This presentation is part of the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 program.
Angelika Mühlbauer; Kai Nissen
Wikipedia is a top-ten web site providing a community-built free encyclopedia. Its success hinges on the support of its volunteer contributors. And Wikipedia is a research object in several academic fields. Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., the German Wikimedia Chapter, is a partner in the EU-funded international research project RENDER – Reflecting knowledge diversity. With this participation we aim to support Wikipedia authors in editing and understanding the status of articles. This experience report focuses on our interaction with in particular the German Wikipedia community less on the project and its results. We reached members of the Wikipedia community via several ways. In addition to the online channels the live meetings are of particular importance to construct an interested and active community. Additionally, we learned that it is very important to involve the users at an early stage. That helps to increase the acceptance and the willingness to support the project. If Wikipedians can understand a benefit of research results and developments for their daily life in Wikipedia or the advancement for whole project, they will be more willing to give innovations a try.
A PDF file will be made available on August 5, 2013, through the WikiSym + OpenSym 2013 conference proceedings.