Wikipedia:Meetup/San Francisco WikiWomen's Edit-a-Thon/Reflections

This page documents some things we did to organize the WikiWomen's History edit-a-thon that worked well, and what could be improved for future events. Many of the general lessons learned have also been incorporated into a how-to-guide for running an edit-a-thon.

Attendees and organizers, please add your reflections on the event to this page!

What worked well

• using many different channels to get the word out, particularly to non-Wikipedians (social media, professional mailing lists, Eventbrite, Campus Ambassadors, etc helped get a great turnout, and having both experienced and new Wikimedians helping organize was useful to encourage this)
• encouraging people to bring friends and family, and making it clear that new editors were very welcome - more than 10 new accounts were created at the event!
• scheduling the event for 4 hours - people had time to really get into editing and work on more than one thing, and by the end organizers were tired but still happy
• having experienced people available to personally help each new editor create an account
• having someone take point on welcoming/greeting people as they came in and helping get late-comers setup and integrated with other groups
• having loaner laptops available - we loaned out about 5 total in a group of 40+ people
• having some experienced people move around to check in on newer editors and share ad-hoc tips (about sandbox, watchlist, saving sections to avoid edit conflicts, how to use talk pages, etc.), and some sitting down to edit directly at a table with newer editors for longer periods of time.
• preparing a list of articles to work on (printed copies and online)
• encouraging copyediting and having a list of articles needing this specifically - a lightweight and empowering task for new editors
• giving people space to work independently
• creating some small groups to keep it social and supportive for things like creating your account, learning about copyediting, etc
• having give-aways available (T-shirts, stickers, pins, memory sticks) - and using a combo of distribution channels (pins available for all, raffle to distribute things we didn't have enough of for everyone, and prizes for those who were first time editors and those who created a new article) seemed to work ok
• having food, drinks, and coffee available throughout the event
• having a child-friendly environment
• directing people to a friendly help space (Teahouse) and the SF WP mailing list for follow up after the event
• add your thoughts here!

What to do more of next time

• stations dedicated to particular task or topic (new account creation, copyediting, article writing) were helpful - this worked best when we announced it explicitly and funneled newcomers directly into one of the stations instead of waiting for it to happen ad-hoc
• ratio of experienced to new Wikipedians - about 1 experienced editor for every 5-6 people was okay. But for very new editors who needed more personal attention, bringing the ratio to more like 1:3 was better, and having enough experienced Wikipedians with dedicated time to help others get started was important
• getting everyone to sign up with their account somewhere on the meetup page (particularly those who registered via Eventbrite or were brought by a friend) - the new accounts created folks did this, but we probably missed a few of the folks who already had accounts
• to encourage parents with younger children or no childcare to attend, we could look into a babysitting service and make it a clearer option in the invite. It was great to have the 3 kids (5-7 age range) attend, would like to encourage more of this at future women's editing events.
• add your thoughts here!

What didn't happen

• encouraging people to change tasks or move from their seats

• a more explicit break in the middle might have helped if we wanted to get people moving and encourage them to try a new task or meet other people - maybe doing the raffle and other announcements at hour 2 instead of at hour 3?

• may have helped to have a more structured, guided tutorial with step-by-step guide to creating an article for article creators?
• add your thoughts here!