hi,<br><br>Responding to the conduct of WikiAcademy question inline.<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div><br><blockquote type="cite"><span style="border-collapse:separate;font-family:Helvetica;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;font-size:medium"><div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma">
<div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>We could have a photography event (which we call Wiki loves monuments) and get students to get us images. We already have rules for the event and we can arrange a small prize or swags. That way, you don&#39;t have to specially call people to places or events and same time we start smaller and have sure results. What we essentially need is a wiki-geek (or an experienced editor as you call it) and someone who can communicate the idea well. </div>
</div></div></div></div></span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I think you have touched on a really important point and I&#39;ve been reflecting on it.  I think a pairing of experienced editors and reasonably informed newbies would be a very powerful combination.  </div>
<div><br></div><div>Caveat to my follow sentences is that I run the risk of gross generalisations - but bear them out as reflective of one perspective out of others.  One common refrain I hear from experienced community members is that the results from outreach efforts are sub-optimal.  The numbers that one gets from outreach are always going to be low (after all, globally, ~90k people edit out of 450+m readers so the ratios are always going to be low.  Informally, you will also hear that (some) attendees on sessions conducted by experienced wikipedians find the sessions passionate but too daunting and they find those conducted by newbies to be clear but somewhat inadequate.   Can we arrive at a best of breed?  However, there must be ways that we can work out how volunteer time in outreach and academies and workshops can get better results.  I intend to share my thoughts on this in the next few days - but thank you for catalysing something in my head.</div>
<br></div></div></blockquote></div><br>It&#39;s best to not go prepared for a WikiAcademy. At the first WikiAcademy in Mumbai, although we had a list of things to show people, we never completed the list. This was because people wanted to know more about the interface and the way discussions happen and conversations between user happens (talk pages) along with the others. Being a bit of an academic crowd, they were also interested in question of what Wikipedia meant by neutral sources and the reliability of Wikipedia as a resource. (Thanks to Vickram Crishna for handling those questions :) ). We were quite happy with the result, in the end. So, it&#39;s pretty important that we do not be stiff about what they need to learn and what they do not need to learn. <br>
<br>However, each Wikipedian who does a WikiAcademy has his own style and we cannot and should not try to make these uniform, IMHO.<br><br>warm regards,<br>Pradeep<br>User:Prad2609<br>-- <br>Pradeep Mohandas<br>How Pradeep uses email - <a href="http://goo.gl/6v1I9" target="_blank">http://goo.gl/6v1I9</a><br>
<br><br>