Proposal:Involving older people

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The status of this proposal is:
Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

Strategic Priorities

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1. Achieve continued growth in readership
2. Focus on quality content
3. Increase Participation
4. Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
5. Encourage Innovation

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Summary

Increasing the participation of older people specifically those of retirement age

Proposal

Contacting age related organisations/clubs/sites with view to eliciting both interest in understanding, use and contribution to Wikipedia

Motivation

Older people are often isolated by the perceived(and actual)complexity of internet use. The physical limitations that age can place on a potential user/contributor may inhibit them from travelling to areas of interest in the physical world. They do, however, have a vast store of knowledge that is frequently overlooked. In the first instance the participation could be encouraged by eliciting 'memorable moments'. A WikiHistory. Additionally, there is likely to be a large amount of photgraphic media available for scanning. Likely benefits, apart from increased capability in internet usage, is stimulation of the mind. Another could be reuniting colleagues/friends/family separated by time and distance. Much of recent history information could be immeasurably enriched by the experience and media of people who were actually there

Key Questions

How to establish liasons with these people possibly through supervisor, carers or family. The segmentation of information received into time/event categories Finding the right editors capable of sifting and arranging information in a way that values participation

Potential Costs

Potentially time only. Though some data collection requiring travel and/or a physical presence

References

• meta:Wikipedia Trainers
• Proposal:Publicize reference desk services and article readership statistics
• Proposal:Stupidity of increasingly smaller crowds

Community Discussion

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Want to work on this proposal?

1. .. Sign your name here! monkglen