[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Pennsylvania

[Robert Horning]

GerardM wrote:
> Hoi,
> When the differences in the law are such that it makes a practical
> difference what you can do, it makes sense to have a chapter along state
> lines. When things can be organised in a country based organisation, there
> is no need for chapters based on states.
>
> The argument that the USA is a big place is correct, the USA is a big place
> however the cultural differences between the north and south of the USA and
> the north and south of Italy are not as profound. A chapter is a legal
> enabler, in the end it is the members of the chapter that make things work,
> they can organise local chapters but they do not have to be an
> incorporation.
>
> Thanks,
>     GerardM
>
>
>   

I take it that you havn't spent much time in Dixie (aka the old 
Confederate states of the USA south).  The cultural difference between 
Jackson, Mississippi and San Francisco are about as huge as I'm sure you 
can find from the north to south of Italy.... and you might not even be 
able to have people from the two areas of the USA understand each other 
as well, because they are very different dialects of English to boot.  A 
word of advise if you do end up in Mississippi..... don't go into a bar 
and call a local there a "Yankee".  You might not leave alive.  You 
won't have as much of a problem if you do the same thing in Massachusetts.

Since WWII, the cultural differences from the various regions of the USA 
has decreased substantially, but it is still there.  If all you see is 
the common facade of Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Disney movies 
throughout most American cities, you have missed so much of what is 
America that you might as well have just gone to Disneyland in France 
instead.

The real reason for trying to get these chapters put together is to do 
things that do require a formal organization in place (aka fundraising 
and more substantial events than a mere coffeehouse meetup) as well as 
to deal with issues that may be of a local basis.   Even helping put 
together people to collaboratively write Wikipedia articles about local 
governments is something useful by itself, but it can be much more.  How 
about distributing Wikijunior books to local schools?  It is far too 
difficult of a task to do on a national basis, but something more 
regional is perhaps easier to coordinate.