Grants talk:Project/Rapid/Krishna Chaitanya Velaga/VVIT Edit-a-thon 2017 Part 2

Hi Krishna Chaitanya Velaga. Thank you for this request and your patience. We have a few comments/questions below.

1. As you have done several of these editathons at the university and have plans for VVIT WikiClub and a user group, it would be great to understand in more detail what your longer-term goals are with these activities and the timeline for your plans.
2. It looks like you expect about half of the participants to be repeat participants and half to be new. Will you be offering different training sessions for each of these groups? How have you been able to engage with and support previous participants between events? What level of retention have you seen between events?
3. In terms of the trainers, who will be supporting with the training and where will they be traveling from? In past grants, you have needed to support travel from relatively far distances for experienced Wikimedians to assist with the training. While we understand that may have been necessary for the first couple of events, it is not a sustainable ongoing strategy. It would be best to mentor some of the most promising and interested students who have attended multiple events to be able to provide help to new editors.
4. Unfortunately, we have maxed out our swag budget for the year.

Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 03:20, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

@AWang (WMF): Hi Alex, thanks for the comments. Here are my replies:

1. I have conducted one edit-a-thon at this college (the same college where I study). In long-term, I wish to establish a stable Wikimedia community within the college with continuous activity. For this we've formed a WIKI Club, and this edit-a-thon is to pitch-in more editors in the Club, so that we can have a diverse and well established group that'll be capable to conducting activities on their own (in sense without my support i.e. even after I move out of the college). Once I form a stable club in our college, I can use this as an example to draft clubs at various other educational institutions. User group is not suggested by many experienced editors, including members from the AffCom, because the level of activity at just one college will not good enough to reach the expectations of a user group. However, WIKI Clubs are a feasible options at college or school level.
2. Yes, the training will take place differently for both the groups. That is the reason why two trainers are required. I'll be handling one group while the other will be handling the other group. As you can see the outreach dashboard of the previous event, as of now five editors are active (can be checked by recent edits). However, fifteen of them are active, but they are not able to commit time to exam schedule around this month. I hope that this event will help them to get on track once again. Between the events, we've met twice in the college where I clarified their doubts etc. We're planning to make these meets more regular.
3. The other trainer will be User:Yohannvt, he'll be travelling from Hyderabad, and expenses include accommodation, food, and local travel for two days. Previously we had four trainers including me, now it is only two us, as we're handling two different sessions.
4. No issues.

--Regards, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (talk — mail) 04:05, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Hi Krishna Chaitanya Velaga. Thanks for the additional details. It makes sense that to build your WikiClub you're hoping to continue these large scale editathons. However, I would also encourage you to think about another model which has worked well for many wikiclubs around the world. That model is focusing on a core group of folks that show the most interest in contributing to the Wikimedia projects and organizing more frequent events for this small group. You can still be open to new folks, but building this core group, working on developing their wiki and project management skills, mentoring them, and building a social network between them is very useful in creating a Wikiclub that is sustainable. It is also more cost-effective. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 22:28, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

@AWang (WMF): Greetings Alex, thanks for the support. Yes, but this'll be the only large scale edit-a-thon, because since its the beginning, we need some good count to volunteers to be pitched in. Yeah, once we've stabilized the group, we'll do small activities more frequently. Yes, after this edit-a-thon, we are planning to meet regularly (weekly or biweekly) in college itself, so that I can constantly keep mentoring the students and also improve their links. I know that the concept of WikiClubs exists, but I am unable to find a definite example to study and learn how a WikiClub functions, what are the activities that can conducted etc. Please give a few links where I can get the same. --Regards, Krishna Chaitanya Velaga (talk — mail) 00:54, 1 November 2017 (UTC)

Hi Krishna Chaitanya Velaga. The first university-based Wikiclub that comes to mind is Wikipedia Connection at Ohio University. You can see their page on English Wikipedia here and read more about their development on the Wikimedia blog. I'm sure the founders, SuperHamster or AddisWang, could give you some good advice on best practices for starting a wikiclub. Best, Alex Wang (WMF) (talk) 21:53, 1 November 2017 (UTC)