On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 7:02 AM, Karen Sue Rolph <karenrolph@hotmail.com> wrote:

I would make a go of this in the San Francisco Bay Area if we could get some traction going. I'll check in with a couple groups I know of, and see where they stand. Do we have an outreach tool kit ready that can be utilized, and if not, seems like an idea too?

KS Rolph

I put together a list of various outreach projects and training resources at our local outreach page that might be helpful.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_District_of_Columbia/Local_outreach

I forgot to mention that I did my first wikipedia workshop a couple weeks ago, courtesy of the DC Wikipedia Chapter Library Lab. It was for members of a national group interested in civil liberties issues. It was 2/3 women and most newbies.

Unfortunately, I spent too much time on theory and policy and too little on just getting them editing, and I can see that is the number one thing you have to do to build confidence. It's probably a good thing to get people to go through the tutorial before coming to a workshop, if at all possible. I did warn them about using a neutral sounding user name if they wanted to start an account, and most of them did. (And outline of the one day workshop is at link above, but I can see it needs exercises integrated throughout. )

I want to try it again, advertising on Craigslist, personal lists, etc, and especially trying to get retired people who already are computer savvy (there are lots in dc area) since they may have more time, not to mention expertise, etc.

I'm thinking a good place to add training module subpages - with special mention of how to attract and keep women - is on the various local Meetup pages, assuming they like the idea.

So that's that, for today.

Carol