Submissions/Offline work without a chapter: what can you do?

After careful consideration, the Programme Committee has decided not to accept the below submission at this time. Thank you to the author(s) for participating in the Wikimania 2015 programme submission, we hope to still see you at Wikimania this July.

Submission no.: 2100

Title of the submission

Offline work without a chapter: what can you do?

Type of submission (discussion, hot seat, panel, presentation, tutorial, workshop)

discussion

Author of the submission

Strainu

E-mail address

wikistrainu.ro

Username

Strainu

Country of origin

Romania

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.)

Personal homepage or blog

www.strainu.ro

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal)

In the last 5 years, the increase in the number of chapters has provided our projects with increased credibility, making it considerably easier for wikimedians from all around the planet to engage cultural institutions and government authorities in order to obtain free materials that can be used in our projects. Having an NGO back up your work also offers financial benefits in most countries, which is also an important factor given the scarce resource at our disposal.

However, for different reasons, there are still some countries without a functioning chapter - perhaps they have just a user group or not even that. This does not mean that Wikimedians in those countries are not involved in offline activities designed to increase visibility of open content. From social media pages to photo contests and Wikipedia workshops to large content donations, volunteers in these countries play an important role in the development of their respective projects.

I would like to have a discussion with the people that have encountered this kind of situation, so that we can all learn from the tactics used by the others to work around the lack of a formal chapter. We will start with my own experience organizing the Wiki Loves Monuments in Romania for four years running: I will explain how I used a financial sponsor for any donations and how I engaged like-minded organizations into offering administrative, moral and practical support to our project. I will also mention the collaborations that failed due to the lack of an official seal of "Wikipedia Romania".

Of course, this session is opened to all interested participants, including chapter members, since they can compare their work both with and without a chapter and clarify when and where does a chapter help and when it's easier to do things by yourself.

Track

WikiCulture & Community

Length of session (if other than 30 minutes, specify how long): 30 minutes

Will you attend Wikimania if your submission is not accepted?

Yes

Slides or further information (optional)

Soon

Special requests

Interested attendees

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--Thelmadatter (talk) 18:44, 9 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Mrjohncummings (talk) 21:25, 9 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
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