Campaigns/Foundation Product Team/Event list
Overview[edit]
The Event List is a global, automated list of events on the wikis. This feature, which is part of the CampaignEvents extension, centralizes events across wikis onto one calendar. Organizers don’t need to do any extra work for their event to appear on the Event List. As long as they use Event Registration, their event will be visible to users around the world. The Event List also includes filters, so users can easily search for specific types of events.
This feature was created by the Campaigns team. With this project, we want to make it easier for people to find events that interest them. This way, more people can join events, contribute to the wikis in collaborative group efforts, and connect with other contributors. We also want to make it easier for organizers to promote their events, so they can reach new audiences who may be interested in their events. Finally, we want to create more visibility for everyone regarding event organizing in the movement.
Background[edit]
This work is rooted in the longstanding request to to have a global, on-wiki event calendar. We have heard related requests in the Community Wishlist Survey (see Global events calendar), in Phabricator (see T303863 and T1035), and in our own office hours and communication with organizers. More broadly, this work is related to our team's work to improve event discovery on the wikis. Through our research, we have learned that it is difficult for many organizers to promote their events on the wikis, and many contributors do not know how to find events that may interest them. The Event List aims to help address this problem.
While there are many calendars in the movement, there has been no calendar like the Event List: global, automated, with search filters, and on the wikis. With this calendar, we hope to offer discoverability and ease of use in a way that has not yet been available. However, we also understand that the Event List is a new feature, and there many improvements that we can make. We plan to expand and refine the Event List over time, taking inspiration from past requests and use cases that have been shared over the years.
Our Approach[edit]
First, we want to improve the Event List by making it more user-friendly and intuitive. We have documented many of the potential improvements in T362881. Our first priority is to allow users to hide/display ongoing events (T365859), and we would like to hear from you all about what we should work on next.
Second, we want to add more search filters, so users can more easily find events that interest them. To do this, we will need to collect more data from organizers when they enable event registration, such as: the wiki(s) of the event (T366765), the event type (T355253), and the event topic (T362259). For in person and hybrid events, we also want to collect more precise data on the location of the event, so we are interested in geocoding support (see T316126).
Third, we want to make the Event List more discoverable in the future. Right now, the Event List is not something that someone can naturally stumble upon in the wikis, but we want to change this. We are interested in identifying potential pathways of discovery for users that can feel useful and non-intrusive.
Finally, we are planning to expand the Event List to include WikiProjects. This way, we can make it easier for people to find not only events, but also groups and communities on the wikis that may interest them. Through this work, we can also begin collaborating with the people behind WikiProjects, so we can learn about how we can better support them and their workflows.
Open Questions[edit]
Below, we have some questions for everyone, and we look forward to reading your feedback on the project talk page.
- What are your overall thoughts on the Event List?
- How can we improve the Event List?
- How can we make the Event List more discoverable?
- We want to expand the Event List to include WikiProjects. What do you think of this idea, and do you have any suggestions for how we can do this?