Help build Oakland Wiki content by joining us for an Oakland Wiki Bikeabout - bring a mode of transportation, a camera, and a way to take notes. We will dive into a neighborhood or pick a type of landmark and fan out to take photos and notes on what we find. Afterwards, we'll gather together in one spot and upload our pictures to the wiki over lunch.

If you can't stay or if you'd like to upload photos later, instructions for adding photos to OaklandWiki are HERE.

 

Getting ready to head out on the first Oakland Wiki Bikeabout (by mk30)First Oakland Wiki Bikeabout took place on Nov. 10,2012 @ 11:00AM

The topic: Murals-- any and all, great and small.
Date: Nov 10 (Saturday)
Time: 11AM, meet at Tech Liminal (268 14th St.). Meet back up at the West Oakland Library Branch from 2:30-4:30PM to add what we've found to the wiki!

Bring: Your bike (or you can walk around downtown!), a camera, a way to take notes. (BONUS: if you can, bring your camera cable and a laptop)

SIGN UP Here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4720129033#

Resources:

Postscript:

Participants split up into three groups that rode around Fruitvale, Jingletown, Downtown, Grand Lake, and West Oakland. We met back up at the West Oakland Library Branch where we suffered through very slow internet to create THIS: http://oaklandwiki.org/Murals

That page includes both entries that we created with photos we took on the trip today, and also the Community Rejuvenation Project mural map that we imported!

To follow up on this event, if you have remaining photos that you'd like to upload, instructions for creating pages and uploading images can be found here: http://oaklandwiki.org/Uploading_Images Additionally, we will be preparing a blog post about the bikeabout for the localwiki blog (link to come).

Finally, for those who were unable to join us for this first event, we would love your help in planning a second Oakland Wiki Bikeabout! Suggestions for future bikeabouts include buildings on the historic register, parks, secret walks, and trails. To get involved, join [email protected]!

 

 

Want to organize your own bikeabout? Here's what you'll need to do:

Adding murals to Oakland Wiki. (by mk30)

  • Set a date
  • Pick a topic. Here are some ideas: Historic buildings/national register of historic places, architecture, parks, public art/murals/street art/graffiti, specific neighborhoods, gardens/greenery, bike trails, types of businesses (ex: Vietnamese restaurants, psychics, bike shops, coffee shops, diners).
  • Make an invite page, publicize, etc.: Make a page on the wiki for your event; twitter with reference to @oaklandwiki; advertise to community groups (bike groups, groups interested in your topic (ex: local history groups if your topic is history).
  • Pick a starting location for the biking portion of the event and a meeting place for the editing portion of the event. Ensure that the meeting spot has enough computers and good internet.
  • Plan the day. Here is a sample schedule:
    • Meet up at central location (coffee nearby helps), introduce the event and tell everyone the schedule, do a go-around/introductions, let people sort into groups. Organizers should be on hand to help people sort into groups. They should also be prepared to lead groups (if necessary) and be flexible to join under-loved groups or cover important areas that people don't want to go to. Ensure that everyone knows where/when to meet back up.
    • 2-3 hours for the biking portion of the event (depending on how big your area is).
    • 2-4 hours for the editing portion of the event.
  • Prepare instructions for participants: What to take photos of, what info to write down (location, details of the building/park, whatever), where to meet.
  • If you want people to use their phones to take photos, pick an app/service and test it to ensure that it will work. Services to consider: Ushahidi, i-am-cc.org.
  • Prepare instructional materials and plan the portion of the event when everyone meets back up. Here is an example of an instructional page. During the editing portion of the event, some organizers should be prepared to lead brief instruction sessions on editing and uploading images. Organizers should be prepared to help make sure the flow of the event is going well - are people engaged? Is anyone confused and needs help?
  • Plan food if you have the budget.

Tips:

  • Before the Event:
    • Food helps. If you can plan food for the event, it will help with participant numbers!
    • Prepare resources/maps that people can look at before the event to help them get familiar with the topic and get them starting to think about what neighborhoods they would want to go to. Depending on how specific/difficult to locate your topic is, you may want to print copies of the maps for participants.
    • Tell people to bring cameras, notebooks, camera cords, and if necessary, laptops.
    • It may be good to have a few people be prepared to lead groups for those who may not have a good feel for where to go.
    • We ended up not needing to prepare instructional handouts for those who had to leave, but you may want to.
  • During the bike portion of the event:
    • We found that it was good to stay flexible. Depending on how many participants you have, their familiarity with the topic, and their familiarity with the wiki, you will have to do more or less planning for the biking portion and more or less planning for the editing portion. We did a go-around when everyone first gathered to see if people already had areas they wanted to go to and to help people split into groups.
    • Groups helped make the event really fun. We had very positive results letting people split into small groups (2-4 people) based on their interests.
    • Document the event.
  • During the editing portion of the event:
    • Ensure your internet is good and you have enough computers for everyone at your meetup venue.
    • When meeting back up, evaluate participants' experience/comfort level with creating pages and uploading images. Make sure some organizers are ready to lead a short instruction session on editing the wiki and uploading images.
    • We had fun doing an informal debrief of where the different groups went and what they found.
    • Document the event.
  • After the event:
    • Figure out how to stay in touch with the people who came. If at all possible, get emails and send everyone a follow-up email thanking them for attending, linking to the product of the work done, providing instructions (in case people had more photos than they could upload in the given time), and generally encouraging them to stay involved.
    • Document the event itself and prepare a writeup of how the event went. Publicize it!
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