Hi guys,
Brief response to Sven's email. Alyssa is away this week.
We are arranging some basic logistics (rooms, times). As far as the time,
the 11-4 is a perfectly good working time range for the time being. (The
CPL main branch closes at 5 on Saturdays.) With three events, though, we
should be a little clearer about the timing of the program.
Would the outreach seminar be before the tutorial? How long would it be?
The audiences for the seminar and the tutorial are a bit different, so I
want to make sure we publicize that correctly. It also affects the amount
of space we need to reserve at the Library. Are you thinking (roughly)
11-12 Outreach Seminar
12-1 Tutorial
1-4 Edit-A-Thon
And we can squeeze in some tea and cookies and snacks a few times.
We are working on a poster right now and once Alyssa is back in town a
couple of us will be working on a press release for the event. We will run
the poster by you before printing and publishing it, since I expect it will
use the Wikipedia logo somewhere. Besides contacting the Friends of the
Library membership, we are also planning to reach out to some local
newspapers and magazines, perhaps even Craigslist. We will keep you posted.
Sven, for the tutorial component, should I expect something like what the
screencast of last years Harvard event?
Thanks!
Arend.
On Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 8:00 AM, <
wikimedia-boston-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Happy Monday mailing list subscribers!
As a follow up to my earlier email and Arend's email on Thursday, I wanted
to give everyone a bit more information about the Cambridge event.
The event will be taking place on November 17th at the Main Branch of the
Cambridge Public Library. The street address is:
449 Broadway
Cambridge, MA
02138
Hours have not been entirely finalized. We've been working off of the
assumption that they would be 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. If that is the case, I
personally will be arriving at 10:30 AM to help set up. I will also be
leaving (irregardless of the finalized hours) at 3:00 PM, as I have a plane
to catch later on in the afternoon.
There are three components to the Cambridge event as it stands right now: a
Wikipedia Loves Libraries outreach seminar, a tutorial for new users, and
an edit-a-thon with the theme of "Cambridge". It's an ambitious program,
but with five hours, an large number of Cambridge/Boston based Wikipedians,
and eager partners, I think it will work.
- The Wikipedia Loves Libraries outreach seminar is... well... an outreach
seminar. Alyssa Pacy, the Cambridge Public Library's archivist, has
connections within the area's network of librarians, and mentioned that she
would be inviting them. There are also two library schools nearby that we
know of, one at Simmons and the other somewhere in Rhode Island. What all
of that means is that we're going to have, hopefully, a large audience of
librarians, archivists, and future librarians at the event. I've never done
an outreach seminar, but I'm going to lean heavily on
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/FAQ_For_Librarians, steal ideas from
the
Boston WLL event on 11/10, and hope for the best.
- The tutorial for new users is... well... a tutorial for new users. I'm
thinking of doing a slideshow or a speech of some sort and then bringing
all the new users into the computer lab, where I and a couple of other
users will be camping out to help new users get set up and acclimatized.
This will segue cleanly into the edit-a-thon.
- The edit-a-thon is... well... an edit-a-thon (who didn't see that
coming?). Both Alyssa and I will be working on preparing a list of
Cambridge themed stubs that users can work on if they don't have anything
else they want to do.
But wait, there's more! Remember up top where I described Alyssa as the
Cambridge Public Library's archivist? That wasn't a typo. I meant
archivist, as in archives, as in *we get to go into the archives and use
very old, in some cases one-of-a-kind documents as sources*. Yes; awesome.
We might be able to hold a scan-a-thon there at a later date (they're
getting one of the cool top-down super scanners 'soon'), but until then
we're dealing with a once-in-a-blue-moon access opportunity here.
And now for the begging:
Please show up. Please, if you can, commit to showing up sooner rather than
later (and remember to tell me if you've signed up and can't make it). In
order for this event to be a success, we're going to need a number of
Wikipedians to be around. We're going to need at least three or four people
that are willing to spend time with the new users during the tutorial. It
would be nice to get a dozen Wikipedians in the room, both to reciprocate
the enthusiasm that Alyssa and Arend have shown us, and to demonstrate to
the librarians and the new users that this city has a thriving Wikipedian
community. Yes, I'm fully aware that we have two WLL events on back to back
Saturdays, and I would never suggest that people skip the one in Boston. I,
for one, am going to both, and it would be great to see a couple of other
people do that too. What I am saying though, is that this event can and
should be the start of a very fruitful relationship between the Cambridge
Public Library and the Society of Wikipedians in New England. So please
show up.
Further information will be sent out as it becomes available.
Sven