Wikipedia:Meetup/NYC/Wikipedia Day 2010

Wikipedia Day NYC was a celebration that held on Sunday, January 24, 2010, at New York University and hosted by Free Culture @ NYU and Wikimedia New York City, and also joined by our friends with the eKindling Philippines OLPC group.

The event was on the 8th floor of the Kimmel Center at NYU (Washington Square South between Thompson and Laguardia/West Broadway) and the program ran from 1PM - 7PM.

The event was in commemoration of Wikipedia Day and the 9th anniversary (!) of the founding of the Wikipedia site. We were especially happy to welcome newcomers and the interested public to the "Wikipedia world" with this event!

Event format
Check-in and a casual chat opened at 1 PM, with the main schedule going from 1:30PM - 7 PM.

Events were held in the large room 802, and also in the smaller twin rooms 804 and 805.

Participation (and pizza and cake!) were free, with more than 60 participants joining us. All were welcome, and we were especially interested in seeing newcomers to join the experienced Wikipedians/Wikimedians. We also hoped for the participation of our friends from the Free Culture movement and from cultural institutions interested in developing Open Education projects.

In addition to the party, the event was a modified unconference, with dedicated plenary sessions (organized on this wiki), lightning talks to the whole assembly, and of course  open space sessions. The Lightning Talks and Open Space were determined during the event itself, so it was good to bring your ideas with you.

There was wifi access, and with the log in details given on-site. Projectors were also available for use by the various presenters.

Session A: Welcome to Wikipedia

 * Welcome to Wikipedia: A tutorial for newcomers will be a group discussion and introductory workshop on how Wikipedia works, and how to get started writing articles. This is modeled on our Wikipedia at the Library classes with the New York Public Library and related CUNY presentations.  There will also be some discussion of the future scope of NYC area public education activities.

Session B: Wikipedia and Your Project

 * Wikipedia and Your Project: Educational and content partnerships will be a group discussion and exploration of the many ways in which educational and cultural institutions can collaborate with Wikipedia. The scope is quite broad, covering everything from School and university projects to our Wikipedia Takes Manhattan city photo events, but especially on how we can develop relationships with new partners in diverse areas.

Session C: Biographies and Privacy Issues

 * Biographies and Privacy Issues will be a group discussion and exploration of the treatment of Biographies of living persons articles and privacy issues.

Session D: Lightning Talks

 * Add your 5-minute lightning talk topic you can personally present on Sunday afternoon (actual schedule for lightning talks will be determined the day of). Last-minute entries always accepted!  We'll also have a vote and a symbolic prize for the "awesomest" lightning talk.


 * Growth of WikiProject Gastropods, overall, and what's been happening in the last 6 months. Invertzoo (talk) 17:45, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
 * The Ideagraph project, a non-profit wiki project for organizing arguments/debates and achieving consensuses.
 * "Open Courseware and Open Research: Realizing Wikiversity's Potential" -- AFriedman  (talk)  02:39, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Using MediaWiki for community-driven content projects. --Sergey Chernyshev (talk) 16:59, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Gender Imbalance at Wikipedia and Britannica --Reagle (talk) 13:51, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Medical non-profit wiki Ourmed by Greg
 * Philippines OLPC eKindling group by Ryan and Mafe
 * Our two Wikimedia NYC interns on the Wikipedia Loves Landmarks and the Wikipedia in the Neighborhood projects.
 * Stanford/Harvard Law Schools Future of Wikipedia by Elizabeth Stark
 * New disambiguation tool by Dispenser
 * Chiropractic Non-Profit wiki WikiChiro.org by Dr. Stephen Press (Founder)

Open Space

 * Add ideas you will bring for open space and sign up below (actual schedule for open space will be determined the day of). Last-minute entries always accepted!


 * The Joys of Being a WikiGnome or A Good Place for Newcomers to Start Out. I will present some articles in need of editing grammer, linkages, etc., and we'll go through them together. This will tie in nicely with the workshop below. Can anyone lend me a laptop? --RoyGoldsmith (talk) 22:39, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
 * After talking with Pharos, we will probably have a workshop where we can expand some articles! Post some ideas and references here. I'd love it. Mitch 32(Live from the Bob Barker Studio at CBS in Hollywood. Its Mitch!) 19:54, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I would suggest that we also enter the names of the articles you wish to update (along with your username) in bullet points below. --RoyGoldsmith (talk) 22:39, 12 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Busking, Royal Festival Hall. RoyGoldsmith (talk) 22:39, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Screening of Virgil Griffith's "Wikipedia: You Will Never Find a More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy" from The Last HOPE. All I need is a projector and one that has wires that can link up to a Toshiba TAIS. A summary from the talk: "Not only the world's largest text-based MMO, Wikipedia is a staple of the Internet user's information diet. Because of this, Wikipedia is also laden with manipulation, forgery, and the downright unscrupulous. In a never before seen presentation, Virgil will mine deep into the bowels of Wikipedia to unearth nefarious deeds whose perpetrators never thought would see the light of day." Running Time: 4:40pm-5:30pm -- * Sidepocket (Sidepocket {talk}) 5:34, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Sign-up lists
You can sign up for Wikipedia Day NYC at the off-wiki registration here.

The following Wikipedians/Wikimedians have expressed a possible interest in attending:

Likely attendees

 * Pharos (talk) 19:57, 14 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Mitch 32(A fortune in fabulous articles can be yours!) 21:51, 14 December 2009 (UTC)
 * (Salmon1 (talk) 00:21, 15 December 2009 (UTC))
 * Becksguy (talk) 05:07, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 *  DGG ( talk ) 06:11, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Jeremyb (talk) 20:16, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Andrevan@ 23:53, 27 December 2009 (UTC) Sorry I couldn't make it.
 * RoyGoldsmith (talk) 17:22, 29 December 2009 (UTC)
 * AFriedman  (talk)  06:54, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Mozucat (talk) 17:52, 30 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Blakeelias (talk) 03:41, 10 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Daniel Case (talk) 00:26, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Newyorkbrad (talk) 23:56, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
 * nwjerseyliz (talk) 23:56, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Jblossom (talk) 12:40, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
 * just64helpin (talk) 19:16, 19 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Sidepocket (Sidepocket {talk}) 16:58, 30 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Reagle (talk) 13:48, 20 January 2010 (UTC) (Change of plans, I should be able to attend for a bit in the afternoon)
 * Wlmg (talk) 20:31, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Tom Lowenhaupt (talk)
 * Invertzoo (talk) 17:13, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
 * — Dispenser 18:58, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Tim Song (talk) 20:43, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
 * GMiller1965 (talk) 20:43, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Blurpeace 00:49, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Possible attendees

 * Moving myself down to regrets - A definite maybe keɪɑtɪk flʌfi (talk) 20:34, 14 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Very possible. Tim Song (talk) 20:38, 14 December 2009 (UTC) Moved to likely.
 * --Aude (talk) 03:04, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Definite possibility. –blurpeace (talk) 03:42, 15 December 2009 (UTC) Moved to likely.
 * Definitely hope so, but tentative for now. Newyorkbrad (talk) 04:36, 7 January 2010 (UTC) Moved to likely.
 * Possibly; I'm somewhat committed to a party but I may be able to wiggle out--Tomwsulcer (talk) 13:14, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Last time school got in the way but hopefully this time it wont! PanydThe muffin is not subtle 20:49, 8 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Depends on academic schedule, but I hope to be able to go. Savidan 20:48, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Andrew Gradman talk/WP:Hornbook
 * Fran Rogers (talk) 01:44, 17 January 2010 (UTC) Too busy, sorry.
 * Very likely. --Sergey Chernyshev (talk) 04:54, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
 * 50/50. I'm lucky to have time to take care of the basic biologicals lately, but I'll see what I can do. – ClockworkSoul 02:20, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Regrets

 * RoySmith. Any chance you're going to hold one of these up in Westchester?  Those of us who live and work in the far northern reaches of civilization find it hard to get downtown for this.  -- RoySmith (talk) 02:17, 5 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Oh, come on, you probably have a Metro North stations that takes an hour or less. I know I do. Andrevan[ this isn't up at some point). Daniel Case (talk) 00:29, 11 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Must ski! ~ Amory ( u •  t  •  c ) 04:27, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm (hopefully) going to be meeting the dog of my dreams at an adoption event that day. But I second (third?) the point about Westchester meetups - that would make my travel time and investment smaller! keɪɑtɪk flʌfi (talk) 22:13, 15 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Sadly, can't make it this time. Apologies! Glass  Cobra  01:05, 16 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm on vacation and won't be back until the end of the month. — Robert Greer (talk) 09:41, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
 * In Albany until Jan. 25, will return that night. Bearian (talk) 23:03, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Will be in Pennsylvania during the weekend. Tim1337 (talk) 18:16, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
 * These haven't worked out with my schedule recently. I'm busy this coming Sunday and I'm going to be occupied for Sunday afternoons all through the spring. Maybe I can make it in the summer.  Enigma msg  18:20, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Jim.henderson (talk) Minor illness; must rest at home
 * I'm still out. I just came back from a Long Island Christmas Vacation and caught a cold on the way down from my elders. I could try May or June 2010, but I'm not making any promises just yet. DanTD (talk) 03:34, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Friends to see Avatar with, homework to see to, that sort of thing. --Izno (talk) 22:15, 22 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Will be in Ohio. — Robert Greer (talk) 14:49, 14 March 2010 (UTC)