Hi folks, good to see you're asking early.
Here's my two cents:
There are several ways to go. Get someone interesting for: 1. the Asia region 2. Free culture or technology 3. Community, Internet culture 4. GLAM and public knowledge
As for the current list, my feedback:
1. Ray Chan, 9gag. Certainly 9gag has made a splash in the geekier Internet community, but it would be good to see what he'd want to talk about first and whether it had any relevance to Wikipedians and free culture. Important to remember: Wikimania is first and foremost a community event, not just a great speaker series.
2. Charles Mok, certainly relevant to the conference, but not sure how exciting a speaker he is.
3. Arianna Huffington. Not really a fan of this pick. Can get quite political, and not obvious the overlap between her site and free culture.
4. Thomas Crampton is a good pick. He was a respected working journalist and may be able to set the table on what Wikipedia and free culture mean across Asia.
5. Don't know much about Ada Wong.
That said, how about some other ideas:
1. Joi Ito. He's a great friend of Wikipedia, and spoke in 2007 Wikimania in Taiwan. He's now MIT Media Lab director, and could give great Asia perspectives.
2. Clay Shirky. I suggested this last year to DC, but it didn't go anywhere. Not sure he'd want to make the long trip to HK.
Perhaps instead of having one big keynote, we may want to have a few smaller ones or invited speakers in slots. Just an idea, since it would provide ways to get more Asia-based folks without the grandeur of a large keynote spot. Crampton, for example, is a good example of someone I want to hear speak but perhaps not as a headliner.
We did something similar to this in Boston Wikimania by having a world class lineup like Yochai Benkler, Brewster Kahle, David Weinberger, Lawrence Lessig, Mitch Kapor, among others. It was an awesome set of speakers.
-Andrew
On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 9:20 AM, Deryck Chan deryckchan@gmail.com wrote:
Dear Wikimaniacs,
Hello from the Wikimania 2013 Hong Kong local team! We are beginning the process of inviting external keynote speakers, and would like the wider Wikimania community to review our shortlist before we make formal invitations.
Feel free to suggest additional names for the list. We have more than two names at the moment, so do reply if you have preferences among the list too!
*Current shortlist, and suggested topics for each speaker:* Ray Chan, co-founder of 9gag.com *Creating an online user-generated community and how it's similar to Wikipedia* http://www.blogosem.com/2012/01/9gag-foundercreator.html
Charles Mok, founder of Internet Society Hong Kong, member of LegCo (Hong Kong's parliament) *Copyright and censorship in the digital age, and how they interact with free culture*
Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post *Create an online user generated community on the Internet and how it's similar to Wikipedia*
Thomas Crampton, Social@Ogilvy *How South East Asia local cultures affect their online culture
Ada Wong, Founder of Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture and Supervisor of HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity (the only 'art high school' in Hong Kong) *Creating a creative community and open dialogues for young people in HK and in the region*
Thank you in advance for your ideas! Deryck Chan Global engagement coordinator, Wikimania 2013 / Wikimedia Hong Kong
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