Wikimania-l June 2018

wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org

35 participants
15 discussions

Wikivoyage page for Wikimania 2018
by Andy Mabbett 09 Jul '18

09 Jul '18

Wikivoyage: https://en.wikivoyge.org/wiki/Wikimania_2018_Cape_Town_Guidebook has a page with advice for Wikimania attendees. It's a good start, but needs more local knowledge. Please help to improve the page if you can For instance, South Africa uses both "Europlug" and "type D" power sockets - but which is most prevalent at the city's hotels, and the conference venue? -- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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Room open for sharing on July 15th
by Abbad Diraneyya 08 Jul '18

08 Jul '18

Hi everyone, I'll be arriving in Cape Town a day earlier than other scholarship recipients, on July 15th, and will be staying for one night in the nearby Stay Easy Cape Town City Bowl. The minimal rate for both single and double rooms seems to be the same. Would anyone be interested in sharing? I'll be making the reservation in about 48 hours, so you'll need to inform me ASAP. Best, Abbad.

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Update on Wikimania '18
by Ellie Young 05 Jul '18

05 Jul '18

*All,Here's an update on various activities pertaining to the upcomingWikimania '18 which is being held July 18-22 in Cape Town, South Africa.WMF Scholarship Program: 135 people were offered and subsequently accepteda full or partial scholarship to attend. The awardees are listed by usernames and the list is posted here:https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Wikimania_scholars <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:TPS/Wikimania_scholars>Submissions: The program committee has just finished its review anddeliberations. Rejections and acceptance emails have gone out in the past week. 95% of the accepted submissions are listed at:https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program <https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program>Plenaries and other sessions will be listed soon and a scheduled program in June.Registration and accommodation information is now up for everyone at:https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration <https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Registration>https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Accommodation <https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Accommodation>If you are a scholarship or other WMF funded attendee (staff, contractor,board, etc), please wait until you hear from the WMF with your registrationand accommodation instructions.If you have any questions about the conference, please emailwikimania-info at wikimedia.org <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l>Please spread the word!!!!On behalf of the Wikimania '18 Organizing TeamEllie YoungEvents Manager, Wikimedia Foundation <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l>* -- Ellie Young Events Manager Wikimedia Foundation eyoung(a)wikimedia.org c. 510 701 8649

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Volunteers needed for the "Learn to edit" desk at Wikimania
by Ciell Wikipedia 30 Jun '18

30 Jun '18

*Hi everyone*! Are you coming to Cape Town this South African winter? And can you spare a couple of hours at the conference? Then please join us as a trainer at the *Learn to Edit desk*! The Learn to Edit desk will (most probably) located near the registration desk and will be open from Friday till Sunday, all day. Aim is to help people taking their first steps on the wiki: getting an account, exploring the different pages and doing an edit or an upload. We'll have tables with laptops, for people that did not bring their own, or maybe want to edit on a mobile device in the future. *For this I'm in need of Wikimedians who would like to share their knowledge*, and it would be nice if you...: - Have good knowledge of the English language - Maybe even another language? French, Afrikaans, ...? - Know how to edit Wikipedia, Wikidata and Commons - Know how to explain things in a simple and patient way - Have approximately one and a half/two hours to spare each day. *I'll make us volunteers a scheduale* and will take your wishes into account if you want to attend certain talks or meetups and are not available. Even if you cannot make it every day, please let me know if you want to help, I'm sure I can work around that. Send me an email! Kind regards, Vriendelijke groet, Ciell

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[Meetup] Sign up for the WikiWomen's Lunch
by Netha Hussain 29 Jun '18

29 Jun '18

Dear WikiWomen attending Wikimania, WikiWomen's Lunch is scheduled for 12:00-14:00 hrs on Sunday, 22 July at Room London. Everyone who identify as women are welcome to attend. This lunch meetup is for women to socialize with each other, discuss issues of common interest and talk about the projects that aim at reducing the gender gap on Wikimedia projects. Here is the link to the page where you can sign up for the meetup: https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/WikiWomen%27s_Lunch Regards Netha -- Netha Hussain Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology University of Gothenburg, Sweden

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Water Sustainability edit-a-thon | Thursday 19 July 2018
by Douglas Scott 27 Jun '18

27 Jun '18

Hello everyone, Given the huge impact of the Cape Town Water crisis <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_water_crisis> that has impacted the city for the past few years this year's Wikimania edit-a-thon <https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_edit-a-thon> will have a water sustainability focus. Water sustainability issues for large cities, such as the Cape Town crisis, are likely to become an increasingly common phenomenon <https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/cape-town-water-crisis-cities-should-prepar…> around the world in the future. It will take place at the Cape Town Tourism office in the City Centre <http://www.capetown.travel/visitors/plan/information/visitor-centres/>right across the road from the Southern Sun Hotel where the conference is happening. From *10:00 to 16:00, 19 July 2018*. I have just put up the edit-a-thon details onto the pre-conference program. Please sign up if you are interested in attending, it will help give us an idea of how many people will be joining us. The point person for this event is Rossouw van Rooyen <rossouwvr(a)gmail.com>. Rossouw will be present at the event to ensure everyone finds the place and it all goes well. The location is very very nearby to the main venue and so it should not be a problem finding it. We have teamed up with Cape Town civil society and government to include local water sustainability experts in on this event so Wikipedia editors will have access to expertise on the subject. Thankfully the water crisis, whilst still a drought, is not a crisis this year due to good rains so far. This means that water situation will not directly impact the conference <https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Water_shortage> or the daily lives of the city's residents this year but people are still requested to try and use no more than 50 litres of water a day. Regards, Douglas. -- Douglas Ian Scott 司道格 Skype: douglas0scott South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727

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let's edit about plants!
by phoebe ayers 25 Jun '18

25 Jun '18

Hi all, Like many attendees I expect, I am looking forward to visiting Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden and other gardens in Cape Town! Laura (cc'd) and I were wondering if there would be interest in an informal edit-a-thon about South African plants during the conference? We could take pictures, add sources, improve Wikidata items, etc etc. If there is interest, I can make a page and we can try to figure out a good time. Perhaps as a thematic meetup, during the pre-conference, or just afterwards as a field trip? cheers, Phoebe

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Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania-l Digest, Vol 146, Issue 16
by Douglas Scott 21 Jun '18

21 Jun '18

Hi Phoebe, The short answer is yes, we are interested in doing a botanical edit-a-thon but it is looking increasingly unlikely. :-( Rossouw has been trying to organise a Wikimania edit-a-thon with the South African National Botanical (SANBI) society (the people that run Kirstenbosch) for some time now. They have indicated their interest to us in doing some thing but have been very elusive over the past few months. As such we have swiched focus to doing a Water Sustainability edit-a-thon instead but if SANBI gets back to us we are still very happy to include them in any edit-a-thon we organise. Regards, Douglas. On 21 June 2018 at 10:05, <wikimania-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote: > Send Wikimania-l mailing list submissions to > wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wikimania-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wikimania-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Wikimania-l digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. let's edit about plants! (phoebe ayers) > 2. Wikimania 2018: 30 days to go - general update (Douglas Scott) > 3. Re: let's edit about plants! (Jackie) > 4. Re: let's edit about plants! (Lukas Mezger) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2018 12:17:25 -0400 > From: phoebe ayers <phoebe.ayers(a)gmail.com> > To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)" > <wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > Cc: Laura Soito <laura.soito(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [Wikimania-l] let's edit about plants! > Message-ID: > <CACXHzD55B-UQETUJnu0_RnBfg7KPx4pjOeppMKatpyzn7=faPQ > @mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Hi all, > > Like many attendees I expect, I am looking forward to visiting Kirstenbosch > Botanical Garden and other gardens in Cape Town! Laura (cc'd) and I were > wondering if there would be interest in an informal edit-a-thon about South > African plants during the conference? We could take pictures, add sources, > improve Wikidata items, etc etc. > > If there is interest, I can make a page and we can try to figure out a good > time. Perhaps as a thematic meetup, during the pre-conference, or just > afterwards as a field trip? > > cheers, > Phoebe >

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Wikimania 2018: 30 days to go - general update
by Douglas Scott 19 Jun '18

19 Jun '18

Hello Wikimania team, Wikimainia is only 30 days away now and things are getting very busy on our side in Cape Town now. ==Updates== Here are a couple of updates that have happened since my last email. As I write this email it is raining hard which I feel is a great omen. ===Event program== The program committee has released the program <https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program> for the main event at Wikimania. I want to thank the Program Committee and the co-chairs (Liam, Emna and Felix) for managing and producing a great program for Wikimania this year. You all did a great job! I want to send out an especially big thanks to Liam for taking the lead and managing the Herculean task of wrestling with the ironically named Easy Chair system and with AirTable to get the program organised. Liam also did a great job as the main point person for organising the program team. We will get the pre-conference events up on the program soon as well. ===Voluneers=== We have gotten a huge response for volunteers (103 responses) with a large number of high quality applications (largely measured as the number of people with past conference volunteer experience). Our contacts within the University of Cape Town really came through and we also got some great applications from there. Raymond and I have already done a preliminary check of the list. Raymond and Erin Lacey (WMF) will be getting back to successful applicants within the next week or two. ===Meetup locations=== Due to a shortage of space for meetups at the conference venue and due to the super abundance of very nearby locations to have events at we have decided to encourage people to host their meetups at locations offsite. There are a large number of restaurants, coffee shops, bars, within a hundred meters from the venue. Some of them stay open late. I have made a helpful map of such locations that you can see here <https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Orientation>. ===Website redesign=== I want to give another big thank you to Blanca Flores (WMF) and James Hare (WMF) for helping out so much with the reworking of our website. Blanca did a great job of working on the design aspects and James pulled it all together. We have simplified the site and changed the look and feel. You will also notice the new logo which pays homage to Zulu bead work. ==My current focuses== * Getting locals to attend as part of our outreach efforts within South Africa. My focus has been on a diverse group of people ranging from Librarians, to university academics, government officials, copyright activists, civil society, GLAM partners, educators, and students. * Monitoring the 50% discount system for South African attendees * Publicity for Wikimania - I am doing a number of press interviews to publicise Wikimania in the South African media. * Water sustainability event(s) - Given the water situation in Cape Town we have decided to have water sustainability as a focus for a number of Wikimania events. It is an issue that will very likely affect more cities in the future so it would be same to 'waist' this crisis in the context of Wikipedia. I am currently working on at least one edit-a-thon with a strong water focus to be the Wikimania edit-a-thon that will take place on the Thursday before the main conference begins on the Friday. I am already in talks with the adviser who is in charge of the civil society aspect of the City of Cape Town's water crisis outreach efforts to make this event happen. We hope to organise multiple water focused events at Wikimania but we will see how it evolves. Please let me know if you would like to get involved in helping organise this or have any ideas. Once this has reached a certain point of development I will be handing this project over to Rossouw van Rooyen to implement it during the conference. * Dealing with Plenary Speakers - all three speakers have given me their speaking titles and I am just getting the last of their biography details (pictures and written bios) as well as their speech descriptions. * Opening and closing sessions at Wikimania. The closing session is largely sorted out. As for the opening session I am just trying to sort out a few details but otherwise it is also looking good. ==List of responsibilities== An updated, non-exhaustive and current list of team point person responsibilities can be found here <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aGDk_02UfsblM4ubGtbH_4oRAJBAE1cwMqaCYYS…> . ==General team requests== One thing we all as team members need to focus on for the next week or two is outreach and getting local (South African) attendance up. So please let all of your South African, and especially Cape Town based, contacts know about the event. We really want to see more locals attending Wikimania. With this in mind 80 complementary tickets to local Wikimedians and key partner groups have already been given out to attend Wikimania. We are unfortunately out of complementary registrations but South Africans can still claim a 50% discount when attending Wikimania this year. Lets push this and let the world know. Overall everything so far seems to be on track and going well. Best regards, Douglas. -- Douglas Ian Scott 司道格 Skype: douglas0scott South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727

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Community Village | booking a table
by Douglas Scott 19 Jun '18

19 Jun '18

Hello everyone, We are now taking submissions for tables at the Community village at Wikimania in Cape Town. Please submit your application to book a table to our Community Village point person, Jessy Appavoo Moodelly <jessyappavoo(a)gmail.com>. There are only 12 tables available at the Community village and they will be given on a first-come first-serve basis so please let us know ASAP if your community would like to book a table. Regards, Douglas. Organising Chair for Wikimania 2018 -- Douglas Ian Scott 司道格 Skype: douglas0scott South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727

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Wikimania-l June 2018