Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2012/Notes from CEE meetup in Wikimania 2012

Notes from CEE meetup in Wikimania 2012

Some preliminary points from CEE meetup in Wikimania 2012:

1. Overview of CEE chapters and Wikipedians. Who are we and what do we do?
2. Language solutions. CEE languages have several issues that complicate work on Wikimedia projects technically, e.g. multiple diacritic, languages with more than a single alphabet, etc.
3. Importing technical features from larger projects. E.g., some of us might like the feedback tools or version control features. What are pros and cons of these tools and how might we have to adjust them to our own context?
4. Securing additional financing. Small chapters tend to depend financially on WMF. What other potential sources are there, how could we exploit them, and how could we cooperate on these matters?
5. Good governance practices. What should be avoided and what should be done to have as little trouble as possible? How to keep your finances in order with minimal costs? How to resolve organizational issues?
6. Recruitment and outreach. In small Wikipedias, some things are hard to do because of the lack of people, both in the organizational side and in the terms of wikicontent. How can we engage more people as editors and as community organizers?
7. Chapter creation and development. Some communities don't have an urge to create a Wikimedia chapter, but some do. What are the benefits and problems? How can we help those who want to establish a chapter? Okay, you have registrated a chapter; now what?
8. GLAM activities. How do you convince a museum to publish their content online under a CC license? An archive? A library? A gallery? What can they gain by working with us? How can they justify this to their superiors?
9. Legal issues. CEE countries have greatly varying laws concerning copyright, open data initiatives and protection of personal data. What problems are we facing, how have we solved them, and what are the best legal practices we could recommend for our countries to adopt?
10. Historical controversies. In CEE, almost every country has had some troubles with almost every neighbour. How can we describe our history objectively, if our understanding of the "objective description of our history" can be quite different from our neighbours' "objective descriptions"?
11. Joint biography projects. CEE countries have very much intertwining histories. One person can be easily relevant for several countries, having slightly different aspects for each. Could we benefit from exchanging material on historical biographies?
12. Joint Wikiexpeditions. We have many historical regions and local cultures that are currently split between different countries. It would only make sense if we cooperated in covering our common culture.
13. Best outreach practices. What are the best ways to attain readers? How do you let people know what you have done? What does it take to convince a Wikipedian to talk in front of thousands or millions?
14. Translation: technical solutions and best practices. How can you attract translators and how do you ease their work?
15. Bots. Do we need them? What have we got? Can we borrow them from each other? What can we develop in cooperation? --Oop (talk) 04:36, 14 July 2012 (UTC)