FamilySearch Wiki:Contributors Meeting 17 May 2011

Join the meeting, the ID is 7770
1 p.m. Mountain time on Tuesdays

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Purpose of the meeting To forge solutions with other community contributors. To discuss content, community, best practices, current issues, and strategy.

Be bold! Post your agenda items! Feel free to post on the agenda any items you wish to discuss during the meeting. If your item requires details or feedback, post them on the discussion page and link to them from the agenda.

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Business/Announcements

• Don't edit the wiki in IE9 - see the following edit problem caused by IE9:
  https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=632866 janellv
• Research Communities - capturing good info?  janellv

• Join a Facebook Research Community
  
  

Forums Overview

Be part of the solution! Make your opinions known! Post comments to an existing thread or start a new discussion at Wiki Contributors Corner forum.

Current forum threads of interest: Polls New since last week Wiki goals or targets Suggests getting a strategic plan. Foreign Titles in User Guidance/ linking to Foreign Language editions Among other comments, one suggests that English is a foreign lanquage in some countries. FlagPage extension makes it EASY to add templates Have you ever wanted to add a template like the Delete template to an article and just didn't because you didn't want to have to slog through the wiki to look it up or remember what its code is? If so, take a look at Extension:FlagPage. An extension that makes discussion pages easy Comments added since last week Wiki User List Includes suggestions about a welcome template that informs users how to fill in their user page and with what. Connections between Historical Record Collections pages and the rest of the Wiki Suggest links from other pages in the Wiki to the appropriate Hist Rec Coll pages. Recognition: Adopters, moderators, and contributors Another widget suggested. Decisions made since last week

Project Help Requests

Need help with your project? See a project that needs to be done? Add it here:

• Improving the Help content
  

Training Requests

• Setting up projects training by Jimmy Parker
  

1. Idaho
   • Identify Project Leader who can define what it is you want to accomplish and how, a clear picture of what you want to see.
   • Clearly define project scope and create Welcome page to define what you are trying to do - naming convention is: "FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject ____________"
   • Seek volunteers to help
   • Define tasks and train volunteers to do simple tasks to begin with, define the specific steps so that they aren't overwhelmed with too much to do
   • Add current tasks needing volunteers to Welcome page
   • Add Completed Tasks section
   • On each task page, define task and include sign-up sheet for task

   • Task Description
   • Assignment Chart

   • Define Sprints - periods of time where you want to get specific things done
   • Large table where everything is displayed with what is and isn't done is a motivating factor - you want to get the blanks filled out.
   • Held weekly meeting in MeetingPlace as well as created group in Skype, which helped to keep the project moving along
     
2. Indians of North America
   • Basic concept was the same, but we didn't define the tasks as specifically and that's one of the things that was learned here. Not enough planning done beforehand, which made it less effective in the end
     

Improve the Wiki

• How to tell the world about book collections or other unique genealogical materials in the possession of small FHCs that are not in the main FHL catalog. I know we don't normally allow lists in the Wiki but what about separate pages listing these materials linked to the FHC that have collections. Bookcat, for example, cost $17 to about $30 or more to set up collections in their date base. Considering how many FHC there are that could run into some money. Maybe there could be some way to get this stuff into the FHL catalog so it could be search from there. I'm sure that the volunteers from these centers would be glad to input this material into the FHL catalog if a way could be set up for it.
  
• Welcome messages - for those whose posts are on talk pages - how to format when there is a question rather than a contribution:

• Patron wants to get a hold of the contributor of a page
• Research question - help me find this person in my family
• Question about the content on the talk page
• How to contribute something to the wiki
• Welcome message for questions

Family History Library (FHL); now called, FamilySearch Library (FSL)