Hey all -
Thanks everyone who came to the meet-up on Saturday. It was a really positive experience and great to meet others of similar mind and with a similar experience of working together on Wikipedia and other projects. I know there were many more who sent their apologies and I hope even more can make it next time around (see further down)!
I think what came out the most was just how down-to-earth the whole thing was. I think there was initially a bit of
nervousness about revealing our "real" identities. (I know secretly that's how I felt.) In fact, it quickly became obvious that the meet-up was simply a coming together of people who already collaborated over the internet and see the limitations of only working together online as well as the benefits of occasionally meeting up in person.
It was great just to sit around a table to talk about common efforts, to get others' perspective on this-or-that and to throw about ideas for collaboration in the future. The informal nature of the whole thing was definitely a plus. After a few minutes of polite conversation the "meet-up" felt like work-mates sitting 'round a bar table talking shop. And it was great that everyone was so natural and enthusiastic.
There's no way that I can remember everything we talked about but (as examples) here's a few conversation points that I can remember coming
up:
- The problems of incivility/poor collaboration on WikiProject Ireland-related articles and the benefits that face-to-face meetings can have in promoting a better culture amongst Irish collaborators (by simply knowing other contributors are "real" and not just as a screen name).
- How off-line networks can help collaboration (e.g. photo requests) and examples of how editors have collaborated like this in the past by simply emailing each other.
- What benefit would a Wikimedia chapter in Ireland bring and whether to set the establishment of Wikimedia Ireland as a definite goal. There was consensus to set Wikimedia Ireland as a goal but no time-line was made.
- The possibility of regular social occasions, perhaps combined with a charity fund-raising element.
The "meet-up" part of the day lasted around two hours in the restaurant of the Kingston Hotel until about 4:00 then Clement kindly gave us a
personal tour of the National Maritime Museum. (The museum is not officially open yet, so we felt particularly privileged to be given genuinely exceptional access.)
Before we left the hotel, we discussed a future meet up. It was universally agreed that this one was so beneficial that we really should schedule regular ones. The consensus was to keep a similar format: a private meet-up around some tables in an public place like a bar or hotel lobby followed by an "event". Don generously volunteered to host the next meet-up at the start of December and to provide free entrance to a gig as the "event". It was generally thought that Dublin was the most convenient location for the greatest number of people but meet-ups outside of Dublin were certainly not ruled out.