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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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The program is now live
by Liam Wyatt 14 Jun '18

14 Jun '18

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.

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All you wanted to know about the Decolonizing the Internet conference and didn't know whom to ask
by Anasuya Sengupta 09 Jun '18

09 Jun '18

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

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Lack of clarity around the arrangements for "Decolonizing the Internet conference"
by Kerry Raymond 08 Jun '18

08 Jun '18

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

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Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania-l Digest, Vol 146, Issue 1
by Pine W 08 Jun '18

08 Jun '18

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

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Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania-l Digest, Vol 146, Issue 1
by Julie Workman 07 Jun '18

07 Jun '18

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: > 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. Re: Update on Wikimania '18 (Pine W) > 2. Re: Update on Wikimania '18 (cs) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 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: > <CAF=dyJinVGV5eM7vBi7SFDLcqyLP4yakDa=VckDJZ4rPN76K1A(a)mail.gmail. > com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > 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 > > >

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Re: [Wikimania-l] Accommodation period in Cape Town
by Irene Tait 18 May '18

18 May '18

Hi Andy, Yes, I can clear this up for you (and any other recipients wondering about this). The first approved date of arrival at the hotel is *July 16*. Accommodations in shared rooms will be provided starting that evening, with checkout on *July 23rd*. Those are the dates our travel agents are working off of. We altered the arrival date to July 16 in ordered to give people time to adjust from jet-lag before the start of the pre-conference on July 18. Thanks, and hope this answers your question, Irene Tait Wikimania '18 Conference Assistant Wikimedia Foundation itait(a)wikimedia.org c. 510 423 1153 From: Andy Mabbett <andy(a)pigsonthewing.org.uk> > Date: Fri, May 18, 2018 at 7:46 AM > Subject: [Wikimania-l] Accommodation period in Cape Town > To: Wikimania general list (open subscription) < > wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> > > > I am in correspondence with T and T regarding booking flights to Cape > Town. They suggested that arrival on the 16th was standard, but the > original email from the WMF said: "Shared accommodation at a hotel > selected by the Wikimedia Foundation for up to 7 nights e.g., arriving > July 17 and departing July 23, which includes breakfast and internet > connectivity", which is contradictory (arriving July 17 and departing > July 23 is six nights). > > Can anyone clarify on which nights we have accommodation, please? > > -- > Andy Mabbett > @pigsonthewing > http://pigsonthewing.org.uk > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimania-l mailing list > Wikimania-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org > 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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Accommodation period in Cape Town
by Andy Mabbett 18 May '18

18 May '18

I am in correspondence with T and T regarding booking flights to Cape Town. They suggested that arrival on the 16th was standard, but the original email from the WMF said: "Shared accommodation at a hotel selected by the Wikimedia Foundation for up to 7 nights e.g., arriving July 17 and departing July 23, which includes breakfast and internet connectivity", which is contradictory (arriving July 17 and departing July 23 is six nights). Can anyone clarify on which nights we have accommodation, please? -- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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