User:Erinelizabethjones/report

Wikipedia Community and Wikipedia Foundation,

As I reflect on my experience working in Wikipedia, I would like to offer insight on how things went, and perhaps offer some suggestions on how to improve it. My introduction to Wikipedia differs from the typical experience because I contributed as a student in Wiki-education. I personally wrote an article almost from scratch. The original stub article only had about three sentences. I found this to be a challenge for me because there was not a ton of external sources on the internet about the Seattle Channel, however, I work at the Seattle Channel so I knew that the sources I did find were true and everything that I wrote was fact checked. I'd say I had the most trouble finding an info box to vamp up my page. It seamed that the more I looked around on Wikipedia, the smaller details I noticed of ways to improve my article. For someone like me who is starting an article from scratch, it would be helpful to have some prompts or links to check lists suggest different ways to improve or start the article. For example, things like, "add paragraph headings", "add references", "add infobox", etc. Secondly, another frustrating task was uploading pictures. I personally knew the people who took the photos that I was trying to upload, and they all got taken down. This was a general trend amongst my classmates so I assume the picture uploading process that Wikipedia was unclear to not just me, but others.

A general problem I ran into while contributing to Wikipedia was first of all becoming familiar with the software on Wikipedia. It was hard to navigate, however the weekly modules took away some of that intimidation by prompting you to do the tasks that needed to be done such as create an article, creating an article talk page in your sandbox, and how to edit. I’d say it was a hassle to work with when I was trying to get help with one specific task because I had to go through the whole module teaching instead of being able to go there directly. My experience in Wikipedia without having the class would have been very isolating because I was working on an article that didn't have anyone on the talk page. According to material we are learning in class, often times when the group size of people on an online community is smaller, people are more willing to contribute. Personally, I felt that the Wiki education dashboard made my experience a lot more appealing because I felt as if my work wasn't just disappearing into cyber space and I had a community. It prompted social aspects such as being able to "talk" with our professors, and we could see what the other articles were that our classmates were working on. I suggest that this sort of socialization should continue not just in Wiki education, but in the general Wikipedia as well. Allowing the common user an opportunity to join a smaller group size to introduce them to the platform will likely lower the retention rate.

In addition, another problem that I ran into while peer editing was when someone peer edited my paper, the feedback that they gave didn't show up on my talk page. The only thing that showed up was a note from a peer that said "Just finished peer reviewing your article, you're off to a great start". This was frustrating because I never received any feedback or suggestions on my article when I peer reviewed someone else's work. Even though my experience with this didn’t go as planned, the idea was something Wiki Education did well. In class, we would refer to this at direct reciprocity, which is the idea of helping people who have helped you. I propose that if there is someone in Wikipedia who needs or wants their work peer reviewed, there could be a place for people to swap articles and peer review someone’s work who has peer reviewed theirs. This forms social connections with other users, as well as adding to the contribution of quality content.

Next, one things that Wiki education did well was offering its expertise as a free tool to teach people like myself how to use Wikipedia. Learning from "the experts" changed my perspective completely on Wikipedia. I grew up always being someone who read Wikipedia but never cared to try to contribute because frankly it just looked too confusing. However, as I went through the modules and learned to norms and lingo of Wikipedia, I started to feel less confused and like it was do-able.

In conclusion, the Wiki education program was an effective way to introduce newcomers to Wikipedia in a straight forward, educational format. Now that I am done with the course, I would say a downside is the program fails to keep you connected with a community. When the course ends, the community that students were connected to ceases to exist. Another thing we learned about in class is how recruiting people to an online community is easier than keeping them. Through this program, you have been able to recruit many people to contribute to Wikipedia for the purpose of education. Go a step further and think about how you are could keep some of them. I personally received no notification or invitation to continue editing once the course ended. Perhaps this could be something to consider. Now that I know how to edit in Wikipedia, I feel a sense of liberation in having the power to write an article on such a large platform. I understand why some Wikipedians have been contributing for years because the platform has the ability to empower people, especially those who have been under-represented in society.

Best,

Erin Jones

University of Washington Student