and this is where I feel a little stupid because Arnav has been hounding me for answers to
these very same questions for a while now, and I have been lax. Arnav, apologies and
please see inline...
hisham
On Dec 3, 2011, at 3:02 PM, Arnav Sonara wrote:
Hello,
This is User:Rangilo_Gujarati here basically from Gujarat and now in Pune, am planning an
outreach event most probably a workshop in MS University Baroda, Gujarat during their
forthcoming technical festival Footprints. Also am the Campus Ambassador for India
Education Program too, I need some input from you guys.
The organizers of this event have basically no idea about what a community is or how WP
works, since I ll be targeting newbies I am planning to start from Introduction to WP,
then an editing session and main motto behind this would be to start an active community
in Baroda or Gujarat and get the contributors to EN and GU WP and commons too.
Now the organizers are asking few questions like "Why anyone should attend
it?",
Wikipedia is (arguably) the worlds most popular source
of knowledge. It is entirely free to use. Globally 450+ million read Wikipedia articles
every month - and in India, betwen 15-17 million people read it every month. Few people
however know about how content actually reaches Wikipedia. Folks attending will get an
insight and introduction into how content gets onto Wikipedia as well as basic
introductions on how they can contribute content and links with local community members
who can support them if they choose to edit.
People attending will get an opportunity to learn a little bit about participating in
this fascinating free knowledge project and join tens of thousands of committed, learned
and high-minded community members all over the world in their quest to spread spread free
knowledge to every single human being on the planet.
Folks who edit wikipedia gain tremendous pride and satisfaction from their contributions.
Folks who start to edit Wikipedia learn amazing things as they start their editing
journey - including better writing ability, richer critical thinking and stronger research
skills. These are all incredibly useful in their academic and professional and indeed
personal lives.
"What would be the exclusivity of the workshop?",
I'd play this a little differently. If they are really keen on exclusivity, one can
always say that while we conduct workshops and academies and meetups, the numbers are
relatively small. (My guess on workshops and academies is that we might have conducted
<50 in the last year.) In a country like India, <50 is hugely exclusive!
Given it is a festival, and there are likely to be
students from other colleges, not sure we can (or want to make it exclusive for that
college.)
"How can we (university and attendees) be benefited from this?".
Please see the last point on the question, "Why should anyone attend?" ...For
the University, you can rattle of the list of the kind of colleges that have worked with
us globally. Some of them are really well known and are available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Cour…
and include Columbia, Georgetown, George Washington, New York, California-Berkely, Yale,
etc. etc. etc.
They are worried too much about
"exclusivity", how to convince them that these type of sessions are some thing
more than "exclusively in Footprints", "first time in gujarat" ??
Sometimes, the questions they are raising are best answered in person or on the phone. If
you need me to speak to them, or even come down in person, happy to do that. Just let me
know. I shall reach out to you and sort out the letter from. (...and yes, I know I have
delayed the letter to you.)
Since I have no experience in conducting an outreach
workshop independently I want your feedback on it, and what possibly should I answer
them?.
Please do reply with your valuable suggestions/critics.