Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors

Shortcut: WP:WOA

This page describes the Wikipedia Online Ambassador program as it is operating in Canada and the United States. For information on other countries, please see the Online Ambassador hub on the Outreach wiki.

Online Ambassadors serve as mentors, advisors, and helpers to the professors and students who are using Wikipedia in the classroom. The "Online Ambassador Program" has been coordinated by WMF through the Global Education Program. Their role is to keep the newcomers from being "bitten" and help them learn both the how and the why of editing Wikipedia and participating in the community. Wikipedians from around the globe are invited to apply to become an Online Ambassador. If you are interested in supporting students in countries other than Canada and the United States, please visit the WMF Outreach program for more information.

The Online Ambassador program supports instructors and their classes, where the classwork includes a requirement for the students to edit articles on Wikipedia. Each of the classes will have a class page where the instructor describes what the Wiki-assignment is for each student. Each course will have 1-3 Online Ambassadors assisting students in the course, and students will be able to ask technical questions of any Online Ambassador through an IRC chat room. The program is growing rapidly, and there are dozens of classes involved this term. Some of the students will create or greatly expand several articles during the semester. Others may simply make a minor edit to one article.

About the Online Ambassador role

Experienced Wikipedians who like working with newcomers or have an interest in reaching out to the academic community can apply to join the Wikipedia Ambassadors program as Online Ambassadors.

Wikipedia Online Ambassadors will:

• mentor students who are assigned to edit Wikipedia in their classes.
• work with Campus Ambassadors and professors to support and manage Wikipedia assignments.
• work with other Ambassadors and the Wikimedia Foundation to develop new ways to help newbies.
• answer questions on the wiki, and (if you like) by email, on IRC, and other media as well.
• for those who use IRC: train students via IRC on the technical and social basics of editing Wikipedia.
• help students learn the key processes of Wikipedia.
• explain Wikipedia policies, guidelines, and norms, and guide new users to the appropriate resources.
• help shape the future of the Wikipedia Ambassadors program.

The Wikipedia Online Ambassador role is a volunteer position. The estimated time commitment is 2 hours per week or more. Ambassadors should have experience with the basics of Wikipedia—particularly creating quality content and giving detailed feedback on others' work—a record of being friendly and helpful with newcomers, and a desire to make Wikipedia better.

Time commitment

Active Wikipedia Online Ambassadors will be expected to be available at least two hours per week during a given university term. Since the students follow an academic schedule, their involvement at Wikipedia is sporadic, so some weeks, your student mentees may be completely inactive on Wikipedia, and other weeks, they may have a burst of activity that needs review, especially the last couple of weeks in the school term. Ambassadors are not expected to be online at the same time as their students, but should be responding to queries and requests for feedback in a timely manner as well as regularly monitoring student's contributions. Also, if Ambassadors are online and use IRC, extra time can be spent helping students in other courses.

Becoming an Online Ambassador

Main page: Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors/Apply

There are two options for applying to become an Online Ambassador: you can apply on-wiki and have your qualifications for being an ambassador discussed by anyone in the community, or you can apply off-wiki and have your application evaluated by the Online Ambassador selection team.

The criteria used, in a nutshell, are: whether the applicant is competent and friendly enough to make an effective ambassador. For more detail on what types of things may be relevant, see the guidelines for evaluation of applications.

Well qualified applicants will be immediately admitted as Online Ambassadors. Applicants with less experience or for whom there are areas of specific concern can be admitted as Online Ambassadors-in-training and go through a training program before becoming a full ambassador.

Active ambassadors

Active ambassadors who are available to serve as mentors for students in courses participating in the Public Policy Initiative, are listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject United States Public Policy/Ambassadors.

All active ambassadors, including those who are not serving as mentors or have no slots available for additional mentees, are also listed at Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors/Mentors.

(Former or inactive ambassadors are listed here: Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors/Mentors/Inactive)

Guidelines and lessons

• Guidelines
• Interactive lessons

Userbox

Userboxes This user is a Wikipedia Online Ambassador.

For those that are interested, the userbox shown to the right is available for use:

• {{Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Userboxes/Online ambassador}}

Top Icon

• {{Online Ambassador}} a top icon template to indicate you are an Online Ambassador.