**Please provide all the following information:**
* **Context.** Provide a short paragraph with some background context for your request, please include links to relevant material.
In 2024/25 , through the knowledge equity objective, we have had an opportunity to support new languages through the [[ https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Future_of_Language_Incubation | future of incubation initiative ]] . So far we have tested 4 hypothesis;
- If we create a selection criteria and collaborate with the Language Committee to identify 5 languages that will receive access to a full-fledged wiki with modern features, we will be able to co-articulate feasibility and readiness requirements for implementation and success measurement across the selected language communities
- If we provide production wiki access to 5 new languages, with or without Incubator, we will learn whether access to a full-fledged wiki with modern features such as those available on English Wikipedia (including ContentTranslation and Wikidata support, advanced editing and search results) aids in faster editing. Ultimately, this will inform us if this approach can be a viable direction for language onboarding for new or existing languages, justifying further investigation.
- If we move addwiki.php to core and customize it to Wikimedia, we will improve code quality in our wiki creation system making it testable and robust, it will be easier for creators of new wikis, and thereby make significant steps towards simplifying wiki creation process .
- If we document the pre-incubator, incubator, and post-incubator journeys for the five pilot wikis with quantitative and qualitative data, we will identify key factors influencing new language wiki success.
Once the wiki is fully created, the real life of its community begins: writing articles, appointing administrators , communicating with each other, inviting more writers, etc. In 2025/26, we would like to explore interventions to support the growth of small language wikipedias.
* **Description.***What is your request about?
We propose a research to be conducted on experiences of small language wikipedias that will inform potential interventions to support their growth.
* **Expected Deliverable.** What is the ideal outcome or result of your request?
An understanding of the Growth pain-points of small language wikipedias that will eventually inform potential technical interventions that can support their growth.
* **Estimated Effort.** Please provide an estimate of the amount of work needed to complete this task**Scope**
- Wikipedia
- Reduced set of languages (to be determined)
- The focus is on research to provide recommendations, not general understanding
- No major new research, primarily focusing on the existing literature as well as data already collected and analyses concluded.
- As needed, if knownadditional qualitative and quantitative analyses will be done to tighten the recommendations or provide more backing and grounding for the recommendations.
Unable to predict- If possible, but I imagine this will definitely require planning, implementation , writing a report among other tasks. either way to talk with people in smaller WP languages and those who participated in the pilot.
- //To be added as relevant//
**Draft deliverables(s)**
- A set of proposed hypothesis or recommendations that the team can inform FY26-Q1+ hypotheses that the team will work on.
Original text by @MaryMunyoki: "An understanding of the Growth pain-points of small language wikipedias that will eventually inform potential technical interventions that can support their growth."
* **Priority** Please indicate a priority of your task and a small description of what it would unlock for you. We ask you to leave this task as “needs triage” since your request will go through a Backlog refinement process where our team will prioritize the work.
High. This work is a continuation of our OKR work and will help us explore potential interventions to support growth of small languages in aligning with the Knowledge equity objective. Ideally, it would be great if this work can be prioritized for Q3 with outcomes ready by the end of the quarter (around late March 2025 ). This will give us an opportunity to begin brainstorming in Q4 and propose potential hypothesis ideas to be tested in 2025/26.
I need this task resolved in:
[ ] 1 month.
[x] 3 months.
[ ] 6 months.
[ ] Whenever you get to it :-)
* **Other.** Do you have any other questions or comments ?
As per my understanding, there is still no standard definition of what a small language wikipedia is. From our discussions we thought it is those with active users between 3-20.
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**For use by WMF Research team; please leave everything below as it is:**
1. Does the request serve one of the existing Research team's audiences? If yes, choose the primary audience. (1 of 4) Yes. WMF
2. What is the type of work requested? insights and recommendations for decision making
3. What is the impact of responding to this request?
[x] Support a technology or policy need of one or more WM projects
[] Advance the understanding of the WM projects.
[] Something else. If you choose this option, please explain briefly the impact below.