Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

While writing and publishing a breaking news story for Wikinews (you might have read about it somewhere) Wikimedia Foundation Volunteer Coordinator (and St. Petersburg resident) Cary Bass invited me to the Bishop Tavern in downtown St. Pete for a Wikimedia “meetup.” You might already know that the WM Foundation (projects of which include Wikipedia, Wikinews, Wiktionary, and many others) is located in St. Petersburg, and it’s the home of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

Upon arriving at the Bishop, I found most of the WM Foundation office — including Wales — in attendance, and they’re all brilliant people (and quite talkative). The Chris Benoit story was, understandably, a major topic, as was the debate over whether or not it’s even deserving of the media attention it’s getting (Wales, for one, argues it’s not, and suggests the defeat of Net Neutrality might be more worthy of both our attention and his presence on cable news shows).

The last time I’d been in Bishop Tavern, it was packed on St. Patrick’s Day, and it was nice to have a little space to lounge and chat. It has its fans and its detractors, and it gets awfully hot and noisy at night, but it’s fantastic for happy hour drinks (not that they have an actual happy hour, but you get my point). Considering that a Great White concert was about to start next door at Jannus Landing, I asked the lithe blonde barmaid if she knew where the fire extinguishers were. She stared at me blankly.

(I tried to link to a review of the concert, but it seems no one in the blogosphere attended the show.)

Anyway, it’s important to note that while Silicon Valley in California may be the world’s hub of Internet activity, we have the greatest source of human knowledge in history right here in Tampa Bay, along with the handful of brilliant people who keep it running. Of course, St. Pete is also the home of this tech scammer featured on Fark, but you gotta take the good with the bad. Oh, and while you’re at it, check out Tampa Tribune art director Greg Williams’ weekly WikiWorld comic. It’s music! And fun! And if you’re not careful, you might learn something before it’s done! Hey, hey, hey!

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