Proposal:Hold Wiki knowledge drives
Every proposal should be tied to one of the strategic priorities below.
Edit this page to help identify the priorities related to this proposal!
- Achieve continued growth in readership
- Focus on quality content
- Increase Participation
- Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
- Encourage Innovation
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Summary
Wikimedia could promote "Wikidrives", sponsored by volunteers in their local communities, as a way to raise funds and quality resources. If more people volunteered their expertise to create resources (especially needed on the Wikiversity project), then Wikimedia could perhaps find more fund donors who would see the value of the sites as centers for free learning and resources for all.
Proposal
On each Wikimedia project there could be a Wikidrive home base (portals on Wikiversity, etc.), showing model WikiDrives and giving advice on how to recruit new learning resource donors. At each WikiDrive there should be Wikiproject promotional fliers, at least one for each Wikiproject, giving basic information about the projects. Wikidrives could also be held at school computer labs, and an experienced editor could guide new volunteers through Wikiproject tutorials.
Motivation
There is a serious lack of educated editors on the Wikiprojects, due to a lack of real organization and tutorials. Wikidrives could help with that. Also, the Wikiprojects could use more serious editors, especially programs like Wikibooks, Wikiversity and Commons. If there were more resources on the Wikiprojects other than Wikipedia, Wikimedia could gain significantly more credibility than it currently has. There needs to be a serious editing and organization education program at the Wikidrives, and people need to be motivated to contribute to the program.
Key Questions
- How many participants can we realistically expect to see at a Wikidrive?
- The idea of free, quality education has immense appeal: this is what should be stressed at a Wikidrive. Everybody has some area of knowledge that they can contribute; everybody has areas that they are interested in learning about. Students can use resources like Wikiquote, Wikiversity, Commons, Wikispecies, etc. to assist in their research and homework. If the Wikidrives are sufficiently promoted and enough interest is garnered, we will hopefully see enough participants to make a Wikidrive worthwhile. If even a few motivated and educated editors decide to contribute to the projects after a Wikidrive, the goal has been accomplished.
- Is mass education efficient?
- People pay to take computer courses, and we assume that they have learned enough to make their money worthwhile. A free, volunteer-run Wikidrive should do the same as long as we can get people motivated about the projects.
Potential Costs
There might be costs to volunteers to rent the computer labs, in which case a free will donation might be requested of Wikidrive participants.
References
Community Discussion
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