[WikiToLearn] Important: 1 hr for helping - WikiToLearn outside Italy

[Dario Menasce]

A really interesting article indeed: it strikes the right target, which 
is "empowerment" of both teachers and students, who are free to adapt 
the education material to their needs with a very fine granularity. This 
is far more important than freedom from publishing costs.

Thanks, Dario

On 12/10/15 21:18, Carl Symons wrote:
> Just saw an article this morning that might interest the wikitolearn team...
>
> http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4015
>
> Carl
>
> On Monday, October 12, 2015 01:14:12 AM Riccardo Iaconelli wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> first, some good news, Luca has finally managed to create some scripts which
>> bring upgrade downtime below the second, and the national press talks of
>> us:
>>
>> https://www.facebook.com/263066497148006/posts/829880123799971/
>>
>> it's not the most accurate article, but it's way more than I expected... and
>> a good reference for the future. ;-)
>>
>> now, to the real topic of this e-mail... I am really hearing little feedback
>> from the non italian community: how are things doing? Or, as a more general
>> question, is there anything you feel we should do to improve communication
>> from the italian group and spread non-italian initiatives?
>>
>> To sumarize the past events, in Italy we've invested a few hours in active
>> promotion of WikiToLearn in academical environments and that paid off to be
>> a great success: we've today passed the line of 25 active contributors
>> (from the 3 of August and 13 of the Sprint)... But I am feeling close to
>> zero traction from other countries and languages, even from developers who
>> showed a lot of interest. This is a pity!
>>
>>  From what we've seen the project requires very little promotion work in
>> order to kickstart succesfully in an existing community, but the local
>> presence is *essential* for this to work. One hour talking to the right
>> person will multiply to many hours of work on the content, but we must
>> invest in the initial communication. Concretely speaking, it's usually just
>> a matter of getting people to contribute/publish their ALREADY existing
>> material, or explaining the WikiToLearn philosophy to interested students
>> (either personally, or by posting on facebook groups where they meet, or
>> similar communication channels...).
>>
>> I want to change this: for my part I am willing to spend all the necessary
>> time to ensure we can promote WikiToLearn efficiently in non-italian
>> environments, including mentoring, producing artwork, or anything else I can
>> help you guys with. But for this to work YOU are essential, with your
>> attention and (existing or potential) contacts.
>>
>> We built an amazing momentum, and we must be careful not to loose it. I have
>> seen some competing efforts starting from commercial entities, who are
>> moving in a direction similar to ours, but without the freedom aspects. It
>> is important not to loose the time battle, in order to bring together
>> convenience AND freedom. This is *the* time to push on the accelerator to
>> make sure knowledge gets produced and consumed in the open and under free
>> license.
>>
>> It is for this reason that I would like to ask you, just once and when it
>> suits you best, one hour of your KDE time in the next couple of weeks, to
>> simply look into this topic. Send an e-mail, or get an initial contact, even
>> with one person, but with whoever you think might be more interested. We
>> are more than 50 in this mailing list, that means 50 hours of promotion,
>> more than we've done here in Italy. By just this little action you will do
>> an immense job for our common cause. If you need any kind of help... please
>> speak, we're all here to help each other, and I will personally support you
>> as much as I can! :-)
>>
>> Bye,
>> -Riccardo
>>
>> P.S. CC'ing Carl as this mail answers a couple of questions he had for the
>> dot article...
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