GLAM/Case studies/Conversation with resident Wikipedia volunteers

背景 Background

2023年台灣分會首次試辦駐館維基人專案。過去我們就閱讀過國外相關專案的部分資訊並有興趣推動，但是始終沒有找到有意願的合作對象。今年因為文化部主動推出「台灣1000」專案，請下轄館舍共19間與本會合作撰寫中、英文維基百科上的台灣文化條目。參與之博物館為順利完成條目寫作，有維基人入駐指導之需求，因此得以試辦此專案。

In 2023, Wikimedia Taiwan try our first Wikipedians in Residence project. We have been interested in these project for years but found no partner before. In this year, Ministry of Culture (MOC) initiated "Taiwan 1000" project and asked 19 GLAMs of MOC to edit Taiwanese culture articles on Chinese and English Wikipedia with WMTW. Some participating GLAMs have request some resident Wikipedian to help them finish the editing more smoothly, so that we have the first chance to run the project.

由是可知本次駐館維基專案有以下特色：

• 服務對象為館內部工作人員，不包括參訪民眾。
• 駐館維基人不需接觸博物館事物，僅做維基教學。
• 合作專案以維基百科為主。

According to the previous, we can see some specific points in the project:

• Serving for staff of GLAMs, not for visitors.
• The residents touch nothing of internal affairs of GLAMs, they focus on teaching of Wikipedia editing only.
• Focus on Wikipedia only, others Wikimedia projects are not included.

執行概要 Summary

2023年5月前要求駐館單位、次數及方式羅列如下：

Till 2023 May, the detail of all requests from GLAMs are:

2023年上半年台灣駐館維基人場次
Wikpeidan in Residence Projects in Taiwan, 1st half of 2023

合作單位 Cooperating Organization	日期 Date	次數 Times	駐館人 Resident User	執行情況 Summary
國立臺灣博物館 National Taiwan Museum	2023-03-08 ~ 2023-04-19	7	NHC *1/ Mafalda4144 *6	每週畫定半天為館員集中寫作時間，維基人駐館對疑難雜症進行指導 The resident was invited to participate the 4 hours editing time every Wednesday, answered editing question from staffs,
臺南美學生活館 National Tainan Living Art Center	2023-03-17	1	Reke	該館承辦此業務者僅一人，故只做一對一教學即結束 The gallery has only 1 staff participating this project. A one-by-one teaching time is the only needed.
國父紀念館 National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall	2023-04-11, 2023-04-13	2	Reke / Ericliu	規畫兩個館員集中時段，由維基人駐館對疑難雜症進行指導 The resident was invited to participate the twice editing time, and answered editing question from staffs,

其中駐館人Reke及NHC為台灣維基媒體協會員工，Mafalda4144及Ericliu為編輯志工。本報告經驗訪談以指導次數最多的 Mafalda4144為主。其為2021年9月開始加入的維基編輯，主要寫作目標為鐵道車站、車輛等條目，過去沒有主動報名條目評選的習慣，雖然有注意到資訊，但從未參與過任何社群活動。

In the 4 resident users, Reke and NHC are staffs of Wikimedia Taiwan, Mafalda4144 and Ericliu are volunteers of Chinese Wikipedia. This report is mainly based on Mafalda4144's experience who has taught the most times. They has registered Wikipedia account since September 2021, and focuses on articles about railway station and train cabin. They is not used to nominate their works to article reviewing projects. They hasn't participated any community events before, though they would follow the information.

經驗分享 Experience Sharing

根據Mafalda4144的訪談，整理出四項重點心得如後：

1. 介面操作是參與館員最常提出問題的類別。有些操作問題源自於不常用的功能(多數是靠模板達成)，因此視覺化編輯器沒有辦法給予很好的導覽。例如為罕見漢字注音。也有一些是因為視覺化編輯器對於檢錯的功能並不完全，像是Cite系列模板或是ref標籤出錯時，使用wikitext的模式比較容易修錯，但是看到原始碼就足以讓他們失去寫作的動力。
2. 內容上最常見的問題有三種：首先何謂「百科語調」最令這些人困惑。其次，即使知道不可侵犯著作權，但是他們仍會因為覺得參考文獻的表達非常合適，因此寫出高度相似的內容；最後，對於如何判斷「一次文獻」及不宜引用一手文獻的情況，他們也感到不習慣。這些也導致草稿審核過程反覆被退稿。
3. 承前，中文維基百科現有的草稿審查方式對於他們幫助甚小。首先拒絕的模板多直接提供方針做參考，但編者大多難以理解他們何處或如何違反了相關方針；其次，對於簡體中文的使用者參與審核，部分館員會感到排斥。他們質疑對簡中用戶多非台籍人士，背景如何有資格理解台灣文化的知識。
4. 對於駐館維基人，正確理解問題的技能相當重要，因為他們未必能夠正確描述問題。

Four points of view are summarized from conversation with Mafalda4144:

1. Interface operation is the most frequently problem that the GLAM encounter. Some operational problems arise from rarely used features (most of which are achieved through template), making it difficult for VisualEditor(VE) to provide good guidance. For example, adding phonetic annotations to rare Chinese characters. There are also some issues where the debugging functions of VisualEditor are not complete, such as errors in Cite templates or Ref tags. It is easier to fix the error in wikitext mode. However, simply looking at the source code is enough to demotivate them from writing.
2. There are three common content-related issues: firstly, what is meant by "Wikipedia tone" is the most confusing one. Secondly, even if they know that copyright should not be violated, they still write highly similar content because they feel that the expression of the reference is very appropriate. Finally, they are also unfamiliar with how to identify "primary sources" and situations where it is not appropriate to cite a first-hand source. These also lead to repeated rejection of drafts during the review process.
3. Following the above points, the current draft review process on Chinese Wikipedia provides not much help for the situation. Firstly, many rejection templates provide guidelines for reference, but editors find it difficult to understand where or how they have violated relevant guidelines. Secondly, some GLAM employees are resistant to that Simplified Chinese users is participating the review process. They question how non-Taiwanese users who use Simplified Chinese are qualified to understand the knowledge of Taiwan's culture.
4. For Wikipedians in resident, it is important to have the skill of correctly realize the problem, since they may not be able to accurately describe the problem.

未來工作 Future Work

本次報告僅就單一個案進行分析。在館舍的工作文化、參與者個體及數量、工作目標不相同時，本份報告中注意到的內容未必能夠直接類推。但對於台灣第一次的駐館維基計畫，仍具參考價值。日後館聯專案可以注意到：

1. 優秀的維基志工可能對原始碼的編輯比視覺化更熟悉。若非為教學特別研究視覺化編輯器者，在駐館前需要特別的訓練。
2. 需要思考更好的條目自我檢查機制，減少耗費在提交審核及退回之間的來回，同時增加招募臺灣的審核員。

後續研究工作除了蒐集更多案例的質化分析外，還可以注意以下問題：

1. 沒有教學經驗的社群編輯志工擔任此工作前，可以進行哪些訓練增進教學技巧？
2. 找出最難以被認同的維基方針，以及可以說服新進編輯的方法。
3. 了解館舍的主題、館員平日的工作性質會對維基工作有什麼影響；維基百科的專案宜何種性質的館內業務單位合作最易執行。

This report only analyzes a single case. As the working culture, each and the number of participants, as well as work goals in an institution are different, the content noted in this report may not be directly extrapolated. However, it still has reference value for Taiwan's first Wiki in Residency project. In the future, the GLAM collaboration project could pay more attention to the following points:

1. Excellent Wiki volunteers might be more familiar with editing code than VisualEditors. Special training of the VisualEditor is required if the volunteer did not familir with it.
2. It is necessary to consider better self-reviewing mechanisms for articles to reduce the back-and-forth between submission and rejection, while also increasing the recruitment of Taiwan reviewers.

In addition to collecting qualitative analysis of more cases, the following issues can also be addressed in subsequent research:

1. What training can be conducted to enhance teaching skills for editing volunteers who did not have teaching experience before taking on this work?
2. Identify the most difficult Wiki policies to be recognized and methods to persuade new editors.
3. Understand how the theme of the GLAM and the nature of the GLAM institution's daily work will affect the work of Wiki; which of the department will be the most applicable for the cooperation with Wiki projects.