I woudl like to dedicate this thread to the Wikimania of your dreams.
No argument, no debate, just ideas, a giant brainstorming of what the Wikimania of your dreams would be. Please throw your stuff in, and try to make it only positive things (ie.write "something that's green" rather than "something that's not blue or red".)
here is the Wikimania of my dreams:
-It would be in a city easy to reach, with a big airport and cheap flights incoming because it's a huge hub, or it would be next door (Frankfurt airport ;-) ) - It would be in a top-notch conference facility, with tons of plugs everywhere, air conditionned if needed, modular conference rooms, all in one place and close to the accommodation building (a mix of Cambridge, Alexandria for the conference facility, Taipei and Frankfurt for access). - It would have a great outdoor and indoor community area, with wifi that works all the time, with comfy couches as well as ground mats for the yoga-types, with coffee, cookies, juices and fresh water available at all times. (a mix of Frankfurt and Taipei) - It would have all the accommodation in one place, close to the conference grounds, or even actually _on_ the conference grounds, and it would be cheap but practical, clean and modern accommodation, with different possibilities - share a room, not share a room, share a dorm etc. (a mix of Frankfurt and Taipei) -It would have an amazing range of food for lunches, which would be served in a big room where annoucements and meetings can take place (a mix of Taipei and Cambridge). - It would take place in a really "wow" place so that we get speakers to *want to come* to speak (Harvard or Bibliotheca Alexandrina) - It would be close to sightseeing stuff for social evenings as "discovery trips". - It would have an amazing party location and an amazing party with dancers with rotating hat-thingies (just like Alexandria!) - It would host up to 500 people, not more, so I can get to meet almost all of them. :-) - And finally, to steal Sj's idea, it would have a giant rotating Wikipedia globe that people could get into and make roll around like a hamster wheel, just for the fun of it.
Cheers,
Delphine
The Wikimania of my dreams is not a vague Wikimania, focused on a generic idea, without a specific aim.
Surely closest to my country and to my problems.
For this reason I think that Wikimania should be splitted in three events happening in three different periods and in three different continents.
One Wikimania for Wikipedians where sysops, users and developers can meet each other to share best practices, can collect suggestions, can organize more collaborative international projects. A Wikimania when the main aim is collaboration (*active participation*).
One Wikimania for scientific purposes where academic people can speak of Wikipedia and its projects but also about related arguments (open content, wikis in general and something else) with a scientific publication at the end of the event. A Wikimania where the best aim is to hear other persons like in some traditional universities (*passive participation*).
One Wikimania (but it already exists like Chapter meeting) where wikimedians can discuss about organizational purposes.
In these three different types of Wikimanias any person can match his particular interests, and any of these can satisfy any expectation.
Ilario
On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 11:24 AM, Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com wrote:
I woudl like to dedicate this thread to the Wikimania of your dreams.
No argument, no debate, just ideas, a giant brainstorming of what the Wikimania of your dreams would be. Please throw your stuff in, and try to make it only positive things (ie.write "something that's green" rather than "something that's not blue or red".)
For this reason I think that Wikimania should be splitted in three events happening in three different periods and in three different continents.
Agree. Well, maybe not three but two, but I agree with general idea. When I went to Boston Wikimania, I felt very very weird as it so much about stuff outside Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. All those academic discussions how to change the world really intimidated me. What I expected was global Wikipedia meet-up to discuss how to change Wikipedia (and not the world).
Renata
On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 5:24 AM, Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com wrote:
I woudl like to dedicate this thread to the Wikimania of your dreams.
No argument, no debate, just ideas, a giant brainstorming of what the Wikimania of your dreams would be. Please throw your stuff in, and try to make it only positive things (ie.write "something that's green" rather than "something that's not blue or red".)
here is the Wikimania of my dreams:
-It would be in a city easy to reach, with a big airport and cheap flights incoming because it's a huge hub, or it would be next door (Frankfurt airport ;-) )
- It would be in a top-notch conference facility, with tons of plugs
everywhere, air conditionned if needed, modular conference rooms, all in one place and close to the accommodation building (a mix of Cambridge, Alexandria for the conference facility, Taipei and Frankfurt for access).
- It would have a great outdoor and indoor community area, with wifi
that works all the time, with comfy couches as well as ground mats for the yoga-types, with coffee, cookies, juices and fresh water available at all times. (a mix of Frankfurt and Taipei)
- It would have all the accommodation in one place, close to the
conference grounds, or even actually _on_ the conference grounds, and it would be cheap but practical, clean and modern accommodation, with different possibilities - share a room, not share a room, share a dorm etc. (a mix of Frankfurt and Taipei) -It would have an amazing range of food for lunches, which would be served in a big room where annoucements and meetings can take place (a mix of Taipei and Cambridge).
- It would take place in a really "wow" place so that we get speakers
to *want to come* to speak (Harvard or Bibliotheca Alexandrina)
- It would be close to sightseeing stuff for social evenings as
"discovery trips".
- It would have an amazing party location and an amazing party with
dancers with rotating hat-thingies (just like Alexandria!)
- It would host up to 500 people, not more, so I can get to meet
almost all of them. :-)
- And finally, to steal Sj's idea, it would have a giant rotating
Wikipedia globe that people could get into and make roll around like a hamster wheel, just for the fun of it.
This is really a great and helpful thread!
As many times mailing lists threads die a few days after its creation, would be very productive for the WM 2009 organization team to have this ideas compiled, so please add your ideas to the Wikimanía 2009 wiki:
http://wikimania2009.wikimedia.org/wiki/The_Wikimania_of_my_dreams
On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 11:24 AM, Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com wrote:
I woudl like to dedicate this thread to the Wikimania of your dreams.
No argument, no debate, just ideas, a giant brainstorming of what the Wikimania of your dreams would be. Please throw your stuff in, and try to make it only positive things (ie.write "something that's green" rather than "something that's not blue or red".)
Wikimania of my dreams is a global event with tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands or millions of participants, localized at every place which has possibility to join that event.
I think that it is more than possible to make one central event and a number of events all over the world at the same time. All of the places would be connected via video links as better as it is possible.
Wikimania should be an open event, not dedicated for Wikimedians, but a possibility to involve other people in Wikimedian work.
And I think that we may make an experiment during the next Wikimania (which means that we need to prepare everything months earlier). A couple of cities may connect with Buenos Aires and between each other. We may organize places where the events and lectures from the main events at Wikimania would be shown. Wikimania may host a couple of lectures from other places, too.
There are a lot of space for different ideas in relation to organizing Wikimania in such manner. If Wikimedia is global, Wikimania should be, too.
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.
And I think that we may make an experiment during the next Wikimania (which means that we need to prepare everything months earlier). A couple of cities may connect with Buenos Aires and between each other. We may organize places where the events and lectures from the main events at Wikimania would be shown. Wikimania may host a couple of lectures from other places, too.
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.
--Andrew Whitworth
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.
On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 9:27 AM, Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com wrote:
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.
A tiered distribution scheme like this is fine, so long as we make it clear that they are all connected and that all of them form a single "official" wikimania. Asserting that they are all connected and interoperating is essential for each venue to secure funding and donations, and to attract attention and attendance.
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.
This is a fine setup. Whether we have one "central" location or more is an issue that we can refine on, but the basic idea is right.
--Andrew Whitworth
Andrew Whitworth wrote:
On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 9:27 AM, Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com wrote:
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.
A tiered distribution scheme like this is fine, so long as we make it clear that they are all connected and that all of them form a single "official" wikimania. Asserting that they are all connected and interoperating is essential for each venue to secure funding and donations, and to attract attention and attendance.
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.
This is a fine setup. Whether we have one "central" location or more is an issue that we can refine on, but the basic idea is right.
--Andrew Whitworth
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I agree with both Andrew and Milos' suggestion for this, and I think it would go a long way towards advancing the quality of Wikimanias and furthering participation.
-Dan
On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 7:51 AM, Milos Rancic millosh@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 11:24 AM, Delphine Ménard notafishz@gmail.com wrote:
I woudl like to dedicate this thread to the Wikimania of your dreams.
No argument, no debate, just ideas, a giant brainstorming of what the Wikimania of your dreams would be. Please throw your stuff in, and try to make it only positive things (ie.write "something that's green" rather than "something that's not blue or red".)
Wikimania of my dreams is a global event with tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands or millions of participants, localized at every place which has possibility to join that event.
I think that it is more than possible to make one central event and a number of events all over the world at the same time. All of the places would be connected via video links as better as it is possible.
In my experience, one of the majore benefits from attending wikimania rather then watching the videos is meeting people in person, when we focus on getting several meetings at the same time and linking them up with video I fear we'll loose this. The same goes for setting up different events for different projects, we need more communication between projects as well as between languages not less.
Finne/henna
Milos Rancic wrote:
I think that it is more than possible to make one central event and a number of events all over the world at the same time. All of the places would be connected via video links as better as it is possible.
With or without video, though of course it would help, I think the idea of simultaneous events in multiple locations would be interesting to pursue. A second location wouldn't easily leap up to the level of Wikimania, though. And I hope we wouldn't simply reduce things to broadcasting Wikimania proceedings to other venues (closer to having an "audience" than including other parts of the "community").
It might be good to build this kind of capacity organically, the way we have done other things. Perhaps two of the various meetups that happen regularly around the world would like to coordinate with each other as a first run. That could be a fun experience and an opportunity to get involved at the very earliest stages of something.
--Michael Snow
On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 9:45 PM, Michael Snow wikipedia@verizon.net wrote:
Milos Rancic wrote:
I think that it is more than possible to make one central event and a number of events all over the world at the same time. All of the places would be connected via video links as better as it is possible.
With or without video, though of course it would help, I think the idea of simultaneous events in multiple locations would be interesting to pursue. A second location wouldn't easily leap up to the level of Wikimania, though. And I hope we wouldn't simply reduce things to broadcasting Wikimania proceedings to other venues (closer to having an "audience" than including other parts of the "community").
It might be good to build this kind of capacity organically, the way we have done other things. Perhaps two of the various meetups that happen regularly around the world would like to coordinate with each other as a first run. That could be a fun experience and an opportunity to get involved at the very earliest stages of something.
--Michael Snow
Maybe a mix would be a happy medium: It's relatively easy to throw a two-day unconference*, as long as you can find a venue, so the small Wikimanias could be relatively low-key. They could feature live(ish) streaming** of, say, the big Wikimania keynotes -- so the people at the small wikimania could have a shared experience with the big Wikimania, have something to discuss, be able to send in lots of live IRC questions, etc. etc. -- but then the rest of the small conference would be a more hands-on, on-site experience, unconnected to the larger conference. Sort of like a large meetup, with sleepovers, and a featured event for part of the day.
phoebe
* you really don't need much for this sort of event: a comfortable, open venue, wireless, some chairs/couches/mats, coffee/tea, snacks, and a big piece of paper on the wall for writing session ideas down on. (see: how to organize a barcamp: http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/OrganizeALocalBarCamp). Everything else is just a bonus. Obviously, if there was going to be streaming, also a monitor/projector/etc.
** this has had technical difficulties in the past but I have faith we'll get it together.
On Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 6:27 PM, phoebe ayers phoebe.wiki@gmail.com wrote:
- you really don't need much for this sort of event: a comfortable,
open venue, wireless, some chairs/couches/mats, coffee/tea, snacks, and a big piece of paper on the wall for writing session ideas down on. (see: how to organize a barcamp: http://barcamp.pbwiki.com/OrganizeALocalBarCamp). Everything else is just a bonus. Obviously, if there was going to be streaming, also a monitor/projector/etc.
This is a very good point! In other words, even Wikimania at Buenos Aires may be prepared in such manner. If Wikimedians from different places are willing to prepare small Wikimanias, it is the right time to start with thinking about that from both sides.
** this has had technical difficulties in the past but I have faith we'll get it together.
A couple of technical advices related to "streaming": * Don't do stream [from both sides], do VoIP (SIP, H323 or Skype). Streaming will have problems in all cases: Streaming software is trying to transmit all data, which makes delays. * ~200kbps is enough for not so bad quality video conference. So, there should be clean ~200kbps per channel. Maybe it is reasonable to install a central VoIP router at Florida because of the best Internet infrastructure and combinations of VoIP (for conferencing) and streaming (just for emitting signal from different places). * IP routing hardware has to be able to transmit a lot of small packages. Note that ordinary wireless connections are not able to do that.
On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 12:45 AM, Michael Snow wikipedia@verizon.net wrote:
Milos Rancic wrote:
I think that it is more than possible to make one central event and a number of events all over the world at the same time. All of the places would be connected via video links as better as it is possible.
With or without video, though of course it would help, I think the idea of simultaneous events in multiple locations would be interesting to pursue. A second location wouldn't easily leap up to the level of Wikimania, though. And I hope we wouldn't simply reduce things to broadcasting Wikimania proceedings to other venues (closer to having an "audience" than including other parts of the "community").
It might be good to build this kind of capacity organically, the way we have done other things. Perhaps two of the various meetups that happen regularly around the world would like to coordinate with each other as a first run. That could be a fun experience and an opportunity to get involved at the very earliest stages of something.
--Michael Snow
Taking Michael's suggestion, I'd like to extend an open invitation on behalf of the New York City meetups, if any other city (especially internationally) is interested in hooking up with us by joint videoconference.
Provided, of course, we can figure out the technical details.
Thanks, Pharos
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