Talk:Connect/IdeaLab

Welcome to IdeaLab

Hey folks, welcome to the community space for IdeaLab on Connect. I'm Jethro, and I maintain IdeaLab (and the Inspire Campaigns associated with them). You are welcome to use this space to:

• introduce yourself,
• ask questions about IdeaLab,
• seek others to help build and implement new ideas for Wikimedia projects, or
• offer advice or guidance to others with questions about how to develop and idea for our projects and implement it.

Thanks for dropping by, and feel free to ping me if you have questions. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:31, 15 June 2018 (UTC)

Frequently Asked Questions

What do Wikimedia Foundation staff do?
Staff are here to check out ideas that have been submitted as grant proposals. Some WMF collaborators also endorse, help out with Ideas, or create their own from time to time. WMF collaborators may also serve as advisors on ideas or subsequent projects.

I need help with my idea. Can I ask for help from Wikimedia Foundation staff?
It depends. General questions about IdeaLab and how to use it are always welcome here on Connect, or you can contact I JethroBT (WMF) who maintains this space.

For direct involvement and review of your project, while staff occasionally endorse or assist individual ideas, we're not as active or available as other members of the IdeaLab community. Staff will get involved with your idea once it has moved into the grant proposal stage.

If you have an idea that does not need funding, staff may be able to provide advising support to provide some guidance on how you might consider implement your idea. The good news is that IdeaLab is full of skilled Wikimedians from all around the world looking to engage with others. Meet them here.

I'm excited about my idea and want to develop it. Where do I go from here?

After you start developing your idea, it's a good idea to get some support from the IdeaLab community. Volunteers, endorsements, and discussion within the community can help make your idea happen, and is also a factor when making funding decisions for Wikimedia Foundation grants. You can also find potential volunteers for your idea here.

Some ideas are about changing project policies or guidelines. In many projects, this is achieved through discussion, often through a process called Requests for Comments. You can learn about Requests for Comments from the community here.

What type of Grant is right for me?

Some ideas in IdeaLab can be expanded into either Rapid or Project Grants. You can use the "Expand your idea" section at the bottom of each idea page, but make sure to read the guidelines and criteria for Rapid or Project Grants first. It's also a good idea to look at previous grant proposals for inspiration and examples.

Are there any tools to help me plan and implement my Idea?

Yes! Phabricator is a great tool to manage tasks and coordinate support with your idea, especially if it is related to a feature request, software development, or tool building. See this page to get started.

Grant Proposal

Hi, I'm Carl a Wikipedia Projects Contributors and I wish I would help you by proposals about the implementation and the sharing of knowledge by Wikimedia in my country. I disposed to help you everytime. Carl Zona (talk) 07:49, 22 June 2018 (UTC)

Members at a Glance

All Members

Need some help with your Idea?

Here, you can view IdeaLab members who share interests in certain types of projects, or who have relevant experience to your idea. If you'd like other IdeaLab members to be able to find your name here, then add your profile to one of the categories listed below, which are organized by interest and experience:

• IdeaLab members interested in gender gap projects
• IdeaLab members interested in global south projects
• IdeaLab members with community organizing experience
• IdeaLab members with design experience
• IdeaLab members with programming experience
• IdeaLab members with project management experience
• IdeaLab members with research experience

Why Critics are not welcome?

why there only two options "endors" and "join"? why not "critics"? (Idot (talk) 06:36, 22 July 2018 (UTC))

Concerns and criticism are best discussed on the discussion page of an idea. Concerns usually merit a response, clarification, or discussion around changes, and the best place for this is the discussion page. Furthermore, ideas that are controversial have attracted people to become critical on the main page in a disruptive manner with the intent to dissuade the idea creator from improving the idea and to drive them away from the campaign entirely. This kind of behavior is unacceptable, and its impact is much worse when it is prominently displayed on the idea page itself. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 08:59, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

• Wow!!!!Winged Blades of Godric (talk) 09:20, 22 July 2018 (UTC)
• if an idea IS WRONG why it should be supported and applied anyway? isn't it an ABSURD?! the changes should not make the current situation WORSE! (Idot (talk) 10:29, 22 July 2018 (UTC))

First, ideas are not implemented merely because they exist in an Inspire Campaign and have endorsements. it is a drafting space. Second, notions of "wrong" and "absurd" vary amongst editors, and usually this is not a particularly helpful way to think about ideas. If there's a specific idea you are concerned about, let me know and I will review it. Finally, sometimes, I do sometimes remove ideas from campaign because they're not related to the campaign or Wikimedia projects, or they are attempts to disrupt the campaign in some way. I do not remove ideas because someone considers it wrong without any other explanation or context. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 10:44, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

Concerns and criticism are best discussed on the discussion page of an idea I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 08:59, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

the endorce should be on the discussion page - too (Idot (talk) 10:32, 22 July 2018 (UTC))

Endorsements will remain on the idea pages. Please read this explanation for the rationale. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 10:44, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

it is WRONG! endorcemnet on the idea page will lead to false positive (Idot (talk) 10:50, 22 July 2018 (UTC))

@Idot: This convention has been in place for some years now and has not led to any inappropriate ideas being implemented, so I am unconcerned with this assumption. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 12:50, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

Photo uploading needs improvement

Make it easier to upload photos. Your system is lame. Difficult to navigate and constantly dealing with bots trying to remove your work.

Without more specific details about your circumstances, I'm not sure there is much I can do to help or direct you, but IdeaLab and the processes and policies around image uploading are . Images uploaded to Wikimedia Commons have to have an appropriate license compatible with our projects (CC-BY-SA 4.0 or public domain images are common) and there must be sufficient information about the creator and source of the image itself. For images on other projects, there can be some variation on these guidelines, such on English Wikipedia where some images are permitted under specific Fair Use criteria. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 23:58, 29 July 2018 (UTC)

An observation on (EN) Wikipedia dominance

I find it interesting that most of the suggestions concern the Wikipedia projects -- in distinction with Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, Wikisource, etc. -- if not specifically the English Wikipedia. Does this mean the other Wikimedia projects have healthy communities? Or are the members of those communities intimidated by the prominence of the English Wikipedia? -- Llywrch (talk) 00:27, 4 August 2018 (UTC)

Question on visibility (2018)

Its been 3 months or there about and I don't see even one view for my proposal (Grants:IdeaLab/Logout tool). Did I list it wrong or fail to follow through with some part of the process, or is it just that the idea lab is dead? TomStar81 (talk)

@TomStar81: Yes, for some reason the infobox Template:Probox/Idealab did not appear and was replaced with Template:Navbox instead, which basically prevented it from being visible on the pages it ought to be. The former template is normally supposed to appear by default, and contains some parameters that allow the page to appear on IdeaLab or Inspire Campaigns. I've just now adjusted it, and will look into this issue further. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:22, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

Well that explains alot. Hopefully this'll get my idea back in the game. Thanks for looking into this, I appreciate it. TomStar81 (talk) 20:34, 17 September 2018 (UTC)

Follow-ups in near future? (2020 > 2021 > 2022)

This looks like a super interesting activity. Any chance of Follow-ups in near future? Zblace (talk) 06:32, 29 October 2020 (UTC)

Hi I JethroBT (WMF) ! Yesterday on Meta-Wiki 20 I got reminded of these resources and came across my question here... I know you are busy with transition of Grants>Funding work but is IdeaLab still something usable as an infrastructure to direct new people with project ideas? --Zblace (talk) 10:07, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

Hi Z, while there are no Foundation staff actively curating or monitoring IdeaLab, the space is still operational from a technical standpoint. People can still create idea pages in this space and use them to get feedback on an idea from their community or from relevant Foundation staff before launching it into a grant proposal or some other means of implementation. FYI, the work of maintaining this space used to be my job -- with important support from a few others -- until I transitioned to supporting specific grant programs and other Foundation initiatives. I agree there is definite value in this space, and that we could do a better job of communicating that out to interested volunteers. I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 22:33, 21 November 2021 (UTC)

@Zblace and I JethroBT (WMF): I totally agree with the comments above; I think this whole concept looks highly useful. I would like to ask if we can please think of ways to make this available as an active current resource? very itnerested in any ways, ideas, etc that might enable us or help us to do so. --Sm8900 (talk) 17:10, 10 June 2022 (UTC)

Wikisheets

Wiki Sheets logo

A project to develop spreadsheets for Wikipedia and Wikimedia. So the data would be there and the graph can be updated by other people or automatically like FRED graphs are automatically updated. Instead of having to make graphs using 3rd party apps like Numbers for Apple, only that person can update that graph and re-upload it as of now. Wikideas1 (talk) 06:28, 19 September 2022 (UTC)

• Maps
• Graphs
• Tables
• Databases, .CSV file types