Submissions/Thank you for your email. Our response follows your message.

From Wikimania 2013 • Hong Kong

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2013.

Submission no.
3016
Subject no.
D3
Title of the submission
Thank you for your email. Our response follows your message.
Type of submission
Presentation
Author of the submission
Keegan Peterzell
Country of origin
United States
Affiliation
Volunteer Response Team Leader
E-mail address
keegan.wiki@gmail.com
Username
Keegan
Personal homepage or blog
Abstract

With a small team of experienced Wikimedians, the Volunteer Response Team (OTRS) is responsible for answering emails and inquiries from around the world in all languages. This presentation informatively documents what kind of emails we receive, how we answer them, and how Wikimedia's volunteer customer service works for one of the most popular websites in the world.

Detailed proposal

The presentation will engage the Wikimedia community as a whole to think about how they respond to everyone in an online environment. Wikimedia communities are used to working with other in the community and are accustomed to communicating as they would other Wikimedians all the time. Responding to emails from the general public, which is by far where most of our page views come from, provides a different insight into how we can look at our content.

"Thank you for your email. Our response follows your message." will cover not the question of "What is OTRS?" or "What does OTRS do?", these topics have been covered well and extensively before. The purpose for "Thank you for your email..." is to explain to interested Wikimedians, press, and public about what an agent actually does during a routine login session. The presentation will include simulated situations of email exchanges over a variety of topics such as general questions, content reuse, issues related to living people, and submitting works for use.

OTRS has been shrouded in relative secrecy and mystery since its creation, compared to the other Wikimedia communities. The Volunteer Response Team Leaders (OTRS admins) are working to move the OTRS community into transparency. We have recently published a statistical breakdown of 2012's emails, and by the time of Wikimania 2013 we will have further statistics to work with. Additionally, we are publishing our agent list on meta, in full, for the first time. "Thank you for your email..." will include such data in presenting how emails are processed.

The end of the presentation will allow for questions from the audience about whatever they wish to ask, from how to answer a hypothetical situation to how to volunteer on OTRS. By the time of Wikimania I also will have more work in hand to use regarding agent development on OTRS.

Track
  • WikiCulture and Community


Length of presentation/talk
55 minutes
Language of presentation/talk
English
Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?
No, not out of desire but finance.
Slides or further information (optional)

Blogs I wrote for WMF Communications about OTRS:

  • "The incredible work of the Wikimedia Volunteer Response Team," January 24, 2013 [1]
  • "Wikipedia ranks first in customer satisfaction for the third straight year," July 20, 2012 [2]
Special requests


Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with four tildes. (~~~~).

  1. అమీర్ ఎ. అహరొని (talk) 13:59, 20 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Letartean (talk) 17:47, 15 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  3. Risker (talk) 21:38, 3 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  4. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 17:24, 5 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  5. Slashme (talk) 18:28, 7 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  6. Jdforrester (talk) 11:28, 12 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  7. AGK (talk) 16:47, 15 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  8. Béria Lima msg 17:14, 18 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  9. Wnme (talk) 20:10, 20 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  10. Vogone (talk) 15:42, 27 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  11. I've been introduced to OTRS and have considered helping out, so I will be interested in seeing this. CT Cooper · talk 00:22, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  12. The wub (talk) 14:11, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  13. Blue Rasberry (talk) 17:37, 30 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  14. LeslieCarr (talk) 03:48, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  15. Graham87 (talk) 13:16, 5 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  16. Add your username here.
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