[...]
To be fair, the scanning was a small part of what we did previously.
I think anyone who's come to the first three days this time (nine so
far, and I expect more tomorrow than on the weekdays!) will testify
that it's gone pretty smoothly. I think the way we've changed the
format shows we've learned from some past experiences. That's why
this time we've selected a particular topic beforehand, we're all
staying in the same place, and I and others who have done it before
have a good idea of what we're doing with the machines. We've also
got slightly better scanners this time, and special NARA loaner
laptops, so the equipment really does work. If we had a learning
curve before, I we're better now because of it. I think our earlier
events were important in their own ways, by exposing Wikimedians to
the archives behind the scenes, to the Archivist of the United
States, and to the work Wikipedia is doing with NARA. We scanned
some, but there was too much going on for it to be a focus. That's
the idea behind the ExtravaSCANza, though.