Hail Cascadians,
You probably know about https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cascadia
Our contact at TA3M Seattle is assembling a list of FOSS organizations in the Seattle area. If you know of FOSS, GLAM, or other organizations in our region which would have common interests with Wikimedia Cascadia, please add them to the Cascadia page on Meta. This will help us to think about where we can do outreach.
One idea I am currently thinking seriously about is how to have a Wikimedian in Residence position made available at the Gates Foundation, if they are willing to host one. I think that will be easier to do once we are officially a user group or thematic organization.
Does anyone have thoughts to share about us becoming a recognized user group or thematic organization? I think this would benefit us because we would be allowed to use the Wikimedia trademarks and would provide easier access to other organizations like the Gates Foundation, other FOSS organizations, events which are only for journalists, and other opportunities. I am *not* proposing that we become a chapter because we are too small at this time. That might come later. For now, I think being an officially recognized Wikimedia user group would serve our needs well.
Pine
Since I know we have fellow Cascadians interested in health care, I thought I'd let you know that I started this article and am working toward getting it to DYK and GA. It's currently in the DYK review queue. This is *not* a request to participate in the DYK nomination but I would appreciate assistance with the content of the article from any of our health care experts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Health_Administration_scandal_of_2014
I think the article is a good candidate for GA but I will wait to nominate it until the content is a little more stable.
I am reading the ongoing discussions on this list and elsewhere about Cascadia and I hope to respond to them later today or in the coming days.
Thanks,
Pine
Blibbet has invited Wikipedia presentations for TA3M and I think Jonathan is working on a presentation to introduce tech-savvy non-Wikipedians to Wikipedia editing.
I have started to draft a presentation that gives a high-level overview of Wikimedia and Wikipedia that could be presented to TA3M and other technology, academic, or commercial audiences.
Here's an abbreviated version of the outline. Comments would be appreciated.
*Introduction: Wikimedia by the numbers
*Who does Wikipedia serve?
*Who creates and edits Wikipedia?
*What do people do on Wikipedia?
*How is Wikipedia curated and organized?
*How does communication happen on Wikipedia?
*Technology of Wikipedia
*Legal, privacy, and conflict-of-interest issues
*Fundraising and budget
*Grant programs
*Major online events, initiatives, and projects
*Major offline events, initiatives, and projects
*Wikipedia's sister projects
*The future
Pine
Hello Cascadia,
It's great to have a way to communicate with the Oregon and Washington groups together!
The Washington group has interests in global health, motorcycling, technical work, and editor growth. I hope that we can grow our group of Seattle participants.
What has Oregon learned about how to attract participants? It looks like Oregon attracts participants to cultural documentation and edit-a-thon events.
Thanks,
Pine
Where would everyone like to have Seattle Wiknic this year? The scheduled date is June 22.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wiknic
Wiknics have happened at Golden Gardens and Gasworks Park in the past. This year I would like to propose that we meet at the Arboretum, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Park_Arboretum, with an exact location in the Arboretum to be determined. It is possible to rent the Visitors Center and if the cost is reasonable we could ask to rent part of the center for the afternoon, which would also provide us some cover in the event of rain and give us enough room to have laptops etc available for us to do outreach. We could ask for a small grant from WMF to cover the costs.
What does everyone think?
Pine
Hello,
There is now a mailing list for Wikimedia Cascadia, a community group for
Wikipedia enthusiasts in the Pacific Northwest. Right now this list will
mostly be used to send out announcements of Wikipedia meetups in Seattle
and Portland.
Please subscribe to this list if you wish to stay connected to the
Wikipedia community in this region! To join this mailing list please go to
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia>
and subscribe. To communicate with everyone on this list write to <
wikimedia-cascadia(a)lists.wikimedia.org>.
The next Seattle Wikipedia meetup is Monday, May 19, 2014 at 6 PM at Black
Coffee Coop, 501 E. Pine St; Seattle, WA 98122. The meeting is open to the
public. At 7 PM everyone will be invited to the Techno Activism 3rd Monday
(TA3M) meeting in the same coffee shop. TA3M members have been invited to
come early to participate in the Wikimedia portion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Seattle>
The next Portland Wikipedia meetup is not scheduled, but will be a photo
hunt in the Hollywood neighborhood.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Portland/Hollywood>
All messages sent to this list are archived publicly for anyone to see at
<http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-cascadia/>
Thanks!
--
Lane Rasberry
user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia
206.801.0814
lane(a)bluerasberry.com