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 {{historical}}
 [[File:Nemzszinh-spiralcivertan.jpg|thumb]] [[File:Sustainability tech contributors.png|thumb|How to engage new volunteers?]]
-'''How to attract volunteers and connect them with interesting people and activities?'''
-== The problem ==
-[[File:Wikimedia technical volunteer outreach.jpg|thumb|A subjective and very simplified view. [[:commons:File:Wikimedia_technical_volunteer_outreach.jpg|The original file]] has notes.]]
-We have a problem engaging volunteers and motivating them to stay. The amount and complexity of documentation, tools and channels is so overwhelming that even we have a hard time following it all. Because we're in the shadow of Wikipedia, we could generate massive interest from tech-friendly users, and we could offer them suitable technical tasks. In reality, we miss many newcomers, and our community efforts don't scale.
-In more detail:
-* '''[[Wikipmediawiki]]''': what you need to know as a tech contributor is spread out over 3 or more wikis...
-* '''Plain text identification''': it's 2013 and our user profiles consist of a textarea.
-* '''Memory in spreadsheets''': all we have are lists of contributors maintained (or not) manually by various people.
-* '''Inefficient mass promotion''': every time we start almost from scratch, unable to selectively reach target audiences.
-* '''Inefficient personal promotion''': manual pokes in Talk pages + emails from those spreadsheets won't get you far.
-* '''Difficult to propose a first task''': it's difficult for us - imagine how it is for new volunteers alone. After 1-2 attempts, they're gone.
-* '''Difficult to find peers''': ''"ask in wikitech-l or #mediawiki"'' is not the answer.
-* '''Difficult to contribute''': our code review process and wait times can be demotivating.
-* '''English only''': all of the above only gets worse when writing English is not your strength.
-== The solution ==
-* Better landing pages for contributors, including
-** http://mediawiki.org and http://wikitech.wikimedia.org main pages.
-** [[How to contribute]] and the pages linking directly from there.
-** [[Developer hub]] and the pages linking directly from there.
-* Cutting edge use of projects developed for [[onboarding new Wikipedians]]: [[Account creation user experience]], [[Extension:GettingStarted|GettingStarted]],  [[Guided tours]].
-* Also for subscriptions and notifications: [[Echo]] & [[Flow]].
-* Encouraging users to define their interests through subscriptions and user profiles.
-* Thematic nodes aggregating key information around popular topics.
-We are the MediaWiki experts and we can iterate fast eating our own dog food. We have a tradition of beta testing new developments and helping out polishing tools by using them.
-== Current tasks ==
-Goals to be completed. Check the [[/Roadmap/]] for more ideas.
-=== [[/One ontology/]] ===
-A common vocabulary to categorize items across all our tools.
-Call it ''categories'', ''keywords'', ''topics'', ''tags'', ''metadata''... What we need is one set of words applied consistently to wiki content, helping to connect related people, nodes, projects, tasks and events.
-Help: list contributors' activities, programming languages and free software / knowledge that are relevant to our community.
-=== [[Developer hub|Improve Developer hub]] ===
-A landing page for developers reflecting all the activities, beyond MediaWiki core and extensions.
-There have been many discussions about revamping this page but so far it has registered little changes. We might be losing potential developers getting stuck here.
-Help: edit the page, removing not so essential links or adding development areas not mentioned. Lead the refresh.
-=== [[Requests for comment/MediaWiki.org Main Page tweaks|MediaWiki.org Main Page tweaks]] ===
-{{tracked|T653}}
-A homepage refresh to reflect the diversity of projects, technologies and opportunities for contributors.
-A lot of discussion and work was done but got stalled. The problem is still there, still growing. It needs to be revisited.
-Help: be the one restarting this activity.
-== Ongoing activities ==
-Never stop. Watchers and more help is always welcome.
-=== [[How to contribute]] ===
-A landing page for all technical contributors.
-All the types of activity must be reflected here. All the essential pages for contributors should be linked from here.
-Help: improve or translate the page.
-=== [[Social media]] ===
-Reaching out to the friends of your friends.
-Promoting news and activities in [https://twitter.com/#!/MediaWiki Twitter], [https://www.facebook.com/MediaWikiProject Facebook], [https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/103470172168784626509/103470172168784626509/posts Google+], [http://identi.ca/mediawiki identi.ca] and [https://alpha.app.net/mediawiki app.net]. Keeping manual sync with [[Project:Calendar]] and [[Template:MediaWiki_News]].
-Help: follow, like, share and propose interesting content to be distributed.
-=== [[Mentorship programs/Possible projects|Possible projects]] ===
-A list of projects waiting for takers.
-Includes [[Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects#Featured_project_ideas|featured project ideas]] with community buy-in and a mentor available. Complemented with mentored [[New Developers|featured projects]] and unmentored [[Annoying little bugs]].
-Help: list new possible projects and easy bugs.
-=== [[Mentorship programs]] ===
-Bringing selected new contributors from 0 to 100.
-Coordination of activities for [[Summer of Code 2013|Google Summer of Code]], [[Outreach Program for Women|Free and Open Source Outreach Program for Women]] and similar initiatives.
-Help: give a hand to applicants and interns. Mentor. Connect us with new programs.
-[[Category:New contributors]]
-[[Category:Polio Project]]
-[[Category:Proposals]]

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Latest revision as of 11:17, 22 March 2023