Student societies

Wikimedia UK education projects

Annual Conference — Campus Ambassadors – Student Societies — Schools — Committee — VLE

Wikimedia UK is keen to support societies so that students better understand and improve Wikipedia and its sister projects.

Running a society expands your social circle, gives you an excuse to bring people together for a drink and a chat, and looks good on your CV. If you have some knowledge of how Wikipedia works, you can share it with other people while deepening your own understanding.

How Wikimedia UK can help

• We have contacts in libraries, archives and museums who are keen to help educational projects and can arrange "backstage passes", giving you access to documents or artefacts not normally on public display.
• If you want a speaker, or someone to help run a training session, our membership includes many experienced Wikimedia contributors who are also experienced presenters.
• We have a small budget to pay for stalls at freshers fairs, so we cannot normally pay the full rate, but in a few cases where there is a cheap deal, or where we are invited in by an existing student society, we can help to run a stall.
• There is some budget for freebies (Wikipedia mugs and so on) to give out at events. This has to be arranged with the office with plenty of notice.
• We can support a kick-off event by putting a small amount of money towards room costs, speaker costs or food. Since we are a charity supported by donations, our money cannot be used to pay for alcohol and we must have confidence that the money is being used to advance our goals.
• If we make contact with other people in your institution or your area, we can put them in touch with you.

Ideas for activities

Wiki pub quiz

This is run just like a normal pub quiz, but people are allowed to use mobile devices to look up answers. Hence you need to phrase the questions in a way that avoids the searchable terms. Bonus points to a team that finds an incorrect statement, and corrects the article based on a reliable source. You can set "trap" answers for negative points, like the TV programme QI.

For rich sources of unusual and surprising facts, look at Wikipedia:Unusual articles, List of common misconceptions or the Did You Know archive. Remember that use you can use images or audio clips from Wikimedia Commons as part of a quiz.

Improving articles on a subject

This is a joint event between a Wikipedia society and another student society. The idea is to get together for an evening or an afternoon and improve articles on a subject of interest, sharing expertise between the two groups.

Consensus debate

In contrast to the "proposing statement/ opposing statement/ rebuttal / rebuttal" format of traditional debates, this is a format inspired by the way we work on Wikipedia.

You invite opposing speakers on a controversial issue, which can be in any subject. Each speaker takes it in turns to propose a statement and give arguments and evidence to justify it. The other side can then propose a modification of that statement that they find acceptable, and give arguments for that statement. Unlike with Wikipedia, original research is allowed. This can be repeated for different aspects of the issue. For example, you could ask speakers to propose a statement each about the past, present and future of the problem. The aim is to work towards a meaty, meaningful set of statements that the room agrees are supported by evidence. As per the consensus policy, not everybody in the room has to be won over.

A document or wiki page is projected on a screen and statements are added and modified as the debate progresses. This shouldn't be done in a Wikipedia article, but could be done in a sub-page in user space (see how to do this) so that multiple users with Wikipedia logins can take part in recording what happens in the room.

If there are areas of agreement between the speakers, write them up quickly and move on to more controversial topics. If there is a deadlock where the two speakers take up opposite positions and won't budge, the chair should move them to another statement, perhaps moving from "should" statements to more purely factual language. The secret is to find statements for discussion that are controversial, but not so controversial that debate can't progress.

Campus wiki-lounge

Sit with a few friends in an on-campus cafe and, with a sign or t-shirts, indicate that you're here to help people with Wikipedia. Help people find information, upload files or edit articles. This is a way to meet people, share your knowledge, and correct misconceptions.

Active Student Societies

These are the student societies currently supported by Wikimedia UK:

• Wikipedians at Imperial College
• Cambridge University Wikipedia Society

Registering a student society

We cannot accept applications from individuals. In order to qualify for our support, you need to have a group of at least three students, all of whom are willing to share their full names and university email addresses with us, and one of whom is nominated as the lead. Together, you need to

• Find out the rules about student societies in your institution, and get registered
• Arrange and publicise an initial meeting, through posters, social networks and whatever other methods you find.

If you have a group together, contact educationwikimedia.org.uk

See also

• Wikipedia student clubs on the Wikimedia Foundation's Outreach wiki