[Foundation-l] Why should Wikimedians meet?

[Oliver Keyes]

Agreed. A good example; on the English Wikipedia, I'm a massive law nerd
with 40-something legal GAs and FAs to my name. I'd never even have studied
the subject if it wasn't for a group of Wikipedians, some of whom have later
helped me with or collaborated on articles. The importance of social
interaction cannot be understated, and it's why I have no truck with some of
the more severe "OMG WIKIPEDIA IS NOT MYSPACE" people. People come here to
build a collaborative encyclopaedia, yes, not to socially interact - but the
key word there is "collaborative". Social contact is inevitable and
incredibly helpful to us as a community; hells, it's what *makes us* a
community and not just a hundred thousand people who independently agree
that Wikipedia is nifty.

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 7:50 AM, James Alexander <jamesofur at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
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