Submissions/The Volunteer Response Team: Willing hands working unseen

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Review no.

66

Title of the submission

The Volunteer Response Team: Willing hands working unseen

Type of submission (workshop, tutorial, panel, presentation)

Presentation

Author of the submission

Alice Wiegand

E-mail address or username (if username, please confirm email address in Special:Preferences)

lyzzy

Country of origin

Germany

Affiliation, if any (organization, company etc.)

Wikimedia Deutschland

Personal homepage or blog
Abstract (please use no less than 300 words to describe your proposal)

Within the Wikimedia universe, OTRS, a free software for ticket management, is almost synonymous with the team of volunteers who daily work with this system. It is a fairly small group of active people who answer inquiries in different languages and with different purposes.

And there are lots of e-mails:

  • questions about Wikimedia Foundation projects
  • questions about which License to choose
  • reports of article errors
  • issues with biographies of living persons
  • issues with corporate or organizational profiles
  • complaints of vandalism, misinformation, or bias
  • inquiries about re-using text or media
  • requests for help with editing
  • general information requests
  • compliments and feedback (sometimes)

Most of the important work done by this team is completely invisible, so it is very different from contributing to the Wikimedia projects themselves. And it is only natural that curiosity about what happens behind the scenes is growing, as well as scepticism. Is OTRS a secret society?

No, it is not. OTRS team members are usually glad to tell about their work and activities. Therefore this presentation wants to shed some light on the people who volunteer in this department of the Wikimedia universe:

  • Who are are these people?
  • What are they doing there?
  • How is the relationship to the community?
  • What kind of support do they need?
  • Why do we see so little of their work?
  • How can I join?

The presentation will involve active OTRS agents and admins and is addressing everyone who is interested. Either as a community member or maybe an agent-to-be.

Track (People and Community/Knowledge and Collaboration/Infrastructure)

People and Community

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

yes

Slides or further information (optional)

will follow


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  1. Philippe (WMF) 20:56, 28 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  2. Erik Zachte 14:26, 29 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
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  5. CT Cooper · talk 13:19, 30 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
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