Wikiprogress platform technological updates

Hello all,

In the past few weeks there have been several technical improvements in Wikiprogress.org, which are focused on the User Experience.

• Join Button: in order to make it easier for new users to understand how Wikiprogress works, a new Join Button was placed on Wikiprogress Main Page on August 16th. This button not only gives the welcome to new users, but also shows several ways to get involved with the Wikiprogress project:
• Create/edit articles.
• Get blogging.
• Contribute to the Community Portal.
• Upload reports and research papers.
• Upload multimedia material.
• Join/follow on social media.
• Add a progress initiative.
• Add an event.
• Add a country policy history.

• Help page namespace: in order to improve the user experience and give a better understanding on how Wikiprogress works, its objectives and how to contribute, the Help namespace was updated. The majority of the Help articles were modified and a new banner was added to easily identify a Help topic (What is Wikiprogress?, Getting started, Navigation and Contributing). This way, the Help section is now more user-friendly, and each Help article focus on one subject, avoiding confusing and redundant terms.

• Social Media icons and strategy: new Facebook and Twitter buttons are placed now at the top left corner of each article in Wikiprogress. Those buttons show how many times a page has been “Liked” and “Tweeted”, providing  more statistics and social presence for each wiki article. 
  A new Wikiprogress group (WikiProgress Community) has been created on Facebook and a discussion on education has started. Please join us and collaborate with the Wikiprogress community!

• Wikichild/Wikiprogress calendar integration: the Wikichild community has increased its presence on the Wikiprogress since November 2011. It was thus decided that the Wikichild community should have the option of adding a child event directly onto the Wikiprogress calendar. And on the 6th of September this idea came alive on the Wikiprogress platform, so now all Child Events are fully integrated with Wikiprogress, giving them a broader audience and a wider presence on the progress community.

• Add Initiative form: one of the Wikiprogress main objectives is to give information on initiatives around the world on measures of progress (including sustainability, wellbeing and quality of life). Today, over 80 articles on Progress Initiatives are present on Wikiprogress, and in order to make it easier for users to add one, a new rapid-filling template was created. This template lets the user add the location, topic, homepage and Twitter account of the Initiative, as well as an overview, its background and main projects. If you know of a Progress Initiative, please contribute by adding it to Wikiprogress!

Further technological changes will be coming in the next months and we'll be happy to hear your needs and feedback. Please let us know your thoughts by sending them to info@wikiprogress.org

Isaac Contreras Sandoval
Wikiprogress Technological Consultant