Agreed. A good example; on the English Wikipedia, I'm a massive law nerd with 40-something legal GAs and FAs to my name. I'd never even have studied the subject if it wasn't for a group of Wikipedians, some of whom have later helped me with or collaborated on articles. The importance of social interaction cannot be understated, and it's why I have no truck with some of the more severe "OMG WIKIPEDIA IS NOT MYSPACE" people. People come here to build a collaborative encyclopaedia, yes, not to socially interact - but the key word there is "collaborative". Social contact is inevitable and incredibly helpful to us as a community; hells, it's what *makes us* a community and not just a hundred thousand people who independently agree that Wikipedia is nifty.
On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 7:50 AM, James Alexander jamesofur@gmail.com wrote:
On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 2:09 AM, Keegan Peterzell <keegan.wiki@gmail.com
wrote:
This has been an interesting thread to follow, there should be one non-Wikimania, because it does matter. I've met several Wikimedians at
the
couple meet-ups I've been to with whom on-wiki I had many disagreements with. Meeting face to face clears that air with the human contact.
James
Forrester is the champion of meetups for good reason. I met him in D.C., far from where I live, while he was in for less than 24 hours, far from where he lives. I butt heads with MZMcBride many times, but I slept on
his
couch. It's not just about localization for chapters; the opportunity to travel and meet those whom you've known online for a very long time or
only
by the periphery is a great experience.
-- ~Keegan
This is exactly right. I can not even begin to explain the impact that meetups have had on my view of the projects as a whole especially for those I've met but for everyone else too. Even very infrequent personal and social contact can be hugely rewarding I think both for the contributers and the projects as a whole. I've always felt we should do more both in person and online when possible (IRC or Voicechat for example). I've toyed with the thought of trying to get the WMF to install a mumble server for people to talk on ;) or just setting one up myself I do think the impact that social interaction has on trust/creativity and general cooperation is hugely under appreciated by a lot of people on wiki (and off for that matter).
James Alexander james.alexander@rochester.edu jamesofur@gmail.com _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l