Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Futures studies
This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the WikiProject Futures studies page. |
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Improvements welcome
Of course feel free to improve the project page in any way you can think of. The Transhumanist 06:29, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- Thanks for your work in creating this page. This is a wonderful start! John b cassel (talk) 15:23, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
Future studies proposed move
Please weigh in here:
- I agree that if the article name changes, the WikiProject's name should change to match it. The Transhumanist 09:57, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
Re: Transhumanism
(Thread copied from User talk:The Transhumanist).
I notice you added a link to the transhumanism project on the new future studies project page. What is the relationship? Viriditas (talk) 07:29, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- The technological future. See transhumanism#Technologies of interest. The Transhumanist 07:39, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- I respect your opinion but I find the link tenuous at best. Transhumanism is essentially an ideology. Future studies, OTOH, is an academic discipline known for its research methodology. I'm not really seeing the connection in this context. Viriditas (talk) 07:45, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- Transhumanism is also a branch of philosophy interested in (i.e., studies) future possibilities, especially the positive and negative potential of technological advance. (Inorder to achieve the positive and avoid negative outcomes). I am primarily a philosophical transhumanist. See category:Futurology. Transhumanism is listed there. The outcomes that transhumanism seeks are studied by futurists, including the technological singularity. The Transhumanist 08:11, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- Yes, that's what I said. Transhumanism is an ideology. However, future studies is not. They are not related. Please find me a single future studies textbook or relevant academic source that says they are. However, I am not interested in seeing a transhumanist source that says they are related. Future studies could not accurately study the future if it were an ideology or if it embraced transhumanism as "true". Transhumanism is also not the only ideology related to the future. In my mind, there is no difference between linking Transhumanism to the Future studies project page and linking to, let's say for example, Christianity. Please take a look at this list of recent publications from or related to the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies. There's a lot here, and nothing about transhumanism. Viriditas (talk) 08:49, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- Christianity, and its prophecy of armageddon? Comparing transhumanism to that hints of POV. Transhumanism extrapolates future possibilities from current technologies. Though highly speculative (like future studies), it isn't mythological or spiritual. But you totally ignored the philosophical aspect of transhumanism. It's a branch of humanism, which is in turn a branch of philosophy. Philosophy studies things. Transhumanism studies the future. In that pursuit it conducts future studies extensively. Future studies (that is, analyzing future possibilities) is integrated into its approach. See The Singularity is Near – it is a core transhumanist future study. Transhumanist philosophers are futurists. The Transhumanist 09:18, 16 January 2012 (UTC)]
- I am well acquainted with transhumanism and its literature. It is not "POV" to compare transhumanism's vision of the future "singularity" with the vision marketed by Christianity. They are both considered to be religious visions of the future in the relevant literature. In any case, I am not interested in what transhumanists claim, but in what scholars of Futures Studies claim, as I've previously made clear. It is actually considered POV pushing to associate the two as you are doing, which apparently you don't realize. I've requested a source, so please provide it when you have time. Thanks. To remind you, I've provided dozens of sources related to the current Futures Studies literature that says nothing about transhumanism. Please provide sources that do. Viriditas (talk) 09:25, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- There is a large body of transhumanist future studies. That is, future studies conducted by transhumanists. It appears you are using a very specialized context of the term "related". I suggest we explore the requirements for being called a "related WikiProject". The Transhumanist 09:44, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- Futures studies might examine scenarios involving posthuman futures. But it doesn't argue, like transhumanism does, that such scenarios are necessary or beneficial. It only argues that it is one possible scenario. However this is not the primary focus of futures studies. And it certainly doesn't take the position that the human species is limited and should focus on enhancement, it just observes that this might happen. Transhumanism, on the other hand, argues that it should happen and encourages it. This is like saying WikiProject Ecology is relevant to futures studies because it studies and evaluates sustainability. Viriditas (talk) 10:55, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- There is a large body of transhumanist future studies. That is, future studies conducted by transhumanists. It appears you are using a very specialized context of the term "related". I suggest we explore the requirements for being called a "related WikiProject". The Transhumanist 09:44, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- I am well acquainted with transhumanism and its literature. It is not "POV" to compare transhumanism's vision of the future "singularity" with the vision marketed by Christianity. They are both considered to be religious visions of the future in the relevant literature. In any case, I am not interested in what transhumanists claim, but in what scholars of Futures Studies claim, as I've previously made clear. It is actually considered POV pushing to associate the two as you are doing, which apparently you don't realize. I've requested a source, so please provide it when you have time. Thanks. To remind you, I've provided dozens of sources related to the current Futures Studies literature that says nothing about transhumanism. Please provide sources that do. Viriditas (talk) 09:25, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- Christianity, and its prophecy of armageddon? Comparing transhumanism to that hints of POV. Transhumanism extrapolates future possibilities from current technologies. Though highly speculative (like future studies), it isn't mythological or spiritual. But you totally ignored the philosophical aspect of transhumanism. It's a branch of humanism, which is in turn a branch of philosophy. Philosophy studies things. Transhumanism studies the future. In that pursuit it conducts future studies extensively. Future studies (that is, analyzing future possibilities) is integrated into its approach. See
- Yes, that's what I said. Transhumanism is an ideology. However, future studies is not. They are not related. Please find me a single future studies textbook or relevant academic source that says they are. However, I am not interested in seeing a transhumanist source that says they are related. Future studies could not accurately study the future if it were an ideology or if it embraced transhumanism as "true". Transhumanism is also not the only ideology related to the future. In my mind, there is no difference between linking Transhumanism to the Future studies project page and linking to, let's say for example, Christianity. Please take a look at this list of recent publications from or related to the Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies. There's a lot here, and nothing about transhumanism. Viriditas (talk) 08:49, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- Transhumanism is also a branch of philosophy interested in (i.e., studies) future possibilities, especially the positive and negative potential of technological advance. (Inorder to achieve the positive and avoid negative outcomes). I am primarily a philosophical transhumanist. See category:Futurology. Transhumanism is listed there. The outcomes that transhumanism seeks are studied by futurists, including the technological singularity. The Transhumanist 08:11, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- I respect your opinion but I find the link tenuous at best. Transhumanism is essentially an ideology. Future studies, OTOH, is an academic discipline known for its research methodology. I'm not really seeing the connection in this context. Viriditas (talk) 07:45, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
Err, guys, feel free to take this discussion to the relevant talkpage, the WikiProject's. Viriditas, please note that we're discussing a WikiProject's work here, not an article's content. Demanding reliable sources is not justified here. — Jeraphine Gryphon (talk) 09:47, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
I don't see how this is an issue at all, transhumanism and potential futures are very obviously related. — Jeraphine Gryphon (talk) 10:01, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- Note: asking for a reliable source showing that the concept of transhumanism is a scholarly avenue of study and part of the domain of what is called Futures Studies is entirely justified. I suspect that no sources will be provided because a user by the name of "The Transhumanist" is pushing the POV of "transhumanism" when in point of fact, that POV is not part of Futures Studies. Viriditas (talk) 09:59, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- I never said that transhumanism was part of the domain of what is called futures studies. The section I placed Wikipedia:WikiProject Transhumanism under was "Related projects", which is a pretty vague subheading. You are reading a lot more specificity into that subheading than I am. I don't agree with you that a WikiProject's subject must be a branch of or a subdiscipline of another WikiProject's subject in order to be considered related. The Transhumanist 10:06, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- How is it even related? Let me give you an example of a true statement in this regard: Futures studies is related to scenario planning. Where does transhumanism come into this? Viriditas (talk) 10:30, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- I'll admit that I have my own skepticism about transhumanism, but I think it is valid to include it as a subject of study. To take a previous example (Christianity), the view of various Christian sects about end times is also a valid subject of futures studies, as one can look at how these views changed over time due to demographic, cultural, and technological circumstances and the impact they in turn have had on society. We should give transhumanism at least this much leeway: it is a view of the future, and therefore a subject to which the methods of futures studies can be applied. However, we must be sure to include as much critical scholarship on this subject as we do other views about the future. John b cassel (talk) 23:55, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
- My point is that the scenario is what is important not the ideology. In other words, futures studies might concern itself with the probability of a posthuman future, but it does not take the political position or advocate for transhumanism as another editor is doing. In the same way, futures studies might look at the scenario of ecological sustainability, but it does not study or take the position of environmentalism. The position that all transhumanists are engaging in futures studies isn't supported. That's like saying all Christians are involved in peace and conflict studies. I also object to the hijacking of futures studies by associating it with a fringe movement that is actively working to create a narrow future that they personally envision. That is not the role of futures studies and it basically contradicts its stated mission. Transhumanists already have a vision of the future. Their mind is closed and it is already made up. They have no use for futures studies. Viriditas (talk) 00:57, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
- It's a "related" WikiProject. That's it. "Related". And just a WikiProject. The point of linking to related WikiProjects is showing projects that some of the current members can reasonably be expected to have some interest and knowledge in. It's purely subjective and wholly up to the WikiProject itself (its members) to decide what they feel is relevant and useful for the project. — Jeraphine Gryphon (talk) 06:35, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
- My point is that the scenario is what is important not the ideology. In other words, futures studies might concern itself with the probability of a posthuman future, but it does not take the political position or advocate for transhumanism as another editor is doing. In the same way, futures studies might look at the scenario of ecological sustainability, but it does not study or take the position of environmentalism. The position that all transhumanists are engaging in futures studies isn't supported. That's like saying all Christians are involved in peace and conflict studies. I also object to the hijacking of futures studies by associating it with a fringe movement that is actively working to create a narrow future that they personally envision. That is not the role of futures studies and it basically contradicts its stated mission. Transhumanists already have a vision of the future. Their mind is closed and it is already made up. They have no use for futures studies. Viriditas (talk) 00:57, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
- I'll admit that I have my own skepticism about transhumanism, but I think it is valid to include it as a subject of study. To take a previous example (Christianity), the view of various Christian sects about end times is also a valid subject of futures studies, as one can look at how these views changed over time due to demographic, cultural, and technological circumstances and the impact they in turn have had on society. We should give transhumanism at least this much leeway: it is a view of the future, and therefore a subject to which the methods of futures studies can be applied. However, we must be sure to include as much critical scholarship on this subject as we do other views about the future. John b cassel (talk) 23:55, 16 January 2012 (UTC)
Referring to the project proposal page, I would say that transhumanism would be a subject related to "the history and critique of how futures/the future has been and is considered". Transhumanism is a "way futures are considered." Spaceflight, on the other hand, is not a worldview regarding the future. John b cassel (talk) 14:38, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
- The scope of WikiProject Spaceflight, including the proposed missions and technology required to develop and build those missions are implicitly supported by space advocacy which has as its stated aim the exploration of space and the building of space settlements. Ironically, it is these space advocates who are behind the space settlement pictured on the current project page, an image added by The Transhumanist. More to the point, the project page says "We are a group of Wikipedia editors who work on topics related to the utilisation and exploration of outer space by humans and robotic spacecraft", which is most certainly a worldview regarding the future, and one of the most popular, I might add. To further clarify, all aspects of space colonization, including the past, present, and future, are part of the scope of WikiProject Spaceflight. Given this fact, I would say that the nuts and bolts spaceflight project is more relevant to futures studies (and more supported by published academic research) than the Transhumanism project considering the reality of the technology and the proposals at hand. Transhumanism, on the other hand, is little more than wishful thinking complete with religious symbolism involving the eschatological "singularity". To be fair, however, space colonization involving humans is also little more than wishful thinking at this point, so perhaps the Transhumanists will have the last laugh, with the Solar System eventually colonized by machines, not by people. My point, long-winded as it sounds, is that the list of relevant projects is endless. Futures studies should not associate itself with any other "relevant" projects that aren't part the scope of its discipline. Viriditas (talk) 03:14, 18 January 2012 (UTC)
- Your points are well taken, but there are some circumstances we should take into consideration: Very soon, we will be helping the University of Houston's Futures Studies program with a class project to improve Futures Studies content on Wikipedia. I'm sure that the appropriate scope of "Futures Studies" is something they would be able to bring some scholarly light to. John b cassel (talk) 16:28, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
Scope
User Viriditas had the following concern: "How is terraforming the subject of futures studies? Terraforming is a science fiction concept that has received a great deal of attention in books and films. However, the technology needed to implement this idea is beyond our current grasp, nor do we have a clue if it would ever work. Because it is not currently possible, it does not appear to be a plausible scenario for futures studies. I say this as someone who has read the terraforming literature (Fogg, Oberg, Zubrin, etc.)"
Being in the scope of a WikiProject doesn't mean that the topic is exclusively a subject of the field. Also, as far as I can tell, "Futures studies" is quite a broad field -- not everything in the scope of this project has to be of interest to all relevant academics nor to all members of this project.
I tagged terraforming because it's categorized in Category:Futurology and Category:Space colonization. What's wrong with that? — Jeraphine Gryphon (talk) 07:12, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
- Again, I ask, which futures studies sources discuss terraforming? Martyn J. Fogg wrote about planetary engineering in terms of planetary science, and very little about whether it was likely to happen. The basic problem here is that there seems to be confusion about what futures studies is and what topics it covers. I am unaware of any futures studies publications that cover this topic. Instead of having editors randomly tag articles that they think is covered by the discipline, I will ask once again, that these editors do the research and find the sources. Viriditas (talk) 08:30, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
- Viriditas may have a point on this one. To quote discussion from the project proposal page: ""Futurology" is seen as a relic of the past (with the possible exception of the UK where "futurology" is still seems used a bit currently, but that's an outlier) - a buzzword from the 1960-70s which is associated with a particular long-gone golden age characterized by a kind of overexcited faddish type of foresight that seems a bit embarrassing and outmoded today. I do think that futurology should be covered as a part of the history but would put off many people in the field if it was the title of the project". John b cassel (talk) 14:52, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
- We're talking about terraforming, not futurology. — Jeraphine Gryphon (talk) 03:09, 18 January 2012 (UTC)
- They are hopelessly interrelated: Terraforming came to be associated with with the field at the time of futurology's vogue and has certain connotations given that history. But, it occurs to me that this history isn't necessarily relevant to the participants of this project. Overall, I'm now agnostic on the subject of scope. John b cassel (talk) 16:13, 21 January 2012 (UTC)
- I'm agonistic about scope too. While planetary terraforming is not part of futures studies or strategic foresight theory or methods, it would perhaps fit into a topic category area such as "Common themes in 20th century futurist visions" or something like that. It's like the difference between the Battle of Agincourt and the theory and practice of history. The Battle of Agincourt is of course a target of historians' attention (and the attention of other specializations e.g. literature) but it is not part of what history is as a discipline or profession or set of methods and theories. Anyway, this is all good as a teaching moment for the upcoming class exercise! Zhanli2012 (talk) 00:15, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
- I'd appreciate if you agnostics took a second to think about the rest of Wikipedia that's outside of your own interests. With this sort of insistence to keep the project all serious and academic, you're being very exclusive and denying attention to certain articles. There's plenty of articles that relate to fantastical and unrealistic ideas about the future -- do you suggest there be made a separate project for them?
- You don't have to work on or be personally interested in every article that gets tagged wit this project's banner, you know. I'm just asking you to try to be more inclusive, for the sake of the rest of Wikipedia.
- I was a member of WikiProject Death, another multidisciplinary project -- I was only interested in a small fraction of their scope and that didn't hinder me from participating. And I haven't seen anyone in there suggest that we should only scope on the reality of death and leave mythologies, beliefs and fictions about it to other projects if any other projects happen to care. — Jeraphine Gryphon (talk) 07:09, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
- I'm agonistic about scope too. While planetary terraforming is not part of futures studies or strategic foresight theory or methods, it would perhaps fit into a topic category area such as "Common themes in 20th century futurist visions" or something like that. It's like the difference between the Battle of Agincourt and the theory and practice of history. The Battle of Agincourt is of course a target of historians' attention (and the attention of other specializations e.g. literature) but it is not part of what history is as a discipline or profession or set of methods and theories. Anyway, this is all good as a teaching moment for the upcoming class exercise! Zhanli2012 (talk) 00:15, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
- They are hopelessly interrelated: Terraforming came to be associated with with the field at the time of futurology's vogue and has certain connotations given that history. But, it occurs to me that this history isn't necessarily relevant to the participants of this project. Overall, I'm now agnostic on the subject of scope. John b cassel (talk) 16:13, 21 January 2012 (UTC)
- We're talking about terraforming, not futurology. — Jeraphine Gryphon (talk) 03:09, 18 January 2012 (UTC)
- Viriditas may have a point on this one. To quote discussion from the project proposal page: ""Futurology" is seen as a relic of the past (with the possible exception of the UK where "futurology" is still seems used a bit currently, but that's an outlier) - a buzzword from the 1960-70s which is associated with a particular long-gone golden age characterized by a kind of overexcited faddish type of foresight that seems a bit embarrassing and outmoded today. I do think that futurology should be covered as a part of the history but would put off many people in the field if it was the title of the project". John b cassel (talk) 14:52, 17 January 2012 (UTC)
I think there's something very true in what you're saying. The less broadly Culture Studies looks at culture, the less relevant it is to the broader culture. This is likely an appropriate admonition for Futures Studies as well. A broad scope, but suitable organization so that everyone can find what they want and make the distinctions they need. Death is different, because to the best of my knowledge there is no specific academic subject of "Death Studies", but yet maybe it is an appropriate model. The challenge will be to capture the full diversity of views, including the professional and academic ones. John b cassel (talk) 17:19, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
- The study of death is a serious academic subject called thanatology and can be found as part of the curriculum in the health sciences, forensic sciences, humanities, and other disciplines. Viriditas (talk) 20:50, 22 January 2012 (UTC)
- Oopsie! John b cassel (talk) 14:07, 23 January 2012 (UTC)
Naming conventions, categories
Does the project want to move away from older naming conventions currently in use, such as Category:Futurology and Category:Futurologists? Viriditas (talk) 09:42, 23 January 2012 (UTC)
- That's a very good question. The tricky part to my mind is how individuals classify themselves. If somebody calls what they do futurology, I'd be hard pressed to question it, but we definitely don't want anyone there who doesn't want that label. One alternative is "List of Major Contributors to Futures Studies", which includes not only futures studies practitioners, futurologists, strategic foresight practitioners, trend analysts, speculators, but also people who have made important contributions indirectly or even through direct criticism, such as Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner, respectively. John b cassel (talk) 17:18, 28 January 2012 (UTC)
Title
Is it common to have 'Futures' capitalized and 'studies' not? If not, can you change the title of an article (just the capitalization?) RealFuturist (talk) 23:06, 3 February 2012 (UTC)
- There is some precedent for the mixed case, compare Culture studies. John b cassel (talk) 23:41, 3 February 2012 (UTC)]
- Unless they are proper nouns, Wikipedia titles use "sentence case". See Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Article titles.
- I hope that answers your questions. The Transhumanist 11:33, 6 February 2012 (UTC)
- That's a good reference, but unfortunately it still isn't clear to me, and I think it bolsters RealFuturist`s argument. "I studied in the department of Futures Studies." would be how I would case it in a sentence. John b cassel (talk) 18:27, 11 February 2012 (UTC)
Merger proposal from Long range planning into Strategic planning
You are invited to join the discussion at Talk:Strategic planning/Archives/2015#Merger proposal from Long range planning. -- Trevj (talk) 13:46, 15 June 2012 (UTC)
Merge of Futurist in Future studies
See Talk:Futures studies#Merge.
I have proposed that turning the page into a disambiguation page would make more sense.
Yaris678 (talk) 17:08, 4 October 2012 (UTC)
Comment on the WikiProject X proposal
Hello there! As you may already know, most WikiProjects here on Wikipedia struggle to stay active after they've been founded. I believe there is a lot of potential for WikiProjects to facilitate collaboration across subject areas, so I have submitted a grant proposal with the Wikimedia Foundation for the "WikiProject X" project. WikiProject X will study what makes WikiProjects succeed in retaining editors and then design a prototype WikiProject system that will recruit contributors to WikiProjects and help them run effectively. Please review the proposal here and leave feedback. If you have any questions, you can ask on the proposal page or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you for your time! (Also, sorry about the posting mistake earlier. If someone already moved my message to the talk page, feel free to remove this posting.) Harej (talk) 22:47, 1 October 2014 (UTC)
WikiProject X is live!
Hello everyone!
You may have received a message from me earlier asking you to comment on my WikiProject X proposal. The good news is that WikiProject X is now live! In our first phase, we are focusing on research. At this time, we are looking for people to share their experiences with WikiProjects: good, bad, or neutral. We are also looking for WikiProjects that may be interested in trying out new tools and layouts that will make participating easier and projects easier to maintain. If you or your WikiProject are interested, check us out! Note that this is an opt-in program; no WikiProject will be required to change anything against its wishes. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!
Note: To receive additional notifications about WikiProject X on this talk page, please add this page to Wikipedia:WikiProject X/Newsletter. Otherwise, this will be the last notification sent about WikiProject X.
Harej (talk) 16:57, 14 January 2015 (UTC)
WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 3
Greetings! For this month's issue...
We have demos!
After a lengthy research and design process, we decided for WikiProject X to focus on two things:
- A WikiProject workflow that focuses on action items: discussions you can participate in and tasks you can perform to improve the encyclopedia; and
- An automatically updating WikiProject directory that gives you lists of users participating in the WikiProject and editing in that subject area.
We have a live demonstration of the new WikiProject workflow at WikiProject Women in Technology, a brand new WikiProject that was set up as an adjunct to a related edit-a-thon in Washington, DC. The goal is to surface action items for editors, and we intend on doing that through automatically updated working lists. We are looking into using SuggestBot to generate lists of outstanding tasks, and we are looking into additional options for automatic worklist generation. This takes the burden off of WikiProject editors to generate these worklists, though there is also a "requests" section for Wikipedians to make individual requests. (As of writing, these automated lists are not yet live, so you will see a blank space under "edit articles" on the demo WikiProject. Sorry about that!) I invite you to check out the WikiProject and leave feedback on WikiProject X's talk page.
Once the demo is sufficiently developed, we will be working on a limited deployment on our pilot WikiProjects. We have selected five for the first round of testing based on the highest potential for impact and will scale up from there.
While a re-designed WikiProject experience is much needed, that alone isn't enough. A WikiProject isn't any good if people have no way of discovering it. This is why we are also developing an automatically updated WikiProject directory. This directory will surface project-related metrics, including a count of active WikiProject participants and of active editors in that project's subject area. The purpose of these metrics is to highlight how active the WikiProject is at the given point of time, but also to highlight that project's potential for success. The directory is not yet live but there is a
Each directory entry will link to a WikiProject description page which automatically list the active WikiProject participants and subject-area article editors. This allows Wikipedians to find each other based on the areas they are interested in, and this information can be used to revive a WikiProject, start a new one, or even for some other purpose. These description pages are not online yet, but they will use this template, if you want to get a feel of what they will look like.
We need volunteers!
WikiProject X is a huge undertaking, and we need volunteers to support our efforts, including testers and coders. Check out our volunteer portal and see what you can do to help us!
As an aside...
Wouldn't it be cool if lists of requested articles could not only be integrated directly with WikiProjects, but also shared between WikiProjects? Well, we got the crazy idea of having experimental software feature Flow deployed (on a totally experimental basis) on the new Article Request Workshop, which seeks to be a place where editors can "workshop" article ideas before they get created. It uses Flow because Flow allows, essentially, section-level categorization, and in the future will allow "sections" (known as "topics" within Flow) to be included across different pages. What this means is that you have a recommendation for a new article tagged by multiple WikiProjects, allowing for the recommendation to appear on lists for each WikiProject. This will facilitate inter-WikiProject collaboration and will help to reduce duplicated work. The Article Request Workshop is not entirely ready yet due to some bugs with Flow, but we hope to integrate it into our pilot WikiProjects at some point.
Harej (talk) 01:58, 19 April 2015 (UTC)
WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 4
Hello friends! We have been hard at work these past two months. For this report:
For the first time, we are happy to bring you an exhaustive, comprehensive WikiProject Directory. This directory endeavors to list every single WikiProject on the English Wikipedia, including those that don't participate in article assessment. In constructing the broadest possible definition, we have come up with a list of approximately 2,600 WikiProjects. The directory tracks activity statistics on the WikiProject's pages, and, for where it's available, statistics on the number of articles tracked by the WikiProject and the number of editors active on those articles. Complementing the directory are description pages for each project, listing usernames of people active on the WikiProject pages and the articles in the WikiProject's scope. This will help Wikipedians interested in a subject find each other, whether to seek feedback on an article or to revive an old project. (There is an opt-out option.) We have also come up with listings of related WikiProjects, listing the ten most relevant WikiProjects based on what articles they have in common. We would like to promote WikiProjects as interconnected systems, rather than isolated silos.
A tremendous amount of work went into preparing this directory. WikiProjects do not consistently categorize their pages, meaning we had to develop our own index to match WikiProjects with the articles in their scope. We also had to make some adjustments to how WikiProjects were categorized; indeed, I personally have racked up a few hundred edits re-categorizing WikiProjects. There remains more work to be done to make the WikiProject directory truly useful. In the meantime, take a look and feel free to leave feedback at the WikiProject X talk page.
What have we been working on?
- A new design template—This has been in the works for a while, of course. But our goal is to design something that is useful and cleanly presented on all browsers and at all screen resolutions while working within the confines of what MediaWiki has to offer. Additionally, we are working on designs for the sub-components featured on the main project page.
- A new WikiProject talk page banner in Lua—Work has begun on implementing the WikiProject banner in Lua. The goal is to create a banner template that can be usable by any WikiProject in lieu of having its own template. Work has slowed down for now to focus on higher priority items, but we are interested in your thoughts on how we could go about creating a more useful project banner. We have a draft module on Test Wikipedia, with a demonstration.
- New discussion reports—We have over 4.8 million articles on the English Wikipedia, and almost as many talk pages as well. But what happens when someone posts on a talk page? What if no one is watching that talk page? We are currently testing out a system for an automatically-updating new discussions list, like Ghana.
- SuggestBot for WikiProjects—We have asked the maintainer of SuggestBot to make some minor adjustments to SuggestBot that will allow it to post regular reports to those WikiProjects that ask for them. Stay tuned!
- Semi-automated article assessment—Using the new revision scoring service and another system currently under development, WikiProjects will be getting a new tool to facilitate the article assessment process by providing article quality/importance predictions for articles yet to be assessed. Aside from helping WikiProjects get through their backlogs, the goal is to help WikiProjects with collecting metrics and triaging their work. Semi-automation of this process will help achieve consistent results and keep the process running smoothly, as automation does on other parts of Wikipedia.
Want us to work on any other tools? Interested in volunteering? Leave a note on our talk page.
The database report which lists WikiProjects according to the number of watchers (i.e., people that have the project on their watchlist), is back! The report stopped being updated a year ago, following the deactivation of the Toolserver, but a replacement report has been generated.
WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 5
Hello there! Happy to be writing this newsletter once more. This month:
In July, we launched five pilot WikiProjects: WikiProjects
Shortly after our launch we presented at Wikimania 2015. Our slides are on Wikimedia Commons.
Then after all that work, we went through the process of figuring out whether we accomplished our goal. We reached out to participants on the redesigned WikiProjects, and we asked them to complete a survey. (If you filled out your survey—thank you!) While there are still some issues with the WikiProject tools and the new design, there appears to be general satisfaction (at least among those who responded). The results of the survey and more are documented in our grant report filed with the Wikimedia Foundation.
There is more work that needs to be done, so we have applied for a renewal of our grant. Comments on the proposal are welcome. We would like to improve what we have already started on the English Wikipedia and to also expand to Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata. Why those? Because they are multilingual projects and because there needs to be better coordination across Wikimedia projects. More details are available in the renewal proposal.
The Wikimedia Developer Summit will be held in San Francisco in January 2016. The recently established Community Tech team at the Wikimedia Foundation is interested in investigating what technical support they can provide for WikiProjects, i.e., support beyond just templates and bots. I have plenty of opinions myself, but I want to hear what you think. The session is being planned on Phabricator, the Wikimedia bug tracker. If you are not familiar with Phabricator, you can log in with your Wikipedia username and password through the "Login or Register: MediaWiki" button on the login page. Your feedback can help make editing Wikipedia a better experience.
Until next time,
WikiProject X Newsletter • Issue 6
Hello there! Happy to be writing this newsletter once more. This month:
Some good news: the Wikimedia Foundation has renewed WikiProject X. This means we can continue focusing on making WikiProjects better.
During our first round of work, we created a prototype WikiProject based on two ideas: (1) WikiProjects should clearly present things for people to do, and (2) The content of WikiProjects should be automated as much as possible. We launched pilots, and for the most part it works. But this approach will not work for the long term. While it makes certain aspects of running a WikiProject easier, it makes the maintenance aspects harder.
We are working on a major overhaul that will address these issues. New features will include:
- Creating WikiProjects by simply filling out a form, choosing which reports you want to generate for your project. This will work with existing bots in addition to the Reports Bot reports. (Of course, you can also have sections curated by humans.)
- One-click button to join a WikiProject, with optional notifications.
- Be able to define your WikiProject's scope within the WikiProject itself by listing relevant pages and categories, eliminating the need to tag every talk page with a banner. (You will still be allowed to do that, of course. It just won't be required.)
The end goal is a collaboration tool that can be used by WikiProjects but also by any edit-a-thon or group of people that want to coordinate on improving articles. Though implemented as an extension, the underlying content will be wikitext, meaning that you can continue to use categories, templates, and other features as you normally would.
This will take a lot of work, and we are just getting started. What would you like to see? I invite you to discuss on our talk page.
Until next time,