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Revision as of 15:06, 3 August 2022

This is an archive of past discussions with User:Bluerasberry. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

An idea

I'll just throw this out at you to see if anything sticks. I don't know the inner workings of educators relative to edithons but here's a thought. We have a growing number of articles incubating in draft space because they either don't follow MOS, lack citations and/or references, or they are simply not notable topics. What would it take to get educators interested in teaching students how to fix those types of articles - it would be a hands-on learning experience that would help reduce our backlog. From what I've gathered, many of the articles in draft space are the result of educators having students create new articles. My thinking is that starting with problem articles, they're getting a bigger picture relative to why an article is rejected, and learn what not to do first which helps them when they start creating new articles. Atsme 💬 📧 12:40, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

@Atsme: I think that could happen, and a great many other university interventions could happen, if there were funding to manage it. To collaborate with institutions requires dedicated staff; universities cannot make plans around volunteers who may not commit for schedules for months.

The cheapest and easiest way to manage a program of the sort you describe for the English language would be for the Wikimedia Foundation to sponsor an additional staff person at Wiki Education Foundation. As things are - I believe that the Wikimedia Foundation is not in support of that organization growing with WMF money.

I am employed at a university and would be happy to talk with anyone about my activities, but briefly: I always am managing about 10 projects and all of them are on tight schedules. What you are describing is "program development", meaning there is no training that I could give to simply have people start that program. There are hardly any training materials for me to present just to get students doing basic wiki editing, and what you are describing is more complicated than what students already do. I do not have time or funding to create training materials, test them, or train others to use them. There are a lot of people like me who could be hired to do those things, but the funding is not there. Hardly anyone hired to do a wiki job actually has funding to focus on one thing; almost all people paid to manage wiki programs on the community side are doing multiple jobs like me. For what you are talking about we need dedicated funding.

I support more people being hired to develop the training materials, train the trainers, then provide staff support to the professors who do this. But it does take staff, because professor and student time is valuable, and if something goes wrong and their time is wasted or they have a bad experience, the damage to the program is huge and there will be bad reputation for years.

I do not think the major block here is lack of wiki editors who want to try this and other partnerships; the block is that the Wikimedia Foundation is not expressing interest in sponsoring such a thing. I feel like the money is there, as they are bringing in $US220 million a year increasing every year. If you want to ask them to either hire staff, support wiki education, or give grants to any university or other group, then I will support you. I can also help someone write a grant request at meta:grants:start if you find a university that wants to apply.

Again, happy to talk more. If anyone wanted to talk through this on recorded video that we publish, then I would join, Bluerasberry (talk) 12:57, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Is this something that we could do as a project within WP? For example, I am already training at NPPSCHOOL, but could easily create a project to work with and coordinate with educators using draftified articles. Wouldn't our project stand a better chance of getting funding from WMF? Oh, and check your email - I'm about to send you a private link. Atsme 💬 📧 13:36, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Sun June 26: Bronx Wiki-Picnic

June 26, 3-6pm: Bronx Wiki-Picnic

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possible group call

hi. I would like to set up a group call, in the near future, to discuss some of the items relating to community facilitation, including some items that also came up during the zoom call for nyc recently. the purpose of this call would be to add some new people to the process if and when possible. would you be available to join a call, on any evening in the near future? please feel free to let me know. thanks! Sm8900 (talk) 13:37, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

WikiVegas 2023

...for either the world conference or the North American Conference. We all could use the fun that that would be, and hopefully fully funded by WMF (thanks for your comment at the important ongoing discussion at Misplaced Pages:Misplaced Pages Signpost/2022-05-29/Opinion. Randy Kryn (talk) 16:03, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

@Randy Kryn: How many wiki community members do we have on the ground in Vegas?

What are your ideas for community partner organizations in Vegas?

In previous years organizing this conference has relied heavily on initial volunteer organization. Because the WMF is bringing in more money and because various movement strategy plans call for increased speed of community engagement, I do think it is the case that more funding could come sooner in the planning process. Still, it is ideal to have some local volunteers, and either a wiki community or a nonprofit who would apply for and receive a grant.

I am currently overseeing this conference - meta:Grants:Conference/QW22/QW2022. I believe that this is the WMF's most funded event with the least existing community governance in place, but that speaks to the strategic importance of expansion. If you like, I would talk to you by voice or video about plans for Vegas 2023. Bluerasberry (talk) 16:52, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

Liking Napolean, a nice presentation. Good luck on the QWconference. Wouldn't Vegas be fun, at least for the next North American conference. I don't know anyone active there, but almost all initial arrangements could be made by phone and maybe a few trips into town to in-person eye the arrangements (if someone needs to put in a couple of weeks on site, oh well, I'll volunteer, ahem, with just a minimum of joy and time well spent in some of the new lounges). Would probably need Jimbo, as a recognizable name, to work out a block of 700 rooms or so at one of the main strip hotels (not downtown, nice but not the best venues) and the other benefits of conference rooms, etc. Maybe MGM, which runs almost all of the main strip hotels now, would give a huge discount and maybe even comp the rooms as an in-kind donation for such a worthy organization. Seems late in the year now for an early '23 conference but maybe October or November would be ideal. And it's a way to attract some big name entertainment to drive over and donate an appearance for a song or two (hmmmm, maybe an evening of several major names all doing one or two songs). And you'd never know who would drop by for a look-around at these Misplaced Pages nerds, Mike Tyson comes to mind. It just sounds fun, and Wikipedians, as a group, might enjoy the outings. Another good reason for this would be to move the North American conference West, as the last several have been held in Eastern cities. Could go on, but, wall of text. Enjoy, Randy Kryn (talk) 19:14, 4 June 2022 (UTC)

thanks for your post above, re your role and your involvement with the project that you linked to above. I will give this a look over. thanks! Sm8900 (talk) 17:18, 8 June 2022 (UTC)

I'm a stray cat but identify with WALRUS (Pharos), and am certainly willing to help, so please keep me in mind. I'm suffering withdrawal from a lack of WikiCons. Atsme 💬 📧 12:26, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

A WikiVegas2023 can be easily organized via phone etc. with the help of Jimbo and the WTF, with some boots on the ground at key moments. This would be a relatively easy task and should be fully funded given that no major national or international conferences have been held in several years - so cash-on-hand for wikiconferences should be overflowing the coffers. Atsme and others, would you be on board for this, maybe in October or November 2023? (p.s. but not downtown Vegas, alas tis not the same as the strip) Randy Kryn (talk) 13:26, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Absolutely. Atsme 💬 📧 13:30, 23 June 2022 (UTC)

Travel expenses from San Francisco would be lower for some (WMF) attendees. The Endowment will support our movement in the best possible way and ensure that our communities can thrive by funding more conferences. – wbm1058 (talk) 18:16, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

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Earth Day 2022 Edit-a-thon - April 22nd - 2PM EST

You're invited! NYC Earth Day 2022 Edit-a-thon! April 22nd!

Sure We Can and the Environment of New York City Task Force invite you to join us for: 2022 Earth Day Edit-a-thon 2pm - 4pm EST (April 22nd) online via Zoom and in person This Edit-a-Thon is part of a larger Earth Day celebration, hosted by Brooklyn based recycling and community center Sure We Can, that runs from 1PM-7PM and is open to the public! See this flyer for more information: https://www.instagram.com/p/CcGr4FyuqEa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

-- Environment of New York City Task Force