I'm fine with multiple language tracks (most likely including French and Spanish).
The reason for a geographic track (in this case, North America) is that otherwise we'd be having a separate conference that served this purpose. I'm sure that many of us in North America will want to attend tracks on subjects other than geographic interest (technology, research, GLAM, STEM, law, education, outreach, community health, and governance come to mind), so there will be substantial benefit in effectively co-locating the conferences. My guess is that this can be done in a way that is a net positive for all. For example, the scholarship budget that would otherwise be requested for a separate WikiConference North America 2017 could instead be used to facilitate increased attendance by North Americans in Montreal, which I think would have the benefit of increasing attendance at Wikimania, and at the same time we would eliminate the need to find a time and venue for a separate conference with separate expenses.
Pine
Hey pine,As most people will be able to confirm, having a bigger presence of regional topics is likely to happen anyway in any Wikimania. When Wikimania is in Asia, you'll see more Asian speakers, and when it's in Europe, more Europeans.Separate and successful tracks have been organised before, to the best of my knowledge, in three ways: 1) language tracks - which were separate for very practical reasons (translations). 2) type-of-session tracks - which again are very practical (different needs for a discussion than for a presentation) and 3) A thematic track - but that was often organised like a type of side conference (with the US govt in 2012, with WikiSym and the hackathon).To be honest, I don't see right away why 'North American regional and local subjects' would require such track and even more why it would require a special committee. It will find its way in the programme, and it's not like non-Americans won't enjoy those topics per se. Why try to separate it from the rest of the programme? In general I'm no big fan of splitting up the programme into smaller pieces too much - it leaves too much opportunity for good proposals to fall between the cracks and get lost. And it gets confusing easily to the participants.Now I *do* see an added value for a French language track... but I guess that'll be of little use to you.Best,Lodewijk2016-07-06 7:44 GMT+02:00 Pine W <wiki.pine@gmail.com>:Hi Wikimania folks (Ellie and the Montreal organizers in particular),
Those of us in the US have expressed a hope that WikiConference North America 2017 can be united with Wikimania 2017 in Montreal. This would likely lead to economies of scale and reduced total cost, in terms of both time and money, for what would otherwise be separate conferences.
I would like to ask if WMF and the Montreal organizers would be willing and able to have some tracks at that conference dedicated to North American regional and local subjects, perhaps coordinated by a dedicated North America program committee. I foresee a modest increase in attendance at Wikimania 2017, and decreases in personal and WMF costs, if we can make what would otherwise be separate conferences happen harmoniously.
Thanks, and I hope to see you in Montreal next year.
Pine
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