Grants:IdeaLab/Enahance awareness about Wikipedia's credibility

Inspire campaign

Enahance awareness about Wikipedia's credibility

Wikipedia still has low credibility, among the educated class in India.

countryIndia

idea creator• Gana Sam Doss

this project needs...

community organizer

researcher

contact email

volunteer

created on15:29, 29 January 2018 (UTC)

Audience

Who are the people you want to introduce Wikipedia to?

Try to be as specific as possible about this group.
To teachers in schools and colleges, who, in India at least, tend to have a have a low degree of respect for Wikipedia. If teachers can be convinced that Wikipedia entries go through rigorous quality control and that the process is dynamic, they in turn can encourage impressionable yong minds to use Wikipedia as a standard reference and source.

In what languages do they search for information, online or otherwise?

Mostly in English

In what ways does this group communicate with each other?

This can include services and apps in social media, mailing lists, physical spaces like conferences or lectures, or at specific institutions like at a library.
Whatsapp would be the most common medium.

What are some reasons this group would use Wikipedia? How would they benefit from it, or what would they find useful?

Think about what they would be interested in reading and learning about; does Wikipedia provide better access to information this group cares about?
Many of these people have poor access to reference libraries. Of course they do use the internet, but not very frequently for high quality information. They would be interested in topics related to the basic sciences, history and geography, among others.

Project idea

What language Wikipedia projects will you promote to new readers?

English and bengali (Bangla)

How will you communicate with new readers? Will you be communicating with them online, in-person, or both?

both on-line and in person

Describe your idea to engage new readers. How might it be implemented? What will you tell people about Wikipedia?

Think about the steps that might involved to make this idea happen, and what you might teach people about your experience or others' experiences using Wikipedia.
Primarily about the process through which the quality of information is constantly verified and updated, the mechanism of peer review, and the credibilty of people who contribute and edit entries.

How will you know if this project is successful? What are some outcomes that you can share after the project is completed?

If you’re not certain about how to respond to this question when starting your idea, you do not need to answer it right now. Campaign participants and Wikimedia Foundation staff can help you consider some options.
We shall need to design a quantifiable parameter, but at this moment i do not know how.

Do you think you can implement this idea? What support do you need?

Do you need people with specific skills or resources to complete this idea? Are there any financial needs for this project? Do you need advising from Wikimedia Foundation staff?
Yes, but shall need the support of teachers' associations.

Get Involved

About the idea creator

Gana Sam Doss (GSD) is a jack of all trades and a rolling stone, stricken by wanderlust. Talk to GSD about Europe, and he will paraphrase an old Madonna number: "This used to be my playground". Has forgotten more about a few subjects than most engineers will learn in their lifetime(s). Like the bard Cacofonix, opinion on his talents is somewhat divided – GSD thinks he is a genius, while everyone else thinks he is insufferable. Pretended to work on three continents, set up operations in a fourth, and generally managed to find someone to pretend to foot his bills. Currently pretending to work on fashionable, politically correct projects – electric cars, renewable energy, energy from waste and Swachh Bharat (CLean India), perhaps to atone for past sins, as friends suspect, or…perchance to dream. GSD’s long-suffering wife thinks his ship has finally sailed to port, but then, maybe, she has another think coming…

Two favourite quotes:

I've lived a life that's full. I've traveled each and ev'ry highway; But more, much more than this, I did it my way.

and

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by... It's only words, and words are all I have...

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No funding needed?

Does your idea not require funding, but you're not sure about what to do next? Not sure how to start a proposal on your local project that needs consensus? Contact Chris Schilling on-wiki at I JethroBT (WMF) (talk · contribs) or via e-mail at cschillingwikimedia.org for help!