On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 2:51 AM, Risker risker.wp@gmail.com wrote:
On 15 August 2013 00:03, Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
Wikimania should have less parallel sessions,
< longer sessions with more time between the sessions
and an "open space" as an additional track.
I've been wanting fewer sessions at Wikimania for a long time.
I agree totally. We can rethink the traditional program entirely.
Imagine a Wikimania where
- the only "talks" or presentations are Plenary sessions
- all other sessions [ share docs in advance, have discussion in advance,
<< are group discussions + interactions, have a facilitator, produce output ]
I dunno. That sounds fundamentally unwiki, and an awful lot like the professional annual meetings that everyone hates attending.
You may be reading something else into my suggestion.
The only docs shared in advance would be those that the presenter would otherwise 'broadcast' to the audience. A session that was already designed as a discussion might not have anything more than the talk-abstract to share.
This should not privilege experienced presenters. It does encourage people to start conversations and provide knowledge-dumps online. That way the time spent together can focus on collaboration, and developing new ideas together.
quite a few [sessions] included "up to the minute" information and data.
Yes. The presenter and any interested parties could update the wiki page of materials with the latest data, up until it starts (or even during the session).
What I'd like to see is live-streaming of sessions with moderation that could include online questions for the sessions.
This is important, and one of the reasons to have moderators.
Some sessions are of professional quality, some others gain their energy from the presentation itself or the perceived importance of the topic, and others simply by being presented by sincere and caring community members.
True. Presenters should be welcome to give a half-hour speech if that's what they want -- it can be fun and energizing -- but this does not need to be the default. Many sessions would benefit from spending the bulk of their time in discussion rather than broadcasting.
< The best session I saw this year... was about the Javanese Wikipedia, and it was
the one that was so full of hope and joy at the prospect of sharing knowledge freely that the few of us who were in the room walked away with a refreshed sense of what our movement is all about.
You can't capture that with slides or plenary sessions or expert moderation. You need to be in the room.
This sort of hope and joy is indeed the heart and soul of Wikimania. I think Sophie picked up on the hope in my suggestion: that we find a different way to amplify and share such joy, and help more people have this experience.
Our community moderators did a great job this year; they aren't "experts" : just people who enjoy that role. The presenter need not be responsible for tracking live, online, and wiki questions, unless they want to be. They should be focused on sharing their ideas, and responding to feedback. It is enough to ask one participant in each session to take on the role of moderator; and another to take on the role of the recorder - capturing the outcome of the session and posting it online.
Sam.