As well as beefing up the main page, I first reported this here after
being asked to do the first workshop, which really got me thinking about
training. (Besides what I'd been reading about discussing on the
GenderGap wikimedia mailing list)
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_District_of_Columbia/Local_ou…
Discussed in person and via email with Katie F. and created a One Day
Workshop outline which we used during the workhop (now updated to be
more general):
http://wikimediadc.org/wiki/One_day_training
I then reported here on it, text below:
http://wikimediadc.org/wiki/Talk:One_day_training
/We had 11 new editors show, only two with accounts or some editing
experience. While they appreciated the overview of Wikipedia
policies and procedures, they also were hot to try to edit. Most
wanted to and did create accounts and were very interested in
creating a sandbox and/or personal cheat sheet page. /
/So I can see the need to integrate simple exercises earlier in the
program. Going through one tutorial page at a time probably a good
idea. Getting them to try do it at home before the workshop even a
better idea! So I'll study those more and how to integrate them. I
made a few changes to outline for now to make it more generic and
will do more soon. /
/They are a group of people involved in a network of groups that
work on civil liberties articles, especially about high profile
individuals they feel were entrapped into crime. Katie and I
stressed how important it is to put the interest of the encyclopedia
first and to work on different types of articles, and that's one way
to ensure you are a better editor on the articles of interest to you
and to keep from getting frustrated with those. I gave them tips on
how to work together on Wikiprojects like Wikipedia:WikiProject
Human rights. I will continue helping them to do that. Hope to do
another one in later February for a more general interest type of
potential editor, hopefully computer-savvy retired individuals
(especially professionals) looking for something to do in their
spare time. Will start looking for recruits in various ways soon./
(end report)
Also inspired by the workshop was the idea of strongly encouraging
newbie editors to go through the whole tutorial before the workshop and
having at least two veteran editors/trainers helping newer editors with
issues on their laptops.
I also noticed Feb 4th is a proposed day for a workshop, but since I see
there's a board meeting the next day and time is getting short, probably
the next week is better. I'd propose doing a meetup that at least is
partially training for new editors and/or a discussion of how we can
organizing out reach and training. I'm particularly interested in
outreaching to some of the thousands of DC area recent retirees who are
computer savvy and looking for fun activities to fill their time, as
well as to women and to the hundreds of activists on my various lists,
some of whom doubtless are already editing and not doing a sufficiently
NPOV job.
So that's what I have to say for now, but am still exploring the various
existing Wikimedia outreach and training programs to beef up the WikiDC
page(s).
Carol in dc