Florin started his new job just as Wikimedia was gearing up for the Jan. 18 Wikipedia site blackout in protest of proposed federal anti-piracy legislation.

“I was joking with someone about the blackout, about how I was really starting from scratch here,” he said. “I had little to do with the SOPA protest, but we were happy with the results. During the 24 hours of the blackout, over eight million people used Wikipedia to look up their representatives in Congress.”

Florin is helping Wikimedia create new tools to help more Wikipedia readers become editors and share what they know. Currently the site has over 470 million readers, but only 90,000 editors worldwide—and the number of people who write or edit Wikipedia articles has been declining.

Wikipedia’s user interface and tools are definitely part of the problem. Last year, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales acknowledged that his organization is “scrambling to simplify convoluted editing templates that may be discouraging people from writing and editing Wikipedia’s entries.”

“We definitely are working to improve the user experience for our editors,” said Florin. “Often new Wikipedia editors don’t get much guidance. They have to learn markup language, too. It can be daunting.”

Awareness is another issue. “Most people who read Wikipedia don’t realize that anyone can edit, you don’t even need to sign up.” he said.

Consequently, Wikipedia is building more on-ramps to engage readers to become editors. Rather than immediately encourage users to edit pages, they’re providing some simple feedback forms and ratings tools billed as ways that users can help improve the site.

The first of these is the new version of the article feedback tool. This is a set of simple forms which ask users to rate an article, how it might be improved, and if they found what they were seeking.

“Asking for suggestions is really useful,” said Florin. “Just by launching simple forms, that engages people more deeply with the content. Then, while they’re giving feedback, we mention: did you know you can edit this page? We have tutorials, click here…”

Aside from encouraging more users to become editors, the feedback forms are proving useful in their own right. “People are making really good, useful, actionable suggestions. It’s definitely better than the comment sections of most news sites—but we’re not treating as comment section.”

From there, says Florin, the next step will be to offer users the opportunity to do editorial microtasks, such as editing a single sentence or finding a citation for a single fact. NewsTrust used microtasks in similar ways, and found them useful for spurring user engagement. “The news literacy, fact checking, and education programs we developed at NewsTrust can be useful for Wikipedia and other communities,” he said.

Journalists are one group that Florin would especially like to engage more with Wikipedia—both as users and as editors. But he’s noticed that many journalists are reticent to use Wikipedia, or are quick to dismiss it.

“What you’re witnessing now is the rise of movement largely driven by amateurs, not professionals. Every day Wikipedia keeps getting better. We’ve come a long way from three or four years ago, when people were complaining about wikipedia quality,” he said. “It is possible for amateurs to do quality information gathering. We’ve proven that. But the pros are definitely still needed.”

“I would love to see journalists get involved with writing and editing Wikipedia. It has become central repository of our knowledge in many ways, like it or not. Embrace it and participate. Start by just rating articles or giving feedback, then experiment with editing or adding sources. You don’t have to leap straight into writing articles.”

Florin would also like to seem more mainstream news stories that refer or link to Wikipedia articles—perhaps with clarifications regarding the process of how Wikipedia is collaboratively created. But he notes that Wikipedia is becoming a leading resource for thorough backgrounders on breaking news topics and ongoing stories, such as the BP oil spill.

“We have the ability to go in-depth and provide lots of context while also staying up-to-date,” he said. “But news organizations are focused mainly on reporting the latest developments. I think we can be very complementary in that sense, for journalists to refer to us in their work.”

Florin also noted that news organizations seeking to deepen community engagement (which can improve time spent on site, an important benchmark of site effectiveness) could borrow tools and strategies from Wikipedia. “You could put a ‘report an error’ button next to every article, or a form-based feedback mechanism. You could also offer a ‘history’ button which shows how that article evolved over time.”

“Consider your community as an asset, not just a customer. They’re a partner. Engage them as contributors, and that will enrich everyone,” said Florin.

Meanwhile, the NewsTrust project is winding down. Funding for the site’s social news service ran out in September, and since then Florin had been personally funding that effort.

What’s next for NewsTrust? Florin wrote: “Our goal is to continue to offer NewsTrust as an educational service, but no longer as a consumer destination, so the news listings on our home page and topic pages will only be available through the end of February 2012. We are now planning to donate our assets to a trusted nonprofit organization which will provide that educational service, and we expect to make an announcement in February.”

UPDATE JAN. 27: This interview sparked further ideas and questions from Florin, which he shares in this followup post. Input from journalists and other media colleagues is invited.

The News Leadership 3.0 blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The Knight Digital Media Center at USC is a partnership with the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. The Center is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.