Hi everyone,
I was at all 4 days of the recent WikiConference, but missed noticing the
New England meetup event buried in the schedule matrix.
Looks like lots of ideas were generated: the Etherpad notes are far more
extensive and detailed than those from any other session I attended. Now,
the task is to focus on a handful of proposals and make something happen.
I am concerned about the large numbers of potential channels for
communication, potentially causing dilution of messages spread over a
number of media. Also, it is possible that a spontaneous partitioning into
somewhat-isolated subgroups could happen. I suggest that a single central
coordinating place be clearly designated (a special page on Wikipedia?),
with up-to-date pointers to all the other active communications nodes (eg:
Email lists, Slack, Facebook, Twitter, etc), as well as backpointers to the
central node.
Outreach and publicity can and should use as many channels as possible, but
we should be careful not to internally spread ourselves so thin that we
lose touch with each other. Similarly, periodic in-person meetups are
important, but too ambitious a schedule could actually cause a dropoff in
attendance.
I suggest quarterly/seasonally might be the right frequency to start, with
the possibility of special events as opportunity arises. GLAM locations are
best for attracting new attendees, and also allow regulars the chance to
discover and see new venues. For an occasional quieter, centrally
accessible location, I have a standing offer of my wife's office, located
at 6 Edgerly Place, Boston, where we have hosted a couple of meetups in the
past.
Congrats and much thanks to Phoebe, Sarah, SJ, Pharos, and everyone else
who helped organize a successful WikiConference. The well-attended events
at the MFA, Waterworks Museum, and MIT Museum were something special for
both locals and out-of-towners.
--Alan (Reify-tech)
On Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 11:19 AM phoebe ayers <phoebe.ayers(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi all,
Welcome to new members, and hello to everyone who was able to join us at
WikiConference New England! It was exciting to meet everyone.
We had a nice meetup of people in New England at the conference. Notes are
here:
https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/wcna2019-3180
1) There was a suggestion of creating a new slack channel for discussion.
I just created this, you can join with this link:
https://join.slack.com/t/wikinewengland/shared_invite/enQtODMyNTg1NTg4MzcyL…
it is
wikinewengland.slack.com, if you have trouble with the invitation
let me know.
2) For those who don't know: you can apply to the Wikimedia Foundation for
a "rapid grant" for small expenses related to an editathon or other event.
For Wikipedia Day 2020 events this year (January 15) you'll need to apply
in this month's cycle - so by November 15 (in 2 days!) (December is being
reserved for proposals related to Wiki Loves Africa). details:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Project/Rapid
I know many people do host events, so wanted to make you aware of this. We
will be having a big editathon at MIT that week.
3) related, I would like to offer to host a followup New England
organizers meeting at MIT, where we can get together and talk about
activities at our respective institutions. When would be a good time to do
this?
all best,
Phoebe
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