Submissions/Welcome home: How local community spaces spur collaboration

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.: 2129

Title of the submission: Welcome home: How local community spaces spur collaboration

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

Author of the submission: Lukas Mezger

E-mail address: lukas.mezgerwikipedia.de

Username: User:Gnom

Country of origin: Germany

Affiliation, if any (organisation, company etc.): Wikimedia Deutschland

Personal homepage or blog

Abstract (at least 300 words to describe your proposal): The German-language community has always been driven by personal contacts. No other community holds so many regular meetups, excursions and workshops - every week, there are a handful of local events all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland. After all, the first-ever Wikipedian meet-up was held in Munich in 2003. In 2014, the community from Cologne, Germany went one step further and opened the Lokal K - a local space run by the community to meet and try new things the wiki way. Early this year, the Hamburg community followed suit opening the Wikipedia:Kontor Hamburg. Similar concepts exist in Berlin, Hannover, and Vienna, and there are talks to create even more.

So far, the experience has been very positive - the existing spaces are used extensively and the community has been very creative in trying out new projects that are easier to pursue as a group and with a place that it can call their own. Also, having a physical address gives the community and the projects a face to the outside world where interested members of the public can go and refer to when they want to meet the community.

Looking at the example of the local community spaces in Cologne and Hamburg, this talk will discuss how these community-run projects have deepened collaboration between Wikimedians to create and pursue a vast range of projects: From studio photography over editathons, workshops with other open community organizations, GLAM collaborations to simply enjoying dinner together, the idea of truly "going local" has created new homes for the community. The talk will showcase some experiences and results of the existing projects in Germany. It will also discuss the small but important role of the German Wikimedia chapter for these spaces and it will highlight learning patterns for similar projects elsewhere.

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?: don't know

Slides or further information (optional): If requested, the presentation can include subtitles in Spanish on the slides.; This submission can possibly be merged with Submissions/Setup a permanent local community space.
Special requests

Interested attendees

If you are interested in attending this session, please sign with your username below. This will help reviewers to decide which sessions are of high interest. Sign with a hash and four tildes. (# ~~~~).

--Jcornelius (talk) 21:09, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ziko (talk) 21:49, 27 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]
CT Cooper · talk 23:25, 10 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 05:30, 26 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Add your username here.