FamilySearch Wiki:Promoting a WikiProject

A WikiProject is a collection of pages or activities devoted to helping to grow and develop the wiki or add content to a specific topic or locality. With a WikiProject, you can:

 Wiki Barnraising Illinois State Project
 * 1) Bring groups of people together to work on a project
 * 2) Separate out the work that needs to be done
 * 3) Give instructions that can always be updated within the wiki
 * 4) Find the best ways to communicate with each other

There are two areas to consider when promoting your WikiProject - one is in looking for volunteers to help with the project, and the other is letting the general public know when you reach milestones in your project or complete the project.

Seek volunteers to help

 * Volunteers who would be interested in helping can be found in many places, such as:


 * Wiki Contributors: Look at who has contributed to existing pages in that topic area in the past and invite them to join in on the project.
 * Online Community for Wiki Contributors: Click here to request an invitation to join
 * Community News: Mention the new project and any major milestones on the Community News page.
 * Facebook Community: See if there is a Facebook Genealogy Research Community for this area, and invite people to participate there.
 * Wiki Contributor Newsletter: For larger projects, send an email to [mailto:researchwiki@familysearch.org researchwiki@familysearch.org] to submit the idea for inclusion into the Wiki Contributor newsletter. Please submit the suggested wording you would like to see in the newsletter.
 * General public: Invite those in the community who have special knowledge about research in this area to be a part of the project. One way to find some of them is through bloggers at Geneabloggers (see a list of bloggers by type). Be careful and do not spam them - spam is sending out copies of emails to lots of different people. Do your research and only contact those who you feel really will be interested.

Let the public know about the new resource

 * There are at least two times when you should let the public know about your project:


 * When you reach milestones such as completing major pages
 * When you complete the project


 * To let people know about the project:
 * Post milestones about your project in all of the same areas above.
 * The blogging community is also interested in these kinds of updates. As mentioned above with Geneabloggers, they may not have time to help, or be interested in every single milestone, but they will be interested in project completion and some major milestones.
 * For large projects and major milestones, discuss in the Community Meeting the possibility of FamilySearch creating an official press release about the project.