[Foundation-l] Chapter-selected Board seats - brainstorming

[Pharos]

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 1:36 PM,  <daniwo59 at aol.com> wrote:
>  What is the objective of this chapter? Is it to solicit tax-free donations
>  in the US? The WMF is already doing that with a professional, dedicated staff.
>  Is it to negotiate with local institutions over the release of content?
>  Again,  the WMF is in the same country and is better equipped to do this. Is it to
>  provide a membership organization that will assume responsibility for
>  content? I  doubt it. Is it to organize meetups and other social events? If so, then
>  why go  to the trouble of incorporating just to have a realtime beer with your
>  online  friends? Is it just to have a say in determining the chapter seats?
>  Seems like a  lot of trouble for that.
>
>  While I do not oppose a US chapter or even a series of local chapters, it
>  would seem prudent to determine first what the purpose of the chapter is.
>
>  Danny

Although we are all used to interacting with the WMF all on a daily
basis, I think we have to recognize that the international
organization has a remarkably light footprint in the real world, even
in the US, and even in our largest city, which is New York City.

We have been organizing in New York City
(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City) since
November, and there are a number of activities we have started on, and
clear room for much further outreach.

We already held our our first outreach event, "Wikpedia Takes
Manhattan" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Takes_Manhattan)
on April 4, with Columbia University and NYU students.  I reached out
to the WMF, but their only involvement was pointing us to O'Reilly
Media as a willing donor for 'Wikipedia: The Missing Manual' books as
prizes.  This was certainly appreciated, but our collaborations with
local Students for Free Culture groups were rather more significant to
getting this event to happen.  We also talked to several reporters
about this event; obviously there were no official WMF representatives
in place to take that role.

We've also made outreach to a local organization for the placing in
free content of a Yiddish-language encyclopedia
(http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_New_York_City/CYCO_Yiddish_Encyclopedia).
 There has been no involvement of the WMF in this activity either, nor
is their anyone in the SF office who has a job to do such a thing.

We have also had preliminary discussions about a free content
photography contest at the Brooklyn Museum.

And for the Fall, we are planning a "Wiki Week" or wikiconference,
again with organizing by local Students for Free Culture groups.  This
will probably include another "Wikipedia Takes Manhattan", a
small-scale "Wikipedia Academy", and high-profile speakers if we can
get them.  So far, there has been no direct WMF involvement in this
initiative either (admittedly, we only started planning on Wednesday).

So, I would say there is an awful lot that local affiliates in the US
can do.  And the fact that we can meet in person and coordinate with
other local groups on a regular basis is great contributor toward that
work.

Thanks,
Pharos