This month, we will embark on a new way of bringing the different parts of the Global Education Program together: We are going to host the first “Global Education Program Metrics and Activities Meeting”. The goal of this meeting will be to share our experiences in the field of university outreach and we invite all chapters representatives and interested volunteers to join us on October 25, 2011.
Some background: a growing number of volunteers in different countries is engaged in getting students to share their knowledge with others on Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation has supported the creation of education programs in the United States, in India, and in Canada so far. When I talked to Wikipedians at Wikimania this year, many of them told me that they were eager to start a program on their Wikipedia language version. And we know from conversations with professors in a couple of countries that they are interested in using Wikipedia in their classes as well.
But how do we prevent people from reinventing the wheel? How can we make sure that best practices and lessons learned get shared across different cultures?
I truly believe: It’s not only a good thing to have a diverse approach to how we set up the Education Program in different countries – it’s essential. At the same time it would be great to learn from each other’s experiences. So, here is what I propose: let’s do it the Wikipedia way: collaborative and transparent. Let’s get together in a monthly meeting.
I’ve started a page on the Outreach Wiki to collect your thoughts about what you’d be interested in hearing during this monthly meeting:
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Global_Education_Program_Metrics_and_Activities_Meeting
If you’re interested in joining this meeting, please add your name to the participants list. Anything else you think is important? Just let me know.
I look forward to your feedback.
Frank
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