Wikimedia CEE Spring local organizer manual

Being a local organizer of CEE Spring article contest can be a a challenging task but is a rewarding one. These are the tips from organizers of past local contests. Generally international organizers will be very supportive, make use of it :)

Article lists

• Consult lists from previous years or other countries. There might also exist similar non-Wikimedia related lists.
• Make sure that there are some missing articles in all languages, even if it means including less important topics.
• Do not include topics which are covered in every language, even if they feel important.
• Do not include article if English version of it is a poor one.
• Start early, creating lists from scratch can take multiple hours. Doing this early will also give international organizers more confidence in your participation.

Prize allocation

• Example prize categories:
  • Best article (judged by jury)
  • Most contributions (bytes added)
  • Most new articles
  • Most contributions (new user, bytes added)
  • Most new articles (new user)
  • Most new articles from lists
  • Most women/science/<other weak area in your wiki> articles
  • Lottery between participants which have covered a topic from each country
• Limit prizes to 2(?) per user, have clear rules who is next in line.
• Generally topics from the lists should be considered more valuable.

Things that might work for you

• Arrange promotion of contest in site notice
• Use social media to promote contest
  • Schedule reminder for each thematic week
  • Promote newly created articles (maybe just the best ones)
  • Make an effort in writing a longer post before contest (or transalting sample press release from internationa organizers)
• Lead by example, be one of most active contributors
• Leave private invitations in user talk pages to participate
• Trick people into starting 100wikidays
• Promote closing gender (or other content) having a dedicated prize for that.

Awarding the prizes

• Do not procrastinate this - it can take time.
• Make sure users have confirmed email account so that you can send them email via Wikipedia.
• Include some postage fees in your calculations, as winners might live in different city or country.
• Consider if prizes are attractive (travel to a Wikicamp might be interesting only to wikimaniacs)

Contributors

Here is a list of users who have contributed to this manual. You are welcome to contact these people directly.

• Papuass (CEESpring in Latvia 2015, 2016)