Hi, Ambassadors!

In early 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) decided that the Wikipedia Education Program in the US and Canada had expanded to a point beyond that of a pilot program. With growing interest in the program, we have more and more professors and students who seek support when contributing to Wikipedia, and the current setup limits that potential support. In June 2012, WMF created a "Working Grouphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_Working_Group"[1] of 16 volunteers, represented by both academia and Wikipedia, to come up with a proposal for a new way of supporting professors, students, and Ambassadors in the program.

The group has worked together to consider the future of the program and how we can set our volunteers, professors and students up for success when editing Wikipedia, in a way that will improve the encyclopedia. We are very interested in getting feedback from the Wikipedia community, professors in the program, and, of course, Ambassadors who are involved in the program. Thus, the Working Group has now posted a Request for Comment (RfC)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_Working_Group/RfC[2] on Wikipedia. This is a space where you can read about the current plans for the program, get some questions answered, and give your opinion about how we should move forward with the program. As Ambassadors, this new structure (currently being proposed as a new nonprofit organization that has a relationship to the Wikimedia Foundation, or a "Thematic Organizationhttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_affiliation_models/Thematic_Organizations"[3]) may affect you and your involvement in the program.

The Working Group wants to make sure Ambassadors are aware of what's going on, have the opportunity to participate in the discussion, and are still excited about the program once it moves from WMF in May 2013. You probably have a lot of questions, and hopefully we have answered many of them on the page linked above. If you are interested in participating in this discussion, I encourage you to read more about the process, the proposal, and others' comments/concerns.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them on the Talk Page of the RfC, the discussion section on the bottom, or even to this listserv. Ideally, we can keep the conversation on-wiki, in order to keep everyone involved. Thank you guys, and we hope to use your insight to develop the program to better meet your needs in the future! [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_Working_Group [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Education_Working_Group/RfC [3] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_affiliation_models/Thematic_Organiz...

On behalf of the Working Group, Jami