Cross-posting to reach pan-India

Thanks

Nitika

From: Nitika Tandon [mailto:ntandon@wikimedia.org]
Sent: 06 September 2011 20:59
To: 'wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org'
Subject: Want to Help Newbie Editor Students of the India Education Program?: Inviting Online Ambassadors!

Greetings,

As many of you are aware, the Wikipedia India Education Program works with teachers and students to encourage Wikipedia in the classroom.  The basic idea is that teachers ask their students to edit Wikipedia articles instead of submitting traditional reports, assignments, etc.  Students and teachers are trained and supported and motivated by Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors - who are volunteers.  We currently have 1,000 students in the pilot we are running in Pune; the response has been amazing!

There are huge challenges also.  Most of the students have already been taught the basics of Wikipedia by their Campus Ambassadors. However, they need more help.  The workload on Campus Ambassadors is already massive (as there are hardly 20 Campus Ambassadors for 1,000 students).  It is going to keep increasing as more and more of the students start editing as we are now in the 2nd half of their semesters - and therefore closer to the last dates for their articles.  We are already increasing Campus Ambassadors numbers by 15 in the next few days - but that still won't be enough.

We're separately building a team of passionate and helpful folks - with good mentoring and teaching skills - to be Wikipedia Online Ambassadors. Online Ambassadors will help these students by providing online support and hand-holding so that the students can make high-quality contributions.  Online Ambassadors can be based anywhere in India (or indeed the world) since their interaction with students will be over the internet.

I am reaching out to you to see whether you would be interested in helping students and teachers and becoming a Wikipedia Online Ambassador.

We have two different Online Ambassador roles: Level 1 and Level 2.
• Level 1 is open to everyone - including people who have never edited Wikipedia before - and will support students on really basic Wikipedia questions.  (They will be given specific training on this.) 
• Level 2 is open to experienced Wikipedians and will support students on more advanced Wikipedia questions.

Both Level 1 and Level 2 roles will be provided orientation sessions.

Currently, all the students are working on English wikipedia.  

Passion for helping others and the ability to help newbies are the most essential qualities for both levels. For more information about these roles and what is expected of them, please see this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:India_Education_Program/Online_Ambassadors/Description. The time commitment is 3-5 hours per week on average throughout the semester (or academic term.)

I warmly invite and highly encourage you to apply to become a Wikipedia Online Ambassador! To apply, please go to: https://docs.google.com/a/wikimedia.org/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEdtdG5ObU9mMm5oZno3MExDc3lEZHc6MA - by Monday, September 12th (earlier is better), and we will be in touch very soon about next steps. If you have any questions, please do reach out to me either on this mailing list or offlist.  

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!

Thank you so very much! I look forward to your application.

Sincerely,
Nitika Tandon