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2024:Program/Wikimedia is more: how sisters can help overcoming problems of the Wikipedias

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Session title: Wikimedia is more: how sisters can help overcoming problems of the Wikipedias

Session type: Lecture
Track: Contributor/Community Engagement
Language: en

The number of readers and authors on the Wikipedia has been declining for years. This has various causes, some of which can no longer be solved or cannot be solved in a short term. I suggest two approaches. Firstly, the awareness of the sister projects should be improved in order to reach more or new readers. Secondly, new authors should be trained on sister projects to use Mediawiki wikis.

Description

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The number of readers and authors on the Wikipedia has been declining for years. This has various causes, some of which can no longer be solved or cannot be solved in a short term. The Wikipedias have a large number of encyclopedic articles, which can on the one hand only be expanded with great effort, but do not cover all needs on the other hand. In addition, the Wikipedias are confronted with sometimes considerable social problems. Increased use of the sister content projects like Wikibooks, Wikivoyage, and Wikinews could help alleviating some of these issues. On the one hand, these wikis provide important factual information that encyclopedias cannot provide by definition, and can therefore increase the attractiveness of the entire Wikimedia universe. However, these wikis should be made much more popular. On the other hand, these wikis are ideal for training new authors. They use the same Mediawiki software and similar templates and tools. Authors can more easily create articles even with less extensive knowledge. The rules are simpler, and there are more helpful sample. Authors can feel freer in a more relaxed environment and community, and they can make mistakes without being drawn into extensive or defamatory discussions. Ultimately, they are well prepared to work on other Mediawiki projects, too.

Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOeZ8sHimN0&list=PLhV3K_DS5YfJdC5P86rsDsUtxEow0gDnR&t=6500

How does your session relate to the event theme, Collaboration of the Open?

The presentation and discussion are intended to show that collaboration between Wikipedias and their sister projects can help minimize technical and social problems in the wikis and make Wikimedia projects more attractive for readers.

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Everyone can participate in this session

Etherpad link

https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/WM2024_Day4_Ochrid_-_Room_9

Resources

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Speakers

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  • Roland Unger
Author since 2004/11/1 (main focus Germany and near east). One of the founders of Wikivoyage project (chairman of the association). Administrator, software developer of JavaScript scripts and Lua modules (up to now). Participant of Wikimedia Summits, collaboration with Egypt Wikipedia user group.