Wikipedia:Meetup/Boston/2012

This is an archive of 2012 Boston-area Wikipedia meetups. More recent meetups are listed at WP:Meetup/Boston.

November 17, 2012

Wikipedia Loves Libraries event at the Cambridge Public Library. Please sign up on the event page!

November 13, 2012: Presentation on Wikidata

Wikidata Presentation at the Berkman Center Learn about Wikidata, the newest Wikimedia project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. The speaker will be Wikidata's project director Denny Vrandečić from Wikimedia Germany.

September 10, 2012: Monthly meetup at Clover Food Labs, Cambridge

We're meeting at [Clover Labs @ 7 Holyoke St, Cambridge. Agenda-free discussion, but sure to be monumental :-) See the recent threads on WLM and WLL (and hosting the New England archives) for inspiration.

– SJ +

Alyssa (Archivist, Cambridge Public Libraries)
EagleRockBear (for the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library)
Maynard Clark
Sven Manguard
BCorrrrr
Mayo
GabrielF (talk)

June 2012: Boston Wiknic

We had a Wiknic! Information is available at Wikipedia:Meetup/Boston/Wiknic/2012. Main page for the Great American Wiknic: Wikipedia:Wiknic.

May 14, 2012: Monthly meetup at encuentro 5, Chinatown, Boston

This will be our first monthly meetup in Boston proper in a long time! The idea had been floating around for a while, but one of the resolutions from the New England Wikimedia general meeting is that we'd like to alternate monthly meetups between venues in Boston and Cambridge, to make things more convenient for folks in Boston. The meetup will be on Monday, May 14 at 7:00 PM. We're meeting at encuentro 5 at 33 Harrison Ave, floor 5, Boston, MA 02111.

Attendance and minutes

Some likely topics of discussion:

Recap of New England Wikimedia General Meeting in April. Summary is also available here.
Wikimania 2012, July 12-15 in Washington DC
Boston's 2012 Wiknic(!)
Media in Wikipedia: statistics, new types of media, photographing New England, lolcats, etc.
<your idea here>

Sign up

Attendees:

Possible:

Likely. Dominic·t 07:23, 3 May 2012 (UTC)reply

Not going:

Out of town. Madcoverboy (talk) 03:51, 1 May 2012 (UTC)reply
Very upset, but it looks like I'll have to work late this Monday. Achowat (talk) 14:56, 1 May 2012 (UTC)reply
Got dragged into something else last minute. Sven Manguard Wha? 23:48, 14 May 2012 (UTC)reply

Minutes

Wiki Loves Monuments

Main page for WLM in the United States on Commons: Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2012 in the United States.
Runs for all of September 2012
Might be considering worth assigning more weight/points for:

building into a DYK entry for the subject of a photo uploaded to Commons during WLM
non-duplicates: places that don't already have an image on Commons
photo of subject that has article but not image
photo of subject in underrepresented categories
underrepresented geographies
National Register vs State Registers throughout New England

http://www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc/mhcstreg/streg.htm
~60,000 places on the State Register of Historic Places
What are DC and NYC doing with regard to weighing value of images of places on national registers as relative to places on state registers?

How should contributions be recognized? At a basic level, it would probably be good to have separate recognition for A) images of exceptional technical quality and B) large collections of images, with a possible sub-category recognizing images from less accessible locations.
It would be great to have a list of NRHP sites that don't yet have a corresponding image on Commons.
Contact about collaborating with Wiki Loves Monuments:

Boston Globe
Massachusetts Historical Commission (http://www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc/mhcstreg/streg.htm)
Massachusetts Historical Society
Medford Historical Society (occasional meetup attendee)
Boston Landmarks Commission
Universal Hub
Neighbors for Neighbors

Are there organizations that would be interested in being national partners? If so, which are likely candidates?
National coordinator? Is there one, does there need to be one?
What will the prizes be? Real barnstars obviously must awarded, but may be just a baseline prize.

Wikipedia Loves Libraries

See WP:Wikipedia Loves Libraries for more.
By end of summer, tentatively aim to have many archived photos from City of Boston uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Collaborating organization here: City of Boston Archives.
Ideally scheduled for October, to not overlap with Wiki Loves Monument running throughout September
Local history edit-a-thon
If on-site at City of Boston Archive, would be good to incorporate scanning of archival documents

Miscellanea

Antony-22 noted that, extending the theme of using animals as Wikimedian organization names, one name to consider for regional group might be Society of Wikimedians In New England (SWINE). The proposal received unanimous acclaim among attendees.

Encuentro 5 was a overall good venue for the meetup. The acoustics were good, and there was ample space and seating. A projector was used to look through Wiki Loves Monuments content on Commons, and evaluate the state of NRHP place articles and listings on Wikipedia. The building is somewhat non-descript and didn't have an obvious indication of its street number, so posting a small sign might help in the future.

Reify-tech has contacts with OpenStreetMap people in Boston. Contact to get in touch with OSM.

Met from 7:00 PM until roughly 9:30 PM.

Actual attendees (9):

Reify-tech
GabrielF
CaribDigita
Emufarmers
EdJohnston
Dominic
Antony-22
Brett
Emw

Wiknic on/around June 23 will replace the regular meetup in June. This logo must reach OBEY Giant-like ubiquity throughout Boston Metro in the coming weeks.

Three or four of the attendees plan to attend Wikimania 2012 in DC. A volunteer is needed to coordinate July meetup (some will be in Wikimania)

The location of August meetup will depend on June's location.

Need a page on Wikipedia for Wiki Loves Monuments in New England

Can Yochai Benkler be a speaker for a meetup in September?

April 22, 2012: Monthly meetup at the Boston Public Library

New England Wikimedia general meeting: A discussion of future regional events, participation in Wikimania, a potential future chapter or more formal regional group.

March 27, 2012: Women's History Month Edit-a-Thon @ Simmons College

A Wikipedia workshop for women's history for members of the GSLIS community and local Boston-area Wikimedians on the evening of Tuesday, March 27. See the event page here for details and to sign up.