User:LeonidasSpartan/Essay in Progess
When considering how to best expand a collaborative project such as which WikiProject Military History, it is important to remember that WikiProject Military History is an entirely voluntary commitment on the part of its participants. Keeping the voluntary nature of the project members’ contributions firmly in mind, one should ask why do our project members contribute? What stake do they hold in this project? Obviously on a surface level it is easy to say that members contribute to WikiProject Military History because they understand the value of a resource such as Wikipedia and feel some manner of reward from improving information available on Wikipedia. However that response only addresses why one would contribute to Wikipedia as a whole, not why one would choose to participate in WikiProject Military History. The simplest answer to this question is that project members hold some manner of stake in the aims and aspirations of this project. If WikiProject Military History is to continue to expand it is important that the project as whole provide more opportunities for its members to hold a stake in the project.
When I first came upon WikiProject Military History in April 2010, I saw a group of collaborators which I felt I would fit into quite nicely. To one degree or another I felt that participating in a collaborative project would be preferable to contributing in solitude as this WikiProject would provide a forum for feedback on and acknowledgment of my contributions. I found a home within this project. In fact I have found that I enjoy contributing to Wikipedia far more than I ever thought I would, in part due to some of the structure and framework which WikiProject Military History provides. Essentially it is safe to say that I have found my stake in the project. However I feel that the project could provide much more compelling opportunities to its members to hold a greater stake in the project as it grows.
Certainly the project has created several ways in which members can receive both feedback and acknowledgment with notable examples being the Review Department and Contest Department.These are very successful ways in which members may have their own personal stake in the WikiProject, depending on members' willingness to participate in these departments. However I feel that opportunities should be made available in aspects of the project in such a way as to encourage greater member participation, not only in the individual contribution to articles relating the project's overall subject matter of military history and other military-related issues, but also in the projects own internal deliberative mechanisms which direct the course of the project as a whole.