Research:Understanding Organizers' Impact on Newcomer Growth

Created

15:04, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

Contact

Anbar Jayadi, Wikimedia Foundation

Collaborators

Rebecca Maung, Wikimedia Foundation

Duration: 2025-07 – 2025-12

Research:Projects

This page documents a completed research project.

The Wikimedia movement uses many on- and off- wiki strategies, programs, and activities to attract and retain newcomer contributors. On-wiki examples include the Wikipedia Teahouse where new editors can access tutorial materials and ask for help from other editors, as well as Growth features, which include structured tasks and facilitated mentorship for newcomers. Off-wiki, volunteers attract and retain newcomers through in-person, online or hybrid formats, including partnerships with libraries, universities and schools, or other institutions; in-person or online facilitation during events; and providing mentorship and training. This research project aims to better understand organizers' existing approaches to attract and/or retain newcomer contributors, map strategies and best practices, and collect suggestions on potential improvement or experimental areas.

Methods

Targeted outreach to organizers to gather their community organizing experiences in attracting and/or retaining newcomer contributors.

Outreach questions for organizers

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation? (You can share about the ways you teach, train, mentor or generally onboard newcomers on how to edit. If you can specify whether it is a web/computer/laptop or mobile web/mobile phone onboarding, that would be helpful!)
What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions (e.g., uploading images to Commons) to more advanced contributions (e.g., creating an article or a section of an article)?
Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community? (If yes: How well do you think those retention strategies are working? If you measure retention, we'd love to hear about it! Otherwise we are interested in your impression of how well newcomers are retained)
The Wikimedia Foundation has been experimenting with on-wiki approaches to better retain newcomers to our projects (see: Growth features summary), and we are interested in whether these approaches might be useful to organizers like you. Would you be interested in partnering with us to test these new approaches? (Saying "yes" doesn't commit you to anything, but we will follow up to discuss! The tentative timeline for this partnership is between February and May of 2026).

Results

In this Results section, we will highlight common best practices in onboarding newcomers from a community organizing perspective. It includes shared strategies and processes that organizers utilize to support newcomer journeys in the Wikimedia movement. Furthermore, this Results section notes current challenges that organizers experience in helping newcomers to become long-time members of the Wikimedia community. Lastly, this Results section ends with suggestions for spaces for future work.

Disclaimer: Given the diversity of organizers' perspectives and experiences, please read further the Appendix I: Responses from organizers section below.

Common best practices in onboarding newcomers

Organizers provide essential guides to introduce newcomers to the Wikimedia movement. Materials included in these guides encompass a wide array of topics including an introduction to Wikipedia and the human element behind it, a step-by-step explanation of editing Wikipedia and its sister projects, and opportunities to stay in the movement. While organizers may have different configurations in onboarding newcomers depending on their regional or local context, this research identifies shared best practices among organizers across the movement.

Strategies

Based on insights provided by organizers (see Appendix I below), this research captures common strategies for organizers to help ensure newcomers find contributing to the Wikimedia movement attractive. Following are the common best practices in strategies:

Conduct needs assessment to understand the needs, interests, capacity, and/or capabilities of newcomers. This assessment includes: 1). Identification and assessment of target audience; 2). Assessment of needs and/or interests; and 3) Assessment of the capacity and capabilities of the upcoming newcomer. Organizers often look into groups that are likely to be excited about the Wikimedia movement and/or contributing to Wikipedia and its sister projects such as university students, culture and language enthusiasts, and youth. In terms of needs/interests, organizers pay attention to aspects such as whether newcomers have access to devices and reliable internet connectivity and whether newcomers are interested in certain topics (e.g., social issues, culture and language preservation). Furthermore, organizers take notes of external and internal factors influencing the capacity of the capabilities of the upcoming newcomer cohort. Those external factors include politics, socio-economic conditions, availability of structural supports, and time availability.
Center the human element and showcase the social aspects behind Wikipedia and its sister projects. This research identifies that, across the global Wikimedia movement, organizers practice this one key step when introducing the Wikimedia movement as well as Wikipedia and/or its sister projects to newcomers. The one key step is to show newcomers the humans behind contributions and actions in the wiki verse. This includes explanation of the ecosystem behind the Wikimedia projects, building connection with experienced organizers or editors as well as their peers, and teaching newcomer features such as talk/discussion pages. For organizers who work with Indigenous communities and oral language practitioners, they emphasize that Wikimedia projects can serve as a repository for the collective memories, territories, culture, and community practices. These organizers also add that, by contributing to Wikimedia projects, these communities are exercising their agency to contribute to topics that are close to their life such as oral language, ecology, and culture.
Show the impacts or results of newcomer contributions early and express appreciation to newcomers often. Through their experiences, organizers learn how to design their learning activities so that newcomers can see and feel the impacts or results of their contributions early. Organizers endeavor to express appreciation to newcomers often. Common words of encouragement from organizers are "every edit matters however small". Many organizers also show their appreciation to newcomers via newsletters and social media posts (or other communication channels), awards or graduation celebrations, and giving other forms of recognition (e.g., certificates).
Develop support assistance for newcomers. The aim of any form of support assistance is to provide newcomers with safe spaces and assure that newcomers have access to help when they need it. Off-wiki platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord play crucial roles in providing spaces for newcomers to stay connected with their community, ask questions, keep informed of upcoming events or activities, and connect with others. Another form of support provided by some organizers for newcomers is mentorship. There are various configurations of mentorship in the Wikimedia community. It can be in a one-on-one format where an experienced editor is paired with a newcomer. Some organizers combine that format with peer learning so that newcomers can learn from each other. Some develop a cohort model where X amount of newcomers is paired with Y amount of mentors. Usually mentorship runs in a defined timeframe and as such, off-wiki groups such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord groups play valuable roles for newcomers who want support and assistance.
Encourage repetition. According to organizers' experiences, repetitive practices in contributing to Wikimedia projects as well as repeat attendance in events or training/workshops contribute to newcomer survival, i.e., whether newcomers stay and continue to contribute on-wiki and/or in the community. As such, organizers strive to provide continuous opportunities to newcomers to interact with, or have constant association with, the Wikimedia movement, be it via editing on-wiki or simply attending an activity. Depending on newcomers' readiness, those opportunities can include involvement in an organizing committee or jury panel, participation in thematic or topical campaigns, attendance at edit-a-thons, and participation in social gatherings.

Processes

Based on insights provided by organizers (see Appendix I below), this research generates three major categories of newcomer onboarding steps from the perspective of organizers. Those categories are newcomer attraction, transition, and retention.

Newcomer attraction

Newcomer attraction activities are activities that aim to invite newcomers to make on-wiki contributions.
As a starting point, organizers ask newcomers to try small and simple tasks on-wiki. From organizers' point of view, editing Wikipedia articles is considered an advanced task for newcomers. It is something that newcomers can do at a later stage of learning.
Small and simple tasks on-wiki include:
1. Learn what Wikipedia interface looks like - drawing newcomer attention to, among other things, the "References" section and explaining policies such as Neutral Point of View (NPOV);
2. Learn the interface of Wikipedia's sister projects such as Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, Wiktionary, and Wikivoyage;
3. Edit newcomer's own user page, where they can learn how to write a paragraph about themselves and learn how to add links and use images;
4. Upload images to Wikimedia Commons and learn how to add descriptions and categories to them;
5. Learn about structured data on Wikidata;
6. Learn how to translate - from English to a local language - and input words on Wiktionary;
7. Learn how to add links or find missing sources (and add citations if newcomers manage to find reliable references) on Wikipedia or Wikivoyage; and
8. Learn how to find talk/discussion pages on Wikipedia.
Some organizers create visual learning materials for anyone who is curious about contributing to Wikimedia projects. Those materials are in the form of online courses (e.g., WikiLearn) or short introduction videos available on Wikimedia Commons or social media channels like YouTube.

Newcomer transition

Newcomer transitional activities are activities that aim to support newcomers to contribute independently and at the same time, for newcomers to see and/or experience diverse pathways of participation in the Wikimedia movement. It is designed to serve as a bridge so that newcomers can transition smoothly from their "newbie" status to become more advanced members of the community.
On-wiki activities that organizers encourage newcomers to do at this transitional stage include:
1. Newcomer to log in to their account, browse around, and try to find things to edit;
2. For newcomers who want to create an article or make other types of advanced edits, such as adding a section or longer pieces of text, organizers will ask them to use sandboxes and organizers/mentors can help them review it or answer questions via communication channels like WhatsApp and Telegram; and
3. Repeat practices of using tools like Content Translation.
From organizers' perspective, the availability of newcomer-friendly activities (e.g. edit-a-thons, technical mentorships, non-technical mentorships, advanced training and workshop, repeat online events/campaigns/contests, learning clinics, and any opportunities provided by institutional collaborations or partnerships) is key to inspiring and providing nudges to action to newcomers. It signals to newcomers that they are welcomed to stay in the movement and there is a community that can support them.
When newcomers are ready or want to be involved in community organizing activities, organizers try to provide participation options (e.g., as an attendee, as a junior organizer, or as part of a jury if newcomers have the expertise, etc.).

Newcomer retention

Newcomer retention-related activities are activities that aim to help newcomers stay or bring them back to contribute on-wiki and/or community activities.
From the perspective of community organizing experiences, signals of newcomer retention can include:
1. Newcomers have a degree of awareness about Wikimedia projects;
2. Newcomers improve their digital literacy skills as they learn how to contribute to Wikipedia and its sister projects;
3. Newcomers develop and/or have a sense of belonging to the Wikimedia movement of sense of community in general;
4. Newcomers complete programs provided by organizers such as mentorship programs;
5. Newcomers become trainers or leaders that guide their community in learning about Wikimedia projects and how to contribute; and
6. If organizers have a physical office space for their community, having newcomers visit the space and use it (e.g., for Wi-Fi access, for access to reading materials).
Processes that organizers deploy to help with newcomer retention can include:
1. Use the Program and Event Dashboard or other tools such as Microsoft Excel to track newcomer contribution;
2. Host reactivation or newcomer-friendly activities such as campaigns or funneling newcomers to participate in other available training;
3. Onboard newcomers to off-wiki communication groups such as those on WhatsApp, Telegram, and Discord;
4. Ensure availability of open communication such as emails, open calendars, or open forms on websites;
5. Partner with community or institutional leaders to keep the community or the institution interested and engaged in contributing to the Wikimedia movement;
6. Utilize mentorship program to help newcomers develop their skills; and
7. Leverage institutional partnerships activities or programs to nudge newcomers to contribute.

Current challenges

In driving newcomer growth, organizers face challenges and try to overcome them by adapting to available opportunities. Based on organizers' insights (see Appendix I section below), this research identifies some of the shared challenges and existing solutions. Drawing from the identification, this research notes potential ideas of addressing them.

Structural challenges

Access to devices and internet connectivity. In designing and implementing their newcomer activities, organizers—particularly those who are located in the Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America—need to think about newcomers' level of access to devices (e.g., laptop, mobile phones) and reliable internet connectivity (e.g., Wi-Fi, mobile/internet data). To address this, existing solutions include laptop lending, ensuring Wi-Fi access during events, and providing newcomer with mobile/internet data when applicable. Additionally, for organizers who interact with mobile-first newcomers, another challenge is that, for those newcomers, contributing to Wikipedia is not always a top-of-mind activity. Mobile-first newcomers may use their already limited mobile/internet data for their preferred activities such as WhatsApp and watching videos for fun or for their study. While solutions exist (e.g., laptop lending), this research notes that having consistent and sustained access to a laptop, Wi-Fi or mobile/internet data may remain a challenge especially for newcomers who use mostly mobile phones in their daily life. Ideas to explore then: What does it look like to continue to support mobile-first newcomers who are interested in contributing to Wikimedia projects but do not have consistent and sustained access to a laptop? What are the basic community organizing practices or processes needed to support mobile-first newcomers?
Logistical challenges associated with local-first strategy. Without adequate and sustained resources, it remains a challenge for organizers to continuously support newcomers, especially those who live in rural or regional areas. To address this, existing solutions include incorporating an online element in their engagement, such as hosting online events or leveraging group chats like those on WhatsApp, Discord, and Telegram to keep newcomers engaged.
Socio-economic factors influencing sustained contributions of newcomers. Factors such as time availability for unpaid editing or volunteering activities, economic situations (e.g., work responsibilities), and varied qualities of desired skills to contribute to Wikimedia projects (e.g., writing skills) affect the extent of newcomers' involvement in the movement. To address this situation, organizers try to offer low-barrier yet engaging activities, such as attending an online event where newcomers can meet others from other parts of the world, bringing a sense of pride that they are part of a global community. This research notes that one possible way to make contributing to the Wikimedia movement a little bit more affordable is to make mobile editing easier with a caveat that sustained access to internet connectivity may remain a challenge (read also: Product and Technology Advisory Council/February 2025 draft PTAC recommendation for feedback/Mobile experiences).

On- and off-wiki experience challenges

When newcomers are asked by organizers to find things to edit on-wiki, newcomers do not always know where to find such opportunities or where to start.
There is a learning curve for newcomers in understanding and practicing core policies such as NPOV and reliable sources, as well as managing interaction with other editors on-wiki.
For organizers, tracking community members over time can be a challenging task. So, the number of organizers who are available to help with newcomer-friendly activities are limited. As a result, available organizers can be exposed to burn out.
In term of newcomer retention, while organizers have tools such as the Program & Events Dashboard or programs such as mentorships, it remains an area where organizers could use supports and sustained resources so that they can keep newcomers engaged.

Spaces for future work

This section notes recommendation for future work. Further in-depth discussion may be needed.

Attracting and retaining mobile-first newcomers. Organizers—especially those who work in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America regions—share that they teach newcomers about contributing to Wikipedia and its sister projects using mobile devices (especially mobile web) or a combination of laptops and mobile devices (mobile web). In these regions, mobile devices are more readily available to newcomers in their day-to-day life than laptops. However, learning on mobile web remains a limited experience due to the interface of mobile (web) editing itself, the rising price of mobile or internet data, and the competition for attention from other applications like social media, among others. This research recommends exploring the following questions: How can organizers help mobile-first newcomers who do not have consistent and sustained access to laptops to be able to contribute to Wikipedia and/or its sister projects? What are the community organizing workflows and documentation that are needed to support mobile-first newcomers' ability to do mobile, structured editing? (Suggested further reading: Contributors/Mobile Web Editing Research).
Providing structured transitional and retention-related activities to newcomers. Next steps are often unclear for newcomers, especially in the absence of guidance from organizers or mentors. This research notes that initiatives such as Article guidance and Progression system may help guide and increase newcomers' contribution activity (read also: Research:Successful Newcomers Survey 2025). Furthermore, mentorship programs appear to be one of the compelling tools in organizers' toolbox to help guide newcomers in becoming long-time contributors. However, it takes time and resources to develop tailored and sustainable mentorship programs. Not to mention, mentors often face burn out and have limited capacity to continuously attend to newcomers' needs (read also: Understanding newcomer mentorship in Wikipedia). This research recommends exploring the following questions: How can organizers leverage tools such as Growth mentorship feature to help with mentorship workload? What would newcomers' onboarding workflows and processes look like if organizers incorporated Article guidance and Growth features?
Experimenting with tools that can help newcomer retention. This research notes that further usage of Event Registration Tool may help organizers in this regard. Another available tool to experiment with is the Micro-Task Generator for Organizers on Wikipedia.

Resources

Wikimania 2025 presentation: Organizers as key partners to support newcomers growth in our movement (recording)

Appendix 1: Responses from organizers

Note: When organizers consent, the summary of their responses will be available below.

Mariana Senkiv (Board member at Wikimedia Ukraine) and Anton Protsiuk (Programs Coordinator at Wikimedia Ukraine)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- The broad principle of our approach to attract newcomer editors is thinking through how we can reach and support people who are interested in Wikipedia (and Wikimedia projects more broadly) and/or people who are interested in trying out editing Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects.
- Anton explains that there are three main categories of approach:
  - Campaigns and contests. This is the most effective approach to attract newcomer editors as it unlocks readers to become contributors, primarily thanks to banners. We support the participants of the campaigns and contests with relevant materials such as instructions to do the contests. Ways to promote the campaigns and contests: one effective way is through banners on Wikipedia/Wiki projects. The other ones are via social media.
  - Wikipedia education program. We work with educational partners to attract newcomer student editors to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects. Types of support we provide are direct and indirect support. Direct support includes supporting the educational partners in their curriculum and courses (e.g., as part of their courses, students create Wikipedia articles). Indirect support includes supporting the community of wiki educators who are then working on attracting newcomer students editors on their own (e.g., organizing events or training for trainers). The impact of this approach includes students obtaining knowledge about Wikipedia and Wikiprojects and how to edit. Even if they do not decide to be volunteers (and, to be sure, most don’t stay on as volunteering, which is to be expected), their literacy has improved since they know what Wikipedia and Wikiprojects are.
  - Courses (e.g., online courses like WikiLearn for beginners). This is a newer method that we use to attract newcomer editors. On top of WikiLearn for beginners, we also have tailored courses for specific groups, such as neurodiverse editors.
- Lastly, Mariana adds about how learning about people’s needs and level of resources (i.e., needs assessment) remains a key piece of newcomer attraction approaches especially when approaching specific groups such as Indigenous peoples, elderly, and youth. Some examples of specific groups: One of our key strategic priorities is to attract newcomer editors to edit Crimean Tatars Wikipedia (campaigns, training for native speakers, student engagement, and collaboration with Crimean Tatar cultural organizations). When we host workshops or teach youth or elderly groups, we invite trainers who are suitable for these groups (e.g., Youth Wikimedians who are sometimes also admins teaching youth groups).

What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- Mariana is a teacher at a university. And, in this educational setting, Mariana tries to include Wikipedia and Wikiprojects in the classroom. The approach is as follows:
  - Understand and assess the needs of the students before teaching about Wikipedia and Wikiprojects. For example: Mariana learned that Wikivoyage is one of the students’ favorite wikis to edit. Mariana also assessed what resources the students have including their technical capacity and accessibility to computers, among other things (as well as the time they can devote to this work).
  - Tailor the level of difficulty of editing to the students’ school year. For instance: First year students will receive small, easier editing tasks whereas fourth year students will have more complicated, advanced editing tasks. So, as the students progress their school year, their editing skills also progress from small to more advanced edits.
  - Conduct surveys to understand students’ experiences. For example: When Mariana conducted a survey to gauge students’ experiences, the survey results showed that students will edit Wikivoyage and other wikis when they have time because they learned how to edit in the classroom. More broadly, students were grateful for the opportunity to learn about Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects.
- In the classroom setting: Before any tasks, Mariana provides explanations of Wikipedia and Wikiprojects as well as relevant rules and policies. Mariana also likes to use Programs & Events Dashboard because students can see their contributions and it motivates them to contribute more.
  - Small editing tasks include: finding and fixing mistakes. On Wikipedia or Wikivoyage, this can involve tasks to find sources and add links to articles as well as to add some names of regions to the articles. Teaching about Wikimedia Commons is a good starting point for first year students because they can learn about Wikiprojects in general and upload images on the Commons specifically. We have a successful experience in involving students in Wiki Loves Monuments photos contest.
  - More advanced editing tasks include: add pieces of texts of information to Wikivoyage. The most difficult task is to create an article. It’s worth noting that it is easier to create an article on Wikivoyage than on Wikipedia.
- Anton adds that, in general, we try to apply a funnel approach in attracting and retaining new contributors. This approach entails inviting as many people as possible in the entry point and then, hopefully there are more people at the end or “graduation” point. We invite people to activities and ensure that they can interact with our activities as easily as possible. Then, we try to encourage them to sign up to our updates via newsletter and various social media channels. Using these communication methods, we convey other opportunities that may interest them to contribute more.
- On using newsletter and social media channels: Currently, we are primarily using Facebook and Instagram as well as newsletter updates. We are also using Telegram and Telegram channels. We have specific Telegram groups for specific audiences such as for educators and for WikiWomen. For example: On WikiWomen Telegram chat, it is a safe space for women to share their editing experiences.
  - We also have video tutorials (like this one). While it requires quite a lot of resources and time, in the long run, these videos are very useful especially when teaching students. Not only do we have ready materials, such materials (i.e., the videos) are in the format that students, especially high school students, like.

Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- See explanations above regarding the funnel approach and engaging students in the classroom.
- In terms of avenues to stay in the community, we provide a diverse path or activities for contributors to choose. As mentioned above, there are campaigns and contests and activities for specific groups such as elderly and youth.
- It is worth noting that it is important to find balance between providing and sharing these opportunities and ensuring that people are not overwhelmed with information. We want people/newcomers to feel empowered, valued, and not afraid of making further contributions in their own preferred ways. For example:
  - Through our Telegram channels, we invite newcomers to join organizing committees as it is one way to make them feel valued for their experience, knowledge, and expertise. If they have specific knowledge or skills, they can also become a jury.
  - We have an annual Wiki marathon where people can organize their own events when they have basic knowledge about Wikipedia and Wiki projects more broadly. Additionally, they can become trainers themselves to teach about editing Wikipedia or contributing to other Wiki projects in their town or villages.

Mohammed Aliyu (Co-founder and Coordinator, Hausa Wikimedians User Group)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- We use targeted and gradual approach. We go or reach out to places where we think there are people who are likely interested in knowing and/or editing Wikipedia. Those places include schools and universities. At a start, we introduce them to Wikipedia and its mission. We also showcase our work as a community and the works (e.g., articles created/edited) of organizers/editors like Mohammed Aliyu. This introduction allows people to see why it’s important to care about Wikipedia. Additionally, in our experience, showcasing our works makes people inspired to contribute. For example: In the past, Mohammed Aliyu showcased his contributions on English Wikipedia to students. In his experience, this activity inspired students to want to know more and contribute as students can see the potential of how Wikipedia can help them with digital literacy. After this introduction, we invite those who are interested to our workshop or training. It’s a hands-on workshop or training where we teach about the basics of editing. After workshop or training, we onboard these newcomer editors to our WhatsApp group to inform them about future events. Usually we inform them 2 weeks in advance. This is how we try to retain these newcomer editors by encouraging them to participate in more events.
- We do continuous communication and appreciation. WhatsApp group is one communication channel that we use. When newcomers share their edits, we show them appreciation by reacting with emojis, for instance. To ensure smooth editing experiences, we also ensure that, during events, the event venue has reliable Wi-Fi. Another way is, when applicable, to provide participants with internet data so that they can continue editing (we usually provide data as incentives to people who are committed and serious about contributing to Wikipedia and Wiki projects).
- On editing using laptop v. mobile phone: In Nigeria, most of editors use mobile phones. For Mohammed Aliyu, it is easier to edit on a mobile phone (Open Wikipedia website via browser, usually Chrome, to edit). However, Mohammed Aliyu believes it is still more convenient to edit with a computer.
- On mentoring new editors: Mohammed Aliyu is open to provide newcomer editors or people who are interested in editing Wikipedia an introductory level material. For instance: he has done workshops on how to do simple edits on Wikipedia using mobile phones. After this introductory level, Mohammed Aliyu recommends people to come to the events/projects/workshops (usually Hausa Wikimedians User Group has 2 projects in a month).

What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- See above answers.
- We strive toward having regular participants for our projects/events. Mohammed Aliyu observes that those regular participants do better in contributing than one-off participants. We also have local representatives for local communities. Our outreach encompasses various areas in Nigeria and through our projects/events, we have representatives to teach the local communities on how to contribute to Wikipedia including how to create articles through translation.
- We do continuous communication and appreciation. We usually don’t drop people from our projects. We try to keep encouraging them and celebrate their achievements. For example: When newcomer editors try to write an article, we will review them and help them fix it. When newcomer editors see the revised articles and are able to publish it, they feel proud and hopefully this motivates them to continue to edit.
- Mohammed Aliyu's own journey as an editor and organizer: Mohammed Aliyu started editing in 2017 on English Wikipedia. He later switches to Hausa Wikipedia because there are few articles on Hausa Wikipedia and some editors there are not native speakers. The ability to contribute to article creation, editing and expanding the Hausa Wikipedia project keeps Mohammed Aliyu motivated. He also connects with other editors on Hausa Wikipedia through talk pages. For example: There was an editor who is French, who thanked Mohammed Aliyu for his article. This motivates Mohammed Aliyu even further, namely contributing to the community via organizing activities. Mohammed Aliyu and editors on Hausa Wikipedia further connect via WhatsApp group. The group becomes a support space where if someone has an issue, the group members can help answer. This WhatsApp group is also an entry point to organizing. The group members start organizing projects/events to bring more people to contribute to Hausa Wikipedia, English Wikipedia, and other Wikiprojects.

Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- See above answers.
- Organizing contests or competitions to encourage people to come back to edit. Additionally, sometimes we organize contests and competitions, be it editing or uploading photos on Wikimedia Commons. For top participants, we provide them with swags like t-shirts to appreciate their contributions.
- Assign assignments to newcomer editors. When we organize projects, we give newcomer editors assignments. For example: We ask newcomer editors to create articles and post the draft in our WhatsApp group. Then, organizers like Mohammed Aliyu will review them and provide feedback. Newcomer editors most of the time will use visual edits. However, we will also try to get them used to source editing. We also encourage newcomer editors to do small edits. We encourage them to login into their accounts and find opportunities to edit however small. Organizers like Mohammed Aliyu then will ask for their usernames to review the edits and provide feedback if necessary.
- As organizers, we want to encourage newcomers to just try and see their attempts. And, we appreciate them for their efforts.

Username 511Kev (Kashmiri Wikipedia)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation? What was your thought process when creating the Kashmiri Wikipedia videos tutorials?
- Creation of the Kashmiri Wikipedia videos tutorials: The user notices that, at that time, there are no pages to support and guide newcomers when they want to contribute to Kashmiri Wikipedia. So, at that time, the user applies for a WMF grant that can support the creation of the videos. The grant was accepted (see Grant report). Why video tutorials? The user thinks that it is better to deliver the information about basics of editing via visual format like videos. As a lesson learned, if one would like to create video tutorials, one needs to be mindful of the challenge that interface changes. However, video tutorials like these ones provide basic ideas about how to edit. Additionally, it gives readers a better sense about Wikipedia itself.
- Context, a snapshot of User 511Kev’s editor journey: The journey starts when the user is still in the university. The user googles topics pertaining to university subjects and comes across Wikipedia articles. Using a mobile phone, the user starts contributing in English Wikipedia. As the time progresses, the user gains extended rights. Within 6 months of the editing journey, the user found the multi-lingual aspect of Wikipedia and that’s how the user knows Kashmiri Wikipedia. As the user is passionate about the user’s language and culture, the user starts editing Kashmiri Wikipedia and manages to receive admin rights. Overall, being a Wikipedia editor has helped the user personally including how the user can contribute to the Kashmiri’s language preservation.
  - On editing on mobile phone v. laptop: When the user edits on English Wikipedia, the user uses mobile phone (mobile web). It is worth noting that editing Kashmiri Wikipedia, it may be better to do it on a laptop as it has its own letters.
  - In terms of organizing experience, the user worked on promoting Kashmiri Wikipedia to the user’s social circle but at that time, there’s not much hype. Further context: While there are Kashmiri language speakers, not all of those speakers can write well. This makes contributing to Wikipedia a bit challenging for them. As such, conversion to Kashmiri Wikipedia editors is usually low. It is worth noting that making people aware of Kashmiri Wikipedia, even though the conversion is low, remains an important work. The user keeps contributing to Kashmiri Wikipedia and maintaining motivations because, among others, of small appreciations that the user receives from other Wikimedians. This continuous motivation then led the user to create Kashmiri Wikipedia video tutorials.

What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions? Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- The impact of the video tutorials is difficult to quantify. The video tutorials themselves aim to provide basic ideas about how to edit and more broadly for readers, it provides a better sense about Wikipedia. Help pages exist to help newcomer editors. These video tutorials help to visualize that information so they can be easily understood by newcomer editors.

Agnes Abah (Co-founder and community leader Igala Wikimedia Community, Board member of Women Do News)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- Aspects to consider in thinking, designing, and implementing activities to attract newcomer editors:
  - Reflect and decide on potential groups who can be enthusiastic or motivated about the cause and ready to action/be involved in volunteerism. For Agnes, it’s students and young people who are curious about technology, learning, and contributing to open knowledge.
    - Context: Igala is one of the minority languages in Nigeria. And, through the Igala Wikimedia Community, we want to preserve our language, prevent them from extinction, via contributing to Wikipedia and Wikiprojects.
  - Assessing and understanding participants’ needs before conducting training or events is key. In designing effective newcomers’ onboarding activity, Agnes looks at the participants’ background, skills, and interests. Agnes also pays attention to the technological capacities and skills of the participants.
  - Create a welcoming and inclusive environment. This includes welcoming newcomer editors to ask questions when they face challenges, keeping them motivated by showing that their contributions are valued, and explaining that their contributions have real impact to the world such as preservation of languages and making knowledge available to people.
  - Tailor training sessions to suit newcomer editors’ needs. Agnes breaks down the editing process for newcomer editors.
    - Device: most people in Agnes’s region make contributions with phones as few people have laptops. If the participants are contributing via phones, Agnes instructs them to click on the desktop view so the interface is slightly better.

What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- In supporting newcomer editors to keep contributing, several strategies that Agnes implements include:
  - Assign mentors to newcomer editors who are serious in continuing to contribute to Wikipedia and Wikiprojects. Mentors are experienced Wikimedians. One of the briefs for the mentors is to allow mentees to reach them anytime.
    - In Agnes’s experience, for instance, having a mentor who was very accessible and responsive during the Wiki Biodiversity campaign was really helpful.
  - Ensure continuous engagement through diverse communication channels such as Facebook groups, Telegram, and WhatsApp. Majority communication happens on Telegram and WhatsApp. On top of these channels, when applicable, do monthly check-in to provide updates and inform newcomer editors of upcoming actions or events.
  - Encourage newcomer editors to develop leadership skills and in doing so, provide them with an inclusive and welcoming environment. For example, as a start, newcomer editors who are really motivated are given small roles or responsibilities within the community. When they perform such roles or responsibilities, Agnes ensures that they feel recognized and valued.
- In terms of editing, to support newcomer editors:
  - For Wikipedia:
    - Agnes starts teaching about how to do minor edits such as add infoboxes, add links, and add citations.
    - Afterward, Agnes encourages newcomer editors to see what information gap exists in a particular edit. If the newcomers find reliable sources, then they can add such sources.
    - For English Wikipedia, Agnes usually teaches newcomers to start editing in their sandboxes. Once it’s approved, then they can publish the edits.
    - Agnes also manages newcomer editors’ expectations when it comes to editing English Wikipedia by explaining policies such as notability and that references need to be from reliable sources.
  - For Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons: Agnes teaches how to upload images on Wikimedia Commons, add to Wikidata.
  - Then, newcomer editors concentrate on Igala Wikipedia. Since Igala is not a majority language, newcomers are encouraged to do translation from English to Igala.

Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- Fostering community connection after each training is essential. For example, Agnes adds newcomer editors to the WhatsApp group where Agnes shares editing tips, campaign updates, and answers any questions that newcomer editors have.
- Ensuring that there are continuous follow up activities is key to keep newcomer editors actively involved in the community and keep contributing. For example, Agnes organizes Wiki Love Folklore in February, Wiki Loves Africa in April, WIki campus fellowship from March to June, then WikiForHumanRights, SheSaid Campaign, and Wikidata day in September, October, and later in November. These continuous activities keep the newcomer editors to be in the volunteer space.
- Mentorships: see above answer regarding mentorship.
- Actively giving newcomer editors recognition by, among others, highlighting their achievements during meetings or through social media posts so they are motivated to stay and continue contributing.
- Tracking the engagement and contributions of newcomer editors. Agnes uses Program & Events / Outreach Dashboard to track who returns for later events or continues editing after the training.
- Other support that we try to provide is to provide internet data for people who don’t have them (it’s expensive).

Belinda Spry (Executive Officer, Wikimedia Australia), Alice Woods (Education Projects Coordinator, Wikimedia Australia)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation? How do you support them from doing small edits to more advanced edits? Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- Short backgrounder: We only really have staff at Wikimedia Australia for just over 3 years. We have been very active in trying to attract and retain editors. While there are challenges, luckily there were already a number of partnerships and activities that volunteers had before the formation of Wikimedia Australia. So we rely on that and more importantly, at the same time, we try to find opportunities for growth.
- General messaging to newcomer editors: There are so many things to do on wikis. Follow your passion or interests. Take your time. Belinda emphasizes waiting and learning, i.e., no rush, keep learning and finding opportunities to contribute on wikis.
- Lesson learned from these activities/programs include: There are so many things to do on wikis. We tried before to teach people on general editing. It did not work out well. We have to have a topic that people are interested in or a group of people who are passionate about a certain topic (e.g., women in STEM) or some sort of professional affiliations that have shared topics of interest (e.g., academics, scientists). With all the sessions that we run, we are open for people to reach out to us (if they need help, if they need a mentor, etc.). We also try to send people follow up emails after events/sessions if they want to learn more. We have a variety of resources (e.g., YouTube, WikiLearn course, Resources) that we made available via the follow up emails, among others, so people can access them in their own time.
- Activities to encourage on-wiki contributions include:
  - Introduction to Wikipedia session: This is a session for people who don’t really know about wikis. Up until last year (2024), we had a booking system for the Introduction to Wikipedia session. You could sign up on Eventbrite. Often we have quite a few people registered, but attendance is really low. It’s not irregular to have no one attending. This year, we tried to change it to an open invite where people can just attend when they are interested. Still, attendance is really low.
  - Drop in and Wiki session: It is a session where people can ask wiki questions. When experienced editors are there, they can teach less-experienced editors on topics like how to create categories. Alice sometimes needs to facilitate in cases where the topics are perhaps a little bit more advanced for less-experienced editors.
  - Regular meet-ups - online community meetings: Generally, 8-15 people attend. In these meetings, people can provide updates about what they have been doing on wikis.
  - With in-person events, for instance: Mostly focus on Wikipedia. With edit-a-thons, if not creating, we recommend participants to do a complete update of the pages on Wikipedia. Before edit-a-thons, we encourage participants to create their accounts in advance and say in their user pages that they are part of “X” edit-a-thons. Sometimes people want to learn to create a page, then Alice and team need to gently nudge them to other, more suitable activities such as expanding an article.
  - Contributing to other Wikimedia projects: We recognize that there are other entry points like contributing to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. It is worth noting that when we talk about teaching or training about wikis here, we talk mostly about adult education. So, some people have different approaches or preferences to learning. As such, in our training, we provide options and let the people/newcomers choose what they want to do. For instance: there was one time where one of the participants who did a little bit of editing here and there asked: tell me what to work on, what is most needed. Everyone in the training session said: everything, anything as there’s so much to do and ask what’s interesting for you.
- Activities with a combination of on-wiki and/or off-wiki participation (note: on-wiki contributions are not mandatory or expected) include:
  - Tailored the in-person events: For example: a long term partnership with Franklin Women. With them, we do events with them focusing on women in STEM, especially health and medical science. Those ones usually scientists and academics who prepare references so they work on a bit advanced level. For them, we prepare a list of articles about women for them to write about or expand. Most of them are familiar with Wikipedia and how to edit. Belinda did one recently with the Art Gallery of South Australia. This was a public edit-a-thon and we were going to write about women artists. The participants in this type of event have varying degrees of education, interests, and comfort level of using computers. Some attended just to listen. Some attended because they wanted to share their knowledge about women artists that they knew. Some have the existing skills of citing and referencing. As such, there were lots of efforts to attend and work with the diverse participants so that by the end of the event, they do understand wiki better and feel productive, that they learn something from the event. For Belinda personally, she is happy when people understand wiki better, of us/Wikimedia Australia, and about the knowledge system in general. Occasionally, there are people who keep editing; they are the ones that we find hard to track. We can reach approximately 900 people who attend some kind of editing events and to track who stay in editing, it’s hard to track. Alice adds unless they stay engaged with us, apart from the Outreach Dashboard (that ends after a certain point of time), it’s still hard to track. Sometimes, it’s easier to engage with people to start contributing or knowing Wikipedia/Wikimedia. It’s a bit challenging to ensure continuous engagement with the people who are already in our community.
- Programs with universities: Last year (2024), students in the third-year microbiology subjects looked up Wikipedia articles, compare it to AI. Editing the page itself is not part of the assessment but students learn how to edit and how Wikipedia works. In this activity, almost universally they found the Wikipedia articles are much stronger than AI. They could not believe how strong the references on Wikipedia are. So this activity allows them to learn about that. This activity resulted in the academic publication and other engagements.
  - Every year, we fund partner projects: Typically, as an impact of partner projects, people involved in those projects will mentor or teach how to edit wikis. For instance: one of the results was a Partner Project that focused on indexing and adding indexers to Wikidata.
  - On community practices: Since the establishment of Wikimedia Australia, volunteers are generally leaning onto Wikimedia Australia to organize an edit-a-thon. However, some volunteers or experienced editors still host wiki sessions (e.g., mentor people in-person or online). They like to do it but not necessarily want to be primary teachers or as public speakers/facilitators and/or do it as a one-off thing. Other events run more independently and humbly. For instance: In the National Library of Australia, there is a Wiki Club of staff where they gather staff to edit.
- A snapshot of Alice Woods’s story about how she starts as a Wikim(p)edian:
  - Wikimedia Australia, before they had staff, did fund a Wiki Project Northern Territory. At that time, Alice used to work in the Northern Territory working as a librarian. She was asked to host an edit-a-thon (not to present, but to facilitate the space, do event organizing, etc.).
  - Alice’s editing journey though started with an edit-a-thon. Alice got convinced by Women in Red about the lack of women articles. Also, the lack of correct information about Indigenous Peoples in Alice Springs.
  - In her earlier editing experience, there was an editor who consistently flagged Alice’s edits for notability. For women articles that Alice edited, it was flagged for notability. One time, an article about men that Alice edited was flagged for notability. The one who flagged it got reprimanded. At that time, Alice felt she did not want to deal with this. However, Alice did not completely stop editing.
  - In the present days, Alice tries to help people understand notability policy, among others. For example: In October 2025, Alice organized an edit-a-thon at the University of Sydney, mostly with academics and professional staff. We try to explain the notability so that people can have good experiences in editing.
  - As an organizer, Alice and team also try to help new people with this notability issue such as making sure there's a Wikidata item, improving those items. Alice thought that editing Wikis is more social than she thought. Interacting with people on the talk pages, defending your pages/edits. So, in general, she does not really engage more than necessary.
- On First Nations Focus Group Report - Wikimedia Australia: Earlier this year: Wikimedia Australia and Terri Janke and Company to scope a First Nations Protocol.

Sadik Shahadu (Co-founder, Global Open Initiative and Dagbani Wikimedians User Group)

Remote attendance: Fuseini Mugisu Suhuyini who manages communications, outreach, campaigns, and social media for the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- Sadik is a community organizer in Ghana. He started to be involved in the Wikimedia community, i.e., contributed to Wikipedia, in 2016.
- Sadik is the executive director and co-founder of the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group, a young not-for-profit organization based in Ghana and working to support the 16 Mole-Dagbani languages on Wikipedia and its sister projects.
- Dagbani Wikimedians User Group: it has an initial mission is to support and make the Mole-Dagbani languages visible across Wikimedia projects. The user group started to be formally organized in 2019. They mobilized, through events and other modes of outreach, students, teachers, academics, and researchers, among others, to work on languages.
- Further reading about Dagbani Wikimedians User Group include: Dagbani as one of the first languages to work with Abstract Wikipedia and Dagbani as the first Wikipedia for Wikifunction integration.
- An example of previous programs to help attract newcomers: Dagbani Wikipedia Saha. It is a “a tele-education pilot program that is intended to recruit volunteers and train more people who may otherwise not be able to attend the in-person workshops/trainings because of their location, time and proximity to workshop venues, among others. The program is a piloted initiative by the Dagbani Wikimedians User Group in collaboration with NTV, a northern-based digital TV station”.
- The training is quite simple as it is adapted from WikiLearn training modules. The modules include: (1). Introduction to Wikipedia, (2). 5 pillars of Wikipedia, (3). Policies, (4). How to navigate the platform, (5). How to add citations, (6). How to create sections on Wikipedia. It is 15-minutes duration and it is streamed on YouTube and Facebook. At the end of the program, we offer ways to contact us. So, through this open communication channel, we can recruit new volunteers and provide continuous communication by creating a WhatsApp group.
- Approaches when introduction newcomers to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects include: We want to target the right people such as students, teachers, and researchers in the specific language. We think that students, teachers, and researchers are in the space of knowledge systems and contributing to it through their study, teaching, and research. Because of this, these groups are likely to want to participate in our outreach.
  - Context: In Ghana, some people are not comfortable with speaking Indigenous or local languages. This can affect the documentation of the language. Usually the documentation is only available in English. Another challenge is while some people speak the language, it’s not always easy for them to write it on Wikipedia and/or contribute to its sister projects. So, when we reach out to students who are already writing in Dagbani, it’s easier for us to persuade them to be engaged in our outreach.
- Our talking points to attract new people so that they see the need to contribute to Wikipedia and/or its sister projects include: Raise awareness that our culture and language are declining. We have Wikipedia, and that is providing free access to knowledge. We try to persuade students that if not you, no one else can preserve our culture and language. In our community, despite our diverse culture and ethnic backgrounds, we are fostering collaboration and learning from each other. For each language, the language has its own team and team leaders. With this structure, we hope the team can be more independent and can do outreach in their respective language. (Further resource: Dagbani Wikimedians User Group - Meta-Wiki).
- Mentorship: Sadik is currently part of language mentors (Language Diversity Hub) for the next 9 months. Read also: Empowering New Editors: BACE Wiki Hub Wikipedia Training.

What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- Help them translate from MediaWiki, translate and localize Wikidata properties, among others. When importing the Wikidata templates, it’s originally created in English, so we help newcomers to localize them to local languages.
- When newcomers have the language in the incubator, they need to localize. Some newcomers face technical challenges so we help with that too.
- Other challenges, for example:
  - How to translate “how to create an account” from English to one of 16 Mole-Dagbani languages is quite difficult as the translator needs to think how to approach such translation.
  - In Dagbani, we also can’t say “log in”. So, we have to think about how to create a version of “log in” that matches with our language and culture.
  - The word “media”. In Ghana, a person might think that it is about “press media” even though in the Wikimedia universe, it is more about “media file”. We need to explain what “media file” is in Dagbani because students may think that it is about media files in a medical record sense.
- Having in mind the above challenges, one of Sadik’s primary roles is to bridge the gap between local languages' context and the Wikimedia context.

Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- Context: In Ghana, there is a data connectivity challenge. This includes limited access to mobile data as it is expensive. Also, Wi-Fi is not widely available for everyone. Cognizant of the context above, we realize we need to provide support such as mobile data and Mi-Fi so that newcomers can keep editing beyond an edit-a-thon or other events.
- Other incentives that we provide include gift vouchers or swags to editors who contribute significantly during edit-a-thons. We also run competitions with topics such as Africa cinema. We ask newcomers to compete in terms of the volume and quality of the contributions. Top contributors will receive awards, gift vouchers, swags. They can also receive hardware such as tablets or mobile phones.
- Also, we create categories such as categories for newer people (so they don’t have to compete with more experienced editors) and top women contributors (especially when the competitions are about addressing gender gap in Wikipedia and Wikimedia movement).
- We try to continuously motivate them about the importance of keeping the contributions, noting the potential extinction of our local languages and their pivotal roles to preserve it through contributing to Wikipedia and/or its sister projects.
- Contributing via mobile devices versus laptops: In Ghana, there are various technological barriers from the lack of basic computer literacy skills to limited access to mobile data. So for our community, roughly 70% work with mobile phones (we work with WMF’s team on mobile).
- We have a mentor-mentee approach where we pair experienced editors, paired them with new editors. For us, this approach is very effective. When newbies are paired with mentors, they can reach out to them very easily to ask questions.
- We also have Wi-Fi in our office so if they choose to, newcomers can come to our office and edit anytime. We also donate laptops to the community (we receive donations from Wikimedia Deutschland Germany).

Wikimedia Brasil

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- Wikimedia Brasil attracts newcomers through a combination of outreach activities, community events, and strategic partnerships with educational and cultural institutions. These initiatives include training programs, workshops, edit-a-thons, and GLAM and education projects that introduce Wikimedia platforms to new audiences and promote wiki engagement. Educational partnerships involve collaborating with universities and schools to offer workshops, seminars, and courses designed to train students and teachers as volunteer editors. Edit-a-thons and capacity-building programs aim to improve content quality, disseminate good editing practices, and encourage newcomers to stay active in the community.
- We also run awareness campaigns highlighting the role of Wikimedia projects in combating misinformation and work to diversify our community by engaging underrepresented groups, such as social movements, cultural collectives, and regional communities across Brazil.
- Our website also features a registration form for new editors, allowing us to direct them to the most suitable program area (Community, GLAM, Education, or Technology). After submission, a staff member contacts each person to offer tailored guidance and resources.
What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- We support this transition through Wikimedia Brasil’s training programs, mentorship initiatives, and practical workshops, including Wikimedian in Residence projects. We also encourage newcomers to participate in thematic campaigns, edit-a-thons, such as wiki contests and in-person events, where they can gradually develop more advanced editing skills with guidance from experienced community members. Our approach is to build a progressive learning pathway that connects small initial contributions to more complex and contextualized edits, strengthening both engagement and editor autonomy.
- Among the main initiatives, Calibra stands out, a program developed by Wikimedia Brasil between 2023 and 2025, aimed at strengthening local leadership and building strategic capacities within the Portuguese-speaking Wikimedia community. The initiative supports the progression of new editors, from basic contributions such as uploading images and making small edits to more complex activities, including article creation, project organization, and community leadership roles. A case study on the participant engagement process is available on Meta-Wiki, documenting the program’s key learnings and best practices.
- Another highlight is the Wiki Apoia mentorship program, which provides personalized support to new editors. Experienced community members guide participants through practical steps, deepening their understanding of Wikimedia principles, editing techniques, and collaborative dynamics. The program helps editors transition from initial engagement to autonomous and consistent participation in Wikimedia projects.
- In 2023, Wikimedia Brasil also carried out a collaboration with editors from Guinea-Bissau to train and support the local community of Portuguese-speaking contributors. This initiative included training sessions, mentorship, and ongoing support, representing the first direct contact of Guinean participants with Wikimedia platforms. The project strengthened Lusophone integration and aligned with Wikimedia Brasil’s strategic objective, particularly the axis ‘Deepen and direct networks of governance within the Wikimedia Movement’, with a specific focus on ‘Integrate the Lusophone community into their own collective strategic processes’.
- Through initiatives such as Calibra, Wiki Apoia, and the collaboration with Guinea-Bissau, Wikimedia Brasil establishes a continuous and sustainable learning pathway, connecting newcomers’ first steps to more advanced and engaged participation in Wikimedia projects.
Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- Our main retention strategy is to foster a sense of belonging and shared purpose within the community. We encourage new editors to get involved in ongoing projects, attend community meetings, and contribute to thematic initiatives aligned with their interests.
- We maintain communication with editors through multiple channels, including email, Slack, Telegram, and social media, to inform them about new campaigns, activities, and engagement opportunities. This ongoing support allows new editors to stay updated on community initiatives, participate in events and projects, and receive guidance and assistance, strengthening their connection to the community and encouraging their continued involvement in Wikimedia projects.
- In-person events play a central role in strengthening the sense of belonging. Initiatives such as WikiCon Brasil, a conference held by and for the Brazilian community with the aim of bringing together and strengthening Wikimedians, serve as platforms for connecting and consolidating ties within the multifaceted community, promoting discussion circles, practical workshops, knowledge sharing, training, and networking among participants.
- Wiki Encontros support local gatherings, reinforcing regional integration and collaboration among editors. These in-person activities also help to engage and onboard new editors, providing opportunities for learning, experience exchange, and active participation in the community. This initiative aligns with the efforts to strengthen community interaction and collaboration highlighted in the Second Quarter Report (Apr–Jun) 2024, which documents actions aimed at promoting nationwide community meetings across Brazil.
- Although we do not yet have a fully consolidated formal metric for retention, we rely on our SARA (acronym for Sistema de Avaliação de Resultados e Aprendizados in Portuguese, or Results and Learning Evaluation System) as a reference. This system integrates quantitative and qualitative metrics to promote continuous, evidence-based learning. According to the latest data, our retention rate for editors this year exceeded 300%, showing significant growth in engagement and long-term participation among new contributors in the Wikimedia Brasil community.

Anthony Diaz (Co-founder, Wiki Advocates Philippines)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- Our overall approaches:
  - We see newcomer editors as "social beings", not just as people who edit. As such, we support them to build a sense of belonging, encourage them to be involved in social activities that we organized so that they are excited about contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects.
  - We are also aware of the socio-economic conditions in the Philippines where it is challenging for people to spend time to edit or contribute to Wikimedia projects because they have to work or study or other priorities in their lives to survive.
  - Over the years, we also learn that newcomer editors are likely to want to edit if the editing or contribution opportunities match their interests. Context: We have been organizing events since 2018. We started by following campaigns like Arts+Feminism or Wiki4HumanRights. When we invite newbies to contribute to these thematic campaigns, it’s difficult to encourage them to contribute as they are not familiar with these topics or not interested in them.
- Introduce newcomer editors to Wikipedia, how it works, and its mission to alleviate newcomer editors' fear of contributing to Wikipedia.
  - Most of the newcomer editors that we attract are college students. In our attraction efforts, we ask these newcomer editors how they previously used Wikipedia to gauge their level of familiarity about Wikipedia. Then, we start by introducing them to what Wikipedia is. We don't ask them to edit directly. We emphasize that there are humans behind Wikipedia who edit and contribute. We also drive their attention to the references on the bottom of Wikipedia's pages so that they know that those pages are built based on reliable sources. The reason for this approach is, while people who we reach out to are familiar with Wikipedia as readers, they are not always aware about human editors or contributors on Wikipedia. Once they are aware about this, they are usually more comfortable with the idea of contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects.
- Have the newcomer editors immerse in the Wikiprojects.
  - Once newcomer editors have the awareness about Wikipedia and how it works, we encourage these newcomer editors to familiarize themselves with the Wikipedia interface (English Wikipedia). We then ask them to start by editing their user page. This includes practicing writing information about themselves, adding relevant links, and adding pictures.
  - Uploading photos on Wikimedia Commons is also one of the easy tasks for newcomer editors. However, sometimes newcomer editors feel overwhelmed with the amount of information they need to fill in. That's when we, as organizers, provide hands-on approach. We also develop the Wikimedia Commons Explorer tool so that it's easy for newcomer editors to navigate. This tool was mainly developed by editor Ballardmaize (Imelda Brazal), Wiki Advocates Philippines Co-founder.
  - We also introduce Wiktionary and Wikiquotes to newcomer editors. Wiktionary is the most helpful especially to newcomer editors who are local language speakers but do not have the skills to write or speak in an academic manner. So, those newcomer editors can contribute to putting local language words (Tagalog, Central Bikol). On Wikiquotes: we usually teach how to contribute by translating quotes from English to local languages.
  - Right now, we are starting to introduce newcomer editors to Wikidata. On Wikidata, newcomer editors can learn how to edit in a structured way without doing so much research.
- On editing on laptop v. mobile phones.
  - If activities with newcomer editors happen in our office, we lend them laptops. Otherwise they do edit via mobile phones. Opening Wikipedia on their phone's browse is more convenient way to start.
  - Having laptop is a privilege for people in the Philippines so editing via mobile phones is easier. However, since mobile data is limited and expensive, we compete with people's preferences to use those mobile data for social media rather than editing Wikipedia.
- On reaching out to out-of-school youth.
  - The good thing about Wiki Advocates Philippines, it has a physical space where there are reading materials and free laptops to use.
  - When out-of-school youth visit our space, they will not start by editing. They start with trying to be comfortable in our space, start reading books, etc. We also have staff in our space who are available for a chat or guide the out-of-school youth who visit our office.
  - Then, we introduce them to Wikipedia and check if they are interested in creating wiki accounts. Those who are interested, we guide them to do small editing.
  - Some of them don't stay editing, but they do try to support us by volunteering on events, for example.
What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- See above answers on our approach. We see newcomer editors as "social beings", not just as people who edit. As such, we support them to build a sense of belonging, encouraging them to be involved in social activities that we organized so that they are excited about contributing to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects.
  - Examples of these activities include: having them join us in learning clinics hosted by Let's Connect, having them in our Telegram group, and generally encouraging them to participate in activities where they can meet and socialize with Wikimedians from around the world.
- It is a gradual process for newcomer editors to transition from small edits to more advanced edits. Based on Anthony's personal experience:
  - Anthony started an account on Wikipedia in 2012. After writing an article, he didn't edit anymore. He's not motivated because, among others, not sure if people are going to read his contributions, etc.
  - By 2018, Wiki Advocates Philippines (Anthony is a Co-founder), started to explore Meta wiki. One Meta, we see other Wikimedians outside the Philippines. We also see there are activities that we can organizer and ask for support through rapid funds.
  - When Anthony and team started organizing, they felt they were part of the Wikimedia community.
Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- There are many external challenges in the Philippines that may impact newcomer editors retention. As mentioned above, given the socio-economy situation in the Philippines, people spend most of their time working or studying or other priorities in their lives to survive. Additionally, as mentioned above, not all are willing or preferring to use their mobile data for editing Wikipedia.
- Having this context in mind, for us, retaining newbies can be in the form of ensuring constant association with the Wikimedia projects. Newbies can visit our office to read some books, attend our events, etc.

Wikimedia Mexico

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- Publication of calls for participation in monthly workshops focused on the most basic editing process on Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.
- Editatonas or Editatones are our main activities for attracting new volunteers, as they are organized around specific topics, allowing us to connect with people who are not familiar with Wikimedia projects.
- The Escuela de Mujeres Wikipedistas is a fundamental space for attracting new women to Wikimedia projects. During nine training sessions, technical knowledge of Wikipedia in Spanish is shared, and tools for self-defense and digital self-care are also addressed.
- Contests and cultural activities encourage new people to learn about the free multimedia repository through calls to action to release photographs or multimedia content, which generates interest and excitement among new populations seeking to participate in order to make their work visible.
- Through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, Mastodon, and Bluesky. By covering different platforms, we have been able to reach more people, and we can see this in the messages we receive asking for information on how to participate, how to create an article, and even how to organize events with their community.
- Fortunately, we continue to forge new partnerships and welcome new members through word of mouth, as new attendees regularly come to our events because someone else told them about a group of people in Mexico with whom they can talk and interact to learn how Wikipedia works and how to contribute.
- On editing on laptop v. mobile phones:
  - In the Wikimedia Mexico community, we encourage people to use the Spanish Wikipedia platform on their laptops or desktop computers. Only in the southern Mexican community where we collaborate with Wikipedia in Maya does the community use Wikimedia projects on their cell phones, not for convenience, but because of a lack of computer equipment.
What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- #NosotrasEscribimosWikipedia (We Write Wikipedia) is a space for women to support each other, where every last Saturday of the month a hybrid meeting is held in which women from different parts of Mexico (and the world) can connect to edit, while others attend in person at the Wikimedia Mexico office in Mexico City. This space is for editors with different levels of expertise and is designed as a series of separate sessions offering ongoing support.
- Support is provided through personal or small group video calls to people who have specific questions after attending an editing session and have material pending publication.
- A couple of times a year, sessions are organized with the most experienced volunteers in our community to give advanced editing workshops on Wikimedia projects.
- Materials, workshops, talks, courses, conferences, tools, bibliographies, etc. generated by other chapters, user groups, and the Wikimedia Foundation itself are shared so that everyone can stay up to date with what the global community is producing and sharing.
Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- New volunteers often join Telegram chats to ask questions and get support.
- Subscription to the monthly newsletter to continue receiving information about new events.
- After their first encounter with Wikimedia projects, some new people seek to organize an event with their community on a specific topic.
- We have an email address as an open channel for answering questions.

Mohd Taufik Rosman (2023 Wikimedian of the Year, Educator/Teacher), Farouk Azim Abd Rahman (Project coordinator for Wikimedia CUG Malaysia), Mohammad Zahirul Nukman (Social media officer for Wikimedia CUG Malaysia)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- Farouk explains that providing action-oriented workshops, training or events so that newcomer editors can immediately experience the impact/results of their contributions is important. This immediacy of impact or results hopefully will satisfy them and motivate them to continue in contributing.
  - We start with providing them with introduction to Wikipedia and Wikiprojects such as Wikidata and Wiktionary.
  - We encourage the newcomer editors to create their account.
  - For example: On Wikipedia, we teach the newcomer editors on how to use the Content Translation tool and create articles. We encourage repetitive practices on this so that newcomer editors get used to the interface. On Wiktionary, we provide a list of words for newcomer editors and train them to input those words on Wiktionary.
- Ensuring the experience via workshop, training, or events is as easy as possible for newcomer editors so that at the end of the activities, newcomer editors have satisfactory experiences. This includes providing newcomer editors-friendly teaching/training materials and using the EventRegistration tool.
  - For example: When using the EventRegistration tool, we modify the event page to include information about how to create an account and links to specific Wikiprojects so participants can view them. On Wiktionary, recently, we made specific pages for specific languages involved. On the pages, it has infoboxes where the participants can insert words, press enter to generate templates, and all they have to do is insert the meaning of such words.
- Being intentional and strategic about the target audience. One specific target audience is youth, particularly students.
  - One common approach in Malaysia is to start teaching them about editing Wiktionary before moving to editing Wikipedia. Usually we encourage them to use a laptop or computer to do the editing.
  - Another specific target audience is people who are interested in Indigenous languages.
    - Taufik, for instance, focuses on finding or attracting newcomer editors who are interested in Indigenous languages. One of the most successful newcomer editors' group is from the teachers institutions in Sabah. These teachers are interested in the preservation of Indigenous languages.
- Provide an after-event support network or channel for newcomer editors. After an event or activities, with a youth audience, we create a small group of newcomers editors where we can monitor their progress and provide them with follow up tasks or activities so that they can keep contributing.
- Leverage the use of social media to attract newcomer editors. Zahirul mentions a couple of tactics as follows:
  - Make content about languages as people are enthusiastic or interested about languages (An example: Kosakata content on wikimediamy Instagram).
  - Ensure events are posted on social media, then promote it further through specific communication channels. WhatsApp channel is the most used channel in Malaysia.
- Further notes from Farouk, Taufik, and Zahirul on why focusing on youth and students is a strategic approach for newcomer attraction:
  - By engaging with students from a university of campus, it is easier for the students themselves to gather for an in-person event, for example, and focus on editing.
  - However, the in-person event itself is not enough. Organizing competitions among the students is one helpful way to attract those who previously joined editing events. In the past, for example, the competition prize was attending Wikimania 2023 in Singapore.
  - Because of this approach, we have a sizeable community in campuses where students independently organizer events with the Wikimedia CUG Malaysia's support or help.
  - These students then become trainers themselves and we invite or bring them to train others.

What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- See above notes on approaches to provide satisfactory experiences for newcomer editors and why focusing on students is a strategic approach.
- Another approach to support newcomer editors transition is to look for people who are already active in editing (we look at their edits) and gauge their interests in further editing and participating in our activities such as workshops. For instance: After seeing Farouk’s edit activities, Taufik invited Farouk to a workshop that eventually nudged Farouk to be further involved in the movement. Farouk now is a Project Coordinator for Wikimedia CUG Malaysia.
- Another example: We found another contributor who is very active in the Malay Wikipedia, and invited this person to join our event. Now, the person is a very active member of our movement.
- Additionally, we look at people who are active in the incubator, who are still in their learning curves in terms of editing. For example: We invited those who are active in the incubator to workshops and trained them further. Upon further research and conversation, we then found out that the person went to the same university with some of our admins. This interaction creates connection among us.

Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- See above notes on supporting newcomer editors transition.
- Other ways to retain newcomer editors: Organize online events (such edit-a-thon or training) to attract newcomers to consistently edit. Context of this approach: Especially on campuses, the students only edit if we organize the event offline. So, online events are helpful to ensure continuous engagement and to attract newcomers to back to edit.

Klara Sielicka (Polish Wikipedian, Username Klarqa)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation?
- First, I always try to remember my own experience at the beginning of my Wikipedia journey: I had a feeling that editing felt intimidating, and reliable sources (along with Wikipedia standards) were hard to find. But I got lucky, because my first steps were taken with the great help of long-term Wikipedians (and in person!). For me, then, it is important to create that feeling for a comfortable space to ask questions on every stage of onboarding and to remind them that everyone has been a newcomer before, and it takes time to get to know how to edit in a basic -then in an advanced way.
- I also like to repeat that every edit matters, and I like to show different ways to contribute to Wikipedia and its projects. I also find hobby-strategy efficient in the matter of onboarding to Wikipedia: when you are into some topic, you are more willing edit (or upload photos!) on that topic.
- Check, for example, the small project “Crocheting on Wikipedia” that I am currently leading.
What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions?
- To newcomer editors, I usually present the whole range of possibilities:
  - You have just uploaded a photo? OK, now you can add more to the Description section below, then try to add this in another language. Or maybe you can find an additional Category on Commons that suits that photo?
  - You wrote someone's bio, and you think tables or infoboxes are too hard to create for you. However, there is a shortcut: you can look at a similar article and copy the source for the infobox/table/citation into your draft.
  - You don't get the structure of articles, but you want to add some paragraphs? Open in a new tab another article from this topic area/category and analyze its structure. Then apply this to your draft.
- The best way to gain skills in editing Wikipedia is to work on the article/content that is really important for the newcomer: we really want to create a well-finished Wikipedia content when it comes to something we do love or that we care about.
  - For example: I wrote about a complex project with schools, GLAM institutions and other organizations, which also involved cooperation with another country. Because of the topic (very interesting region, now divided between Poland and the Czech Republic), there was a big interest in editing/taking photo or giving us lectures on history, culture, language, etc. See: Outreach dashboard.
Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- As it comes to institutions like museums or universities, it is good when there is already a leader convinced and trained by me/fellow Wikipedians before. That person may create even a small strategy with Wikipedians to let the Wikipedia topic stay within the institutions, like every semester there will be editing on the curriculum, etc.
- Apart from the institutions, nerdy/hobbyist stuff always works. For example, repeating an editing event every year on some interesting, wide topic (like an ethnographic region or human rights, etc.) may keep the 1st edition's newcomers on track, and attract new people too.
- What else I try to don't forget about? Appreciation! Even in the small scale (like in the closed group on Facebook), but still, thank newcomers for their contribution and effort, praise for first edits/ articles like this if the Nobel Prize Award Gala.
  - For example, look at the 1lib1ref edition 2022 website. You may see that there is a section with usernames. I recognized their results, because of them, Polish community gained a high spot internationally! And it was because of some small contributions such as adding references.
- Support their work to be visible e.g. on the Did You Know… section or some Editing contest. I also try to create small reports to some newsletters etc. on their achievements.
  - For example: my entry in the EduWiki Newsletter - and there is about my speech during virtual Wikimania 2021. You may see slides here and recording here. I remember that I put my insights on proper recognition of newcomers in the EduWiki Newsletter.
- It was maybe easier when I was the employee of my chapter, but now, when I am back to the volunteer role (and the member of a Wikimedia Polska Association at the same time), I am still trying to find time and energy to seize the energy of ‘my’ newcomers.

Ruby Damenshie-Brown, Bukola James, Pellagia Njau (Africa Wiki Women)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation? What do you do to support newcomer editors to transition from small and easy contributions to more advanced contributions? Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- An overview of our campaigns is available here.
- Our strategies include:
  - Ensure that events are inclusive to various levels of experience. For example: In this activity on Accelerating Action for Gender Equality 2025, there is a screening form to help us identify who are newcomers, early editors or experienced editors among the participants.
  - Ensure that we specify actions that participants can do (e.g., what to edit).
  - From a motivational perspective, we want people, including newcomers, to have sense of belonging and to keep them interested in contributing. So we continue to motivate them. We encourage young people to participate. We also empower women in our community so that they can build confidence in continuing to contribute.
  - One example of our activities: Africa Wiki Women Skill Up Workshop 2025 .
  - Further reading for reports and resources: Africa Wiki Women/Reports and Resources.
- Our methodologies or approaches include:
  - Empower women with soft skills. As shown in the Africa Wiki Women Technical Research, "the data suggests that women are less active as editors compared to men, possibly due to barriers like limited mentorship, access to resources, or confidence issues. However, they have a stronger presence in affiliate roles, including a focus on community-building rather than direct content creation. Since editing experience often leads to leadership and technical roles, fewer women in editing may mean limited influence in decision-making. Encouraging more women to engage in editing while supporting their progression into leadership and technical roles can help achieve balanced representation and long-term impact in the Wikimedia movement."
  - Additionally, supportive environment remains key to keep newcomer editors to continue to contribute. Those supportive environment can be in forms of:
    - For newcomer editors: mentorship.
    - For organizers: addressing (potential) organizers or volunteers burn out or diminishing base since, in any volunteerism and activism, there are emotional labors involved that may contribute to this. Community care or emotional care strategies can be one of may potential ways to address it.
- Furthermore, we use mentorship as an approach to attract and retain newcomers.
  - We have two types of mentorship: on-wiki skills mentorship and leadership & mentorship program for women.
    - On-wiki skills mentorship program
      - We focus on developing skills relevant to Wikimedia projects. Experienced Wikimedians from the community act as mentors for women who want to edit, improve content, organize training programs relevant to topic of impacts especially the topic about closing gender gap. We brief and ensure that these mentors keep their availability open and provide space for mentees to reach out to them when the mentees have questions or need support.
      - We use WhatsApp group to interact with mentors and mentees. WhatsApp is easy to use and therefore, people are active there.
      - We ensure that we give mentees practical assignments, evaluating whether the training has improved or not. We are actively following up with their progress.
      - We host feedback sessions so that we can discuss about what needs to be improved from the mentorship and provide certificates to participants.
      - We have mentors for Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata. These mentors provide support on WhatsApp group such as giving feedback and assignments to mentees.
      - Results and/or learnings:
        Learning from our experience running this mentorship program, we separate between French and English group so that mentees can engage in their preferred language, French or English. We learn that while using interpretation is doable, it does not help with the interaction between mentors and mentees and as such, we provide separate sessions.
        
        French-only mentors spend 3 months with their mentees. Each month they have live session and work on different projects. At the end of the program, we give them certificates. Those who finish the 3-months period will receive stipend.
        
        We ensure that for every mentoring session, we record it and make the recording available for mentors and mentees that are not able to join because of timezone differences.
        
        Throughout the program, we host feedback sessions. (We don't wait until the program ends to ask for feedback).
    - Leadership & mentorship program for women
      - In this mentorship program, we bring in women and newbies and provide them with opportunities to work with us.
      - The rationale of this approach is that we realize that developing skills and building capacity take time.
      - We teach them about various tools and build understanding about why we do what we do at Africa Wiki Women.
        Context: Women participating in this program sometimes are not given many opportunities to flourish in their local user groups.
      - In this program, editors who are passionate about women empowerment or gender equality topic, they can work with us. We have a unique point of view about these topics and as women, we collaborate well with each other.
      - Mentorship is valuable for many women and newbies for many reasons. Based on Ruby's experience, sometimes it's hard to ask for help and we need to figure things by ourselves. Mentorship can provide collective spaces to problem solving and collaboration.
      - In this mentorship program, women learn skills that are relevant to editing and community organizing such as how to create article and how to use tools (e.g., Google doc, mentee meter).
      - In this program, we also provide women participants with spaces to make friends and build sisterhood.
      - We observe that after this mentorship program, women come out more confident and are able to join other activities. When they express that they feel they cannot continue with the program, we provide them safe spaces to speak out and ensure them that we are here to help.
      - We do regular check-ins so that we can check-in on their professional growth and personal development. We provide monthly stipend as well.
      - We also have a peer learning session where women learn from other women in other regions. Through this session, they also have opportunities to lead the session and the discussion. This gives them sense of purpose and they can practice their leadership skills.
      - At the end, what we wish for women who participate in this program is for them to build skills that are not only valuable in the Wikimedia movement but also in their life.
      - We also make sure that we give recognition for their efforts.
      - Results and/or learnings:
        This program runs for 6 months so that participants have enough time to try different types of organizing work such as project management and event organizing.
        
        We learn that, while there were a lot of interest at the beginning of the program, not all participants were able to finish. So, to increase sustained participation, we provide specific tasks for mentors and mentees throughout the program.
        
        We also learn to explicitly state what is not included in the mentorship. We revised our Meta page so people can read and understand before they fill their application.
        
        We improve our program so that mentees can rotate between roles and find tasks they find most interesting and meaningful (Initially, we only allow them to be in one specific department/role).
        
        We see other use groups try to adapt our mentorship program for their user group. So, we support them by trying to create women mentorship toolkit for them. We are currently thinking about how to democratize the mentorship program so people who are interested in being mentors, they can do that and have the supports they need.
        One fellow from our mentorship program created wiki missing source project. It was an achievement as one of our fellows manage to have and lead their own project.
        
        To ensure women participants are showing up or able to lead during the mentorship program, we do pre-survey for women participants so we can understand their interests and can work on matching those interests with our available resources. Additionally, we aim to provide them with leaderships opportunities so we can intentionally help them build their leadership skills.
  - Lastly, we do research and community engagement (e.g., gathering community insights) as a way to find gaps and opportunities in the movement, including identifying who are the newcomers we should research out and why we need to reach out to them (see, for example, Africa Wiki Women Technical Research).

North Carolina Wikipedians

Please refer to this page: North Carolina Wikipedians/2025 Understanding Organizers Impact on Newcomer Growth.

Pacita Rudder (Executive Director at Wikimedia NYC) and Crystal Boceta (Wikicurious Program Manager)

What methods or strategies do you use to attract newcomer editors to on-wiki participation? How do you support them from doing small edits to more advanced edits? Once newcomer editors are engaged, do you have any strategies to retain them on-wiki or in your community?
- Context:
  - The United States (US) infrastructure is different from other countries. It does not have a country chapter. It does have two official chapters namely Wikimedia New York City (Wikimedia NYC) and Wikimedia District of Columbia (Wikimedia DC).
  - There are a number of states within the US that don’t have Wikimedia user groups or only have under-developed user groups. Hence, an important part of Wikicurious is how we can support capacity and growth of other groups or potentially help start other groups.
  - In Wikicurious programming, we focus on cities that don’t have chapters or under-developed chapters (read further: Wikimania 2025 presentation on “Wikicurious: How to use cultural strategy to recruit and activate new editors”).
- Wikicurious series:
  - What is Wikicurious? “Wikicurious is a beginner level series founded by Wikimedia New York City that trains participants on how to edit Wikipedia, Wikidata, and Wikimedia Commons. Each event is focused on a different theme/topic and is centered on new editors and people who are curious about how Wikimedia platforms work. The program started in 2024 with events throughout New York City and has since expanded to Wikicurious events in different States across the United States of America.”
  - In designing and implementing the Wikicurious series, Wikimedia NYC partners with mission-aligned organizations in selected cities. Usually these organizations are able to provide the program with venues and/or outreach to invite folks to come to the Wikicurious events. Each Wikicurious program has its own theme & Work List. Themes encompass everything from Latin music to Black art.
  - Training materials in the Wikicurious series include (Note: In general, the materials are varied depending on the audience):
    - Background of Wikipedia: what is Wikipedia, the values behind it, and what the ecosystem looks like especially in the US.
    - Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines such as neutral point of view and conflict of interest.
    - Wikipedia interface: what Wikipedia looks like, how to create an account, and walk the participants through a live demo, among others.
    - Wikimedia Commons: a run over about Wikimedia Commons including how to upload images and what are CC licenses
    - Wikidata: If the audience asks questions like why my articles are being deleted, etc. This is where the Wikidata explanation is useful.
      - For example: In Austin, Texas, because of the participants, we delivered materials covering the basics of Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.
    - After the training (the duration runs approximately 30-40 minutes), there is a Q&A session (it takes about 15-20 minutes).
    - Then, the editing piece or an edit-a-thon:
      - Usually we have a Work List (that we work on with our partners), all of the attendees have access to the work list (attendees are not obligated to work on the work list and they are able to work on whatever they want).
      - We have coaches in the room, to support the audience 1-on-1.
    - In the last 30 minutes, we give recognition to the participants about their work.
- Lesson learned/best practices:
  - Ensure the on-the-ground partners do the legwork and/or have capacity to invite and encourage people to come to the events.
  - Pay attention to the audiences. Depending on the cultural context, we adjust the design of the program to fit in the community that we work with.
  - Use Programs & Events Dashboard (see Wikicurious Outreach Dashboard) to track the quantitative metrics of the contributions. As for the qualitative metrics, it is a work-in-progress to think about how to do qualitative assessment after the events.
  - Use Event Registration Tool. We use the tool feature and consistently ask about why the audiences are interested in our event, the level of experience with Wikipedia's platform, among others.
    - We use Event Registration Tool and create a separate Eventbrite page. The reason is that Event Registration Tool does not allow us to communicate to participants after the event unless the participants opt in. So, we have to tell people to register twice, both the Event Registration and Eventbrite.
    - We use Eventbrite because it has more reach as it shows up in Google search results.
- Current challenges:
  - What does it look like to continue supporting newcomers in the states (in the US) where there is no user group or there is only under-developed user group?
    - A suggestion to consider, a potential support from the WMF: an online piece of the engagement for US only, i.e., online gathering for people all over the US to learn and/or ask questions.
  - How can we build up leaders to build and run their own Wikipedia groups?
    - We learn that newbies are not used to the idea that they can lead and organizer meet-ups.
- On supporting newcomers so that they can effectively contribute and/or become an active member of our community:
  - We have been funneling folks to encourage them in participating in the Wiki Portraits training.
  - In terms of mentoring or other forms of support, we are still figuring it out. For example: what a help desk or mentorship could look like? We need to think through issues like capacity and funding models for mentors as well as relevant ethical considerations.
  - We use Discord and it helps to retain folks after an activity. However, it is still a work-in-progress especially finding out what's the best post-event engagement outreach. Ideally, we need on-the-ground support to help run gatherings.
  - In terms of tracking contributions, our Programs & Events Dashboard is set up for a year so we can monitor contributions from new editors.