It sounds like this is something we need to keep in mind for future Wikimania. The question will be "is there a way Wikimania can partner with academic institutions?" I know the University of British Columbia would be willing to partner on an event such as this.
James
On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 6:00 AM, education-request@lists.wikimedia.orgwrote:
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- Re: Education-related ideas for Wikimania (Juliana Bastos)
Message: 1 Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 11:06:47 -0300 From: Juliana Bastos domusaurea@gmail.com To: education@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia Education] Education-related ideas for Wikimania Message-ID: <CAN3NB809D6mdBWGdYccgr9Xbc7VMv4uXcTO3wWMNHs6bwCMEWg@mail.gmail.com
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Unfortunately, I can't get a leave of absence or any funding for events that are not promoted by an academic institution. I wonder if anyone here has the same problem.
Juliana.
On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 1:32 PM, LiAnna Davis ldavis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Are you going to Wikimania this year? I'm excited to see so many education-related sessions proposed so far! I've started a list of education-related submissions on this page:
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Wikimania_201...
But I'm sure the list is missing some -- please add submissions you see! And please click through and add yourself to the interested attendees list for the sessions you think sound interesting.
I'm also trying to coordinate some kind of education meet-up while we're there. There's also a list on that page of people who are hoping to or planning to attend Wikimania; please add yourself and add any ideas you have about the best things we could do as a group there.
LiAnna
-- LiAnna Davis Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation http://education.wikimedia.org (415) 839-6885 x6649 ldavis@wikimedia.org
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 3:32 PM, James Heilman jmh649@gmail.com wrote:
It sounds like this is something we need to keep in mind for future Wikimania. The question will be "is there a way Wikimania can partner with academic institutions?"
Wikimania often partners with academic institutions. Including this year, when it is being hosted at GWU.
Juliana, what sort of promotion by a host institution would you need in order to get funding and support?
Sam.
From: Juliana Bastos domusaurea@gmail.com
Unfortunately, I can't get a leave of absence or any funding for events that are not promoted by an academic institution. I wonder if anyone here has the same problem.
Juliana.
On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 1:32 PM, LiAnna Davis ldavis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Are you going to Wikimania this year? I'm excited to see so many education-related sessions proposed so far! I've started a list of education-related submissions on this page:
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Wikimania_201...
But I'm sure the list is missing some -- please add submissions you see! And please click through and add yourself to the interested attendees list for the sessions you think sound interesting.
I'm also trying to coordinate some kind of education meet-up while we're there. There's also a list on that page of people who are hoping to or planning to attend Wikimania; please add yourself and add any ideas you have about the best things we could do as a group there.
LiAnna
-- LiAnna Davis Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation http://education.wikimedia.org (415) 839-6885 x6649 ldavis@wikimedia.org
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
All Brazilian funding agencies are public, and they're very strict when it comes to grants for international events. GWU can host the event, but is it organizing as well?
In practical terms, long story short, I need a certificate of participation with the name of a university or scientific association in the letterhead.
Juliana.
On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 6:14 PM, Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 3:32 PM, James Heilman jmh649@gmail.com wrote:
It sounds like this is something we need to keep in mind for future Wikimania. The question will be "is there a way Wikimania can partner
with
academic institutions?"
Wikimania often partners with academic institutions. Including this year, when it is being hosted at GWU.
Juliana, what sort of promotion by a host institution would you need in order to get funding and support?
Sam.
From: Juliana Bastos domusaurea@gmail.com
Unfortunately, I can't get a leave of absence or any funding for events that are not promoted by an academic institution. I wonder if anyone
here
has the same problem.
Juliana.
On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 1:32 PM, LiAnna Davis ldavis@wikimedia.org wrote:
Are you going to Wikimania this year? I'm excited to see so many education-related sessions proposed so far! I've started a list of education-related submissions on this page:
http://outreach.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Education_Program/Wikimania_201...
But I'm sure the list is missing some -- please add submissions you see! And please click through and add yourself to the interested attendees list for the sessions you think sound interesting.
I'm also trying to coordinate some kind of education meet-up while we're there. There's also a list on that page of people who are hoping to or planning to attend Wikimania; please add yourself and add any ideas you have about the best things we could do as a group there.
LiAnna
-- LiAnna Davis Wikipedia Education Program Communications Manager Wikimedia Foundation http://education.wikimedia.org (415) 839-6885 x6649 ldavis@wikimedia.org
Education mailing list Education@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/education
On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Juliana Bastos domusaurea@gmail.comwrote:
All Brazilian funding agencies are public, and they're very strict when it comes to grants for international events. GWU can host the event, but is it organizing as well?
In practical terms, long story short, I need a certificate of participation with the name of a university or scientific association in the letterhead.
This echoes what I was told by a lecturer at the Australian National University. Academics would like to participate at these events, but they need to clearly fit into the academic narrative. Conference precedeeings, a formal call for papers circulated to academic listservs, some indication of how the peer review process is done for deciding who presenters are, highlighting university participation as a co-host/partner for the event, a list of other academics who have been invited and will be participating, etc. There need to be signifiers that the conference is intentionally being marketed at academics, with academics having something they can take home from it.
Sincerely, Laura Hale
In practical terms, long story short, I need a certificate of participation with the name of a university or scientific association in the letterhead.
This echoes what I was told by a lecturer at the Australian National University. Academics would like to participate at these events, but they need to clearly fit into the academic narrative. Conference precedeeings, a formal call for papers circulated to academic listservs, some indication of how the peer review process is done for deciding who presenters are, highlighting university participation as a co-host/partner for the event, a list of other academics who have been invited and will be participating, etc. There need to be signifiers that the conference is intentionally being marketed at academics, with academics having something they can take home from it.
I'm uncomfortable with the thought spending much effort and money to meet the needs of for-tuition educational endeavors which are much less effective on a per-dollar basis than Foundation projects.
I think we should aggressively meet the demands of academics by asking them why their hiring, retention, and tenure decisions are based on the impact factors of journals with circulations typically averaging in the thousands without any regard to inclusions in and citations on Foundation project pages with orders of magnitude more page views.
Sincerely, James Salsman
In other words, for academics to take it seriously (ask for time off, volunteer time to write a paper, spend money to travel out there, stay at a hotel, eat, etc.), it has to be run like a "real" academic conference. I could go present a topic and speak for an hour at my local Rotary club (and I have), but it's not really going to mean much professionally and I wouldn't be putting it on either my resume or curriculum vitae. Presenting a topic in a somewhat competitive forum where the speakers are vetted and the presentation topics have generally been run through some basic fact checking to make sure they're not complete bunkum would be something of a "feather in my cap", something that I would definitely put down on at least my curriculum vitae.
So, the question should be, is Wikimania a "real" academic conference, or a fan convention (or both)? I'd argue that, in its current state, Wikimania is basically a fan convention, designed as a big meet-and-greet for Wikipedia editors, with some presentations given that likely haven't been put up against any sort of test other than "It's not Time Cube, right?" That's cool, I enjoy fun conventions, but it's going to be difficult to attract "serious" academics to come as presenters.
Bart User:Banaticus
On 25 March 2012 17:42, Laura Hale laura@fanhistory.com wrote:
This echoes what I was told by a lecturer at the Australian National University. Academics would like to participate at these events, but they need to clearly fit into the academic narrative. Conference precedeeings, a formal call for papers circulated to academic listservs, some indication of how the peer review process is done for deciding who presenters are, highlighting university participation as a co-host/partner for the event, a list of other academics who have been invited and will be participating, etc. There need to be signifiers that the conference is intentionally being marketed at academics, with academics having something they can take home from it.
On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 11:30 AM, Juliana Bastos domusaurea@gmail.com wrote:
In practical terms, long story short, I need a certificate of participation with the name of a university or scientific association in the letterhead.
That makes sense. I don't know how close the interaction with GWU is; but I suggest asking for this specifically.
When I organized Wikimania in '06, our faculty sponsor sent out letters on Harvard letterhead to help bring any attendees who asked. I don't remember many failing to get funding, even though we were a new conference. We may have produced a simple certificate for a couple of participants, but did not have one for everyone. [In contrast, if I recall correctly Wikimania Buenos Aires did have one.]
On Sun, Mar 25, 2012 at 8:42 PM, Laura Hale laura@fanhistory.com wrote:
This echoes what I was told by a lecturer at the Australian National University. Academics would like to participate at these events, but they need to clearly fit into the academic narrative. Conference precedeeings, a formal call for papers circulated to academic listservs, some indication of how the peer review process is done for deciding who presenters are, highlighting university participation as a co-host/partner for the event, a list of other academics who have been invited and will be participating, etc.
These are good things to do anyway, as I think James suggested elsewhere. I don't know that there has ever been a consolidated proceedings PDF published with more than abstracts, but it has been considered by past org teams... other considerations have included stricter submission requirements, or an academic track that has such strict requirements.
Anyone interestd in this should talk to Phoebe Ayers, who has helped organize many Wikimanias (including '06 with me), and chaired WikiSym, a strictly academic conference, in 2010.
We have had some excellent academic presenters at past Wikimanias. But it would be great to have more.
SJ