Learning patterns/How to find your potential outreach partners at wiki pages
What problem does this solve?
editYou might be willing to build partnerships with other organisations or individuals to improve your wiki project; you possibly have many ideas and energy for new outreach projects; and there are tons of potential partners (museums, schools, libraries..) out there. The question is from where to start. Let' s say you are willing to work with schools, should you list all schools in your region in alphabetical order and start knocking at their doors one by one? Probably no. You should be knocking on the door of potential partner organisations which has a positive attitude toward open knowledge not a random one. But how could you know which one that is good to start building a successful partnership?
What is the solution?
editWe suggest turning to your wiki for the answer. The partners you are searching for might be among the newbies making their first edits on a wiki project or readers suggesting an article on the Requested articles page.
If you recognise that a group of newcomers are trying to edit articles on similar topics around same time suspect that there is an instructor giving a wiki-assignment out there and might be interested in getting support from wikipedians. Contact those users to learn who their instructor is; and then get in touch with the instructor. This might be the beginning of a very fruitful and more extensive wikipedia Education Program in that institution.
If you recognize that a user is trying to update the wikipedia page of an institution you are thinking of as a potential partner (e.g ; she is entering the name of the currently appointed head of the institution) as her first entry; remember that she might be a personnel of the institution. Do not hesitate to offer help; and try to understand her role. Ask help for suggesting and linking you with the correct person in the institution to start a fruitful partnership.
Make sure that not only you, the partner-searcher, but other active members of the editor community are alert on recognizing the potential partners on wiki. For this, make the community aware of your partner search, explain to them you are looking for what sort of persons/institutions for what kind of projects, so that other editors would alert you when they suspect a potential partner is wandering at wiki pages or submitting OTRS ticket.