Organizers as key partners to support newcomer growth in our movement
This is a roundtable discussion to:
Agenda
The “Why”
Anbar Jayadi
Senior Process Analyst, Community Organizing Experience
Why organizers
Who are the newcomers? According to the Community Insights 2024 report:
*Survey note: Newcomers are defined as respondents who reported they began contributing to Wikimedia projects the year of the survey or the previous year (in 2024, this means those who started contributing in 2024 and 2023)
Literature | Notes at glance |
Community Insights report (2024) | Organizers were likely to find all motivations very important (mentorship, sharing knowledge, sense of belong to a global community) |
Motivating Experts to Contribute to the Digital Public Goods (2024) | The study’s findings “suggest that match quality between volunteers and tasks is critically important in encouraging contributions to digital public goods and likely to volunteering in general.” |
Navigating Adoption by the Global South Users: The Case of Wikimedia Volunteers (2023) - Senegal, DRC. Uganda, and Rwanda | Volunteers contribute because of both social impact and personal opportunities |
Ms. Categorized: Gender, notability, and inequality in Wikipedia (2023) | “Wikipedians who organized edit-a-thons explained that when they voiced concerns over notable women being nominated for deletion, they were told that they were taking the editorial process “too personally" |
Wikimedia Movement Organizers Study (2019) - Argentina, Ghana, Indonesia | Organizers motivations: ideological motivations, personal opportunities |
Literature | Notes at glance |
Increasing Participation in Peer Production Communities with Newcomer Homepage (2023) | Newcomer Homepage particularly supports newcomers who were not in the process of contributing (new newcomers who just create an account) |
Successful online socialization: Lessons from Wikipedia Education program (2020) | Peer support & joint activity plays important roles in students’ quality work |
Evaluating the Impact of the Wikipedia Teahouse on newcomer socialization and retention (2018) | New editors who were invited to the Teahouse are significantly more likely to contributing for 3 weeks, 2 months, and 6 months period |
Impact of the Wikipedia adventure of new editor retention (2016-2017) | The gamification is fun and engaging for the new editors; no long term positive impact to retention |
How are we using the insights from today’s discussion?
To help contextualize and inform the thinking for an upcoming research project from the Community Organizing Experience team:
If you are interested in keeping in touch, you can email me, Anbar: ajayadi@wikimedia.org
Growth Features
Kirsten Stoller
Senior Product Manager, Growth
Growth Features
Growth features are standard for newly created accounts, but not default for older accounts.
To test Growth features, adjust Special:Preferences
Newcomer Homepage
Impact module
Newcomer Homepage
A clear place to get started, where newcomers access the most important things they need.
Viewable on Wikipedias at Special:Homepage
Current version contains the following:
*Depending on the community configuration
Mentor module
Mentorship
Wikipedia Bahasa Indonesia example
Suggested edits a.k.a. “Newcomer tasks”
More at MW: Newcomer_tasks
Wikipedia Bahasa Indonesia example
Community Updates [new]
Community Updates module on the newcomer homepage
Community configuration
Special page that allows each community to easily configure different features
More at MW:Community_configuration
Let’s break the ice
Who wants to share their previous experience as newcomers?
How was your overall experience in making the first edit?
Have your edits been reverted?
Did you seek support or contact someone to help you?
Discussion & Reflection
Reflective Questions
GROUP 1: In your view, what does “newcomer growth” mean or look like in your context or region?
GROUP 2: Based on your current work, what do you do to support newcomers?
Please:
Check-In
Have you determined one person to represent your group to share key takeaways?
Best-practices & forward-looking questions
GROUP 1: Based on your experiences (be it as an organizer, as a Wikimedian...), what tactics are most effective in helping newcomers come back to edit after activities such as events end?
GROUP 2: In your view, what do we need to change or rethink about what we do today so that more newcomers can become productive, long term editors?
Please:
Check-In
Have you determined one new person to represent your group to share key takeaways?
Sharing Session
Group representative: please share some key takeaways
Next Step
How are we using the insights from today’s discussion?
To help contextualize and inform the thinking for an upcoming research project from the Community Organizing Experience team:
If you are interested in keeping in touch, you can email me, Anbar: ajayadi@wikimedia.org
Terima Kasih
Literatures list: