Wikipedia Education Program/Handout: Selecting a Campus Ambassador

Anyone who supports Wikipedia and has good people skills can make an effective Campus Ambassador — whether an experienced Wikipedian, an occasional or new contributor, someone who has so far only been a reader. In fact, a Campus Ambassador pair that combines an experienced Wikipedian with a relative newcomer is often highly effective; the experienced Wikipedian will have a deeper knowledge of how Wikipedia works, and a newcomer will more easily relate to the perspective of students who are new to editing. We found no difference in the quality of Campus Ambassadors among experienced Wikipedians and new recruits; teaching skills and time to give to students were better indicators of success in the Campus Ambassador role. Recruiting experienced Wikipedians from within the community can be done through typical wiki-related channels and geonotices, while newcomers can be recruited through a combination of seeking recommendations from instructors and other Ambassadors, and reaching out to individuals and groups by email and other means.

Recruiting from the Wikipedia community

Geonotices, which show up on the watchlist of users within a specified geographical region, are a good way to start. In some cases, especially in dense population centers, a geonotice will attract multiple potential Campus Ambassadors.

Many Wikipedians indicate where they live or which universities they are associated which on their userpages. Searching userpages and user categories for potential Campus Ambassadors and leaving messages on their talk pages is a good followup to Geonotices.

Posting messages to central discussion pages (such as a Village Pump), news pages (such as The Signpost) and Wikimedia mailing lists can also be used to find additional interested Wikipedians. General messages may be less effective than targeted messages like geonotices and talk page messages, but they can reach users who would not otherwise know about the opportunity to join the Wikipedia Education Program.

Recruiting through recommendations

Seeking individual recommendations from Campus Ambassadors and participating instructors is a highly effective way to recruit Campus Ambassadors who are not already Wikipedia editors. Instructors can often suggest students, fellow instructors, and/or other university staff who may be interested in becoming Campus Ambassadors. Students who were assigned to edit Wikipedia in a previous course (and enjoyed doing so) are an especially good source of new Campus Ambassadors. In some cases, university staff such as librarians or 'teaching and learning' staff may be able to incorporate the Campus Ambassador role into their jobs.

Recruiting through cold emailing

When other methods aren't enough to secure Campus Ambassadors to support classes, "cold emailing" can be useful. Sending recruitment messages to individual librarians, faculty, and other university staff whose work involves online resources will often succeed, especially if messages are well-tailored to the recipients.

For recruiting students, reaching out to student groups and organizations that connect somehow to Wikipedia or voluteerism can be useful. If Students for Free Culture or a similar organization is active at a university, reaching out individually to leaders of that organization is a good idea.