Internal:Event guide/Edit-a-thon

An edit-a-thon is a informal gathering where people edit online content, on the English Wikipedia for example. They chat and share guidance and materials to work on. Often there is a presentation or tour to show something interesting or to focus attention on particular topics. Often food or drink is provided by the organizers. The organizers often identify some online content they would like to see improved, and can check afterward if it was improved.

Wikimedia DC holds frequent edit-a-thons, usually teaming up with partner organizations who have interest and expertise in a particular subject area, relevant materials, locations, and other resources to improve relevant content on the English Wikipedia or other online resources. Anyone can show up to learn how to edit, to help others, to learn about a new subject, to edit whatever they wanted, or even just to socialize.

The best edit-a-thons have been run with partner organizations. Past organizations we have collaborated with include the National Archives and Records Administration, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the D.C. Historical Society. You will need to select a venue with Internet access where people can eat, drink, and talk. One way or another, the event has to be fun or rewarding for the people who come.

Prepare in advance

 * Arrange food and drink. Wikimedia DC's budget can support these costs.
 * Line up materials and resources unique to this partner or topic, such as a tour (like the one of the Smithsonian American Art Museum), a speaker or presentation, a film, a set of photographs to scan and upload, a stack of books whose material is under-covered on Wikipedia, open-space/unconference time, or something else unique to this edit-a-thon.
 * A meetup page on Wikipedia, like the ones listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/DC. Click through on some of those to see how they combine one one page (a) the agenda with (b) the list of people who plan to come, and after the fact (c) a list of things that were worked on. It is wise to post this at least two weeks ahead of time because the volunteers have to decide whether and how to schedule attending.
 * Usually organizers also gather RSVPs on meetup.com here: http://www.meetup.com/Wikimedia-DC/
 * Through the chapter's Secretary it is possible to send an email broadcast to members.
 * Bring name tags and brochures about our chapter and the other partner organizations.

At the event

 * Ask people to sign in on a guest book.
 * Give training -- these training slides and wiki pages are a good start. Rework them for each event.
 * Use an Etherpad for people to post what they are working on. Wikimedia DC provides an Etherpad for public use.
 * Make sure attendees know our chapter exists. Gently invite them to join. Have the necessary forms or URLs at hand.
 * Follow through the event plan, adapt to challenges, and check periodically that the participants are having fun and feeling productive.
 * Make sure experienced editors are walking around and checking up, and that anybody who needs help knows to raise a hand to get attention.
 * Update links on the meetup page on the fly (or based on the shared Etherpad document) so people see progress. Or, communicate in some other way that progress is happening. One way is to identify goals and invite the participants to try them.
 * Take pictures of the event and upload them to Commons (unless someone objects).

After the event

 * The organizers should make sure that the Wikimedia page listing the event is cleaned up—because it will stay there indefinitely—making clear what got done, and ideally including photos of the event
 * If Wikimedia DC was a sponsor, they do want hear back from the organizers by email about the event. The content should be posted to the meetup page, with an email sent to info@undefinedwikimediadc.org. We would like to get a few paragraphs somewhere telling us:
 * Did it go well; was there anything to plan better in the future?
 * How many people came, roughly?
 * Were expenses as expected?

Notes on past events
In the fiscal year from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015, Wikimedia DC held 21 Wikipedia edit-a-thons. During those events: Source: https://www.facebook.com/harej/posts/10153666407500708
 * 93 people with Wikipedia accounts participated
 * 32 of those peopled attended twice or more within that year
 * they made 1,272 edits to 391 Wikipedia articles;
 * 623,453 bytes of change on Wikipedia across all namespaces; and
 * 66 files were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.