Grants:IEG/Automated inventory pages for all WikiProjects
status: proposed
This proposal is under review 
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project:
project contact:
biosthmors
gmail.com
participants:
grantees:
User:Biosthmors
summary:
The English Wikipedia WikiProject Medicine page needs a complete redesign and all WikiProjects could benefit from inventory pages
engagement target:
English Wikipedia
strategic priority:
Improving Quality, Increasing Participation
total amount requested:
9010 USD
2013 round 2
Project idea
WikiProjects are a classic way to collaborate on Wikipedia, but despite all of their successes, all WikiProjects are technologically restricted from becoming more effective at collaborating to meet group-based quality goals. Higher productivity is possible with improved sofrware. The famous [citation needed] tag is a clue to what is needed in a software packgage.
The WikiProject I am most involved with, WikiProject Medicine (English Wikipedia), just recently started tracking the number of en:WP:TC (cleanup templates) we have in all 28,000 of our articles. But where is this detailed information currently? It is on the toolserver, "locked" inside of a staid black and white page. And when I just visited it said: "Could not connect: User 'svick' has exceeded the 'max_user_connections' resource (current value: 15)". Instead of this technologically limited format, all WikiProjects would benefit if they could use a tracking feature for to-do items that is inspired by the kind of model wikiHow uses on their community dashboard. I was first introduced to this page from Jack Herrick during his Wikimania 2012 talk (see minute 54). He cited dramatic increases in community participation after its implementation.
The information that is "locked" inside of the toolserver should come alive into the project space. I want WikiProject Medicine—and all WikiProjects—to have an Inventory Page to collect and display all of this valuable data in thier own WikiProject space. This software will aim to create approximately 1000 to 2000 pages in the English Wikipeda which will help organize and motivate quality-based contributions.
Project goals
I will redesign the project page and make related edits in project space that maximize efficiency.
I will manage the development of inventory pages so that all WikiProjects will hopefully have Wikipedia space pages at en:Wikipedia:WikiProject X/Inventory pages.
Part 2: The Project Plan
Project plan
Scope:
Scope and activities
I will study WikiProject pages such as the WikiProject Military History page and others to find good models for WikiProject Medicine. I will work to develop consensus for proposed changes (though the crowd is pretty relaxed and I already have a history of editing the WikiProject Medicine space and making changes to the project page, such as setting the current goals). The front page will be changed and the efficiency of project space generally will be maximized.
I will manage a project to get coding capabilities behind a WikiProject Inventory space for all WikiProjects.
Tools, technologies, and techniques
There should not be much technical trouble with the WikiProject Medicine page. If something gets complicated, en:WP:VPT should be able to help.
As for the technical idea, hopefully money will attract talent! If not, then I will return the money back to the WMF.
Budget:
Total amount requested
$9010 USD
Budget breakdown
$8000 coding $1000 management $10 for the WikiProject Medicine page (a token amount)
Intended impact:
Target audience
As for the medicine page, new editors will be better served by a less intimidating page. Existing editors will benefit from a streamlined and more attractive page that looks a bit more professional. People that are not active editors will hopefully arrive be a bit more impressed by what we're up to.
With the WikiProject Inventory pages, I aim to give an attractive place to motivate edits. I hope to boost the productivity of any active WikiProject and also to help reactivate old WikiProjects with attractive "to-do" places.
Fit with strategy
Given that Wiki Project Med has been doing outreach, such as with this, also see coverage in the New York Times here, if WikiProject Medicine can have a more effective page, it will be a better "advertisement" to uninvolved people to get involved. A redesigned page will seek to channel more volunteer energy into effectively collaborating and improving content (quality).
With the inventory pages, Wikipedia has known quality issues. That's why so many articles are tagged with cleanup templates. This project seeks to serve editors with nice software to organize the inventories of logged "to-do" items.
Sustainability
The page will be there for the community, and I can write up what I learned so that others who seek to boost WikiProject productivity might apply and learn from my experiences.
With the inventory pages, hopefully they will exist as long as Wikipedia does. =)
Measures of success
This project will be successful if it can help develop a model for Inventory Pages that can be applied to all English language WikiProjects (and in possibly all languages eventually). The grant seeks to catalyze efficiency gains in all WikiProjects.
Also, ideas for best practices on WikiProjects will be explored and can be left behind as a product WikiProjects to consider. The WikiProject Medicine page might be used as a model for other WikiProjects.
Participant(s)
I, Biosthmors, am the sole grantee. I have been active with WikiProject Medicine for around 18 months now. I have experience editing the project space by doing things such as setting the goals on the project page. It's also a pretty easy-going crowd when it comes to editing project space. I am also active in the Education Program as an Ambassador (Campus, Online, and Regional). I like designing course pages with professors and TAs. I meet with professors and TAs on Skype to support those projects. I'm also on the board of Wiki Project Med, so I have an interest in promoting and improving WikiProject Medicine on the English Wikipedia.
Discussion
Community Notification:
Endorsements:
Do you think this project should be selected for an Individual Engagement Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.
- Community member: add your name and rationale here.
- Support-- this editor is very dedicated to improving the wikiproject, and has the skills to improve the structure of the page in question, which would strongly benefit from improvements imo. Lesion (talk) 00:47, 10 October 2013 (UTC)
- Comment. This comment came in before I expanded the scope to include inventory pages for all WikiProjects. Biosthmors (talk) 21:13, 23 October 2013 (UTC)