[Wikipedia-l] Wiki Spot project

[Philip Neustrom]

I wanted to let folks on this list know about a new, milti-community
wiki project I've been involved with called Wiki Spot
(http://wikispot.org).  We are a non-profit organization that aims to
help communities use and maintain wikis, interconnect wikis where it
makes sense, promote the adoption of wikis as a tool for enriching
communities, and generally provide a trusted, non-commercial home to
community wikis.

Philosophically, our drive lines up very closely with the Wikimedia
Foundation: we are dedicated to free software and release all of our
code under free licenses and we strongly encourage the use of various
free-content licenses.  What is very different is the scope and range
of the communities we provide a home to.

Wiki Spot grew out of the Davis Wiki project (http://daviswiki.org),
which has had an amazing an unexpected impact on the local community
of Davis, California.

The Davis Wiki won an award from the Davis City Council
(http://daviswiki.org/Thong_H._Huynh_Awards#2007) for our work in
community involvement -- an award usually reserved for traditional
media like radio and tv stations.  We've helped people find their lost
pets (http://daviswiki.org/Lost_Pets), find the best bathrooms in town
(http://daviswiki.org/Bathrooms), documented urban art
(http://daviswiki.org/Urban_Art), been the host of countless local
political debates, thrown parties
(http://daviswiki.org/Davis_Wiki_Wacky_Woo_1), and done lots of other
crazy and amazing things as a community.

With Wiki Spot, we want to provide a safe place for other communities
to easily do the same kind of things we've been doing, because we
truly believe in the power of local community wikis.

Anyway, I encourage you to get involved and help out if this sounds
like something you might be interested in.

Best,
Philip Neustrom
http://wikispot.org
http://daviswiki.org