Hi everyone,
The Wikipedia Ambassador Program - consisting of volunteers who support
professors and students on Wikipedia-editing class assignments - is
currently recruiting for a new, super important leadership role called
the "Wikipedia Regional Ambassadors," and I would encourage you to
apply! If you enjoy being in a coordinator, leader, manager, organizer,
and/or facilitator role, and if you believe in free knowledge and
Wikipedia's potential in education, you will really like this role. More
details - including role descriptions, qualifications, benefits, time
commitments, and information about how to apply - are available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Regional_Ambassadors.
A bit more background information for those of you less familiar with
the Ambassador program:
The Wikipedia Ambassador Program
<http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Ambassador_Program> is an
effort to help new Wikipedia users and reach out to new potential
Wikipedia contributors---particularly professors who want to incorporate
Wikipedia into the classroom and their students who are assigned to edit
Wikipedia. Many professors around the United States (and abroad) have
started using Wikipedia as a teaching tool, and are assigning their
students to edit or create Wikipedia articles related to the subject the
students are learning in class (professors from Harvard, Georgetown, UC
Berkeley, and a large number of other universities have already come on
board). Wikipedia Ambassadors work closely with these professors to
design effective Wikipedia-editing assignments, and then teach students
in these classes throughout the semester how to edit Wikipedia. All
Wikipedia Ambassadors have to go through a screening/selection process
and a training.
Wikipedia Regional Ambassadors
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Regional_Ambassadors> are
crucial leaders in the Wikipedia Ambassador Program. The Regional
Ambassador role is distinct from the regular Ambassador role mentioned
above - Regional Ambassadors lead, coordinate, and facilitate the work
of the regular Ambassadors, and are also responsible for recruiting
professors (to incorporate Wikipedia-editing into their classes) and
recruiting regular Ambassadors. In other words, whereas regular
Ambassadors focus on teaching and mentoring students, Regional
Ambassadors focus on coordinating, recruiting, organizing, and leading.
This is a new (volunteer) role that provides significant leadership
development and networking opportunities. The time commitment is
approximately 3-5 hours a week.
I would highly encourage you to apply. You'll notice on the page linked
above that we've divided the U.S. into 12 "regions," each of which needs
one or more Regional Ambassadors.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me: alin [at]
wikimedia [dot] org.
Thank you!
Annie Lin
Campus Team Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation
alin(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:alin@wikimedia.org>
I thought I would share what came up on the cultural-partners list recently
(if you are not a member and would be interested in joining, check out
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/GLAM/Contact).
Recently the George Washington University Library had one of their student
interns reference Wikipedia with their authoritative biographical
information from collections records (See below for some examples) and found
that they were very successful at increasing their web traffic to the
University library resource pages. Now I know that Education oriented
outreach is generally focused on bringing in students and their instructors,
but wouldn't work-shopping librarians to take advantage of their own
resources like we have been doing with GLAMs, and then using that built up
relationship to get access to their network of media literacy types be a
useful approach for non-University members wishing to do outreach on
campuses? I think this might be a useful type of outreach event to make
Campus Ambassadors aware of, especially those not attached to Professors. As
I found last semester at JMU, the libraries always have a list of people who
are interested in new approaches to sharing their information.
I thought
Alex Stinson
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sarah Stierch <sarah.stierch(a)gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: [cultural-partners] GWU
To: Wikimedia Chapters cultural partners coordination <
cultural-partners(a)wikimedia.ch>
Hi everyone,
Here is the cut and paste email from Athena, the student I've been talking
to, and what work she's done, if you'd like to take a look!
--
1) Presidential Inaugural Medals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Inaugural_Medals
*I actually wrote this one and provided the images
2) American Veterans Committee:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Veterans_Committee
*Added information from the collection, as well as linked the article to our
Finding Aid in a hope to encourage research.
3) Clifford K. Berryman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_K._Berryman
*Added some additional information to the article, did some re-arranging to
the format, and linked it to our Digital Collections.
4) William Staughton: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Staughton
*Wrote 95% of content, added image, and linked to our online collection and
Finding Aid.
5) Gargoyle Magazine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle_Magazine
*Added some additional information and referenced our Finding Aid. I spent
a good bit of time editing the article (it was in poor condition!) and
rearranging the information to make it flow better.
If you would like to see more examples, please let me know. I just randomly
selected a wide variety of topics to illustrate our efforts. If you would
like to take a closer look at our collections, please feel free to browse
our web site: http://www.gelman.gwu.edu/collections/SCRC/research-tools. We
have large collections on George Washington University, as well as
Washingtonia.
Best,
Athena
--
Sarah Stierch Consulting
*Historical, cultural & artistic research & advising.*
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sarahstierch.com/
_______________________________________________
cultural-partners mailing list
cultural-partners(a)wikimedia.ch
http://lists.wikimedia.ch/listinfo/cultural-partners
Hi All,
I'm an IT engineer-turned-educator based in Pune and have been working on
distributing Wikipedia for Schools Offline Edition here. Have implemented
successfully at one school only so far and then got working on getting more
softwares and trying to get around installation problems that I experienced
at the second school.
But I was able to spread awareness about it pretty well. I've delivered
talks at two colleges (SICSR in Pune and NERIST in Itanagar, on other side
of India) that were having wikipedia tracks in their annual technical events
and have had a good response. We got a mention of the project in a national
newspaper. I've shared the 2.8 GB Wikipedia for Schools portable package
(made by Kiwix) with lots of people already (you'll find them on a map link
below)
I'd like to enroll myself, if possible, to go to campuses in Pune and
interact with people to spread awareness about Wikipedia for Schools and
free educational software, once the Campus Ambassador program starts
creating opportunities. I now also know basics of editing Wikipedia thanks
to the interaction with the community and attending the sessions so can take
that also. I've added my contacts to
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Offline_Projects/Volunteer_Page
Regarding Wikipedia for Schools : If you're in India, this is useful:
Here's a wiki-page I've set up to try to co-ordinate a volunteer-based drive
to spread:
http://education.wikia.com/wiki/Wikipedia_For_Schools_Offline_Edition
(short URL: http://www.tinyurl.com/WFSOE)
I need wikipedians to take what's useful on this page and copy it to a
wikimedia wiki (I wasn't aware of any of this at the time, when I started,
only saw wikipedia is for strictly encyclopedic content so went to wikia.)
And here's a wiki-map I've set up so we can track schools and more
importantly volunteers in India who can be contacted by schools and
organizations. (Jessie created one too, but I'd started this first :P and
this one is the rough draft type that everyone can add to, and we can then
move concrete data from this map to Jessie's where only I and some others
have editing access)
http://tinyurl.com/WFSOEIndiamap
About Teach for India:
After working in the IT sector for 2.5 years, I'm now joining "Teach for
India" - a 2-yr fellowship program where I'll be a full-time teacher at an
under-resourced school in Pune. The idea is to take best practices in
education to places that need them, it's very similar to "Teach for America"
and started in 2009. I'll be part of a 400+ fellows cohort and when our
training ends this June, probably everyone will have a copy of Wikipedia for
Schools along with other educational content (so send me the links!) and
we'll be spreading out across schools in Pune, Mumbai and Delhi. So here
we'll have a network of internet and computer-literate individuals ready to
implement education projects at the ground level. One big limitation is lack
of internet connectivity and up-to-date hardware ; the latter creates
problems when you want to install educational software or operating systems.
Further developments on Wikipedia for Schools:
I used the portable version created by Kiwix.org as it's better on size.
I've been in touch with the developers on bugs and feature requests and have
enrolled as a beta tester for the new versions.
The 2008/09 edition of Wikipedia for Schools is very good, but also limited
in that it has only 5500+ articles (contrast with Wikipedia en latest
selection that has 45000+) and many times topics we need aren't there. I got
introduced to one person who was working on article selection but lost that
email somewhere. It would be great if we could set up a place to check out
all present articles in their respective categories and pool in ones that
are needed. With the OpenZim format being able to do good compression, there
is now space for many more articles in Wikipedia for Schools. Please share
any link if there is a wiki page somewhere where this is being done, or
please guide me on how to set one up.
I got Okawix and downloaded Simple Wikipedia package for offline - it's got
many articles in simpler language and can be very useful for lower-age
children. But it's uncensored and so unusable. Is it possible to start a
simple wikipedia project to collect the for-schools articles, or better yet
just filter out inappropriate ones?
Just sharing what I have at present, I'm sorry if it's disorganized, do get
in touch if you find anything useful!
Cheers,
Nikhil Sheth
+91-966-583-1250
Pune, India
Teach For India <http://www.teachforindia.org/> Fellow, 2011-13
www.nikhilsheth.tk
Find me on: Twitter <http://twitter.com/nikhiljs> |
Facebook<http://www.facebook.com/nikjs>|
LinkedIn <http://in.linkedin.com/in/nikhiljs> | Google
<http://www.google.com/profiles/nikhil.js>|
RangDe<http://www.rangde.org/investor/nikhilsheth>| Youtube
<http://www.youtube.com/user/nikjs>
Join me on: Pune Documentary
Club<http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=138497769525636>| Let's
Do it Pune <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lets-do-it-Pune/103857326346659> |
Toastmasters in
Pune<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Toastmasters-in-Pune/148767611833746>|
Wikipedia
For Schools project<http://education.wikia.com/wiki/Wikipedia_For_Schools_Offline_Edition>
Hello!
If you are a student and want to become more involved with Wikimedia, be
a leader and organizer on your university campus, and interact with a
global network of like-minded students, starting a STUDENT CLUB could be
a great opportunity for you!
As many of you know, Wikipedia focused university outreach is begin to
take more and more active forms.[1] I was hoping that you would all be
the first to begin the conversations about how students clubs can
effectively become part of the larger Wikimedia movement.[2]
I would love to schedule a time on IRC for us to get together and
brainstorm ways to move forward with the student movement of
Wikip/media. Specific agenda items, time, and channel can be found on
the talk page:
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikipedia_student_clubs.
Please spread the word! All are welcome – specifically current
university & college students :)
Jessie
[1] http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_University_Program
[2] http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_student_clubs
--
Jessie Wild
Special Projects Manager
Global Development
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi All,
Here's a short update on our campus related activities:
(1) Global university program: Pune pilot started
In March, we finalized our strategy paper for the expansion of our university program activities [1]. Now, we started to kick off a Campus Ambassador Program in India. Hisham Mundol, who is leading the work in India, selected Pune as the pilot location for the India Campus Program.
Pune [2] is reported to have the largest number of colleges and universities of any city in the world: about 100 colleges and universities attended by more than 200,000 students. Also, there is a vibrant and active community of Wikipedians in Pune which will provide support to incoming editors.
Over the last few days we asked Wikipedia readers in India to apply for the role of Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors. We got hundreds of applications, of which 50 are from people in Pune.
We are now screening the applications. In the second half of May, we plan to stage the first Campus Ambassador Training in India.
(2) Students add more than 1.4 million characters to English Wikipedia in March
Recent numbers show the huge impact that Wikipedia classroom activities can have on our content: in March 2011, participants of the Public Policy Initiative [3] added more than 1.4 million characters to the article namespace on the English Wikipedia. That's more than 960 printed pages (at 1,500 characters per page).
Moreover, an first analysis conducted by Amy Roth (Research Analyst for the Public Policy Initiative) indicates that those contributions improve the article quality by 60%.
I will keep you updated on our further progress.
Frank
[1] http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_University_Program
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Pune
[3] http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Public_Policy_Initiative
Hello Everyone,
Well, it took us four emails on this list in order to reach the moment where someone started being negative in tone.
The reason we started this list was to exchange ideas in a positive atmosphere. There are incredible examples (best practices) on how to use Wikimedia content en projects in an educational setting. We can share these and point out opportunities to one another. One of the people I talked to when discussing this list stated that for him it was important that the tone of the list be positive, but above all: constructive.
Therefore this list is not a place to:
1) Antagonize one another or show a lack of respect to individuals
2) Continue crusades which are already being fought on other platforms (however just they may be)
3) Be close-minded
If people can't abide by these guidelines, please feel free to unsubscribe and "take it elsewhere". If you have suggestions for other guidelines to make this a welcoming place, feel free to mail me.
In support of Frank's suggestion I think it would be great to get together in a larger setting of some kind at wikimania. When looking at
http://wikimania2011.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Papers (PS: your deadline for adding proposals is the 30th of april)
I see a lot of educational talks. Every year we have more and more of these at Wikimania, and every year we see more cool cases and theory. Can we come up with suggestions for doing something special at Wikimania this year where we can celebrate this and have an informal get together?
Jan-Bart
On Apr 14, 2011, at 3:54 AM, Virgilio A. P. Machado wrote:
> Great idea. It will not be ready for Wikimania in Haifa, this year,
> but I just added to my list of case studies: "The crusaders against
> education in the Brazilian Wikipedia." Right now it is an unfinished
> case because the crusade is still raging at full throttle in the
> Brazilian Wikipedia, thanks to... YOU. That's right, YOU. It is all
> happening under your very noses, using the resources that the
> Wikimedia Foundation makes available to the gang that runs the
> Brazilian Wikipedia. A word of warning, also, to all the donors to
> the Wikimedia Foundation whose money is unwittingly being used to
> support that big sham called Portuguese Wikipedia. Sounds dramatic,
> exaggerated, overblown? I wouldn't believe it myself if I were not
> there, right on top of the list of those blocked to infinite for
> daring, for trying such foolish endeavor. My worst sin, I'm very
> sorry to say: being a Portuguese university professor trying to run a
> successful higher education project in a Wikipedia dominated by
> Brazilian highschoolers. In the mean time, have fun in Haifa, patting
> each other on the back for a job well done.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Virgilio A. P. Machado
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Education mailing list
> Education(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
Can the tag for this list be changed from [Education] to something like
[WikiEducation]?
--
Piotr Konieczny
"To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on
one's laurels, is defeat." --Józef Pilsudski