Following the conclusion of our two-part Connect US training on using wikis for advocacy, we’re sending some practical tips on how to monitor and use wikis for your work.

Remember, there are two sides to effective wiki use:

1. getting involved in conversations on established wikis and
2. building a public or private wiki for your internal or network use

Some details and advice:

1. Getting involved in conversations on established wikis.
Consider this scenario:
Bob works on IMF governance reform. He’s been working on the issue for years, is quite an expert on the international financial institutions, and has lots of good relationships with activists and even IMF staff. Bob has heard of Wikipedia, but hasn’t ever checked out the Wikipedia page on the IMF or World Bank. “Why should I care about Wikipedia?” Bob says. “I already know the right approach to governance reform, and I circulate my reports at every IMF meeting.”

But some other people are certainly monitoring the IMF webpage – including, no doubt, the IMF public relations department. In fact, of the 15 or so references at the bottom of the page, only one or two appear to offer critical perspectives on the institutions.

The catch is that in spite of his best efforts, it’s highly unlikely that Bob’s organizational webpage gets more traffic than Wikipedia. In fact, Google the acronym “IMF” and the Wikipedia IMF page is the third highest result – higher than many IMF pages. Wikipedia is the seventh most popular site on the internet.

The lesson? People read Wikipedia. Make sure your voice is heard. Ideally, you should be helping shape content addressing your issues. At the very least, make sure your organization is listed as a reference on relevant pages.

Examples of Wikipedia pages to have on your radar (will vary depending on your work, of course):
Nuclear Weapons:

• Cluster bombs
• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
• Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
• North Korean Nuclear Test

 

Climate change:

• Emissions trading
• Energy Security
• Greenhouse Gas
• Clean energy

 

Human rights:

• ICC
• UNCAT
• Guantanamo
• Counterterrorism

 

Civil-military:

• Soft power
• AFRICOM
• Peacekeeping
• Human Security

 

Trade and development:

• IMF
• Debt relief
• Free trade
• Development aid

Quick steps to get started on Wikipedia:

• Set up an account (free) to make edits on the site: (You don’t need an account to edit, but it will enable you to start, rename and upload pages, and edit some protected pages.)
• Search for pages on relevant issues: nuclear proliferation, international criminal court, emissions standards, etc. Make it regular practice to visit these pages often.
• Edit any page you like by hitting the ‘edit’ tab at the top of the screen. (Visit the editing ‘sandbox’ if you’d like to practice first: The site recommends you write a short edit summary in the small field below the edit-box after making edits.
• Notice that Wikipedia uses ‘Wiki markup’ – a special, relatively easy, editing language. It’s not hard, but will take a minute or two to understand. We recommend printing out a cheat sheet. It can also be helpful to copy and paste frequently used codes into a text file, then have it available on your desktop. Then you can just copy and paste the right format.
• Hit ‘Save page’ and you’re done!

Other Wikipedia tips:

• Wikipedia requires content reflect a “neutral point of view”, “representing fairly, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources.”
• Create a new article
• Add images and sound to pages
• Be careful when establishing pages about your organization. The site is sensitive to the neutrality of pages, and will shut down pages that appear to be self-promoting. However many organizations have successfully created their own pages. One solution is to have supporters set up a page about your group. Although the content may end up being exactly the same, it will appear a bit less removed. Read more on the Wikipedia site.
• Be sure to include references, and do not insert copyrighted content.

Wikipedia is not the only public wiki! Other wikis to have on your horizon:

• Congresspedia
• Sourcewatch
• US Policy World
• Crocodyl

2.) Building a public or private wiki for your internal or network use
Uses:

• Develop a collaborative resource on your issue. For example, if you’re monitoring many actors at once, and need multiple web pages to collect and discuss strategy. This might be private (open only to members of your group) or public.
• Post and share internal organization documents, procedures, feedback, etc.

Some considerations:

• Set realistic expectations! Of every 100 people who visit a website, 90% will only read information, 10% will comment, and 1% will add new content. This doesn’t you shouldn’t set up a wiki for a small group; rather, it means you shouldn’t expect the volume of traffic Wikipedia experiences on a relatively small, specialized wiki.
• Research which wiki software best serves your needs. You have a wide range of options: free, hosted, private, customized, etc. You can set up a public wiki for free today on Wikispaces. Or you can hire a designer to build a custom and branded wiki on your website. Wikimatrix (http://www.wikimatrix.org/) reviews the hundreds of options available.
• Learn how to create a culture that supports and contributes to your wiki. There are things that leaders and others involved in the wiki can do that will encourage (or discourage) people from engaging. WikiPatterns (http://www.wikipatterns.com) has some very useful advice.