OKA/Onboarding quick start & resources list

This page contains the instructions provided to OKA grant recipients for translating Wikipedia (WP) articles. For transparency, it is publicly available. OKA editors are usually new, with no prior experience in editing Wikipedia.

Welcome to OKA! This guide provides you with all the instructions required for a smooth start. It also lists the key resources that you may need in your work – feel free to bookmark it.

Internal tools

Communicating with other freelancers

We try to avoid email communication and use chat and comments within docs instead. Feel free to reach out to your peers if you need help (email, chat, video conference, etc.), or even if you just want to talk to get to know them!
Make sure to also join the group spaces (only available to OKA members):
- Wiki questions and best practices, where you can ask questions related to Wikipedia and share tips
- General, where you can chat about anything else. That's also where admins post updates

Tracking time

Keep track of your hours in app.clockify.me.
On average, you should bill no more than 40h per week, but you have full flexibility on when you work (time of the day, day of the week).
- You can, for example, work 6h one day, and 10h the next day.
- You can take days off whenever you want, but these are not paid.
When entering hours, select the project and add the name of the article on which you worked (in English) as description.
- You should bundle all work related to the same article in a single entry (e.g., combining translation, formatting, etc.)

Processes & guidelines

Review the our onboarding documents:

Translations checklist (optional -- recap of the documents above)

Working lists

Tracking your work: please also keep the list of articles you are working on or completed daily up to date this file:

OKA - Wiki pages created / to be created

Ways of working

Responding to messages outside of working hours

OKA has grant recipients and volunteers based in many different countries around the world, with various time zones and working preferences. As a result, you will often receive messages (e.g., emails, chat messages) outside of your working hours.

However, you are not expected to read nor reply to these messages right after you received them! For example, if an admin messages you during a Sunday but you only work on Wednesdays to Fridays, it is completely ok to wait until Wednesday to reply to the message.

Contact a Team Manager

Use the following links to schedule time with a Team Manager (only by prior arrangement via chat or email):