User:JaylanHaley/WS3 2009

Welcome Letter
Greetings, I'm Jaylan Haley. I recently graduated from Norwich University's School of Graduate Studies with a Master of Arts in Diplomacy, specializing in International Relations ... man that was a mouthful. Needless to say, just prior to graduation I considered ways that I could share lessons that I have learned as an undergrad, as a grad student (hopefully soon to be PhD candidate), and in life. I ventured out onto the Web searching for opportunities among which, was teaching. Well, I looked for universities and colleges throughout the Sacramento area and other places, only to find that many institutions only accept PhDs as instructors, with the exception of one: Wikiversity.



Enthralled by the opportunity, I began to delve into the School of Political Science as politics are my passion. I was appalled at the state of the school and the university in general. The school's main page, divisions, research centers and courses were badly outdated and lacked clarity so I came to a conclusion: this is a worthwhile venture and it deserved my attention. Well, indeed it needed a little attention, as a matter of fact, the School of Political Science in addition to the Social Sciences Portal needed a lot of attention to attract the students and Wikipedian Scholars needed to make the system work. This was the canonizing moment for my experience with Wikiversity and the spark that would spawn the Wikiversity Social Sciences Summit 2009(WS3 2009).

I'm sure that I'm not the only Wikipedian Scholar who wants to provide free, limitless courses of study and research to the world. For those of us that choose, this is our moment. Wikiversity offers us the opportunity to transform a dull concept: learning, into one of the most interactive and advanced activities for humankind. A little over-the-top, I know, but the idea that anyone that has access to the World Wide Web can learn, in a structured manner, any strain of human knowledge and understanding that they choose, whenever, wherever, and however they want is absolutely astounding. The conundrum is in building a community that distributes the burden of sharing that knowledge and understanding with the world; that is the charter of Wikiversity.

WS3 2009 is designed to bring together the Social Sciences piece of the puzzle such that we can serve as the template upon which other portals can build their models. The program focuses on three basic goals which should be accomplished by September 7, 2010:


 * (1) Provide an undergraduate curriculum, fully populated for at least three schools which can be combined for a basic Social Sciences focus


 * (2) Provide a curriculum assistance package for all Social-Sciences-contributing Wikipedian Scholars which include tools for, at a minimum a:
 * a. Syllabus
 * b. Academic Schedule
 * c. Reference Materials (i.e. books, magazine articles, etc.)
 * d. Wikipedian Scholar's Lounge


 * (3) Creatively advocate the benefits and efficiencies of Wikiversity's Social Sciences Portal to both students and potential Wikipedian Scholars



Why September 7, 2010? Because at that very moment, schools all around the world will begin their fall semesters and so should Wikiversity. The accomplishment of these goals cannot be taken-up by one person. And, you might say, well Jaylan you set the goals so ... good luck. But I set the goals with the hope that there are others out there who have a passion for history or anthropology or psychology as I have a passion for politics and that together we can achieve these goals. None of us knows what the next year will bring but if we do nothing we can be sure that for Wikiversity's Social Sciences Portal, it will mean another year of barrenness. So, if you're interested, if you want to take up the charge, here's the plan.

From September 22, 2009 - September 26, 2009 I'm asking that as many people as possible join the discussion about how we can achieve the aforementioned goals and develop the Social Sciences Portal as much as possible. During that time, there will be discussion groups in the various links of the agenda where people can post their comments about different ideas that are pitched for the summit. The way this works is that under each agenda topic I will start off with a major subject area on which we need to focus to achieve our goals. We will then use that page as a user talk page, but one that is open to the community. The pages will hopefully be around for years to come as each year, these summits will be held to achieve the next milestones for the Social Sciences Portal.

Perhaps one of the biggest items will be Wiki Presentations. For the Wiki Presentations section. anyone can link an article that essentially doubles as an essay about a particular topic of interest for that year. This year's Wiki Presentations topic is: Wikiversity's Social Sciences Portal 2012, Where Do You See The Portal In 3 Years? Individuals will go to your page to make comments and at the end of the summit, I will compile all of the major theses and summarize them for a run-down on a separate page. These presentations will allow some of the more involved members to begin a discussion about the future of the Social Sciences Portal.

I know all of this stuff is extremely exciting but it is going to take a tremendous amount of work and an even more tremendous amount of patience from the community. This is the first time something like this has been done on Wikiversity, to my knowledge, and I hope it will be something that we can continue into the future. If you have any ideas about how to make this experience more fruitful or if you have ideas about how the summit should unfold, please leave comments, suggestions, and concerns in the discussion page. With that, I hope to see you all at the summit, or perhaps before that time.


 * Cheers!

--JaylanHaley 08:23, 3 September 2009 (UTC)

Agenda
This section of the WS3 2009 article provides participants with a list of subject areas that will be discussed for WS3 2009. Participants are invited to go into each individual article and make comments about the ideas that are introduced and are encouraged to introduce ideas of their own.

September 22, 2009

 * Objective 1: Provide an undergraduate curriculum, fully populated for at least three schools.
 * Presumed Wikiversity Social Sciences course sequence with other Portals.
 * School of Political Science proposed udnergraduate curriculum.
 * Need another School to volunteer to create a basic curriculum.
 * Need another School to voluntee to create a basic curriculum.

September 23, 2009

 * Objective 2: Provide a curriculum assistance package for all Social-Sciences-contributing Wikipedian Scholars.
 * Recommended Syllabus Layout
 * Recommended Academic Schedule
 * Recommended Referene Material
 * Social Sciences Wikipedian Scholar's Lounge

September 24, 2009

 * Objective 3: Creatively advocate the benefits and efficiencies of Wikiversity's Social Sciences Portal to both students and potential Wikipedian Scholars
 * Wikinews advertising
 * Wikiversity advertising
 * Wikipedia advertising
 * Word of mouth
 * Collegiate alliances

September 25, 2009

 * Wiki Presentations
 * Haley Wiki Presentation

September 26, 2009

 * Closing comments

Afteraction Report

 * Provide summary of 2009 WS3 Wiki Presentations
 * Provide plan of action for Wikiversity Social Sciences Portal and submit to the Social Sciences Scholar's Council.