Hi,
the theme of this year Wikimania is "Wikipedia as a driver of change":
we didn't choose this motto because it sounds cool, but because we
believe in it. Maybe someone thought that it was just another fancy
slogan, but that's not the case. From the location we choose it should
have been evident that we are quite serious about it :)
All the changes we brought have been written on Meta for months: the
core information about the programme have been there since November
2014[1]. Beside this, me and Iolanda spoke to several people from all
over the world, both online and offline. We also gave a presentation
about the programme during Wikimania 2015, and the slides have been on
Commons for months. Moreover, we have the liaisons who have talked with
specific sectors of the community.
We are a huge movement, and I think that one of the collateral damages
of being so big is that the information does not always arrive to
everyone. Yes, we could have spread the news about the call for
submissions better, and make more use of the mailing lists: we are doing
it now, and we already apologized for not having done it before.
All the information about the kind of topics we expect to have in the
critical issues presentations are written on the submissions page on the
Wikimania website[2], and so is the reason why we the submissions goes
through a third-party website: we are experimenting having a
double-blind peer review, and it was impossible doing so on wiki.
If you think the information on that page are not clear enough I'd
invite you to write it in the discussion page, so we can better keep
track of your suggestion.
Lastly, there will be a call for the discussions and for the posters,
you just have to be a little patient. I can't give you a date yet, but
this time we'll do better with the communication so I'm sure you'll have
all the relevant information in time.
You still have ten days to think about interesting topics for a critical
issue presentation submission, so we would like to invite you again to
read carefully all the instructions and then submit your best ideas :)
Ginevra
[1]
Mike,
You will have to direct these questions to the Wikimania Program
committee. You and many others are rightfully confused by the process
since I don't believe the changes they are introducing next year were
widely publicized. I was only posting the submission deadline as part
of our promoting the Scholarship program.
Try the following from the conference wiki:
For any question you can contact the Programme Committee Chair
<https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Atropine>.
On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 12:55 PM, Michael Peel <email(a)mikepeel.net
<mailto:email@mikepeel.net>> wrote:
Hi Ellie,
I'm very confused by the submissions process. According to the page
on-wiki, you're only looking for 42 presentations (a maximum of 10
of which can be WMF-related), and you have to sign up to a
third-party website to submit a presentation. That's very different
from past Wikimanias, where many more presentation slots were
available (by a factor of 10 or so), and you could transparently
submit a proposal on-wiki (without giving a third party your
details). What's going on - why has this changed so much from past
years, and why are the number of presentations so restricted?
(Leaving aside the apparent absence of open calls for non-"critical
issue" presentations/posters/discussions/training sessions, where
you apparently have to ask the organisers nicely off-wiki if you
want to do one of these...)
Thanks,
Mike
On 4 Jan 2016, at 23:05, Ellie Young
<eyoung(a)wikimedia.org
<mailto:eyoung@wikimedia.org>> wrote:
Hi all,
Two important reminders concerning Wikimania 2016, which will be
held in Esino Lario, Italy on June 22–27, 2016:
The Submission deadline has been extended by the program committee
to January 17th. See:
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions
The deadline for applications for the WMF Scholarship program is
approaching! Applications are open until Saturday, January 09
2016 23:59 UTC.
Applicants will be able to apply for a partial or full
scholarship. A full scholarship will cover the cost of an
individual's round-trip travel, shared accommodation, and
conference registration fees as arranged by the Wikimedia
Foundation. A partial scholarship will cover conference
registration fees and shared accommodation.
To learn more about Wikimania 2016 scholarships, please visit:
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships
To apply for a scholarship, fill out the multi-language
application form on:
https://scholarships.wikimedia.org/apply
It is highly recommended that applicants review all the material
on the Scholarships page and the associated FAQ (
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Scholarships/FAQ ) before
submitting an application.
If you have any questions, please contact:
wikimania-scholarships at
wikimedia.org
<mailto:wikimania-scholarships@wikimedia.org>
or leave a message at:
https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Scholarships
Ellie Young
Events Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
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Events Manager
Wikimedia Foundation
eyoung(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:eyoung@wikimedia.org>
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