Dear organizers (hopefully someone can forward it to those not on this list)
thank you so much for putting the time and dedication into this years wikimania. Organizing a conference of this size with attendees who have such high demands and expectations is as always hard, and I think it deserves an applause no matter whether some things did not go as planned. It was a very difficult organizing this year, the bumps in the road were numerous and I would like to explicitely thank all those volunteers who were not a part of the bidding team but stepped in when their help was most needed. Several people who live outside Poland suddenly lived for a few weeks in an appartment in Gdansk together - leaving their lives for what they were - and had to make horrible long hours to make the conference to what it has become. I have deep appreciation for those people and I think it is quite unique and wonderful to have such a volunteer base to fall back onto. But also "the people we did not see" did a tremendous amount of work in the past weeks. I remember that I slipped a few days before the conference that it would be nice to have X in the attendee packages, and the next day they were suddenly arranged! I dont dare to call out the specific people, being afraid of missing several - I have only seen so much of it. I do hope to have the opportunity of seeing many of you irl again soon!
many hugs,
Lodewijk
Hear, hear!
On 13 July 2010 16:33, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
Dear organizers (hopefully someone can forward it to those not on this list)
thank you so much for putting the time and dedication into this years wikimania. Organizing a conference of this size with attendees who have such high demands and expectations is as always hard, and I think it deserves an applause no matter whether some things did not go as planned. It was a very difficult organizing this year, the bumps in the road were numerous and I would like to explicitely thank all those volunteers who were not a part of the bidding team but stepped in when their help was most needed. Several people who live outside Poland suddenly lived for a few weeks in an appartment in Gdansk together - leaving their lives for what they were - and had to make horrible long hours to make the conference to what it has become. I have deep appreciation for those people and I think it is quite unique and wonderful to have such a volunteer base to fall back onto. But also "the people we did not see" did a tremendous amount of work in the past weeks. I remember that I slipped a few days before the conference that it would be nice to have X in the attendee packages, and the next day they were suddenly arranged! I dont dare to call out the specific people, being afraid of missing several
- I have only seen so much of it. I do hope to have the opportunity of
seeing many of you irl again soon!
many hugs,
Lodewijk
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
I'd like to join the choir, thank you all the organizers and also to Lodewijk, let us know the people who offered help in the last weeks.
Specially I'd like to appreciate the streaming team, on behalf of Wikimedians in Kyoto, Japan. As I told Mathias, the meeting we at Wikimedia User Group in Kansai presented in Tokyo last Friday, it got a nice stable clear streaming, without any problem, user:Aokomoriuta said to me. Again, thank you for your all work which made it.
hugs and kisses,
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
Dear organizers (hopefully someone can forward it to those not on this list)
thank you so much for putting the time and dedication into this years wikimania. Organizing a conference of this size with attendees who have such high demands and expectations is as always hard, and I think it deserves an applause no matter whether some things did not go as planned. It was a very difficult organizing this year, the bumps in the road were numerous and I would like to explicitely thank all those volunteers who were not a part of the bidding team but stepped in when their help was most needed. Several people who live outside Poland suddenly lived for a few weeks in an appartment in Gdansk together - leaving their lives for what they were - and had to make horrible long hours to make the conference to what it has become. I have deep appreciation for those people and I think it is quite unique and wonderful to have such a volunteer base to fall back onto. But also "the people we did not see" did a tremendous amount of work in the past weeks. I remember that I slipped a few days before the conference that it would be nice to have X in the attendee packages, and the next day they were suddenly arranged! I dont dare to call out the specific people, being afraid of missing several
- I have only seen so much of it. I do hope to have the opportunity of
seeing many of you irl again soon!
many hugs,
Lodewijk
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
I also had a delightful time in Gdansk, and found this one of the most engaging Wikimanias ever; thanks to the local team for their hard work in pulling this off!
And thanks to everyone in back rooms who spent their days making Wikimania amazing. Some were long-time organizers and Wikimaniacs; some were local enthusiasts, new to Wikimania; and some were venue and city staff who really made an extra effort to be available at all hours. ( Łukasz - perhaps you can make a page online recognizing the work of the local volunteers that chipped in over the last week. )
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:03 PM, Aphaia aphaia@gmail.com wrote:
Specially I'd like to appreciate the streaming team, on behalf of Wikimedians in Kyoto, Japan.
Yes - streaming was smoother and more reliable than it has ever been. Thanks to iStream for this, and to Manuel for overseeing the process (and the last-minute network upgrade for the venue) and making sure both were solid.
SJ
I would like pile on my thanks (or dziękuję if you like) to all the local organizers and everyone else who made Wikimania happen, even in the smallest way possible. It was a fantastic event.
I'd like to express a special thank you to everyone involved with the scholarship program. You made it possible for myself and many others to attend who wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
See you in Haifa,
Steven Walling http://enwp.org/User:Steven_Walling
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 3:32 PM, Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
I also had a delightful time in Gdansk, and found this one of the most engaging Wikimanias ever; thanks to the local team for their hard work in pulling this off!
And thanks to everyone in back rooms who spent their days making Wikimania amazing. Some were long-time organizers and Wikimaniacs; some were local enthusiasts, new to Wikimania; and some were venue and city staff who really made an extra effort to be available at all hours. ( Łukasz - perhaps you can make a page online recognizing the work of the local volunteers that chipped in over the last week. )
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:03 PM, Aphaia aphaia@gmail.com wrote:
Specially I'd like to appreciate the streaming team, on behalf of Wikimedians in Kyoto, Japan.
Yes - streaming was smoother and more reliable than it has ever been. Thanks to iStream for this, and to Manuel for overseeing the process (and the last-minute network upgrade for the venue) and making sure both were solid.
SJ
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
+1!
Samuel Klein wrote:
I also had a delightful time in Gdansk, and found this one of the most engaging Wikimanias ever; thanks to the local team for their hard work in pulling this off!
And thanks to everyone in back rooms who spent their days making Wikimania amazing. Some were long-time organizers and Wikimaniacs; some were local enthusiasts, new to Wikimania; and some were venue and city staff who really made an extra effort to be available at all hours. ( Łukasz - perhaps you can make a page online recognizing the work of the local volunteers that chipped in over the last week. )
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:03 PM, Aphaia aphaia@gmail.com wrote:
Specially I'd like to appreciate the streaming team, on behalf of Wikimedians in Kyoto, Japan.
Yes - streaming was smoother and more reliable than it has ever been. Thanks to iStream for this, and to Manuel for overseeing the process (and the last-minute network upgrade for the venue) and making sure both were solid.
SJ
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Thank you all for your hard work and dedication -- it was a terrific experience, and I'm glad that most things came together in spite of the various difficulties in the process. It was great to have a concert and a movie premiere at a Wikimania, the program was intense and chock full of great sessions, there was WiFi, streaming video, and most importantly, an amazing community with lots of first time attendees!
In addition to the Polish team, huge thanks are due to Juliana, Austin, Manuel, Ralf, Sj, Phoebe and many others, without whose tireless dedication this event wouldn't have been possible. There surely will be lots to learn from this year, but the one thing I've been reminded of once again is how amazingly resourceful our community can be in creating a conference unlike any other.
All best, Erik
It was hard work, protracted work, not seldom very frustrating work. I am very happy that the event was such a satisfying success and it was a salvation to see how happy the people were during the Wikimania despite the problems we had (you can have a view on http://wikimania2010.wikimedia.org/wiki/Monsters_and_critics for details). We can really be proud about this what we created, but to organize a event with this complexity under the permises we had brought some of us to the border of bearableness and is under the same prerequisites not recommendable.
99% of the problems came from lack of communication. The work on this organization showed how important it is to work together as a closed team, share informations with each others, be transparent, be trustful, work disciplined, bank on collective decided agreements, care about the others health - in social, physical and mental regards!
Volunteers are no slaves and no idiots who say still thank you after you kick them into ass and you can throw them away like trash after usage respectivly blight. The whole Wikip/media world lives from the engagement of people who want to share there passions and engagement together. We should learn from this event, how important it is to give still more respect for people who work hard with no or low fee to support free knowledge on the whole world.
Thank you for your kind appreciation and your attendance on Wikimania 2010.
Best
Juliana
2010/7/14 Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org:
Thank you all for your hard work and dedication -- it was a terrific experience, and I'm glad that most things came together in spite of the various difficulties in the process. It was great to have a concert and a movie premiere at a Wikimania, the program was intense and chock full of great sessions, there was WiFi, streaming video, and most importantly, an amazing community with lots of first time attendees!
In addition to the Polish team, huge thanks are due to Juliana, Austin, Manuel, Ralf, Sj, Phoebe and many others, without whose tireless dedication this event wouldn't have been possible. There surely will be lots to learn from this year, but the one thing I've been reminded of once again is how amazingly resourceful our community can be in creating a conference unlike any other.
All best, Erik
-- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
But also "the people we did not see" did a tremendous amount of work in the past weeks. I remember that I slipped a few days before the conference that it would be nice to have X in the attendee packages, and the next day they were suddenly arranged!
I didn't get any X in my attendee package. Are you holding out on me?
Austin
I do not even get an attendee-package... but this might be the destiny if you are organizer...
2010/7/13 Austin Hair adhair@gmail.com:
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
But also "the people we did not see" did a tremendous amount of work in the past weeks. I remember that I slipped a few days before the conference that it would be nice to have X in the attendee packages, and the next day they were suddenly arranged!
I didn't get any X in my attendee package. Are you holding out on me?
Austin
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
On 7/13/10 11:32 PM, Austin Hair wrote:
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 5:33 PM, Lodewijklodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
But also "the people we did not see" did a tremendous amount of work in the past weeks. I remember that I slipped a few days before the conference that it would be nice to have X in the attendee packages, and the next day they were suddenly arranged!
I didn't get any X in my attendee package. Are you holding out on me?
Austin
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Well, I did not get any attendee package at all (none left when I went to collect it the first morning). But aside from missing the full program which would have been useful to have, I do not think I have much to complain. I spent 6 wonderful days in Gdansk, which is a lovely city. I met plenty of great people. The program was interesting. The concert was SO cool. There was food and there was a bed. I could always find an electrical plug (not always the case in previous Wikimanias) and whilst not great, the Internet was usually working. I read several time that the streaming was great. Rumors from other participants tell me that most people were happy as well. So, thank you thank you thank you to all the organizers !
Ant
2010/7/14 Florence Devouard anthere@anthere.org:
Well, I did not get any attendee package at all (none left when I went to collect it the first morning).
Same experience for me (I arrived Friday in the late evening).
But aside from missing the full program which would have been useful to have, I do not think I have much to complain.
I managed to have my copy of the program.
I spent 6 wonderful days in Gdansk, which is a lovely city. I met plenty of great people. The program was interesting. The concert was SO cool. There was food and there was a bed. I could always find an electrical plug (not always the case in previous Wikimanias) and whilst not great, the Internet was usually working. I read several time that the streaming was great. Rumors from other participants tell me that most people were happy as well. So, thank you thank you thank you to all the organizers !
I haven't brought my laptop so I haven't tested the WiFi, but people I know never mentioned problems about it. For the rest, I completely agree with Florence and if I can add the food was really good (I would have said perfect if there would have also been choice for vegetarians et al.).
Thank you.
Cristian (Wikimedia Italia)
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 11:33 AM, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
Dear organizers (hopefully someone can forward it to those not on this list)
thank you so much for putting the time and dedication into this years wikimania. Organizing a conference of this size with attendees who have such high demands and expectations is as always hard, and I think it deserves an applause no matter whether some things did not go as planned. It was a very difficult organizing this year, the bumps in the road were numerous and I would like to explicitely thank all those volunteers who were not a part of the bidding team but stepped in when their help was most needed. Several people who live outside Poland suddenly lived for a few weeks in an appartment in Gdansk together - leaving their lives for what they were - and had to make horrible long hours to make the conference to what it has become. I have deep appreciation for those people and I think it is quite unique and wonderful to have such a volunteer base to fall back onto. But also "the people we did not see" did a tremendous amount of work in the past weeks. I remember that I slipped a few days before the conference that it would be nice to have X in the attendee packages, and the next day they were suddenly arranged! I dont dare to call out the specific people, being afraid of missing several
- I have only seen so much of it. I do hope to have the opportunity of
seeing many of you irl again soon!
* Support. ~~~~
Thanks to the organizers for a great conference--I think it went very well! Wikimania always reminds me how awesome the people involved in this crazy thing are, in every role--smart and generous and dedicated and passionate, and of course at least a little bit weird. Thanks to everyone for coming together and making it a success.
-Kat
On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 2:16 AM, Kat Walsh kat@mindspillage.org wrote:
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 11:33 AM, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
Dear organizers (hopefully someone can forward it to those not on this list)
thank you so much for putting the time and dedication into this years wikimania. Organizing a conference of this size with attendees who have such high demands and expectations is as always hard, and I think it deserves an applause no matter whether some things did not go as planned. It was a very difficult organizing this year, the bumps in the road were numerous and I would like to explicitely thank all those volunteers who were not a part of the bidding team but stepped in when their help was most needed. Several people who live outside Poland suddenly lived for a few weeks in an appartment in Gdansk together - leaving their lives for what they were - and had to make horrible long hours to make the conference to what it has become. I have deep appreciation for those people and I think it is quite unique and wonderful to have such a volunteer base to fall back onto. But also "the people we did not see" did a tremendous amount of work in the past weeks. I remember that I slipped a few days before the conference that it would be nice to have X in the attendee packages, and the next day they were suddenly arranged! I dont dare to call out the specific people, being afraid of missing several
- I have only seen so much of it. I do hope to have the opportunity of
seeing many of you irl again soon!
- Support. ~~~~
Thanks to the organizers for a great conference--I think it went very well! Wikimania always reminds me how awesome the people involved in this crazy thing are, in every role--smart and generous and dedicated and passionate, and of course at least a little bit weird. Thanks to everyone for coming together and making it a success.
+1
And again, it's all about the people :)
Delphine
2010/7/15 Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com:
And again, it's all about the people :)
Shh, you're giving away our secrets!
I've said it many times, but 90% of it is just getting a few hundred Wikimedians together in the same building. 9% of it is making sure they have power and Internet access. The rest is icing—but it's the icing that we agonize over for weeks.
Thank you, everyone, for all your kind words. It's always hard to tell at the time whether it's going well, so having someone say so means a lot.
Austin
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On 07/15/2010 07:07 AM, Austin Hair wrote:
I've said it many times, but 90% of it is just getting a few hundred Wikimedians together in the same building.
And into their hotel rooms and dormitories!
- -- Cary Bass Volunteer Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate
dont forget the beach!
2010/7/15 Cary Bass cary@wikimedia.org
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On 07/15/2010 07:07 AM, Austin Hair wrote:
I've said it many times, but 90% of it is just getting a few hundred Wikimedians together in the same building.
And into their hotel rooms and dormitories!
Cary Bass Volunteer Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
where was the beach? Aaah! been ther many times before :)
masti
On 07/15/2010 06:02 PM, Lodewijk wrote:
dont forget the beach!
2010/7/15 Cary Bass <cary@wikimedia.org mailto:cary@wikimedia.org>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 07/15/2010 07:07 AM, Austin Hair wrote: > I've said it many times, but 90% of it is just getting a few > hundred Wikimedians together in the same building. And into their hotel rooms and dormitories! - -- Cary Bass Volunteer Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation
Anyway thx for those helped in Gdansk
especially those who helped upon emergency calls LOL
Jerry~雨雨 Jeromy-Yu Maximilian Chan, ARAD User:Yuyu | zh.wikipedia | Wikimedia HK ChapCom, WMF | ComCom, WMF Blogger | http://jeromyu.wordpress.com MSN: jeromyuchan@msn.com also Jeromyu on twitter, plurk and most of places
Tel (Mobile): +852 9279 1601 Laudamus quae laudentur Qui mollis et dissolutus est in opere suo frater est sua opera dissipantis Non clamatis hostilia, numquam esse vos accusatoribus
On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 04:04, masti mastigm@gmail.com wrote:
where was the beach? Aaah! been ther many times before :)
masti
On 07/15/2010 06:02 PM, Lodewijk wrote:
dont forget the beach!
2010/7/15 Cary Bass <cary@wikimedia.org mailto:cary@wikimedia.org>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 07/15/2010 07:07 AM, Austin Hair wrote: > I've said it many times, but 90% of it is just getting a few > hundred Wikimedians together in the same building. And into their hotel rooms and dormitories! - -- Cary Bass Volunteer Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimania-l mailing list Wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimania-l
Thank you for everyone and Ania Najmajer in particular! It was like a dream: a good one! Thanks!
On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 8:33 AM, Lodewijk lodewijk@effeietsanders.org wrote:
Dear organizers (hopefully someone can forward it to those not on this list)
thank you so much for putting the time and dedication into this years wikimania. Organizing a conference of this size with attendees who have such high demands and expectations is as always hard, and I think it deserves an applause no matter whether some things did not go as planned.
Well said! and a slightly belated thank-you of my own to everyone who worked super hard on this year's Wikimania. There were several people, and groups of people, who stepped in at various points during the last year to push forward different parts of the conference - sometimes, in true wiki fashion, taking over jobs left by someone else. I'd especially like to recognize:
* the local team who worked on logistics near the end, especially Marek, Anna & Lukasz * the non-local team who worked on logistics near the end, especially Austin, Finne & SJ * Manuel, for organizing streaming that worked! * James, for helping a great deal from the WMF side; and Sara, for managing the WMF's scholarships program * Jacek, for organizing a great program under chaotic circumstances, and the whole program reviewing team * Juliana for all her work getting the team organized and managing events, especially the concert * Marcin, for leading the whole thing from start to finish
Every Wikimania has a ton of people who help with some discrete aspect of making the conference happen. Whether their tasks are small or large, these people rarely get publicly thanked simply because there are so many of them. I am thinking of people like Lukasz's friend, who made a last-minute trip to Ikea that resulted in us having couches. Or the group of volunteers working on translation and the registration desk, many of whom were not Wikimedians but simply interested people from the local area who were recruited through a city volunteering program. And there are many who had a more profound (but still mostly invisible at the conference itself) role: for instance, the staff of the Baltic Philharmonic, who went out of their way to make the space awesome; the members of Wikimedia Polska who organized their scholarship effort; and many of the Wikimedians who helped work on the bid in the first place, believing in Gdansk as a lovely city for Wikimania. I cannot thank everyone in these groups by name; but I would like to recognize Wikimania as a true team effort, a hugely complex task that is one of the most difficult things community members do from year to year. And I can say from experience that people involved in conference organization tend to focus on the mistakes and bad parts afterwards -- so thanks to attendees for showing your appreciation, and to everyone involved in organizing Wikimania for doing your part to make this crazy event happen.
best, Phoebe
p.s. I did take notes during the 'future of Wikimania' session on Sunday; but they are currently locked away on a computer that has a burnt-out power supply. I'll post these notes when I can, and will also write about our ideas for conference documentation for the future: as Juliana notes, communication is key, not just between members of any given Wikimania team, but from year to year as well.
wikimania-l@lists.wikimedia.org