Designing for participation
Usual responses on this topic include
ah...
I don't want anybody to touch my things!
I just need to do my job.
Do you mean like sharing?
So, like a potluck?
ooooooow!
Like retweeting!
what?
But seriously, designing for volunteer
participation matters. It amplifies our efforts
and it's cool how we work in the world.
When I stated here in Mozilla I though to myself
"This is really hard! how do I do it?,
When do I do it?"
And then I one day was given the great opportunity
to make a video for the Australis launch.
This is a great opportunity to
communicate the mission and it was a global
global campaign. So we asked ourselves
"How do we amplify this effort through
participation?" And the answer was: Localization.
At first, it totally sucked. We didn't really
know where to start. It seemed really hard.
But then, we found a fantastic community
ambassador, who understood and had
relationships with a community
called L10N. The community dedicated to localization.
Together we hacked a process, and pretty
soon we were ready.
We asked for six languages, we got twenty nine.
German, Spanish, Lithunian,
and we got ten million views!
Brazilian Portuguese, Portugal Portuguese,
ten million views!
French, Japanese,
ten million views!
We had so many languages, I don't even think
I could attach the languages to the countries
they come from.
So, in my experience with localizing the
Australis video, people participated because
we had a nice process set up for them.
And also because they knew their
contribution mattered.
So the moral of the story is when you
look at a project you are working on
ask yourself: "Will it be amplify through
participation?" And if the answer is NO, forget it.
Don't waste your time. You don't wanna just
make work for yourself. And if the answer
is YES, then power through. Design a simple process
for people to participate and if they know
their participation is important, they
will help, and you'll be surprised of
what kind of contribution you get.
¡Gracias especialmente a Flod de l10n por su ayuda y experiencia!
We got twenty nine! We got twenty nine!
Stupid