User:Mike Cline/USCAN Working Group Drafts/Phase I Task Forces/U.S. Canada Education Program Scope and Philosophy/Meeting II

1. The overall scope of the Education Program follows the general principles of the Wikipedia movement: it will be community based, open and free of advertising. It supports the ideals of a free culture and our materials will be available under a free license.

2. Our main goal is to establish a permanent organization that (add: goal of using Wikipedia as a teaching tool) will upgrade the quality of Wikipedia encyclopedias and closely related projects by helping editors in the U.S. and Canada. We will help assure the quality of all our projects, and will help to resolve disputes (advocacy; facilitation) that might arise. We will not reject individual editors living in other countries.

3. We will continue and improve the current WMF education program in non-profit colleges & universities in the US and Canada. We will recruit additional academic teachers and staff as well as support personnel ("ambassadors"). We will provide helpful materials.

4. We will open new channels of communications to the knowledge industry in the US and Canada to encourage greater use & understanding of Wikipedia

5. We will actively support free access of all Wikipedia editors to critical resources designed for higher education, such as journals, conferences, online resources like JSTOR, Questia, Credo, HighBeam, etc. and inter-library loan services.

6. We will conduct and support training programs for US-Canada editors in using resources of higher education and related institutions such as research libraries. We will work with recognized Projects and Chapters when appropriate and interested.

7. We will support our programs by fund raising among foundations & private donors in the US and Canada; as well as government grants or contracts