(giving a name to this thread, because I can ;) )
On Sun, Oct 4, 2015 at 10:03 PM, James Forrester jdforrester@gmail.com wrote:
On Sun, 4 Oct 2015 at 12:45 Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
Michal's comments reflect part of what I'm thinking - and I think the exact splits of the regions may require some further discussions. Given the notes I've seen elsewhere, I trust that this is a first draft of the exact outlines of the regions, and not necessarily definitive?
As has already been stated in this thread, yes.
For example, I was also surprised to see your definition of 'North America' being US + Canada, and not to include Mexico.
False.
We explicitly a repeatedly used the term "Canada and United States" because "North America" includes Mexico, and we didn't think that was appropriate.
Then I must have seen that name being used elsewhere in this context. Still, I'm not sure if it shouldn't be included - but as said, that is a second tier discussion imho.
This is a discussion we seem to skip each year as a community - what do we
expect exactly of Wikimania, what do we want to accomplish with it? What are its goals?
If you re-read our call for input, you might see that this is precisely the question asked:
We’ll also be asking in future for your thoughts about how to structure
the programme of each Wikimania to make it as good as it can be for you, for others, and for our community overall.
Ensuring that as many Wikimedians can come to Wikimania each year is of little value if they event isn't as useful as it can be.
It was a bit snowed under in practical and regional discussions, I'm afraid. My point is that somehow, we always say we should have that discussion, but we never do. It is not that I 'blame' the committee for this, but I remark that we really should have that discussion. I'm glad I find you in agreement there.
But, I also think I would go a few steps further. I wouldn't only ask 'how to structure the programme' but really go a few levels deeper. Why do we want a Wikimania? What is its general purpose? What do we want to accomplish. Not quite the question you quote - although I know from experience that you do ask that question yourself.
I would have liked to see that discussion before deciding that we need more than two years of preperation, before we even decide there should be a rotational schedule (although I doubt that the outcome would be that we should have it in the same city each year).
It has proven time and again that having such fundamental discussions is difficult in our community, especially going beyond the usual suspects. Maybe the outcomes of the Wikimania surveys (were those published yet?) could be a good starting point.
Lodewijk
J.
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Lodewijk, 04/10/2015 22:12:
Why do we want a Wikimania? What is its general purpose? What do we want to accomplish. Not quite the question you quote - although I know from experience that you do ask that question yourself.
I would have liked to see that discussion
We never have enough, but this discussion has been ongoing for at least a couple years now. :) See for instance * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_bids/Esino_Lario/Pillars * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_bids/Esino_Lario/Target * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2016_bids/Esino_Lario/Sessions * https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania/Scholarships/Vision_2015 and all surrounding discussions on Meta, mailing lists, other wikis and Wikimania itself.
Nemo
Why do we want a Wikimania? What is its general purpose? What do we want
to accomplish. Not quite the question you quote - although I know from experience that you do ask that question yourself.
I would have liked to see that discussion
We never have enough, but this discussion has been ongoing for at least a couple years now. :)
This is a good point and a number of bids (particularly, successful ones) have articulated some kind of vision about what their particular vision and goals are. The work you've linked to Nemo is very good!
However, there's not been much discussion about what the role of Wikimania is in general, or what its aims are. Are the aims the same every year? What do difference groups attending want to get out of the conference and what should the priorities be in meeting their needs?
I agree with Lodewijk that this is a conversation that needs to happen sometime.
Chris
In our case we did a "standard" Wikimania, based in a bunch of previous (cool) ideas built by the community and improving others. But certainly we wanted as an organizer team begin this reflection about the aiming of the event but we don't have enough time.
Esino's team are doing a nice work that can be serve as a basis!
2015-10-05 13:16 GMT-05:00 Chris Keating chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com:
Why do we want a Wikimania? What is its general purpose? What do we want
to accomplish. Not quite the question you quote - although I know from experience that you do ask that question yourself.
I would have liked to see that discussion
We never have enough, but this discussion has been ongoing for at least a couple years now. :)
This is a good point and a number of bids (particularly, successful ones) have articulated some kind of vision about what their particular vision and goals are. The work you've linked to Nemo is very good!
However, there's not been much discussion about what the role of Wikimania is in general, or what its aims are. Are the aims the same every year? What do difference groups attending want to get out of the conference and what should the priorities be in meeting their needs?
I agree with Lodewijk that this is a conversation that needs to happen sometime.
Chris
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