2024:Program/The Big Funnel: Africa Growth Pilot phase two

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Session title: The Big Funnel: Africa Growth Pilot phase two

Session type: Lecture

Track: Contributor/Community Engagement

Language: en

An experimental new model for recruiting *self-motivated* contributors in Africa using self-paced online learning materials, and focusing on the fraction of people who complete the curriculum without external incentives.

Description

a presentation on phase two of the Africa Growth Pilot program, focusing on testing the "Big Funnel" approach to driving complete newbies to high-quality, structured self-paced courses online, and then surfacing promising, self-motivating graduates and investing further — in human attention, invitations to gatherings, mentorship, 1:1 calls — only in those select few.

This in contrast to the outreach practice so far (in Africa and elsewhere), where we put in resources (time, money) into live trainings of general audiences with ~2% retention at best and a nonzero cost per capita.

Session recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JIhTex8LLs&t=1753

How does your session relate to the event theme, Collaboration of the Open?

It is about recruiting direct contributors to Wikimedia projects, so not explicitly about collaborating *across* open projects.

What is the experience level needed for the audience for your session?

Average knowledge about Wikimedia projects or activities

Resources

• https://wikimania.eventyay.com/media/2024/submissions/BGUX3G/resources/Africa_Growth_Pilot_phase_two__Self-paced_core_content_egTQjeh.pdf

Speakers

• Asaf Bartov

Veteran Wikimedia volunteer and veteran Wikimedia Foundation staff (Lead Program Officer, Emerging Wikimedia Communities).