2019:Quality/Learnings about improving and measuring content quality in Wikimedia projects
 | This is an Accepted submission for the Quality space at Wikimania 2019. |
As requested by the track's organizers, this will be a keynote about quality (so, just ignore the stuff below). If you'd like to know how measuring a giant squid and Wikipedia's quality relate to each other, please join this session.
Description
Now that Wikipedia has been around for more than 18 years, it's time for us to look back at the past successes and failures with regard to improving and measuring content quality. The session will address a number of questions that we'll try to answer collaboratively, like: (1) What are good examples of existing initiatives that successfully improved content quality? (2) What are the key ingredients that make such initiatives effective? (3) What are the drivers that encourage us and others to improve content quality? (4) Which things keep us or others from spending time and efforts on contributing high-quality content to Wikipedia, Commons, and other projects? (5) Which aspects of content quality have we neglected in the past and how can we do better going forward? (6) How have we measured content quality in the past and what are our thoughts on how we can improve in this area? – The session will start with a couple of examples provided by the session leader and then offer participants the opportunity to share their own unique experiences and stories. What e.g. works on the English Wikipedia might not work on the Arabic Wikipedia and we'll aim at taking a more holistic view on content quality than what we'd be able to do if we just looked at it from our own perspectives. Wikimania offers a great opportunity for bringing people from different projects and backgrounds together and getting inspired by what we learn from each other.
Relationship to the theme
This session will address the conference theme — Wikimedia, Free Knowledge and the Sustainable Development Goals — in the following manner: Improving Wikipedia's content quality serves a number of Sustainable Development Goals:
- Quality of Education (#4): The better we are at addressing the content gaps on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, the better we'll be able to fulfill the educational aspect of our mission.
- Gender Equality (#5): Every step that helps with creating an environment where more non-male participants feel encouraged and empowered to contribute will support better equality on Wikimedia projects .
- Reduced Inequalities (#10): The more we can do in order to reduce systemic bias on Wikipedia and the more diversity we can bring to the movement, the better we'll be able to reduce inequalities with regard to representation.
Session outcomes
At the end of the session, the following will have been achieved: We'll have collected a variety of learnings about what works and what doesn't work in improving and measuring content quality on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. These learnings will help prevent others from reinventing the wheel and give people in our movement the opportunity to built on what has proven to be effective.
Session leader(s)
- Frank Schulenburg, long-time contributor to a variety of Wikimedia projects who's been passionate about content quality since day one of his involvement in Wikimedia projects.
Session type
Each Space at Wikimania 2019 will have specific format requests. The program design prioritises submissions which are future-oriented and directly engage the audience. The format of this submission is a:
- Quick introduction followed by an open discussion among the participants.
Requirements
The session will work best with these conditions:
- Room:
- A room with projector and a setting that helps with people sharing their thoughts and experiences.
- Audience:
- 15–20 experienced Wikimedians who are passionate about improving and measuring content quality would be ideal.
- Recording:
- Filming by a single fixed location camera will be difficult. However, we'll share the outcomes of the session on Meta, so that those who can't attend Wikimania this year will also have an opportunity to chime in.