[Foundation-l] Why should Wikimedians meet?

[James Alexander]

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 2:09 AM, Keegan Peterzell <keegan.wiki at gmail.com>wrote:

> This has been an interesting thread to follow, there should be one
> non-Wikimania, because it does matter.  I've met several Wikimedians at the
> couple meet-ups I've been to with whom on-wiki I had many disagreements
> with.  Meeting face to face clears that air with the human contact.  James
> Forrester is the champion of meetups for good reason.  I met him in D.C.,
> far from where I live, while he was in for less than 24 hours, far from
> where he lives.  I butt heads with MZMcBride many times, but I slept on his
> couch.  It's not just about localization for chapters; the opportunity to
> travel and meet those whom you've known online for a very long time or only
> by the periphery is a great experience.
>
> --
> ~Keegan
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan
>
>

This is exactly right. I can not even begin to explain the impact that
meetups have had on my view of the projects as a whole especially for those
I've met but for everyone else too. Even very infrequent personal and social
contact can be hugely rewarding I think both for the contributers and the
projects as a whole. I've always felt we should do more both in person and
online when possible (IRC or Voicechat for example). I've toyed with the
thought of trying to get the WMF to install a mumble server for people to
talk on ;) or just setting one up myself I do think the impact that social
interaction has on trust/creativity and general cooperation is hugely under
appreciated by a lot of people on wiki (and off for that matter).

James Alexander
james.alexander at rochester.edu
jamesofur at gmail.com