Dear Pune Community
This is a long mail but there is much to cover. I'm writing with an update on the India Education Program - and to ask for support from you as we roll it out.
a) Campus Ambassadors
We have finished going through the ~70 applications we have received from Pune for Campus Ambassadors. I have interviewed more than half of them. I am pleased to report that we have asked 22 to join us at this stage in becoming Campus Ambassadors.
There are other opportunities for the other applicants, as well as the ~20 others who enquired but didn't apply. We will be in touch with them shortly regarding starting Student Clubs or WikiClubs or other means of participation. In any case, we invited all of them the (very successful) Pune community meet-up last Saturday. My guess is that at least 40 people attended from the Campus Ambassador applicants/enquirers.
This is the first batch of Campus Ambassadors and we will have subsequent batches. Indeed, I have asked some people from the ones who applied to learn more about Wikimedia projects, learn about Wikipedia editing, try their hands at editing and (on your behalf) invited them to join the community - and then consider reapplying if they are not currently ready.
I'd like to thank Pune Community for making an incredible effort to invite and welcome all applicants/enquirers into your fold. Ashwin in particular has been amazing! I know many others have also helped out, so thank you to everyone!
b) Additional Support
We have received 2 offers of help from PJ Tabit and Srikeit Tadepalli. PJ [[User:Pjthepiano]] is from Georgetown University in the US, is an existing Campus Ambassador for the Public Policy Initiative and is part of the Campus Ambassador Council in the US. In between academic years, PJ has offered to come down to Pune for 2 3/4 months starting June 2011 to support the India Education Program. Srikeit [[User:Srikeit]] is a long-time Wikipedia and is probably known to many of you. He is pursuing an academic course in Pune and has offered to work part-time for 1 year starting June 2011. We are extremely pleased to have both of them support us and you in what is an exciting and challenging program. Please feel free to reach out to them!
In addition, Jessie Wild supports Student Clubs at WMF and she's eager to help establish them in India. Please feel free to reach out to Jessie!
c) Campus Ambassador Training
We plan to hold a 2 day Campus Ambassador training session on June 4-5. In this, we hope to cover the basics of Wikimedia projects, "How to Edit Wikipedia", how to teach students to edit Wikipedia, how to work with professors to implement Wikipedia-editing assignments, tips around conducting outreach on campus, public speaking & classroom management skills as well as other subjects.
d) Meetings & Visits
I am planning to come down to Pune next week between May 17th to 20th to do some more groundwork for the India Education Program.
Frank Schulenberg (who heads up the Global Education Program for WMF) and Annie Lin (who heads up the Global Ambassador Program for WMF) will be visiting Pune from May 31st to June 7th. They are coming to help out with the Campus Ambassador training as well as to hold meetings with education authorities, professors & teachers as well as students to support the Pune Pilot of the India Education Program. It would be really nice if I could host a community get together while they are here. I'll be in touch on this. Please feel free to reach out to them!
Professor Bob Cummings is also visiting Pune between June 13th - 17th. He is Director of the Center for Writing and Rhetoric and the University of Mississippi, has participated as a Professor in the Public Policy Initiative and is also on the the Advisory Board for WMF's Public Policy Initiative. He'll be here to hold meetings with education authorities, professors & teachers as well as students to support the Pune Pilot of the India Education Program. It will be useful to establish the credibility of the program with authorities and teaching staff by having a Professor who has actually conducted the program in his class talk to them about it. While he is here, I am going to try and organise 1 or 2 mini workshops for authorities and teaching staff that will help a larger group interact with Bob.
(I'll be in Pune during the visits of Frank, Annie and Bob.)
e) Community Requests
It would be really really good if interested community members can volunteer to help out on Campus Ambassador trainings planned for June 4-5. For example, this could be how to conduct the "How to edit Wikipedia" sessions, any other sessions or other help during the workshops. Please do get in touch with and let me know. We need all the help we can get!
Even if you can't actively support the training, please do attend the sessions to get to know the Campus Ambassadors; I am sure they would love the opportunity! I'll work out a convenient time slot for those who can't attend the full 2 days. I'll be in touch shortly on this.
Another aspect where we need help is in mentoring Campus Ambassadors and students. This would be on part-time basis but for a relatively longer period (both to be determined by your time availability.) Again, please do get in touch with me and let me know of your interest. We need all the help we can get!!
A third area where we need help is on getting contacts and introductions to as many education authorities (e.g., principals, deans, heads of departments, etc.) as well as professors & teachers in Pune who might be interested. Would you be kind enough to get in touch with me offline with these contacts and we can work out the best way of reaching them?
Please also let me know if there is any other way you would like to get involved. If you want to get involved and don't know how, give me a shout and I'm sure we can work something out. We need all the help we can get!!!
f) Other Next Steps
We are in the process of sending out formal notes to various colleges, institutes and universities in Pune regarding this program. This will outline the program and request time to have 1-on-1 meetings with them over the course of the next 3 weeks.
It is expected that we will start the actual work at colleges, institutes and universities asap after the Campus Ambassador training. However, it is likely that there will be some time and effort to onboard teachers and students - and so actual editing might only start a few weeks after this.
Warm Regards,
Hisham Mundol Wikimedia Foundation India Programs skype: hisham.wikimedia gtalk: hmundol@wikimedia.org twitter: @mundol