Dear all,
The Wikimentary project, which started as the kernel of an idea at
Wikimania when the Globalvision documentary team was moved to see what
the community would do with their raw footage, is taking off. Rory
O'Connor at Globalvision has really been pushing to make this happen;
through some heroic efforts on his part we now have low-res copies of
all 25 tapes they shot, a high-res copy of one tape (#8), and a 'rough
cut' he edited together that PBS will be airing in January -- all
available via archive.org at the moment.
You can see a guest blog-post about this on the Frontline/World blog here :
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2005/11/its_a_wiki_wiki.html
The rough cut (be the first to write a review ;-):
http://www.archive.org/details/WIKIMANIA-ROUGH_CUT.mov
Transcripts:
http://www.archive.org/details/WIKIMANIA_TRANSCRIPTS
NEXT STEPS:
If you'd like to take part in the project, or work on your own short
wikimentary using this content, you can help in a few ways.
1. Download the transcripts (all of which are rough, have some
mistakes, and are currently Word files) and one of the low-res
'screener' files; listen to the screener while editing the transcript.
Upload the fixed transcript, as something other than a Word file, to
Wikisource :-)
2. Help others learn how to edit their own video. Add ot the
[[m:Video]] guide on meta; learn more about various editing platforms
(iMovie might work well as an interim step), help set up a
qt/wmv/other --> theora conversion tool (if there isn't already a good
service online). Some existing editing guides:
http://current.tv/studio/survivalguide/ (for tv-quality video production)
3. Update [[m:Wikimentary]] with notes and links. Discuss the
project on [[m:Talk:Wikimentary]].
4. Edit your own video from the raw footage! Right now only Tape #8
is available via archive.org in high-res, but for a test project you
could edit something together from the screeners.
More to come. Andy Carvin, a notorious podcaster and vlogger, is
interested in helping teach people to start editing their own video;
he's worked on a related project recently with some elementary shool
students in Atlantic City. And the resulting video is adorably
amazing:
http://www.starw.org/acrc/2005/11/witches-aliens-and-school-board.html
Rory's latest update is included below.
++SJ
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rory O'Connor <Roc(a)globalvision.org>
Date: Nov 16, 2005 11:45 PM
Subject: Re: Wikimentary latest
All,
I'm pleased to announce that files containing the following are all now
accessible at the URL below:
1. 'screeners' of all media shot by Globalvision at WikiMania;
2. transcripts in MS word of all screeners
3. a 'screener 'of the rough cut;
4. An 'editable' larger file of the rough cut;
5. a MS word file of the script for the rough cut
6. One 'editable' large file of one tape (008) of the media shot by
Globalvision in Frankfurt.
To see and download any or all, go to:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=wikimedia
EXPLANATORY NOTE: What we are calling 'screeners' are smaller, lower quality
files suitable for downloading and meant to be looked at in conjunction with
the word files of the matching transcription. In other words, 'screener 008'
is the low quality media version of the eighth tape we shot. It should be
matched by a MSW file of the transcription of tape 008. When looked at in
conjunction, one should be ready to them correct the extant transcription
and wiki-ize it to make it a perfect match.
In most cases the current transcripts are close--but few if any are perfect.
So there is initial work to be done just looking at the tapes and fixing the
transcripts.
One can also download the 'screener' of my rough cut, which should match
perfectly with the MSW script file of same. If it doesn't, please amend it.
The 'editable' file of the rough cut is also available for anyone who wants
to begin tearing it apart and improving it.
We continue to upload the larger 'editable' files of the other media as
well, and are working out several kinks and issues associated with that.
Thus far, only tape 008 is available in this form.
Also, for video newbies, here's a link to a fairly comprehensive video
production primer available online -- the VC2 Survival Guide -- courtesy of
Current.tv:
http://current.tv/studio/survivalguide/
Finally, if you haven't seen it yet, here's the URL for the 'Dispatch' I
recently posted about WikiMania and the wikimentary project at the web site
of the PBS program 'Frontline World"
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2005/11/its_a_wiki_wiki.html
I still need to see and sign and maybe post some sort of license for all the
above; a wiki to discuss if not work on this would be a good idea, if anyone
is so moved; and it might be nice if there were a mechanism to let everyone
who attended the conference to know about all this, no?
Hope to hear from some of you soon...
-Rory
On 11/5/05 4:50 PM, "Jimmy Wales" <jwales(a)wikia.com> wrote:
> SJ wrote:
>> An easy way to get people involved is to have them finish up the
>> missing transcriptions; once we have the files in a suitable place
>> online.
>
> This is a very fine idea. I can help with this. In my previous email,
> I said that I don't know how to edit video, and that still holds true.
> I suppose I do know how to make or correct a transcript. I just
> download a video clip, I watch it, and while I'm watching it I type or
> else I edit/correct what someone else has typed.
>
>> Absolutely ! For the purposes of transcription, which seems the
>> fastest way to get people collaborating on the content, it would be
>> great to have audio streams separate from the video. Is there a
>> simple way to do this at the source? That content, at least, could be
>> uploaded to Wikimedia servers and played with immediately.
>
> Yes, absolutely. Getting the audio up somewhere quickly would be
> totally fine. :-)
>
--
++SJ
Society of Wikimaniacs
November 5, 2005, 20:00 UTC
irc.freenode.net#wikimania
Present : _sj_, akl, Alkivar, Angela, AnyFile, brettstil, brion,
Chris_Parham, delphine, e2m__, EricaG, gwdash, JamesF, jikomboe,
MikeSnow, mysekurity, Phroziac, randy_f, reagleBRKLN, sasha_ (asw),
Shanel, shekhar, Solensean, TitaniumDreads,
...but silent : Bdka, cathyma, Chiacomo, CraigSpurrier, da_didi,
GerardM, Get_It, here, mattis, MichaelDiederich, poli_, Rdsmith4,
SabineCretella, soufron, SvenDowideit, tobacman, tractor, zwitter
...and away : AppleBoy, Austin, GhostFreeman, JeLuF, mark, Rince,
Schuyler, SethIlys,
1. Long before the meeting, Alkivar links to [[Jason Scott Sadofsky]]
("a computer history archivist... who is humorously anti-wikipedia")
and suggests he would make a good speaker. Also notes that on campus
you can have better parties later than you can elsewhere in town.
2. e2m__ asked if attendees from Asia, Africa, and South America will
be particularly welcome. The meeting is just starting, and this is
never answered... are they? See also the discussion of conference
goals, below.
Via email, Node suggested organizing travel groups of people from
similar countries / languages, to help them get used to the new
environment; and to offer partner-interpreters (for each group?) --
to encourage people with poor English skills to attend who normally
avoid such international events.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2006#International_outreach
3. Time sensitive issues first : dates for the conference? There are
3 promising weekends : July 22-23, July 29-30, and August 5-6. The
weekend in August seems to be the easiest for people to schedule, but
may be more expensive for flights from Europe.
3A - Todo: compare flight prices for these dates.
3B - Harvard professional schools start late for the US, but early
for Europe. UK high schools get out late, will still be in session
mid-July (so flights might be cheaper).
3C - Anyfile did a quick price search; prices were the same for those
two weekends. Group & corporate flight discounts were mentioned.
4. Working with the Harvard dorm & room offices : the [room] office
hasn't sorted out their schedule yet; will get to it "very soon".
UPDATE: The optimal week[end] for dorms is in early August (we
could get any combination of dorms we want, up to 450 beds). Still
waiting on room details.
5. Amgine: will the whole event be at the Harvard Law School? Answer:
No. The MIT Media Lab wants to host some smaller events, even all of
the hacking days. They've also offered to book their largest hall,
Kresge auditorium, if we want to use it.
6. Where is there food? Places mentioned : The Harkness Commons (next
door), on-campus caterers (cheers from the local union member), nearby
restaurants around Harvard & Kendall Square.
7. Timeline : budget 3 months for travel preparation after acceptnace
of papers, for the most difficult cases. CfP in January, December;
give initial acceptances by April.
8A : Next meeting - when is good? rotate every meeting by 15.2 days?
Pick two times and switch between them? Have multiple meetings on
some weeks? We settle on the second option. Next meeting tentatively
set for 1600 UTC, Saturday November 19.
8B : Have short meetings and keep most discussion on [Meta]. Clean
out the Wikimania wiki and decide if want the site to be a wiki next
year.
9A. What should the conference goals be? We agree generally that it
should support the online communities, and be a party and social
gathering; and that it should involve "a conference". We had some
trouble defininzg 'conference.' How could we describe the community
and academic parts of Wikimania more clearly?
Is international outreach important? Increasing the visibility
of small projects? Increasing outreach to underrepresented languages?
Should the goals for this year be different than they were last year?
9B. Naming : JamesF liked "symposium" better than conference, but
didn't find broad support . (Wikisym's use of the term was noted.)
Mysekurity suggested "the [N]th First Annual" conference, a la the
Ignobels. MikeSnow chimed in with "Wikimania 2.0".
10. Design, logos, mascots. Mysekurity wanted a logo contest. This
met with some definite opposition. Conference t-shirts and laptop
stickers, however... JamesF dreams of having a different shirt from
each wikimania in 20 years. Delphine suggests a confernce mascot... a
new one every year. (the Wikipedia worm? Bob the Angry Sunflower? a
dolphin? a weasel? a marmot?)
11. Advisors : Sj brings up Tthe idea of a general advisory panel --
representatives from outside the community, from different parts of
the world, who could suggest and provide intros to potential speakers
and sponsors. Chris Parham noted the structure doesn't have to be
formal, but that getting people involved in this way would be helpful.
Delphine wanted to know what the advisors would do, other than
advising the program team.
12. Announcements. Will there be announcements on the main WP
page[s]? A sitewide notice? When, for how long? At the first
opportunity to sign up, before a major paper/registration deadline? It
is noted that sitewide notices were put up last year on fr:wp, to some
complaints, but not on en:wp.
13. Media streaming. Mysekurity: webcam streams? audio? Mysekurity:
will it be broken down into 'important' and 'not important' segments?
Akl: as long as there's someone to do it... mysekurity would be glad
to '''help''' (emphasis his :)
14. Feedback from attendees and presenters. Attendees from last year
want a social list to keep up with friends from Wikimania. Other
feedback already left on meta needs to be reviewed.
15. Licensing of papers. General agreement: ask speakers to agree to
a reasonably free license, and to audio/video reproduction if they're
being recorded, well ahead of time.
16. Conference planning software. No word from Austin, Jakob, or
Patrick; it is generally agreed that a license agreement on paper
submission makes sense. JamesF mentions that he was at some point
happy to help Austin improve on last year's reg system; regrets
mentioning it again :-) It is also agreed we should choose our
program planning software in time for the program team to look at it.
17. Program team and Papers
This team is one of the first to act. How will it be structured? Who
will be on it? Who will lead it? We should get help from outside the
community; technologists and academics (e.g., Sunir, others from
Wikimania '05?) methodically split up papers into review groups.
Amgine notes CfPs should have a postmark deadline. Delphine says
there should be a very official, and a secret unofficial deadline. Sj
suggests having an early deadline for people who need advnce notice;
Delphine said she will pay Sj a beer if anyone submits a paper early.
Mysekurity: will papers be physical, on a wiki? will they be editable
/ commentable by others before the event? Delphine notes she would
not like that.
18. Other teams
Website and conf-software are also needed soon. Ditto general
conference organization. How should the organization be divided?
Should they be split into formal committees? Do we need to hire
people to coordinate the volunteers, or have an external conference
organizer?
Sj noted there is an agenda item on the upcoming board meeting re:
hiring an organizer for Wikimania.
19. Multilingualism
Soleansan thinks we should translate papers into Swahili, "or at least
in Réunion creole," so people don't get the impression that WP is only
English, or only for English-speakers. Alkivar thinks we need
Fr/Es/De translations for every major speaker. Delphine suggests
waiting until registration is opened and we see who signs up. akl
notes that in Frankfurt, none of the German attendees needed
translations. .
Sj added that we know hardly any relevant presenters who don't
speak in English, but if we had a better way of finding/filtering
potential speakers, we might find them. Delphine suggests spending
money on travel sponsorships and visas, and not on translation.. But
we didn't release the CfP in too many languages last year... can sj
evaluate a Russian paper? via a translator. (e.g., the
Chinese-language paper submitted last year)
akl wants to know if the next irc meeting will be held in swahili,
russian or in chinese? :)
20. Closure and followups
Two hours was a bit long. Follow-ups on the wiki:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2006/En#November_5_discussion
++SJ
Note that Harvard Square is near Harvard Law School (restaurants are 5 min. to 15 min. by walking). Kendall Square is near MIT Media Lab. I might be able to interest my mother in providing bed and breakfast for a couple; she has a spare bedroom with a Queen-size bed overlooking a lovely garden.
Conference goals should be:
1. Enhance community interaction: make it more fun to be a Wikipedian / WikiMedian!
2. Improve the quality of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects
I can get professional encyclopedia editors to attend / speak at the conference - all with PhD's in their fields.
I am preparing a paper and/or speech (with slides) on "Online Interactions which Facilitate the Production of Quality".
Ed Poor
(who grew up in Cambridge, Mass.)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wikimania-l-bounces(a)Wikipedia.org
> [mailto:wikimania-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of SJ
> Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:24 PM
> To: wikimania-l(a)wikipedia.org
> Subject: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania meeting minutes 2005/11/05
>
>
> Society of Wikimaniacs
> November 5, 2005, 20:00 UTC
> irc.freenode.net#wikimania
>
> Present : _sj_, akl, Alkivar, Angela, AnyFile, brettstil,
> brion, Chris_Parham, delphine, e2m__, EricaG, gwdash,
> JamesF, jikomboe, MikeSnow, mysekurity, Phroziac, randy_f,
> reagleBRKLN, sasha_ (asw),
> Shanel, shekhar, Solensean, TitaniumDreads,
>
> ...but silent : Bdka, cathyma, Chiacomo, CraigSpurrier,
> da_didi, GerardM, Get_It, here, mattis, MichaelDiederich,
> poli_, Rdsmith4, SabineCretella, soufron, SvenDowideit,
> tobacman, tractor, zwitter ...and away : AppleBoy, Austin,
> GhostFreeman, JeLuF, mark, Rince, Schuyler, SethIlys,
>
> 1. Long before the meeting, Alkivar links to [[Jason Scott
> Sadofsky]] ("a computer history archivist... who is
> humorously anti-wikipedia") and suggests he would make a good
> speaker. Also notes that on campus you can have better
> parties later than you can elsewhere in town.
>
> 2. e2m__ asked if attendees from Asia, Africa, and South
> America will be particularly welcome. The meeting is just
> starting, and this is never answered... are they? See also
> the discussion of conference goals, below.
>
> Via email, Node suggested organizing travel groups of people
> from similar countries / languages, to help them get used to
> the new environment; and to offer partner-interpreters (for
> each group?) --
> to encourage people with poor English skills to attend who
> normally avoid such international events.
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2006#Internation
> al_outreach
>
> 3. Time sensitive issues first : dates for the conference?
> There are 3 promising weekends : July 22-23, July 29-30, and
> August 5-6. The weekend in August seems to be the easiest
> for people to schedule, but may be more expensive for flights
> from Europe.
>
> 3A - Todo: compare flight prices for these dates.
>
> 3B - Harvard professional schools start late for the US, but
> early for Europe. UK high schools get out late, will still
> be in session mid-July (so flights might be cheaper).
>
> 3C - Anyfile did a quick price search; prices were the same
> for those two weekends. Group & corporate flight discounts
> were mentioned.
>
> 4. Working with the Harvard dorm & room offices : the [room]
> office hasn't sorted out their schedule yet; will get to it
> "very soon".
>
> UPDATE: The optimal week[end] for dorms is in early August
> (we could get any combination of dorms we want, up to 450
> beds). Still waiting on room details.
>
> 5. Amgine: will the whole event be at the Harvard Law School?
> Answer: No. The MIT Media Lab wants to host some smaller
> events, even all of the hacking days. They've also offered
> to book their largest hall, Kresge auditorium, if we want to use it.
>
> 6. Where is there food? Places mentioned : The Harkness
> Commons (next door), on-campus caterers (cheers from the
> local union member), nearby restaurants around Harvard &
> Kendall Square.
>
> 7. Timeline : budget 3 months for travel preparation after
> acceptnace of papers, for the most difficult cases. CfP in
> January, December; give initial acceptances by April.
>
> 8A : Next meeting - when is good? rotate every meeting by 15.2 days?
> Pick two times and switch between them? Have multiple
> meetings on some weeks? We settle on the second option.
> Next meeting tentatively set for 1600 UTC, Saturday November 19.
>
> 8B : Have short meetings and keep most discussion on [Meta].
> Clean out the Wikimania wiki and decide if want the site to
> be a wiki next year.
>
> 9A. What should the conference goals be? We agree generally that it
> should support the online communities, and be a party and
> social gathering; and that it should involve "a conference".
> We had some
> trouble defininzg 'conference.' How could we describe the community
> and academic parts of Wikimania more clearly?
> Is international outreach important? Increasing the
> visibility of small projects? Increasing outreach to
> underrepresented languages? Should the goals for this year
> be different than they were last year?
>
> 9B. Naming : JamesF liked "symposium" better than
> conference, but didn't find broad support . (Wikisym's use of
> the term was noted.)
> Mysekurity suggested "the [N]th First Annual" conference, a
> la the Ignobels. MikeSnow chimed in with "Wikimania 2.0".
>
> 10. Design, logos, mascots. Mysekurity wanted a logo contest. This
> met with some definite opposition. Conference t-shirts and
> laptop stickers, however... JamesF dreams of having a
> different shirt from each wikimania in 20 years. Delphine
> suggests a confernce mascot... a new one every year. (the
> Wikipedia worm? Bob the Angry Sunflower? a dolphin? a
> weasel? a marmot?)
>
> 11. Advisors : Sj brings up Tthe idea of a general advisory
> panel -- representatives from outside the community, from
> different parts of the world, who could suggest and provide
> intros to potential speakers and sponsors. Chris Parham
> noted the structure doesn't have to be formal, but that
> getting people involved in this way would be helpful.
> Delphine wanted to know what the advisors would do, other
> than advising the program team.
>
> 12. Announcements. Will there be announcements on the main
> WP page[s]? A sitewide notice? When, for how long? At the
> first opportunity to sign up, before a major
> paper/registration deadline? It is noted that sitewide
> notices were put up last year on fr:wp, to some complaints,
> but not on en:wp.
>
> 13. Media streaming. Mysekurity: webcam streams? audio?
> Mysekurity: will it be broken down into 'important' and 'not
> important' segments?
> Akl: as long as there's someone to do it... mysekurity would
> be glad to '''help''' (emphasis his :)
>
> 14. Feedback from attendees and presenters. Attendees from
> last year want a social list to keep up with friends from
> Wikimania. Other feedback already left on meta needs to be reviewed.
>
> 15. Licensing of papers. General agreement: ask speakers to
> agree to a reasonably free license, and to audio/video
> reproduction if they're being recorded, well ahead of time.
>
> 16. Conference planning software. No word from Austin, Jakob,
> or Patrick; it is generally agreed that a license agreement
> on paper submission makes sense. JamesF mentions that he was
> at some point happy to help Austin improve on last year's reg
> system; regrets mentioning it again :-) It is also agreed we
> should choose our program planning software in time for the
> program team to look at it.
>
> 17. Program team and Papers
> This team is one of the first to act. How will it be
> structured? Who will be on it? Who will lead it? We should
> get help from outside the community; technologists and
> academics (e.g., Sunir, others from Wikimania '05?)
> methodically split up papers into review groups.
> Amgine notes CfPs should have a postmark deadline.
> Delphine says there should be a very official, and a secret
> unofficial deadline. Sj suggests having an early deadline
> for people who need advnce notice; Delphine said she will pay
> Sj a beer if anyone submits a paper early.
> Mysekurity: will papers be physical, on a wiki? will they be
> editable / commentable by others before the event? Delphine
> notes she would not like that.
>
> 18. Other teams
> Website and conf-software are also needed soon. Ditto
> general conference organization. How should the organization
> be divided?
> Should they be split into formal committees? Do we need to
> hire people to coordinate the volunteers, or have an external
> conference organizer?
> Sj noted there is an agenda item on the upcoming board
> meeting re: hiring an organizer for Wikimania.
>
> 19. Multilingualism
> Soleansan thinks we should translate papers into Swahili, "or
> at least in Réunion creole," so people don't get the
> impression that WP is only
> English, or only for English-speakers. Alkivar thinks we need
> Fr/Es/De translations for every major speaker. Delphine
> suggests waiting until registration is opened and we see who
> signs up. akl notes that in Frankfurt, none of the German
> attendees needed translations. .
> Sj added that we know hardly any relevant presenters who
> don't speak in English, but if we had a better way of
> finding/filtering potential speakers, we might find them.
> Delphine suggests spending money on travel sponsorships and
> visas, and not on translation.. But we didn't release the
> CfP in too many languages last year... can sj evaluate a
> Russian paper? via a translator. (e.g., the Chinese-language
> paper submitted last year)
> akl wants to know if the next irc meeting will be held in
> swahili, russian or in chinese? :)
>
> 20. Closure and followups
> Two hours was a bit long. Follow-ups on the wiki:
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimania_2006/En#November
_5_discussion
++SJ
_______________________________________________
Wikimania-l mailing list
Wikimania-l(a)Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Saturday seems to work for everyone but AlexanderWait, who says he's
fine with that.
Let's have an open IRC chat in #wikimania on Sat, 2200-2300 UTC. If
you can't make the meeting (and even if you can), please write down
your thoughts and link to them. If you're feeling bold, you can link
them directly from the agenda.
I added some agenda items; feel free to edit them and add more:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2006/Planning#Meetings
For instance, someone last week offered that it would be useful to
have regional advisors from outside the community, to suggest (and to
provide introductions to) potential speakers and sponsors. That could
be interesting; but needs discussion.
++SJ
(Originally written up as a blog post)
Last Thursday night there was a public meeting (in person and on
IRC) @ Berkman to let people in the area know what the conference might
be like. It was held at Berkman, hosted by the Thurs. night blog group
(already a Berkman satellite run by the local community).
20 people came; every one taking two hours out of their night to think
and talk about wikis and Wikimania. About a third were affiliated
with Harvard; there were people from Wellesley, MIT; a teacher from
BU; three librarians; a few local hackers and old LiveJournal
community moderators. There was a joyful energy in the air.
The audience included developers who use MediaWiki regularly; teachers
who use wikis in their course and project designs; and enthusiastic
editors and users. Most had not been involved with the earlier
planning for the bid; this was a very introductory presentation.
I skimmed over the [[m:wikimania 2006]] pages, and filled in a few
details about what things were like last year. There was some
discussion about what local groups could do to help make it a better
conference. A few Wikimedians took part via IRC (which was cool) but
there wasn't much IRC conversation. A repeated question was how to
get Wikimedians around the world more involved; which prehaps will be
discussed more this week.
++ SJ
Kyle, I think these are all good suggestions, and we should try to
find ways to help speakers improve the quality and consistency of
presentations.
Part of this is giving them good, clear guidelines; and advice for
first-time presenters who are eager to get their ideas out to the
community. Part of this is asking for more information (asking for a
precise length helps ensure it has been run through once), and giving
presenters more feedback on the information received from them.
A wiki fanatic might encourage people to post their slides & papers
early, so that others can suggest improvements or updates :-)
SJ
On 10/30/05, Kyle Lutze <kyle(a)randomvoids.com> wrote:
> two things there, I'm not talking about a neat powerpoint presentation
> or a bunch of visuals, that's not needed for a good speech.
>
> I'm talking about, we had people who had to be cut off half way through
> their speech because they didn't practice at all to stay in their
> timelimits, and others that got to the point to where they went(I think
> we even had one person say this too) "what should I talk about now?"
> because they hadn't prepared enough material.
>
> Wikipedia is great as a whole because people are continually fixing
> other's mistakes for the final bit that shows, but for presentations
> what they say up there is the final bit, and they never had anybody
> critique them or give them any pointers.
>
> All I'm saying is we need to get some sort of proof from them, say a
> month in advanced that they have a basic outline of their speech done
> and they can honestly say that they've practiced the whole thing at
> least once through and timed themselves.
>
> We had some of these presentations aired on the news, they are
> practically representatives of wikipedia when they are up there, so we
> should hold them to a higher standard than just one edit they do on
> wikipedia.
>
> Kyle
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimania-planning-l mailing list
> Wikimania-planning-l(a)Wikipedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-planning-l
>
--
++SJ
Dear wikimaniacs,
We should set the dates for Wikimania, and send out a 'save the date'
notice, as soon as possible. I've suggested a few times on meta for a
meeting next week. Please give feedback there on which (if any) of
them work for you, and add items to the agenda as you see fit.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2006:Planning#Meetings
Warmly,
SJ
> Welcome to the Wikimania-l(a)Wikipedia.org mailing list!
Thank you. For a robot, you're very polite. No doubt a human being
programmeed you to do that.
But computers do not create quality; people do. People use computers as
tools to reach objectives. A wiki cannot organize knowledge, any more
than a hammer and saw can build a house. A carpenter can build a house
*using* a hammer and saw.
Contributors can build an encyclopedia *using* wiki collaboration tools.
I am most interested in how Wikipedians can organize and present
knowledge in a way that serves humanity.
My special focus has been on resolving conflicts arising from contrary
points of view (POV). This is a topic I'd like to speak on, at the
Boston conference.
Uncle Ed