Dear Wikimaniacs,
After a LOT of work by a lot of volunteers, we now have a program
published for Wikimania Cape Town:
https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Program
There's still some things to be tweaked, and info to add, and there's
certainly some formatting errors that crept in when we imported to the
wiki - but it's pretty much all there and we're very proud of it.
Hopefully people will appreciate some of the innovations we've tried
to add into this year's design - notably among which is the coloured
'beads' (referencing thins year's logo design of African beadwork)
that lets people follow their preferred thematic 'knowledge gap'
throughout the program.
Thank you everyone who has been involved in getting us to this point -
the program committee, the local organising team, the WMF staff, the
theme team, and many other individuals besides - including the many
people who made submissions to present this year.
Opportunities to nominate for Meetups and Lightning talks are also now open:
- https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetups
- https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Lightning_talks
Sincerely,
Liam/Wittylama - on behalf of the Program Committee.
Hi everyone,
Thank you for asking about the Decolonizing the Internet conference. We had
thought to write a little note of explanation just before Wikimania begins,
but are happy to provide some overview information now that the buzz has
already begun - somewhat inadvertently but usefully, as sometimes happens
on our maillists. ;-)
What is the Decolonizing the Internet conference, and who’s behind it?
The Decolonizing the Internet conference
<https://whoseknowledge.org/decolonizing-the-internet-conference/> (DTI) is
being convened by Whose Knowledge? <http://whoseknowledge.org>, a global
multi-lingual campaign to center marginalized knowledges online. We
launched in September 2016, and are also a Wikimedia user group
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Whose_Knowledge%3F>. All of us leading it
- Siko, Adele and Anasuya <https://whoseknowledge.org/about-us/who/> - have
been part of the Wikimedia movement for many years in different capacities,
including as volunteer contributors.
Decolonizing the Internet is meant to bring together a group of folks from
around the world (about 75-100) from different domains of expertise and
experience - including those from marginalized communities (women, people
of colour, LGBTQI folks, indigenous communities, and others from the global
South). Participants include Wikimedians, librarians, archivists, techies,
and internet policy folks.
Why is it invite-only?
As we say on our website, 75% of the world’s online population is from the
global South <http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm>, and nearly half
is projected to be women
<https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/facts/ICTFactsFigures2017…>.
Yet while global access to the internet may be within our grasp (despite
the persistence of uneven connections), research
<http://geonet.oii.ox.ac.uk/blog/new-paper-towards-a-study-of-information-ge…>
shows that content online remains heavily skewed towards rich, Western
countries.
Decolonizing the Internet is invite-only because this is the first time
such a conference has been held: explicitly to discuss issues of power and
privilege involved in the design, architecture, content and experience of
the internet; and to center the leadership of marginalized communities -
the majority of the world - in changing and re-designing the internet to be
for and from us all.
We don’t have the answers; we’re asking lots of questions! And in order to
do so in a spirit of shared ease and generosity, we decided to make this
inaugural effort invite-only as we learn from each other, and perhaps
collaboratively and creatively craft some ideas and action plans.
Why is it being called a Wikimania pre-conference?
We are “co-locating” with Wikimania for a reason: we hope to have at least
half of our DTI participants stay on for Wikimania to learn from
Wikimedians, and for Wikimedians to learn from them. This feels
particularly appropriate given the theme of this year’s Wikimania
<https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania> - Bridging Knowledge
Gaps: The Ubuntu Way Forward.
In order to do this easily, we’re registered as a Wikimania
“pre-conference”, so that invited participants - including Wikimedians -
can easily opt for both the DTI conference as well as Wikimania.
...also, about a third of the invitees are Wikimedians from around the
world, and we’re hoping there will much learning about the Wikimedia
movement at DTI, just as Wikimedians may learn about other communities and
movements.
How are Wikimedia South Africa and the Wikimedia Foundation involved?
Wikimedia South Africa and the Wikimedia Foundation - as core Wikimania
planning team - have been enormously helpful (ngiyabonga, enkosi, thank
you!) in helping us with the logistics of making the move between the DTI
conference and Wikimania as seamless as possible for our participants. In
turn, we’re hoping that the DTI participants will infuse our movement with
new energy and possibility, while we entice them into becoming Wikimedians
for life. :-)
Looking forward to seeing you all in Cape Town!
Warmly,
Anasuya, Siko, Adele and the Whose Knowledge? team
--
*Anasuya Sengupta*
*Reimagining and reconstructing the internet to be for and from us all*
http://whoseknowledge.org
On 26 May, information was added to the conference website
https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania
about a pre-event (18-19 July) called "Decolonizing the Internet
conference". The link provided
https://whoseknowledge.org/decolonizing-the-internet-conference/
talks about being co-located with Wikimania, but provides no clarity to what
this means, saying nothing about a specific venue other than being "in Cape
Town". Nor does this link provide any information about how to register, the
costs, times of day, what the program is and whether there is any way you
can submit a request for a presentation at the conference. But being on the
Wikimania home page as part of the pre-conference program, I figured that I
needed to go to the Wikimania's Eventbrite page at least to register and
pay, but when I went there to register for the event, but found there was no
mention of it at all. My first thought is that the Eventbrite site had not
been updated yet to reflect this pre-event, so I have been checking back
every day or so, but still no sign of it. In the meantime, we have now
passed the deadline for Early Bird Registration (4 June) for these
pre-conference events, so if it is to be booked via Wikimania's Eventbrite
arrangements, the cost to attend just increased by an extra USD 50 through
failure to update the Eventbrite page in a timely way. And I presume many of
us have booked flights and hotel arrangements at our own expense and may
have difficulty (or increased costs) involved in changing these to
accommodate pre-conference events announced in such a last minute way with
so little detail.
Can anyone clarify if this "Decolonizing the Internet conference" is
actually being held as part of the Wikimania pre-conference at the same
hotel as Wikimania? How do we register for it? Can we propose a talk etc?
And if it is a part of the official Wikimania pre-conference, can we still
register at the cheaper Early Bird rate once it is added to the Eventbrite
site?
Thanks
Kerry
I suggest that a public dialogue about the strategic goals of Wikimania, the strategic goals of Wikimania scholarships, and how to achieve those goals in cost-effective ways, would be good to have. Perhaps WMF Learning and Evaluation, in partnership with WMF Community Resources, could facilitate this dialogue in WMF Annual Plan year 2019-2020. Preparation work could be done in 2018-2019 as time allows.
Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
null
Is there at present any metric by which previous scholarship attendees are
judged on their dissemination of Wikimania experiences after the
conference? The complaint being brought up is not only about awardees
getting repeat scholarships, but failing to enrich their communities
afterwards with what they learned / what it was like / who they met / what
they will do now. With a limited number of scholarships available, it is
true that the attendees are expected to share their good fortune with those
who couldn't attend.
If nothing like that is in place, could it not be added? For example, a
field on the application: "were you awarded a scholarship last year (and
attended)?" "If yes, please describe (and provide links where possible) to
the activities and discussions you organised with your community regarding
your experience at Wikimania". If a sufficiently good and detailed response
is not provided, the application can receive a lower score (or possibly be
discarded...? I'm not au fait with the process).
Julia W
On 1 June 2018 at 13:00, <wikimania-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
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> 1. Re: Update on Wikimania '18 (Pine W)
> 2. Re: Update on Wikimania '18 (cs)
>
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 31 May 2018 18:31:08 -0700
> From: Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com>
> To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)"
> <wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] Update on Wikimania '18
> Message-ID:
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> com>
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>
> Harry, I recall hearing that there was a push a year or two back to alter
> the proportion of presentations at Wikimania so that there were fewer WMF
> presentations and more community presentations. I don't know if that was a
> one time event or if that's ongoing. I have never been to Wikimania, and
> have no plans to go in the foreseeable future, but I watch what happens
> with Wikimania partly because it's an expensive operation in terms of
> financial cost and in terms of volunteer time. Also, the scholarship system
> is a perennial point of friction.
>
> Dariusz or Ellie, are there any thoughts at WMF about doing a full review
> of the scholarship system and the value of Wikimania to the community? With
> WMF spending so much money on Wikimania year after year, and volunteers
> spending so much time on Wikimania year after year, I think that it would
> make sense to do this type of review, which might be possible to
> synchronize with WMF's strategy process. I am very interested in ensuring
> that there are SMART goals being achieved with all of the money and time
> that goes into Wikimania. At the same time, I think that the scholarship
> system could be reviewed to consider the strategic priorities for
> scholarships and how to align those priorities to SMART goals. I don't
> envision reducing funding for Wikimania and scholarships, but I think that
> some re-thinking and evaluation would be good to align funding with the WMF
> strategic plan and with SMART goals.
>
> Pine
> ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
>
> On Thu, May 31, 2018 at 12:31 PM, Harry Mitchell <hjmwiki(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Since you raise chapter scholarships, it would be nice to see some of the
> > other big chapters (and to some extent the WMF) spending more on
> > scholarships for rank-and-file Wikimedians rather than staff and board
> > members. That might help with the perception that Wikimania is the same
> old
> > faces year in, year out.
> >
> > Harry Mitchell
> > http://enwp.org/User:HJ
> > +44 (0) 7507 536 971
> > Skype: harry_j_mitchell
> >
>