[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Youth Camp?

[Erik Moeller]

Just an idea, and probably not a new one:

I'm consistently amazed by the amount of participation by young people
in our projects. Ranging from featured article writing to
organizational tasks, their participation covers the whole gamut of
activities Wikimedia has to offer -- and many of them do it with
passion and skills that should make any adult blush.

Would it be worth considering to organize national (perhaps also
annual) conferences specifically targeted at youths participating in
Wikimedia, and those who might do so in the future? Such a venue would
be very different from the more serious Wikimania. It could be a
summer camp, with music and some non-wiki activities (films, sports,
..).

Topics would be handled in a more participatory, workshop style manner
than typical conference sessions. They could include:
- How to write really good articles?
- How to do research in libraries?
- What is this copyright stuff all about?
- My POV, your POV, NPOV?
- Where's Willy? How to find and fight vandals
- Jimbo's campfire stories
- Write your own news with Wikinews
- Celebrity hunt: Wikimedia Commons needs you
- Everything you know about Pokemon, and where to put it

OK, perhaps I'm not really good at defining the topic scope. But you
get the idea. ;-)

Ideally, workshop leaders themselves should be youths with experience
in Wikimedia, with some adult help to explain the more complex issues
of law, policy and technology.

If we consider this a good idea, another question is whether we should
do it in conjunction with other organizations like Creative Commons or
the FSF. The closest thing to such an event I've participated in was
the "Berlin 05" youth festival last year, where both Wikimedia and the
Chaos Computer Club were present. (See
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_05 for brief information about
that event in German.)

A festival or camp might have more of a long term future with support
from multiple organizations, an international make-up, and an annual
schedule like Wikimania. A "Free Culture Youth Festival" might be a
suitably generic framework. But a more focused Wiki-Camp might have
its benefits, too.

Thoughts?

-- 
Peace & Love,
Erik