Editor campaigns

Group:	Growth/Growth_2014
Start:	2014-02
End:	2014-09

This is a nascent Wikimedia Engineering project, kicking off in mid-February 2014.

Background and goals

Our goal is to test hypotheses about how to acquire new users through inviting users to join a campaign, event, or group on Wikipedia. We view this work as fitting within the framework of new editor acquisition and activation by the Growth team in 2013-14, i.e. how we get potential new editors to sign up and make their first edits to Wikipedia. This also intersects with related projects by Mobile, Analytics, and other teams, as well as future work on structured profiles and Affiliations (i.e. an interest graph and WikiProject support).

Project members

Andrew Russell Green, Software Engineer
Adam Wight, Software Engineer
Steven Walling, Product Manager

User experience

A campaign is an organized action to achieve a goal. An editor campaign is when one group of users invites others to participate in editing a particular topic on Wikipedia or another Wikimedia project. People already run many types of editor campaigns on Wikipedia, though not all of them target new users per se. Examples include edit-a-thons, writing contests, editing workshops, college courses through the Global Education Program, and WikiProject collaborations such as backlog drives, collaboration of the month or week, etc.^[1]

All the examples above involve a few basic elements, such as choosing a list of things to do, creating a place for people to join and these find things to do, inviting people, providing them instructions and help, and reporting on the progress of the group. Most of these campaign types are also conducted within a limited time period, though they may happen on a recurring basis as well.

User stories

There are essentially only two types of users that relate to an editor campaign. First, people who want to start and organize a campaign, aka campaign organizers. There are also people who want to join a campaign or who are invited to do so, aka campaign participants.^[2]

Campaign organizers need to be able to...

Create the campaign, including potentially:
- Creating a description/introduction
- Setting a location, start/end date, or other applicable logistics
- Deciding on a subject (e.g. art and feminism or copyediting)
- Providing a suggested list of things to do
Invite others
View the group's activity and track progress toward campaign goals
Talk to the people who have joined a campaign

Add or remove participants

Campaign participants need to be able to...

Be invited or hear about a campaign somehow
Create an account or log in ^[3]
Join the campaign they're interested in
Find a list of things to do
Talk to other people in the campaign

Participants may also like to...

Get an introduction to Wikipedia basics (if they're new) ^[4]
Introduce themselves to the group
Claim an article or set of articles, so others can help them or pick something else to do
View the group's activity and track progress toward goals
Leave a campaign, if they lose interest or for other reasons

Minimum viable product/first release

Footnotes

↑ There are also extremely successful media campaigns such as Wiki Loves Monuments, though we are considering these as out of scope for this project.
↑ There are varying degrees of separation between organizers and participants, depending on the type of event or group. College courses are clearly separated in to professors and students. WikiProject collaborations or edit-a-thons, on the other hand, are often organized by people who are likely to be participants. For this project, we're separating out these two types of activities to more clearly delineate the uses cases (and thus the software needs) of either.
↑ Generally, campaigns are directed at registered editors and participants are encouraged to sign up.
↑ For Wikipedians in general, we now provide an onboarding process which teaches how to make your first edit. Other training materials, such as English Wikipedia's Training for Students, also are quite common.

Learn more

Campaigns, which is a disambiguation page with related links
Editor campaigns/Technical design
Trello planning board
Wikipedia Education Program/Brainstorming for RFC for rewrite
Gather

[1] There are also extremely successful media campaigns such as Wiki Loves Monuments, though we are considering these as out of scope for this project.

[2] There are varying degrees of separation between organizers and participants, depending on the type of event or group. College courses are clearly separated in to professors and students. WikiProject collaborations or edit-a-thons, on the other hand, are often organized by people who are likely to be participants. For this project, we're separating out these two types of activities to more clearly delineate the uses cases (and thus the software needs) of either.

[3] Generally, campaigns are directed at registered editors and participants are encouraged to sign up.

[4] For Wikipedians in general, we now provide an onboarding process which teaches how to make your first edit. Other training materials, such as English Wikipedia's Training for Students, also are quite common.

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