Task force/China

The task force process is completed. Some task forces may be reconstituted to discuss incomplete issues. Please discuss on the Village Pump.

Relevant Wikimedia-pedia Articles

Participants should be sure they're familiar with the relevant background material. They should also work to identify gaps and collect and summarize more information as it becomes available.

• China
• Ting Chen. Interview with Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustee member.
• Comparison with Baidu and Hudong
• Censorship

Weekly Reports

• Task force/China/Weekly Report 01
• Task force/China/Weekly Report 02
• Task force/China/Weekly Report 03
• Task force/China/Weekly Report 04
• Task force/China/Weekly Report 06
• Task force/China/Weekly Report 07
• Task force/China/Weekly Report 08

Proposals

• Call_for_proposals#Language_issues
• Call_for_proposals#Extending_coverage

Members

• Mountain
• Jeromy-Yu Chan, Yuyu
• IsaacMao
• Dr. Robert Y. Chu
• Julian Stargardt
• Josh Weinstein
• Philg88
• Tangos
• Arilang1234
• leopoldwilson
• OhanaUnited
• Philip Tzou

Supporting: User:Sarah476 and Philippe Beaudette

Mandate

The goal of this task force is to help set the strategy for realizing the full potential of the Wikimedia projects among the 300 million and growing online users in China, addressing challenges of openness and competition. The Wikimedia projects underperform in China both in terms of reach and participation, primarily because of the presence of local "competitors" (Baidu and Hudong) and because the projects have often been inaccessible in China.

The goal of the task force is to develop 2-4 recommendations by January 12, 2010 on how Wikimedia projects can increase reach and participation inside China. This task force will focus solely on Chinese people who have internet access.

The task force should develop answers to these questions to help guide their work:

1. What are the underlying causes of Wikimedia's limited take-off in China?
2. How is Wikipedia performing in comparison to Hudong and Baidu? To what extent, does Wikimedia have unique assets or advantages that would fill needs that competitors cannot?
3. How should Wikipedia position itself in relation to Hudong and Baidu? Are there partnership opportunities either with Hudong/Baidu or with others?
4. What are the priority needs of editors and readers of the Chinese Wikipedia?
5. How should Wikimedia deal with censorship and protection of its readers and editors in China?
6. What 2-4 strategic opportunities for investment in growth and community health would help to propel Wikimedia in China?
7. Who is needed to support this strategy (e.g., Wikimedia Foundation, chapters, individual volunteers, external partners), and what do they need to do?

Work Summary

This Task Force spent the past several months discussing the mandate above and collecting and synthesizing research:

• Baidu and Hudong
• Media analysis for Wikipedia, Baidu and Hudong
• /Interview (surveys) with Chinese bloggers (Chinese with translations)
• /Interview with BloggerInsight (Chinese)
• /Public recognition for top websites in China
• /Offline survey (Chinese)

Based on its work, it's drafting the following recommendations:

• /Recommendation