Submissions/The role of the media in the development of Wikipedia

This is an accepted submission for Wikimania 2014.

Submission no. 1083

Title of the submission: The role of the media in the development of Wikipedia

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop): presentation

Author of the submission: Itzik Edri

E-mail address: itzikwikimedia.org.il

Username: Itzike

Country of origin: Israel

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): Chairperson and Spokesperson (Wikimedia Israel); Communication Committee member.

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

Wikipedia is a premium brand in the internet world. The massive media coverage it gets is worth millions of millions of dollars – while there is only a small team of people who handle the communication and press work around it. If we will compare them to the huge staff and resources other big organizations spend on communication departments – our achievements over the past thirteen years, almost for free, are absolutely amazing.

But the communication structure of Wikipedia is whole different from what we know from others organisation. It is mostly based on volunteers, open and collaborative work. That's completely different from what a spokesperson in ordinary organisations are familiar with: Where no one can interview employees in his organization without his permission, where he can control the message and the timing, and advise the managers how their decisions may reflect on the media and in the public.

On this session we will discuss the differences between the traditional media world vs. the Wikipedia world. We will ask ourselves why we need to spend time on press relations when everyone are familiar with Wikipedia. How every volunteer on Wikipedia can take part of and support achieving more media coverage.

We will also discuss some of the media best practice in the recent years that were carried out by the movement, chapters and volunteers – like the Wikipedia 10th anniversary celebrations, the collaborative project with Channel 2 in Israel, the "Wikipedia for World Heritage" campaign and other cool and inspiring examples. If time allows, we will try to sketch the next big media project we can do together!

Track: WikiCulture & Community

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long): 30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?: Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

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the wub "?!" 23:06, 13 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]
CristianNX (talk) 10:53, 13 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Masssly (talk) 14:29, 5 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Borys Kozielski (talk) 17:15, 23 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]
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