I encourage anyone who is considering attending to consider making a presentation or poster about some aspect of Commons. Here are some aspects which might be interesting:
* Managing a multilingual wiki - we are probably the most ambitious multilingual website on the web. (are we? who else attempts large-scale multilinguality? how do their processes compare to ours?) How successful are we, really? (How many pages are written in each language, compared to the main page? Which languages have active communities at Commons, and how big are they? Is English actually the only functional language, despite the rhetoric?) What do Babel-use stats tell us about the language distribution of Commons users? What software limitations do we face? What functionality do we need?
* Interaction with other Wikimedia wikis. With some toolserver analysis, interesting statistics like use of Commons images vs use of locally uploaded images might be derived. How does a specific wiki (eg Japanese Wikipedia, Hebrew Wikipedia) interact with Commons? (What is user awareness like? Do people upload locally or is there a push to Commons for freely licensed material? How much translated policy is available in that language? Is there suspicion about Commons? How is Commons perceived? Are the two projects perceived as sharing the same goals, or is there conflict? Why?) Very interesting case studies could be done on wikis who have transitioned to a Commons-only upload policy. What was user reaction like? How was consensus reached - which arguments were effective? What actions were effective? How did the transition affect Commons?
** CheckUsage, CommonsTicker, CommonsDelinker
* Licensing - a presentation about Creative Commons licenses, for example, explaining the benefits of various options, and why Commons doesn't allow NC or ND. What are the benefits of choosing a free license? (Yes, this will be useful even for a Wikimedia audience!)
From the Commons POV, does the perfect free license exist yet? If not,
what would we like to see in it?
* Category system - or 'categories vs galleries' :) a longstanding and unresolved debate on Commons. What are the strengths and weaknesses of categories, from Commons' POV? What functionality is missing? Are they effective? What does a category signify?
* SVGs, maps and/or diagrams - it seems to me Commons is probably leading the way in SVG diagrams. What are best practices? How can someone interested in creating such content get involved? Has SVG revolutionised cartography? What will it be like in 10 years time?
* Celebrity photography - some case studies of success. What are the problems in getting free licenses of modern celebrities? Can they be resolved?
* Commons Picture of the Year - an overview of this event.
* Community, administration and policy - How do our deletion processes work? Are they effective? (/me looks at debates open from two months ago...) If not why not? How much community involvement in this is there? Do the decisions reflect written or seemingly unwritten policy?
* The open content movement - how can Commons help educate the general public?
* Commons and Flickr - how they interact with each other, how they compare, goals/content - Flickrreview etc.
This is just what came into my head in ten minutes. There is tons of interesting stuff that could be done. Please do some if intend to come to Wikimania :]
cheers, Brianna user:pfctdayelise
On 08/04/07, Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org wrote:
I'm (re)sending this to lots of lists -- people, we need more submissions! Please be bold in sending us your papers -- we'd love to see you in Taiwan this year. :-)
Please forward to other relevant lists as well! See http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Call_for_Participation/distribution for the ones we've already covered.
Erik
Wikimania is an annual global event devoted to Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia Foundation projects. It is a community event, which is also open to the public and to researchers. This year's conference will be held from August 3-5, 2007 in Taipei, Taiwan at Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center. For more information, please visit the Wikimania site:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/
Send your submissions through:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission
We are accepting submissions for posters, presentations, workshops, and discussion groups. We are also accepting nominations for speakers and speaker panels, and suggestions for other activities. Please note the details below and be bold in your submissions!
== Important dates ==
* 1 March – 30 April: Submission * 1 May – 31 May: Feedback and notification of acceptance * 3 – 5 Aug 2007 : Wikimania== Conference Themes ==
Submissions should address one or more of the following themes:
* Wikimedia Communities – Interesting projects and particularitieswithin the communities (we explicitly invite you to present your local Wikimedia project's community!); policy creation within individual projects; conflict resolution and community dynamics; reputation and identity; multilingualism, languages and cultures; social studies.
* Free Content – Open access to information; ways to gather anddistribute free knowledge, usage of the Wikimedia projects in education, journalism, research; ways to improve content quality and usability; copyright laws and other legal areas that interfere with Wikimedia projects.
* Technical infrastructure – Issues related to MediaWikidevelopment and extensions; Wikimedia hardware layout; new ideas for development (including usable case studies from other wikis or similar projects).
Your topic must be related to Wikimedia projects and its communities or to the creation of free content in general.
== Types of Submissions ==
We are seeking submissions for
- presentations (10–30 minute talks with optional short or full papers)
- posters (printed presentations or visual displays that can stand on their own)
- workshops (30–120 minute session with more involvement of the audience)
- panels (group of 2-5 speakers to discuss on a specific subject)
- Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) (45-60 minute informal meetup of group
discussion on a particular topic)
- artistic artifacts (plays, competitions, comedy, visualizations, or
other representations of some aspect of the projects)
== Guidelines ==
Wikimania is organized by volunteers, so please help us to minimize wasted effort by following these guidelines carefully before submitting and be sure not to forget anything that is mentioned here. All submissions must explicitly include the following:
- an English title
- a short English abstract of 50 to 100 words. The abstracts should be
provided as plain text, and not as file attachments. This abstract will be used as public description of your submission in the conference program
- a detailed description (or full paper) of at least one page (300
words or more). This description will not be published unless you want it, but used for reviewing your submission. Give an overview of the areas to be covered or taught. State clearly the relevance to the Wikimedia projects and whether submission concerns a specific wiki project. You may use any language, but we strongly suggest English or Chinese. Full descriptions may include a link to a full paper or slides in HTML or PDF, if available.
- full name, email address, and a short bio of 1–3 sentences for each
author. You may also add wiki usernames and nicknames.
- the type of submission (presentation, poster, workshop, panel, BoF, artistic)
- the language(s) you are going to talk in (or the language of your poster)
Please tell us with your submission whether you will attend to Wikimania (a) surely, (b) probably, (c) only if your submission is accepted, or (d) only if we provide travel and/or accommodation.
Additionally, please specify:
- the target audience you are going to reach and what previous
knowledge is needed
- special requirements (such as equipment for a workshop or panel) if needed
- images or sketches of the poster or artistic artifact if available
- for panel submissions short biographies of each suggested panelist
- whether the presentation is intended to be a specific length.
- BoF proposals should describe the significance of and community
interest in the topic, and name the proposed discussion leader(s).
For poster sessions there are additional guidelines: http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Poster_session
Please note that all submissions must be dual licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.2 or later and the Creative Commons Attribution License.
== Submissions ==
Once you are sure you have included all of the required information, please send your submission by the respective deadline through our submission system:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submission
Please do not send submissions by email. If you need help for translating your work please visit our translation help page. Questions, but not submissions, may be directed to cfp@wikimedia.org.
== Hacking Days ==
Before the main conference there will also be informal Hacking days for MediaWiki developers who are familiar with the software, If you are interested in joining it, please visit:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planning/Hacking_Days_Extra_2007
== See also ==
- About the venue: http://www.cyh.org.tw/
- Brainstorming page for program ideas:
http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_Ideas
- Editable list of attendees: http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Attendees
- WikiSym 2007 (October 21-23, 2007, Montreal), an alternative wiki
conference: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2007/
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