Grants:IdeaLab/Wikipedia on tour

Wikipedia on tour

Knowledgable and friendly Wikipedians should take a road trip across North America spreading knowledge about our mission.

idea creator• Ckoerner

advisor• T.vats749

volunteer• Miriya52

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created on21:37, 1 February 2017 (UTC)

Project idea

What is the problem you're trying to solve?

We often discuss that reaching new people - educators, volunteers, subject-matter experts, and more - is difficult. Reaching people 'where they are at' seems challenging and frankly difficult at the scale of Wikimedia. But what if it's not that hard?

What is your solution?

Find a small number of enthusiastic Wikimedians.
Get them transportation (preferably an RV or the like).
Plan out a route to stop at locations that share in our mission of education (libraries, museums, middle schools, high schools).
Visit as many locations as possible over the course of a few months - say 3. Maybe Oct - Dec during the school year?
At each stop, host introductory workshops on what Wikipedia is, how to contribute, and how to use our sites (references, search, auxiliary tools).
Leave behind a trail of more informed people.

Setting up a place for the participations of the tour to share their stories would be a great way to engage more people beyond the stops. A journal that's updated a few times a week with information on where they are on their travel, who they've talked to, and concerns they've heard along the way. Maybe even fortnightly IRC/Google Hangouts within the Wikimedia community to check-in and provide feedback along the way.

Who will you be doing outreach with?

Ideally we would figure out a way to focus on schools and GLAM partners not already address by outreach in our larger metropolitan areas. Perhaps a focus on more rural/urban schools with limited resources - wherever our time and energy would have the most impact.

Goals

Awareness of the Wikimedia movement, specifically what Wikipedia is (and isn't). Awareness specifically to educators and how they can use our knowledge to further their goals. Secondarily how to get more people involved in contributing to the projects.

Measurement

We could do the normal "X accounts/edits" created metrics. Setting up local Wikipeidans as contacts for schools and libraries and surveying them after the tour might also be an indication of how 'sticky' the local event was.

Get Involved

About the idea creator

Participants

Advisor I can suggest new ideas to reach new people T.vats749 (talk) 06:32, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
Volunteer I'd like to get involved. Miriya52 (talk) 21:16, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

Endorsements

This sounds like a great idea. Wikipedians along the route can help organize events, host meals or housing, and edit-a-thons. Paul2520 (talk) 20:36, 2 February 2017 (UTC)
I like this idea and Paul's suggestion of incorporating people that are already in those areas is a smart one - many of us would be more than willing to help with the efforts. Tokyogirl79 (talk) 07:53, 3 February 2017 (UTC)
Great idea! This could be a possible internship opportunity also. I know the National Parks (in the U.S. and Canada) have youth ambassadors that interact with the public. Miriya52 (talk) 21:14, 8 February 2017 (UTC)
Multitudes of people rely on Wikipedia, but far fewer contribute to articles. This idea would help empower more users to become editors or even instructors in their communities. Could even collect suggestions for local or regional topics that are underrepresented in Wikipedia. SteveChervitzTrutane (talk) 00:33, 10 February 2017 (UTC)
I like this because you could coordinate this kind of out-reach with local wikimedians who may be able to do the 'busy work' to help set up an event. In addition, since this is such a different approach it will be 'newsworthy' in the communities that it visits. I hope this idea takes off. For those US and Canadian americans, this reminds me of the Red bull truck or the Oscar Meyer Weiner-mobile. Barbara (WVS) (talk) 23:14, 18 October 2017 (UTC)

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