Hi all,

We're happy to announce that the Call for Participation for Wikimania
2012 is open!  During this time of reflection, please take a few
minutes to consider what topics you've been thinking about most and
how you'd be willing to share what you know with the worldwide Wiki
community.

The two most important dates to keep in mind - outside of July 12-14 -
 are as follows:
Deadline for submitting proposals: 18 March 2012
Notification of acceptance: 8 April 2012

To submit a proposal, visit
http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions.

If you'd like to forward this message to other mailing lists or for
broader distribution (please do!), please use the Call for
Participation included below my signature line.

Thanks so much for your consideration, and, on behalf of the Program
Committee, we look forward to reviewing your proposals and seeing you
in Washington.

Best,
Tiffany

Tiffany Smith
Program Committee Chair, Wikimania 2012
tiffany.lmb.smith@gmail.com

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Call for Participation - Wikimania 2012

To submit a proposal, visit: http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions

Important Dates
Deadline for submitting proposals: 18 March 2012
Notification of acceptance: 8 April 2012

Overview
Wikimania conferences provide unique opportunities for the wiki
community and its sister projects (including Wikipedia, Wikibooks,
Wikinews, Wiktionary, Wikispecies, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikimedia)
to come together, share their common goals, and develop better ways to
work together on an international level. The Wikimania 2012 program
structure is designed to create multiple opportunities for conference
participants to actively engage with the subject matter, the
environment, and, most importantly, each other. Washington, D.C, can
play an important role in Wikimania 2012 as a locale that gathers
interest in government, culture, media, and academia around the
general goals of the Wikimania conference series.

In accordance with these goals and themes, the program will include
traditional conference offerings such as paper presentations,
tutorials, panels, and poster sessions; provide lounge space and
breaks throughout for participants to gather; and innovate with an
unconference day for attendees to design their own schedule and
participation around common interests. Submissions will be reviewed
and selected in advance by the program committee. Attendees are
welcome to present in the open space track of the conference,
regardless of whether their submitted presentations were accepted.

The eigth annual Wikimania will be held between 12th and 14th July,
2012 in Washington D.C. For more information, please visit the main
site.

Presentation length
Due to the extensive amount of program submissions received in the
previous years, we request your presentation be a maximum of 25
minutes, including time for questions. You may request more time,
though shorter individual presentations are more likely to be
accepted.

This does not apply for keynote speakers, panels, or workshops. 70
minute presentations must be submitted either as panel presentations
to include at least three presenters or as workshops with a clear
lesson plan.

Tracks
Tracks are used by Wikimania to organize submissions and diversify
audiences so that presentations of competing interest do not have time
conflicts. Five tracks are proposed:

Wikis and the Public Sector
The Washington, DC, location for Wikimania 2012 provides a special
opportunity for those working in the social good, policy, government,
nonprofit, and disaster response arenas to share their experience with
collaboration on a local, national, or international level. Wikis and
complementary technologies are proving to be critical in times of
crisis and in ongoing work with citizen participation in government,
as well as in long-term goals for education, public policy, social
entrepreneurship, and development in the global south and throughout
the world. This track will explore the ways that Wikimedia projects
and related activities can be used to support citizens worldwide.

GLAM: Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums
This track aims to support current outreach to Galleries, Libraries,
Archives, and Museums and build enthusiasm for continued work in this
area. Presentations and panels will demonstrate effective outreach
techniques and results from ongoing activities as well as envision the
future path for these efforts. Topics of particular interest to this
track may include: wiki technology as a tool for cultural
preservation; use of wikis by museums and libraries for information
management for the public good; legal and copyright issues; use of
content in GLAM projects, education, journalism and research;
conflicts between different laws that apply to the same wiki system
simultaneously. This track may also incorporate “field trips” before,
after, or during the evenings of the conference to visit Washington,
D.C., organizations.

WikiCulture and Community
Why do people contribute to Wikimedia projects? How might the
community grow and expand while retaining its inherent cultural ethos?
This track will explore the sociology of wiki culture and community
and provide a forum for practitioners and researchers to share
insights and best practices for community management, engagement,
participation, and conflict resolution. The assessment of different
wiki cultures and demonstration of clashes and effects of those
interactions between wiki communities and chapters is relevant to this
track. A special focus will be a discussion of gaps between different
community groups, most notably related to gender and age; within this
context, submissions related to female and teenage participation,
representative roles within the community, and the use of wikis as a
tool for different gender and age group dialogues, are strongly
encouraged.

Research, Analysis, and Education
The scope of research and analysis on wikis has grown significantly in
recent years, and wikis are rapidly being introduced to educational
institutions in the course of teaching and more formally through the
Campus Ambassador Program. The scholarly atmosphere of the selected
venue creates a special opportunity for researchers working in this
area to present papers and panels to a well-informed audience.
Subjects associated with the research component of this track can
include a diverse range of topics including: technical development,
philosophy and the humanities, communications, community management
and collaboration, information science, and a broad range of other
areas. The practitioner side of this track can include: expert
participation and inviting expert contributions; Wikiversity and other
higher education wikis; wiki sources deployed and implemented in
academia and research practice; approaches to the improvement of
collaboration in research institutions and universities; and
contribution to content quality, among other areas.

Technology and Infrastructure
Technology and infrastructure play essential roles in the success of
Wikimedia projects and other uses of wiki technology. This track will
incorporate research and practice to showcase technology applications
and theories, demonstrate new uses of existing and evolving
technologies, and focus on applying technologies to meet user needs
and improve the overall user experience. Issues and areas particularly
of note in this track include: OTRS, MediaWiki development, semantic
wikis, wiki-based Augmented Reality (AR), the use of QR codes,
Wikipedia on mobile devices, Wikipedia offline, User Interface Design,
WikiLove, Liquid Thread and related technical focus points.

Lounge Space Presentations
All proposals and presentations will be welcome in the Lounge space of
the conference, whether or not they are accepted in this initial
process.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Tiffany Smith
Program Committee Chair, Wikimania 2012
tiffany.lmb.smith@gmail.com

Thank you very much for your consideration, and we look forward to
seeing you at Wikimania 2012 in Washington, DC.

http://wikimania2012.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions

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