User:Taketa/Writing week

Wiki Loves Nations is a yearly interwiki writing week. Several language versions of Wikipedia write about a country during a week. The first writing week is planned for 2016. By writing about a common topic there is more cooperation between editors, making it enjoyable for the writers and productive for Wikipedia. Combined these local writing weeks will create tens of thousands of articles about a country, which are read by millions of people across the world every year. As such, it is of some interest to the country involved. We ask that prominent members of candidate countries, for example heads of state, meet a few of the participants. The country that chooses to cooperate will become the topic of the writing week.

Organisation

Temporary coordinator until an organising committee is set up: Taketa (talk) 14:13, 28 July 2015 (UTC)

Specifics

What is a writing week

Wiki Loves Nations is based on the writing week on the Dutch Wikipedia, which first started in 2013. During a writing week editors write about topics related to a single country. For example the Dutch writing week about Sweden created 1024 new articles. By writing about a common topic, there is more cooperation between editors, making this a fun week for the writers and at the same time productive for Wikipedia. A country is a very good topic for a writing week because it provides a large variety of areas to write about. For example politicians, buildings, religion, history, solar systems discovered by people from the country, species, geography, locally developed games, famous sportsmen/women, etc. Nearly every Wikipedian can write about a topic of their interest, while still writing about the country.

Advantages of an interwiki writing week

An interwiki writing week will be exactly the same as a local writing week, and have the same advantages of cooperation between editors, making it fun for writers and creating new articles for Wikipedia. However by cooperatng the impact of the writing week becomes significant and we can ask a head of state or another prominent member of a country to participate. If they participate this will give several advantages, namely editors will be more motivated, writing more articles; there will be media attention which will get new editors to Wikipedia, in all language versions. As such, an interwiki writing week has advantages over a local writing week.

Why would a country be interested?

A writing week in a dozen large languages will create several tens of thousands of new article and improved articles. This number may be even higher if there is the support of a head of state. Each article is read once a day or more, creating at least 5 million to 10 million readers a year across the globe. The Dutch local writing week about Sweden, which created 1024 articles for a single local project, was noticed by the Swedish embassy in the Netherlands and mentioned on their website [1]. An international writing week as such, will be of interest to national governments. What we ask is a small investment of time in exchange for a positive media and Wikimedia event for the participating nation.

Why would a head of state be interested

As explained in the section above the writing week is good for the participating country. Participating in Wikipedia, a non-profit website which is written by the people, for the people, is a charitable act which helps people across the would by providing them with free access to knowledge. There will be international media attention on a personal basis when a head of state interacts with modern media like this.

What part does the head of state play

We ask that the head of state meets contestants during a single meeting in their own country at a date of their own chosing. Preferably 1 contestant from every participating language.

How do you decide who wins

This will not be a contest. It is a writing week and participation is what counts. As such, we will give the oportunity to meet the head of state of the designated country to a randomly selected participant, 1 for every language involved. Every article can count as a ticket, and we draw a lucky winner. In order to reward quality, we give better odds to better articles.

What happens next

First we need an organisation. Secondly we send letters to heads of states, asking them to participate. We will ask local Wikimedia organisation for their support when sending this letter. After the letter is send, we wait. If there is no reply or a negative reply, nothing happens. The writing week will be about a different country. If the head of state says yes, then we can organise a writing week in several languages. With such a prominent person involved it will be easy to organise this event.

Costs

Letters will be send by the organising committee or by local Wikimedia organisations. Sending this letter does not mean the local Wikimedia organisation is held responsible for anything. Any project will be planned only after we have a positive response. A meeting with the head of state does not have to cost much. Local organisation will most likely wish to be involved if the head of state is concerned. Second costs would be travel expenses for the lucky winners. This is up to the winners themselves. They may be able to talk to local Wikimedia organisations for a refund, or the foundation.

What if multiple countries want to participate

If multiple countries want to participate we can organise several writing weeks spaced apart by half a year. If more there are more then two they will be the topic for the next year.

What if no country wants to participate

If none of the candidate countries wants to participate in 2016, we organise it without them and the topic is decided by majority vote. The countries that did not wish to cooperate will not be asked again until after other countries have had the oportunity.

Name

The writing week can be named after the country. For example Wiki Loves France or Wiki Loves Poland.

Plan of action

• Set up a central organising committee by contacting organisers of existing local writing weeks and outreach on meta
• Set up a standard letter to send to prominent members of candidate countries, and translate it to the local languages
• Choose candidate countries and people
• Contact Wikimedia organisations of candidate countries to countersign the letters
• If there is a possitive reply the country will become the topic of a writing week.
• Contact local users to help set up local writing weeks
• Draw winners
• Organise meeting between winners and head of state