CIS-A2K/Outreach Programs/Commons Outreach Handbook
Rationale
[edit]The objective is to build a handbook that is inclusive of best practices, standardized documents, tips and advice on how to conduct Wikimedia Commons outreach session, photothon (in Marathi, फोटोथोन) or photocontest. A Commons outreach will be able attract non-text contributors like photographers, graphic artists, animators, map makers and videographers to Wikimedia Commons.
Outreach Events
[edit]Stage 1: Get community support and consensus |
A good starting point could be talking to more community members to get support and agreement to organize any kind of Commons outreach - workshop, photothon or photo contest.
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Stage 2: Initiate an RfC |
You might want to initiate an RfC for a photothon or photo contest at your Village pump to gain unanimous community backing. The discussion could be about: "shall we have a media contest this year" or something like that depending upon nature of your event. Invite your community members to provide suggestions and ideas about discussions on prize money, type of prizes, outreach strategy, duration of the event etc. This RfC will also help you frame a concrete working model for the event. |
Stage 3: Coordinators & Volunteers | You'll need lead coordinator(s) and volunteers(s) for the event. Call out for the community to volunteer for the event and divide responsibilities depending upon geography/skill lines. Nature of responsibilities to be divided amongst the volunteers:
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Stage 4: Organise funds if required |
Depending upon the type and level of outreach you want to conduct your community might need financial support. Your community can apply for a WMF Grant. You can refer to some of the grant applications that have been approved before: |
Stage 5: Set timeline and event details | Create an event timeline keeping in mind some important aspects
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Stage 6: Announcement | At this stage community should be in a position to announce the event/contest and can use several resources to make this announcement.
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Stage 7: Supporting actual event |
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Best Practices
[edit]These best practices have been drawn based on discussions on the India mailing list. Thanks to Srikanth Lakshmanan & Bala Jeyaraman.
- Usage of photographs on Wikipedia articles
- Efforts must be made to use as many uploaded files as possible in the articles. Asking someone who is attending first photo walk / uploading to commons for the first time to also add it on article may be little too much. So Wikipedians must take onus in ensuring media uploaded is being used and not unused.
- Usage of Commons upload wizard
- Train the participants to use Commons upload wizard campaign extension. It is simple and has the facility to upload multiple files at once
- Don't fall for numbers
- Most of us fall for numbers which are visible at the outset and feel happy about a a photowalk/contest or these kind of events. The organisers must ensure that the event should end only after we have used these photos effectively. Each photo hunt will have same images, so its not possible to get to 100% usage stat, but it should be at least 40% for it to call a decent success. Here is a tool server to access image usage statistics.
- Naming and meta data
- Photothon should end with an uploading function where volunteers help photographers upload pictures on commons with:
- A. Proper name
- B. Clear description
- C. Proper characterization
- D. Suggested/recommended article for image use or for creation.
- A. Proper name
- Form a clean up team
- Form a team which will help in cleaning up (eliminate copyvio/ rotating/ cropping/ description/ categorising/ watermark removal) for all the files that were uploaded as part of the photo walk.
- Train the contestants/participants
- Let contestants know where the images go and what they are used for. This will earn our wikis more active users. Contestants can be trained how one can use these files in existing Wikipedia articles or even write new articles for using their entries. Once they became involved, they might involve themselves in further activities in commons too.
- Thanks and more
- Organisers should send followup message on all uploaders talk pages (and email if their email facility is enabled) thanking them and telling them of further activities they can participate in.
Central Repository of Documents
[edit]Standardized presentation & documents |
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