Wikipedia talk:Campus Ambassadors

Is there a standard procedure in place for officially contacting a university? I am a PhD student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and would love to bring this to their attention! daviddoria (talk) 12:18, 19 August 2010 (UTC)
 * You mean to participate in the WP:WikiProject U.S. Public Policy?Smallman12q (talk) 01:41, 22 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi Daviddoria, thanks for your interest. My name is Annie Lin; I am the Campus Team Coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation. In response to your question: the first step is usually to put your name on the interests list at Campus_Ambassadors (see the "Add a New School" section for how to insert your university and your name). After that we need to find professors or graduate instructors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (from any department) who would be interested in incorporating Wikipedia-editing into their classes. This process of connecting with professors will likely happen in one of two ways: (1) a RPI professor finds out about the project, sees your name on the interest list, and contacts you; or, what's much more likely, (2) the potential Campus Ambassador (in this case, you) helps identify and recruit interested instructors at RPI, since you know more about the university and have many more contacts there. Of course, we are also here to provide support as you reach out to interested professors, so it would be great for us to stay in contact throughout the process. In fact, if you already have a professor or two in mind who you think might be interested in using Wikipedia in their classrooms, could you please email me (alin@wikimedia.org)? Thank you very much. Alin (Public Policy) (talk) 20:50, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Well respected professors?
Why do the professors have to be well respected before the campus ambassadors work with them?Sadads (talk) 18:32, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * The intended meaning is that "working with well-respected professors" is a possible advantage of being an ambassador. But it doesn't make much sense; screening for "well-respected professors only" has never been part of the planning, so far as I'm aware.  I'll remove that bit.--Sage Ross - Online Faciliator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 20:02, 23 August 2010 (UTC)

Merger with Classroom Coordination Contact Persons
In the past we had a less successful initiative similar to that one at WikiProject_Classroom_coordination. Still, there are three other contact people, not counting me - I suggest we merge that section here, the idea seems roughly the same. PS. In this context, I suggest notifying the other three contact people of this idea, and having them add themselves here, followed by redirecting that section here. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 23:46, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Piotrus. I'll contact them and invite them.  Feel free to add a pointer to that contact list here, since that might be a lighter-weight way to get some help organizing a Wikipedia assignment.--Sage Ross - Online Faciliator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:51, 27 August 2010 (UTC)

a few questions

 * How we will receive training on how to be a trainer, I mean, Will it be by distance, since I am in Brazil?
 * It's said that we are to "work with professors who care about Wikipedia's quality". And what about if they dont know at all what the wikipedia is? (well, it's quite impossible, but is likely unknown how wikipedia really works)
 * Will wikimedia give financial support for these ativities, 'cause seting up a helpdesk on campus or organize "Welcome to Wikipedia" parties involves costs, isn't it?

Thanks a lot, Nevinho (talk) 23:56, 30 August 2010 (UTC)


 * These are good questions. A little too good, in fact. They don't all have solid answers yet, but I'll do my best.
 * How will we receive training...? - Some of the current ambassadors will be training future ambassadors, and it will be up to the community whether and how to do things like distance training once the year-long grant program is over. It's also looking like we will hold a training program before or after Wikimania this year, so that some attendees from across the world would have a chance to go through the training program during the same trip.  There may be some other possibilities for training of non-U.S. campus ambassadors sooner than that, but we're not sure yet.
 * ...what about if [professors] don't know at all what Wikipedia is? - That's fine. All "care about Wikipedia's quality" was supposed to mean is that they want to be part of making Wikipedia better. One of the goals of this program is to help them do that, even if they don't know anything about how Wikipedia works.
 * Will Wikimedia give financial support for these activities? - This is also something that I don't have a complete answer for at this point. The most likely situation is that beyond the public policy pilot project, funding would be considered case by case if ambassadors or student groups apply to Wikimedia for grants.
 * --Sage Ross - Online Faciliator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 03:12, 31 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the answers. I have have got some questions more. Ok, I've created a sub-page for the university I want to be ambassador and I have spoken with a frend of mine who teachs math there. We have been discussing the possibility of making a presentation to his students about wikipedia, wikimedia and mediawiki software. Should he enlist his name first on Universidade de Brasília sub-page? To do that I think I will have to assist him, what's no problem to me. On the other hand, I am planning what I've called a "peripatetic periplus", which is choosing with the teacher help some articles from wikipedia and browse them and reading and editing them in a class presentation. What do you think of it? Am I on the righ way?
 * Regards, Nevinho (talk) 02:26, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
 * That exercise would be good for presenting the structure of a Wikipedia article and discussing some of the policies on what gets included in articles and why, but an example User:Awadewit gave at the Ambassador training for demonstrating live editing and collaboraiton was editing in class on DYK pages, which likely have problems, and in a few instances actually got responses to Talk page queries in class. That might be a good way to show collaboration in action. However, I would think that you would want to assist the students in understanding the principles behind Wikipedia first, before you plunge them straight into editing (which most technically literate college students could probably do with minimal "demonstration" and probably just mentor support or an open workshop), Sadads (talk) 03:27, 8 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi, you said ..."understanding the principles behind Wikipedia first"... What principles are you talking about? NPOV, No original research, verifiability, five pillars and so on? By the way, what are those "Interested instructors" supposed to be? As a new school Corporate Universities such as UCEL for instance can be added? thank you, Nevinho (talk) 21:00, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, those are the principles that are important. Also, other things you generally learn through experience such as the collaboration side of editing, Sadads (talk) 13:52, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

PS: Sorry, but I couldn't locate the example User:Awadewit gave at the Ambassador training for demonstrating live editing. Could you make a link to specifically location? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Nevinho (talk • contribs) 21:05, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Sorry, didn't see this. The example isn't online, it was something that she discussed. She pulled up a DYK at the beginning of a class and the students helped her check it for errors, and they made some comments on the talk page and changes. By the end of class one time, the author had responded on the talk page. Other times she has gotten response by the next class period,Sadads (talk) 13:52, 22 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Hi, every day I have been coming back here to check if there is an answer to my questions... Tx Nevinho (talk) 13:34, 22 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Was Sadads' answer above the last one you were waiting for, or do you still have open questions?--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 14:11, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

About corporate universities
Thanks Sage Ross for alerting me, in fact I hadn't noted the sadads's answer. But there is an open question yet. That is about corporate universities. Can they be included? Yesterday I gave a presentation at trainning division of a Brasilian Justice school and I told them about the ambassador program. The presentation was well received and I believe some of the participants got interested and will likely be new wikipedians. Explaining about those principles behind wikipedia was very helpful, Cheers Nevinho (talk) 12:04, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Corporate universities, as in the kind described at Corporate university? I could see a problem if the editing students would do focused on topics too closely related to the parent corporation's business. But in principle, I don't see why corporate universities would be excluded.  Can you share more about your presentation?  That sounds very interesting.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:35, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Corporate X traditional schools
I could also see the same problem as you saw, but I think with math students from universities can happen the same problem and it behooves us to extend this vision so that they can contribute more broadly.
 * On that matter, I'm going to have a meeting with a math university teacher on wednesday morning and I'm very exited with what can come out of that experience. Could you give me some directions? Nevinho (talk) 22:35, 27 September 2010 (UTC)

wiki presentation
Yes, I am pleased to briefly share the presentation that I have addressed.

It has four main parts:
 * 1) First, I've talked about the context in which the wiki phenomenon appears, based on the book world is flat, by Thomas Friedmann.
 * 2) Then I've spoken of the creation of the first Wiki, the origin of the name wiki = fast in Hawaiian and sentence of Ward Cunningham "Enterprise attitude is required beyond this Point" (Enterprise in the sense of collective).
 * 3) Then I've talked about the Mediawiki software and its key features, about the Wikimedia Foundation, its projects and how the Wikimedia encourages volunteers, the project of ambassadors and the Wikimania conferences. After that, I've talked about Wikipedia and the principles that guide the work in the encyclopedia.
 * 4) Finally, I've introduced the concept of e-learning wiki-based. I've shown the example of the Bank of Brazil, a training platform based on mediawiki.

Regards, Nevinho (talk), sorry, I´m logged out
 * That sounds great! I hope it went well.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 18:19, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

Ambassador Principles
There's a draft set of Wikipedia Ambassador Principles up on the main Ambassadors landing page. Please take a look, edit and discuss!--Sage Ross - Online Faciliator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 19:40, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
 * being aware and following these principles seems to give more efectiveness to presentations. Thank you, Nevinho (talk) 12:29, 24 September 2010 (UTC)

Confusing: instructors vs campus ambassadors
Many entries split instructors from campus ambassadors, which I think is confusing, particularly as the term "interested instructor" is NOT defined anywhere before it appears. Somehow I am listed as an "interested instructor", even through I wanted to be a campus ambassador - I am not moving myself because it is not clear if I have the authority to do so, or do one needs to be vetted by somebody before becoming an ambassador... PS. That page looks nicer than this once, any reasons for them being split? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 17:18, 20 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Good point. The intentions was that "interested instructors" was a broad term to include both professors and other teachers (e.g., high school) who want to run Wikipedia assignments.  "Interested campus ambassadors" is the section for people who would like to be campus ambassadors.  I'll try to clarify that.  To be an official campus ambassador, for now at least, requires going through the ambassador training program (the next of which will be in December, and probably one after that at Wikimania).


 * The reason for the split is that this page is serving as a interest list/matchmaking page where people can sign up and/or see if anyone near them is also interested in the ambassador program or Wikipedia assignments. The page at WikiProject US Public Policy is a streamlined list of official ambassadors intended for students and professors, so that they can easily connect with the people they need to.  The way it's set up, transclusion-wise, is such that similar pages could be set up for different WikiProjects without much additional work, so that once the ambassador program is fully open beyond just public policy, it will be relatively straightforward.  But if you have ideas for making this page look better, feel free to muck around with the layout.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 14:20, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

about next steps
Hi, thank you Sage Ross for your comments on my recent posts. I indeed had a meeting today morning at Math Department of Brasilia University. The teacher who I met is a phD who cares a lot about what exactely will they do, he and his pupils, after getting introduced in the wikipedia enviromennt and how this will benefit them as a classroom. I've asked him and he let me know the topics they will cover on this semester. I've beeen wondering how could I help them finding ways. I've shared this on brasilian chapter mailing list and some volunteers have given suggestions. One of these is building courses on wikiversity putting there tutorials and exercises and their resolutions and making links with wikipedia, where, according their suggestion, will be the theoric portions. What do you think of that? Any other suggestions and/or hints?

PS - Although being willing to work with me to run Wikipedia assignments in his classes, the teacher wants to know exactly what those assignments will be before adding hinself  as an "Interested instructor" on the list for Brasilia University.

Sorry for bad english and grammar mistakes.

Best regards, --Nevinho (talk) 22:01, 29 September 2010 (UTC) x
 * Yeah, using Wikiversity is one good approach. Wikiversity is a little more open to new kinds of educational projects and experimentation (e.g., using wikis for original research or analysis), whereas Wikipedia would be a more appropriate home base for the class if the wiki assignments would mainly be about improving articles.
 * As for "exactly what those assignments will be", that's very, very open. Our approach has been to try to work with professors to create assignments that fit their educational goals and course needs. So basically, it would fall to a Campus Ambassador to work with a professor (as well as the relevant wiki community) to figure out what would be appropriate.  You can get a very rough idea of some of the possibilities by browsing through the courses we're working with now at WikiProject United States Public Policy/Courses.  But those represent only a fraction of the possibilities.
 * The Campus Ambassador training is designed to give ambassadors a little bit of guidance in how to help professors design good Wikipedia assignments, but knowledge of Wikipedia and its policies and culture is the main thing. We plan on bringing a small number of people from outside the US to the next training event, and this will be done through the chapters (I think).  So if you are strongly interested in coming to the December training, there may be an opportunity to do so through your chapter.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 14:16, 1 October 2010 (UTC)

Userbox
I've created the above userbox. Type in into your userpage to get the box and be added to the category. Basket of Puppies 06:48, 16 January 2011 (UTC)

Trainning for campus ambassadors
Hi, I've been available to work as a campus ambassador since last week (I've lost my job). I'm planning to work as a freelancer this first semester, so that I can talk to some professors at Universidade de São Paulo to contribute to Wikipedia. Since the trainning phase has finished, how do you recommend I should proceed? I've already talked to physics professors I've been a student a few years ago and I'm going to meet them soon. I believe I already can argue about they contributing with their knowledge here. --everton137 (talk) 04:31, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

help for schools lacking campus ambassadors
Is there a project or forum on Wikipedia that provides assistance to instructors (i.e., who assign Wikipedia editing to students) whose schools lack campus ambassadors? Bms4880 (talk) 16:53, 28 February 2011 (UTC)


 * I think Online Ambassadors might be the best bet for that. Basket of Puppies  18:28, 28 February 2011 (UTC)