Grants:IdeaLab/Measuring consensus for decision-making processes
Project idea
editWhat Wikimedia project(s) and specific areas will you be evaluating?
editIs this project measuring a specific space on a project (e.g. deletion discussions), or the project as a whole?
Consensus building and conflict resolution processes on Wikipedia, such as those listed here:
Describe your idea. How might it be implemented?
editProvide details about the method or process of how you will evaluate your community or collect data. Does your idea involve private or personally identifying information? Take a look at the Privacy Policy for Wikimedia’s guidelines in this area.
After a discussion such as a Request for Comments is closed, users would be provided with a mechanism for rating how effective the process was. This could take the form of a set of survey questions with 5-point scales, perhaps with some open-ended questions for feedback:
- How effective was the process for addressing the issue? (1 = Not Effective, 5 = Very Effective)
- How satisfied are you with the outcome? (1 = Very Dissatisfied, 5 = Very Satisfied)
- How easy or simple was this process to carry out? (1 = Complicated, 5 = Simple)
- Do you have any suggestions for making the process more effective, more satisfactory to all parties, or easier to carry out?
This survey could be made available as a link when the discussion is closed, or automatically sent out as a notification to participating users.
The results could be analyzed to identify processes that are major "pain points" for the editing community, either due to being overly complicated or failing to reach a solution that is satisfactory to the parties involved.
Are there experienced Wikimedians who can help implement this project?
editIf applicable, please list groups or usernames of individuals who you can work with on this project, and what kind of work they will do.
How will you know if this project is successful? What are some outcomes that you can share after the project is completed?
editIn the short term, high survey participation rates would indicate that users are making use of the opportunity to give feedback.
The overall goal of these metrics is to help guide process changes. So a long-term positive outcome would be to see the metrics improving over time as process changes are implemented.
How would your measurement idea help your community make better decisions?
editAfter you are finished measuring or evaluating your Wikimedia project, how do you expect that information to be used to benefit the project?
The metrics would provide an ongoing way to identify dysfunctional processes, give users a way to suggest improvements, and give Wikimedia projects a way to quantify the effects of process changes.
Do you think you can implement this idea? What support do you need?
editDo you need people with specific skills to complete this idea? Are there any financial needs for this project? If you can’t implement this project, can you scale down your project so it is doable?
This idea has the following technical requirements:
- A way to identify users involved in a process and prompt them for feedback
- A way to deliver surveys and store the results
- A way to access the results (raw data and aggregate values) for further analysis
I personally do not have the knowledge or capabilities to implement this idea. I believe this would developer support from the Wikimedia Foundation to implement the above requirements.
Get Involved
editAbout the idea creator
editParticipants
editEndorsements
editI like the idea very much. Quasipodo (talk) 21:50, 23 November 2018 (UTC)
Expand your idea
editWould a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation help make your idea happen? You can expand this idea into a grant proposal.
No funding needed?
editDoes 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 cschilling
wikimedia.org for help!