Related notes for the wikimediaus list (to wikify!):

Some interesting discussions about how to develop local / US wikipedia communities over the course of the year have included:

* using on-wiki alternatives to Meetup.com, improving the [[Meetup]] pages on en.wp and meta, and their synchronization

* organizing local outings, parties, knowledge gathering and wiki capture (of photos, from library jams, through distributed research projects)

* working with Universities: getting WP clubs set up, petitioning schools to become more wiki aware: starting school-wide wikis, using wikis in classes. Having a core of students who can talk about WP and how it works to classes on technology, collaborative writing, group creation, cyberlaw, and more.

* working with local non-profits and tech groups that want to get to know wikis in general, mediawiki in particular, and Wikipedia as a community and a plcae to contribute knowledge about the topics they encounter or care about.

* organizing speakers and presentations at local libraries, high school and middle schools.

* organizing groups of language enthusiasts to contribute to and maintain a multilingual portal representing smaller languages present within the US, and identify language presence -- primary and secondary language usage, oral and written.

* Talking to education and cultural preservation groups that might have content drives or curatorial projects; helping them understand how to integrate these with Wikipedia, and licensing in general

These are mostly general enough that we could start making a global "local initiatives" set of ideas on meta, for all chapters and enthusiast groups, formal and informal... but we should also work out how to do these things specifically within the US.

Questions: - where are upcoming conferences that might love wp and appreciate a presence? - where are local university departments already investigating and researching and prominently using WP and sister projects? - where are local groups of mediawiki hackers and users, who might be interested in wikipedia meetings as well? - who currently talks about wikipedia in their meanderings? literature search + contact email ===> sponsors for local clubs and orgs - where are there spaces dedicated to free knowledge, free-content writing or media creation, and the like? [For instance, start with the community television orgs (which until recently had lots of national funding to provide everyone access to tools to create media). How can their current efforts integrate better with WP / do they have space to host meetings / do they already have regular meetings that could be extended somehow?]

SJ

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007, Brion Vibber wrote:

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SJ Klein wrote:

...

Whether or not this is the right formal structure, it is a good idea to help get local wikipedia groups organized, on campuses and at coffeehouses; promote local languages; &c.

Amen! We already have legal presence in the US (WMF!), the relevant part is local organization -- get people to meet face to face and *do* things.

• -- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)

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