In the spirit of open information in which Sydney Wiki is born, this page shares the Sydney Wiki journey, the thoughts and progress of the Foundation Group as we work towards the luanch of Sydney Wiki in 2012.
The Sydney Wiki Foundation Group is comprised of thought leaders & innovators from different backgrounds.
As at October 2011 the Sydney Wiki Foundation Group included; Angela Clark, Neerav Bhatt, Stuart Thomas, Barbara McKee, Maurits Vandervlugt, Robyn Lui, Tim Dick, David Spence, Ian Gardiner, Paula Masselos, Glen Frost, Ricky Sutton, Annie Le Cavaliar and Cass O'Connor.
The first Sydney Wiki Foundation Group meeting was held on the 19th of October, in Pyrmont, Sydney.
Angela Clark, Neerav Bhatt, Robyn Lui, David Spence, Ian Gardiner, Glen Frost and Cass O'Connor attended the first meeting at Ian Gardiner's office and the meeting focused on the vision and principles for Sydney Wiki.
Purpose
To provide Sydney with community-owned, living information repository that will provide much-needed context behind the people, places, and events that shape our communities. (this is taken from the localwiki purpose as articulated by Phillip Neustrom and think it captures the essence)
Principles
Useful, honest/authentic, open, collaborative, not for profit, without agenda or vested interest. We are a platform, not a publisher.
What would success look like?
Anytime anyone wants to know anything about Sydney, its people, places, culture or quirks they think of the Sydney Wiki. Sydney Wiki would be the 'people's source' on everything Sydney.
Community Engagement
The Foundation Group agreed that community engagement to create a base level of information in Sydney Wiki was the first challenge.
Robyn Lui came up with the best call to action
"Give us your obsession"
Which captured the spirit of what we need to make Sydney Wiki come alive, we need to find Sydneysiders who love or care deeply about something and who want to share their obsession with others. We want to find the Sydneysiders who are obsessed with Sydney's architecture, tribes, bush walks, hidden treasures. The bird watchers, the foodies, the history buffs and all the obsessed locals who love their suburb, the music scene, Sydney's arts, sports clubs and contemporary culture....
The members present all agreed to take an area of interest they are passionate about and try to engage the communities around that. Cycling, disability support, food, organic markets, arts, history, current urban planning/development controversies, universities and passionate friends, are some of the first communities we will engage with to see whether they are interested in adding pages to the Sydney Wiki prior to launch.
Discussion on Operational and Other issues, including Moderation, Fund Raising, Community Rules (T&C's), was deferred to the next meeting, important as all these things are, everyone agreed that first order of business is reaching out to the commuity and seeing where that takes us.
