Hello all,

As you may know, every year around October 29th we celebrate the launch of Wikidata together. In 2017 and 2019 we organized a Wikidata conference in Berlin, and in 2020 just like in 2018, we encourage local Wikidata communities to organize events in their area.

Although October 2020 seems to be very far in the future, now is a good time to start thinking about it, especially if you need funding.

➡️ What kind of event can you organize?

The main goals of the Wikidata Birthday 2020 are:

share knowledge among your local community: encourage people to share what they know about Wikidata and its related tools
onboard new people: introduce new people to Wikidata
celebrate the achievements of the Wikidata community

Examples of events:

Meetup in your town with your local community
Kick-off a Wikidata section in your user group
An introduction to Wikidata for beginners, a training about Wikidata tools...
Hackathon, edit-a-thon, transl-a-thon...
Give an introduction to Wikidata to a local partner (university, library...)
Wikibase workshop or install-party
Online events are also welcome: editing contest, challenge, livestream...

➡️ What do you need to start an event?

It doesn't have to be a big thing like a conference. I encourage you to not start on your own: try to find other people in your area who could be interested: other Wikidatians, but also Wikipedians, your local open source/hacker/open data community...

Together, you can start thinking about the following things: what do you want to organize, for what target audience, to achieve what goal?

➡️ How to connect with other event organizers?

The other events organizers will be your main source of support and inspiration. If you want to get in touch or ask questions, don't hesitate to:

write on this talk page
join the Telegram group dedicated to Wikidata events
join the regular call for organizers (next one on January 29th, more information here)

➡️ How to get funding or Wikidata swag?

You will find a summary of the information on this page. Here are the main points to consider:

In order to get any kind of funding or swag, you will need to present a detailed project of your event (what are your goals, how many people do you expect, main logistics details, etc.)
If you want to apply for an event grant at WMF (requesting more than $2000), the deadline is February 2nd!
If you want to apply for a rapid grant at WMF (between $500 and $2000), the deadline to apply is July 15th
Wikimedia Deutschland cannot fund events taking place outside of Germany. However we can provide a reasonable amount of swag. Because sending packages is complex in various countries, we will try to dispatch most of the swag during the Wikimedia Summit in April.

If you have questions, feel free to contact me or to write on this talk page.

In 2018, almost 40 events have been organized for the Wikidata birthday around the world - I'm super excited to see what can happen this year!

Cheers,
--

Léa Lacroix
Project Manager Community Communication for Wikidata

Wikimedia Deutschland e.V.
Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24
10963 Berlin
www.wikimedia.de

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.

Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter der Nummer 23855 Nz. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.