Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-01-02/WikiProject report

As we begin a new year, the WikiProject Report continues its tradition of revisiting the projects we featured in the Signpost last year. We highlighted 48 projects and published three special issues in 2011, setting a record of 51 WikiProject Reports in one year. The only thing that could stop our four Report writers was a combined earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan which postponed our 14 March interview with WikiProject Japan. Our 2012 New Year's resolution is to fill all 52 weeks of the year with insightful interviews, news, and specials featuring Wikipedia's diverse community of WikiProjects.

Studious Wikipedians
This past year was dominated by academic and scientific pursuits. WikiProject Schools showed us how school rivalry, an administration's puffery, and outright vandalism by the student body can make articles about primary and secondary schools a contentious place to dedicate one's time. WikiProject Academic Journals suggested that simply finding something to write can be a major hurdle when covering notable academic journals. The assortment of academic and scientific topics covered in 2011 include mathematics, computer science, elements, physics, the solar system, philosophy, feminism, economics, medicine, and the taxonomic pursuits of WikiProject Tree of Life.

Around the world
We also traveled the world in 2011. In addition to the aforementioned WikiProject Japan, the report visited Russia, New Zealand, Croatia, and revisited WikiProject India in time for their 2011 WikiConference. We also featured the politics of Australia and visited a few locations in the United States, including the country's umbrella project, the connected people of the District of Columbia, and the busy folks covering the state of Oregon.

The United Kingdom saw a considerable amount of coverage in 2011. Geographic-specific projects ranged from the county of Somerset to the transit system in London to the web of railways and waterways connecting Britain. Nearly all of the sports covered in the Report originated in the UK, from cricket to rugby union to tennis.

Common themes
In terms of history, the project caught up with projects covering the World's Oldest People and the historic structures in the United States included in the National Register of Historic Places. We also paid our yearly visit to the folks at WikiProject Military History, who shared their journalistic skills when asked about the monthly newsletter, the Bugle.

In addition to the UK's transportation systems mentioned above, the Report interviewed other transportation-related projects covering aircraft, spaceflight, automobiles, and Formula One racing.

We saw a variety of arts and entertainment projects. Music was represented by WikiProject Classical Music and WikiProject Albums. Meanwhile, WikiProject Animation and WikiProject Comics showed us the artistic side of Wikipedia. In contrast to our heavy coverage of literature in 2010, the only literary project covered in 2011 focused on the Warriors series. For a fun change of pace, we played a few rounds with WikiProject Board and Table Games. Hunters and collectors shared WikiProject Firearms with us.

Covering Wikipedia
In 2011, we interviewed six specialty projects that work behind the scenes on Wikipedia. Our interview with WikiProject Spam was our most viewed article ever. The WikiProject Council is the "WikiProject WikiProject" helping new projects get off the ground and providing organization to the massive WikiProject community. WikiProject Wikify has been improving Wikipedia through its backlog elimination drives. WikiProject Disambiguation helps readers find what they're looking for by making sure disambiguation pages and hatnotes point to the right places. WikiProject Articles for Creation enables anonymous editors to contribute new articles through a review process. WikiProject Wikipedia-Books focuses on collecting worthwhile articles and printing them for offline use.

In addition to our yearly recap, the Report published special editions offering tips on reviving WikiProjects and listing some excellent examples of WikiProject iconography. We hope to provide more special reports this year and can use your feedback to determine what gets covered. If there is a project you would like to see interviewed or a WikiProject-related topic you'd like to see explored in depth, just drop us a line at the Signpost's WikiProject Desk.

Next week, we'll jazz things up. Until then, improvise with the material in the archive.