Although in our grant request this event is named as Editatona Tecs 2018, we could only make it real in 2019.
We did not choose a specific theme for this Editathon. Approximately 350 articles of low quality was selectioned to be improved, albeit some participants edited articles they found on themselves. The control of these contents was via a Google sheet, where each person marked which article they were working on.
All prizes were raffled in the following way: all participants received a number at the check-in and we draw a random number from Google random number generator.
Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?
Yes. We had a 9-hour Editathon that received 30 participants. Approximately 90% of them had never edited Wikipedia before, which is aligned with our goal of recruiting new editors. In addition, at the beginning of the event, a lecture was given by the experienced Wikipedian Sturm about the functioning of Wikipedia and the deconstruction of some myths, which gave all participants, including the organizers, an awareness of the importance of sharing knowledge, as well as an overview of the world's largest online encyclopaedia.
People had no difficulty with the Wiki editing interface and we also had no problems with the wireless network connection. The questions that arose during the event were of a very high level and all that were within our reach of knowledge were solved by Sturm.
Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:
What worked well?
People were engaged to the editions.
Everyone was able to edit.
There was no IP restrictions.
There was no internet conection or datashow problems.
There was no lack of space.
There was no lack of food.
What did not work so well?
People editing WikipediaWe have made desktops available to people who could not bring their own laptop. In the event day, only two people in this situation showed up and they ended up being isolated at a laboratory. This fact compromised their experience of group work. For the next editions, we will seek to provide a way to do not isolate anybody.
We scheduled two coffee-breaks: one at mid-day and other before evening. However, we received all the food at the morning and we found kind of difficult to serve them warm.
We made a huge effort to make vegan food available at the event, but there was not anyone vegan.
What would you do differently next time?
Provide a name tag for all participants.
Provide a way to do not isolate anybody.
Provide more lectures during the event.
Provide a more structured way of distributing the prizes.
Provide a way to keep food warm.
Seek sponsorship of courses, eletronics, trips, books and other things with companies
Ask in the registration form if the person has any disability.
Ask in the registration form if the person is vegan.
Despite our grant request of USD 590.00, we received BRL 2244.91 on November 23rd, 2018 due to exchange variations. Thus, we had to cover approximately BRL 20.00 from our budget.
Anything else you want to share about your project?
For this project, we expected very low interest of our network. But in the launch of the registration, we were very surprised: all 50 positions were fulfilled in a few days. Altogether, we received 91 registrations. Because of this quick success, we only spread the event through Facebook.
We have built a hotsite, where participants could learn about Editathons and also find a link to register as a participant. We have made available through this hotsite certificates for those who showed up in the day (in Brazil, some teaching degree courses require their studends to spend some hours in extraclass activities, so this certificate becomes important for those students.).
Welcoming lecture
During the event, we show on a datashow the contributions that were made, based on the metrics of Outreach.
At the end of the day, we share a opinion poll about the Edithaton to learn what we could do better. The results are shown below:
