<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>I think the anniversary was a resounding success in the United States, no qualifications or hesitations necessary.</div><div><br></div><div>In addition to the Pennsylvania, DC, San Francisco and New York City events already mentioned, meet-ups in Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado all happened (or will happen soon). I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting or that occurred without as much fanfare. There are definitely more that haven't been reported back about, since it's only four days since the anniversary. </div><div><br></div><div>As for the 40-50 U.S. listings vs. the number that actually happened... I expected this. Having more interest expressed than action or participation is a fundamental law of event organizing not unique to wikis, the U.S. or to Wikimedia as a movement. Staying open to anyone who cares about the anniversary, regardless of whether they actually attend or pull off an event, generates an inestimable amount of goodwill for Wikipedia. </div><div><br></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>On Jan 19, 2011, at 12:58 PM, Jay Walsh wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Hi Rob - off the top of my head I don't have suggestions for promotion of events in smaller US cities, however I would say that the Wikimedia Public Policy Initiative has had great success working on Wikipedia outreach on campuses around the US (at an experimental level - <a href="http://outreach.wikimedia.org">outreach.wikimedia.org</a>).<br><br>I would have to disagree that there was a lack of publicity. In fact I'd say we've never seen more international coverage of Wikipedia and the anniversary, particularly in the US.<br>see <a href="http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage">http://ten.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage</a> for some examples<br><br>And many of those media hits did direct listener/readers to <a href="http://ten.wikipedia.org">ten.wikipedia.org</a>, and we had more local level media requests to know 'what was happening here' etc<br><br>I'm also pretty sure that the very, very visible site notices around the world and specifically the US for logged in users went to tens of thousands of Wikipedians in the US alone.<br><br>I don't think this is an issue of lack of media interest or impact. I think it has more to do with the basic challenges of organizing events and volunteers - two things I've been doing for a number of years, and I can attest to the challenges.<br><br>I would point to Canada as being in a similar example of organizational challenges. Wikipedia use is probably about the highest per capita on earth in canada, and we have a pretty large community of editors, but very few events took place. I expect there are similar challenges there, and as a Canadian I'm personally very keen to understand the barriers and to figure out how to work past those.<br><br>I do share your concerns and interests though - hopefully there are other suggestions here to bring forward.<br><br>jay <br><br><br>On Jan 18, 2011, at 5:58 PM, Rob Schnautz wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite">Hi,<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">All this talk about hugely successful events in places like India and <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Italy has got me wondering, since I haven't seen many successful events <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">in the U.S. mentioned-- only in a few very large metro cities (San <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Francisco, MIT, and NYC). It seems to me that the other wikis must have <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">had some advantage here; not sure what it was.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">I, for one, got so used to clicking the X button in the pledge drive <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">banner hundreds of times per day that I stopped reading the banner. The <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">same happened when the post-pledge-drive banner was up. Following that, <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">there was a new banner, but it took me a few days to realize this was a <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">new banner. This new banner was my first clue any events were even going <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">on, and it was too late by that point to really organize anything.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">There were no more than 40 states which attempted to hold events. These <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">amassed to around 50 events, but most of them (from what I could tell) <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">were merely callouts to see if anyone was interested in doing something, <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">usually with no more than five respondents if even that many. The only <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">ones that appeared successful at all were very large metro cities. <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Taking these facts into consideration, most American Wikipedians would <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">have needed to travel several hours to get to an event that was most <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">likely no more than a small group get-together, and much further to get <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">to an actual large celebration.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">A quick check on the National Public Radio (NPR) website returns zero <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">stories about Wikipedia festivities, other than brief mentions that <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Wikipedia was turning 10-- no parties or conferences were mentioned at <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">all. This radio station is devoted to providing full up-to-date coverage <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">of news on national and global issues, and I find it surprising <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">reporters didn't even mention the kite-flying parties in India.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Considering Wikipedia is one of the most heavily-used sites in America, <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">I'd say that we've got some problems here with publicity, event <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">organization, and possibly even spirit.<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Anyone have suggestions on how to improve future events in America, <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">particularly in small metros? (Obviously having events planned more than <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">two weeks before the event would be one improvement!)<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Thanks!<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Rob "Bob the Wikipedian" Schnautz<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">_______________________________________________<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">WikiX-l mailing list<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="mailto:WikiX-l@lists.wikimedia.org">WikiX-l@lists.wikimedia.org</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><a href="https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikix-l">https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikix-l</a><br></blockquote><br>-- <br>Jay Walsh<br>Head of Communications<br><a href="http://WikimediaFoundation.org">WikimediaFoundation.org</a><br>blog.wikimedia.org<br>+1 (415) 839 6885 x 609, @jansonw<br><br><br>_______________________________________________<br>WikiX-l mailing list<br>WikiX-l@lists.wikimedia.org<br>https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikix-l<br></div></blockquote></div><br><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Steven Walling</div><div>Fellow at the Wikimedia Foundation<br><a href="http://wikimediafoundation.org/">wikimediafoundation.org</a></div><div><br></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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