Last week, about a dozen of us - with backgrounds ranging from Wikipedia editing to education, philanthropy, and software development - met up online for our first planning meeting for WikiProject Open.[1] I'm especially pleased that some WikiProject Open Access members were able to join us, so we could address areas of intersection, overlap, and synergy. I think it was a great call; I'm looking forward to having some more, so we can really think through how to design a space that is inviting and productive for those looking to develop strong content on Wikipedia around the topic of openness.

You can see notes from our call,[2] some already-implemented outcomes of the discussion, on our WikiProject pages. Of particular interest to this list are the ways we imagine WikiProject Open and WikiProject Open Access coexisting, and also that we intend to steer people to this list even if their interests are not strictly "open access," but maybe more centered on OER or other related areas. Please look through the notes, and leave any feedback on this on the project's talk page.[3]

We'll be meeting up again, and we invite you to join us with your ideas, questions, etc! We'll meet on the 15/16 October (Tuesday evening in the Americas and Wednesday daytime in Asia/Australia) and also Thursday (late day in the Americas and evening in Europe/Africa). (corrected from previous announcement!) See the planning page[2] for more info, to sign up, and to add topics for discussion.

Two things we'd especially like to discuss:
* How can we make the pages visually appealing, so they feel like a proper "home"?
* Can we implement the findings from research about online collaboration? For instance, research has proven that "Collaboration of the Week" programs are effective. Should we start one? What articles should we collaborate on?

I hope you can join us for one of the webinar sessions next week, and/or on the WikiProject pages!

Pete
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Pete Forsyth
Project Lead, Communicate OER
http://enwp.org/WP:COMMOER