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Below: Audience during Wikipedia Academy 2007.
Wikipedia Academies are public outreach events, usually lasting one or two days. They are designed to coach academics and other experts in how to contribute to Wikipedia, and to foster a positive impression of Wikipedia. Their main purpose is to increase the quality and – to a lesser extent – the quantity of articles in Wikipedia. Such Academies are normally staged as conferences for roughly 80–200 people. They often focus on encouraging contributions from a particular language, or to a specific field.
Typically, a Wikipedia Academy is organized by the local Wikimedia chapter together with a credible external partner organization with authoritative expertise. The reputation of the partner organization helps to encourage experts to participate, and to sustain their participation as they begin to edit Wikipedia.
Shorter outreach events (lasting less than a full day) are generally called Wikipedia workshops.