[Foundation-l] MENA Education Program?

[Abbas Mahmood]

Some brief notes about the MENA trip can be found here: http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Education_Program/MENATrip
//Abbas.

> Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 23:39:14 -0800
> From: bnewstead at wikimedia.org
> To: foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] MENA Education Program?
> 
> Hi Katie,
> Just to build on Moushira's response to tackle your questions a bit further.
> 
> On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 5:26 AM, aude <aude.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Erik, Sue, Frank, et al,
> >
> > Can you please say more about the plans for a Middle East education
> > program? (yes I have read notes from the recent trip on outreach wiki)
> >
> > What is the timeframe? Who is going to run it? Will you establish a
> > "trust" there? Where will the office be?
> >
> 
> We are planning a pilot in Cairo, but have not yet firmed up the details.
> Frank, Annie and Moushira will spend a week in Cairo in December to
> investigate the opportunity further and see when it would make sense to run
> a small pilot.  We are hoping for February, but want to make sure the
> conditions are right for success.
> 
> >
> > If the program is to be duplicated, I certainly hope there are not the
> > same issues with quality, as has happened in Pune.  What lessons have
> > you learned and what will you do differently?
> >
> 
> We do not plan on duplicating the Pune experience. For one, we want to do a
> much smaller pilot. We also want to dig into questions regarding copyright
> and student writing ability in Arabic before we start the pilot.  Nitika
> has captured a series of lessons on the pilot [1] and we are doing further
> detailed evaluation work to ensure we mine the pilot fully.
> 
> >
> > Knowing that there is quite a backlog, last time I checked, with
> > pending changes on Arabic Wikipedia, I am very concerned for the
> > ability of volunteers there to handle a massive influx of new content.
> >
> 
> This is a concern we share...and we discussed this with the community
> members in Doha as Moushira mentioned.  No easy solutions here and we'll
> need to innovate.
> 
> >
> > I am also concerned if you setup a trust in, say Egypt, that will put
> > a damper on any efforts to form a chapter, which I know has been
> > discussed.
> >
> 
> We do plan on setting up a regional entity to support our program work in
> the region. It is premature as to the actual structure.  I really don't see
> this as being a damper on the formation of a chapter, but we don't really
> have any evidence either way.
> 
> >
> > If done carefully and well, I would be very delighted to see outreach
> > programs be a success for Arabic Wikipedia, and hope that will be the
> > case.
> >
> 
> This is exactly the intention of the work in Arabic and was the spirit we
> all came out of our Doha convening with.  We are all united in this
> goal...recognizing that it will take a lot of effort by a lot of people to
> truly reach the full potential of Arabic Wikipedia!
> 
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Katie
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > foundation-l mailing list
> > foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> >
> 
> 
> [1]
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_-_India_Programs/Education_Program
> 
> Best,
> Barry
> 
> -- 
> Barry Newstead
> Chief Global Development Officer
> Wikimedia Foundation
> 
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
> the sum of all knowledge.  Help us make it a reality!
> 
> http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at lists.wikimedia.org
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l