CH-SCI 4.1 Wikipedia for Peace: Writing about SCI Movement & History (On…

Description: Service Civil International and the international voluntary service (IVS) movement in general turned 100 years last year. In this camp, we want to shed a light to the last century of volunteering by writing Wikipedia articles about SCI, the peace and volunteering movement. This online workcamp is part of the bigger “Wikipedia for Peace” project series, a cooperation between SCI and Wikimedia. We will get to know Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects and through working closely with the SCI Archives, we 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. Every day we have ca. 3 hours in the afternoon (Central European Time) where we gather in Zoom. And in the mornings you can work individually or in small groups. You don’t have to have knowledge on Wikipedia already. It is crucial for us 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. We will learn how to write good Wikipedia articles. We will learn about the principles behind Wikimedia projects as well as free licences/open content philosophy in general. We will learn about the history and roots of SCI and the global peace movement. We will get to know more about amazing people that helped to establish international voluntary services and workcamps as a concept – and that contributed to peace — through your own research, through exchange with other participants and through external inputs.

Accommodation: Your own bedroom! 🙂

Language: We will speak English in the group. You can write Wikipedia articles in any language you want. We encourage you to write articles in your native language. Most of the materials about SCI that we have in the SCI Archives are in English, German, French and Spanish, but also in lots of other languages.

Requirements: You need a laptop (smartphones or tablets won’t work) and a good internet connection that works with video calls. Please send us a motivation letter stating why you are interested in Wikipedia and in working on Wikipedia articles about peace as well as confirming your availability during the project.

Notes: The SCI Archives, which will provide digitalized materials for us, has more than 700 boxes in the SCI Archives, around 80 years of history of this international peace organisation. The SCI Archives were established in 1970s. You can find more info about the SCI Archives here: https://archives.sci.ngo/

Here is the website of the «Wikipedia for Peace» project with reports of all the previous workcamps: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_for_Peace