Wikimedia Fellowships/Project Ideas/Convidando o Brasil

Convidando o Brasil (Inviting Brazil), is a project for volunteers, or volunteer, to work on dissemination, training and partnerships throughout Brazil.

Things to consider

About Brazil

Brazil is a country of continental proportions, which has little penetration of the Wikimedia movement. Wikipedia is not even one of the 15 most visited sites, but given the educational deficit of the country, in particular regarding quality educational resources, there is clearly much potential for growth.

We have a consistent group of volunteers working in the country since 2008 which develops a wonderful job and work without money. We are currently present in several states, but as the penetration of Wikipedia itself is low, we are not represented in certain regions. Almost all our activities are concentrated in the hub Rio-São Paulo, most of that because of the lack of a critical mass of volunteers in other places.

What is Circuito Fora do Eixo (FdE)?

A peer network of thousands of artists, culture workers and agents throughout the whole country, many of whom work with education or are university students. From the Wikimedia standpoint, this opens up several possibilities of collaboration. Moreover, as they are all over the country and working with culture, we can establish partnerships to aggregate Brazilian cultural content into the Wikimedia projects.

Rationale

The project is needed to reach the regions of the country that WMBr does not reach due to lack of resources, both human and financial. It has a great potential to increase penetration of the movement in universities and cultural points, especially in those hard to reach regions. It will increase the visibility of the Wiki, and generates many projects throughout the country.

Targeted

The project's goal is to bring in new volunteers, and train new volunteers from all regions of Brazil.

But the main focus is in that they initiate educational projects aimed at building collaborative free resources, using the Wikimedia Movement as a platform.

Notwithstanding the previous point, we will also go beyond the universities, seeking regional groups of free culture, other potential contributors, and also Fora do Eixo points, which retain much culture, but not yet fully utilize the Wikimedia potential.

Actionable

Step zero

Identify major universities with potential for developing Wiki activities (List of universities has begun);
- Identify volunteer groups that carry out projects within universities, and if so, those already working with free culture;
- Identify the number of volunteers able to disclose the activity within the colleges, in universities identified;
  - Diagnose our potential penetration (+ volunteers ready projects already free culture within the university) and prioritize colleges with higher acceptance activities;
Identify groups of free culture (GFC);
- Prioritize groups;
Create promotional material for the task force;
Create presentations and workshops to be applied;
Identify academic/free cultural events that may serve to disseminate the task forces (has begun);

Step 1

Start working on publicity and lectures at universities/GFC in priority, traveling as necessary;
- Empower people who show interest in volunteering to join in the movement;
  - Work with trained people or stakeholders to identify more teachers/volunteers with the potential to embrace the project;
Start partnerships with existing volunteer groups (within or outside universities) ;
Attend interesting events to publicize the program;

All along

Document the efforts and discuss optimizations with the Wikimedia community, as well as evaluate decisions for future steps;
Online support via WMBR for volunteers engaged along the way;

In the end

Back to the places visited, to follow up with the work as necessary;

Impactful

We expect to build a greater penetration in the country with this fellowship, increasing the diversity of participants and stretching out of the Rio-São Paulo axis.

We will also aim to reduce the gender gap in Wikipedia. For example, one Wiki workshop already held with Fora do Eixo had 100% female participation. Listening to their criticisms we will reduce usability problems and increase the real number of girls using MediaWiki.

We may be able to catalyze education and culture in the country. We expect to increase significantly the number of volunteers with greater penetration throughout the country.

As a result, many cultural and educational articles/books/classes/media shall be generated.

Sustainable

By engaging and empowering trained volunteers in each regions, they can perform activities independently, while counting with the on-line support of the Wikimedia Brasil community.

Scalable

All work will be thoroughly and continuously documented. This model can be applied at any scale and in any location.

Measurable

It should be easy to measure, by observing the progress of projects organized along our path, both in terms of the longevity of engagement and results in terms of reach and participation.

Idea submitted by

Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton^m I am a volunteer of the Wikimedia Movement in particular with WMBr, OTRS, Wikimedia Commons, Strategic Planning and others. Since 2006, WMBr and Strategic Planning since the beginning. I already have a vast experience with the Movement, many conversations with community members, students of the movement, people from WMF, people from free culture world... promoted many activities, I went to many free culture events...

I could do this project this year, I am interested.

Prospective fellows

Would you like to be considered for a fellowship to work on this project?

If you'd like to take an active role in this project, either alone or in a team of fellows with complementary skills, please add your name below. Note that in order to be considered for a fellowship, you must also submit an application to the program.

Your name here!

Endorsements

This section is for endorsements by Wikimedia community volunteers. Please note that this is not a debate, vote, or poll, but is rather a space for volunteers to describe in detail why they think a project idea is of value. If you have concerns or questions rather than an endorsement to make, please use the idea Talk page. Endorsements by volunteers willing to work in collaboration with a fellowship recipient on a project are highly encouraged.

Vini 175 (talk) 18:36, 27 February 2012 (UTC) It should be a good way to try to catch new users for Wikimedia projects. Approaching to groups already invoveld with the free culture and to universities not served by our educational program yet (out of our range) is certainly a profitable work which will raise the balance of users. With the experience as Campus Ambassador and longtime editor, I think I may help as a volunteer in this project.[reply]
MetalBrasil (talk) 15:33, 28 February 2012 (UTC) The universities are one of the best places to spread the Wikimedia ideologies and commitments. In there we can find the people with the thinking perfect for this type of project. And a so handsome and charming guy as Rodrigo Argenton (:P) is perfect for disseminate "the Wikimedia way" throughout the universities at the whole big Brazil, informate the college students about our commitment and try to make them involved. And I swear I will make the maximum counter-noise to this if him doesn't include my university at his way! Good luck.[reply]
Tom (talk) 15:49, 28 February 2012 (UTC) This can be really useful for the education pilot program in Brazil. I'll write later on how we could collaborate. (no time now, but just adding my endorsement)[reply]
Sturm (talk) 16:42, 28 February 2012 (UTC) I think two of the main points of this "Project Ideas" are the sustainability of its actions and the impact in a "continental country" like Brazil. As said above, universities are fertile area where we can sow and spread free knowledge. All we need is projects like this![reply]
Solstag (talk) 06:26, 29 February 2012 (UTC) Back in 2010, I emphatically told WMF staff that they should forget all about offices, chapters, programs and fundraising in Brazil for a few years and throw every single penny they had allocated for Brazil in funding itinerant groups or individuals that would move around the country stopping to engage and empower already existing educational and cultural structures, both formal and informal, both from the government and civil society. Here we might have the opportunity to finally try this by ourselves. So, although I am personally unable to "fellowteer" for such an effort, I second Sturm in saying that "All we need is projects like this!".[reply]
Jonas AGX (talk) 11:21, 6 March 2012 (UTC) I second (too) Sturm in saying that "All we need is projects like this!".[reply]
Open_Research I second this. Please do keep in touch if there is overlap - I have particular interests in developing work related to Economics and the History of Economics in Brazil. Good luck! Open Research (talk) 14:01, 12 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]