WikiStage is a non-profit Wiki Project of event organisers who create a free library of educational videos. How is this different from Wikipedia, YouTube, TED and open university lectures?
At the heart of WikiStage are WikiTalks, where experts address one specific question in 3, 6 or 9 minutes. These WikiTalks are recorded at WikiStage events and uploaded as short educational clips to the free video library of WikiStage online.
Wiki Spirit and Wiki Project
We love the spirit in which Wikipedia editors engage and contribute to what has become the largest encyclopaedia on the planet. This “Wiki Spirit”, which causes people to collaborate to create this vast text-based library, inspired our choice to associate our project with the Wiki brand. With WikiStage, we want to build a “Wiki Project” where people work together in a similar spirit.
How is a WikiTalk different from a Wikipedia article?
Besides the obvious difference of text vs. video, the content of a WikiTalk can be very different from a Wikipedia article. While Wikipedia lets its articles be edited by a great number of people, a WikiTalk is given by one expert who is responsible for his content.
Diversity is created at WikiStage when one particular question is addressed by different experts in several WikiTalks.
For this reason, we do not expect our speakers to simply cite factual information but to bring otherwise dry knowledge to life and to make it relevant and accessible. At times, what counts is not just the content of a message, but also who delivers it, and how.
A common format for educational videos
At WikiStage, we love the freedom that video platforms, such as YouTube, provide to the user. Unlike traditional TV, people are now empowered to create their own content and to watch what they are interested in whenever they need it. However, we do not consider a commercial video platform to be a Wiki Project. For this, the content is too diverse and the users do not work together towards a common objective. What we propose to establish with WikiStage is a library of educational videos where users can expect a consistent format and quality content.
How is it different to TED?
While TED has one main event and all TEDx events are only small satellites, we at WikiStage understand that each new organiser makes our community stronger and a stronger community can give greater visibility to each organiser. WikiStage is shaped by a creative community of idealists who can create better events by adapting to their local situation and by allowing their teams to be creative.
Ideas for Change
We are a non-profit association created by students in Paris. Our bottom-up organisation is supported by grassroot-style volunteers who believe in our potential impact for free education.
Our objective is not to spread ideas from a few to many, but to share them from many to many.
WikiStage is not about selecting only the top 1% of the talks that may change the world, but our aim is to create a searchable video library of intriguing questions through a Wiki Project that invites you to contribute. This is why we offer not just the format of big events; we propose the additional format: WikiStage Café.
We strive to make it easy for you to become an event organiser and instead of imposing a large catalogue of rules, we trust and support you when you decide to enrich our collective puzzle with your piece of knowledge.
Curiosity vs teaching
Universities are a great place to host WikiStage events. This raises the question of how WikiStage is different from traditional conferences or open online courses. We know that at times, professors and conference speakers tend to get into a speaking or teaching routine that focuses more on giving you the information or the answers rather than to arouse your interest for the question.
At WikiStage events, we work to create an environment that encourages the expert to use the short time of a WikiTalk to help the audience understand why he is passionate about his subject and why his question should matter to us.
“Ideas for Change” expresses our ambition that new generation of innovators share new and bold ideas to change our societies and improve the status quo.
The objective of a WikiTalk is to create an open and global community to share Ideas for Change.
