On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 2:57 PM, Andrew Whitworth wknight8111@gmail.com wrote:
On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 1:51 AM, Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com wrote:
Wikimania should be an open event, not dedicated for Wikimedians, but a possibility to involve other people in Wikimedian work.
Wikibooks is finding that we have a lot of friends in like-minded book-oriented organizations outside the WMF umbrella. We've talked, perhaps informally, about setting up our own meetups for Wikibookians and other open-content book enthusiasts. Whether we ever get this initiative off the ground or not relies on a number of factors, money not the least of which. It is a good idea, however, and as things mature it might make sense for the single Wikimedia to become a number of smaller project-centric or purpose-centric meetups instead.
I would love to see an educational conference organized with Wikibooks
- Wikiversity + Wikieducator + (insert other cool education and
textbooks groups here) to talk about the present and future issues in open education. This is the kind of thing that really feels tangential to the current Wikimania format.
This is another idea which was not on my mind when I was writing previous email (but, it was on my mind from time to time).
I was thinking about openness in the sense of transforming Wikimania into a public event. If some outsider is willing to listen/watch speeches, they should be able to do so. Of course, we may start cautiously.
Let's say that Brisbane is holding "auxiliary Wikimania" next year. It doesn't need to be an event for gathering people from South-East Asia (but it may be), it may be a place for gathering just Brisbane and maybe (West-)Australian Wikimedians. However, it should call inhabitants of Brisbane to participate. Organizers should, for the beginning, require applications at least, let's say, three months earlier, but to be open for everyone and to do some marketing in media. If such concept is going fine, someones may try with fully open event next years.
This is a very interesting possibility, with the primary benefit being that we can increase wikimedian participation in the event without having to break everybody's bank. If we make it clear that events in multiple places are all connected to the larger whole, it will be easier to secure funding and donations at each venue.
Maybe not next year, but in 2010 maybe the committee should select three wikimedia venues instead of just one with the intention that they be synchronized and videolink connected. We might be able to secure donations from computer hardware manufacturers to support video chat, videoconferencing, and other telepresence.
It is good to have a central Wikimania, which should move from place to place.
"Major" Wikimanias may be at more or less constant places (Frankfurt, San Francisco, New York/Boston etc.). And this, indeed, requires serious preparing.
But, it is always possible to make "small" Wikimanias, "auxiliary ones", which should be a significant local event connected to the global one. So, even the next Wikimania may try with a couple of such localized events.
It is not so hard to organize, let's say, in Poznan, one conference room with some local program and good Internet connection for video link with Buenos Aires.
So, requirements are: * Central place (Buenos Aires) should have a good Internet connection. * A couple of places from different parts of the world may say that they are willing to held "auxiliary Wikimanias"; which means to prepare a technical minimum. * All organizational teams should be technically coordinated.