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Wikimedia contributors organize meetups to socialize and collaborate around the common goal of sharing information. Anyone can organize a Wikimedia meetup. Although it helps to plan a bit and have some awareness of how Wikipedia works, no one needs permission to have a meetup and there is no requirement for anyone to have a meetup in a certain way.
Some meetups are in person but online programs and events are great too. Some meetups are for discussing Wikimedia projects, while others have the goal of convening people to edit. Many meetups have at least one experienced Wikipedia editor present, but lots of meetups have organized and accomplished their goals without an experienced editor attending.
This page is used as a starting point for Wikipedians organising meetups, and subpages are used for finalising the details once a meetup has been agreed. For meetings in other languages/places please use the interlanguage links from this page.
Basics for beginners
There are lots of ways to organize a Wikipedia meetup. There is no need to request anyone's permission. Feel free to publicly advertise that you are hosting a Wikipedia meetup for anyone who wants to edit the wiki with the community of volunteer editors.
Although there are not particular requirements, for anyone who wants orientation, here is a proven model that works. As you plan your event, start here and modify this plan as appropriate for your situation.
- Get commitments from a few people, each of whom will serve one role and not be responsible for the other roles:
- Wikipedia editor - it is very useful to have at least one person who has edited Wikipedia before. At the very least, consider having someone take an online tutorial, make a few edits, and know how to ask questions in Wikipedia's help forums.
- Venue host - there has to be a place to meet. If the meeting is in a coffeehouse then someone should reserve a table. If the meeting is in a community center, like a library, museum, college, or similar, then confirm with a host that everyone has a space to meet.
- Subject matter expert - Wikipedia is a summary of information from reliable sources. To edit Wikipedia, someone has to curate and suggest reliable sources to summarize and cite. For example, if a Wikipedia event is in a library, then get a subject matter expert to select some books in advance - perhaps around a common theme for the meetup - and make them available to the event participants
- Community organizer - this is the person who invites people to the event. Since the event is for the benefit and enjoyment of the participants, then the person who can recruit participants to the event is typically also the person who sets the theme of the event. Common themes are local history, biographies of a certain group of people, or some set of social topics.
- Consider whether you want a record of outcomes
- If anyone involved in presenting the event is part of an organization, then typically they will want "outcome metrics" or "proof of impact".
- Organizations which support wiki events like getting evidence that participants actually accomplished something useful
- In general, a useful outcome is a list of what Wikipedia articles everyone edited and perhaps a record of how many people read those articles
- While there are many ways to get outcomes, the most popular way is to have participants sign up to the "Programs and Events Dashboard"
- Hopefully a new user can set up a program page in the dashboard in 10 minutes
- To use the dashboard, share the weblink with all attendees. If they register Wiki accounts, then they can join the dashboard participant list with a click
- If anyone involved in presenting the event is part of an organization, then typically they will want "outcome metrics" or "proof of impact".
- Consider whether you want to connect with the broader Wikimedia community
- If you want a referral, then perhaps ask at Wikipedia:Pump
- Advantages:
- If you collaborate with others then you can join discussions about what you are doing
- If you are doing something similar to others then everyone shares in the outcomes toward a common goal
- Disadvantages
- Some people want to get started immediately without planning in advance
- Everyone is a volunteer, so probably to collaborate you have to join a global campaign like Wiki Loves Monuments, Art+Feminism, or some other project which rallies around a particular theme. If the themes match what you want, then great. If not, then those communities may not be available.
Projects and events
Play media
Play mediaProjects, initiatives, user groups
- AfroCROWD
- Art&Community
- Art+Feminism
- Black Lunch Table
- Black WikiHistory Month
- Black Women Intelligentsia
- Canada Wide Canadian History Edit-a-thon
- Music in Canada @ 150 edit-a-thon campaign
- Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
- Florida Librarians of Wikipedia
- Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong
- Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC)
- Indigenous Film & Media
- Indigenous Storytellers WikiThon
- Indiana Center for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Adrianne Wadewitz Tribute Edit-a-thon
- Kentucky Wikimedians User Group
- La Guardia and Wagner Archives
- Philadelphia WikiSalon online
- Plants And People – includes New York Botanical Garden
- Smithsonian APA Asian Pacific American
- Toronto History
- Wiki Loves Pride
- WikiConference North America
- wikiD: Women. Wikipedia. Design.
- Wikimedia United States Coalition aka 'Wikimedians Active in Local Regions of the United States' (WALRUS) committee WP:WALRUS
- Wikipedia Day US (January)
- Great American Wiknic (June)
- Wikipedia Loves Libraries (October/November)
- Wikipedia Takes America (September)
- Wikimedia User Group China (中国维基媒体用户组)
- Wikimedians of Colorado User Group (WM-US-CO)
- WikiProject Medicine Mount Sinai
- WikiProject Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Women in Red
- Wooster's WGSS Edit-a-thon 2020
- Writing Middle Eastern Women into History Initiative (WMWH)
- Wiki Loves Women
- 1000 Women in Religion
International
- WikiCon (WikiConference/WikiConvention)
- One World Birthday (event celebrating Wikipedia's 20th birthday, January 15, 2021; Saturday morning in Asia, Friday afternoon/evening in the Americas, late night in Europe)
Categories
Related pages
- Wikimedia user groups
Procedure and advice
Play media
- Create the page
- Use or create a sub page of Wikipedia:Meetup to organize the meeting.
- Make it easy to sign up, with simple subsections like Likely attendees, Possible attendees and Regrets for signup lists, as at Meetup/NYC.
- See Wikipedia Meetups - A design pattern catalogue for advice about Locations, Timing, People, and Topics.
- Attract attendees
- Solicit invitations of geographically local Wikipedia users.
- Create a geonotice request.
- Create a list of Wikipedians interested in future and regular meetups for a given location where they can sign up (alternatively, userboxes with corresponding categories can be used).
- Use an info box like {{Wikipedia:Meetup/Melbourne/Invite}} for mass invitations.
- Use other media outside of Wikipedia to advertise to non-Wikipedia users
- Post a notice at the relevant page of wikipedia.meetup.com
- Post a couple of notices on Craigslist (free).
- Word of mouth is always an option.
- Don't be afraid to spam people: Make a big list like Meetup/NYC/Invite list from all people who have ever expressed interest in attending a meetup, as well as all people in categories like Category:Wikipedians in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia userbox and other regional categories.
- Don't manually post notices to all the editors who are listed in a geographical category. Simply post a request at WP:BOTREQ, asking for a bot owner to have a bot deliver the (specified) message to everyone in the category.
- Place notices at talk pages like Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Philadelphia and even Talk:Philadelphia.
- Contact your local chapter - if you have one - who will be able to contact people in the local area, or help you in other ways.
- Organize event
- Organize location
- Organize eating arrangements
- Settle on a definite time and place, and don't change it. If someone is just bold, people will know about the date a few weeks in advance (instead of a couple of days), which will make planning easier for individuals. Getting input from everyone is good, but you don't need a formal vote on everything, which can delay the process.
- Consider whether you want any sort of agenda for the meetup (like a discussion on a specific topic, or forming a local chapter).
Pictures
A gallery from many different cities can be found at:
- Meetup/Gallery
- Wikipedia 10 - Photo gallery
First meetup
Dhaka, Bangladesh
July 14, 2007Fifth meetup
Philadelphia, United States
November 11, 20071st WikiMeetup
Mumbai
September 20, 20101st WikiMeetup
New Delhi
September 22, 201019th Bangalore Meetup
Bangalore
September 24, 20101st WikiMeetup
Kolkata
December 11, 2010Bangalore Odia Wiki Workshop
Bangalore
March 6, 2011Wikimedia Kenya meet up
Kenya
May 26, 2012Third meetup
Chittagong
February 7, 2015AfroCROWD Kickoff Event
Brooklyn, United States
February 7 and 8, 20152015 Art+Feminism @ MoMA
New York City, United States
March 7, 2015Wikipedia Singapore Meetup 8 @ National Library, Singapore
November 8, 2015Wikipedia Johor Meetup 1 @ Mall of Medini, Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia
May 22, 2016Wikipedia Kuala Lumpur Meetup 1 @ Berjaya Times Square, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
June 5, 2016Wikipedia Selangor Meetup 1 @ Sudo Brew, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
December 11, 2016Wikipedia Selangor Meetup 2 @ Sunway Tower, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
February 25, 2017Wikipedia Kuala Lumpur Meetup 2 @ Feeka Coffee Roasters, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
April 22, 2017Wikipedia Indonesia-Malaysia Meetup 1 @ Wikimedia Indonesia Chapter Headquarters, Menteng, Jakarta, Indonesia
August 10, 2017Wikipedia Johor Meetup 2 @ Larkin 2 National Primary School, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
October 8, 2017Wikipedia Johor Meetup 3 @ Big Bites Café, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
October 22, 2017Wikipedia Johor Meetup 4 @ Crescendo International College, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
December 9, 2017Wikipedia Johor Meetup 5 @ Sunway College Johor Bahru, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
January 20, 2018Wikipedia Johor Meetup 6 @ Q House, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
February 24, 2018Wikipedia Johor Meetup 7 @ Handicapped and Mentally Disabled Children Association Johor Bahru, Saleng, Kulai District, Johor, Malaysia
April 14, 2018Wikipedia Malaysia-Taiwan Meetup 1 @ Leaf Cafe, Da'an District, Taipei, Taiwan
April 28, 2018Wikipedia Sabah Meetup 1 @ Sandakan District Education Office, Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia
May 17, 2018Wikipedia Kuala Lumpur 3 @ AIA Cap Square Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
June 30, 2018Wikipedia Johor Meetup 8 @ Crescendo International College, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
July 14, 2018Wikipedia Kelantan Meetup 1 @ Kamil National High School, Pasir Puteh, Kelantan, Malaysia
Augusts 6, 2018Wikipedia Kuala Lumpur Meetup 4 @ Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
August 26, 2018Wikipedia Indonesia-Malaysia Meetup 2 @ Wikimedia Indonesia Chapter Headquarters, Menteng, Jakarta, Indonesia
September 10, 2018Wikipedia Kuala Lumpur Meetup 5 @ Malaysia Design Archive, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
September 15, 2018Wikipedia Melaka Meetup 1 @ Multimedia University, Bukit Beruang, Melaka, Malaysia
October 10, 2018Wikipedia Kuala Lumpur Meetup 6 @ National Library of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
December 12, 2018Wikipedia Penang Meetup 1 @ University of Science, Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
December 12, 2018Wikipedia Kedah Meetup 1 @ Northern University of Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
April 14, 2019Wikipedia Kelantan Meetup 2 @ Sungai Petai National High School, Pasir Puteh, Kelantan, Malaysia
April 24, 2019Wikipedia Johor Meetup 9 @ Pelangi Plaza, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
May 1, 2019Wikipedia Johor Meetup 10 @ Pelangi Plaza, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
May 19, 2019Wikipedia Johor Meetup 11 @ Johor Bahru City Square, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
May 31, 2019Wikipedia Johor Meetup 12 @ Crescendo International College, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
June 22, 2019Wikipedia Johor Meetup 13 @ Pelangi Plaza, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
July 25, 2019Wikipedia Kuala Lumpur Meetup 7 @ National Library of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
August 1, 2019Wikipedia Malaysia-Thailand Meetup 1 @ Thaksin University, Hat Yai, Thailand
September 5, 2019Wikipedia Penang Meetup 2 @ University of Science, Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
October 9, 2019Wikipedia Kelantan Meetup 3 @ KFC, Pasir Puteh District, Kelantan, Malaysia
October 31, 2019Wikipedia Kelantan Meetup 4 @ Taman Masjid Ibrahimi, Pasir Puteh District, Kelantan, Malaysia
November 9, 2019Wikipedia Sabah Meetup 2 @ Inanam, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
December 24, 2020Wikipedia Sabah Meetup 3 @ Harbour City, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
December 30, 2020Wikipedia Sabah Meetup 4 @ Harbour City, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
January 3, 2021
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Tools
- Systemic Bias Workshop Kit
See also
| July 2021 +/- | |
|---|---|
| San Diego 71 (Balboa Park) & 72 (online) | July 10, 2021 |
| London 173 (Lincoln's Inn Fields) | July 11, 2021 |
| UK virtual | July 25, 2021 |
| BLT (online) | July 25, 2021 |
| BLT (online) | July 31, 2021 |
| South Africa 10 (online) | July 31, 2021 |
| August 2021 +/- | |
| San Diego 73 (Kearny Mesa) | August 14, 2021 |
| Full Meetup Calendar • Events calendar on Meta For meetups in other languages, see the list on Meta | |
- Wikipedia:Meetup/Calendar
- Friendly space policies
- Geonotice
- Meta Meetup
- WikiCon (WikiConference/WikiConvention)
- Wikipedia:How to run an edit-a-thon
- Community of Wikipedia
- Program evaluation: edit-a-thons
- Link to a list of all subpages:
- Wikipedia:Meetup
External links
- Wikipedia Meetup at Meta Wiki
- Events at Meta Wiki
- Events at MediaWiki
- Wikipedia + meetup tagged photos at flickr