Learning patterns/Cross chapter collaboration on wiki writing contest

A learning pattern foron wiki writing contests

Learning Pattern Library

Cross chapter collaboration on wiki writing contest

problemHow can two chapters organize parallel on wiki writing contest about each other’s countries in order to build a closer relationship between two chapters?

solutionEach chapter organize their own wiki contests with their preferred outcome (quantity or quality) and selection of jury. The contests run at the same time in each country and each chapter commits to host and cover expenses for the winner from the other country.

creator• Astrid Carlsen (WMNO)• David Saroyan

created on17:56, 11 September 2017 (UTC)

status:DRAFT

What problem does this solve?

How can two chapters organize parallel on wiki writing contest about each other’s countries in order to build a closer relationship between two chapters?

Besides conferences (which require a lot of funding) there are not that many cross chapter activities in our movement that one would expect. There are also a few possibilities for the Wikipedians speaking different language to meet each other and people from other Wikimedia Chapters.

Wikimedia Armenia and Wikimedia Norge have decided to have a collaboration that is:

• Easy to organize
• Involves our communities
• Gives staff experience in working together
• Does not require a lot of funding

What is the solution?

Organizing:

Before organizing the contest both chapters need to:

• meet and discuss the details, timeline and required activities
• check with their communities if there was any interest in wiki writing contest
• check with their communities for how long the communities thought the contest should run and decide the time period the contest would run
• agree upon the prize expenses and include the cost for the prize in the chapter’s APG proposal
• set up a jury decide on the wanted outcome of the contest (number of articles or quality of articles)

For example, the decision to organize a cross chapter editing contest between Wikimedia Armenia and Wikimedia Norge was made when a board member from Wikimedia Norge visited Wikimedia Armenia. Organizing a parallel on wiki writing contest is a good starting point for a cross chapter collaboration and a way of getting to know each other better, both for community members and staff.

Wikimedia Norge already has a bot setup for wiki weekly editing contests which they used (it has also been translated to Finnish) and Wikimedia Armenia has been organizing cross chapter collaborations since 2013. WMAM had previously cooperated with Wikimedia Ukraine, Wikimedia Eesti, and Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia.

The contest:

Announce the contest properly among your community before launching it. Setup pages of the writing contest in your language explaining the details and requirements of the contest. The selection of articles, voting, jury and selection of the winners may vary from community to community.

For example, in Armenia the suggested list and subdivision of articles were provided to the community. These articles were about Norway and Norwegian culture. The participants edited articles during the whole period, at the end of which, the jury consisting of the Wikimedia Armenia members and staff gave points regarding quality and quantity of the contribution.

On the other hand, the contest in Norway focused on quality of articles about the Category:Armenia on Bokmål and Nynorsk Wikipedia. We set up both a jury of editors, who nominated the 10 best articles, and a jury from our Glam partners, one from The National Archive and one journalist, who decided on 1., 2. and 3. place. The contest’s Discussion page was used for the jury process and comments on the 10 top articles from the jury were posted on each article’s Discussion page.

See also

External links

• The Norwegian contest page
• The Armenian contest page
• Wikimedia Foundation blog
• Wikimedia Norge blog post from the Norwegian winner
• Images on Commons