🌱 Proceed with care: this task is very much a seedling that is still germinating beneath the soil on the floor of the forest that is Phabricator.
This task involves the work of introducing a configurable visualization that would enable volunteers to visualize the contributions they make to Wikimedia wikis in a way that would be compelling and interesting to themselves as well as people who may not be experienced editing a Wikimedia wiki.
Stories
- As someone who is applying to a job, I'd like to be able to present the contributions I've made to Wikipedia in a way that a hiring manager who is considering my candidacy could easily understand and trust, so that I can substantiate the statements I've made about the skills I've developed, experiences I've had, and values that are important to me.
- As a hiring manager who is considering the candidacy of someone for an open position, I'd like to be able to easily see firsthand the work of the person I am considering hiring so that I can assess how likely they are to be able fulfill the role I'm hiring for.
- As a volunteer who is proud of the contributions they make to Wikimedia wikis as a volunteer, I'd like to be able to show the contributions I've made to Wikipedia in a way that people who read Wikipedia, value Wikipedia, and who do not have experience contributing to it will find compelling and interesting so that I can feel seen and appreciated by people in ways that are meaningful to me.
Background
#TODO: 27 January 2023 SSA learning session and volunteering not being compelling to many newcomers
Theory of Change
#TODO...
- Tangible and aspirational artifact that could motivate/inspire people who attend in-person trainings to continue contributing
- Could be something volunteers feel compelled to share off-wiki with their network generating more interest in volunteering
- Start here...
Loose Ideas
- While I think the visualization should be delivered to people using some kind of default configuration, I think it might be important for people to:
- Customize the aesthetics of the visualization (read: how it looks and feels)
- Choose a visualization based on the role they most closely identify with
- I wonder if it would be interesting for people to be able to create configurations for specific use cases (e.g. for use in a applying to a particular type of role that warrants people demonstrating a particular set of skills/experiences
- Assuming there is a segment of people who make monetary donations to Wikipedia who would value the opportunity to make a more personal expression of gratitude and appreciation to Wikipedia volunteers, maybe there could be value in offering these people an opportunity to create an account and "co-sign" a letter of support/appreciation that would accompany the timed release of the feature/visualization this task is describing
- I'm imaging/hoping that people receiving the visualization/experience this task is describing as both a gift and a prompt...
- "Gift" in so far as I think it'd be nice for volunteers to feel considered, appreciated, thought of, elevated, seen, etc.
- "Prompt" in so far as I think it'd be nice for volunteers to feel moved, inspired, encouraged to take action.
Inspiration
Volunteers throughout the Movement and Wikimedia Foundation Staff have a long history of working to offer individual people an aggregated view of what they do on the wikis so that...
- ...the volunteers who are the subjects of these aggregated views can:
- Reflect on and find meaning within what they've done in the past
- Present themselves in ways that make it easier for other people (and their future selves) to see and understand them in a way/through a new lens
- Remind themselves of "where" they've been and what they've done
- ...people viewing the "aggregated views" of another volunteer can:
- Connect with people through previously unknown points of shared interest and value
- Decide whether they think a person could be "fit" for a particular position or User right based on how they've behaved in the past
This idea is directly inspired by these efforts, some of which are listed below. If there is a project or resource you think this idea should be aware of/consider, please add it here!
Thinking/Explorations
WMF Product Teams have been exploring ways in which Wikipedia might reflect the time people spend with it back to them for some time now. Some of those explorations can be found here:
- A single place to see what you've read and contributed (via @cmadeo and iOS) inspired by what the Android (@scblr) and Growth Teams have done (@RHo): Modernization and consistency on the iOS App, December 2022 --> Slide 25
- A place for people to see/reflect on the habits they've developed around reading Wikipedia (via @cmadeo and iOS): FY21/22: Navigation Explorations on iOS --> Slide 37
- Offer people a way to "trace" and "retrace" the rabbit holes they wonder down on Wikipedia (via @cmadeo and iOS): FY 20/21 explorations for the iOS app --> Slide 29
- Design Research: Positive reinforcements to sustain contributions via @KStoller-WMF
- "Appealing to more extrinsic and self-focused motivations may also lead to more diversity in people who start editing."
- Jon Robson's hack project in December 2023 https://wikipediayir.netlify.app
On-wiki tools
- XTools
- Edit Counter: provides detailed summary statistics about a single user on a single project.
- Authorship: provides editor authorship attribution, measured by character count, excluding spaces. Example: en:Imageability.
- Category Edits: counts and lists contributions a user made within one or more categories.
- Top Edits: shows the most-edited pages the user has edited in each namespace.
- Pages Created: provides analysis of pages that a user has created.
Design sketches
