Hi Pine,
As a collegue of Cornelius's at WMDE I just like to inform you that
Corlenius is currently out of office. So it might take some like two weeks
(beginning November) until he'll be able to comment.
Best,
Jan
2016-10-19 7:27 GMT+02:00 Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com>om>:
Hi Ellie,
(Breaking this into a separate thread)
1. Thanks for the link to the evaluation criteria (
https://meta.wikimedia.org/
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_judging_criteria>wi
ki/Wikimania_2016_judging_
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_judging_criteria>criteria
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_judging_criteria>). Those
look like they are well developed.
2. On the topic of goals and strategy, let me be more specific about what
I think Wikimania could leverage from the Wikimedia Conference. Over the
past two years, since the hiring of the Program and Engagement Coordinator
for the Wikimedia Conference, WMCON has had extensive documentation about
its planning, goals, and evaluation. See:
1.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016
2.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_
2016/Documentation_and_Follow-Up
3.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_
2016/Feedback_evaluation
4.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference_2016/Report
5.
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMCON_Follow-Up_Day
6.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Conference/
Program_and_Engagement_Coordination/Wikimania_2016_report
While extensive documentation does not automatically imply that the
conferences were successful, I believe that WMDE is making valuable efforts
toward (1) helping attendees to prepare for the conference in order to
maximize the value of the conference to them and their organizations, (2)
documenting goals for the conference, (3) documenting how well the
conference was received, (4) documenting what subsequent actions in
Wikimedia affiliates were influenced by information exchanges or
relationship developments at the conference, and (5) documenting whether
conference goals were achieved. I would hope that Wikimania could take some
inspiration from the Wikimedia Conference in these areas. I am cc'ing
Cornelius from WMDE in case he would like to add any comments.
Regarding staff support for conferences, I'm glad to hear that WMF is
providing more paid staff support for Wikimanias. I would like to see this
trend continue, both for Wikimania and for national conferences. Depending
on volunteers to exhaust themselves in order to plan and execute
conferences is a circumstance that I think we would all like to avoid.
Volunteer time is a precious resource. I am keen on achieving economies in
the WMF budget, and I am also keen on achieving movement strategic goals.
Event support, for Wikimania and regional/thematic conferences, is one of
the domains where careful additional investment of WMF resources could be
valuable, whether by adding WMF staff/contractor time or adding resources
for affiliates to hire event contractors. I hope that these factors will be
included in WMF's consideration of its future goals, strategy, and resource
commitments for Wikimania and other conferences.
Regards,
Pine
On Mon, Oct 17, 2016 at 3:10 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Ellie.
On the topic of event safety, I am wondering if there is a standard
checklist that WMF uses when narrowing potential sites for Wikimanias and
if you could make that checklist public. Perhaps it is public already but I
don't know where to find it.
This is what we were using for the past few Wikimanias. It is public.
I reference it in the recent posting as well. I will be updating this
since we are no longer doing the competitive bidding process but it does
have a lot of information and is pretty accurate.
Regarding Wikimania goals and strategy, I'd like to suggest that WMF take
a look at what our friends in WMDE have done with
the Wikimedia Conference
to increase focus on specific topics and to make conference outcomes a bit
clearer and more measurable.
WMF funds with a grant this conference and works closely with WMDE.
There was a proposal a couple of years ago to have a paid program and
events coordinator who would provide continuity year to year and liaise
with other conferences/groups. There is also paid meeting planner as well
as staff support from the WMDE itself.
I also like that WMDE devotes significant staff
support to the
conference, which decreases the burden on volunteers; I would like to see a
similar shift for Wikimania so the event is less dependent on heroic
efforts from volunteers. I realize that there is financial cost involved
with increased staff support for conferences; this is one area in which
increased expenditure makes sense to me.
We started that in London and Mexico City Wikimania with my position and
a paid local coordinator (Esino Lario was an exception where the local team
received a grant and handled pretty much everything.)
I look forward to hearing about further
developments.
Thanks,
Pine
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