Bay Area WikiSalon/Speaker prospects

This page lists people who we might try to have join us for the event. Ideally they would help draw people to attend or provide an entertaining presentation.

Candidates

• Kevin Kelly - local futurist
• Tantek Çelik (Tantek (talk · contribs)) - showed up at the first WikiSalon, works on a project with some similarities to Wikimedia at IndieWeb
• Tim Ferriss - local author
• Local politicians - Joel Engardio, Scott Wiener, Jane Kim, or any number of others...

Contacted

• Craig Newmark of Craigslist - contacted through his contact form by Ben Creasy on June 8 for potential speaking in August

Example contact copy

Please consider tweaking this to make it more personal to the person contacted, such as through highlighting their connection to Wikipedia, if any.

I, along with several other Wikipedia editors, am trying to stimulate a community of volunteers around Wikipedia in the Bay Area through organized monthly events for Wikipedia volunteers ("Wikipedians") and those interested to meet up, mingle, edit, and find opportunities for collaboration. Sadly, despite all the smart people in this city, we have a minimal organized volunteer presence in this city, and no regular meetups among volunteers, no chapter, etc.

We're shooting to have a speaker every other month, which means June, August, October, and so on. So far we don't have any speakers lined up so I'm trying to find people, and your name came up as an idea.

These in-person meetups are critical to bridging the gender gap and making Wikipedia editing a fun and approachable activity for everyone. I'm hoping to strengthen the Bay Area community, and your name recognition at one of these events would be awesome!