Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Awareness

Methods? Ideas? Targets? Meetups? Discuss here!
Welcome to the project! Let's start floating ideas here. -- Xyra  e  l  T 20:08, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Targeting college professors
I figured I'd get the ball rolling on new ideas of groups to target, how to target them, etc. My primary idea is to post fliers and such at college campuses. Obviously we have more than enough college-age contributors, but we could aim the message at the professors, as we definitely need more academic-types for specific-knowledge articles. Another (more ambitious) way we could do this is to hold information sessions on campuses about the goals of Wikipedia, how to edit it, question and answer sessions, etc. Any other techniques that we could target these professors? Any thoughts on whether this is a good/bad idea? E WS23 | (Leave me a message!) 20:13, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
 * This sounds like an excellent idea. However, I can imagine that it may be difficult for the teachers to find the time to get involved. Also, we need to create a dedicated web of 'lecturers' to go and give these talks. However, in essence, it's good. Could you outline your marketing strategy, so to speak? Thanks. -- Xyra  e  l  T 20:16, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I've created two subpages based on these ideas: WikiProject Awareness/Presentation outline and WikiProject Awareness/Professor flier. The first may become obsolete based on the link below that there are already presentations out there (though perhaps there's a need for more), but I feel the second can coexist with other fliers. Both are along the lines of simpler = better when trying to promote Wikipedia. Let me know what you think. E WS23 | (Leave me a message!) 18:37, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I love that presentation. We ought to gather together links from the other awareness-related pages and link them to our main page, so that we appear to be organising information, as with other wikiprojects - which ones do we know of already? -- Xyra  e  l  T 18:46, 28 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Might want to put something in the Professor Flier to address content concerns. I think a lot of people in academia consider WP unreliable, so saying something about content and vandalism control may be useful. --F a ng Aili talk 18:54, 28 May 2006 (UTC)


 * True, that's also something to consider. Also, we can make many versions of fliers for people to choose from, so perhaps the current version can be the "bare bones" one, and then we can add on it and tweak it from there to maybe make about half a dozen variations for people to choose from (or change slightly for their own purposes). Someone also asked me about basic dissemination of these fliers, so I figured I'd post my ideas here: my idea at the moment is to (not overwhelmingly) post on typical college department corkboards, elevators, etc. Other suggestions of how to disseminate them are also welcome. E WS23 | (Leave me a message!) 19:01, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Presentations, fliers and other media
I think that this project is a great idea, which makes me wonder if there is no similar initiative already? Here is a resource I am aware of: Presentations contains, obviously, presentations :) Promotion is another interesting page (I have discovered it just now). Communications committee and Press, as is the entire Category:Wikipedia publicity. I don't think there is any WikiProject organizing those areas, although some of those mata pages may act as such. There is also the Awareness statistics page which is quite relevant to whatever this project ends up doing. I am looking forward to future developments in this area :) PS. As far as 'other media' are concerned, check my userpage, top left corner, news section, for a videocast about Wikipedia :) --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 00:10, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * This is an excellent point - I see no reason why we shouldn't use these resources as part of our project, and merely spend our time organising and improving them, and recruiting people to go out and spread the word. Thanks for pointing these out. -- Xyra  e  l  T 08:28, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Move to a MetaProject?
Perhaps this should be moved to a MetaProject to organise across all Wikipedia projects? If I receive no objection, I will go ahead and do so because it has already been pointed out that we should perhaps be more wide-ranging. Thanks. -- Xyra  e  l  T 08:35, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * I am not sure if moving to meta is that good of an idea. If our scope is just Wikipedia, then we are fine where we are, especially considering that there is (small, but still...) a possibility that some editors will be discourage to post/read stuff if they have to go to meta, log in to post, etc.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 19:47, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Fair point. Here for now, unless anyone else has some suggestions. -- Xyra  e  l  T 20:20, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Maybe you could create the project at Meta, but then leave this here as a sibling/descendant project dedicated solely to promoting Wikipedia (people may not have the resources/time/knowledge to promote the other projects, and often simpler = better when trying to get a message across). E WS23 | (Leave me a message!) 20:37, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Very good point, we should establish a global presence and then others can take this to other wikis. I'll create it later today (leave it for me please :D). Thanks for your comments. -- Xyra  e  l  T 08:14, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * meta:Meta:MetaProject_Awareness -- Xyra  e  l  T 15:46, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Getting the basic message out
As I've said in the past, I really feel that simple, straightforward messages are generally the way to go with this project (as you can tell from my Professor flier). The reason I feel this way is that I think we'll generally be surprised at how few people (especially older) know EXACTLY what Wikipedia is. They probably know that it's an encyclopedia, and they might now briefly about being able to edit it, but I doubt they know how easy it is to jump in, and how closely it's watched for vandalism and misinformation. If you're talking to people directly, you'll probably get a lot of common objections- so look over Replies to common objections, and be ready to reply to them with those pre-made answers. Finally, I think our current success is our greatest tool in bringing in new people. They may say, "I still don't think it can work," and you can reply, "But it IS working! We've got more than a million articles, we have studies that say we can be very accurate, and more people all the time are trusting us and helping us." Any comments? E WS23 | (Leave me a message!) 18:57, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Perhaps we should write a guidebook page, kinda like the medcab's? This is some good stuff. -- Xyra  e  l  T 19:55, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Agreed. I suggest transforming our current project page into an Awarness-Portal: it would look nice and contain useful information, neither of which is the case right now :> --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 23:58, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Go ahead, but let's keep it in the namespace it's in for now. Make it look as good as you can! Thanks. -- Xyra  e  l  T 16:51, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Project userbox
I feel as though we should have a userbox. Here is my suggestion; comments welcome. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Xyrael (talk • contribs)


 * I would put the picture on the left, and delete the "float:right" so that people can arrange their userboxes as they see fit. The Wikiproject link is too dark to read against the dark blue background. I like the icon. :) --F a ng Aili talk 14:50, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Hmm, I'll leave the picture if you don't mind but you're right about the text being difficult to read - it's far worse in my monobook. Oh, and the float: right is just for this page, so it wouldn't go into the final thing. I'll get working on it now, thanks for the comments :) -- Xyra  e  l  T 16:33, 14 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I'd move the image to the left to match many other userboxen. -- Chris   15:01, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
 * That's fine, but we need to confirm that this is the final version then I can add a parameter to the template to accept right or left, which will give people the choice. Thanks. &mdash;Xyra e l / 15:27, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Wikimania!
What better opportunity to spread Wiki-awarness then by advertising Wikimania? Tell everybody about it!--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 21:28, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Nice idea, but it's very hard to get to from this country - but I agree that advertising the conference will show that Wikimedia is serious. Thanks! &mdash;Xyra e l / 15:28, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

credibility
One thing I joined this project for was not only to spread awareness, but show that the credibility of articles is nearly on par with Brittanica. Perhaps part of WPA should be devoted to making the accuracy of Wikipedia aware to potential editors as well. Nice ideas so far, by the way. Here can start an impartial study: WikiProject Awareness/Accuracy Study -- Chris   15:00, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
 * You're right, I agree that this should be an aim - however, we could easily fall down when people discover we do have mistakes. I feel that our primary goal ought to be to get people contributing, rather than people reading, as many people already do this (to my knowledge). If you'd like to take point on this effort, go ahead and create the page though. Thanks for joining up. &mdash;Xyra e l / 15:30, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Im dong an accuracy study for a course i'm taking... If it's good I will post it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ccool2ax (talk • contribs).

As a WikiGunslinger, best way I've figured to help this project is to put it and discussion pages in my Watch list and be a force against vandals. Although nowadays I just spend my time in Recen IP edits and not anywhere else on pedia, if there's anyhing you need a helping hand with I'll try my best. :) Signed, Kedi the tramp (talk • contribs • [/wiki/User:Interiot/Tool2/code.js?username= count] ) 17:59, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Great, glad you've decided to join us. &mdash;Xyra e l / 11:11, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

Flier update
I'm happy to announce that earlier today a posted the flier I designed to target professors at 30 separate locations on the campus of the University of Washington. I tried my best to get one in almost every building that I could, so that we could potentially get contributors from a variety of subjects. Unfortunately it will be difficult to get direct results to see how successful this is, since the flier only mentions the entry page at wikipedia.org, but they should get plenty of people looking at them, and even if we got 5 new contributors from them, I'd consider it a great success. Everyone is welcome to post versions of this flier at various colleges and universities, and it would be great if you could document future postings at the flier's talk page. Cheers, EWS23  (Leave me a message!) 01:54, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Great work, and that is a nice flier. However, might I suggest a link to the page about contributing (the basic tutorial, wherever it is) as IMO this would help - not all academics are particularly computer literate. &mdash;Xyra e l
 * It's certainly an idea, but the problem is that these are fliers that are posted on bulletin boards, rather than handed out to individuals. If it were handed out to individuals, we could put as much information as possible on there without the worry of people forgetting it. However, when they see a flier in passing in the hall, I would think "www.wikipedia.org" would be much easier to remember than "en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Introduction" . Any thoughts? EWS23  (Leave me a message!) 18:40, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
 * /me nods - totally correct. &mdash;Xyra e l / 18:30, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Alternative flier
I've created a different flier for a more general audience. Comments/edits welcome. &mdash;Xyra e l / 18:34, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Writing newspaper article about Wikipedia for highschools
How about that? I tried that, but they rejected it -probably I need more work. If I ever get it into my school article, I'll let you guys look at it. (Wikimachine 22:53, 22 October 2006 (UTC))


 * That sounds like a good idea. However, if your newspaper is anything like mine, they're only interested in things that directly affect the school. Any ideas of how to deal with this? Or, is yours totally different? Thanks. &mdash;Xyrael / 22:23, 13 November 2006 (UTC)


 * They are too, which makes me soooo frustrated. (Wikimachine 00:18, 14 November 2006 (UTC))

Here's my work that I'm going to submit. User:Wikimachine/WikiProject Awareness newspaper (Wikimachine 01:17, 19 November 2006 (UTC))
 * Got published! They put it as a two-part series. (Wikimachine 23:47, 16 December 2006 (UTC))

Project directory
Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 13:31, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Creating clubs
I thought about creating a Wikipedia club @ my school, but I did not push for it. (Wikimachine 17:37, 20 November 2006 (UTC))


 * It sounds great - why not? &mdash;Xyrael / 11:03, 25 November 2006 (UTC)
 * There's this special day when all clubs gather members & I started on with the idea about a few days before so... a little to late. (Wikimachine 03:51, 3 December 2006 (UTC))
 * Actually, I've thought about creating a club for my school, too...But my main concern is, I don't know if anyone would actually be interested. Of course, I prefer to refrain from using the word "club", which could imply a cabal; maybe "community" is better. (A.Ou 00:09, 22 January 2007 (UTC))

Wikipedia Day Awards
Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 18:32, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Policy/Awareness Effort
I have a suggestion for policy/effort/etc. @ WikiProject Awareness. I think that WikiProject Awareness must not only deal with "awareness" but also accessibility. If people know about Wikipedia but don't use it b/c of some reasons, then they should be fixed by WikiProject Awareness. There's no good to awareness w/o accessibility.

I'd like to bring to your attention this. What do you think? (Wikimachine 18:08, 11 February 2007 (UTC))


 * Another suggestion. I think that there are many resources published by many research & educational institutions that are not necessarily online & thus cannot be used in Wikipedia for one reason or another. Is there any way we could establish a bureacracy/administration/system that allows these institutions/corporations to release free contents to Wikipedia under their credit?
 * For example, a university might have a really nice picture of some sort of chemical test. But they don't publish it. Then there's no way for the anonymous users to access it & post it on Wikipedia (if it's free content). Some of really nice featured pics are from laboratories such as JPL. Just a thought. (Wikimachine 18:12, 11 February 2007 (UTC))


 * Of course, if it wasn't accessible by the public, how would we even know that resource in question exists? Creating a system is somewhat redundant, since anyone can release content any time  anyway while being given credit for their work (i.e., through a creative commons license), and Wikipedians can always ask to use content if they encounter one that is potentially valuable.  We can't "force" someone to release content; if they already know about Wikipedia but aren't able to or won't contribute, then there's nothing we can do.  Wikipedia is entirely voluntary.  However, if a potential contributer doesn't know of Wikipedia, then that relates back to awareness.  All we can do is to make sure that institutions/corporations are aware that their content can make a difference in Wikipedia. +A.Ou 20:18, 12 February 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree with you there that perhaps we should have a shot at both. I think targetting academic institutions is probably the best way to go forward - any ideas for approaching this? &mdash;Xyrael / 19:01, 26 March 2007 (UTC)
 * I suggest that we break this project up. Nobody's doing anything. It's a dead project, and has been in planning stages for about half a year. (Wikimachine 02:41, 22 May 2007 (UTC))

WP:NOT#PLOT
Apologies for the notice, but this is being posted to every WikiProject to avoid accusations of systemic bias. Hiding T 13:51, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Leaflet for Wikiproject Awareness at Wikimania 2014
Hi all,

My name is Adi Khajuria and I am helping out with Wikimania 2014 in London.

One of our initiatives is to create leaflets to increase the discoverability of various wikimedia projects, and showcase the breadth of activity within wikimedia. Any kind of project can have a physical paper leaflet designed - for free - as a tool to help recruit new contributors. These leaflets will be printed at Wikimania 2014, and the designs can be re-used in the future at other events and locations.

This is particularly aimed at highlighting less discoverable but successful projects, e.g:

• Active Wikiprojects: Wikiproject Medicine, WikiProject Video Games, Wikiproject Film

• Tech projects/Tools, which may be looking for either users or developers.

• Less known major projects: Wikinews, Wikidata, Wikivoyage, etc.

• Wiki Loves Parliaments, Wiki Loves Monuments, Wiki Loves ____

• Wikimedia thematic organisations, Wikiwomen’s Collaborative, The Signpost The deadline for submissions is 1st July 2014 For more information or to sign up for one for your project, go to: Project leaflets Adikhajuria (talk) 17:21, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

Comment on the WikiProject X proposal
Hello there! As you may already know, most WikiProjects here on Wikipedia struggle to stay active after they've been founded. I believe there is a lot of potential for WikiProjects to facilitate collaboration across subject areas, so I have submitted a grant proposal with the Wikimedia Foundation for the "WikiProject X" project. WikiProject X will study what makes WikiProjects succeed in retaining editors and then design a prototype WikiProject system that will recruit contributors to WikiProjects and help them run effectively. Please review the proposal here and leave feedback. If you have any questions, you can ask on the proposal page or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you for your time! (Also, sorry about the posting mistake earlier. If someone already moved my message to the talk page, feel free to remove this posting.) Harej (talk) 22:47, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject X is live!


Hello everyone!

You may have received a message from me earlier asking you to comment on my WikiProject X proposal. The good news is that WikiProject X is now live! In our first phase, we are focusing on research. At this time, we are looking for people to share their experiences with WikiProjects: good, bad, or neutral. We are also looking for WikiProjects that may be interested in trying out new tools and layouts that will make participating easier and projects easier to maintain. If you or your WikiProject are interested, check us out! Note that this is an opt-in program; no WikiProject will be required to change anything against its wishes. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Note: To receive additional notifications about WikiProject X on this talk page, please add this page to WikiProject X/Newsletter. Otherwise, this will be the last notification sent about WikiProject X.

Harej (talk) 16:56, 14 January 2015 (UTC)