Wikimedia United States/2005

Local Wikimedia chapters > US Chapter

For a view of multiple decentralized US chapters, please see Wikimedia United States Chapters Council.

The idea: to set up a local Wikimedia chapter for Wikimedians living in the United States.

Points to consider

Canada and Mexico

• Should this be for all of North America, or US+Canada? Are there legal and tax reasons to have another US-based organization?

I'm in support of localizing on a country-by-country basis. That way, we won't even have to worry about any legal/tax differences. -- Phyzome is Tim McCormack 18:24, 2005 Jun 5 (UTC)

• Geography covered: US proper, including reservations. Territories (Guam, PuertoRico). Other associated groups (Marshall Islands...)?
• Canada is already being addressed separately here - which makes sense, as there is a language difference, n'est-ce pas?

Relationship to the Foundation

• How would this fit into the other local work of the US-based Foundation itself (if there is any)? Should there be any?
  • Possibility of using the Foundation's 501(c)(3) status by branch chapters within the US needs to be examined, or should it be just voluntary association and not be allowed any fundraising roles.

• What would the short-term and long-term goals be?
  • Possible longer-term projects. Language preservation, subchapters in major cities... (see Notes at the end for thoughts on recruitment and outreach)

Charitable aims and fundraising

We should agree on what the aims would be. Outreach and community development? Local fundraising and project management? Would this chapter need non-profit status on a national level?

Related languages

Example language portal

see also languages in the United States

A page like the Swiss portal could be set up related languages and wikipedia.us could redirect there, if we can get it from its squatter.

Immigrant languages: Spanish, Chinese, German, Vietnamese, Italian, etc.

Native-American languages: Navajo, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Choctaw, Cree, Iñupiaq, Muscogee (Creek), Hawaiian ... Hopi, Lakota, Yupik languages, other Apache languages, Keres.

Historic & other relevant languages: Cajun French, Marshallese, Gullah

People interested in helping to create a local chapter

Please add your name below if you want to help out or take part in this discussion.

• Dgeehot
• mav
• roberth
• +sj+
• Austin
• Phyzome is Tim McCormack
• Slowking Man
• Mindspillage
• Gmaxwell
• Mark Rauterkus, Mark@Rauterkus.com, in Pittsburgh, PA
• Ron Ann Arbor, Michigan. I would be glad to support/sponsor a US meeting. I would be will to see if the University of Michigan would provide some support from their School of Information Science if we wanted to hold a meeting. --Ronreed 15:41, 24 July 2005 (UTC)
• Walts0042 is Walt Schmidt
• AllyUnion. I may be able to boost something with University of California chapters if the main organization is started. --AllyUnion 07:21, 4 October 2005 (UTC)
• Llywrch -- I don't have any special university connections, but would like to help. 14 October 2005
• Linuxbeak 22:57, 18 December 2005 (UTC) - Definitely. Also have connections at the University of Rhode Island.
• Slambo, current residence in Madison, Wisconsin, have experience in national organizations through the National Model Railroad Association (see also w:User:Slambo)
• phoebe, getting around to adding myself. In California, can help organize west coast generally.
• alex756 IAAL, interested in a US or regional chapters structure; live & work in NYC.
• Jredmond
• Swatjester will help out with Florida and D.C. and can dedicate time and effort to the national organization. IAALS (I am a law student). Experience with national organizations with the Iraq War Veterans Organization and Collegiate Veterans Association board memberships and cofounding on both.
• cla68
• A. B.
• Geoff Plourde
• Aurelientt I am definitely interested in helping out. Philipsburg, Montana. 18 December 2009.

Others on the informal mailing list set up in the spring :

• Fennec, Danny, Gyrofrog, Improv, Raul654 , thames, TTLightningRod
• GChriss Interested in student organizations
• Beckyam Austin, TX
• Bearsman,I would love to help out in any way I can to make this Chapter,Gainesville,FL
• Jiuguang Wang, graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

Miscellany

Domains

• wikipedia.us - owned by squatter (Michael Dieckmann), no real contact?
• Wikimedia.us - snagged by mav, no redirect.
• wikimediaus.org- Possible
• wikimediausa.org- Possible
• wikimediaorg.us- Possible

Various notes

Just some possible projects for a US Wikimedia Chapter.

• Encourage town halls and chambers of commerce to add history and geography to the Rambot entries (perhaps in a monitored way to keep out touristy, chamber-of-commerceish stuff)
• Contact groups connected with indigenous languages, such as through reservation governments, to encourage the translation of the interface and FAQs into Hawaiian, Navajo, Seminole, Inuit, etc to promote Wikipedia to those who are interested in these languages' survival

Suggestion that won't require money: Create outreach pages containing info and encouragement to join, post on relevant Internet forums, mail/e-mail to representatives; will make sample at Outreach:Cherokee

Uhh... what about actual entire Wikipedias in those languages, rather than just UIs and FAQs?

That's the goal -- to get people who know the language to write the Wikipedia

• Collaborate on making articles on particular cities, counties or states excellent, and send copies to schools in those areas
• Distribute voter's guides

If our articles on Bush/Kerry/Edwards/Cheney are good, we could make a fancy title page and anyone who wanted to print a few copies could -- how many pages would these be? What about just Bush/Kerry? Non-English languages, certainly; Spanish of most importance, but there are people speaking all kinds of languages in the US -- if zh has good articles, bring to Chinatowns and such

Voter's Guide now begun at wikibooks. Roberth 17:00, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)

NPOV voters' guides.... wow, that could get... interesting come election time. -Fennec 15:31, 18 May 2005 (UTC)

Roles a US chapter would play

This needs to be organized and presented a little bit better, but here are some other suggestions for a role of a US Wikimedia chapter that is seperate/subsidary to the Wikimedia Foundation:

• Recruitment - While not exactly a huge problem for the Wikimedia Foundation, organized efforts could be done on college campii or in high traffic areas in urban areas or during fairs to show off the Wikipedia to non-geek types and show how this resource could be useful to them. Some fairs in particular could include National Education Association-affiliated conventions, including state conventions. The American Federation of Teachers (a similar organization to the NEA) could be used to show ordinary teachers how they could use Wikipedia resources in their classrooms. Note that for the most part cost can be minimal for things like this, if you share booth space with somebody or set it up in informal areas.
• Social - The organizing infrastructure to put together a wikipedia/wikimedia convention. Perhaps a get-together on just a local scale (like meetup.com) or even a regional get together.
• Research - Working from a local chapter, Wikipedians might be able to obtain access to resources which The Public in general cannot, perhaps obtaining press passes, getting special tours, particularly for conducting photography.

Mailing list

A mailing list for this chapter is at WikimediaUS-l.

Ideas

See ideas for communities for a list of general-use ideas for what chapters can do (drafted with the US in mind, so some of the ideas are us-centric, but generally useful; please add your own ideas, including those that are specific to other parts of the world).