Wiki Wednesday December 5, 2007

Wiki Wednesday is a meetup with a featured speaker or discussion topic, related to wikis. We get together to chat, learn about wikis, find jobs, talk deals, and hang out. People who participated in the all-day Wikithon (a wiki hackathon) can show off their cool hacks. Anyone else is welcome to give a brief demo or lightning talk. We welcome wiki users, editors, contributors, admins, developers, and other wiki enthusiasts! Socialtext and co-hosts will provide the space and food -- usually pizza and beer.

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In December, our featured speakers will be Philip Neustrom and Arlen Abraham of WikiSpot (and DavisWiki).

Our local communities touch us so closely: where we buy our produce, who is on our school boards, where the cheapest tacos are, where the most beautiful mural in town is. Us ordinary folks also know the most about all of these things. It's paradoxical, then, that so few local community-grown resources exist for us to share our knowledge of our communities with our communities.

The Davis Wiki project, started a little over three years, was created as a way for our community in Davis, California to share what it knew about that which is wonderful. Three years later, we've won an award from the city and made a dramatic impact on how our community learns and shares -- everything from lost pets to local restaurant reviews.

The Wiki Spot project is a new, non-profit effort to inspire and empower other communities to follow in our footsteps and create truly useful, community-maintained resources. We provide a trusting home for wikis through our wikispot.org service, encourage development of collaborative software, and promote adoption of the wiki as a tool for enriching communities.

Wiki Spot is just getting started and we need your help! We'll be presenting the history of the Davis Wiki, give an overview of it as a project, talk a lot about the Wiki Spot effort and some current Wiki Spot projects such as the San Francisco Wiki. Our talk will be suitable for all audiences.

Philip Neustrom is basically a bum who writes software and studies math. Three years ago, when he was supposed to be learning about cohomology groups, he started the Davis Wiki with his friend Mike Ivanov. Philip is currently spearheading the Wiki Spot project, and finds himself doing lots of this programming stuff.

Arlen Abraham was raised by a family of benevolent lemurs in the San Francisco Bay Area. While earning his degree in beer (Food Science & Technology) at UC Davis, he met Philip Neustrom who introduced him to the idea of a local wiki. Arlen currently works for a glass studio in the Mission district of San Francisco where he figures out how to light, suspend and fabricate glass sculpture. In addition to local wikis, Arlen champions the (simultaneous) use of bicycles, beer, choice voting, local produce, and free software.

Official Website: http://socialtext.net/wikiwed