The Wikimedia Foundation has been dedicated to partnership with universities in the U.S., Britain, Canada, Germany, India and Brazil to promote the educational use of Wikipedia as a platform for creation of content by students. The site, the 5th largest in the world, has been widely used as teaching material in all specialties and levels of education in Brazil and worldwide, but its content is not always reliable. As Wikipedia's is all about user creation, this is an excellent opportunity to develop writing, research and content skills by the students - who see their work being used by thousands of readers. The meeting will present the Global Education Program of the Wikimedia Foundation and its preliminary results.

Bios:

Barry Newstead is the Chief Global Development Officer (CGDO) of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). He joined in July 2010 and is based in San Francisco. In his role, he leads WMF's efforts to support growth of the Wikimedia projects in the developing world (with a priority focus on India, Brazil and the Arabic-speaking Middle East and North Africa), build mobile and offline products and services that expand the reach of Wikimedia-created knowledge, and facilitates WMF's relationship with affiliated chapters and other organizations around the world. In addition, Barry oversees WMF's communications team and a small research team.

Jessie Wild is a Special Projects Manager in the Global Development of the Wikimedia Foundation. Jessie joined the Wikimedia Foundation full time in 2010, after doing several months of external consulting work with the Foundation. She serves as a Special Projects Manager on the Global Development team: a programmatic team committed to encouraging the growth of Wikimedia communities and the projects around the world with a priority focus on the Global South. Jessie contributes to a range of initiatives including establishing our India, Brazil, MENA activities, supporting strategies for mobile and offline, orchestrating University and OER relationships, and other unpredictable roles as the Global Development work is being built!

Learn more about the rapprochement between the Wikipedia and academia! Do not miss!

Where: IME - USP / Auditório Jacy Monteiro

Date: 10 de Outubro de 2011

Time: 14:00 - 16:00