Hello Wikimaniacs!
Please consider this public notice that we have modified the public
meeting in order to better accommodate the bidders as well as the jury.
What this means is that we shall be having two public meetings rather
than one; twelve hours apart.
The first public meeting will take place at 03:00 (UTC), on Sunday,
February 3. For people who are further west than UTC-3, this will be
Saturday evening.
Times for the first meeting are as follows:
Brisbane (UTC+10) 13:00
Kathmandu (UTC+5:45) 08:45
Karlsruhe (UTC+1) 04:00
Buenos Aires (UTC-2) 01:00
Toronto (UTC-5) 22:00 SATURDAY
Bogota (UTC-5) 22:00 SATURDAY
San Francisco (UTC-8) 19:00 SATURDAY (well before Torchwood)
The second public meeting will be at 15:00 (UTC), on Sunday, February 3.
For people who are further east than UTC+9, this will be Monday morning
Brisbane (UTC+10) 01:00 MONDAY
Kathmandu (UTC+5:45) 20:45
Karlsruhe (UTC+1) 16:00
Buenos Aires (UTC-2) 13:00
Toronto (UTC-5) 10:00
Bogota (UTC-5) 10:00
San Francisco (UTC-8) 07:00
Bidding teams should decide on at least one (although they are free to
attend both); however, please advise one of the moderators which one(s)
you are going to be attending.
Thanks,
Cary Bass, for the Moderators
Looks interesting!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: George Herbert <george.herbert(a)gmail.com>
Date: Jan 25, 2008 3:20 PM
Subject: [Foundation-l] Usenix workshop on computer conferences
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
This workshop may be of interest to the WMF staff, and those doing or
considering doing Wikimania and other conference event bids...
http://www.usenix.org/events/wowcs08/
--
-george william herbert
george.herbert(a)gmail.com
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Hello,
I'll be leaving for Davos next tuesday.
I noted all participants coming from Egypt and might try to get to meet
them to "sell" them sponsorship for this year Wikimania.
I sorted out the complete list for your information. I'd love it if some
of you could have a quick look, and based on ... their own knowledge,
tell me if that is worth I contact certain people, or no chance/bad
idea. Any help to save me time would be great.
Errr, some of them are certainly a bit "big" to contact anyway, but they
might have assistants coming with them...
(and yeah, I will try to say to M. Serageldin)
Ant
Helmy Abouleish Vice-Chairman and Managing Director SEKEM GROUP
Akil Hamed Beshir Chairman and Chief Executive Officer TELECOM
Youssuf Boutros-Ghali Minister of Finance MINISTRY OF FINANCE OF EGYPT
M. Shafik Gabr Chairman and Managing Director ARTOC GROUP FOR
INVESTMENT & DEVELOPMENT
Hassan Heikal Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer EFG-HERMES HOLDING
Laila Iskandar Chairperson COMMUNITY AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
(CID) Egypt
Tarek Kamel Minister of Communications and Information Technology of
Egypt MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OF EGYPT
Yasser El Mallawany Chairman and Chief Executive Officer EFG-HERMES HOLDING
Amre Moussa Secretary-General LEAGUE OF ARAB STATES
Gamal H. Mubarak Assistant Secretary-General and Head, Policy
Secretariat NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY (NDP)
Rachid M. Rachid Minister of Trade and Industry MINISTRY OF FOREIGN
TRADE AND INDUSTRY OF EGYPT
Naguib O. Sawiris Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ORASCOM TELECOM
HOLDING SAE
Ismail Serageldin Director BIBLIOTHECA ALEXANDRINA
forwarded from the foundation mailing list, most of this is irrelevant to
wikimania apart from one bit. i have copied this up to the top but the
whole email is below, if you want to see in context.
<snip>
I'd also like to see a solution to the issue of developer
representation at Wikimania. Commercial interests are generally able
to afford to send representation to Wikimania, while many highly
relevant open source projects are not.
</snip>
thanks
mark
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell(a)gmail.com>
Date: Jan 18, 2008 9:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] [Commons-l] Wikipedia Invites Users to Take Part
in Open, Collaborative Video Experiment
To: jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org, Wikimedia Commons Discussion List <
commons-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Cc: wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org, foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
On Jan 18, 2008 3:07 PM, Jay A. Walsh <jwalsh(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
[snip]
> ability to bring multi-media, free knowledge content to our users. We
> recognize that Kaltura's software and interface are still not 100%
> open-source, and as such the technology will not appear on any
> Foundation projects until we've worked through some of the technical
> challenges - which is where you come in.
Hi Jay,
This would appear to be your first post, so welcome to the lists...
I understand that you are new here, so you may need the time to
collect the background information, but I think that I, and other
contributors, need to have a clear explanation as to why the Wikimedia
Foundation is calling for volunteer resources for this project when it
has failed to call for any resources, or bring any attention at all,
to the existing slideshow functionality which our own users have
developed.
While the JavaScript slideshow software developed by our own users
lacks the special effects of Kaltura., it has the advantage of
requiring no proprietary software. It also integrates with the
existing MediaWiki software in a scalable manner and leverages our
revision control technology and user experiences. For most of the
Wikimedia projects it can be argued that a simple javascript slideshow
is actually a better fit for our needs.
I think we also would like to know how the Kaltura product is ever
expected to be "100%" free in accordance with our practice of only
integrating free tools when it has a fundamental requirement on Adobe
Flash, a proprietary format which can not be completely implemented
without using patented technologies. I ask this not to be
confrontational, but because it is a serious point which I have been
asked about which I am unable to answer. One multimedia free software
developer said to me about the press release 'it may be slightly more
accurate if you replace every instance of "open" with the word "flash"
;)'
As a long time contributor to the Wikimedia projects in many
capacities, have to say that I found the press release to be
misleading and somewhat disingenuous.
> Kaltura has released their code to the open-source community to help
> this project along. It's available on SourceForge,
Unfortunately the released system is far from complete: For example,
Mediawiki Integration is achieved by simply embedding material from
the Kaltura site. This is very similar to a number of pre-existing
youtube extensions. (Such as
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:YouTubeTag). There really
isn't much to contribute to such an extension.
The player code in svn also contains a number of third part
copyrighted components which I am reasonably confident that Kaltura
does not have the rights to release under a free license. (I'm sure
this is an honest error, but its still worth mentioning)
> You're invited to examine the code, test the technology as it exists on
> WikiEducator, and help us bring this functionality to the Wikimedia
> Foundation projects over the coming months. You'll find a feedback
> process on the WikiEducator landing page, and of course we fully welcome
> discussion about the technology on the lists.
Beyond the Mediawiki extension, which as I said above is little more
than a embed shim, they have released some flash code. Unfortunately
the flash code can not be built with open tools, so the overwhelming
majority of our users couldn't reasonably contribute to that part of
the software without undertaking unreasonable costs.
> We're excited that an innovative, private business has taken strong
> initiative in embracing open-source development.
I'm disappointed to see that the Wikimedia foundation has yet again
missed an effort to use its viability, both internally to the
community and externally, to promote pre-existing community driven
software initiatives.
A pattern of promoting the "prodigal sons" of the
proprietary-cum-kinda-free world over out own contributors and
developers is a dangerous
I am especially disappointed to see Wikimedia promoting a technology
which depends on a proprietary format which can not be reimplemented
without patent encumbered technology, especially when a substantial
portion of the functionality could be provided with standards driven
technology already available in the users browsers.
In the future I hope the Foundation will first seek community input on
technology partnerships: A flash slideshow editor isn't anything
anyone here has been asking for, as far as I can tell... But we have
thousands of other widely desired features, many of which could have
substantial external components ripe for partnership. By asking the
community you could also learn of our preexisting work in various
areas.
I'd also like to see a solution to the issue of developer
representation at Wikimania. Commercial interests are generally able
to afford to send representation to Wikimania, while many highly
relevant open source projects are not.
Thank you for your time.
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Hey everyone,
The Program Committee is currently working on a list of famous"
personn to invite to come and submit a paper to Wikimania.
We'll make the final list this week-end.
Please feel free to make some suggestions here
http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program_ideas .
Thanks to everyone, and have a nice week.
--
schiste
On Jan 13, 2008 1:26 PM, E <e.wikipedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Seeing I don't really know where to post this (on foundation-l or wikitech-l), I have decided to post it here and someone can hopefully pass it on to the person that it may concern.
>
> As always, we have RC channels on irc.wikimedia.org for every wiki, and it seems that the #wikimania2008.wikimedia channel has not yet been created for the feed from http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org.
Per Freenode policy, this would probably need to be called
#wikimedia-wikimania2008 (did you check whether that one already
exists?)
Michael
Hi, this email will formally serve as an announcement for Jury selection for
Wikimania 2009 selection, as well as notification that the creation of bids
will be officially closed as of 23:59 (UTC) today (just over an hour from
now). This means that all bids must have been started by this time, and any
bid pages made after that time will have to be rejected.
The Jury list is available at:
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/Jury>.
Details and bids are at:
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2009/Bids>.
Yours very truly,
--
Cary Bass
Volunteer Coordinator
Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! Support the Wikimedia
Foundation today: http://donate.wikimedia.org
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Phone: 727.231.0101
Fax: 727.258.0207
E-Mail: cbass(a)wikimedia.org
Dear Markie, Aphaia, Mido,
Thanks for your feedback. You’ll understand that all I’m trying to do here
is suggest ways for wikimedia communications to be bought into the 21st
century. I have no bias as to which tools might suit global groups. I’m
simply pointing to ones that are often used by global groups to overcome the
basics such as spending about a month talking about how, and when, to get a
global conversation together, so the word can be spread and related events
(co)organized. Let me be thorough about your reply of the 21st of last month
as if you have not used a forum, you may not be aware of how easy things are
made by keeping a conversation to one thread rather than spreading an
announcement over a number of separate elists or wikis.
Markie said,“ >>>the link there is wrong and i have now fixed it. it should
have pointed to
HYPERLINK
"http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planning/Meetings"http://wikimania2008.wikimedia.org/wiki/Planning/Meetings instead of the
page it was pointing to which was the unstable version of the homepage for
design changes etc... also "make it more obvious", okay... the meeting
announcement was IIRC sent to the foundation mailing list, wikimania mailing
list, in wikizine and was mentioned on the meta wiki and mania wiki. it was
also put up in various IRC channel topics and was probably sent elsewhere..
so if youve got any ideas as to where else we should put it ill try to find
time to put meetings announcements there
Thanks for the fix (knew it had to be something like that but lack your
experience). An “obvious” starting point would be here. HYPERLINK
"http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events"http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Events
. You might take Mike Halterman’s approach (just below at the COTA
conference) Delete the history lesson(s) and link as if we are talking about
just this year’s Wikimania, cause this page should. Seems like a
collaboration between these two conference groups would halve the workload
for both and double their returns, but that’s up to them. And thanks for the
IRC for dummies. It’s what is needed on the CPG page (if you have an
interest).
Markie said “….vertical walls and narrow channels, im not sure what that
means..”
Vertical walls are those mental ones that are created by separate email
lists and WMF projects. They won’t exist in your mind so much as you seem to
have been here awhile. But it causes the obvious things to be missed like
that link off the main meta events page ro the wikimania page, which would
be a starting point for most outsiders. It also means so much spam through
the habit of sending the same message to the incrowds’ lists. Narrow
channels are similar things like the Foundation elist; Jimmy’s “sewer” as he
calls it. People are obviously ambitious for the monster he’s created, and
the supposed system for dealing with all their proposals is almost dead =
HYPERLINK
"http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_projects#Wikimedia_Outreac
h"http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_new_projects#Wikimedia_Outrea
ch So they go to one list = one narrow channel = where they vent their
frustrations, rather than being offered a system & tools where they can meet
potential peers and rev a project or put it to bed. Eric and Sue provide
‘new’ eyes here so hopefully we might see an outcome this year.
Aphaia, said; “as a non native speaker of English, and as Transcom chair,
regarding the potential translation, I strongly oppose to have our regular
meeting on voice chat” That’s fair, completely agree, and why I said Skype
“would seem friendlier than > IRC (by itself)”. All I’m proposing is to
investigate tools which are often used by global groups to see which
combinations will fall into useful routines.
Re: Skypecast. You’ll notice I also put a link to Wikipedia Weekly
immediately below the one to skype (on the CPG page). I really don’t give a
stuff which tool is used here. What I’m trying to encourage is a place where
people can get together, have a conversation, stream it if they want, and
perhaps take minutes and/or record for podcasting, etc, systematically.
Skype’s just one freebie that seems useful. I could have suggested a couple
of tools that UK’s Open uni would probably provide tools for nix if it was
considered useful. E.g HYPERLINK
"http://kmi.open.ac.uk/technologies/msg/2007/11/21/video-chat/"http://kmi.op
en.ac.uk/technologies/msg/2007/11/21/video-chat/
HYPERLINK "http://oufm.open.ac.uk/"http://oufm.open.ac.uk/ (NB Forget the
video, but we could chat, talk and view (i.e. work on) pages together) But
inertia seems to be in the wikimedia culture just now. I’m sure Casey will
have the pulse across remote groups better than I do.
Most isolated groups seem to believe the world runs as they see it, so
feedback like “irc is fine and is used by many people to communicate
normally” is pretty “normal”. In other places, the forum approach is
considered normal. HYPERLINK
"http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/"http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/ And so
“wikis for communicating? You’ve got to be joking” is their normal response.
Mido. You obviously have the Bibliotech onside, which as far as I can see
means that the National Library (NL) must be involved. Forget COTA for a
bit, although their programme will obviously coincide nicely with your own
in spots. The greatest sell as I would put to your NL is to compare between
the “Old world, New World”. Get some bright Egyptian (TV or locally
respected) presenter to compare Alexander’s library to Wikipedia. The
Library will have tons of content through their global connections. I’ve
spent part of my life trying to inspire some nice old Rotarians at these
kind of annual events, which usually means coming up with something to wake
them up before their sleepy sessions begin. < it’s just a suggestion, but if
the idea is to raise the WMF profile over there, then this is one point in
time, and place, where the comparison could get some old and new heads
nodding in unison. If they need spoonfeeding just compare this HYPERLINK
"http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/"http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/ to 46 million users/month.
OK. To summarise. The HYPERLINK
"http://www.accessgrid.org/"http://www.accessgrid.org/ (AG) is just the
fattest version of Skypecast or the OU’s meeting rooms. There are lots of
others. The AG would be a useful tool for tying together conferences (and/or
their sessions) in different countries at the same time, and streaming to
non attendees so they could ask question or give input when its wanted. They
are all just global classrooms. We already have a framework for a global
library, which is more than the UN has done, so we might as well try to
include a few National librarians to help fill some gaps.
Excuse the length of this loaf. But it’s better than 3 half baked cookies.
Happy New Year.
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10:16 AM
Hi Jacob,
I'm testing right now, and writing comments as I do it. I guess you
already noted some of them, but here it goes:
- When you first creat an account, the subject of e-mail is something
like "activate your pentabarf account", would better be "activate your
wikimania 2008 paper submission account" or similar
- Once user activates the account, there could be a direct link for logging in
- The Wikimania logo only appears after logging in
- There could be notes on abstract, description and resources fields,
with instructions like the size of text expected.
- The image submitted is automatically resized, there could be a note
saying the expected dimensions of the image.
That's all I see for now, it looks great!
I volunteer for giving technical help on pentabarf if you need. I have
no experience with it, but I know php very well and can invest some
time in hacking it.
Luis
On Jan 6, 2008 11:53 PM, Jakob Voss <jakob.voss(a)nichtich.de> wrote:
> Hi Ray!
>
> You wrote
>
> > While I may not be suited in helping directly on this kind of task, My
> > one wish is that there be a significant track to deal with the issues of
> > WMF governance. Having one session where the participants meet the
> > Board on the last day is not enough. At both Boston and Taipei this
> > only raised a lot of questions when there was no further time for
> > discussion. Some very important and difficult questions have recently
> > been raised on the Foundation list, and those questions require a
> > thorough airing.
>
> We are just testing a submission and planing system for the conference
> that might be used. Can you please help testing it by submitting your
> wish as a concrete idea for an event at Wikimania 2008 via
> https://wikimedia.pentabarf.org/submission/wikimania2008 and give
> feedback whether this kind of giving input is suitable? I strongly bet
> that discussing single ideas like I-want-a-session-on-X or
> how-about-a-workshop-on-Y is not the way it will work.
>
> Thanks and greetings,
> Jakob
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
>