Hello everyone,
With the pre-conference kickoff of Wikimania 2018 only seven days to go now
things are getting even more busy now than ever. This will likely be my
last email update on how preparations are going for Wikimania.
Firstly I would like to encourage you to join our Telegram group. You can
join the official Telegram group for Wikimania 2018 here:
https://t.me/wikimania_2018
It is a good place to ask questions, get general information, and talk
about Wikimania related stuff. I am pretty active on it so please feel
free to ask me any questions there. We currently have 108 members on the
Telegram group.
I am happy to say that we have over 550 people registered for Wikimania
2018 so far which is pretty much exactly the number we were aiming for at
this stage and is on track to meeting our 650 total registration goal for
the conference.
==Meetup locations==
There was some confusion caused by my last message on meetup locations for
Wikimania. I meant to clarify that people can still get rooms to host your
meetup on the Wikimania page here
<https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetups>. If there are no more
rooms aviable or you are looking for a more open space then you can use any
of the surround restaurants. There are over 40 within walking distance of
the venue location and I have even drawn up a map of some of them on
the Orientation
page <https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Orientation> on the
Wikimania wiki.
==Volunteers==
Raymond and Erin have been working hard on getting everything ready for the
volunteers. We will have our volunteer training session next week Monday
where we will welcome the volunteers, conduct training exercises and
allocate roles. Raymond will send out more details on that to our
volunteers soon. As I mentioned in my last email we got an outstanding
response from people wishing to be volunteers which has given us a real
challenge of choosing from so many very strong volunteer applicants.
==Website==
You might have noticed that the website is being continuously expanded and
updated. This will continue to happen until the day of the conference.
Please continue to check up on the Wikimania Wiki website for updates and
changes. I would like to thank Liam for playing a large and important role
in tirelessly updating and maintaining the program. I think it is looking
very good.
==Plenary speakers==
I am currently working finalising the details of the plenary speaking
events. Most notably the opening and closing plenaries. Just a few last
details to wrap up. I have a few small surprises for the opening plenary
which I will not share here (or else it would not be a surprise) but
needless to say I am excited about them.
==Water==
The water situation
<https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Water_shortage> in Cape Town is
now looking very good. With good rains so far this year (and some more
rain still expected) the water supply situation has improved greatly.
People are still encouraged to save water but I can say with 100%
confidence that the water situation will in no way impact Wikimania. I
have checked the weather report and it looks unlikely we will get much rain
during the conference. However I still suggest that you bring a rain
jacket, especially if you plan to stay on in Cape Town after the
conference. :-)
The official Wikimania edit-a-thon
<https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_edit-a-thon> has been
organised for Thursday the 19th July and will take place at the Cape Town
Tourism Offices across the road from the Southern Sun Hotel where Wikimania
is happening. On that note I would also like to share with you this
message from Cape Town Tourism on the water situation in Cape Town:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfS063Fbflk
==Parties==
All welcoming and closing parties have been organised. You can find out
more about them here
<https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Social_events>.
==Safety==
The Cape Town Central City Improvement Distract
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_City_Improvement_District> (CCID)
has been informed of Wikimania and has assured me that they will ensure
that extra public safety officers will be deployed in the outside area
around the conference venue and along Stand Street that runs between the
Southern Sun Hotel (Wikimania venue) and the CapeSun Hotel (where a lot of
people are staying) so as to better ensure public safety. The City Centre
of Cape Town is a safe place, I have lived here for many years and walk
around at night often and never had any problems. There is still a risk of
crime just as there is in any major city but we are working to try and
minimise that as much as we can. Please use your discretion and common
sense when outside of the hotel area at night and do not leave valuables
such as laptops unattended to.
==Publicity and outreach==
Publicity and local outreach remains a focus of mine. I have more radio
interviews to do this week all in preparation for the big event next week.
It is important to us that we increase people's awareness of both Wikimania
and the fact that Wikipedia is open for anyone to edit so as to encourage
more South Africans (and hopefully people in Africa generally) to edit
Wikipedia.
==Post-Conference==
A number of people are organising post conference tourist trips. You can
see more about that here
<https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Postconference_activities>. I am
thinking of leading either a hiking trip or a trip to see the penguins on
Monday the 23rd July but I am not sure.
--
I am looking forward to hosting you all in Cape Town this year and making
this a fun, interesting and impactful Wikimania. We have been planning on
hosting this event ever since our first bid in 2008 so we are
enormously excited about next week.
Best regards,
Douglas.
--
Douglas Ian Scott
司道格
Skype: douglas0scott
South African mobile number: +27 (0)79 515 8727