Translations:Training modules/dashboard/editathon/6/hu

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Harmadik modul[edit]

Scheduling[edit]

As the event approaches, it's important to make sure that the draft schedule for the event is posted on-wiki for participants to plan ahead. This helps participants: a) plan ahead if they want to leave the event or show up late, b) ensure that organizers and participants share an expectation of what will happen during the event, and c) offer a point of reference throughout the day.

Here is an example schedule for a 4 hour editathon:

  • 1:00 -- Introductions and welcome to the space
  • 1:10 -- Topic introduction by expert
  • 1:20 -- Introduction to Editing Wikipedia
  • 1:50 -- Picking topics for each editor and initial questions
  • 2:00 -- Snack break
  • 2:15 -- Article writing
  • 3:30 -- Check in on what everyone has been doing
  • 3:45 -- Article writing
  • 4:45 -- Final reflections and wrap up

Notice how the example schedule has deliberate breaks and check-in points where the organizers can plan to do small evaluations of what is happening and the event effectiveness.

Also, notice how the introduction to Wikipedia editing is kept short: though Wikipedia is complex and has lots of different components, it's important to limit the amount of time spent on this portion of the event. Editathon attendees need both the time and opportunity to contribute during the event, and many will not retain all of the background information introduced during the training.


Creating your dashboard event[edit]

Adding your events to the programs and events dashboard simplifies the aggregation of data about the event, including editors participating and content contributed.

Once your on-wiki page has been created, it is important to create an event on the Programs and Events Dashboard: see the documentation on Meta Wiki. The Programs and Events dashboard provides several important functions:

  • First, it allows for automatic collection of global contribution metrics from participants in the event.
  • Second, it allows for rapid evaluation of the impact of volunteers on Wikipedia articles through both machine-learning based quality tools and pageviews for content created.
  • Lastly, it allows for your event’s impact to be rolled up into other metrics collection by affiliates, community members, and the Wikimedia Foundation.

To register participants in your dashboard event, you can:

  • ask participants to sign up there in advance of the event.
  • add participants manually during the event and after it has ended.

Note: If you collect usernames in a private listing either offline or on a private webpage, it is important to get consent from participants and to protect individual privacy if you include the user name on a public listing.


Reminders before the event[edit]

As your event approaches, be prepared to remind the list of potential attendees several important details:

  • To bring laptops if the event is not hosted in computer lab or with enough loaner devices.
  • To register Wikimedia accounts ahead of the event. Many wikis have caps on how many accounts can be created at one location in one day. Each Wikipedia has a cap of 6 accounts per day per IP address .(learn how other program leaders deal with this concern).
  • Reminders about logistics for the event such as child care, access challenges, and other venue access limitations.

These reminders ensure that folks remember to participate and are prepared to do so, especially if attendees signed up well ahead of the event.


Being prepared to welcome editors[edit]

Welcome table at an Art and Feminism edit-a-thon, with lots of materials and handouts to help new editors get started.

After setting up your event space, it is important to welcome participants as they enter the event. Arriving at least 30-40 minutes in advance of your event allows you to set up the space, talk to people as they arrive early and provide them with key information as they enter the door. You may want to consider:

  • Having a sign-up list at the door and someone ensuring that participants have created Wikimedia account. Identifying folks without accounts before the event allows you to help them with that crucial setup step before the event starts.
  • Providing a handout with key venue information (e.g., Wifi access codes), key links for participating in the event (e.g., links to the meetup page or Program and Events Dashboard page) and/or social media information (hashtags, organizer handles, etc).
  • Providing a means of identifying themselves with nametags or table tents.
  • Having a slide or wiki page on the projector with key information.
  • Having food out and directing participant attention to the food.
  • Even if most research materials identified for the event are digital, consider placing a couple of books or magazines out to provide something for participants to browse while taking breaks.

Preparing materials for these steps well in advance will help make welcoming participants easier.


Training new editors[edit]

Because you have a limited amount of time during an editathon and cannot expect new Wikipedia editors to walk away “knowing everything,” it is important to limit what you introduce editathon trainees to during an editing event.

There are two tactics commonly used by event runners for providing these introductions: using slides or doing a live guided presentation using a lesson plan created before the event. For example slides, see the Commons category for those slides.

Event presentations typically include:

  • A welcome that sets the tone for the event. Make sure to welcome folks to the Wikimedia community and invite them to participate.
  • Thank-yous to supporters of the event.
  • Reminders about venue logistics -- including WiFi or computers logins, fire escape and bathroom locations, including gender neutral restrooms, etc.
  • A brief training for new editors (see next slide)
  • Reminders about how to keep track of contributions through the Programs and Events Dashboard or the event page.


Training topics[edit]

Community members at a regular editing event in Ghana, showing how uploads to Wikimedia Commons works. By focusing on skills most directly relevant to the topic of your event, participants learn what they need.

When running article writing events focused on writing Wikipedia articles, it is important to introduce new editors to:

  • A high level overview of Wikipedia, including the 5 Pillars.
  • The principles behind Notability and Verifiability.
    • These concepts can be hard to explain verbally, it might be useful to use the following video: on Sourcing and Verifiability.
    • It is also important to highlight that Wikipedia summarizes the sources it cites. Some new editors may not be familiar with best practices for avoiding plagiarism or accidental copyright violations.
  • How to create a draft in User space or Draft space.
  • Using Visual editor to add the following:
    • References using the “Cite” toolbar
    • Basic formatting and structure to an article, including bolding article titles, italics, etc.
  • How to develop the structure for the type of article you expect attendees to be working with, such as biographies, buildings, or events.
    • The Wiki Education Foundation in North America has created subject-specific advice for different types of articles that can be found on Commons
    • If there is not a handout available for that article type, consider showing editors the structure of high quality articles in the relevant format, such as a Good Article, a Featured Article, or a B class article.
  • The difference between Visual Editor and WikiText editor and how to switch between the two. Though most new editors do not show a preference for WikiText editor, it’s important to show folks how the WikiText editor works because they will have to interact with it eventually in talk pages or when fixing complex formatting on pages.

Creating handouts or tailored welcome documents with important links and a short introduction to wiki-text can help participants follow along. Examples of existing ones can be found on the Commons category for Wikipedia Reference cards.


Other knowledge to prepare[edit]

A 2014 editathon on Waray Wikipedia, where an experienced editor shows new editors how to fix a particular problem in contributing.

There are many other things that are likely unnecessary to teach during the initial training, unless they are part of a goal of your event. However, at many editathons, participants have questions about:

  • How to find and use templates, especially Infoboxes
  • How to engage with talk pages
  • How to illustrate Wikipedia articles with existing content on Commons or upload content to Commons
  • How to use web browsers, copy and paste functions, and other technical literacy skills.

Editathon slide decks used by other program leaders can be found at: this Commons category.


Common technical challenges[edit]

There are a number of common technical challenges that might arise during editathons, here are the main ones that can prevent editors from contributing during events:

  • Not enough editors created their accounts ahead of time, so you have to create more accounts than is allowed at your location because of the six-account limit. Consider the following:
    • Have participants sign up on other Wikimedia projects: for a full list, see wikimedia.org. These accounts can be used across wikis.
    • Have participants create accounts on their smartphones. We don't recommend they edit on their smart phone, the interface isn't really good enough, but if they have mobile data it will be on a separate IP to the venue and each smartphone will have a 6 account limit. This will not work if they are connected to WiFi from their mobile phone.
    • To work around this, there is a an on-wiki set of triage opportunities at: the request an account page on English
    • If you have a Wikipedia administrator or account creator on hand, they can create accounts via: the Special:CreateAccount page
  • New editors can’t move pages from a draft to "Article" space (see instructions for moving a page on English). This is typically prevented because New User accounts have yet to receive the AutoConfirmed right (automatically issued at 10 edits and four days on English Wikipedia).
    • This is one of the important reasons for having experienced editors around: they should have an account capable of executing the move if they have made ten edits and had accounts over 4 days old.
    • Note: that English Wikipedia will be implementing ACTRIAL in September 2017, which prevents new editors from creating articles altogether in the New Article namespace. Starting new editors in another space, whether its User Sandboxes or Draft Space and then moving the content with a more experienced account is the best tactic.

Other technical challenges may arise, however they will typically not prevent individuals from contributing to Wikipedia. Having experienced editors on hand will likely allow you to avoid these challenges, or provide shortcuts or work arounds for fixing the problems. Its also helpful to have additional editing devices on hand, in case technical challenges are created by individual devices.


Keeping the space active[edit]

A snack break at an editathon at the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 2017. Reminding participants, to take breaks to get snacks and enjoy the company of others helps reinforce the social parts of Wikipedia contributing and helps keep energy up, especially during long events.


During the event, event runners frequently find that they don’t have enough time to edit themselves: this is okay.

Part of helping people feel engaged and successful, is maintaining morale and ensuring that folks feel supported throughout the event. It might be useful to designate which event runners will:

  • Keep an eye out for people getting “stuck” -- sometimes folks will try to triage challenges in Wikipedia or get stuck finding sources for their topic.
  • Remind folks to save often, and focus on contributing at least some information. If participants add just a few citations to a page, it provides a foundation for future editors and readers.
  • To remind folks to take breaks, eat the food, and get fresh air away from computer screens.
  • Capture the user names of participants. Even if you ask participants to record their user names, that step is frequently missed.


Maintaining a Safe Space[edit]

Another important consideration when running public events is maintaining a safe space during the event. When working with partner organizations, they likely have strategies for maintaining a safe space, especially if they regularly host events open to the public. Make sure you understand how to take advantage of that strategy when coordinating with your partners.

On occasion, either registered attendees or members of the public will disrupt events or have inappropriate one-on-one interactions. Preparing yourself to respond to these occurrences will help ensure that all participants feel welcomed as part of the Wikimedia Community and inappropriate behaviour is curtailed.

Minimally, it is important to:

  • Be mindful of interactions among individuals at the event, and be prepared to intervene or get help from venue staff to intervene.
  • Be mindful that many members of the Wikimedia community want privacy of either their real world or digital identities. For example, if individuals ask not to be photographed or their real names used, we need to be mindful of such requests, and take action to enforce them (such as warning photographers at the event about the individuals requesting not to be photographed).
  • If you expect the event to be particularly large, it's best to designate one of the event runners to be primary person responsible for maintaining a safe space.


Planning for Safe Spaces[edit]

Art+Feminism events around the world draw large numbers of participants from many walks of life, and focus on an area of Wikipedia that some people view as disruptive. Event planners need to anticipate potential challenges in keeping such events safe, by being mindful about how organizers and venue may respond to disruption.

Maintaining safes spaces can become more challenging if you plan on running multiple events or your event will be quite large. If you do not have experience managing safe spaces or if you are running larger or more complicated events, we highly recommend:

Both will help you create effective proactive strategies for implementing best responses towards inappropriate behavior during events. Local organizers can set the expectations for events that can then be enforced. Moreover, preparing a plan ahead of time will make responses to inappropriate behavior more effective.


After the event![edit]

Success! You made it through your editing event! There are a lot of opportunities for overlooking things or making mistakes, but you learned from them, and all in all it was a successful event! Now for a bit more communications and tracking!

Beyond running the event, there are a few steps that you may want to use to ensure that everyone (you, your partners and the participants), get the most from the editathon:

  • Make sure to integrate any user names into the Programs and Events dashboard, so to generate metrics on the event. Note: if participants did not sign up with their user names on a public sign up page by either signing into the Programs and Events Dashboard and registering themselves, or listing their usernames on a public event page, it's important to get consent to publicly associate the editor's User ID with the event in order to protect privacy.
  • Report outcomes and metrics to your participants and partners who supported the event. It may be useful to evaluate these outcomes in light of the goals you set at the beginning of the program. Reporting outcomes can help remind folks of the impact of the event, and that you still are interested in supporting their participation in the Wikimedia Community.
  • Share impact and outcomes on easy-to-initate communication channels, like social media, on-wiki talk pages of participants in the event, and with Wikimedia affiliates in your context. Even though not everyone on those channels attended the event, finding out about its impact might encourage folks to continue participating in future events or to clean up pages created by the event.
  • Use the "Thank" button to thank participants in the event for their useful edits. Additionally, consider giving barnstars or other WikiLove to those who helped train or otherwise put in unusual effort.

Additionally, consider taking these more extensive steps:

  • Uploading event photos to Wikimedia Commons in "Category:Wikimedia editathons" (or a subcategory).
  • Writing a blog post, report for the Signpost, and/or the GLAM newsletter talking about who attended, what was accomplished, and how it generally went. When you share your experience with the broader Wikimedia movement, make sure that you write about what you learned, what you would do differently, and why this event mattered.
  • Send a follow up email. Invite participants to relevant future events or tell them about wikiprojects that are relevant to their interests.


End of Module 3[edit]

This is the end of the third section of the Editing Event training. After this training, you should be able to:

  • Feel confident about your ability to finalize scheduling and reminders for participants
  • Understand what might be included in an introductory presentation which teaches participants how to participate
  • Understand common tactics for maintaining a welcoming, supportive and safe space.

If you don’t feel confident doing these activities, consider reviewing the training again or reaching out for support through one of the communication channels listed on the GLAM-Wiki portal.