[WikiToLearn] Important: 1 hr for helping - WikiToLearn outside Italy

[Riccardo Iaconelli]

Hi all,

first, some good news, Luca has finally managed to create some scripts which 
bring upgrade downtime below the second, and the national press talks of us:

https://www.facebook.com/263066497148006/posts/829880123799971/

it's not the most accurate article, but it's way more than I expected... and a 
good reference for the future. ;-)

now, to the real topic of this e-mail... I am really hearing little feedback 
from the non italian community: how are things doing? Or, as a more general 
question, is there anything you feel we should do to improve communication 
from the italian group and spread non-italian initiatives?

To sumarize the past events, in Italy we've invested a few hours in active 
promotion of WikiToLearn in academical environments and that paid off to be a 
great success: we've today passed the line of 25 active contributors (from the 
3 of August and 13 of the Sprint)... But I am feeling close to zero traction 
from other countries and languages, even from developers who showed a lot of 
interest. This is a pity!

>From what we've seen the project requires very little promotion work in order 
to kickstart succesfully in an existing community, but the local presence is 
*essential* for this to work. One hour talking to the right person will 
multiply to many hours of work on the content, but we must invest in the 
initial communication. Concretely speaking, it's usually just a matter of 
getting people to contribute/publish their ALREADY existing material, or 
explaining the WikiToLearn philosophy to interested students (either 
personally, or by posting on facebook groups where they meet, or similar 
communication channels...).

I want to change this: for my part I am willing to spend all the necessary 
time to ensure we can promote WikiToLearn efficiently in non-italian 
environments, including mentoring, producing artwork, or anything else I can 
help you guys with. But for this to work YOU are essential, with your 
attention and (existing or potential) contacts.

We built an amazing momentum, and we must be careful not to loose it. I have 
seen some competing efforts starting from commercial entities, who are moving 
in a direction similar to ours, but without the freedom aspects. It is 
important not to loose the time battle, in order to bring together convenience 
AND freedom. This is *the* time to push on the accelerator to make sure 
knowledge gets produced and consumed in the open and under free license.

It is for this reason that I would like to ask you, just once and when it 
suits you best, one hour of your KDE time in the next couple of weeks, to 
simply look into this topic. Send an e-mail, or get an initial contact, even 
with one person, but with whoever you think might be more interested. We are 
more than 50 in this mailing list, that means 50 hours of promotion, more than 
we've done here in Italy. By just this little action you will do an immense 
job for our common cause. If you need any kind of help... please speak, we're 
all here to help each other, and I will personally support you as much as I 
can! :-)

Bye,
-Riccardo

P.S. CC'ing Carl as this mail answers a couple of questions he had for the dot 
article...