Grants:IdeaLab/100 Greatest Series

Inspire campaign

100 Greatest Series

A funded periodic engaging and interactive programme using wikipedia and other media to encourage a target audience to read, learn, nominate and vote to create a crowdsourced list on various themes thus unravelling new and wider areas of reading interest and a growing and engaged readership.

idea creator• Lordorczy

this project needs...

volunteer

developer

advisor

project manager

community organizer

designer

researcher

created on19:40, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Audience

Who are the people you want to introduce Wikipedia to?

Try to be as specific as possible about this group.
Students, Internet Users, TV & Radio listenership in Ghana / Nigeria

In what languages do they search for information, online or otherwise?

English, Pidgin

In what ways does this group communicate with each other?

This can include services and apps in social media, mailing lists, physical spaces like conferences or lectures, or at specific institutions like at a library.
Events, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, TV & Radio

What are some reasons this group would use Wikipedia? How would they benefit from it, or what would they find useful?

Think about what they would be interested in reading and learning about; does Wikipedia provide better access to information this group cares about?
Wikipedia would serve as a great out-of-classroom learning resource as in many cases there is the lack of any. It would encourage literacy and readership and would allow individuals appreciate the context and opportunities to learn about the larger world from the small communities they live in. They would also find it useful in learning about ideas, events, people and things that have shaped how the world has come to be. I also am hopeful that some of these target audience would be inspired to contribute to wikipedia and unlock opportunities for others in their communities through their contributions.

Project idea

What language Wikipedia projects will you promote to new readers?

English Wikipedia, Pidigin Wikipedia (wiki does not yet exist, I hope one comes out of this effort.)

How will you communicate with new readers? Will you be communicating with them online, in-person, or both?

Student engagements, social media engagement, TV & Radio listenership in Ghana / Nigeria, Project website.

Describe your idea to engage new readers. How might it be implemented? What will you tell people about Wikipedia?

Think about the steps that might involved to make this idea happen, and what you might teach people about your experience or others' experiences using Wikipedia.
I hope to share my experience using Wikipedia as a great reading resource – and how resources like wikipedia have given libraries to every home and internet user.

This idea seeks to inspire readership with the suggestion, “Can we attract and engage people to wikipedia by reaching out to them in an interactive medium including traditional media". It could be implemented via:

• a theme for a series
• an interactive website that features nominees and links, wikipedia articles and good resources about nominees for people to explore articles
• social media engagement, tv and radio talk slots and promotion (and possibly even get partnerships/sponsorships from media houses to reach out to offline audiences), school visits for student engagements and interactions
• voting on website using the limited voting method
• If possible, articles for "100 Greatest Series" could have a flag/section indicating that is one and could have people vote on those pages as well.
• announcing the 100 list at the end of the voting period including a production highlighting the nominees and wiki articles to further learning beyond the series
• Iteration. For another series, another theme is picked to engage followers and focus on various areas of interest.

How will you know if this project is successful? What are some outcomes that you can share after the project is completed?

If you’re not certain about how to respond to this question when starting your idea, you do not need to answer it right now. Campaign participants and Wikimedia Foundation staff can help you consider some options.

• increased page views,
• increased debate and trending topics on social media,
• increased coverage of little known topics,
• wikipedia language support for ~30 million pidgin speakers in Nigeria and Ghana
• increased awareness of wikipedia,
• increased contributions to wikipedia,

Do you think you can implement this idea? What support do you need?

Do you need people with specific skills or resources to complete this idea? Are there any financial needs for this project? Do you need advising from Wikimedia Foundation staff?
To achieve this, I would love to work with a team on this. (I have friends who are wiki-contributors who might be excited about this) but I forsee the need for skills in media production, social media engagement, funding as well as support from the WMF staff.

Get Involved

About the idea creator

I'm a software engineer and founding staff with Viamo, formerly VOTO Mobile in solving the problems by creating equal opportunity through mobile phones to the underheard. Some past experience with my team include projects with UNICEF, Internet.org and the Wikimedia Foundation.

I love quizzes and reading about history and spend roughly 12-16 hours on wikipedia monthly (so my rescuetime tracking tells me). I'm also keen on engaging students in reading and quizzes having been a past quiz player on my university's team at the 2009 Zain Africa Challenge in Kampala.

I served as librarian during high school, I would often enjoy reading through almanacs and having discovered wikipedia as my pocket sized reading tool, there has been no going back since these 10+ years.

Expand your idea

Would a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation help make your idea happen? You can expand this idea into a grant proposal.

Expand into a Rapid Grant

No funding needed?

Does your idea not require funding, but you're not sure about what to do next? Not sure how to start a proposal on your local project that needs consensus? Contact Chris Schilling on-wiki at I JethroBT (WMF) (talk · contribs) or via e-mail at cschillingwikimedia.org for help!