On 26 May, information was added to the conference website

https://wikimania2018.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania

about a pre-event (18-19 July) called “Decolonizing the Internet conference”. The link provided

https://whoseknowledge.org/decolonizing-the-internet-conference/

talks about being co-located with Wikimania, but provides no clarity to what this means, saying nothing about a specific venue other than being “in Cape Town”. Nor does this link provide any information about how to register, the costs, times of day, what the program is and whether there is any way you can submit a request for a presentation at the conference. But being on the Wikimania home page as part of the pre-conference program, I figured that I needed to go to the Wikimania’s Eventbrite page at least to register and pay, but when I went there to register for the event, but found there was no mention of it at all. My first thought is that the Eventbrite site had not been updated yet to reflect this pre-event, so I have been checking back every day or so, but still no sign of it. In the meantime, we have now passed the deadline for Early Bird Registration (4 June) for these pre-conference events, so if it is to be booked via Wikimania’s Eventbrite arrangements, the cost to attend just increased by an extra USD 50 through failure to update the Eventbrite page in a timely way. And I presume many of us have booked flights and hotel arrangements at our own expense and may have difficulty (or increased costs) involved in changing these to accommodate pre-conference events announced in such a last minute way with so little detail.

Can anyone clarify if this “Decolonizing the Internet conference” is actually being held as part of the Wikimania pre-conference at the same hotel as Wikimania? How do we register for it? Can we propose a talk etc? And if it is a part of the official Wikimania pre-conference, can we still register at the cheaper Early Bird rate once it is added to the Eventbrite site?

Thanks

Kerry