Dear colleagues,

Registration is now open for the ‘Celtic Knot’ – Wikipedia Language Conference<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2017> taking place Thursday 6 July 2017 at the University of Edinburgh Business School.

“If you want to know what’s important to a culture, learn their language.” Joanne Harris

The University of Edinburgh and Wikimedia UK are delighted to invite you to join us at this event<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2017> showcasing innovative approaches to open education, open knowledge and open data that support and grow Celtic and Indigenous language communities.
Announcing our keynote speakers

  * Jason Evans<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2017#Keynotes> - Wikimedian in Residence at the National Library of Wales<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Expert_outreach/Wikipedian_in_Residence_at_the_National_Library_of_Wales>, now the longest running Wikimedia residency in the World. Jason has been responsible for implementing and leading a number of innovative projects designed to increase public and institutional engagement with Wikimedia projects. A passionate advocate for open access, he has published case studies and produced a business case on the subject, drawing on the successful implementation of open access policies at The National Library of Wales. Jason has spoken widely of the importance of the Welsh language Wikipedia and the multilingual nature of Wikidata in developing Welsh as a digital language and has recently began exploring the use of multilingual data to create Welsh language Wikipedia content.
  * Professor Antonella Sorace<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2017#Keynotes> - Professor of Developmental Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh<http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/%7Eantonell/> and founding director of Bilingualism Matters<http://www.bilingualism-matters.org.uk/>. Antonella is a world leading authority on bilingualism over the lifespan and is particularly well known for her studies of exceptionally talented ("near-native") adult second language speakers; for her research on the changes ("attrition") that take place in the native language of advanced second language speakers; for her investigation of bilingual language acquisition in early and late childhood, and of the effects of bilingualism in non-linguistic domains.

Confirmed speakers also include:

  * Robin Owain<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-23402054> – Wales Manager for Wikimedia UK
  * Astrid Carlsen – Executive Director, Wikimedia Norge<http://www.wikimedia.no/en/about-us/>.
  * Susan Ross<https://blog.wikimedia.org.uk/2017/01/wikimedia-uk-and-national-library-of-scotland-announce-new-gaelic-post/> – Gaelic Wikipedian in Residence, the National Library of Scotland.
  * Alex Hinojo – Executive Director, Amical Wikimedia presenting on the Catalan Language project.

The main objective for Celtic Knot 2017 is the coming together of practitioners in the same room at same time; strengthening the bonds of those working to support language communities into a 'knot' and leading into action. We welcome diverse attendees and presenters working in Celtic and Indigenous languages ranging from Wikimedians, educators, researchers, information professionals, media professionals, linguists, translators, learning technologists and more coming together to share good practice and find fruitful new collaborations to support language communities as a result of the event.

To find out more about the conference themes and how to book your place to join us in Edinburgh in July then please visit the Celtic Knot<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Celtic_Knot_Conference_2017> page. To assist with seeing areas of commonality and links between your work and the Wikimedia projects<http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/2017/03/10/seeing-the-links-at-the-celtic-knot-wikipedia-language-conference/> you can click here<http://thinking.is.ed.ac.uk/wir/2017/03/10/seeing-the-links-at-the-celtic-knot-wikipedia-language-conference/>.

It promises to be a great event – including a panel on the ‘Politics of Language Online’, excellent papers, workshops and discussion spaces. Please feel free to forward this event to interested colleagues in your network.

If you would like to learn more then please contact me direct at ewan.mcandrew@ed.ac.uk<mailto:ewan.mcandrew@ed.ac.uk>.

Very best regards,
Ewan

Ewan McAndrew
Wikimedian in Residence

Tel: 07719 330076
Email: ewan.mcandrew@ed.ac.uk
Subscribe to the mailing list: wikimedia@mlist.is.ed.ac.uk
My working hours are 10.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday.
Wikipedia Project Page for the residency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:University_of_Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, Floor H (West), Argyle House, 3 Lady Lawson Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9DR.
www.ed.ac.uk
 

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The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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