Greetings,
As many of you are aware, the Wikipedia India Education Program works with
teachers and students to encourage Wikipedia in the classroom. The basic
idea is that teachers ask their students to edit Wikipedia articles instead
of submitting traditional reports, assignments, etc. Students and teachers
are trained and supported and motivated by Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors -
who are volunteers. We currently have 1,000 students in the pilot we are
running in Pune; the response has been amazing!
There are huge challenges also. Most of the students have already been
taught the basics of Wikipedia by their Campus Ambassadors. However, they
need more help. The workload on Campus Ambassadors is already massive (as
there are hardly 20 Campus Ambassadors for 1,000 students). It is going to
keep increasing as more and more of the students start editing as we are now
in the 2nd half of their semesters - and therefore closer to the last dates
for their articles. We are already increasing Campus Ambassadors numbers by
15 in the next few days - but that still won't be enough.
We're separately building a team of passionate and helpful folks - with good
mentoring and teaching skills - to be Wikipedia Online Ambassadors. Online
Ambassadors will help these students by providing online support and
hand-holding so that the students can make high-quality contributions.
Online Ambassadors can be based anywhere in India (or indeed the world)
since their interaction with students will be over the internet.
I am reaching out to you to see whether you would be interested in helping
students and teachers and becoming a Wikipedia Online Ambassador.
We have two different Online Ambassador roles: Level 1 and Level 2.
. Level 1 is open to everyone - including people who have never edited
Wikipedia before - and will support students on really basic Wikipedia
questions. (They will be given specific training on this.)
. Level 2 is open to experienced Wikipedians and will support students on
more advanced Wikipedia questions.
Both Level 1 and Level 2 roles will be provided orientation sessions.
Currently, all the students are working on English wikipedia.
Passion for helping others and the ability to help newbies are the most
essential qualities for both levels. For more information about these roles
and what is expected of them, please see this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Online_Ambass
adors/Description. The time commitment is 3-5 hours per week on average
throughout the semester (or academic term.)
I warmly invite and highly encourage you to apply to become a Wikipedia
Online Ambassador! To apply, please go to:
https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEdtdG5
ObU9mMm5oZno3MExDc3lEZHc6MA - by Monday, September 12th (earlier is better),
and we will be in touch very soon about next steps. If you have any
questions, please do reach out to me either on this mailing list or offlist.
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
Thank you so very much! I look forward to your application.
Sincerely,
Nitika Tandon