Task force/Reader Conversion

The task force process is completed. Some task forces may be reconstituted to discuss incomplete issues. Please discuss on the Village Pump.

Relevant Wikimedia-pedia Articles

Participants should be sure they're familiar with the relevant background material. They should also work to identify gaps and collect and summarize more information as it becomes available.

• Reader conversion
• Participation

Recommendations

Recommendations should be based upon Template:Recommendations. The following are stub pages for this task force's recommendations:

Task force/Recommendations/Reader conversion 1
Task force/Recommendations/Reader conversion 2
Task force/Recommendations/Reader conversion 3

Members

• Netmouse
• Ragesoss
• TSB
• Ziko
• (...)

Supporting: John Fowler and Philippe Beaudette

Note: Research and analysis has been moved to Reader conversion.

Mandate

Fewer than 1% of all readers contribute to the Wikimedia projects. This small group of individuals is predominantly male, with advanced graduate degrees, between the ages of 18-30, and single. As such, several groups are under-represented in the community, including: women, subject-matter experts in specific fields, older adults, and those with less formal education.

Wikimedia's mission--which encourages the free sharing in the sum of all knowledge--appears to require that as many individuals as possible contribute what they know to the projects. The goal of this task force is to develop a strategy for converting readers into editors and to identify groups with a high potential to add value to the Wikimedia projects.

The task force should develop answers to these questions:

1. What is the goal of increased participation and increased diversity of participation?
2. What are the factors currently preventing readers from contributing to the Wikimedia projects? What particular factors might have begun to inhibit participation in 2006, when we know it began to stagnate?
3. What key groups are under-represented, and why? How has their absence affected the Wikimedia projects?
4. What key features/changes offer the greatest potential to increase participation, particularly from under-represented groups with a high potential to add value to the projects? (e.g., building awareness, technology solutions, cultural/community solutions)
5. What 2-4 major strategic opportunities for investment would have the most impact on increasing participation (particularly from under-represented groups with potential to add value to the projects)?
6. Who is needed to support this strategy (e.g., Wikimedia Foundation, chapters, individual volunteers, external partners), and what do they need to do?