Programs & Events Dashboard/Frequently Asked Questions
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Programs & Events Dashboard
Manage and track Wikimedia programs from one place with ease.
Basics
[edit]Why should anyone care about this tool?
[edit]When a group of Wikimedia contributors are collaborating to develop Wikimedia content, this tool provides reports of what each person in the group is contributing. Since the advent of social media, it has become more common for people with shared interests to collaborate online, and for there to be interest in measuring the impact of their shared activities. The reports which this tool generates are comparable to reports of other social media platforms, which as the engagement reports offered by Facebook and Twitter.
Practically all organizations which develop online media in any platform will expect to see reports of the impact of their engagement. Having evidence of impact and a consistent way to measure online engagement encourages organizations and individuals to contribute their expertise to Wikimedia. This tool generates reports which provide that sort of feedback.
Who should use this tool?
[edit]This tool is useful for a community manager who is supporting a group of Wikimedia contributors.
The Wikimedia contributors in a group may wish to view the dashboard to understand the group's collective accomplishments.
Outsiders to a group may wish to view the dashboard for insight about what groups of Wikimedia contributors can do together.
How does the tool work?
[edit]The use of the tool begins when a program organizer sets up an instance of a "program" or "event". Once the event page is live, then they invite Wikimedia contributors to join the group. Following this, other engagement with the tool is optional. The tool will track what all group members contribute to Wikimedia projects for as long as it is directed. It can generate reports for any group.
What metrics does the tool report?
[edit]The tool can only count and report information which is already public in Wikimedia projects. The advantage is that it compiles a large amount of public data quickly and automatically. The default metrics reported by the tool for any group are the following:
- list of the Wikimedia names of the users in the group
- list of the Wikimedia items (for example, Wikipedia articles) to which any group member has contributed
- count of edits, which is a count of contributions to any Wikimedia content
- number of new Wikipedia articles started
- number of words added
- number of times which readers accessed content which the group has developed
- list of media uploads to Wikimedia Commons
The "Download Stats" button provides more metrics reported by the tool. The Utilizing "Download Stats" page highlights these metrics and the usefulness of each category.
What can someone do with a report from this tool?
[edit]Typically the report will be shared with group members, who enjoy celebrating their collective accomplishment.
The report is often also considered by the management or communication team of a supporting organization. For example, if there is a Wikipedia project in a school, then the instructor can use this tool to provide a report to the department head to demonstrate student engagement and the impact of the project. If there is a Wikipedia project within an expert organization, such as a professional society or cultural institution, then the project manager can use this tool to generate reports of a comparable sort to their other impact reports from their own website and social media channels.
What are the different program types for?
[edit]There are three types of programs available on Programs & Events Dashboard:
- Generic Course
This is the default program type. It will keep track of edits to any mainspace pages made by the participating editors between the start and end dates, on each of the program's tracked wikis. It will also create and update an on-wiki program page (like this) if the home wiki has been set up for automated edits. By default, edits to any article on the tracked wikis will be counted, but program organizers can filter out specific articles using the *untrack* feature on the Articles Edited view.
- Edit-a-thon
This program type works the same way as a Generic Course, except that no on-wiki program page will be created unless it is explicitly enabled.
- Article Scoped Program
This program type limits the statistics to specific articles and collections of articles. Only edits to articles that are assigned for the program, or articles in categories listed on the Assigned Articles view, will be counted. Participants can assign themselves the article(s) they want to track, and program organizers can add articles by title or add collections of articles based on on-wiki Categories, templates (including Talk: templates), PetScan queries, or PagePile collections.
Basic technical support
[edit]How do I start using this tool?
[edit]The use of the tool starts when someone creates a program. Anyone with a Wikimedia account can do this.
How do I join an existing program?
[edit]Typically users join a program when the program coordinator provides them with a link to join the group. To join the group, they must log in to their own Wikimedia account, visit the program page, then click to join the program.
Further instructions are at Programs & Events Dashboard/how to sign up to an existing program.
How can an organizer add participants to a program?
[edit]Typically participants will voluntarily join a program themselves by following a link with password provided by the event organizer. However, organizers can manually add participants if they have their Wikimedia account names by following these steps:
- Go to the program in the dashboard
- Choose the "editors" tab at the top
- Choose the "participation" button on the editors page
- This presents a window with options either to add single editors or a group of editors
How can an organizer remove participants from a program?
[edit]Participants can only be removed by an organizer and cannot remove themselves.
Typically participants will voluntarily join a program themselves by following a link with password provided by the event organizer. However, organizers can manually add participants if they have their Wikimedia account names by following these steps:
- Go to the program in the dashboard
- Choose the "editors" tab at the top
- Choose the "participation" button on the editors page
- This presents a window with a list of all program participants. Clicking the minus sign near any name will remove that user from the program.
How do I manage privacy for my group?
[edit]By default all public information tracked by the dashboard remains public for anyone to see.
The facilitators for a program can change this by setting the program to Private, in the Edit Details section. Only admins and the program's facilitators can view a private program, and the editors to track must be added by a facilitator.
How do I combine the reports of multiple programs?
[edit]When one organization manages multiple programs, that organization may wish to access both individual program pages and a combined report for all of their activities.
A group of programs is called a "campaign". In the dashboard, start a campaign, then add multiple programs to it.
Advanced support
[edit]How do I get admin rights?
[edit]Sign up at Programs & Events Dashboard/Admins!
How do I customize what to track with an Article Scoped Program?
[edit]Learn more at customizing what to track with an Article Scoped Program.
Click here for the list of resources used in the "Customizing what to track with an Article Scoped Program" tutorial video.
How does the date range work?
[edit]The date function for programs is not stable and may change.
At its creation, the dashboard was imagined to work by inviting individuals to join a group to collaborate for a period of perhaps weeks, then disband. At setup, the dashboard asks the program coordinator to identify the day when it should begin and end tracking, and presumes that whatever users do in that time is part of the group project. Users may only join a group during the period of the program.
However, the tool does not do live updates, and instead updates its reports periodically based on public archived information. For this reason, the tool can be predated, and the tool can retroactively note contributions by group members who participated in the project but joined late. Consider this example -
- A program runs for 8 weeks. The team which is supposed to be a group all starts contributing to Wikimedia projects at the same time. However, 4 weeks into the project, it is noticed that one person on the team mistakenly did not join the group in the dashboard. If that person joins 4 weeks late, then the dashboard still notes that the project started 4 weeks earlier, and will retroactively list and note all of that late person's contributions as if they had registered on the first day with everyone else.
How does one export the data from the report?
[edit]For an individual program, click Download stats in the Actions section of the program Home tab. This will provide CSV data about the program, individual edits, articles, editors (including 7-day retention of new users), and Commons uploads.
For a campaign, similar aggregate stats can be downloaded as CSV files from the Campaigns list.
Is it possible to track a set of Wikimedia items without having program participants?
[edit]The dashboard provides amazing information about sets of Wikimedia items. In the field of contemporary social media tracking, many professionals are focused on tracking the audience response to digital media and almost disinterested in tracking the way in which the digital media was created. For that reason, some users may wonder if it is possible to get a dashboard report for a set of Wikimedia content without having a program or users.
At this time, there is no way to direct the dashboard to provide reports on an arbitrary list of items. The dashboard only gets its tracking list from what members in a program have edited. There is no way to provide a content tracking list to the dashboard.
How do I delete my program?
[edit]To delete your program, you must first remove it from any campaigns. On your program's home page, in the Details box, click "Edit Details." Then look at the Campaigns section and click the (+) button. This brings up a dialogue window where you can click (-) to remove any campaigns. (You may notice that your program is automatically added to a "Miscellanea" campaign even if you didn't add it to a specific campaign before.)
Once your program has been removed from any campaigns you can click on the "Delete course" button on the bottom right of the home page.
If the "Delete" button is grayed out, you should double check to make sure you have removed any campaigns from your program/course!
Why is my IP address blocked and how do I resolve it?
[edit]IP addresses are blocked for various reasons, such as persistent disruption, vandalism, policy violations , range-blocking, collateral damage, etc. While these blocks restrict user accounts and IP addresses from editing pages, they still retain access to certain Wikipedia pages. The most effective approach to resolve an IP address or user account block is to contact an administrator through the rapid appeal process, providing appropriate details surrounding the issue to get the right assistance.
Does the dashboard track activity after a program has ended?
[edit]After an event has ended the 'Activity' tab displays the latest participant activity directly pulled from the wikis, rather than relying on the Dashboard database. This includes activity irrespective of when the event has concluded. The feature is designed to show users who remain active even after an event has ended, providing insights into continued engagement. The system typically stops updating event statistics 30 days after an event has ended, but the Activity tab can be used to check for continued activity later on.
What are namespaces, and how does namespace tracking work on the Dashboard?
[edit]Namespaces are a set of wiki pages whose names begin with a particular reserved word recognized by the MediaWiki software. For example the user namespace, all titles that begin with the prefix User: are in the user namespace. Mainspace — the namespace without a prefix — is where most Article pages are on Wikipedia. By default, the only edits that count towards the overview statistics and the list of edited articles are Mainspace edits. When a user selects other namespaces for the dashboard to track, edits to pages in those tracked namespaces will count towards the overview statistics, and the edited non-mainspace will also show up on the Articles Edited list. The dashboard will also show a breakdown of statistics for each individual tracked namespace on the Overview tab.
Why isn't the pageviews count accurately reflecting views?
[edit]The pageviews statistic is an average of the daily views over a recent period, therefore may be inaccurate for articles that have experienced large traffic over time. Pageviews align with the program’s data update cycle and stops being updated at the same time as other stats which is approximately 30 days after the end date.