Ah, the downside of doing your work open and in public is that people see a
half finished doodle of a budget and get overexcited and you come back to
45 emails in your inbox...
Yes, it's likely that the Wikimania 2014 London Bid Committee is going to
be applying for a grant to help it put together a good bid, but we're still
figuring out which roles are required and waiting for other inputs, so the
numbers were really just placeholders for now.
The deeper question I see here is - what sort of event does the community
want Wikimania to be? It's a conference that is really beginning to come of
age, and with this comes growing pains. From a 200 person glorified pubmeet
it's become a five day long 1000+ person multi-track affair with all the
attendant expectations on AV, travel logistics, social events, catering,
multi-tiered accommodation... and unless it's not handled well, potentially
a very frustrating experience for a lot of wikimedians who have invested
their time and money travelling to take part.
With the correct facilitating software, a lot of people have been able to
collaborate together to build a killer encyclopaedia. Similarly, a well
designed conference can allow for positive interactions between a very
large number of people. As the size increases, the complexity increases,
the risk increases, and the cost increases - but so do the possible
benefits.
Let us be clear: running an event this size is not cheap. A Wikimania costs
hundreds of thousands of pounds, and probably significantly more in a place
like London. Tickets to your average <http://www.websummit.net/get-tickets/>
tech <http://www.leweb.co/register/paris>
event<http://www.ted.com/pages/tedglobal>of a similar size and scope
would easily cost £1000+ per delegate, and in
comparison a Wikimania is basically free. This means that we need to do a
lot more work fundraising, which takes a lot of time and planning, and a
chief concern of potential sponsors is whether the event will be delivered
to a professional standard. We are finding that a lot of the groundwork for
the event has to be laid well before the bid process even starts. Not to
sound patronising, but event organisation is different to wiki editing;
there are deadlines which must be met, and mistakes that cannot be reverted.
So let us ask ourselves, why should the community spend so much donor money
on Wikimania (bids)? What is Wikimania there to achieve?
WMF's policy on grants:
> Grant requests should support the achievement of Wikimedia's mission and
> strategic priorities. We favor high impact requests over low impact
> requests; try to break new ground, and to increase your group's capacity
> for new programs and partnerships.
>
Holding such a conference is high impact, breaks new ground, and fosters
links to local institutions<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_in_London>and
builds relationships with sponsors
and partners<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2013_bids/London#Partner_Organisa…>.
It's fantastic for encouraging
innovation<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summar…>and
with Jimmy
on hand<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2014_bids/London#Supporters>courting
the press it should be great for increasing awareness
and participation<http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Movement_Strategic_Plan_Summar…>too.
It seems as good a thing to invest in as any - after all, if it didn't
have community support, a thousand people probably wouldn't show up to it
every year!
Ed
On Sat, Aug 25, 2012 at 9:14 PM, <wikimania-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org>wrote:
> Send Wikimania-l mailing list submissions to
> wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>
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> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
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> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Wikimania-l digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Joseph Fox)
> 2. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Theo10011)
> 3. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Thomas Morton)
> 4. Re: UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid (Joseph Fox)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2012 21:19:17 +0100
> From: Joseph Fox <josephfoxwiki(a)gmail.com>
> To: "Wikimania general list (open subscription)"
> <wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] UK budget plan for 2014 Wikimania bid
> Message-ID:
> <
> CADbK8XcMSQDbSsrUwDKT16TTcoPXt4vZch7M+RCcBvW8eLRyTg(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I understand this. But people here seem to have seen that they'll be making
> up a financial plan for the event, then announcing that there is no raw
> passion underneath the money. I'm just telling you that there are a *lot*
> of
> very active and very passionate Wikimedians in the UK looking to make the
> best possible event.
>
> Also remembering that Brits are all tightfisted, of course, so they'll not
> be silly with their money ;)
>
> (Also, James, my apologies for the assumption. I wonder if WMUK will be
> able to negotiate such a discount...)
>
> Joe
>
> On 25 August 2012 21:15, Manuel Schneider <manuel.schneider(a)wikimedia.ch
> >wrote:
>
> > Am 25.08.2012 22:10, schrieb Joseph Fox:
> > > To be honest I'm rather offended that the UK bid is being written off
> > while
> > > it's still 2014. I agree with you, but London is far from the cheapest
> > city
> > > in the world, as I'm sure you're aware - money will be required.
> >
> > from my experience on the Wikimania Jury I can assure you that it is
> > pretty much taken into account how much Wikimania experience the bidding
> > team has and how much the understand to make a Wikimania as Wikimania is.
> >
> > /Manuel
> > --
> > Regards
> > Manuel Schneider
> >
> > Wikimedia CH - Verein zur F?rderung Freien Wissens
> > Wikimedia CH - Association for the advancement of free knowledge
> > www.wikimedia.ch
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Wikimania-l mailing list
> > Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
> >
>
Hello again!
Videos of Wikimania 2012 sessions have begun making their way to YouTube. As videos are uploaded, they will be made available here: <http://www.youtube.com/user/wikimediadc>. If there is a lecture you want to see that has not been uploaded yet, it will be uploaded in the coming weeks.
Once we have all the videos, we will send hard drives of the videos off to the server farms for direct upload to Wikimedia Commons, with both low-resolution and full HD versions being made available.
Enjoy these videos! The presenters did a fantastic job and I know there were many sessions I wish I could've went to.
All the best,
James Hare
Coordinator, Wikimania 2012
Hey all Wikimania people,
I sent this mail to wikitech-l, but realized (with a prod from Sumana)
that wikimania-l is a thoroughly relevant audience as well.
-- Asheesh.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:00:25
From: Asheesh Laroia <lists(a)asheesh.org>
To: wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Subject: Lessons from the newcomer side of the Hackathon
Hi all wikitech-ers,
I wanted to summarize a few lessons learned from the Wikimania Hackathon and
make myself available to discuss any of these issues at greater length on the
list.
Also, if you (as an attendee) have other thoughts you want to share about the
Hackathon, feel quite free to email the list, just myself, or just Sumana if
for any reason you want your identity or your feedback to be more private.
(Note: This is probably going to get long! If you just want the "lessons", look
at just the header names.)
= Preface =
My major interest in the Hackathon was to encourage newcomers to step up their
abilities, in terms of editing the encyclopedia, programming bots, or whatever
exciting tech-related thing they want to be better at.
= Thanks =
Major thanks for the Hackathon go to:
* Sumana Harihareswara for inviting OpenHatch to lead the newcomer portion of
the Hackathon;
* Greg Varnum, for being a hugely awesome local co-organizer;
* James Hare, for managing the local logistics and generally helping make
thigns go smoothly behind the scenes;
* Katie Filbert, for helping tremendously with pre-event planning; and
* Mike Linksvayer, who was my other OpenHatch co-organizer, for taking care of
lots of essential tasks like emailing local logistics folks and signing
attendees in.
= Thoughts =
== The combination of newcomers and experienced people seemed to work ==
We got two different notes in the exit survey about this -- one from a person
who said they were happy working in the big open main room and didn't feel
distracted by noise, and from another person who said they went off because
they found the main room too noisy.
I did really like being able to send people to nearby experienced folks to have
a chat. This was especially helpful as I walked around and asked people what
they wanted help on, or what they wanted to work on.
I did notice some experienced people, by the second day, had wandered off to
quieter rooms than the big main room. I'm glad we had those rooms. (I'd love to
hear from those people if they felt "pushed out", or if they instead felt happy
that the quieter rooms were available.)
== We made a good impression by just running the event ==
One prospective attendee who, sadly, couldn't make it, indicated to me that
just by reading the survey we sent to prospective attendees, and skimming the
list of tasks, it was something that they'd be interested in attending, and
that it was great that such an event was going on. In particular, they
suggested it felt more like a "play-with-stuff-a-thon" rather than a
"hack-a-thon", and described that as making them feel welcome.
If anything, we should have capitalized on this more. I heard from other
prospective attendees that they didn't know the Hackathon was intended to be
newcomer-friendly this year.
Personally, I think the term "Hackathon" gives an exclusionary vibe, and that a
newcomer-oriented event should have a different name. For example, Boston Ruby
recently started using "project night" at our (OpenHatch's) suggestion and it
seems to have gone well for them:
https://openhatch.org/blog/2012/the-steps-boston-ruby-is-taking-to-become-f…
== Many people did cool things for the first time ==
I heard from at least two people who made their first edit to Wikipedia during
the Hackathon! I saw one person write a bot for what I believe was the first
time, as well get a labs account and work on moving that bot there. In the exit
survey, one attendee wrote, "I learned a lot about batch upload." Another wrote
about making their first commits with Git and Gerrit.
I think this is the most exciting thing about a newcomer-friendly Hackathon --
it creates an environment where people can step up to the next level, and
hopefully stay at that level through self-driven follow-up practice. This is
how community growth happens.
That reminds me: Two people did indicate on the exit survey they'd be
interested in follow-up mentorship. I'm going to see how we can best support
them; I might just send them a periodic email to see what they're up to and see
how I can personally help or direct them to help.
== Wi-fi was a serious obstacle ==
I personally had a lot of trouble with my laptop failing to stay on the wifi. I
would estimate at least 10-25% of attendees had a serious problem with this.
It's especially tough because on one hand, the Hackathon is a very
wifi-dependent event. On the other hand, the Hackathon is a pre-Wikimania
event, which means that unless there's serious pre-pre-event testing of the
wifi, Hackathon attendees are the ones that will run into any problems that
occur.
(For those interested in minutiae, it seemed that roaming between access points
triggered the problem. The problem as users experienced it was that randomly
they would suddenly see 100% packet loss with no obvious way to fix it.)
A sample of things we saw from this:
* At least one person reports in the exit survey that it was impossible to get
work done with the wifi the way it was.
* Mike and I couldn't sign people in using the wiki because our own wifi had
failed, so we used a spreadsheet local to his computer. This meant that it was
harder to use the wiki to locate like-minded people.
One organizer attempted to set up a separate wifi network, which was
operational toward the end of the event. In the future, we need more testing of
this, and more of a plan for what to do if it fails.
== Logistics concerns ==
The room that we had agreed we would use turned out not to have power strips
lining the bottom of every table, so we switched rooms and had to update signs
across the event.
Some exit survey respondents indicated they wanted the event to start later in
the morning, and that they wanted the room to not close at 6pm.
I received more than a few emails from people who were, according to the
wikimania2012 registration system, signed up, but who replied to me indicating
that they couldn't in fact attend due to not receiving a visa as needed. It
would have been nice if those people had not been in the registration system
anymore marked as attendees.
I also sent out at least one email to the wrong address; the problem was that
the user who did the registration isn't necessarily the person who's being
registered. I think that in this case, one person in a company was responsible
for registering another person. We could fix this by making personal email
address a field that you enter at registration time (though I do realize data
will basically never be entirely perfect).
(Similarly, the script I was given for extracting information from the
registration system ended up suddenly failing, which slowed down the second
pre-event email.)
== Exit survey suggests people overall liked the event ==
Of those people, all of them indicate they're either "likely" or "very likely"
to recommend a hackathon organized by OpenHatch to a friend, so generally
speaking people enjoyed themselves.
== Tutorials can use TAs ==
On the second day, I found volunteeres to be "TAs" for the tutorials. Their job
was to wander around and help people with environment problems or people just
having trouble following along because e.g. their web browser was different
than the one being used by the presenter.
Another difficulty I found was that sometimes a tutorial speaker wasn't loud
enough to be audible in the back of the room.
This is above the tasks I had labeled as needed for a "Talkmeister":
http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hackathon/Volunteers#Talkmeister
Also, people who are having problem following along during a tutorial don't
always speak up. I'm glad we added the TAs, although I think further work is
required to find out how to non-intrusively convince people that asking
questions is okay. The best way I've seen is to have a very small group, no
bigger than 10, preferably about six people. I almost wonder if we'd be
better-served to use pre-recorded video tutorials with a lot of TAs available,
rather than live lecturers. Then we could easily have small group rooms, and
could pause the video.
== Next time, I'll get firmer commitments from helpers ==
One thing I did was walk around the main room, asking if people needed
anything. I did find some people willing to help out with this, but didn't have
a good sense of when they could help. Next time, I'll do something like create
an hourly sign-up sheet for this.
We did receive feedback at the end of the first day that at least some people
were very happy with the helpers. One person indicated he wished there had been
even more help. While I do think that everyone just about got the help they
needed, it would have been nice to have had a more clear list of who's helping,
partly to ensure we have more capacity, and partly for me to know when people
are planning to help, and partly to encourage mentors to sign up for brief time
slots and know they've helped the event.
== Favorites ==
People listed a wide variety of favorite activities, with all these being
mentioned more than once in the exit survey:
* Tutorials
* Talking to people
* Coding/hacking
The laptop setup process showed up once, too, as did break-out rooms. Sadly for
me, the list of "Tasks" I made wasn't a favorite for anyone who filled out the
exit survey. (Surprisingly and pleasingly, the laptop setup was!)
== Diversity ==
I would estimate about 10-20% of our newcomer-oriented attendees were women.
One difficulty wasa that we experienced a lot of competition for attendees with
AdaCamp DC, which took place on the same days and times. (I heard from more
than a few attendees and prospective attendees that this was a conflict.)
(If you're not familiar with the event: "AdaCamp is a Ada Initiative event
focused on increasing women’s participation in open technology and culture"
<http://dc.adacamp.org/about-adacamp-dc/>)
Given that conflict, though, I think we did reasonably well.
In terms of other diversity, one attendee remarked to me that they were quite
impressed at the diversity of ages in attendance. I was personally quite
impressed by the diversity of experience levels in attendance.
I think we accommodate all that reasonably well.
== Exit survey: Qualtrics, etc. ==
The exit survey we ran received only 11 responses. (Our entrance survey
received over 100, but I sent it to about 400 people. The exit survey was sent
to about 45, so a 25% response rate is somewhat consistent. We had about 65
people sign in on our spreadsheet, and about 45 of those people gave us email
addresses.)
I used Qualtrics to run the exit survey, since it complies with Wikimedia's
guidelines on data privacy/storage and relationships with vendors.
I ran into an issue with Qualtrics where the sample email that it sent me to
preview what the form would look like wasn't an accurate simulation -- in
particular, it didn't pre-fill the email address in the form in the same way as
the real email did.
Anyway, it took too long to get this sent out, partly due to time spent
learning Qualtrics that I didn't expect to be spending, partly due to my own
conference travel post-Wikimania. Given the wifi, we could have just created a
paper exit survey for people to fill out, or otherwise generally been faster at
this if we had prep'd the exit survey questions before-hand. We can aim to do
that for future events.
== Other thoughts ==
* One exit survey respondent wanted it to be easier to find people interested
in using MediaWiki and related software for non-Wikimedia tasks, to chat with
and work on tasks with.
* I treated laptop setup as a good thing for all attendees to go through first,
because it was a prerequisite for some of the tasks, but by no means all of
them. In hindsight, I would prefer to indicate on each "Task" what setup steps
are required. The people that ended up just mostly editing Wikipedia didn't
need to do them. (The other side of the spectrum is that it was good for many
people to go through them, to enable them to do tasks that they might not have
thought they could do!)
= Conclusion =
That's "it". If you read this far, thank you!
Discuss, if you like! I'm here to chat (although might take a day to see all
responses, if any, and respond in bulk).
-- Asheesh.
Great job, Thanks
Mardetanha
On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 12:46 AM,
<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. Wikimania 2012 videos are being uploaded (James Hare)
> 2. Re: Wikimania 2012 videos are being uploaded (David Mugo)
> 3. Re: Wikimania 2012 videos are being uploaded (James Alexander)
> 4. Re: Wikimania 2012 videos are being uploaded (David Mugo)
> 5. Re: Wikimania 2012 videos are being uploaded (James Alexander)
> 6. Re: Wikimania 2012 videos are being uploaded (Manuel Schneider)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 15:25:36 -0400
> From: James Hare <messedrocker(a)gmail.com>
> To: "Wikimania general list, (open subscription)"
> <wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2012 videos are being uploaded
> Message-ID: <710AB758-47F4-4F7B-96DB-ABD24276A2E7(a)gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hello again!
>
> Videos of Wikimania 2012 sessions have begun making their way to YouTube.
> As videos are uploaded, they will be made available here: <
> http://www.youtube.com/user/wikimediadc>. If there is a lecture you want
> to see that has not been uploaded yet, it will be uploaded in the coming
> weeks.
>
> Once we have all the videos, we will send hard drives of the videos off to
> the server farms for direct upload to Wikimedia Commons, with both
> low-resolution and full HD versions being made available.
>
> Enjoy these videos! The presenters did a fantastic job and I know there
> were many sessions I wish I could've went to.
>
>
> All the best,
> James Hare
> Coordinator, Wikimania 2012
>
I am out of the office until 07/30/2012.
Note: This is an automated response to your message "[Wikimania-l] Keeping
in touch" sent on 7/27/2012 10:16:08 AM.
This is the only notification you will receive while this person is away.
Hi everyone,
I couldn't find a suitable page on the wm2012 wiki for this .. but I
thought I would invite people who I met during Wikimania to connect on
various social media platforms:
http://facebook.com/chuqtashttp://twitter.com/chuqtashttp://www.linkedin.com/in/chuqtashttp://gplus.to/chuqtashttp://identi.ca/chuq
Please add me on whichever you deem appropriate. Note if I don't recognise
you I might not accept the request, so please send me a note telling me who
you are if you think it might not be obvious!
In case anyone isn't sure, I was the slightly bald Australian, who you may
have met at:
- Wikipedia Takes Manhattan (6th-8th) including Wiki Worlds Fair (7th)
- WCA meeting (11th)
- Google Reception (11th) and subsequent city walk with Katie
- Wikia Party (12th)
- Wikimedia Asia lunch (13th)
- Buffalo Billiards (14th)
- Unconference - Session with Andrew Lih which became a "newbies
discussion" (15th)
- Dinner with WMUK people (15th)
If there is somewhere else I should be posting this, please let me know :)
Regards,
Charles
Hello everyone!
We are in need of revamping the Wikimania Scholarships Process, and your
help is needed! Please participate in the discussion on meta[1]:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Scholarships
Talk to you on meta -
Jessie
BACKGROUND:
Every year, the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Chapters, and outside
organizations sponsor the attendance of individuals to the international
Wikimania conference. In 2012, over 150 scholarships were awarded to
recipients from over 60 countries. These scholarship recipients were chosen
from 1,113 applications. Each recipient was selected primarily on the basis
of his/her participation in the Wikimedia projects and his/her future goals
for participating in the Wikimedia movement. The scholarship recipients
were chosen through a confidential application and selection process run by
the Wikimania Scholarship Review Committee. The committee was composed by
Wikimedia volunteers and one Wikimedia Foundation staff.[2]
[1] http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Scholarships
[2] For more information on the 2012 scholarship process, see the April
blog post: http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/04/25/wikimania-2012-scholarships/
--
*Jessie Wild
Global Development, Manager
Wikimedia Foundation*
*
*
Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in
the sum of all knowledge. Help us make it a reality!
Donate to Wikimedia <https://donate.wikimedia.org/>
*8th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym)*
August 27-29 -- Linz, Austria
Call for Participation: Early Registration Deadline is July 29
The International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym) is
the premier conference on open collaboration and related technologies. In
2012, WikiSym celebrates its 8th year of scholarly, technical and community
innovation in Linz, Austria. We are excited this year to be collocated
with Ars Electronica, the premier digital art and science meeting that
attracts over 35,000 attendees per year. WikiSym will take place in Linz,
Austria at the Ars Electronica Center.
More details about attending can be found at:
http://www.wikisym.org/ws2012/bin/view/Main/Attending or by following the
@WikiSym twitter account.
Wikisym is a leading conference in understanding how individuals, groups,
organizations and society can use information and communication technology
to enable novel and meaningful collaboration and collective action.
Researchers and practitioners from all over the world have gathered
together in these meetings to discuss and display their insights into this
important area of inquiry.
The conference program will include a peer-reviewed research track,
experience reports, workshops, posters, demos, a doctoral consortium,
invited keynotes and panel speakers. As always, the participant-organized
Open Space track will run throughout the conference. Evening social events
will follow, becausewiki folks know the value of a good party for sparking
conversation and collaboration. Finally, WikiSym co-occurs with Ars
Electronica, and we are arranging experiences where conference attendees
can enjoy this innovative and unusual event.
Topics include all aspects of the people, tools, contexts, and content that
comprise open collaboration systems. For example:
- Collaboration tools and processes
- Social and cultural aspects of collaboration
- Collaboration beyond text: images, video, sound, etc.
- Communities and workgroups
- Knowledge and information production
- New media literacies
- Open source software development and use
- Education and Open Educational Resources
- E-government, open government, and public policy
- Law/Intellectual Property (including Creative Commons)
- Journalism (including participatory journalism)
- Art and Entertainment (including collaborative and audience-involved
art)
- Science (including collaboratories)
- Publishing (including open access and open review models)
- Business (including open and collaborative management styles)
--
Brian C. Keegan
Ph.D. Student - Media, Technology, & Society
School of Communication, Northwestern University
Science of Networks in Communities, Laboratory for Collaborative Technology