Submissions/10 ways to make Wikinews a better project

From Wikimania 2013 • Hong Kong

This is a withdrawn submission for Wikimania 2013.

Submission no.
3022
Title of the submission
10 ways to make Wikinews a better project
Type of submission
presentation/discussion
Author of the submission
Antoine Letarte (Letartean)
Country of origin
Canada
Affiliation
Wikimedia Canada
E-mail address
aletarte@wikimedia.ca
Username
Antoine Letarte (Letartean)
Personal homepage or blog
Letartean on fr.wiki, my blog
Abstract

Wikinews is one of the sister projects of Wikipedia, in the Wikimedia Foundation's organization. In last November, the English version of the project was proposed for closure on meta. This proposal was refused but it is still an indication of a problem in the life of that project. How could we make it a better project? What are the ways that could aggregate more people in the project? In this discussion, new approaches will be discussed and the public will be invited to propose its ideas.

Detailed proposal

The english Wikinews has started it's activities in 2004. Since then, around 19,500 articles where published on the site, which is not a lot for more than 8 years of news coverage. In the french version of Wikinews, 13,516 articles were written since 2005 and recent major policy changes were approved by 9 users. In november 2012, the english wikinews was proposed for closure on MetaWiki. All of these observations show that the activity on the various versions of Wikinews is not very important.

In the end of march 2013, a proposal for closure of all language versions of Wikinews was created and has met some support and some very strong opposition. This discussion is a great time to ask ourselves "What is wrong with Wikinews?", "Is Wikinews viable?", "What are the main differences between Wikinews and other projects of the Wikimedia Foundation?" and "What can we do to improve Wikinews?". In this talk, we will go over the main arguments stated in this discussion and the presentator will argue that Wikinews can be a viable project but needs some changes that would make it better. It will also be an occasion for discussion over the main caracteristics of Wikinews as a wiki project.

Instead of closing the project, what are the possible avenues to help the growth of this very interesting part of the Wikimedia Foundation environment? In this talk, the goal is to express new ideas that could expand Wikinews to a greater success and that could help the site to gain public notoriety. Technical solutions could facilitate the creation of content for the site and expand its activities. New manners of work could change the way news are reported on the site. Finally, links must be created between other sites of the Wikimedia organization and Wikinews or between Wikinews and other republishing sites on the Internet.

This talk also wants to create a discussion between wikimedians to help create more vitality in the smaller wikimedian sites such as Wikinews. Your suggestions and ideas will be welcomed in a discussion that will take place at the end of the talk. It will be a useful time to measure the impact that could have the proposed idea on the improvement of Wikinews.

Track
WikiCulture and Community
Length of presentation/talk
25 Minutes
Language of presentation/talk
English
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
Yes, if I have a scholarship.
Slides or further information (optional)
Special requests


Interested attendees

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  1. Simon Villeneuve (talk) 17:32, 6 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Danny B.
  3. Jeromy-Yu Chan, COIC (talk) 12:30, 21 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Would love to learn more about fixes to French Wikinews. --LauraHale (talk) 00:57, 30 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  5. ProtoplasmaKid (talk) 01:25, 30 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  6. While I personally can't attend, I would like to demonstrate my interest in the topic (I'm not familiar with how this project works and I do hope that there would be a video or a presentation available later). Gryllida 03:12, 30 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  7. Benoit Rochon (talk) 20:02, 2 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Amqui (talk) 00:26, 3 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Itu (talk) 20:47, 3 April 2013 (UTC) as german 'wikinews-guru', of course no scholarship[reply]