January 6, 2021
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Volunteer on another fantastic online Wikipedia for Peace project with SCI Switzerland!
Project Dates: 1 to 7 April 2021
Volunteers needed: 2
Description: Service Civil International and the international voluntary service movement in general turned 100 years last year. In this project, SCI Switzerland want to give visibility to the last century of volunteering by writing Wikipedia articles about SCI and the peace and volunteering movement. This online project is part of the bigger “Wikipedia for Peace” project, a cooperation between SCI and Wikimedia. Volunteers will get to know Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects and through working together with the SCI archives they will get to know the history of the peace movement better.
Type of Work: Doing research for Wikipedia articles online, writing new articles and improving existing ones. The project organizers will prepare a list of articles around people and topics that are related to SCI and that are relevant enough to have articles on Wikipedia. In the afternoons, the volunteers gather on Zoom, and in the mornings, the volunteers can work individually or in small groups.
You don’t have to have knowledge on Wikipedia already. It is crucial that you are motivated to participate throughout the whole project, that you are not missing on any day of the project, that you enjoy writing and that you are interested in the history of SCI and the peace movement
Study Theme: There will be a big emphasis on studying in this camp. Volunteers will learn how to write good Wikipedia articles. They will learn about the principles behind Wikimedia projects as well as free licences/open content philosophy in general. They will also learn about the history and roots of SCI and the global peace movement.Volunteers will get to know more about amazing people that helped to establish international voluntary services and projects as a concept – and that contributed to peace - through individual research, through exchange with other participants and through external inputs.
Time Commitment: There will be around three hours of Zoom every day of the project, usually sometime between 12:00 - 16:00 GMT, except for one free day (usually Friday). There is also an optional evening activity, usually around 17:00 GMT. The rest of the time is flexible, but participants are asked to spend an additional 2 hours each day working on their articles. The times for the Zoom sessions will be finalised closer to the start of the project to accommodate all participants’ time zones.
Language: The group will speak English. Volunteers can write Wikipedia articles in any language you want. Volunteers are encouraged to write in their native language. Most of the materials about SCI in the SCI archives are in English, German, French and Spanish, but also in lots of other languages.
Availability: Please note that there is limited availability for online projects, so we allocate these places on a first come, first served basis.
Requirements:
- You need to be a member of VSI to participate in this project. If you’re not yet a member, it’s easy to sign up - you can read more here, complete the membership form and pay your membership on this link (€20 for unwaged individuals, €40 for waged individuals).
- You'll need a laptop (smartphones or tablets won't work) and a good internet connection that works with video calls for the project.
- You'll need to send a motivation letter (just a short paragraph) to ivp@vsi.ie stating why you are interested in Wikipedia and in working on Wikipedia articles about peace, as well as confirming your availability to particpate throughout the whole project.
- Finally, you'll need to fill out the application form below:
Additional Info: The SCI Archives, which will provide digitalized materials for the project, has more than 700 archive boxes, around 80 years of history of this international peace organisation. The Archives was established in 1970s. You can find more info about the archives here.
Here is the Wikipedia for Peace project page with reports on all previous projects.