Wikimedia Foundation/Communications/Resource center/Resource center development
Sharing knowledge on Wikimedia communications — Please add!
Future plans
The long-term goal for this resource center is to be a source of information for any member of the Wikimedia community interested in engaging in communications around our work. Ultimately, the hope is to be a resource for Wikimedians who have been contacted by reporters, coordinating communications efforts for affiliates, or just interested in getting more involved with raising awareness of Wikimedia through the media.
You are invited to contribute your ideas for the library, tips for others, or resources you believe will be helpful to others.
Ideas
How can the library be made better? Feel free to add your ideas here, or on the discussion page.
- Collection of links to outside resources
Tools for communication managers
- A library with open source tools that can facilitate the outreach work for communication managers.
- I met Ilya at Wikimania. He is here representing My Simple Show, an online software that allows you to do explainer videos. There are two cool things about this project, compared to others:
- The graphics are open licensed. They have released this feature about two months ago. They worked with their lawyers to make the resource open, and with this feature, the creator can release their video with the license they want. Even thought the software is not open source yet, the graphics are, and this is usually the main blocker for online tools in general.
- It is very easy to use. Like super easy! You are encouraged to use a short script, but the coolest thing is that, when you enter specific words, it finds the illustrations for you. So, provided you have a good and clear script, you actually have very little work to do. Once you have the first version of the video (that is, when the software processed your words into illustrations), you can chose among a few variants of the same drawing. Finally, you can also add voice over. They are working to make the tool even better, and there will be some really cool releases in the coming months (involving Wikidata!). My Simple Show has been working with Wikimedia Austria for the past 2 years. Their videos are linked on many Wikimedia projects, but mostly on Simple English Wikipedia. Ilya was happy to be connected with this awesome group of communicators when I asked him; considering the work they are doing it would be good for the project to be able to consult with users directly, and you should feel free to contact him as well, if you have any questions.
Tentative timeline
While development of this resource center will remain an ongoing effort, here is a tentative timeline for the next steps in its development.
- October 2016
- Introduce resource center to community via mailing lists.
- Seek feedback from community.
- November - December 2016
- Further development based on feedback.
- Early 2017
- Introduce resource center to broader community.
How you can help
Everyone is welcome to contribute ideas here, on the discussion page, or by making edits directly to the library. This library is a resource for you, and in true Wikimedia spirit, you are invited to edit and contribute to its content.
Each section of the library includes frequent questions and challenges. Feel free to pick a challenge, provide a short possible solution, link to interesting further reading, add a challenge, or improve on things that others have started working on!
Have an idea for the library? Submit it above. You can also claim an idea and move it to the section marked for resources in development.