Grants:IdeaLab/Wikipedia Collaboration

Idealab

Wikipedia Collaboration

To increase collaboration on Wikipedia by simplifying the process of finding, creating, and growing WikiProjects.

idea creator• CoolieCoolster

this project needs...

volunteer

created on22:56, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

What problem are you trying to solve by doing this project? This problem should be small enough that you expect it to be completely or mostly resolved by the end of this project. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
On Wikipedia, collaborations, especially WikiProjects, help solve specific issues Wikipedia faces, and help new editors increase the quality of their edits over time. The problem is that sometimes it can be difficult for new editors to navigate through the different groups to find ones they may be interested in. It can also be difficult to see if a group they may be interested in joining exists or not, and if such a group doesn't exist, for editors who share the same goals to come together and create that group. If editors are able to form collaborative groups more simply, then they can focus on their respective goals and solve problems with Wikipedia more quickly.

What is your solution?

For the problem you identified in the previous section, briefly describe your how you would like to address this problem. We recognize that there are many ways to solve a problem. We’d like to understand why you chose this particular solution, and why you think it is worth pursuing. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
To address this issue, the process of finding, creating, and growing collaborative groups and WikiProjects needs to be restructured and simplified. There needs to be a better organized and simpler way of navigating the entire list of WikiProjects, and old, no longer active WikiProjects should be divided from active ones in order to make finding active ones simpler, and to make finding an inactive WikiProject to possibly revive simpler. Creating a new WikiProject should be simpler as well, which would be simplified with WikiProject page templates that people could use to quickly make a simple yet functional WikiProject page quickly. Also, if smaller WikiProjects were easier to find, more people interested in solving a specific issue could more easily come together to solve it. A more accurate search mechanism for WikiProjects, a better structured list of WikiProjects, and easier ways for small WikiProjects to grow themselves would solve this. Making finding and creating collaboration groups and WikiProjects would not only allow new editors to collaborate with more experienced editors more easily, but would also allow editors to solve the issues they want to solve in a more efficient way with others.

Project goals

What are your goals for this project? Your goals should describe the top two or three benefits that will come out of your project. These should be benefits to the Wikimedia projects or Wikimedia communities. They should not be benefits to you individually. Remember to review the tutorial for tips on how to answer this question.
The goals of such a project would be to simplify the processes of looking for, creating, and growing WikiProjects.

Get Involved

Expand your idea

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

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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!