While doing wikipedia/osm workshops, I make it a point to start with the "Why am I doing this and what do I gain by being here" section. This lets everyone understand what the open movement and community is about, and what I personally gained/gain by being a part of it. After this, I let everyone know that those who would like personal attention and help can move to the front so that its easy for me to attend to them. Personally, this has worked very well and also made people more interactive rather than become a classroom type session. On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 1:24 AM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan < parakara.ghoda(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: -- j.mp/ArunGanesh

On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 1:53 AM, Arnav Sonara &lt;sonara.arnav(a)gmail.com&gt;wrote;wrote: Posing such a question in the context of image and file uploads may be fine. However, if we attempt at recruiting editors saying that Wikipedia is a means to have their voice heard then we risk compromising our NPOV ideal by attracting the attention of the POVpushing blogger complex. So I'd recommend not advertising Wikipedia as a platform for having "your voice heard" but as a place where the contributors' research work is appreciated and read not only by a community of dedicated users but also a part of the 400 million+ unique visitors each year. Though I know "having your voice heard" sounds far more sexier but partisan POVpushing is a serious issue on en.wp and tends to drive away far more contributors than anything else. One of the reasons why our project tends to have far more teenage editors is likely because this is a demographic segment which has still not formed strong opinions on different subjects, and therefore are more likely to represent sources accurately without misrepresentation, original research and original synthesis. Older people have far less patience for a project that adamantly gives more weight to third party reliable sources and scholarly research and rejects original research and synthesis. Some of the users who get banhammered by one of these administrators ultimately criticize the project saying that it is run by pimple-faced teenage school-boys with too much time on their hands. :-)

There were never T-shirts involved in this session. Never. Not in Coimbatore for sure. An alternative way of saying it is: This isn't a class. I don't want it to be a boring lecture. I'm talking here because I'm passionate about what I do. You don't have to be here if you don't want to. This is not a class which you need to attend in order to write your exams. On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 1:30 PM, Anirudh Bhati &lt;anirudhsbh(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: -- Regards, Srikanth Ramakrishnan.