Hi Lisa,
I'm only a member of Wikimedia DC, I'm not part of its board, but I'd be happy to sit down and talk with you all. If anyone else in the area would like to join as well, that would be even better.
Professionally, I work in Web development and operations. At the place where I work currently, we happen to have a small internal MediaWiki farm that was set up many years ago that I recently upgraded and now maintain. Personally, I have about ten years of experience on the English Wikipedia, I host and maintain a few personal MediaWiki installations, and I occasionally provide free online technical support for MediaWiki via IRC and a technical mailing list.
If nothing else, I should be able to at least answer most of your questions, technical or otherwise, about MediaWiki and wikis in general. And I should be able to ask a few questions of my own to ensure that you all are on the right track. MediaWiki is a fairly large and customizable wiki application, giving it a lot of flexibility and scaleability, but also bringing with it the requisite technical complexity (and not-so-requisite accumulated technical debt!).
I'm around D.C. most of December, so if you're interested in getting together, just name a date and time that work. I personally could come during business hours, but others who might want to join may prefer an alternate meeting time (e.g., during lunch, in the evening, or perhaps even on a weekend). Just something to keep in mind.
What I also offer people with similar requests to this one is the reverse: instead of having a meeting yourself, Wikimedia DC holds monthly meetups that you all are of course welcome to join. However the meetup attendance is not formal... it's a total grab bag regarding who might show up at a particular one. :-)
MZMcBride
[I sent this to the info@.. email earlier this week. I apologize for the repeat, but we here are very motivated and would like to tap into the knowledge of the group. In retrospect, my email below doesn’t discuss how the association
could assist the mission of your Foundation, but we would, of course cover that too, if you believe we could work together.]
Good afternoon,
The National Association of Attorneys General is currently in the early stages of establishing a wiki presence for our membership—the 56 states, territories and the District of Columbia. The mission is to create a legal information resource
for our members in the attorneys generals offices.
I am reaching out to ask for assistance in two areas: best practices for MediaWiki software configuration and development and best practices in relation to content creation. I am particularly interested in starting the project with a solid
editorial and technical framework. We have already assembled a team of counsel, legal writers and legal librarians who will be able to provide expertise.
Would someone from your organization be available to meet with me and our project counsel after the Thanksgiving holiday to explore the items above? It is best to reach me by email. I look forward to talking to you about our project.
Best regards,
Lisa A. Jeter
Web and New Media Services Director
National Association of Attorneys General
2030 M Street, NW 8th floor
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 326-6261
ljeter@naag.org
www.naag.org