User:Pfctdayelise/WMA talks

I have been thinking lately about what kind of things WMA can do. One thing is prepare good talk/presentation notes and train/help its members to give them. regularly.

Welcome to Wikimedia (audience: potential Wikimedians, ie everyone. intro to Wikimedia projects with emphasis on Wikipedia. explain philosophy, policies, basic howto get involved.)
Research & Wikipedia (audience: schools, students, critical thinkers. how to use Wikipedia sensibly, verify info, follow sources, use history tab)
Wikis in education (audience: educators, academics, librarians)
Free content (audience: general. the philosophy, value and history of free content movement. brief intro to Aus copyright law, public domain, free software/open source. who else creates free content? examples of applications (OLPC). why are NC and ND not free)
Your business & Wikipedia (audience: businesses. $$$ to learn how not to spam Wikipedia)
Should you use a wiki? (audience: groups - community, biz, whatever. pros/cons of wikis in general. what do you want to achieve? quick guide to diff wiki engines. tips for creating and sustaining a community [if relevant]. tips for useful policies, e.g. be bold)

We can also help build a MediaWiki developer community in Australia by acting as a "gateway":

keeping records of MW devs/installers/twiddlers/experienced users, locations, pay rates etc
invite public/business/comm groups to contact us, match them up

Within that we can run kind of MW training/skills events, give certificates....

Installing (variety of platforms)
behind firewall/closed environ
tweaking settings: user auth, open/closed wiki
installing extensions
Converting content to (say) PDF
skinning (that would be nice)

also

writing extensions - special pages, extending wikimarkup, hooks, MW code standards and expectations