2010/7/31 David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com>om>:
On 31 July 2010 16:32, Amir E. Aharoni
<amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
OK, but how exactly? Why did people have to fly
to another continent
to start a chapter in their own country? Did they use Wikimania as an
opportunity to talk to the people who started the pioneering chapters
(Germany, France, Italy) and learned from them how to start them?
Anything else?
You said "personal meetings between Wikimedians", not specifically
Wikimania. Do you mean only Wikimania, or do you mean personal
meetings in general?
Other examples are welcome, too, but i refer mostly to Wikimania,
since my focus now is organizing one.
By "Wikimania" i mean "a general worldwide meeting of Wikimedia
project editors, developers, WMF staff and other interested parties".
The advantages of local community meetings are rather obvious; i
participated in many and organized one. Hacking days are also great,
of course, but they are not general like Wikimania. It is also much
easier and cheaper to organize such meetings, though.
No-one needs to convince me that Wikimania is great. It is. But
examples of past - 2009 and earlier - experiences that grew into
successful projects will help us define a better rationale and
motivation for having a Wikimania and to make the next ones even
better.
--
אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
Amir Elisha Aharoni
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
"We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace." - T. Moore