Public Outreach: Report and Newsletter (05/08) Status: 30 May 2008 Prepared by: Frank Schulenburg Content: 1. ENCOURAGING UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS * Survey Generation 50plus * Workshops for senior citizen internet tutors * Lecture at the course "Manager for virtual learning projects in seniors' education in Europe" * Online course "Wikipedia in internet cafés for older people" * Workshops in Africa supported by Namibian ambassador * UCT and UWC declared interest to stage Wikipedia workshops at Capetown, South Africa 2. WIKIPEDIA ACADEMY SERIES * Third German Wikipedia Academy in Berlin 3. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES * Outlook: Production of Wikipedia video tutorials 4. PARTNERSHIPS * Partnership with ZAWiW (Centre for General Scientific Education) 5. GRANTS AND FUNDING * Wikimedia Deutschland: New budget for international outreach activities 6. UPCOMING * Lecture at the University of Hildesheim (06/2008) * Workshop at the 13th Annual Conference of the Society for Media in Science, Danube University of Krems (09/2008) Contact ---------- 1. UNDERREPRESENTED GROUPS SURVEY GENERATION 50PLUS A survey conducted among older German Wikipedians in March 2008 treats the question of how to encourage senior citizens of the 50-plus age group to contribute. The participants answered to the following questions: * How much time do you spend on reading Wikipedia articles / editing Wikipedia / contributing to discussions per day? * What ist your motivation to contribute to Wikipedia? * What are the specific problems older people have to deal with when contributing to Wikipedia? * What keeps older people from contributing to Wikipedia? * How do you rate the findability and comprehensibility of Wikipedia's help pages? * Which measures fit best to help older people to start contributing to Wikipedia? * Have you ever motivated other older people to contribute to Wikipedia? * Would you be willing to give Wikipedia introductions to other older people (e.g. workshops, lectures) * How do you rate the Wikimedia Foundation's efforts to encourage contributions from older people? The survey is part of the Wikimedia Foundation's strategy to encourage contributions from targeted underrepresented groups. Summary of the results: It is not so much technical barriers what keeps older people from contributing, but a lack of self-confidence, lack of personal contact persons and an atmoshere of conflict and stress. Even if some usability problems exist (e.g. templates, infoboxes and tables are too difficult to handle), these problems are not age-specific. What distinguishes senior citizens from younger people is the size of their "biographical backpack". Many of them are used to hierarchical structures they experienced during their working life. As Wikipedia's internal structures and work flows are subject to frequent changes, outreach material for senior citizens should list a number of good arguments why openness is important for a lively web project like Wikipedia. Outreach material should also give reasonable answers to the question "Why should I sacrifice my time by contributing to Wikipedia?" Generativity as well as the possibility to learn by teaching others are important motivational factors for senior citizens. Many participants of the survey are willing to help. This is a big opportunity: older Wikipedians are much more convincing for people of their age and may give them more self-confidence ("If he/she succeeded to contribute at his/her age - why shouldn't I be able to do the same?"). Senior citizens are an auspicious target group - not only because of their bigger time budget but also due to their knowledge and experiences. Outreach activities should refer to existing structures ("Wiki-adoption"), concentrate on measures that are most likely to satisfy the needs of older people (printed material) and try to achieve sustainability by encouraging volunteerism. WORKSHOPS FOR SENIOR CITIZEN INTERNET TUTORS On March 17 and 18 I held a lecture and two Wikipedia workshops for senior citizen internet tutors in Bad Urach, Germany. Senior citizen internet tutors are older people with an above-average understanding of computer issues who teach internet skills to people of their age. Around 60 participants from various organisations active in the field of adult education attended the workshops. LECTURE AT THE COURSE "MANAGER FOR VIRTUAL LEARNING PROJECTS IN SENIORS' EDUCATION IN EUROPE" On April 24 I held a lecture at the course "Manager for virtual learning projects in seniors' education in Europe", an introductory course of the european Grundtvig lifelong learning programme. The Grundtvig programme seeks to respond to the challenges raised by the necessity to update knowledge and to provide adults with pathways to improve their know-how and competences, as they progress through life so that they can adapt to changes in the labour market and society. The workshop was intended for those who wish to apply the new information and communication media in seniors' education. The participants belonged to an important target group as they act as multipliers for information about new media in their respective countries. ONLINE COURSE "WIKIPEDIA IN INTERNET CAFÉS FOR OLDER PEOPLE" An online course entitled "Wikipedia in internet cafés for older people" has been developed by de:User:Lyzzy, Christian Carls of the "Forum Seniorenarbeit NRW" and me [1]. The course is intended for volunteers in internet cafés for older people who are willing to stage Wikipedia workshops on their own. The course will start on 9 June 2008 and will be funded in parts by the German Wikimedia Chapter. During the first weeks we will teach the participants the basics of how to edit Wikipedia articles. In a second phase we will develop a concept for Wikipedia courses for senior citizens. After six weeks the participants should be able to act as Wikipedia evangelists and motivate other people of their age to contribute to Wikipedia. A map [2] drawn by commons:User:Lencer illustrates the internet use of people between 55 and 74 years of age in Europe. If the course succeeds, its concept can be transferred to other European countries with an above-average internet usage rate among people of the 50-plus age group. WORKSHOPS IN AFRICA SUPPORTED BY NAMIBIAN AMBASSADOR On 14 March I met the Namibian ambassador at Berlin. We talked about the Foundation's plans to stage more Wikipedia startup workshops in Africa and he showed great interest in the opportunity to document African history and culture in the African-language Wikipedias. The ambassador will write letters of recommendation to both the Namibian government and the University of Namibia in Windhoek to support our goals and activities. Furthermore he invited me to attend the next regular meeting of the African ambassadors at Berlin to present our plans to a bigger number of representatives of African countries. UCT AND UWC DECLARED INTEREST TO STAGE WIKIPEDIA WORKSHOPS AT CAPETOWN The University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) declared their interest to stage Wikipedia workshops in 2008. I'm in contact with a representative of the Multilingual Education Programme (MEP) at UCT and with the Dean of the Faculty of Education at UWC and will develop a programme for the events within the next month. ----- 2. WIKIPEDIA ACADEMY SERIES THIRD GERMAN WIKIPEDIA ACADEMY IN BERLIN Next month the third German Wikipedia Academy [3] will take place at Berlin. The event is organised by Wikimedia Deutschland in partnership with the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (the formerly Prussian Academy of Sciences, founded in 1700 by the German polymath Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz). Under the motto "Mathematics. Knowledge. Wikipedia" the event will be official part of the German "Year of Mathematics", an annual event organized by the German Ministry for Education and Research that started in 2000 and focussing on a different discipline each year. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research will support the event with funds. ----- 3. NEW EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL OUTLOOK: PRODUCTION OF WIKIPEDIA VIDEO TUTORIALS Video tutorials make learning much easier than printed material or online help pages. We will try to use this effect by producing two initial videos demonstrating the basics of Wikipedia editing. On 28 April I met some professionals of a film production company which has a track record of developing short films and online videos (amongst their customers is Greenpeace). They submitted a quote for the production of two videos, 3-4 minutes each. As the board of Wikimedia Deutschland agreed to take over the costs, we will begin with the pre-production within the next weeks. ----- 4. PARTNERSHIPS PARTNERSHIP WITH ZAWIW The Wikimedia Foundation and the ZAWiW will collaborate in the development of learning material suitable to encourage contributions to Wikipedia from senior citizens. The Zentrum für Allgemeine Wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung (ZAWiW, Centre for General Scientific Education) [4] is a centre of learning specialised in the development of innovative education programs for seniors. Located in Ulm, Germany, the ZAWiW was founded by the University of Ulm in 1994. It was a reaction on the increasing request for general multidisciplinary education for adults of any age, especially in the "third age". Among the objectives ZAWiW has been * qualifying seniors for new tasks and activities in society, economy and science * encouraging self-directed learning supported by new information and communication technologies * showing the usefulness and improving the use of new communication technologies for seniors and organisations of senior education At the European level ZAWiW coordinates education programs like "eLearning in Later Life" (eLiLL), SeniorLearning and ICT4T. ----- 5. GRANTS AND FUNDING WIKIMEDIA DEUTSCHLAND: NEW BUDGET FOR INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH ACTIVITIES On 15 March a board meeting of Wikimedia Deutschland took place at Berlin. The German board decided to increase its budget for international outreach activities in 2008 as part of its commitment for the global promotion of free knowledge. Amongst other things the money will allow the Wikimedia Foundation to support its chapters with printed versions of the brochure "Das kleine Wikipedia-Einmaleins" ("Wikipedia basics", an introduction for beginners) [5]. A Swedish version of the brochure is in preparation. ----- 6. UPCOMING LECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HILDESHEIM (06/2008) A Wikipedia lecture for senior citizens will take place on 10 June 2008 at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. Around 80 participants of the 50-plus age group will attend. WORKSHOP AT THE 13TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR MEDIA IN SCIENCE (09/2008) Under the motto "Open Trends in Higher Education: Imperatives and Challenges" the 13th Annual Conference of the Society for Media in Science will take place at the Danube University Krems, Austria from September, 16-18 2008. The conference is directed towards researchers, lecturers, and persons in decision making positions who are involved in technologically supported learning and are interested in recent developments in theory and practice. Dr. Klaus Wannemacher, consultant at the Higher Education Information System (the Higher Education Information System (HIS) supports German institutions of higher education and their administrations as well as higher education policy-makers in their efforts to fulfil their tasks effectively) and me will participate at the pre-conference with a workshop entitled "Wikipedia in University Teaching - sharing knowledge being (too) easy?". Topics will be the increasing plagiarism practiced by students copying and pasting Wikipedia articles into their own works and the opportunities to integrate Wikipedia in academic teaching (ie. encouraging students to write Wikipedia articles as part of University courses). The outcome of the workshop shall be published as a brochure for University staff members. ----- CONTACT Frank Schulenburg Public Outreach Coordinator Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Phone: +49 551 2726447 Cell: +49 172 5635243 Skype: fschulenburg E-mail: fschulenburg[at]wikimedia.org ----- Weblinks and notes: [1] http://www.forum-seniorenarbeit.de/index.phtml?sNavID=373.120&mNavID=37… [2] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Use_of_Internet_in_European_Union_2… [3] Programme (in German): http://www.wikipedia-academy.de/2008/programm.php [4] http://www.uni-ulm.de/uni/fak/zawiw/startseite/en [5] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Einmaleins.pdf (5.4 MB) NB. This mail address is used for public mailing lists. Personal emails sent to this address will get lost. _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l

Thanks, Frank. I find this kind of activity very interesting and important to the continued growth of our projects. Are there previous reports and newsletters available somewhere? Is there some page devoted to the outreach efforts? Harel