User:Paige.vogt/Report

Wikipedia Reflection & Recommendations
I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn more about and contribute to Wikipedia. After completing the initial Wikipedia training and experiencing the community and conversations behind each page, I've gained a much deeper respect for the site and its content. Much of my positive experience I attribute to Wikipedia’s adherence to theories outlined in our course book, Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design. However, there are other theories Wikipedia has not addressed that would further enhance the organization’s online community and my individual experience.

Reflection
As a newcomer to Wikipedia, a couple potential barriers were identifying where I could help and finding something I was interested in doing. Fortunately, Wikipedia made this process relatively simple by providing a “Requested articles” page. Building Successful Online Communities asserts that “making a list of needed contributions easily visible increases the likelihood that the community will provide them” (Pg. 26). This was absolutely true for me—it’s not easy to think of a topic that hasn’t been covered but also meets Wikipedia’s high notability standards. If it weren’t for the “Requested articles” page, I can imagine myself spending hours guessing and checking potential topics and eventually losing interest. The requested articles list, though comprehensive, helped me quickly see where I could be useful and then get to work.

Along the same lines, Building Successful Online Communities states that “asking people to perform tasks that interest them. . . increases contributions.” Wikipedia could have chosen to randomly assign articles to new users, but I’m glad it didn’t—most users would likely have ended up with a topic they had no interest in. By giving people the opportunity to work on any topic they choose (that meets the site’s standards), Wikipedia fosters a more enthusiastic, productive community. From among the requested articles, I chose to write about the Miss Indian World competition. I stayed more engaged simply because I found the topic significant and interesting.

As I began to edit my article, I noticed I was motivated to adhere to Wikipedia norms because I saw others around me doing so as well. This would be no surprise to the authors of Building Successful Online Communities, who state that people are more willing to follow requests when they see others have also complied (Pg. 35). For example, I may have been inclined to leave off the four tilde signature, or to not explain my edits every time I saved a new change. However, being able to see others’ edits and interactions on talk pages made it clear that Wikipedia’s guidelines weren’t just aspirations—they were actively upheld rules. Because I had no desire to deviate from the community or be called out for breaking the rules, I followed the examples that were set before me.

Recommendations
While overall I had the resources and guidance I needed to be successful with my first Wikipedia article, there are three ways the site could improve in order to increase user engagement, commitment, and recruitment.

Suggest requested articles that align with users' interests
Wikipedia could increase user activity by making it even easier for people to identify articles that need help and are of interest to them—two key factors that increase user engagement, according to Building Successful Online Communities. One way to do this is to add an extra sign up step that asks users about their interests. Based on these stated preferences, Wikipedia could suggest requested articles for users to start working on. For example, if I indicated my interest in classical music, running, and World War II, once my account was set up, I’d see a feed with requested articles related to these topics. Ideally, this function would be grounded in machine learning, allowing it to adapt suggestions based on the pages I visit more often.

Suggest WikiProjects to facilitate more social contact
Another way to increase user commitment is to make it easy for people to connect with groups of people who have similar interests. The Building Successful Online Communities authors state that people who engage in a personal conversation with others (pg. 92), have common interests or social ties (pg. 89), and repeatedly encounter the same people (pg. 94), are more likely to be committed to the group. Therefore, one way to increase commitment is to make it easy for users to find others with similar interests. Wikipedia could expedite this process by suggesting WikiProjects based on a user’s demographic information and the interest survey recommended above. If a user acknowledges they are interested in a suggested project, a project leader could reach out directly and engage in a personal conversation, creating more opportunities for a personal relationship to develop.

Create social sharing buttons to increase visibility
Finally, Wikipedia could improve its recruitment efforts by embedding social sharing buttons on each Wikipedia page and allowing editors to highlight quotes or sentences that could be shared to Twitter with one click. Per Building Successful Online Communities, by making it easy to share content, Wikipedia will extend its visibility among users’ close friends and family, and “thereby increase the likelihood of them joining” (Pg. 179). I think social sharing buttons also add an extra motivation for editors to create quality content they want to show off to their family and friends.

Conclusion
Wikipedia has clearly created a thriving community, and I’ve learned a lot by jumping in and becoming a part of it. By making a few changes to how users find articles and connect with groups—and by creating a way for users to quickly share their efforts on social media—I believe Wikipedia will be able to draw in new contributors and quickly mobilize its new recruits, helping the project to grow and thrive well into the future.