You might think of Wikipedia as just an Internet encyclopedia, but did you know that the community gets together all around the world for Wikipedia Meetups or Wiknics? There’s even one going on today on Governor’s Island in New York City. From Wiknics to meet-ups to couch-surfing, Charles Edward Hicks shows how the Internet has changed from online research to real-life connections.

From finding a place to spend the night to discovering a weekly get-together you might enjoy, many modern social encounters can be traced back to a common root — the Internet. That said, there are certain websites that travelers can use to meet the locals and get the communal feel that many cookie-cutter vacations simply lack. Some are expected, and others…not so much.

What’s  Wiknic?

Wikimedia, the nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia, has also gotten into the game of physical community recently. In 2011, the company began hosting an annual Wiknic in several cities across the United States simultaneously on a certain summer afternoon.

With the tagline, “The Picnic Anyone Can Edit,” the second annual Wiknic was hosted in 21 cities in the United States on June 23, 2012, and was advertised in a banner ad on the website’s homepage. A larger Wiknic will be hosted on Governor’s Island in New York on July 7, 2012.

“It’s an initiative largely of the Wikipedia community,” says Richard Knipel, president of Wikimedia NYC. “There will be people from your local area who are interested in Wikipedia, both veterans (people who have written many Wikipedia articles) and new people are also very welcome. It’s just a good place to talk and meet each other, and talk about new ways of sharing knowledge.”

“There are two reasons that people might come,” says Lane Rasberry, the Wikipedian in Residence at Consumer Reports. “One is that they might want to socialize and just have fun with us. And a lot of people who edit Wikipedia, they do it because they enjoy doing it. It’s relaxing. This is entertainment for them. Another reason why people edit Wikipedia is because they actually have information that they want to share with the world.”

There is not a lot of emphasis put on mass of the Wiknics, however. “Some of them will be quite small,” Knipel says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there were several that were five people. Hopefully, we’ll have a few hundred in New York, if we’re lucky. But big or small, I think they can all do positive things for the community and for building connections to universities and all the traditional sources of knowledge that we want to incorporate into Wikipedia and build on.”

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