Technical workshops

[Rama Neko]

Hello,

I would like to suggest a prototype project for Technical workshops. These workshops are of interest for all Wikimedia chapters. Since I live in Lausanne, I decided to start in here :)  (I am a member of Wikimédia France, and I speak a very bad German, hence the English).

I am sending this mail to see whether someone is interested to form a small core of organisers. We could then advertise the putative event to Wikipedians located in Switzerland and get the thing rolling.

Thank you for your interest,
  -- Rama

== Proposal ==
=== Rational ===
Among other tactics, Linux evangelism was carried out though "install parties", in which experienced users devoted some of their time to train newbies. These live meetings allowed discussion and demonstrations of actual manipulations.

I suggest that similar event could profitably be organised by Wikimedia chapters and individual Wikipedians with specific expertise (for instance: photography, Law, etc).

=== Teaching, learning and comparing notes ===
The events could be a place for people of comparable expertise to compare notes, and for people of very different expertise to teach and learn tips and tricks. For instance:

* Photography: how to frame, basic techniques, etc.
* Audio: how to record a spoken article
* Image: how to edit an image (detour, etc)
* Law: licences, personality rights, etc.
* Applied psychology: how to speak or write to people in an effective manner to obtain licences and autorisations
* Digitalise books
* Special interest topics: how to take photograph in a museum ? (combines particular aspects of photography, legal considerations, applied psychology, etc.)

The means of these exchanges would be mainly
* informal presentations and exposés
* discussions
* practical workshops: for instance 6 people are taught by 1 organiser how to do proper photographs
* demonstrations: for instance one person demonstrates how to detour an image in GIMP.

=== Technical support ===
The events could be a place where technical tools (such as scanners, high-end cameras, microphones, etc.) are concentrated punctually. This might allow some punctual work to be done (not scanning whole books, but properly scanning a few photographs or engravings, for instance).

=== Practical considerations ===
I propose that the events should be made relatively small, as to allow
* regular occurence (temporal plenty)
* occurence within a reasonable distance from home for all Wikipedians (spatial plenty)
* easy organisation





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[Emmanuel Engelhart-3]

Hi,

I find this idea really good.
I should be possible to find rooms in Zürich.

I do not know if you can write on http://members.wikimedia.ch
But it would be a good place, to see more in details, how to organize
such an event.

Emmanuel

2007/12/18, Rama Rama <ramaneko@...>:

> Hello,
>
> I would like to suggest a prototype project for Technical workshops. These
> workshops are of interest for all Wikimedia chapters. Since I live in
> Lausanne, I decided to start in here :)  (I am a member of Wikimédia France,
> and I speak a very bad German, hence the English).
>
> I am sending this mail to see whether someone is interested to form a small
> core of organisers. We could then advertise the putative event to
> Wikipedians located in Switzerland and get the thing rolling.
>
> Thank you for your interest,
>   -- Rama
>
> == Proposal ==
> === Rational ===
> Among other tactics, Linux evangelism was carried out though "install
> parties", in which experienced users devoted some of their time to train
> newbies. These live meetings allowed discussion and demonstrations of actual
> manipulations.
>
> I suggest that similar event could profitably be organised by Wikimedia
> chapters and individual Wikipedians with specific expertise (for instance:
> photography, Law, etc).
>
> === Teaching, learning and comparing notes ===
> The events could be a place for people of comparable expertise to compare
> notes, and for people of very different expertise to teach and learn tips
> and tricks. For instance:
>
> * Photography: how to frame, basic techniques, etc.
> * Audio: how to record a spoken article
> * Image: how to edit an image (detour, etc)
> * Law: licences, personality rights, etc.
> * Applied psychology: how to speak or write to people in an effective manner
> to obtain licences and autorisations
> * Digitalise books
> * Special interest topics: how to take photograph in a museum ? (combines
> particular aspects of photography, legal considerations, applied psychology,
> etc.)
>
> The means of these exchanges would be mainly
> * informal presentations and exposés
> * discussions
> * practical workshops: for instance 6 people are taught by 1 organiser how
> to do proper photographs
> * demonstrations: for instance one person demonstrates how to detour an
> image in GIMP.
>
> === Technical support ===
> The events could be a place where technical tools (such as scanners,
> high-end cameras, microphones, etc.) are concentrated punctually. This might
> allow some punctual work to be done (not scanning whole books, but properly
> scanning a few photographs or engravings, for instance).
>
> === Practical considerations ===
> I propose that the events should be made relatively small, as to allow
> * regular occurence (temporal plenty)
> * occurence within a reasonable distance from home for all Wikipedians
> (spatial plenty)
> * easy organisation
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://wikimedia.ch Wikimedia CH website
> Wikimediach-l mailing list
> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediach-l
>
>

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[Rama Neko]

I find this idea really good.
I should be possible to find rooms in Zürich.

That's excellent. If the first  event is organised in Zurich, it would shift the focus on the German-speaking members. It'd then be up to German-speaking members to organise and animate the event.

I do not know if you can write on http://members.wikimedia.ch
But it would be a good place, to see more in details, how to organize
such an event.

I cannot, but I am a member of Wikimedia France, and I drafted a French version of the proposal on http://members.wikimedia.fr

Cheers !
  -- Rama

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[Nicolas Guérin-3]

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Hi Rama, on January 2008 we plan a meeting in Zürich with french-speaking people
( see http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Rencontre/Suisse_romande )
Then, it may be possible to do such workshop during the meeting, no?

   nicolas
 

2007/12/18, Rama Rama <ramaneko@...>:

I find this idea really good.
I should be possible to find rooms in Zürich.

That's excellent. If the first  event is organised in Zurich, it would shift the focus on the German-speaking members. It'd then be up to German-speaking members to organise and animate the event.

I do not know if you can write on http://members.wikimedia.ch
But it would be a good place, to see more in details, how to organize
such an event.

I cannot, but I am a member of Wikimedia France, and I drafted a French version of the proposal on http://members.wikimedia.fr

Cheers !
  -- Rama

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[Michael Bimmler]

On Dec 18, 2007 12:07 PM, Rama Rama <ramaneko@...> wrote:

>
>
> > I find this idea really good.
> > I should be possible to find rooms in Zürich.
>
> That's excellent. If the first  event is organised in Zurich, it would shift
> the focus on the German-speaking members. It'd then be up to German-speaking
> members to organise and animate the event.
>
>
> > I do not know if you can write on http://members.wikimedia.ch
> > But it would be a good place, to see more in details, how to organize
> > such an event.
>
> I cannot, but I am a member of Wikimedia France, and I drafted a French
> version of the proposal on http://members.wikimedia.fr
>

(Actually, you *can* write on members.wikimedia.ch because it is not
members-only ;-)

Michael

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[Frederic Schutz]

Rama Rama wrote:

> I would like to suggest a prototype project for Technical workshops.
> These workshops are of interest for all Wikimedia chapters. Since I live
> in Lausanne, I decided to start in here :)  (I am a member of Wikimédia
> France, and I speak a very bad German, hence the English).

This is a fantastic idea. I am in the Lausanne area too, and finding a
room would not be a problem. Also, there is a strong community of
Wikipedians around...

Speaking as a member of Wikimedia CH (and not as a board member !), I
think this kind of activity would be worth subsidizing by the association.

I would be very interested in the following topics:

> * Photography: how to frame, basic techniques, etc.
 > * Special interest topics: how to take photograph in a museum ?
 > (combines particular aspects of photography, legal considerations,
 > applied psychology, etc.)
 > * Image: how to edit an image (detour, etc)
 > * Digitalise books

I can contribute to the following topics:

> * Law: licences, personality rights, etc.
> * Applied psychology: how to speak or write to people in an effective
> manner to obtain licences and autorisations

For the first one, I've had contacts with a lawyer who could potentially
participate to such workshop (and who actually knows and understands
modern technology, free licences and Wikipedia !).

Frédéric

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[Rama Neko]

Thank you all for your reactions, I really appreciate that the idea doesn't instantly get lost in interstellar void.

* Nicolas, if people don't feel that the meeting in Zürich is being highjacked from a social event to a boot camp, it might be a good opportunity.

* Frédéric, the room in Lausanne and the lawyer are both very interesting. Maybe we could send your friend a couple of questions in advance.

* I think that the next step would be to start advertising the possible event somehow. I've thought of spamming users' talk pages, does anyone have a better idea ? It's a pity that these user boxes are merely decorative, they should link to a place where announcements relevant to the category of users can be made.

I would plan to do these workshops informally, as often as possible, and in as many places as possible. we've had proposals for Zurich and Lausanne: ideally, we'd do both.
I would really like these workshops to range from a semi-formal meeting with talks, to something as informal as half a dozen people chatting about a technique over a drink. It's really the militia principle: the more people can be instructed with basic principle and sensibilised with the need to bring photos to Commons, the less we will have country-wide open days after which we hardly get anything. We don't need a handful of ninjas, we need lots of people doing their small contribution whenever the opportunity arises.

Cheers !
  -- Rama

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[Rama Neko]

Hello,

I have set up two tutorials on Wikiversity in the vein of what I was suggesting:
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Museum_photography
http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Concert_photography

Cheers !
  -- Rama

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