Communications and Mentorship
How community members engage in the Wiki-related communications ecosystem
Overview
Communications
The Wikimedia Foundation Growth and Editing teams aim to attain a better understanding of the
wiki-related communications ecosystem both on and off wiki. Identifying use cases, trends, benefits, and impacts
of these communication channels, and establishing what functionalities/use cases could potentially be integrated
on wiki could further empower communication and collaboration opportunities among experienced users and newcomers
alike across a range of use cases.
Mentorship
The Growth team is currently testing newcomer mentorship initiatives among a selected number of wikis.
Many other similar initiatives have occurred in the past to varying degrees of success, sustainability and impact.
This project illuminates perspectives on and lived examples of mentorship from seasoned volunteers and
Foundation/affiliate staff, with the hopes that these can inform the current initiatives to positive outcomes.
Top High Level Takeaways:
Communications
- A majority of folks rarely go to / stay on wiki for quick, engaging, and/or interactive communication. Additionally, on-wiki communication channels are a “disadvantage” and an “inequality” for newcomers.
- In their current forms, on and off wiki communication channels are both complementary and necessary.
- While transparency and legitimacy are important, issues of practicality such as privacy/security, access, and accessibility/ease of use, and responsiveness are key.
Mentorship
- Rote teaching methods and manufactured mentorship structures rarely induce persistently positive interest, engagement and impact.
- Mentorship in the wiki-sphere spans more than just teaching rules and how to edit, and successful mentorship often recognizes and addresses this.
- Those in a position to become mentors rarely have all 3 of sufficient time, specific interest in mentoring (vs content editing, admin/organizing work, etc.), and a clear understanding of their impact (that could then create a virtuous cycle).
- On-wiki channels are lacking for newcomers/mentees in numerous ways: basic awareness, intuitiveness/ease of use, functionality, features, community vibe/reactions, etc.