How to document public outreach work

Explain your project

Describe your project in three to five sentences. Thereby, imagine you describe it to a person who has not been involved. Do not forget to explain (technical) terms.

Explain why your project was successful

Give specific examples for results, outcome or impact of your project. If possible make the success of your project measurable (for example, count the number of contributors or edits before and after your project). In doing so you could also differentiate between results for

• your project-partner (e.g. a cultural institution, a university)
• the Wikipedia community or
• other audiences

Explain what went wrong

Be honest and let others know where the project stumbled or what are the (typical) drawbacks. Try to develop strategies to deal with these problems or give advise on how to prevent or minimize them.

Make your documentation vivid

Imagine again a person who was not involved in your project and think about what would help him or her to better understand your work. Can you show pictures, integrate a graphic, quote participants or give some impressive numbers?