Thanks for your feedback, Lane and Peaceray. I do recognize Lane's concerns with moving outside of Meta and Wikipedia. Building a community at Cascadia.wiki and having to maintain the site will have its challenges. However, like Peacray mentioned, asking someone to visit Meta-Wiki and find the Cascadia Wikimedians page, or even asking someone to go to Wikipedia to find a theoretical project page for Cascadia Wikimedians has its own challenges.
If we are to be seen as a group organizing "real life" activities and event, I think we need to have a website with the standard info we find online about other organizations: "about us", goals, bios for board members and volunteers/staff, calendar of upcoming events, grant requests and reports, contact info, etc.) Even if we organized our activities mostly using Meta-Wiki or English Wikipedia, I can still see benefits to having an external wiki... Possibly as an information/reporting repository moreso than a hub for organizing projects. Really, we would just have to see what happens organically. Having our own website will also mean we have the opportunity to brand ourselves a bit, to have a hub for social media links, signing up for an email mailing list, etc. Essentially, having an online presence and appearing more professional, like Lane mentioned. As for a redirect, I can speak with my colleagues, but I think it should not come as a surprise that a company donating a domain and hosting services might expect the domain to be used (I am speaking personally and independently of my employer). I'll try to start work on an agreement b/w TLD and WCUG, while also recognizing that this is an ongoing conversation re: both .wiki and even the use of an external website for the group. Jason On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 8:41 PM, Raymond Leonard < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi everybody, > > I really like the idea of Cascadia.wiki. I agree with some of the > sentiments about having it initially be a redirect to a Wikimedia project > page even if we decide to eventually be separate from the WMF web > properties. I think that the ability to tell people to go to Cascadia.wiki > will be much simpler and so much more direct than having people go to > meta.wikimedia.org then search for Cascadia Wikimedians or Wikimedia > Cascadia. The casual user is probably unaware of meta.wikimedia.org; > Cascadia.wiki is just easy to remember. > > I trust both Another Believer's / Jason's company & the company that hosts > SeaFOSS on your (plural) recommendations. Thus, it seems to be basically a > matter of logistics. I just think that we need to hash it out via a > face-to-face whether that is in the same room or via Skype or Google > Hangouts. > > Yours, > Peaceray > > On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 6:59 PM, Lane Rasberry <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> I support the use of a .wiki endorsement. I would support affiliation >> with Top Level Design, Jason's company, because I feel that anyone using >> wikis in any context is a benefit to the entire Wikimedia project, and >> because I feel like the favoritism given to the registrar for this domain >> is not significantly different as compared to favoritism given to someone >> doing a .com or .org registration. Also I feel that an affiliation with >> that company is an ideal partnership, because their very existence is >> premised on the past and future success of Wikimedia projects and the >> strength of any community groups in the region. >> >> Having a website off the Wikimedia projects might look professional but >> without multiple people to manage it then I am not convinced this is a >> priority. There is no Wikimedia group which has built community around >> their off-wiki website in the English language, and I doubt there is one at >> all. Off-wiki websites can be present past achieves to impress people who >> do project review, perhaps as part of a grant evaluation. Going off wiki >> typically means going off watchlists and out of touch with the Wikimedia >> community. In my opinion, staying in Wikimedia projects, perhaps with a >> .wiki redirect to a project page, is the most natural choice until there is >> a volunteer labor surplus and the organization navigates past its first >> cycle of grant requesting and reporting. Setting up a website achieves no >> stated early goal that I recognize. Content on Wikipedia could always be >> migrated to another website at a later time. >> >> yours, >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Tue, Dec 9, 2014 at 7:02 PM, Pine W <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi, as of right now the board hasn't delegated any of its authority, >>> which is an issue that will be addressed when we have bylaws so that a >>> board vote isn't necessary for every decision. We may also pass some >>> resolutions for temporary delegation of responsibility until the bylaws are >>> finalized. For now, though, we'll need a board vote to approve obtaining >>> property. Our Meta talk page would be a good place to do this for matters >>> that aren't confidential. Jason, I suggest that you ask the relevant person >>> in your org to draft a contract that specifies that Cascadia Wikimedians >>> User Group will be donated ownership of the cascadia.wiki domain, and >>> specifies how hosting arrangements and costs will be arranged (no cost is >>> great), and the procedure for transferring hosting of the domain if we >>> decide to host elsewhere. After we get a copyof the proposal, our board can >>> review it, and discuss and vote on our Meta talk page. It would be nice if >>> the agreement is produced under a Commons-compatible license so it can be >>> reviewed by the public on Commons and potentially reused by others. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> >>> Pine >>> On Dec 8, 2014 5:03 PM, "Jason Moore" <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> And transferring ownership of the domain may be fine with the company, >>>> too. I'm not sure if/how domain registrations differ between individuals >>>> and organizations (not my area of expertise), but again I am happy to >>>> continue liaising between CWUG and the company and answer any specific >>>> questions re: registration and hosting. >>>> >>>> I've not heard any resistance to the domain cascadia.wiki for our >>>> group, so shall we continue moving forward with this plan or do we need to >>>> raise the question with other board members or at meta? >>>> Jason >>>> >>>> On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 3:35 PM, Benj. Mako Hill <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> >>>>> <quote who="Jason Moore" date="Mon, Dec 08, 2014 at 03:14:00PM -0800"> >>>>> > Cascadia.wiki is currently being reserved and could be made >>>>> available at my >>>>> > request despite being considered a "premium" name. >>>>> >>>>> Got it. :) >>>>> >>>>> > That being said, if the group is more comfortable with tasking >>>>> > someone to accept transfer of the domain and maintain >>>>> > hosting/renewals under his/her own name, we can help with those >>>>> > arrangements, too. I am not sure what additional detail is needed, >>>>> > but if you have specific questions or concerns, I'd be happy to >>>>> > respond. >>>>> >>>>> I think that our long term plan should to have the domain ownership >>>>> transfered to our organization. I don't mind if the technical contact, >>>>> registration fees, and hosting is donated (in fact, that sounds >>>>> wonderful!) but I think it is wise that our organization and its board >>>>> have ownership and ultimate over the domain that people use to find >>>>> us. >>>>> >>>>> Thank you so much for offering to organize this! >>>>> >>>>> Regards, >>>>> Mako >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> Benjamin Mako Hill >>>>> http://mako.cc/ >>>>> >>>>> Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far >>>>> as society is free to use the results. --GNU Manifesto >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia >>>> >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> Lane Rasberry >> user:bluerasberry on Wikipedia >> 206.801.0814 >> [email protected] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-Cascadia mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-cascadia > >
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