Cairo Pilot on-campus outreach – event types

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This page serves for planning and documenting the events for the Cairo Pilot on-campus outreach in spring 2012.

Ideas for on-campus outreach events

Tabling on Campus

• Background: While Wikipedia is widely known among university students all over Egypt, the exact nature of Wikipedia, how it works and the state of the Arabic Wikipedia is not as prevalent.
• Description: We would set up a table inside Cairo University and/or Ain Shams University increasing the public awareness about Wikipedia, the current status of Arabic Wikipedia and the Arabic Catalyst Program, creating an enthusiastic environment about the upcoming events in addition to starting a contact list of people to be approached for future events.
• Goal:
  • Attract attention to the upcoming outreach events in Cairo.
  • Enhancing our contact list of people interested in Wikipedia in Cairo for future use.
• How we measure success:
  • Number of people on the sign-up sheet.
  • Number of people on the sign-up sheet who show up at one of the subsequent events.
• Risks::
  • Failure to get permission from university administration to set-up that table.
  • Low turn-out.
• Resources & manpower needed::
  • Wikipedia Banner.
  • Some promotional materials & giveaways.
  • 3-5 Volunteer Campus Ambassadors.

Group Photo excursion

• Background: ...
• Description: A photo-walk in an area or attraction with low or no images on Commons. Maybe after that we organize a small workshop where people can chat and upload their pictures to Commons and add them to the relevant articles on Wikipedia. A mini-competition could be organized afterwards with specific measures and using points system to encourage people to spend more time editing & upload their old & new pictures with a simple giveaway reward in the end to act a small incentive.
• Goal:
  • Improving the quality of articles on the Arabic Wikipedia by increasing the number of images & illustrations.
  • Increasing the bond between the existing & the new community.
• How we measure success:
  • Number of people participating in the event.
  • Number of pictures uploaded.
  • Number of articles on the Arabic Wikipedia that use the new pictures
  • Number of edits on the Arabic Wikipedia made by participants of the photo-walk
• Risks::
  • Low turn-out.
  • Low Quality Pictures / Pictures not meeting guidelines / Non-Encyclopedic Pictures.
  • Not adding the pictures to the relevant Wikipedia article.
• Resources & manpower needed::
  • Online & Offline Promotional Materials
  • Bus

Creative Commons Sessions to Photographers

• Background: There are many photography clubs & groups in Egypt that take high quality pictures but unfortunately they don't release those pictures under an open license mostly due to ignorance of those licenses and what they mean.
• Description: One or two photography clubs can be approached with a session explaining the Creative Commons license and how to use & upload pictures to Commons.
• Goal:
  • Increasing the awareness of how Wikipedia works among more professional audience.
  • Increasing the amount of pictures on Commons related to Egypt thus increasing the quality of articles on Wikipedia.
• How we measure success:
  • Survey / Feedback form after the session asking whether people would be interested in using this license and using Commons in the future.
  • Number of pictures uploaded to commons.
  • Number of images added to relevant Wikipedia articles.
  • Number of edits on the Arabic Wikipedia made by the photographers.
• Risks::
  • Low turn-out / Satisfaction with the idea.
  • Low Quality Pictures / Pictures not meeting guidelines / Non-Encyclopedic Pictures.
  • Not adding the pictures to the relevant Wikipedia article.
• Resources & manpower needed::
  • Promotional materials about Creative Commons Licence and how to use Commons.

Group Arabic Wikipedia Editing Day

• Background: Eight Arabic Wikipedia Days were organized from the year 2006 till now with the aim of increasing the content of the Arabic WP. A 24-hour period is announced with the target of writing a specific number of new articles and improving a specific number of stubs (usually a list of requested articles is written). People get together on IRC and help each other with the editing.
• Description: An Edit-athon can be organized to get people together in one place and help them connect and know each other, and at the same time edit Wikipedia in a friendly environment. If the number of people is large enough maybe we can split people into different tables each with a specific subject. If possible we can collaborate with a library that can provide us with books & materials to assist us in the editing process.
• Goal:
  • Increasing the number & quality of articles on the Arabic Wikipedia.
  • Making the community of Wikipedians in Cairo closer.
• How we measure success:
  • Number of participants.
  • Number of new articles written.
  • Number of stubs improved.
• Risks::
  • Technical difficulties with the internet connection.
  • low turn-out.
• Resources & manpower needed::
  • A place large enough and accessible for all people willing to participate.
  • A Wireless Internet Connection.

Arabic Language Courses

• Background: Many places in Cairo offer Arabic Language classes to foreigners & natives e.g. El Sawy Culture Wheel & American University in Cairo (AUC). Also on the front page of the Arabic Wikipedia we have a part about common grammatical or vocabulary mistakes.
• Description: We can offer those students one or two workshops introducing Wikipedia, How it works & How to edit. Then we offer them different ways to help Wikipedia and how to make it better.
• Goals:
  • Proof-Reading Articles
  • Adding new content to the "language" section on the front page
  • Contributing to the Arabic Wikiversity or Arabic Language Department in other Wikiversities
  • Possibly translating articles to Arabic from original native language
  • Arabic Literature articles might be of special interest for those people.
• How we measure success:  Pending
• Risks::
  • People at those Language classes might not be 'tech-savvy' and find the mere notion of using a computer a difficulty.
• Resources & manpower needed:: …

Campus Outreach Workshop

• Background: Lots of excitement were felt during the tabling and talks with students on Cairo University & Ain Shams campuses. However our Education Program will not fit all these people. So a public outreach workshop where anyone can participate might be helpful.
• Description: A simple 2-day workshop on How to Edit Wikipedia. Probably a small Edit-athon after that would be interesting.  Please add more information about what this event would look like (e.g. what exactly will be taught? how will the participants choose the articles for improvement? which sources will be needed for the improvement of articles?
• Goal:
  • Increasing awareness between university students about Wikipedia and how it works.
• How we measure success:
  • Number of attendees / Number of new accounts made during the workshop.
  • The quality of edits made in the Edit-athon would indicate the efficiency of the workshop.  How are we going to measure this? --Frank Schulenburg (talk) 01:16, 17 February 2012 (UTC)
  • Number of edits made / number of articles improved.
• Risks::
  • Low turn-out.
  • Large number of edits of low quality & possibly vandalism.
• Resources & manpower needed::
  • Room preferably inside the university campus with wireless internet access.
  • Several Campus Ambassadors to help with organizing and moderating the edit-athon.

GLAM

• Background: In Egypt we have lots and lots of unused content in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums that nobody can easily use due to administrative bureaucracy, not knowing where to find those data and if they exist in the first place and the lack of digital accessibility.
• Description: We can try to approach some of the Libraries & Museums in Egypt using several models written in the GLAM Project Model Projects as image donation, updating the institution's article. A good candidate for that might be the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
• Goal:
  • Provide the students with more quality sources in Arabic.
  • More high quality content on the Arabic Wikipedia.
• How we measure success:
  • Impact of the collaboration in terms of number of articles, number of images, quality of improved article, etc...
• Risks::
  • Current bureaucracy in almost all governmental and private GLAM institutions in Egypt may hinder the results of this approach.
  • Lack of digitalized content
• Resources & manpower needed::
  • Introductory booklets about Wikipedia and how GLAM institutions can help and benefit from collaborating with Wikipedia.