Best practices in giving a Wikipedia presentation

Pavel Hrdlička from Wikimedia Czech Republic talks about Wikipedia at Masaryk University in Brno (March 2009). For more pictures of Wikipedians giving presentations see the category Wikipedia presentations on Wikimedia Commons.

Share your experiences in giving Wikipedia presentations with others

First steps

• Start with thinking about the expectations of the audience and about your own goals
• Show your audience the numbers

Persuading people to start contributing to Wikipedia

• Tell people about our vision
• Tell people how you have benefited from contributing to Wikipedia
• Tell people why Wikipedia needs their help
• Include a practical "how to" demonstration on Wikipedia editing, illustrating that it is easy to get started. Begin small, showing how to add a wikilink, fix a typo, add a sentence or a phrase, and proceed from there.
• Try to reach people where they are. Request to give special Wikipedia presentations at non-Wikipedia events.

Being well prepared

• Frequently asked questions
• Tricky questions to expect

Other

• Some themes that might be interesting to build your presentation around
• …

Other resources

Presentation at Wikimania 2014

• Presentations – repository for presentations about Wikipedia
• Speakers – list of people who do presentations on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects
• Best practices documentation – other best practice pages on public outreach
• outreach:Bookshelf Project