Delirium wrote:
If I think of the top 20 people I've interacted with on the English Wikipedia and wouldn't mind meeting with in person, they're on three different continents, and even the ones in North America range from Los Angeles to Montreal. So I tend to treat local meetups as just a social opportunity only marginally connected with what I "really" do on the wikis.
*nod*
And there's nothing wrong with getting together and hanging out. :)
But to my mind, the non-social aspect for local meetups is the opportunity to organize further offline activity, which is something we haven't really taken up yet here.
* Organizing people to promote Wiki*edia stuff at local events
* Working directly with schools etc who make use of Wiki*edia projects
* Getting Wiki*edians involved in less directly related stuff like recycling old computers for schools
etc
That sort of local action doesn't require having 'everybody who's anybody' on English Wikipedia around; it would just require having some dedicated people interested in pitching in.
Of course, if nobody cares about this sort of thing, it's tough to organize. :)
-- brion