Wikiversity:Motto contest

After nearly a year of discussion, the motto and slogan contests have concluded.

The motto portion of the contest ended August 5, 2007. The motto selected is "open learning community".

The slogan portion of the contest ended May 2, 2007. The slogan selected is "set learning free".

Discussion strings about concluding this contest are in the Colloquium archives: Motto and slogan contests: discussion of outcomes (May 2007) and Motto_contest: wrap up? (July 2007). A new colloquium post will be added (soon) to invite suggestions for possible ongoing processes for revising or refining the motto and slogan. Also, feel free to add comments on the motto contest talk page.

Thank you for your interest and participation!

Goals
These were the stated goals of the contest.

We need to create and select:
 * 1) a Wikiversity motto
 * 2) a short description (for use with the Wikiversity logo on sister Wikimedia projects)
 * 3) a slogan

There are two contests, using the same options, to choose phrases to fulfill these three roles

The motto contest fulfills two purposes, choosing:
 * A Wikiversity motto, which is a general phrase that conveys the mission of Wikiversity (or part of the mission), which may be inspiring or appeal to a general principle. This purpose emerged in the course of various of the options proposed and selected in rounds 1-3 of this contest.


 * A "short description," which is a short phrase that describes a Wikimedia project briefly. This was the original purpose of the motto contest. The "short description" will be listed with our logo (see our logo contest) and project name on Wikimedia sister projects. Here are some Wikimedia logo-name-motto examples:

Here are logo-name-motto examples the Wikiversity logo finalist and some of the motto finalists:

The slogan contest is for choosing a descriptive phrase to be listed at the top of our main page just under "Welcome to Wikiversity."

We have completed the final round, Round 6, of the selection process. The rounds of the selection process are summarized at the end of this page.

Winning Motto: "Open learning community"
The winning motto is "open learning community" .

Summary of final round: From the goals of the contest, the Wikiversity motto is both a phrase that conveys the general mission of Wikiversity (or part of the mission) and a "short description" that briefly describes Wikimedia project. The motto will be listed with our logo.

The winning motto, "open learning community," had 61% of the positive support statements in round 6. There were 27 support statements for "open learning community," and many included substantive points in favor of the option. "Open education" had 3 in support and "free learning community" had 14 in support. The objections are few in comparison to supportive statements (except for the least popular "open education" option). The winning "open" motto had 3 comments against, the "education" motto had four against, and the "free" motto had two against. The objections do not seem to invalidate the value or meaning of the free/open learning community motto options.

As for the choice of an article to possibly precede "open learning community, an important criticism of using the "the" was made on the talk page (Open University already exists). Twelve supporters of this motto did not favor using an article or did not mention the issue. The definite article had twelve supporters as well. The indefinite article had three supporters. This is a difficult call. Because of the substantive criticism made on the talk page, the winning motto is presented without a suggested article. A merit of using no article is that the motto is shorter and will fit better under the logo. This can be an issue for later discussion.

See the "summary of contest process issues and possible further steps" section below for other possible discussion points.

Archive: Motto_contest/Round_6

Winning Slogan: "Set learning free"
The winning slogan is "set learning free" .

Summary of final round: The Wikiversity slogan is a phrase for listing at top of main page with "Welcome to Wikiversity". "Set learning free" had 68% of the positive support statements in round 6. There were 30 support statements for "set learning free". "Knowledge is free" had 4 in support and "Because knowledge should be free" had 10 in support. The latter 2 options had 3 comment each against use. "Set learning free" had no statements against. As for the wording of "set learning free" vs "learning set free," a few more people preferred "set learning free".

Thank you for your participation!

Archive: Motto_contest/Round_6

Summary of contest process issues and possible further steps
This description, based on previous discussions, here and in the colloquium, is still being compiled (as of 8/7/07).

Summary of objectives of rounds

 * Round 1: the process was:
 * list as many mottos and slogans as you wish.
 * select one motto and slogan each, by listing your name by your selection
 * at any time, feel free to change your selection and add mottos or slogans.


 * Round 2: Invite more support (and support changing) for options with at least one person supporting.
 * Round 3: Invite more support (and support changing) on options with at least two persons supporting.
 * Round 4: Reduce options (such as through listing only strongly supported options in each group as one step and droping groups with little support) to those supported by four or more people.
 * Round 5: Select amongst finalists.
 * Round 6: Refine options in final groups.

Winners are the motto and the slogan with a strong majority in favor.

Timeframes

 * the first selection round started on August 23 and ended on September 7, 2006, after 5:00 pm GMT.
 * the second round (which includes the openness of the first round) started on Septermber 7 and ended on September 22, 2006, 5:00 pm GMT.
 * the third round began September 23 and ended October 15, 2006.
 * the fourth round commenced October 15, 2006 and lasted until November 18, 2006.
 * the fifth round ended January 16, 2007.
 * the sixth round started on January 27, 2007 and will continue until final refined options are selected. The slogan contest ended on May 2, 2007 and the motto contest ended August 5, 2007.

Previous Rounds
A list of all suggested mottos and slogans for Round 1 are at Motto contest/Round 1.

A list of suggested mottos and slogans for Round 2, receiving support from at least one person, are at Motto contest/Round 2.

A list of suggested mottos and slogans for Round 3, receiving support from at least two persons (including similar options with one or more person supporting), are at Motto contest/Round 3.

A list of mottos and slogans for Round 4, receiving support from at least four persons in round 3 (including similar options with one or more person supporting), are at Motto contest/Round 4.

A list of finalist mottos and slogans for Round 5, receiving the most support in round 4, are at Motto contest/Round 5.

A listing of finalist mottos and slogans for Round 6, receiving the most support in round 5, are at Motto contest/Round 6.

Related Projects

 * Logo contest for Wikiversity on meta.
 * Wikiversity mission - We can use ideas from the motto, slogan and logo contests to help refine the mission statement. Feel free to post mission statement revisions.