User talk:Sross (Public Policy)

Class

Hi Sage! I'd like to be the online ambassador for the Intro to Law and Technology class listed here. :) Bejinhan talks 04:14, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Awesome! I'll put you in touch with Brad Rosen by email.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 14:30, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! Bejinhan talks 05:50, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Template synch

Something we talked about during the Skype call you missed: Template_talk:Wikipedia_Ambassadors_navbox#Synchronize_with_tabs_at_Wikipedia:Ambassadors. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 18:32, 13 August 2011 (UTC)

OA/Apply

Are you still the one passing these? There are two that have been up there for quite some time. Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 20:33, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Hello, Sross (Public Policy). You have new messages at The ed17's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Would like to withdraw from the Ambassador program

Hi Sage,

I am an ambassador in training. My life has gotten pretty busy as of late, and it will probably be a few years before I can take on any additional activities, such as the ambassador program. I believe it would be best to withdraw from the program now, before I am asked to get involved with a mentorship.

Thank you, The Dogfather (talk) 21:00, 17 August 2011 (UTC)

Online Ambassadors: Time to join pods

Hello! If you're planning to be an active Online Ambassador for the upcoming academic term, now is the time to join one or more pods. (A pod consists of the instructor, the Campus Ambassadors, and the Online Ambassadors for single class.) The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) explains the expectations for being part of a pod as an Online Ambassador. (The MOU for pods in Canada is essentially the same.) In short, the role of Online Ambassadors this term consists of:

• Working closely with the instructor and Campus Ambassadors, providing advice and perspective as an experienced Wikipedian
• Helping students who ask for it (or helping them to find the help they need)
• Watching out for the class as a whole
• Helping students to get community feedback on their work

This replaces the 1-on-1 mentoring role for Online Ambassadors that we had in previous terms; rather than being responsible for individual students (some of whom don't want or help or are unresponsive), Online Ambassadors will be there to help whichever students in their class(es) ask for help.

You can browse the upcoming courses here: United States; Canada. More are being added as new pods become active and create their course pages.

Once you've found a class that you want to work with—especially if you some interest or expertise in the topic area—you should sign the MOU listing for that class and get in touch with the instructor. We're hoping to have at least two Online Ambassadors per pod, and more for the larger classes.

If you're up for supporting any kind of class and would like me to assign you to a pod in need of more Online Ambassadors, just let me know.

--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:36, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

PS: There are still a lot of student articles from the last term that haven't been rated. Please rate a few and update the list!

Question

Hi Sage, I am interested in volunteering as an online ambassador this time, but have not previously been involved in the ambassador program. Should I go ahead and sign the MOU, or is there another place I should sign up first? LadyofShalott 17:22, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Politics of Developing nations pod

Hi Sage, could you add me to the pod Politics of Developing Nations. I feel I would be able to help students a lot in this, since I'm from India myself :P :) . Thanks! Lynch7 17:46, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Thank you :) Lynch7 17:49, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

Another thing. This lists me as an ambassador in-training. Do I get a promotion for this term? ;) or will I need to do some more work? (I'd be happy with anything, just asking). Lynch7 07:18, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Hehe, thanks! Lynch7 13:46, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Pod for Cognitive Psychology (Greta Munger)

Could you add me for Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Courses/Cognitive Psychology (Greta Munger)...amusing topics=P. Also, you should probably recommend against putting numbers and emails on wikipedia as with this course.Smallman12q (talk) 01:17, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Pods

I am equally as non-expert in all of the possible courses, so use me where you need me.--TonyTheTiger (T/C/BIO/WP:CHICAGO/WP:FOUR) 16:39, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Getting a head start

Hello, Sage. I realize my OA application hasn't ended yet, but I was wondering if I could get a head start on choosing a pod as well. I think I'll learn the workings of Ambassadorship faster on the fly. I hope I will be of some use in the upcoming academic term. —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 19:13, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

All right. I went ahead and signed the MOU for The Anthropology of Cyberspace and Politics of Developing Nations. Do I need to put my name anywhere else? Is there a standard way to initiate contact with the professors? —Arsonal (talk + contribs)— 20:16, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

Sign the MOU, update the template to show your user name, and Join the specific POD. After that an introduction to the appropriate talk pages is reasonable. I think that covers the preliminaries. My76Strat (talk) 01:29, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

What My76Strat suggested sounds good; there's no standard way to initiate contact, although if you'd like me to make an introduction by email instead, I'm happy to do so.--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 13:49, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Editing Fridays

Hey sage. I have come up with a draft idea for an early fall editing fridays. I'm not sure if you had any dates that you were doing trainings or other related things. cheers --Guerillero | My Talk 05:27, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Inactive

Hi Sage, I'm no longer going to be able to be active as an ambassador, as I am starting a new job that is devouring all my time. Can you please put me on the inactive list? Thanks. ɳorɑfʈ ^Talk! 09:27, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Mycology Online Ambassador

Hello - I would be interested in helping with this, depending on the timeframe and workload. Could you let me know some details? de Bivort 16:17, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Sure. The timeframe for the mycology class is the US fall 2011 academic term, which generally runs from September until mid-December. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) explains the expectations for being part of a pod as an Online Ambassador. In short, the role of Online Ambassadors this term consists of:

• Working closely with the instructor and Campus Ambassadors, providing advice and perspective as an experienced Wikipedian
• Helping students who ask for it (or helping them to find the help they need)
• Watching out for the class as a whole
• Helping students to get community feedback on their work

Basically, a good Online Ambassador should be active regularly on-wiki, so that when students come to you looking for help and asking questions, you don't leave them hanging for a week at a time. The official estimated time commitment is 2 hours per week, but that varies a lot according to where the students are in their assignment plan... there's a rush of general newbie questions when they first get active on Wikipedia, and then more content and formatting and review process issues that come up when deadlines are approaching. And the time commitment also varies a lot based on how much effort the Online Ambassador puts into it and how pro-active they are trying to help students and watch out for them before they explicitly ask for help. Some people like to be more proactive, others more reactive, jumping in mainly when students ask directly. --Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:28, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Hmm, too bad this isn't happening in the Spring. I'm going on the academic job market this fall, as well as a 3 week overseas trip for field work. I probably shouldn't sign on. de Bivort 17:11, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

The 3 week break shouldn't be a show-stopper; hopefully we'll have one or two other Online Ambassadors also supporting the class, and having you supporting the class when you can would still be a good benefit. But there should be even more classes in the spring (although I don't know whether there will be another mycology class then). Good luck on the job market!--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 17:14, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Architectural Design

I'd be happy to help out as time allows per your note [1]. My commitment will depend on work-related matters: I'm a principal in my own architectural firm, but I'll help out where I can. Acroterion (talk) 17:33, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Thanks Acroterion. Check out my response to de Bivort just above, which explains the general expectations for someone in the Online Ambassador role. If that sounds like something you can do, great! If not, you're still more than welcome to help out with that class as your schedule allows. (There's the formality of applying to become an Online Ambassador, but you should be a shoe-in for that.)--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 17:37, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

I'm sure I can find a couple of hours a week: I'd be glad to help. I'll make an application. Acroterion (talk) 17:49, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Introduction to Organizational Communication @ JMU

Hi Sage - I think that's a good choice and I'm looking forward to assisting with this class. Looks like Freshman are arriving on campus this week so school should be starting soon. --Rosiestep (talk) 14:06, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Course Page

Sage, No, go ahead and list the wizard-built page and list my other page as a relevant wikiproject. I would like for the students to list their usernames on the wizard-built page, so I'm going to at least use it for that. Maybe I'm crazy and I should just conform to the new system, but I'm going to do it one more time like this. Next semester, maybe I'll consolidate everything onto the wizard-built page... Brianwc (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 15:28, 25 August 2011 (UTC).

Sorry, too slammed to mentor this fall term

Hi Sage. Regarding your invitation on my Talk page, I've been thinking very hard about it. While I greatly enjoyed the mentoring I did last spring, I'm a bit too slammed to try to take it on this fall, in addition to my other jobs. I'm teaching a couple of university classes myself, and am simultaneously working to stand up a small technology company. So the Wiki-time has been in very short supply in the past few months, and will be even more scarce this fall term. So good on ya' for your work on this wiki-mentoring project, but I will have to bow out for the fall. Cheers. N2e (talk) 00:39, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Online ambassadors for business classes

Hi,
Count me in. We'd really benefit from more editors in this area, and I'd love to help new editors with specialist knowledge... presumably this is for a term starting in September-ish? bobrayner (talk) 18:46, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Great! Yeah, the terms are starting September-ish. The business-related classes that I know of so far are:

• Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Communication, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship (Dan O’Hair, Jennifer Dupuis)
• Wikipedia:United States Education Program/Courses/Business Data Communications (Kari Walters)

We may end up with a few more, though; a number of professors haven't started making their course pages yet.

You should take a look at what the expectations are for the Online Ambassador role by reading the Memorandum of Understanding between professors and ambassadors, then formally apply to be an Online Ambassador. --Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 18:54, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

U.S. Politics Ambassador

This idea sounds interesting, however, given the documented concern of bias that our community leans towards the U.S. Left, I would think it would be best to create teams, that can share availability periods, that have one from the U.S. Right one from the U.S. Left and one that enforces WP:NPOV. Granted all editors attempt to edit in a way that is neutral, however as editors of certain pages are "self selecting" that in itself creates certain biases. Having teams, that represent both sides of possibly contentious issues may help. --RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 19:56, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Hi RCLC! The main role of the Online Ambassadors isn't to police the content students contribute, but to help them understand Wikipedia's policies and practices, to give advice, and to help when students are having trouble figuring out how to contribute. The instructors and students do get some instruction about the NPOV policy, and they will be selecting topics that are relevant to their courses rather than simply picking political topics they are interested in. There's definitely no plan to try to balance left-leaning and right-leaning ambassadors; the expectation is that all ambassadors will respect NPOV as best they can, and help students to do the same. You can browse the classes we've got lined up for the coming term here: Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Courses.

And if you're interested in taking on the role of Online Ambassador for one of those classes, you should take a look at what the expectations are for the Online Ambassador role by reading the Memorandum of Understanding between professors and ambassadors, then formally apply to be an Online Ambassador. --Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 20:03, 26 August 2011 (UTC)

Hello. You have a new message at User_talk:SMasters#A_pod_suggestion_for_you:_Communication_Theory_and_Frameworks's talk page.

Online Ambassadorship

Hi Sage, I'm assuming I'll be on for this even though my application hasn't been given final approval (that I've seen). Anyway, I've been sort of torn which pod to choose; so just assign me where you need me. (I know several courses don't yet have any online ambassadors.) Just let me know where you'd like me! LadyofShalott 02:08, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

student lists on course pages

Hi Sage, thanks for the note. I was removing that section b/c the faculty found it redundant to the Article lists; however I didn't realize it was linked to the Leaderboard. I will put them all back and make sure the listing is comprehensive as I know our faculty and students are excited about the Leaderboard feature. Thanks for letting me know.

Also, a couple notes about the course page. LOVE the wizard - it is great! Do you know that there is a glitch when you get to adding the "getting help tab"? For some reason you have to save it twice before it takes. Also, we've found the "immediate help" section not be very intuitive. For example, the text says "for immediate help, click the purple button." Reading something that tells me to click something else seems odd. For example, if the purple button were an image labeled with "click here for immediate help" you wouldn't even need the text line. Or if the text were just linked inline, that would be fine too (which is what we did to resolve the problem quickly).

We've got an exciting semester, with most of our courses centered around WP contributions. I'm thrilled to see that the online ambassadors who have volunteered to support our courses are actually subject-matter experts in addition to experienced Wikipedians! Thanks for all you help and keep the suggestions coming. I know we will be in frequent correspondence ;) Rburdette (talk) 17:04, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

One more thing for the course page wizard wish list - is there a way to tie it to the MOU so that it is one step? In other words, once the course page is created and the instructors name is listed, this serves as acceptance of the MOU? Could this be the case too when ambassadors add their names? Faculty would love the efficiency of making this an all-in-one step. Just daring to dream!Rburdette (talk) 18:23, 2 September 2011 (UTC)

Hi Sage, Our courses are starting to pick up now and I'm collecting student user ids. Can you help me add back the student list section to all of the LSU course pages? I've played with it to no avail, so I'm pleading ignorance, begging for forgiveness, and hoping you can help ;) Rburdette (talk) 22:15, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Plate tectonics

Hi, for the plate tectonics class people are signing up at Wikipedia:Online Ambassadors#Interest list. Hopefully that is the right place. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 13:10, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know, Graeme, and I'm very happy to see some interest for that class. The next step to officially apply to become an Online Ambassador, and then you can sign on to support that class. Let me know if you have any questions. --Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 15:09, 6 September 2011 (UTC)

Question on demographics

Just realized I should have put this here. upstateNYer 19:51, 5 September 2011 (UTC)

Online Ambassadors

OK. Give me two or three days. I am really overworked. In last month I do only minor edits. It is not easy to edit on several wikis, but I will join. Thanks. Leszek Jańczuk (talk) 16:09, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Question about pod signup

Sage, I just got back from vacation and am about to sign up for a pod, but I was wondering if I'm supposed to sign up for a class in the region that my regional ambassador works with. I assume the online ambassadors are not tied to a particular region, but since we had the online ambassadors attended regional meetings at the conference I thought I shuold check. Thanks -- Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 10:16, 11 September 2011 (UTC)

Your assumption is right on. Associating with regions for that conference was just a convenient way to spread Online Ambassadors out to make sure each group had one or two to bring that perspective to the discussions. Feel free to sign up for whichever class(es) catch your fancy. --Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 13:46, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

Categories for discussion nomination of Category:Article Feedback Pilot

Category:Article Feedback Pilot, which you created, has been nominated for discussion. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments at the category's entry on the Categories for discussion page. Thank you. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 09:19, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

RA Geonotice Request

1. Message: Live near St. Louis/St. Charles, MO? Interested in training St. Charles Community College students in person on Wikipedia-editing skills? If so, the Wikimedia Foundation wants you! Apply to be a Wikipedia Campus Ambassador in your region for the fall 2011 semester. Leave a message at User_talk:Manumitany and take a look at the details and application here.

2. Page to link to: See above. Prefer my usertalk page if can only have one (have a link there to the second one).

3. St. Louis Metropolitan area. Not sure how you define these, though.Manumitany (talk) 21:45, 15 September 2011 (UTC)

Request to be added to Ambassador page for College of Staten Island, Professor Mandiberg's course

Hello Sage,

Your name was forwarded to me by Professor Michael Mandiberg who has one of his courses on Wikipedia.

I was asked to be one of the Campus Ambassadors for Professor Michael Mandiberg's course, "History of Design and Digital Media", College of Staten Island, CUNY, Staten Island, New York, U.S.A.--

I'd like to be added as an additional Campus Ambassador. I already submitted my application.

I cannot add my username (mappy1974) to this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Courses (it's an index of courses in the U.S.)

All that is shown is a blank page. Please go to this page to see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Courses

When I try to edit the listing, it shows a blank page with the tag "Fall 2011 courses" with no content below... I cannot add my name (mappy1974).

Thanks for your help and/or direction Mappy1974 (talk) 11:27, 22 September 2011 (UTC)mappy1974

My name still does not appear on College page.

Hi Sage, Thanks for your email. I still cannot add/edit this page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Courses

I tried to add my username (mappy1974) but I still cannot edit the page.

Can you please add it for me? Thanks, Mappy1974 (talk) 15:23, 22 September 2011 (UTC)mappy1974

How do we add our name/affiliation to the list of Campus Ambassadors?

Sorry to bother you again Sage.

How do we add our name and College campus to the listing of Campus Ambassadors? There does not seem to be an "edit" for that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Campus_Ambassadors

Thanks so much and sorry to bother you about this. Mappy1974 (talk) 15:27, 22 September 2011 (UTC)Mappy1974

I tried to add our CUNY college campus but it did not work

Hello Sage, I tried to add our CUNY College campus but it was added but looks pretty messy....It looks like it does not work...I did follow your instructions. If you could help me just a little bit more, I would really appreciate it. See URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Campus_Ambassadors/Trained#College_of_Staten_Island.2C_CUNY Thanks, Mappy1974 (talk) 12:07, 23 September 2011 (UTC)Mappy1974

How do I upload a photo to my bio page (Campus Ambassadors?)

Hello Sage, I'm on the page to add/edit my little bio and photo and I must be BEYOND stupid because I do not know how to upload an image onto Wikipedia. I assume Wikipedia supports local files (to be stored on the Wikipedia server, like my photo). I do not see the upload link to go into my hard drive to locate the JPG and upload onto Wikipedia. I assume that this page supports HTML.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Campus_Ambassadors/CUNY,_College_of_Staten_Island/Trained_Ambassadors

Thank you! Mappy1974 (talk) 15:54, 23 September 2011 (UTC)Mappy1974

Did I accidentally delete the CUNY Graduate Center Campus Ambassador page by accident??? SORRY!!!

Hi Sage,

I was able to finally post a small bio and photo of myself. Did I accidentally delete the CUNY Graduate Center Campus Ambassador person? I cannot find it....I don't think I deleted it....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:United_States_Education_Program/Campus_Ambassadors

With apologies, Mappy1974 (talk) 16:39, 23 September 2011 (UTC)Mappy1974 PS- I'll stop bothering you. Thank you so much for your help!

Course discussion pages

Hi Sage, We are prompting students to ask WP questions via their course discussion page when appropriate. The hope is that by doing so, we will centralize all q's and essentially be able to form a valuable Q&A for the entire class (and possibly students in future sections of the course). We're monitoring the course discussion pages as ambassadors, but I was wondering if there was a way to have WP trigger email notifications when things are posted to the course discussion page? Much like it does when you get a message posted on your user talk page? This would help make us much more efficient and give us added relief that we won't miss anything. Ideas?? Is there a "secret code" we can embed in the page? Rburdette (talk) 14:05, 27 September 2011 (UTC)

There's no native way to do that within Wikipedia, but every page has an RSS feed of changes, which can but used with a service like Blogtrottr to send emails each time the feed is updated. You can get to the feed by going to the history tab for a page, and in the left sidebar in the "Toolbox" section there is an Atom link. (Alternatively, if you have a well-kept watchlist that only includes pages you want to be notified about, you could use the RSS feed for your watchlist.)--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:23, 27 September 2011 (UTC)