Fellowship News/Current
| Fellowship News |
| VOLUME 1 | November 2012 | ◄ ISSUE 6 |
| General Fellowship Updates |
| by Siko Bouterse, Head of Community Fellowship Program |
Three fellowship projects are still in full swing! See below to learn what's new with Dispute Resolution on English Wikipedia, new-user help systems on Bangla Wikipedia, and the global WikiWomen's Collaborative project. |
| Dispute Resolution Project |
| led by Steven Zhang |
A second survey started running this month to follow up on the results of the first DR survey. This survey focuses on existing dispute resolution volunteers, in an effort to learn more about their motivations, experiences and ideas and identify ways to retain and recruit more volunteers. Responses are filing in and results will be released in December. An IRC office hours session took place at the end of the month to solicit feedback and input from the community, and while the universal DR wizard is still being developed, alternative ideas from the community are being explored, such as having all dispute resolution requests filed at a central location to undergo an assessment by volunteers, then sent to the best forum to resolve the dispute, ways to provide more recognition for volunteers, and the idea to make discussions at the dispute resolution noticeboard binding for a period of time after a successful conclusion. |
| Small Wiki Editor Engagement Project |
| led by Tanvir Rahman |
Results from the 6-week help page pilot designed specially for new editors suggest that help page improvements have doubled active new editors on Bangla Wikipedia. During the pilot (from September 12 to October 28) the number of new editors (defined as those who have made less than 100 total edits) and made at least 5 edits to Bangla Wikipedia during this period was 50, compared with just 21 editors during the 6 weeks prior to the pilot period (from August 26 to September 11). The number of new articles created per day was also stable at about 7.13 articles per day. A detailed final report is still forthcoming. Meanwhile, for the next experiment we intend to focus on experimenting with a new support system for new editors, to help them find answers to frequently asked questions and also ask questions of experienced editors more easily. |
| WikiWomen's Collaborative |
| led by Sarah Stierch |
The WikiWomen's Collaborative has entered its second phase. The focus of phase two is to create a fully sustainable project that will be maintained by the community as this fellowship comes to a close, and to focus on engaging women who are not yet editing Wikipedia. We're looking at a framework that can support a large and diverse group of WikiWomen volunteers developing content for the project, process improvements with the Wikimedia Foundation Communications department for publishing blog posts, and continued exploration of calls to action and tasks that can engage and inspire women to participate in the project and in Wikipedia. |