the end I headed over to the Wikia metup for free Pizza and T-shirts (W00t).

Saturday began with an opening plenary from Sue Gardner. She talked about the decline in editors and touched on the feedback dashboard (which is occasionally much lulz).

After our “WikiMen’s lunch” (because the women were all elsewhere) I headed over to finish off preparing for a QRpedia workshop that I had been co-opted to help out with. I had fun sharing what I knew about QRpedia with those there and live-tweeting the session from the @QRpedia Twitter account (which you should definitely go and follow if you don’t already)

From what some of the attendees said we can expect some great new QRpedia installations soon.

I’m off now to the closing party at Buffalo Billiards. I’ll see anyone who’s going there and hopefully everyone else at a Wikimedia event soon!

A very Dutch weekend in Amsterdam – Day 2 (Saturday)

This post is going up quite late but I wanted to share the awesome-ness of GLAMcamp Amsterdam. For more information on the event see the page on Meta or subscribe to This Month in GLAM (there’s going to be a report on the weekend!).

Saturday was the day we really started doing things. The first item on the schedule was lightning talks. I was third up and presented (for 5 minutes – it was a lightning talk) on This Month in GLAM. It was only as I finished that Liam told me I was running a session on Sunday (we Wikimedians don’t leave things to the last minute, though), on the newsletter. You can see my slides here.

There were lots of sessions during the day which focussed on a plethora of different issues and topics. There’s not much point in recording them all here as there are summaries on the etherpads for each session (linked to from the schedule) but I’d like to talk briefly about a couple of them.

I didn’t really take part in the first two lots of sessions because I was busy finishing off the November edition of This Month in GLAM. The QRpedia session after lunch was great in introducing those new to the codes and Andy Mabbet (who was running the session) talked a little about how/where they’re currently in use (apparently the occupy movement are – cool or what?).

A Wikipedian ponders something too deep for words at the Amsterdam Museum.

In the evening we were treated to a private tour of the Amsterdam Museum. Following an introduction from the general director of the museum, we split up into groups. Each group started in a different place and then moved onto another area.

My group began in the archives where we were shown the old system of using cards to document every item in their collection, and their new digital system (their objects database is available online). Maarten (yes, a fourth Maarten) who worked there also told us they will on ocasion refuse objects which don’t have an Amsterdam collection.

We were also shown the new “Amsterdam DNA codes”: QR codes on the back of the guide booklet (which was available in multiple languages) which when scanned would play a short film about a certain topic in the language of the booklet. Cool, eh?

They also had an interactive exhibit which involved the use of what looked like Kinect to select things on a screen.

The day ended with a dinner at a nearby restaurant, with the museum staff who had lead the tours.