To add to what Florence said, the opening day's press conference was one of the most professionally organised parts of the event. All the stops were pulled out to present the WMF to the press as an established and serious body.
The room used for the press conference should likely have been hijacked for as many sessions as could have been fitted in it. Every desk had its own power point and an RJ45 cable to get connected with. There was a microphone with a push to talk button, and a pair of headphones. The headphones allowed for simultaneous translation from English to Arabic, and vice versa.
The regional press were there in force, you could not have fitted another TV camera into the back row. If I recall correctly, Florence commented in her presentation later in the conference that some of the TV coverage prompted people to turn up at the conference's second and third days to find out more.
Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of the standard fare in the Q&A - the tired old "academics don't trust Wikipedia", and the one Jimmy was quick to step on - conflating the WMF with Wikia. I can't comment on the interviews after the main press conference, unlike Florence I got some lunch on the first day. The mystery pasta dish was delicious, and I looked for it in vain the remaining two days of the conference.
Brian McNeil
-----Original Message----- From: wikimania-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:wikimania-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Florence Devouard Sent: 29 July 2008 00:14 To: Wikimania general list (open subscription) Subject: Re: [Wikimania-l] Comments
I certainly was a very lucky woman, since I was *pampered* in terms of hosting and travel. So, I did not share your suffering regarding travel between the two cities.
However, it seems a fair point to say that in the future, we should choose a city where there is an international airport.
With regards to "outside" complaints, yeah, I was also a bit annoyed by the persistence of some people; yeah, I was cheated with regards of money several times (but I expected such thing in Egypt). I was also harassed in an unexpected fashion the last day, and I did not appreciate that at all. Airco was an issue two nights in a row and there was no wifi in hotel (but eh, that's Africa). And yeah, information was often missing. I also regret we were all hosted in many different places, which did not help finding each other.
In terms of "inside" complaints, my biggest one would go to the rather unsufficient "community space" and "food/drinks". People were delocalized on several levels so it was very difficult to find each other. Unsufficient room to sit down for lunch. Worse for me: lunch separated for "vip" and "regular". That was a killer for social interactions, and vips could not go to "lunch meeting" with their lunch box since they had no lunch box. I naturally know why this was done this way. But I still find that a bad idea. I do not think we should artificially separate "vips" and "regulars". Or at least, we should be able to mix. In previous years, the press conf was followed by a lunch in the room. Not this year. Very unfortunate, because for me, it meant... no lunch at all. By the time I got out of interviews, the lunch upstairs was closed. I would suggest sticking to a very light and easy buffet after the press conference.
Last, in Taipei light snacks and drinks were available all day long. This year, only tea and coffee and a few cookies, at fixed times. Often, sessions were late, so by the time one got out of the room, coffee break was over. Only once did I succeed to get an out-of-schedule coffee (the day I missed the coffee in morning, then missed the lunch, then missed the coffee break in the afternoon), but it was really tough. Until I found the source of softdrink for money, I had to drink most of my liquid input during the day from the tap. A miracle I was not sick. Still, the coffee guys were here all the time, but most of the time simply not serving. It escapes me entirely why coffee, tea and bottle water were not served freely during the entire event. Next year, we should try to be sponsored by Starbucks, as we were by CocaCola in Boston (I am SUPER serious here. We'll save huge amount of time not running to the local starbuck...).
Beside this, I found all the local volunteers super useful, helpful, and smiling. A real pleasure. The party was great ! I was also very pleased by the presentation of wiki use by US gov, and really appreciated the presentation about the flaggued revisions from Philip. Rooms were confortable and of the right size (though, yeah, missing plugs), there was all the equipement for the video record, and security was not too heavy ;-) I did not miss the tech sessions... however, I missed Mark.
Every Wikimania has its "very cool" and "not so good" sides. As far as I am concerned, the "very cool" have always outweighted the "not so good".
What made me the saddest this year were all the people being sick during the event. I think more warning regarding food and water could have been helpful. What made me the happiest was to see that the outreach was a success.
A question for the future though will be as to whether Wikimania will focus on the "outreach" or on the "community gathering".
ant
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