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Wiki BUG

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As of spring 2016, see the Bay Area WikiSalon page on English Wikipedia for the most active effort for ongoing wiki-oriented meetups in the Bay Area. If you want to get involved in the planning for this series, see its page here on Meta Wiki: Monthly WikiSalon in San Francisco.

Wiki BUG never went very far; I propose we grab all the useful information below and move it into the WikiSalon planning pages. -Pete F (talk) 22:14, 25 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki BUG is a proposed wiki user group in the San Francisco Bay area.

As individuals and in informal teams, we have organized a variety of wiki events in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and elsewhere, and have recently been thinking about how to coordinate our efforts better, and do more.

Oakland Wiki enthusiasts digitizing images at Oakland Wiki's first Local History Editathon at the Oakland History Room, Oakland Public Library.

March 2016 UPDATE

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We're planning a series of monthly WikiSalons: Monthly WikiSalon in San Francisco

Background

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In January, 2013, after an Oakland Wiki event, a few of us (Pete, Vicky, Kevin, Julio, and Marina from the membership list below) agreed to start this group as a way to better coordinate wiki community events in the area.

Our idea is still a baby, but we're actively running edit-a-thons as we sort it out. We hope you will join us, by adding your name to the #Members of Wiki BUG section below, and/or by attending our events!

Past and ongoing efforts

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We have a shared interest in getting people together to build content on wikis--mainly Wikipedia and Oakland Wiki, but potentially others. We have had a strong focus on helping new contributors learn about wikis and get started editing. Our main work together includes:

  • San Francisco Bay Area WikiWomen's Edit-a-thons (most recent event page)
    • Model type: Intro edit-a-thon.
    • Event focus: Outreach to current and potential women editors of the Wikimedia sister projects. Collaboration with the California and Oakland League of Women Voters.
  • Oakland Wiki Local History Editathons
    • Model type: Low-key edit-a-thon.
    • Event focus: Outreach to Oaklanders interested in local history to create local history content base using materials at the Oakland History Room, a special collection of the Oakland Public Library. Wikimedians are invited to make use of the resources for content creation and image digitization onto Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.

We have also put together or participated in events like: RCCx in San Francisco; Wikipedia classes at Berkeley; the Good Internet conference at Berkeley; West Coast Wiki Conference; and many more (see SF meetup page). By working together more purposefully, we're sure we'll be able to do better things!

Looking forward

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We want to establish an ongoing series of editathon-type events. At the moment, we expect this will include:

  • Weekly Oakland Wiki Local History Editathons. These are being held at the Oakland History Room and other repositories of local historical info. For details, see the project page here.
  • Monthly WikiWomen's Edit-a-thons in Oakland.
  • A regular series in San Francisco.
  • Events at UC Berkeley.

We have been building relationships with a number of local organizations and individuals that can help us realize this goal, including the Oakland Public Library, the California League of Women Voters, Tech Liminal (a co-working space), hackerspaces such as Sudo Room, and local museums, universities, and bloggers. These organizations and individuals have been very helpful in providing meeting space, enthusiasm and outreach, and we greatly look forward to strengthening those relationships and accomplishing more going forward.

Members of the core group discussing this live in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley. We imagine hosting events in the Bay area (meaning, very loosely, the area served by the BART transit system); we feel that is a big enough area to build "critical mass" and keep the momentum up, while still offering most people within the area the ability to get to most events. If people want to join our group and host events beyond that area, there should be no problem with that.

To-do list

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Before we consider ourselves a "real group" or seek approval from the Affiliations Committee, we need to:

  • Reach out to key individuals in our network who have also expressed interest in local events (all of us)
  • Reach out to WikiHow, LocalWiki, Wikia…

Resources for new editors

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  • We have some people here who are new to MediaWiki. Here's a really good editing cheatsheet.

Human Resources

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Here are some folks ready to help with events and programs, but are not necessarily able to initiate, lead or produce them. If you'd like to create or organize something, reach out to appropriate people from this list and invite them to join!

Username Name (optional) location (optional) Skills Interested in
Ijon Asaf Bartov East Bay and SF Editing, programming, public speaking, library technology speaking, tutoring, brokering GLAM partnerships
Peteforsyth Pete Forsyth East Bay and SF Public speaking, wiki markup and templates, organizational outreach & consulting Wikis of all flavors; using online collaboration to build professional and interest-based relationships
Example Example Example Example Example

Sign up!

Members of Wiki BUG

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Like what you see here? Please add your name! This is a pretty informal group at this stage; adding your name means you affiliate with our goals and ideas, but doesn't commit you to anything that might become a burden. We're low key :)

See also

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