LinguaLibre

Events/Winter 2021-2022 Public Relations Campaign

< LinguaLibre:Events
Revision as of 18:32, 26 November 2021 by Yug (talk | contribs) (→‎Community Discussion (Comments/Feedback))

Raising awareness about our mission among major macro-languages could open access to smaller linguistic communities, where most of the linguistic diversity resides.

The Winter 2021-2022 Public Relations Campaign is an outward communication effort initiated to raise awareness about LinguaLibre and its Recording Studio capabilities among the general public, Wikimedians, and language enthusiasts online. This campaign will go on the actual PR's field, and through experience will gather and create base PR materials (contact email, blog posts, base flyers, etc.) about our project and mission. As a first online campaign, we will mostly ride macro-languages such as English, Spanish, French, but our long objective is to particularly reach out to smaller linguistic communities within those areas. We would like the awareness created to cause a doubling and diversification of the core LinguaLibre team (coordinators, devs), and a doubling of monthly recordings by Summer 2022. Qualitatively, we aim to solidly cover the major Western languages and solidly move beyond them as well.

Details

  • Description: an initial Public Relation Campaign to raise awareness and call for diverse contributors, including speakers, developers, and others.
  • Place: online, emails, Meta.Wikimedia.org. LinguaLibre.org.
  • Time/Schedule: 2021/11/25 – 2022/03/31 (initial phase).
  • Lead by: Marreromarco (PR), Yug (Grants review). Support:Adélaïde Calais WMFr (soon), Wikimédia France.
    Any additional volunteers: we look for French, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi PR folk as well as minority languages contacts able to spread the campaign locally.
  • Co-participants: FOSS blogs editors and journalists.
  • Public: readers, to turn into aware public, advocates, or contributors.
  • Program: under discussion.

Definition

Public relations (PR) is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its public. The PR Campaign should establish relationships with our target audience, the media, non-profit Foundations, the Educational Sector and Private Companies.

PR Campaign Objectives

  • Increase the number of active contributors on Lingua Libre
  • Train and seed speakers and advocates worldwide, especially within minorities and endangered languages.
  • Receive more feedback from users to improve the platform according to their needs.

PR Methods

The strategies should be tailored in a case to case basis. Here is a list of methods:

  • Contact media outlets to promote Lingua Libre among their target audiences (e.g., Newspapers, Magazines, TV, etc.)
  • Banners on Wiktionary/Wikipedia would be very efficient. For example, a web banner on the “English Wiktionary”.
  • Publish messages on Social Media (Blogs, Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, etc).
  • Introduce the project to opinion Leaders in the field of language learning and Linguistics.
  • Invite non-profit Foundations and the Educational Sector to use and promote Lingua Libre.
  • Invite Private Companies to use and promote our project (respecting the License requirements).

PR Execution

A careful coordination is necessary to ensure a successful PR Campaign. All project members could contribute with ideas/proposals. However, the actual execution should be carried out by a person with experience/education in the field of Public Relations. For example, a university student that has a background in PR would be more suited to conduct the Campaign. Four points to consider:

  • A part-time intern at Wikimedia France would be desirable (if funding could be secured). It might create a better impression on possible partners if the lead-person on the PR campaign is on the premises of Wikimedia France in Paris. If an intern can send communications through an Institutional Address (@wikimedia.fr) it might be seen as more trustworthy than using personal e-mails.
  • Community members of Lingua Libre could write on this page possible partners to contact. For example, let's contact “Local Newspaper X” in France and the email address is “XYZ”.
  • To avoid duplication of work, write on this page when someone is contacted and what was the result (e.g., accepted and article published, accepted and YouTube video published, no reply, refusal, etc.)
  • Communications should be in formal language to offer a good impression. Please avoid informal emails like “Hey, I'm Mark. Check this awesome website…”

PR Funding

Community member Yug has voluntered to explore available grants and write down requests to fund the "PR campaign 2022”. WMFR diversity managerAdélaïde Calais WMFr could help according to her possibilities in the approval, coordination, and supervision of a PR Campaign.

It would be necessary to be very specific regarding :

  • What languages/regions should be given priority?
  • Would it be possible to accept an intern at Wikimedia France, and under which conditions ?
  • Required budget and working hours.
  • Measurable goals of the Campaign (e.g., Reach 1.5 million recordings by December 2022, 1000 new persons registered, 30 new languages, etc.).

To-Do List by Country (Alphabetical Order)

Write here contact details of those that might be contacted by Lingua Libre. They can be media outlets (Newspaper, Magazine, TV, etc.), opinion leaders, Non-Profit Foundations, Universities, Language Institutes, Companies, etc.

Argentina

Canada:

Chile:

Spain:

USA:

Contacts made and Results (Alphabetical Order)

  • Blog Diolinux : Contacted on Nov. 2021. Check-green.svg Contacted → ✓ Interested → × Coordinating → × Redaction → × Publication.
  • It's FOSS.com : Contacted on Nov. 2021. ✓ Contacted → ✓ Interested → ✓ Coordinating → × Redaction → × Publication.
  • omniglot.com : Lingua Libre published as an online language learning resource at https://www.omniglot.com/links/resources.htm (Monthly Readership: 1.5 million)

Community Discussion (Comments/Feedback)

Section to discuss about the "PR Campaign 2022". Feel free to write here your ideas and to edit the above sections

Just a simple idea to promote lingualibre.org (from Wikimedia France) among Wikipedia users

Banner / MediaWiki:Sitenotice
1) A Banner on Wikimedia Pages would be in my opinion the most efficient method to promote Lingua Libre. From January 2022, the new CEO of Wikimedia headquarters would be Maryana Iskander, a Lawyer born in Egypt whose family emigrated to the USA during her childhood. As the new CEO of Wikimedia comes from an immigrant background, she could support a Wikimedia policy of multiculturalism and recording endangered languages.

Amerindian Languages are severely endangered, and the public would sympathize with a preservation effort. For example, the [:en:Cherokee Language|]] in the US is considered "Moribund (8a)" by Ethnologue meaning that "the only remaining active users of the language are members of the grandparent generation and older". The few speakers of Cherokee that remain are bilingual (English-Cherokee) and a Banner on the English Wikipedia could help to contact them and invite them to record their voices on Lingua Libre. Such a high-impact PR effort of putting a Banner on the English Wikipedia would have to be done through Official channels by Wikimedia France. Adélaïde Calais WMFr and Yug. Maybe with the help of an intern at Wikimedia France an attempt could be made ?

Hello Marco,
This avenue is tricky. The Wikipedia's interface messages are decided by the sites' community, by votes and administrator. Wikimedia France and Adélaïde cannot decide this. They can simply encourage the Wikipedia community to have a discussion about this. Technically, similar to the "Month of Asia", we could organize and gather support for a "Month of Voices (LinguaLibre)" event. First on LinguaLibre, quickly testing the approach and a MediaWiki:Sitenotice, then lead a discussion on :fr:wp: for a similar event. But we there would venture into the misty land of votes and discussions, which for efficiency sake, we simple volunteers would be wise to avoid. Yug (talk) 18:32, 26 November 2021 (UTC)


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