Hi Martin: every Wikimania is similar but different from previous years, so your concerns are understandable.
I’m responding with a caveat - Phoebe Ayers and Ellie Young can provide better details but I wanted to get back to you as soon as you can. I’ve been working with the Wikimania team on the pre conference days for Wikiconference North America.
1. Short answer - Yes, you can switch tracks even though we’d like for you to choose one upon registration. This helps us figure out room sizes and logistics for planning.
2. Speaking for Wikiconference North America (WCNA) - We welcome anyone to the join us during pre conference days, some of the content is “North America” specific, but most of it is not.
- Wednesday is a Culture Crawl, where we will explore the city, visit various GLAM institutions and wind up at the BAnQ (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec) where they are hosting an afternoon of uploading/editing/scanning. Details to come. There is no registration cost for this day.
- Thursday is a day at the Sheraton along with all the other groups. We plan to have three tracks throughout the day: planned tutorials, panels/discussions/lightning talks and unconference sessions determined by participants. There is normal registration cost for this day.
-Andrew
-Andrew Lih Associate professor of journalism, American University US National Archives Citizen Archivist of the Year (2016) Knight Foundation grant recipient - Wikipedia Space (2015) Wikimedia DC - Outreach and GLAM --- Email: andrew@andrewlih.com WEB: https://muckrack.com/fuzheado PROJECT: Wikipedia Space: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:WPSPACE https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:WPSPACE BOOK: The Wikipedia Revolution: http://www.wikipediarevolution.com
On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 6:00 AM, Martin Rulsch martin.rulsch@wikimedia.de wrote:
Hi!
Honestly, I am a bit confused by the organization of the pre-conference this year. Recent Wikimanias allowed users to choose *on site* what to attend, be it Hackathon sessions, WMCON Follow-up days, or other workshops as long as there was still free space. Of course, sometimes this space is very limited or some formats even require limited access for having useful discussions (like https://wikimania2017.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_ Foundation_Learning_Days). Some of these limitations were published onwiki and helped me to decide in advance whether I want to commit myself to this very format for the full time or not. Personall,y *I* don't want to decide myself *now* what sessions could be most useful for me, which ones I should leave to other places when my expectations weren't met, which face-to-face chats will be more important than the sessions, etc.
Hence, will it be possible/allowed to switch between those formats which have not yet been marked as invite-only onwiki? Were you asking me for my preferences only for logistical reasons, size of rooms, etc?
Please help me understand why we need to register for pre-conference workshops for the first time. Thank you very much in advance! :-)
Best, Martin
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Wikimania Program wikimania-program@wikimedia.org Date: 2017-07-20 3:11 GMT+02:00 Subject: URGENT: Wikimania Pre-Conference Selection To: martin.rulsch@wikimedia.de
Pre-Conference Registration Options
Hello,
We are excited for you to be joining us for Wikimania in a few short weeks. You signed up to be notified when other Pre-Conference meetings are available.
We have finalized the list of meetings to select from and ask that you log into your Eventbrite account to make your selection. You may do so by following the instructions in this article. http://wikimediafoundation.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b479fe62e798cc3cf12b71f63&id=b18cd94224&e=5804f683fb Please make your selection no later than THIS Friday, July 21. Thank you very much and please let us know if you have any questions.
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