Initiatives/WP:CONTRIB Student Outreach

Outline

The outline will be different depending on each university's needs and availability. I have included an outline for each day below:

Nottingham University

The event is being publicised over email to all students as well as the relevant societies. To help ensure we know what interest we are getting, there will be a ticking system set up here where people can register their interest.

In the early afternoon we will be leafleting on campus - handing out WP:CONTRIB leaflets as well as trying to collect signatures and contact information for people who might be interested in forming a Wikipedia Society on campus. In the late afternoon, we will be giving talks to students on how to use Wikipedia effectively in their studies, how to edit, and how to set up your own Wikipedia Society and the benefits this would incur for new editors and old editors alike. After the presentation has been given there will be a brief Q&A session where participants can get one-on-one help from Wikipedians with their queries (this will hopefully include academics as well as students). After this, there will be a training session on how to edit for those who want to make their first edit today and t-shirts will be given out to those who do. We will also have a sign-up sheet available for people who are interested in creating a society on campus.

Leeds University

We have an interview with the student radio at 12:15 where we will be encouraging students to come to the event. The event will also be publicized by the Leeds student union in preparation for our arrival. This will involve posters as well as emails being sent to the relevant student organizations which already exist and may be interested. The room will hold up to 100 people and tickets will be available for the event via Eventbright.com meaning that we can gauge whether this is still appropriate at a time closer to the event. This will also allow us to gauge how effective our mode of advertising is with students. Once we have completed the interview we are looking to move into the Staff centre at Leeds University (see http://www.meetinleeds.co.uk/staffcentre) which we will have booked for half of the day. We will then give talks to students on how to use Wikipedia effectively in their studies, how to edit, and how to set up your own Wikipedia Society and the benefits this would incur for new editors and old editors alike. After the presentation has been given there will be a brief Q&A session where participants can get one-on-one help from Wikipedians with their queries (this will hopefully include academics as well as students). After this, there will be a training session on how to edit for those who want to make their first edit today and t-shirts will be given out to those who do.

After this there will be some outreach on campus – handing out leaflets and directing students to a landing page which will be set up especially for the event. Again, this will allow us to gauge how successful we have been with outreach as well as our retention rate. It also allows us to have a list of people to contact for further follow-ups.

University of Sheffield

As no room was available, Sheffield University will be a day of outreach on campus. We will be using the WP:CONTRIB leaflets and setting up a presence on campus with a sign-up sheet available for those who would be interested in creating a society on campus. This will coincide with an academic conference on campus and we hope to outreach to those attending the conference as well to see if we can garner academic interest in both Wikipedia in general and further outreach in their relevant field.

University of Manchester

The morning will be spent leafleting on campus, using WP:CONTRIB materials and trying to gain signatures for a possible society. We should then be giving our presentation in the same way as in Nottingham and Leeds, and we will should be meeting with Steven McIndoe regarding possible outreach opportunities through the library. This includes leaflets encouraging students to use Wikipedia responsibly as part of their studies as well as the possibility of hosting editing days at the library.

Note that the room booking in Manchester is free of charge.

Benefits

So far we have used the resources created by the contribution team, with funding from WMUK, to help set up the first Wikimedia Society at Imperial College, London. To do this we had a team of volunteers who handed out leaflets to garner public interest on our first visit. Once we had a base of interested students we then did a second outreach event where we collected signatures to show support of the society (we needed 20 and we gained over 60) and then on the second day held a social event and introduction to the society which was attended by 20 people in all. Both recruitment drive events garnered interest from the Wikipedian community at large as well as from the student population. We intend to repeat this process with universities all over the country, with a 4 day ‘tour’ organized for the week beginning the 1st of March. The outcomes we have achieved thus far include educating the student population as to the fact that they can edit (as well as teaching them to set up their own accounts and edit), spreading goodwill towards Wikipedia and setting up a society which can further these aims within the student body.

Requirements

City	Item	Cost	Description
Nottingham	Train tickets	£36	For transport to the first event
	Room booking	£360	a room in the student union with a projector and presentation area between 4pm and 6pm. This price was quoted to both students and the CONTRIB team as we are an 'external organisation'. Advertising for the event is also included in this cost.
	Promotional leaflets	£80	100 glossy A5 leaflets, based on templates made by the Contribution Team, to advertise the event and provide information for attendees
	Hotel	£30	For overnight stay, allowing us to attend the second event and to stay later at the first event doing outreach work. This would be at 'The Clarence Hotel', which is close to the venue and after a thorough search appears to be the cheapest available in the city on that day.
Sheffield	Train tickets	£22.60	For transport to the second event
	Promotional leaflets	£80	100 A5 glossy copies of leaflets, based on templates made by the Contribution Team, to advertise the event and provide information for attendees. We expect this to be a good and helpful starting point for people who are interested in the project. It should also help to garner interest in the outreach done on the day by the contribution team.
	Hotel	£39	For overnight stay, allowing us to attend the third event and to stay later at the second event doing outreach work. This would likely be at Ibis Hotel Sheffield City Centre, which although not the cheapest in the city, is the cheapest within 5 miles of the city centre.
Leeds	Train tickets	£18.40	For transport to the third event
	Electronic billboard display	£100	To display message on the two electronic billboards in the Students' Union advertising our event from 23 February to 3 March. We expect that this will increase student interest in our event and result in higher participation from the student body.
	Promotional leaflets	£80	100 A5 glossy copies of leaflets, based on templates made by the Contribution Team, to advertise the event and provide information for attendees. We expect this to be a good and helpful starting point for people who are interested in the project. It should also help to garner interest in the outreach done on the day by the contribution team.
	Hotel	£25	For overnight stay, allowing us to attend the third event and to stay later at the second event doing outreach work. This would likely be at Etap Hotel Leeds, which appears to be the cheapest hotel in the city centre by far.
	Room booking	£300	To book a room at Leeds University. The room is the only one available for external events for that day and has a capacity of 100. We feel that with a more aggressive advertising campaign we will be able to fill this room which should generate a lot of interest regarding Wikipedia use on campus. The room comes with a projector and stage from which we will be able to give our presentation and will come with full IT support and wireless which means that students can also edit Wikipedia for the first time during the event with a full walk-through.
Manchester	Train tickets	£34.20	For transport to the fourth event
	Promotional leaflets	£80	100 A5 glossy copies of leaflets, based on templates made by the Contribution Team, to advertise the event and provide information for attendees. We expect this to be a good and helpful starting point for people who are interested in the project. It should also help to garner interest in the outreach done on the day by the contribution team.
	Train tickets	£61	For transport home after the events have concluded
Total		Approx £1,346

Volunteering

If you're interested in helping out with this proposal, please sign below.