Several meetups have already occurred, I am curious as to whther or not people are interested in making a chapter.
----- Original Message ---- From: Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org To: wikimedia-sf@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 12:27:25 PM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-SF] California Chapter
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Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
San Francisco Wikipedians (Sanfranpedians?);
I am looking into starting Wikimedia California. Would anyone here be interested?
I think we have yet to figure out firmly what the mission or legal structure for chapters in the US would be... :)
For other countries, a big part of it is to establish a local legal structure that can accept tax-free donations -- something the Wikimedia Foundation itself handles here the US.
But that structure can also be a useful way to organize local activities, outreach, conferences and meetups as well as other online and offline activity by Wikipedians other Wikimedians. Since the Wikimedia Foundation decided not to become a membership-based organization, concentrating on the high-level hosting and PR, there's a bit of a vacuum still on how individuals can get involved and organized.
Rather than starting by saying "let's start a chapter", I might suggest picking some particular event to organize, such as a California or west coast-based Wikimedia user conference, and then we can see what kind of organization can and should grow up around the community that builds it.
I should also stress that such an event should be a community-organized, community-oriented affair. Make the Wikimedia Foundation a guest, not an organizer or a funder... :)
- -- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)
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I think the answer is, as Brion said, "it's hard." It has been really difficult to organize US-based chapters so far because of our particular legal structures. Therefore a better question to ask is "If we had one, what would the chapter be doing, and can we do those things anyway?" Because we are in the US and therefore money can be handled directly by the Foundation, having the structure of a chapter may not actually provide much benefit. That does not stop us however from getting together and doing stuff, like the current chapters do now.
-- phoebe
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 12:30 PM, Geoffrey Plourde geo.plrd@yahoo.com wrote:
Several meetups have already occurred, I am curious as to whther or not people are interested in making a chapter.
----- Original Message ---- From: Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org To: wikimedia-sf@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 12:27:25 PM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-SF] California Chapter
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
San Francisco Wikipedians (Sanfranpedians?);
I am looking into starting Wikimedia California. Would anyone here be interested?
I think we have yet to figure out firmly what the mission or legal structure for chapters in the US would be... :)
For other countries, a big part of it is to establish a local legal structure that can accept tax-free donations -- something the Wikimedia Foundation itself handles here the US.
But that structure can also be a useful way to organize local activities, outreach, conferences and meetups as well as other online and offline activity by Wikipedians other Wikimedians. Since the Wikimedia Foundation decided not to become a membership-based organization, concentrating on the high-level hosting and PR, there's a bit of a vacuum still on how individuals can get involved and organized.
Rather than starting by saying "let's start a chapter", I might suggest picking some particular event to organize, such as a California or west coast-based Wikimedia user conference, and then we can see what kind of organization can and should grow up around the community that builds it.
I should also stress that such an event should be a community-organized, community-oriented affair. Make the Wikimedia Foundation a guest, not an organizer or a funder... :)
- -- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)
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We should probably have a discussion with Mike (general counsel) to figure out the best legal structure for this depending what we want to accomplish as a US "chapter."
--Kul
Head of Business Development Wikimedia Foundation
phoebe ayers wrote:
I think the answer is, as Brion said, "it's hard." It has been really difficult to organize US-based chapters so far because of our particular legal structures. Therefore a better question to ask is "If we had one, what would the chapter be doing, and can we do those things anyway?" Because we are in the US and therefore money can be handled directly by the Foundation, having the structure of a chapter may not actually provide much benefit. That does not stop us however from getting together and doing stuff, like the current chapters do now.
-- phoebe
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 12:30 PM, Geoffrey Plourde geo.plrd@yahoo.com wrote:
Several meetups have already occurred, I am curious as to whther or not people are interested in making a chapter.
----- Original Message ---- From: Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org To: wikimedia-sf@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 12:27:25 PM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-SF] California Chapter
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
San Francisco Wikipedians (Sanfranpedians?);
I am looking into starting Wikimedia California. Would anyone here be interested?
I think we have yet to figure out firmly what the mission or legal structure for chapters in the US would be... :)
For other countries, a big part of it is to establish a local legal structure that can accept tax-free donations -- something the Wikimedia Foundation itself handles here the US.
But that structure can also be a useful way to organize local activities, outreach, conferences and meetups as well as other online and offline activity by Wikipedians other Wikimedians. Since the Wikimedia Foundation decided not to become a membership-based organization, concentrating on the high-level hosting and PR, there's a bit of a vacuum still on how individuals can get involved and organized.
Rather than starting by saying "let's start a chapter", I might suggest picking some particular event to organize, such as a California or west coast-based Wikimedia user conference, and then we can see what kind of organization can and should grow up around the community that builds it.
I should also stress that such an event should be a community-organized, community-oriented affair. Make the Wikimedia Foundation a guest, not an organizer or a funder... :)
- -- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iEYEARECAAYFAkfxOx0ACgkQwRnhpk1wk46s/wCgrQ3aEwT4seBU3FcEWqMmKM3K zKwAn0y3gefGLI1RwjVrxhMH4ziv03lx =5ODM -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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And as a reminder of sorts, we're still very much looking for volunteers and ideas for the upcoming MakerFaire in San Mateo (www.makerfaire.com), in early May.
Cary and I (and other staff) have looked at the preliminary layout of a fairly big booth space.
A couple of ideas so far (I may also send an appeal to Foundation-l):
- A Wiki photo booth, where people can either anon or via accounts upload cc images they just took at MakerFaire on Commons. - public wi-fi for live-blogging from our space (which means we'd need some seats, comfy space?) - Two or more live-data displays (maybe projectors if we're indoors). One would have a very cool live-updates script running, showing instant updates to the wiki projects, another with a google maps hack showing where updates come from - The O'Reilly books folks have offered to give away little custom print-outs (mini-books) of the public-friendly appendix from their recent Missing Manual Book (by Jim Broughton). - Computer(s) with sandbox so people can play with code, get hands on 'see how easy it is' demonstration - most importantly - real life wiki(p|m)edians! This is would be pretty much our first official foundation public event. People will have lots of questions, stuff to say, and general excitement at being around real people from the WMF projects.
That's a first swipe - any other ideas most appreciated. MF is apparently a really wild time.
Jay Walsh Head of Communications WikimediaFoundation.org +1 (415) 839 6885 x 609
Kul Takanao Wadhwa wrote:
We should probably have a discussion with Mike (general counsel) to figure out the best legal structure for this depending what we want to accomplish as a US "chapter."
--Kul
Head of Business Development Wikimedia Foundation
phoebe ayers wrote:
I think the answer is, as Brion said, "it's hard." It has been really difficult to organize US-based chapters so far because of our particular legal structures. Therefore a better question to ask is "If we had one, what would the chapter be doing, and can we do those things anyway?" Because we are in the US and therefore money can be handled directly by the Foundation, having the structure of a chapter may not actually provide much benefit. That does not stop us however from getting together and doing stuff, like the current chapters do now.
-- phoebe
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 12:30 PM, Geoffrey Plourde geo.plrd@yahoo.com wrote:
Several meetups have already occurred, I am curious as to whther or not people are interested in making a chapter.
----- Original Message ---- From: Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org To: wikimedia-sf@lists.wikimedia.org Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 12:27:25 PM Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-SF] California Chapter
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Geoffrey Plourde wrote:
San Francisco Wikipedians (Sanfranpedians?);
I am looking into starting Wikimedia California. Would anyone here be interested?
I think we have yet to figure out firmly what the mission or legal structure for chapters in the US would be... :)
For other countries, a big part of it is to establish a local legal structure that can accept tax-free donations -- something the Wikimedia Foundation itself handles here the US.
But that structure can also be a useful way to organize local activities, outreach, conferences and meetups as well as other online and offline activity by Wikipedians other Wikimedians. Since the Wikimedia Foundation decided not to become a membership-based organization, concentrating on the high-level hosting and PR, there's a bit of a vacuum still on how individuals can get involved and organized.
Rather than starting by saying "let's start a chapter", I might suggest picking some particular event to organize, such as a California or west coast-based Wikimedia user conference, and then we can see what kind of organization can and should grow up around the community that builds it.
I should also stress that such an event should be a community-organized, community-oriented affair. Make the Wikimedia Foundation a guest, not an organizer or a funder... :)
- -- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.8 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
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