[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Youth Camp?

[Andrew Lih]

On 9/6/06, Rory Stolzenberg <rory096 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Of course, but we should make sure it's actually something that people would
> want to be part of before devoting a lot of effort to it. Frankly, I don't
> think that many kids on Wikipedia would be interested in a course called
> "Everything you know about Pokemon, and where to put it," and probably even
> less would be able to get there.

That's why I think as a start, it would be good to run this as a youth
session for a few days before Wikimania rather than depending a
dedicated gettogether. Just like Hacking Days is a magnet for technie
types to join together to learn, there could be a preconference track
for younger folks who can decide for themselves if it's something
they're into.

Even if it's simply skills development, done in the context of
Wikimania, it could get younger folks excited and involved. Some ideas
might include - working with Wikimedia Commons, using Wikipedia in
studies, media literacy, workshops on particular tasks. From a public
relations angle, it's something that can show the Wikipedia community
giving back to help train younger folks with the skills that have
become second nature to Wikipedians.

In fact, very few of these things are specific to being "youth" but
rather providing a nurturing environment to recruit and train a
younger generation of Wikipedians. (Actually, for Wikimania 2007, this
might be good thing to do for the conference in general - tutorial
tracks for folks who would like to learn the nuts and bolts of certain
tasks.)

Given recent questions about scalability of consensus, the poisonous
RfA proceedings and trivia creeping into every corner of Wikipedia, we
should be looking into more ways to keep the community healthy.

-Andrew (User:Fuzheado)