User:Jms1984

I mainly contribute to the Third Age Online (TAO) wiki at Wikiversity. You can find my personal webpage at httpː//www.janmschnurr.de.

TAO Handbook
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/TAO (English)

http://de.wikiversity.org/wiki/Projekt:TAO (German)


 * inventory of methods for mobilization, inclusion and motivation for facilitating and promoting access of older adults and people in early retirement to online social communities and online collaboration projects
 * easy-to-access and understandable
 * continually updated
 * ratings of and comments on maturity and usefulness of each module
 * separate entry points based on role in organization
 * staff in a managing function
 * teachers/tutors
 * consultants and people wishing to support the community
 * people who do not identify with any of these categories
 * (actors implementing online or offline activities within TAO or in fields related to TAO)
 * (older adults and people in early retirement)


 * (separate entry points based on activities) > context analysis (interviews/case studies)
 * (offline/online)
 * (country of origin)
 * (business/not-for-profit)
 * (role of older adults)
 * (focus on... community/collaboration/e-learning)
 * (targeting... onliners/offliners/nonliners)
 * (interest in... business models aimed at seniors/case studies/community building/evaluation methods/fundraising/inclusion of seniors/partnerships/team building/working with volunteer instructors)
 * (addressing problems/challenges in... business model aimed at older adults/community building/fundraising/inclusion of seniors/workshop organisation)


 * encouragement
 * create new modules
 * edit existing modules


 * motivation
 * sharing knowledge and experiences
 * improving visibility of activities
 * networking

Community of Practice (CoP)

 * offline events
 * network communication
 * personal guidance for newcomers
 * online meetings of core group members
 * (Grundtvig Learning Partnership to exchange best practices on an international level)
 * (Erasmus Multilateral project to involve more partners)

D1-1-3 TAO Business Model and Exploitation Plans
Business Model and Exploitation Plan
 * characteristics of the silver market
 * characteristics of Web 2.0
 * business model based on experiences by SeniorwebNL, SeniorwebCH and Wikimedia Germany


 * (7) "What is lacking, though, are strategies and methods to use Web 2.0 in order to systematically attract new members or members to new services and to increase the retention capacities of the organisation through these technologies."

D4-1 Report on the Exploration and Multiplication Phase

 * for the TAO handbook:
 * successful approaches for activating, motivating, and integrating older adults in the context of online communities and online collaboration
 * key issues for improving online communities’ organizational setup
 * success factors in implementing and multiplying medium to large-scale outreach activities to activate and motivate older adults to join online communities and engage in Web 2.0 activities
 * good practices in recruiting, training and retaining community volunteers for outreach, educational and user support activities directed at older adults
 * categories: activation, motivation and integration


 * (63) "The international surveys of Wikipedia authors show that “age” is a very significant predictor of active contribution. Only 6.3% of Wikipedia authors are between 40 and 49 years of age, and people between 50 and 85 years – a span of more than three decades – make up only 5.2% of authors (Gosh, Glott 2010; http://www.wikipediasurvey.org)."


 * methods in concomitant research:
 * documenting examples of "Good Practice"
 * facilitating the exchange of ideas and experiences among Wikipedia contributors
 * facilitating the exchange of ideas between locations

D4-2 Exploratory Studies Beginning Users 60 plus & Volunteers
(130) "'Highly significant predictors of the intention to remain volunteer are (and therefore, when these demands are not met, people might stop their volunteering): (Hidalgo & Moreno 2009, p. 598)
 * Good social relationships inside the organization
 * Support from the organization staff
 * Positive evaluation of the job one performs
 * Training one receives
 * Interesting job with some autonomy'"

(136) The areas needed in volunteer management can be summed up briefly with the Dutch formula "Binnenhalen, Begeleiden, Belonen, Behouden, Beëindigen" (Acquire, support, reward, keep, terminate; CIVIQ 2005, p.1).

(138) The engagement cycle of volunteers (Reifenhäuser; Hoffmann; Kegel 2009, p.78.): Identify fields of activities for volunteers, Desribe and advertise engagement offers, Conduct initial meeting and agree upon engagement, Instruct volunteers and convey skills, Saying farewell to honorary workers and certify their engagement) [illustration]

(142) "'Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia that is written and maintained entirely by volunteer authors' (Schroer aus Dorsten 2008, p. 5 ff.). Since the year it was established in 2001, Wikipedia has grown to be one of the most well-known websites in the world. Technically, Wikipedia consists of a Wiki software, which allows users to not only call up pages, but to also modify them. Thus, the goal of Wikipedia is to provide users the ability to actively participate in the creation of the website quickly and easily, which is the origin of the term "Wiki", from the Hawaiian language and which translated means "quick". On the other hand, the goal is to create an encyclopaedia that can be freely accessed by the general public free of cost."

(142) "According to the results of a survey of Wikipedia authors, their work for Wikipedia is characterized mostly as being autonomous, meaningful and requiring a diverse set of skills. Other motives they listed included the ability to pass along information, the joy in their work and generativity. The time spent on average by the participants for work on Wikipedia was more than two hours a day. However, most of the contributions and changes are only written by a small group of authors. As a typical sample for online communities overall, what can be established is that: The topic of each article influences the distribution and number of authors. Where special articles of interest are concerned, a small number of authors makes a comparatively large number of modifications. For articles that are in demand and popular, the number of authors is larger and at the same time the contribution of individual authors is smaller by comparison (cf. Schroer aus Dorsten 2008, p. 72 ff.)."

(157) "There are conflicting aims here: on the one hand, instructors aim at offering low-threshold courses to attract new Wikipedia authors; on the other hand, they have high standards for working in Wikipedia."

(162-164) Do's and Dont's for the recruitment, activation and binding of older adult volunteers

(169) Positioning & objectives concerning voluntary work at Wikimedia.de:
 * Free knowledge elaborated by volunteers: freely accessible online encyclopaedia (Wikipedians).
 * Crowd intelligence (collaboration on the internet)
 * The important thing is to contribute; socio-economic status, gender, age, etc. are irrelevant
 * Everybody can contribute

(170) Organizational structure & relationship volunteers and professionals at Wikimedia.de:
 * Wikipedia: Bottom-up & no central leadership
 * Autonomous organization of Wikipedia
 * Separation between Wikipedia, Wikipedia Foundation & Wikimedia Chapter
 * Paid staff for securing the technical infrastructure, otherwise the only paid staff are in the Wikimedia Foundation & Wikimedia Chapter.
 * Professionalization of Wikimedia DE through the establishment of a main office, change in the club structure by installing a paid board (as of a half year ago) and volunteer supervisory board.
 * Occasionally tension between Wikipedians and Wikimedia DE concerning the question of volunteers vs. professionalization

(170) Perception of the volunteer role at Wikimedia.de:
 * „We are Wikipedia!“ Wikipedians see their voluntary work as a societal engagement for free knowledge!

(170) Taks and roles of volunteers at Wikimedia.de:
 * In the framework of Silberwissen mainly Wikipedia contributors (authors and helpers) as well as (senior) authors
 * Examples:
 * Authors: Write articles
 * Visualizers: Integrate pictures and figures
 * Cleaning squad: Spelling, punctuation, formatting#

(171) Types of volunteers at Wikimedia.de: Gender: 88% male, 50% single (in 2009) Age: Motivation: for over 80% expanding and deepening one’s knowledge
 * average age of 33 y
 * mostly between 13-23y - often students

(171) Management of volunteers at Wikimedia.de: Main office in charge of coordination(currently 4 persons) Strategic goals of volunteer management (Kompass 2020)
 * Acquire authors
 * Authors should mirror societal diversity
 * Foster continuous collaboration
 * Wikimedia support should be competent and widely appreciated
 * Volunteers’ performance is recognized by the club

(171-172) Problems and challenges for volunteers at Wikimedia.de:
 * Challenge for authors to write personal contributions; to adhere to formal and technical prerequisites; to expose oneself to criticism with topics, competencies; to face discussion and to prevail amid a sometimes harsh tone.
 * Lonely tasks with little social interaction; networks have to be developed slowly (e.g. thematic groups, regular get-togethers)
 * A greater number of older adults are to be recruited as authors

(172) Successful strategies at Wikimedia.de: Volunteers are supported professionally (educational programs, mentors and community support)

Recognition of voluntary work (e.g. rewards for contributions, contests such as Wiki Loves Monuments)

(172) Recommendations at Wikimedia.de: Pay attention to the effects of increasing professionalization on the relationship to the Wikipedia community

(173) Members of Wikipedia communities and volunteers
 * adept to technology
 * highly educated
 * 33 years (average)
 * largest subgroup aged 18 to 23
 * volunteers managed by professional main offices (only Wikimedia.de)
 * the number of older adults and women in the community is comparatively low

(177) "Online communities should develop a strategy of volunteer management that is well accepted in the community. An example of this are the “5 B’s” [in Dutch] used by Seniorweb NL (attracting, accompanying, keeping them active, rewarding, saying goodbye)."

(178) Conclusions and Recommendations