I just found out about this list from Frank's blog
post<http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/08/02/global-education-program-a%E2%80%93z/>,
and I'm happy to have finally found the place I was looking for! I have
already met some of you in person in Boston, and I'm very excited about
exchanging experiences and ideas with all of you.
For those of you whom I haven't met, my name is Juliana Bastos Marques, and
I teach History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State
(UNIRIO<http://www.unirio.br>).
On Aug. 15th I'm starting a course on topics in Roman History and editing
the Portuguese WP - for undergraduates, approx. 20 students. The state of
History articles in WP:PT is still not so good, and frankly quite bad in
some cases. As you may know, students from all levels do use that sort of
material anyway, so my primary goal is to have them understand how to read
sources more critically and improve them in a more adequate matter.
I'm blogging the steps in this initiative, so in the case anyone wants to
try your Portuguese or test Google Translator, it's
http://wikipedianauniversidade.blogspot.com/ - readership is still low, but
I'm confident that the initiative will pay soon. As I've written there, I'm
still worried because I have no Campus Ambassador whatsoever - the only guy
who seemed interested doesn't reply to my emails. I think I'll have to do
that part all by myself.
Greetings,
Juliana.
Hey Guys
Would like to make a plug for a scholarship we have available here in Canada
for post secondary students. Applications begin Sept 10th, 2011 with the
award being given to the student who makes the greatest contribution to a
disease related article. Am looking for people wishing to get involved with
spreading this. An overview can be found here
http://wikimedia.ca/wiki/Projects/Medical_student_outreach Have put together
a bit of a press release:
Wikimedia Canada is offering a $1000 dollar scholarship to the Canadian post
secondary student who makes the greatest improvement to a disease related
article on Wikipedia. Applications open Sept 10th 2011 and run until Feb
28th 2012 and can be found online at
http://wikimedia.ca/wiki/Scholarship_application
Wikipedia, as most are aware, is the free online encyclopedia that covers
nearly everything, almost anyone can edit, and nearly everybody reads. As of
Aug 2011 it had over 3.7 million articles in the English language alone, of
which approximately 23,000 pertained to the practice of medicine. These
medical pages in a given month receive between 150 and 200 million page
views and are being used extensively by medical professionals and the lay
public alike.
While Wikipedia has significant quality information, further efforts are
needed. Of the top 100 most viewed medical articles, only a quarter are
deemed high quality. Thus those at WikiProject Medicine invite you to join
us in our attempt to provide the people of the world with free access to
reliable, understandable, and current health information and maybe win a
scholarship while you are at it.
Comments? Anyone else looking at this sort of initiative? This is being run
as a pilot project and hopefully will present at next years Wikimania on the
results.
--
James Heilman, MD, CCFP(EM)
Wikipedian, Wikimedia Canada
Hello all,
Pardon my cross-list posting, but I want to be sure that this news makes it
out to all those who might be interested.
This coming Saturday the Children's Museum of Indianapolis will be hosting
our first Edit-a-Thon, in conjunction with our second Backstage Pass for
local Wikipedians. This will be similar to the Editing Fridays that were set
up for the Campus Ambassadors in that anyone can come and help contribute to
this handful of articles.
I would be thrilled to have anyone interested in participating online to
sign up on our Edit-a-Thon page and plan to be in virtual-attendance from
1pm-3pm ET (optional 5pm) on Saturday. Here you can sign up & learn about
our topic, the Caplan Collection of folk toys and Creative Playthings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/TCMI/Caplan_Collection
We will have a good many sources digitized by Saturday so that online
e-volunteers can work in conjunction with our on-site Wikipedians to help us
create and improve articles relating to the Caplan Collection, which is made
up of folk toys from all over the world.
Part of this event includes the newly minted Wikipedia club and WM:Mexico
skyping in and translating our already existing articles into Spanish as we
work on creating new articles. This is a great way for the students to gain
English skills and for the museum to connect with and serve a community that
they otherwise would not have had easy, direct access to.
I'd appreciate you passing on this request to anyone that you may think to
be interested.
Thanks much,
--
Lori Phillips
Web Content Specialist | Wikipedian in Residence
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
703-489-6036 | Museums & Motherhood <http://hstryqt.tumblr.com>
Hello all,
Pardon my cross-list posting, but I want to be sure that this news makes it
out to all those who might be interested.
This coming Saturday the Children's Museum of Indianapolis will be hosting
our first Edit-a-Thon, in conjunction with our second Backstage Pass for
local Wikipedians. This will be similar to the Editing Fridays that were set
up for the Campus Ambassadors in that anyone can come and help contribute to
this handful of articles.
I would be thrilled to have anyone interested in participating online to
sign up on our Edit-a-Thon page and plan to be in virtual-attendance from
1pm-3pm ET (optional 5pm) on Saturday. Here you can sign up & learn about
our topic, the Caplan Collection of folk toys and Creative Playthings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/TCMI/Caplan_Collection
We will have a good many sources digitized by Saturday so that online
e-volunteers can work in conjunction with our on-site Wikipedians to help us
create and improve articles relating to the Caplan Collection, which is made
up of folk toys from all over the world.
Part of this event includes the newly minted Wikipedia club and WM:Mexico
skyping in and translating our already existing articles into Spanish as we
work on creating new articles. This is a great way for the students to gain
English skills and for the museum to connect with and serve a community that
they otherwise would not have had easy, direct access to.
I'd appreciate you passing on this request to anyone that you may think to
be interested.
Thanks much,
--
Lori
703.489.6036 | Museums & Motherhood <http://hstryqt.tumblr.com/>
Hi all,
I am more than happy to share this announcement with you.
We are about to wrap up the Public Policy Initiative and at the same time, the Wikimedia Foundation will launch a Global Education Program. Our goal will be to take the learnings from the Public Policy Initiative and expand our activities in the field of education globally.
Over the next few days, I will publish some articles on the Foundation's blog (blog.wikimedia.org) and give you more information.
All the best,
Frank
Anfang der weitergeleiteten E-Mail:
> Von: Sue Gardner <sgardner(a)wikimedia.org>
> Betreff: [WMF Staff] Announcement: Wrap-up of PPI and launch of GEP
> Datum: 27. Juli 2011 16:40:57 GMT-07:00
> An: WMF Staff List <staff(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
>
> Hi folks,
>
> The purpose of this note is to update you all on the status of the
> Public Policy Initiative.
>
> First, a little background. The PPI is a 17-month-long project funded
> by a restricted grant from our friends at the Stanton Foundation, and
> staffed by our colleagues Frank, Annie, LiAnna, Rod, Amy, Sage and
> Mishelle. (And also in an earlier phase of the project, Pete Forsyth.)
> Its purpose was to improve the quality of articles on public policy
> topics in the English Wikipedia, by supporting university professors
> in assigning article improvement to their students as coursework. In
> running the project, the Wikimedia Foundation hoped to develop
> scalable mechanisms for improving article quality on any topic in any
> language, working with Wikipedians, students and their professors.
>
> The PPI is coming to a close: it officially wraps up at the end of
> September. And I'm delighted to tell you it's been a huge success.
>
> First and importantly, the project actually successfully drove up the
> quality of public policy articles, which was by no means a slam-dunk.
> Over the course of the project, 800 students added 1.8 million
> characters of text to Wikipedia, and the quality of articles they
> worked on improved by 140%. (You can read more about that in LiAnna's
> blog post here:
> http://blog.wikimedia.org/2011/06/08/public-policy-initiative-wraps-up-pilo….)
>
> What's even better, though, is that the PPI successfully laid a
> foundation for future activities in more countries and more languages.
> The project was a solid proof-of-concept, demonstrating that
> class-based university programs can be a highly successful model for
> making Wikipedia articles better and for recruiting people to do
> editing work. The incentives for students and professors are clear and
> persuasive. (Students think Wikipedia is fun, and they like the idea
> that somebody will read their work who isn't paid to do it. Professors
> like it when their students are engaged, and they enjoy being
> associated with something innovative and ground-breaking.) Wikipedians
> are willing to do ambassador work, and they're really good at it.
> There are a variety of tools and supports needed to make the model
> work, and thanks to the PPI and its participants, we know what they
> are, and we're equipped to provide them.
>
> So. In this note, I want to thank the staff of the PPI: Frank, Pete,
> Annie, LiAnna, Rod, Amy, Sage and Mishelle. I'd also like to thank
> Sara Crouse, who worked with Frank, Pete, Erik and me to develop the
> initial proposal. It was a great project.
>
> And I want to announce what happens next. This is not exactly news,
> because it appears in the 2011-12 plan and probably lots of other
> places too, by now. But officially: I am happy to tell you that as a
> result of the success of the PPI, we are launching this year a new
> Global Education Program, that will be funded not by a restricted
> grant, but out of the Wikimedia Foundation operating budget. Its
> purpose is to support our strategic goals of growing the number of
> active Wikimedia editors and improving the quality of information we
> offer, by persuading professors to assign article-writing as classwork
> using the PPI model. Its work will start this fall, and its priorities
> in the coming year will be India and Brazil, with a lesser emphasis on
> Canada, Germany and the U.K. Whereas the Public Policy Initiative had
> a narrow topical focus, the new Global Education Program will
> encourage participation from all disciplines. There are already people
> pounding at its door :-)
>
> The Global Education Program will be led by Frank Schulenburg, who is
> being promoted into a new role of Global Education Program Director,
> reporting to Barry. Annie Lin will join the staff of the Foundation as
> Global Education Program Manager and LiAnna Davis will join as Global
> Education Program Communications Manager. Both will report to Frank.
> Rod Dunican will support the group as a consultant, leading Ambassador
> training on a part-time basis.
>
> I want to congratulate and thank everybody who worked on the PPI.
> Really, it was excellent, inspiring work. You broke new ground for the
> Wikimedia movement, and what you learned through your 17 months of
> experimentation and building is going to be critically important as we
> work towards driving up editor recruitment and retention.
>
> And my special fond congratulations to Frank, our outreach pioneer. In
> the early days of PPI planning, Frank, Erik, Sara and I had some late
> nights nailing down the overall shape of the project, and I know there
> were times when Frank doubted the project could succeed. He knew the
> expectations were high. But through a combination of ingenuity and
> sheer persistence, he made it work – really, really well. Thank you,
> Frank :-)
>
> Thanks,
> Sue
>
>
>
> --
> Sue Gardner
> Executive Director
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
> 415 839 6885 office
> 415 816 9967 cell
>
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
> the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
>
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
>
> _______________________________________________
> Staff mailing list
> Staff(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/staff
--
Frank Schulenburg
Global Education Program Director
Wikimedia Foundation
Cell: +1 (415) 407-9423
Email: frank(a)wikimedia.org
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
cross-posting as you might find it interesting. apologies if you've seen it on other mailing lists
Hisham Mundol
Wikimedia India Programs
skype : hisham.wikimedia
gtalk : hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
twitter : @mundol
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Hisham Mundol <hmundol(a)wikimedia.org>
> Date: June 21, 2011 5:00:50 PM GMT+05:30
> To: India Mailing list for Wikimedians in Pune <wikimedia-in-pun(a)lists.wikimedia.org>, Wikimedia India Community list <wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Cc: Wikipedia Ambassadors India <wikipedia-ambassadors-india(a)googlegroups.com>
> Subject: Update on Wikipedia India Education Program: Report & Project Page
>
> Hi Folks
>
> Here's a report on the Wikipedia India Education Program: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/India_…
>
> In (very) short summary, it's been an action packed 4-5 weeks, the team has done a huge amount of groundwork - and there appears to be significant potential. Do go through the report for further details.
>
> ...I've tried to make the report as interesting to read as possible - and focus on the learnings and implications for a national roll-out (instead of making it a random list summarising various activities.)
>
> Do let me have your views on the mailing lists or the Talk Page.
>
> (A project page has also been set up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Pune but I hasten to add that it is in early stages of construction. ...but do keep visiting it. Finger crossed, it's going to get very busy, very soon!)
>
> I'd like to thank everyone from the community who have helped out so amazingly!
>
> Best
>
> Hisham Mundol
>
> Wikimedia India Programs
> skype : hisham.wikimedia
> gtalk : hmundol(a)wikimedia.org
> twitter : @mundol
>
I saw this at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/POLENG
Highlights:
* "I hope you won't delete it, because I won't get a grade for it..."
* "But Please please please don't delete it till wednesday evening, than
after that if it's still wrong you can delete it."
Wen evening was the 6th. The student last edits are from the 6th.
Sigh.
Oh, and it appears that it is a class by one of those instructors who
don't really "grok" Wikipedia (assigning students to write articles on
potentially non-notable article, lack of participation in Wikipedia
themselves...).
Sigh.
On a constructive note, I wonder if we should try to contact people at
Bremen who may know who taught the course, so they can be informed about
our programs? I'd bet on the student following our suggestions and
passing the info on the projects to the professor.
http://www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/anglistik/langpro/projects/gem/projteam.html
--
Piotr Konieczny
"To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on
one's laurels, is defeat." --Józef Pilsudski
Dear all,
I have just finished my second "teaching with Wikipedia" article. I'd
like to publish it in an established academic journal that, if possible,
supports open content. Unfortunately, I do not have much experience with
this sector of the journals (teaching/education/pedagogy journals), nor
with journal impact magic, and thus I'd very much appreciate your
suggestions where to publish. I have, of course, quickly Google'd few
open content teaching journals, but I admit, selfishly, that entering
the job market, I'd prefer my CV to include, if possible, higher-end
journals...
(In my sociology field, the most respected educational journal,
"Teaching Sociology", is, sadly, not open content...).
If anybody is interested in reading and commenting on my article in
question (tentatively titled "Wikis and Wikipedia as a Teaching Tool:
Five Years Later"), I have made it available on Google Docs (just let me
know and I'll send you a link, and enable commenting for your account).
PS. My old 2007 article (titled, unsurprisingly, "Wikis and Wikipedia as
a Teaching Tool") was published here:
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_07/article02.htm
I am still content with it for what it was in 2007, but by 2011, it is,
I'll be the first to admit it, rather obsolete.
--
Piotr Konieczny
PhD Candidate
Dept of Sociology
Uni of Pittsburgh
"To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on
one's laurels, is defeat." --Józef Pilsudski
Hi folks in the education & offline content communities,
as you probably know, Kiwix is an offline reader application for ZIM
files, which are compressed content packages of Wikipedia content for
offline use. ZIM content packages include the "Wikipedia for Schools"
selection, the "Wikipedia 0.8" edition, as well as any arbitrary
collection of Wikipedia articles through the "Create a book" feature
on Wikipedia. As such, they have relevance both for use of our content
without Internet connectivity, and use within an educational setting
where there may be a desire to use specific selections of content.
An important conversation happening on the Kiwix development list (see
email form Tomasz below): How should repositories/feeds of content
packages be advertised? This connects to larger/deeper questions about
the future direction of our offline efforts, possible inclusion of
other educational resources beyond Wikimedia content, feedback
channels, etc. (I'll share some more detailed thoughts about those
issues soon.)
If you have thoughts re: this first spec (e.g. existing metadata
standards that would be useful here -- keep in mind this is highly
iterative development), feel free to comment here and we'll pass
through important conversations, or participate directly on the Kiwix
dev list.
All best,
Erik
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tomasz Finc <tfinc(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: Sun, May 15, 2011 at 3:41 PM
Subject: Content manager feed format
To: kiwix-developer(a)lists.sourceforge.net
Cc: Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org>
Greetings All,
Today Emmanuel posted the first version of the content manager feed
format at http://kiwix.org/index.php/FeedFormat. This is the first
draft of the XML (like) spec for anyone wanting to publish a feed that
Kiwix can understand. For those unfamiliar with the project its part
of our current efforts to build out a content manager as documented in
http://kiwix.org/index.php/WMF_UX_Improvement_Effort
Were looking to write and implement a spec within our current efforts
so that we can eventually have numerous content providers publish
content available to Kiwix and any OER tools.
Were especially curious to find anyone who's worked with atom and rss
feeds since this will share some similar attributes.
Please help us refine it by commenting and helping us get to our first version.
--tomasz
--
Erik Möller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate